Energy Services | Equitrans/EQT Midstream | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide PA | Wastewater
Shale Wastewater Pipelines in PA – The Next Big Thing?
Are underground shale wastewater pipelines the “next big thing” for the Pennsylvania midstream (i.e. pipeline) industry? According to Thomas Karam, CEO of Equitrans Midstream Corp. (formerly EQT Midstream), they just may be. Most of Equitrans’ pipeline business is flowing natural gas. A little bit of their business is dedicated to flowing wastewater. Karam wants to grow that little bit into a much bigger bit.
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We thought the tree sitting weirdos trying to illegally block construction of Equitrans’ Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) in Virginia had long returned to earth. But as we reported in early March, there are still a couple of wackos sitting, still engaging in a crime, in Montgomery County, VA (see 
CERAWeek (by IHS Markit) is held each year in Houston, Texas. There is no doubt it is the world’s premier energy event. Last week U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo addressed attendees, as did Secretary of Energy Rick Perry and the Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commissioner Neil Chatterjee. Movers and shakers. Everyone from Saudi Arabian oil sheikhs to wildcatting frackers from America’s shale plays were there.
Equitrans Midstream, which used to be called EQT Midstream, yesterday announced they have cut their first big deal since separating from EQT last year. Equitrans is buying a 60% stake in Eureka Midstream, a 190-mile pipeline system in Ohio and West Virginia serving both the Marcellus and Utica, and a 100% stake in the tiny 15-mile Hornet Midstream, a gathering system in WV that connects to Eureka.
Both Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) and Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) are facing an existential threat from the clown judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circus.
Even though Rice Midstream doesn’t exist anymore, it can still be fined. Rice Midstream became part of EQT when EQT bought out and merged in Rice Energy in 2017. Last year EQT, under pressure from investors, split itself in two–into EQT (the driller) and Equitrans (nee EQT Midstream, the pipeline company). What was Rice Midstream is now part of Equitrans. Yesterday the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) levied a $1.5 million fine on Rice for work done in late 2017/early-to-mid 2018.
Gloom, despair and agony on me. That’s how we would describe the reaction of fossil fuel haters who thought they had successfully bullied Virginia’s Water Control Board members into revoking a permit earlier granted to the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project. But last week the Board voted to NOT revoke the previously issued permit. That sent the antis into despair…and into a rage.
Natural gas storage fields are an important, but often overlooked, part of the natgas ecosystem. Equitrans (nee EQT Midstream) owns a natgas storage field in Greene County, PA, in the southwest corner of the state. The state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) is threatening to shut down that storage field, because of coal mining in the area.
Finally some good news in our war against the forces of evil (i.e. Big Green). The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has rejected a lawsuit by Big Green groups that would have blocked Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) and, as a bonus, would have emasculated the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s decision-making ability for all pipeline projects.
Is this really the depths to which we’ve now descended? If you disagree with a legitimate, legal business and their right to engage in a legitimate, legal practice (but you don’t like it), you bastardize the legal system and launch a criminal investigation?
Last week Equitrans Midstream (formerly EQT Midstream) released their fourth quarter and full year 2018 update (see 
Although there are still a few regulatory hurdles to jump, Equitrans Midstream (nee EQT Midstream) announced yesterday during their quarterly/annual update that the company’s 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project is still on track to be done and online by the end of this year.