Big News: FERC Grants Final EIS for ET Rover Pipeline
In June the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) handed Energy Transfer’s proposed Rover pipeline project, a $3.7 billion, 711-mile Marcellus/Utica natural gas pipeline that will run from PA, WV and eastern OH through OH into Michigan and eventually into Canada, a big red light (see FERC Tells Rover, Leach XPress Pipes to Redesign Routes in SE OH). FERC told Rover and another pipeline project, Leach XPress, which will run from Marshall County, WV through Ohio to Leach, KY, that where their two projects meet something different would have to be worked out. Shortly thereafter the two projects being developed by different companies became best friends (see Rover, Leach XPress Pipelines Become BFFs to Fix FERC Objection). Apparently that fix helped clear the path and FERC, last Friday, issued a final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) favorable to ET Rover. About the only left now is for a final approval to be issued by FERC for the project, which is now pretty much a foregone conclusion…
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Fairmount Santrol, an Ohio-based sand producer that sells sand as a proppant for use in Utica and Marcellus Shale drilling, recently released their preliminary second quarter 2016 results sounding a note of guarded optimism (see 
MDN sent an email to our list of daily headline subscribers last week (below). This is a quick reminder that 
In July 2015 Williams filed an application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for the $130 million New York Bay Expansion project, which will flow Marcellus gas to 500,000 additional New York City residents by the 2017/2018 heating season (see 
Once the Obama Dept. of Justice burst the dream of merging with Halliburton (see 
Contrary to the BH view that drilling will remain in the crapper for the rest of 2016 (see Baker Hughes Laid Off 3K in 2Q16, No Drilling Recovery in 2016), CARBO Ceramics, a company that supplies sand and ceramic beads used in fracking, was more upbeat about the rest of the year in their second quarter 2016 update. CARBO’s CEO Gary Kolstad said, “…the second quarter likely marked the bottom for activity levels as both oil and natural gas commodity prices and the North American rig count started to recover,” and “Sales volumes began to improve as the quarter progressed. In addition, with the increasing commodity prices, we have received increasing customer inquiries about procuring ceramic proppant for completions in the second half of 2016.” In other words, things are beginning to look up–at least according to CARBO. Their own numbers don’t seem to reflect that optimism. Total proppant sales (as measured in millions of pounds sold) were down an astonishing 75% year over year: 448 million pounds sold in 2Q15 vs. 112 million pounds sold in 2Q16. Here’s the CARBO upbeat 2Q16 update…
We’re not sure how important (or not) this news is, but it’s certainly worth reporting. Yesterday the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) announced it will “consider” a motion for an evidentiary hearing on PennEast Pipeline’s application about whether or not the pipeline is needed in New Jersey. Last month radicals at the Eastern Environmental Law Clinic (EELC) on behalf of enviro-Nazis at the New Jersey Conservation Foundation (NJ Conservation) and Stony Brook – Millstone Watershed Association (SBMWA), filed a motion requesting FERC conduct a hearing to assess whether there evidence of public need in New Jersey for the proposed PennEast Pipeline. Yesterday FERC said they’ll consider a hearing–FERC has not (yet) said it would actually conduct such a hearing. Here’s the news as sent to us from the radicals…
National Fuel Gas (NFG), the Buffalo-based utility giant with both a drilling subsidiary (Seneca Resources) and a midstream/pipeline subsidiary (Empire Pipeline) filed an application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in March 2015 for a pipeline project they call Northern Access 2016 (later renamed to simply Northern Access Project, dropping the “2016” part). The $455 million project includes building 97 miles of new pipeline along a power line corridor from northwestern Pennsylvania up to Erie County, NY. The project also calls for 3 miles of new pipeline further up, in Niagara County, along with a new compressor station in the Town of Pendleton (see 
Each month MDN tracks how many rigs oilfield services company Patterson-UTI Energy reports operating–as a proxy for when/if the drop in rig counts for the Marcellus/Utica will turn around. Patterson operates a number of rigs in the northeast, as well as other areas of the continental United States (and Canada). After more than a year, Patterson’s June report finally showed a small turnaround (see 
In September 2014, PSEG (Public Service Enterprise Group) Power–New Jersey’s largest utility company–became the fifth company to become a partner in the much-needed PennEast Pipeline, the $1 billion pipeline project that would flow cheap, abundant and clean-burning Marcellus Shale gas from northeast Pennsylvania all the way to Trenton, New Jersey (see 
A small group of ignorant children (look the photo) preened and pretended to actually know something when they marched outside of the Philadelphia Energy Solutions (PES) refinery in South Philly where PES would like to expand by leasing an extra 200 acres at the Southport facility. The children blocked traffic causing a backup, making drivers unhappy. The kids also prevented trucks from entering and exiting the facility–for about 10 minutes. Philly police watched and did nothing. Sycophantic media (StateImpact) claimed there were “around 100” but a picture of the event shows nine (that we can see), none of whom appear to be old enough to drink beer. PES is pushing the concept of making Philadelphia an “energy hub” and they (PES) want to ship Marcellus Shale gas from the Southport facility location after piping it there from other parts of PA. A number of people are bidding on the property and it’s not at all a foregone conclusion that PES will get it (see 
As we reported yesterday, last Friday Williams and the Constitution Pipeline filed a request with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to extend their application to build the Constitution Pipeline from Susquehanna County, PA to Schoharie County, NY (see