MarkWest Energy Management Reshuffle Elevates Marcellus/Utica
MarkWest Energy, one of the largest (if not the largest) midstream company in the Marcellus/Utica, has just announced a reshuffling of senior management that will affect the northeast region. Randy S. Nickerson, Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer for MarkWest, will retire in early 2016. His retirement has set off a flurry of dominoes and people changing chairs. With respect to the Marcellus/Utica, effective June 1, Greg Floerke, currently the Senior Vice President of Operations for the Northeast Region will be promoted to Randy Nickerson’s position. That leaves an opening that will be filled by David Fitch, currently the Vice President of Engineering for the Northeast Region. Fitch will replace Floerke as the head of operations for the Northeast Region. Why does it matter?…
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Something troubling for MDN. The Constitution Pipeline, a 125-mile pipeline that will stretch from the gas fields of Susquehanna County, PA into New York–to Schoharie County, has been approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), a multi-year process. The only thing keeping Williams from starting up the backhoes and beginning to lay pipeline is New York State–specifically the state’s Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC). The DEC must grant what’s called a 401 Water Quality Certificate that allows the Constitution to lay pipe through and under swamps, creeks and other bodies of water. The DEC ran a series of public hearings on it, one of which MDN editor Jim Willis attended in January (see 
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