NJ Enviro Groups Continue Attacks on Safe, Needed PennEast Pipe
Grasping at straws is the closest analogy we can think of to describe the latest desperate attempt by environmental groups in New Jersey to stop the PennEast Pipeline from getting built. Lawyers for the New Jersey Conservation Foundation and the Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association have written to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) asking FERC to suspend its review of the PennEast Pipeline application. Why? Because, they say, PennEast hasn’t provided data requested by FERC and several state agencies. Which is, of course, a joke. PennEast has provided everything requested. This is yet another smokescreen, a delay tactic by people who irrationally hate all fossil fuels…
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Every now and again it’s fun to delve into some of the technical aspects of drilling a Marcellus (and Utica) Shale well. We pick up on some of those particulars from a survey conducted by Hart Energy. Hart surveyed Marcellus and Utica drillers and found that, unsurprisingly, what has worked continues to work: When a Marcellus driller drills and fracks a well, the driller uses slickwater and up to 11 million pounds of white sand. What IS surprising to learn is that Utica drillers who had favored ceramic beads instead of sand are moving away from using ceramic beads and toward the Marcellus tried-and-true slickwater with sand approach. Here’s a few more interesting tidbits, including the fact that Halliburton is king of refracks in the Marcellus…
Earlier this month MDN told you about the “Purple Hayes”–a Utica Shale well drilled by Eclipse Resources in Guernsey County, OH that is thought to be the longest shale well every drilled, at 3.5 miles (see 
Both Energy Transfer Equity (ETE) and Williams yesterday issued statements about their proposed/impending merger that say Form S-4 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been ruled “effective.” As we so often point out, we’re not Wall Street wizards. From what we can determine, an S-4 is a filing between companies that propose to merge. The SEC is (we think) saying that the proposed stock swap between ETE and Williams can move forward, when and if the merger closes. That is, the SEC is cool with the proposed plan to merge. ETE points out there are still roadblocks to such a merger, and Williams continues to press several lawsuits to force ETE into the merger they (ETE) wanted in the first place. Below we have yesterday’s statement about the S-4 along with ETE’s continued “but but but” statement. We also include some interesting and insightful analysis from a writer on the Seeking Alpha investors website…
Recently the proposed merger/buyout of Baker Hughes (BH) by Halliburton crashed and burned (see 
Last July MDN told you about a group of so-called religious leaders from the Boston area who have taken to worshiping Mother Earth (the creation) instead of worshiping the Creator (see 
As MDN has previously pointed out, even during the downturn in the oil and gas market, there is at least one sub-sector that’s expanding: wastewater. Long after a well is drilled and fracked, once it begins producing, that well will continue to produce not only natural gas and/or oil and other hydrocarbons–it will also produce water from the depths. We’re not talking about groundwater or aquifers that sit several hundred feet down. Those water sources are well-protected by well casing. There is also abundant supplies of mineral-laden water deep in the earth that comes out of the borehole for years after a well is drilled. When drillers were sinking holes as fast as they could–and fracking them–that salty/minerally water from the depths (often called brine or saltwater) would be recycled and used for more drilling. But when there’s little or no drilling–what do you do with all that brine/wastewater? You still have to get rid of it. So the wastewater hauling/recycling/disposal industry is actually expanding. BlueJack Energy Solutions is one such new company, begun to service several shale plays including the Marcellus/Utica. Yesterday BlueJack announced it has received $100 million in investment capital from Energy Spectrum Partners–to help get the company launched quickly and into a full gallop…
In April MDN brought you the news that Mountaineer NGL Storage launched a non-binding open season for drillers who want to reserve storage capacity in a new underground storage facility to be built in Monroe County, Ohio, near Clarington, along the Ohio River (see 
Each year the Ben Franklin Shale Gas Innovation and Commercialization Center (SGICC) hosts an annual Shale Gas Innovation Contest. Last week the SGICC hosted their fifth annual contest and announced four winners that split an $80,000 prize purse. The four winners this year include: Aridea Solutions, valve manufacturer; Compass Natural Gas, a CNG (compressed natural gas) station supplier; Epiphany Water Solutions, a wastewater recycler; and someone we personally know and like a great deal–Donny Beaver with HalenHardy, who won for yet another superb product (from an ingenious and serial entrepreneur). Donny’s new product is called SPILLTRATION™–a product engineered to absorb and contain oil-based leaks and spills while allowing clean water to be filter through. Read on for a description of the products/services that won. A huge congrats to our friend Donny!…
Last week the Ohio Manufacturers’ Association (OMA), along with several other trade associations, filed a “friend of the court” brief (called an amicus brief, full copy below) in a case pending before the Ohio Seventh District Court of Appeals (in Youngstown). The OMA wants the Court of Appeals to uphold the ruling of a Harrison County trial court in the eminent domain case of Sunoco Pipeline v. Carol A. Teter, Trustee. OMA says eminent domain should be used in rare circumstances, but when no other choices remain, its use is legitimate and necessary. In particular, OMA is supporting Sunoco’s right to use eminent domain for the Mariner East 2 project–a project that will employ a lot of OMA businesses and their employees…
The ongoing low price for oil and gas is profoundly changing the drilling landscape under our feet. In what some might call a marriage of convenience we would call a marriage of desperation: U.S.-based oilfield services company FMC Technologies announced yesterday they will merge with their much larger quasi-competitor, France-based Technip, in an all-stock deal that will create a new company called TechnipFMC worth $13 billion. FMC had/has some operations in the Marcellus/Utica, hence this merger has implications for our region. The new venture would be bigger than Baker Hughes and would rival and compete with the world’s two largest oilfield services companies: Schlumberger and Halliburton. Technip specializes in engineering and construction, while FMC specializes in offshore equipment and systems. The immediate question becomes, will Europe, the U.S. and other counties that opposed the Halliburton/Baker Hughes merger also oppose this one? Prevailing thought by analysts is that this merger will have a much easier path because the two companies have very little overlap in the current services they offer…
Fairmount Santrol is a proppant manufacturer/supplier headquartered in Ohio. Proppants are things like sand and ceramic beads used to “prop open” tiny fractures created in hydraulic fracturing of shale oil and gas wells. In other words, Fairmount Santrol is a regional sand supplier for shale drillers–and a good proxy to understand what’s happening (or not happening) in our neck of the woods when it comes to drilling. If drillers aren’t drilling as much, that will show up first in the balance sheets of companies like Fairmount. And so it does. Fairmount reports in their first quarter 2016 update that revenues in 1Q16 were down 52% from 1Q15. But you can’t automatically assume that means there was half the drilling one year later. Fairmount also reports the volume of sand sold was down just 8% from 1Q15 to 1Q16. Why the discrepancy between revenue and volume? Fairmount doesn’t say, but we think we know: drillers have been putting the squeeze on supply chain companies like Fairmount, forcing them to deeply discount their prices…