More Drilling Mud Surfaces Near Marsh Creek State Park in PA
While drilling in Chester County, PA, in August 2020 in the Marsh Creek State Park area, Energy Transfer’s (ET) Mariner East 2X pipeline experienced an “inadvertent return” — nontoxic drilling mud coming up out of the ground where it’s not supposed to (see Mariner East 2X Construction Causes Another Drilling Mud Spill). It took more than $8 million in fines and cleanup costs to make it right (see PA Charges Mariner East Pipeline $8M+ to Fix Marsh Creek Lake). The cleanup work was finally done in 2022 (see ET Makes Significant Progress Cleaning Up Marsh Creek Lake). And, wouldn’t you know it? Another small area of drilling mud has just poked up through the ground once again.
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In July, MDN compared the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection to an organized crime mob with its ongoing shakedowns in assessing “fines” on the Mariner East pipeline project (see 
In 2015, Kelsy Warren and his Energy Transfer Equity (now just Energy Transfer) company pursued Williams, wanting to merge Williams into its operation. Williams initially fought ET tooth and nail, but in the end, caved and cut a deal (see 
On February 14, 2022, Energy Transfer Marketing & Terminals, L.P. (ETMT) applied to expand the company’s ethane chilling capacity at the Marcus Hook Terminal (MHT) from approximately 75,000 barrels per day (bpd) to approximately 85,000 bpd. Because the facility is located in a so-called Environmental Justice (EJ) area, the DEP is conducting an even more painful anal exam (than usual) before issuing a permit for the expansion. Part of that examination will be a public hearing on Sept. 19, 2023, in Boothwyn, PA, from 6:00 – 8:00 p.m.
Some really big news hit yesterday. U.S. pipeline giant Energy Transfer (ET), builder of the Rover and Mariner East pipeline systems here in the Marcellus/Utica, is buying out and merging in Crestwood Equity Partners, a major pipeline company with operations in the Permian, Bakken, and Powder River Basin. ET will acquire Crestwood in an all-equity (stock-only) transaction valued at approximately $7.1 billion, including the assumption of $3.3 billion of debt. Once upon a time, Crestwood owned major assets in the Marcellus/Utica region, but as of last year, the company exited the M-U. The addition of Crestwood adds 1.4 Bcf/d of gas gathering capacity and 340,000 b/d of oil gathering capacity to ET’s existing portfolio.
Energy Transfer (ET) is one of the country’s largest midstream (pipeline) companies. ET is the builder and operator of important pipelines in the Marcellus/Utica region, including Rover, natgas pipeline through Ohio delivering M-U molecules to the Midwest, Canada, and beyond, and the Mariner East pipelines that deliver NGLs from Eastern Ohio and PA to the Marcus Hook refinery in the Philadelphia area. ET’s operations extend throughout the country. NGLs are an important part of the picture for ET, as was mentioned during the company’s second quarter update yesterday.
The problem with the pay-for-protection scam is that it never stops. A mobster comes calling on a business, and for a “small” and regular fee, the mobster will guarantee nothing “happens” to the business. “Just think of it as insurance.” It’s a shakedown–a scam. And over the years, the price keeps going up. What if the mobster is a government agency, like the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP)? The DEP keeps shaking down Energy Transfer and its Sunoco Pipeline subsidiary over the construction and operation of the Mariner East 2 (ME2) pipeline. Over the years, the DEP has fined ET/Sunoco over $30 MILLION for so-called penalties related to building ME2. [
NGLs, or natural gas liquids, are an essential revenue stream for Marcellus/Utica drillers in the “wet gas” regions of the play. Those regions are found in southwestern Pennsylvania, the northern panhandle of West Virginia, and eastern Ohio. There are several pipelines that flow M-U NGLs to other regions or to export facilities. Among them is Enterprise Products Partners’ 1,230-mile Appalachia to Texas Express (ATEX) pipeline to the Gulf Coast, and Kinder Morgan’s 270-mile Utica-to-Ontario-Pipeline-Access (UTOPIA) pipeline from Harrison County, Ohio, to Windsor in Canada’s Ontario province. However, most M-U NGLs travel through Energy Transfer’s Mariner East and West pipelines, with Mariner East flowing to the Marcus Hook export terminal near Philadelphia.
A disabled Navy veteran and his wife, who live in a rural, wooded area of Cambria County, PA, say their lives were upended beginning in 2017 when Sunoco (Energy Transfer) began constructing the Mariner East 2 NGL pipeline across their property. According to the vet, Sunoco cut down more than 60 large trees on his property, destroyed several small ponds, destroyed his water well, and destroyed (caved in) his septic system. The property is now susceptible to frequent flooding and sewage backups into the house.
Residents living in the vicinity of Energy Transfer’s Revolution Pipeline cryogenic plant in Bulger (Washington County), PA, got a surprise “present” on Christmas morning. Around 7:30 am, residents report hearing an explosion, followed by a fire, at the plant used to separate NGLs (natural gas liquids, including ethane, propane, and butane) from the raw gas stream that flows through the Revolution gathering pipeline (see 
Here’s a question: What are the 15 biggest (by company revenue) natural gas-owning pipeline companies in the world? The U.S. has the biggest natural gas pipeline infrastructure in the world, covering a distance of 333,000 kilometers (206,917 miles). Even so, only one U.S.-based company is in the top 5 biggest pipeline companies. Can you guess which country takes the top 2 spots on the list?