Energy Transfer Partners

On Monday MDN brought you the news that Captain Ahab, er, a, Ohio EPA director Craig Butler, had demanded Rover Pipeline stop all horizontal directional drilling (HDD) work now under way in the state because another (tiny, 200 gallon) drilling mud spill happened on November 16th (see Ohio EPA Continues Vendetta Against Rover Pipe, Demands HDD Stop). Butler sent a letter to Rover and has also sent it to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in yet another attempt to get FERC to halt work on the Rover project. Yesterday Rover thumbed its nose at Butler and instead asked FERC for permission to not only continue all current HDD work, but to begin new HDD work at several more locations in Ohio. Moby-Dick strikes back. Take that, Captain Ahab!…
Read More “Rover Ignores Shrill Ohio EPA, Asks FERC to Continue HDD Drilling”

This story necessarily gets into the weeds of pipeline construction. But so you have the essential story line up front, this is it: On Monday Energy Transfer asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for permission to dump something called annular pressure monitoring (APM) when drilling underground (horizontal directional drilling, or HDD) for the Rover Pipeline–and on Tuesday FERC granted that permission. Here’s the slightly longer explanation. Rover is a $3.7 billion, 711-mile natural gas pipeline that will run from PA, WV and eastern OH through OH into Michigan and eventually into Canada. Early on, Rover had early missteps when using HDD to insert pipeline under things like rivers and roads. The most serious episode occurred when Rover drilling spilled 2 million gallons of non-toxic drilling mud in a swamp near the Tuscarawas River (in Ohio) back in April (see Rover Pipeline Accident Spills ~2M Gal. Drilling Mud in OH Swamp). However, there were other episodes too, which led FERC to stop all HDD work on Rover in April while they investigated. In August, FERC gave ET/Rover a list of eight conditions before they could restart HDD work (see FERC Issues Rover 8 Commandments to Restart Horizontal Drilling), and in September, FERC finally lifted the ban for some locations (see FERC Lifts Rover Horizontal Drilling Ban, Pipeline Work Resumes). One of the conditions in resuming HDD work was for Rover to constantly monitor downhole annular pressure–an indicator that problems may be happening and that mud is beginning to leak. In Monday’s request to FERC, Rover points out using APM is slowing work by up to 75% because when the signals stop coming they must pull everything out of the hole, reattach the wires, and push it all back down again. So Rover, working with experts, came up with an alternative to APM. It was that alternative that took FERC just a day to review and agree to. All of which means the final work to complete Rover should now speed up a bit…
Read More “FERC Gives Rover Pipe OK to Use Different Tech to Speed Up Drilling”

Rover Pipeline–$3.7 billion, 711-mile natural gas pipeline that (will eventually) run from PA, WV and eastern OH through OH into Michigan and on to Canada–began flowing natural gas through a large portion of the pipeline on Sept. 1st (see Big Portion of Rover Pipeline Now Up & Running – Thru Most of Ohio). Since then, Phase 1A of the pipeline has steadily increased its throughput and now flows over 1.2 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of yummy Utica/Marcellus Shale gas to Defiance, OH (see Rover Pipe Nearly Doubles Flow with Addition of Carroll, OH Compressor). However, it could flow more, if the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) would lift its considerable boot off Rover’s neck and let them finish Phase 1B pipeline work in eastern Ohio to feed more gas to the main part of the pipeline. The problem is that Rover had early missteps, the most serious of which spilled 2 million gallons of non-toxic drilling mud in a swamp (i.e. “wetland”) near the Tuscarawas River back in April (see Rover Pipeline Accident Spills ~2M Gal. Drilling Mud in OH Swamp). An investigation by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA) found the presence of diesel fuel in the drilling mud, which means the mud wasn’t so non-toxic after all. Rover believes sabotage may have been the cause. From April until mid-September, FERC blocked all new underground HDD work for the Rover project. That changed when FERC allowed Rover to restart HDD work at nine locations in September (see FERC Lifts Rover Horizontal Drilling Ban, Pipeline Work Resumes). Late last week FERC issued permission for another two Rover HDD locations to restart work. No, the Tuscarawas River site is not one of them. That investigation continues…
Read More “FERC Allows Rover to Restart HDD Work in 2 More OH Locations”

Last week MDN brought you the news that Ohio EPA’s director, Craig Butler, has kind of tipped over into the deep end with his rantings and ravings about Rover Pipeline (see Ohio EPA’s Craig Butler Goes Nuts, Demands $2.3M from Rover Pipe). Butler held a conference call with the media where he made wild allegations. What seems to have precipitated Butler’s media bender is a decision by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) earlier in the week to allow Energy Transfer, builder of Rover, to resume horizontal directional drilling (HDD) in most Ohio locations, after banning it for several months (see FERC Lifts Rover Horizontal Drilling Ban, Pipeline Work Resumes). ET has responded to Butler’s tirade with a hard-hitting (we’d call it caustic) response. In a letter to Butler, carbon copied to FERC, Rover President & CEO Matthew Ramsey essentially says Butler and the OEPA is trying to cover its own mistakes in not requiring storm water permits for most of the project’s life–then coming along after the fact saying Rover didn’t apply for those permits (when OEPA never required them in the first place). Ramsey also said Butler “refuses to recognize the law” that FERC, and not OEPA, is in charge of this project. It gets better. Ramsey says he is “mystified by what you are trying to achieve” by requiring something (said storme water permits) Rover is now voluntarily doing–permits that OEPA itself has approved! This letter really takes the gloves off and (our words) calls Butler a lunatic. Read it for yourself and see what you think…
Read More “Bad Blood: Rover Pipe CEO Sends Caustic Letter to Ohio EPA, FERC”