Energy Services

Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Lebanon County | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Sunoco Logistics

New Target for Lebanon, PA Antis: Mariner East Pipeline
November 10, 2014November 10, 2014

Even when we’re joking–we’re often right! Case in point: A week and a half ago we noted that Sunoco Logistics had begun testing the Mariner East pipeline in Lebanon County, PA (see Mariner East NGL Pipeline Begins Tests in Lebanon, PA). Sunoco is repurposing the pipeline to flow natural gas liquids. In referencing the small but dedicated band of anti-drillers in the county who oppose the Williams Atlantic Sunrise pipeline project, we said at the time, “Wait til they wake up and realize a pipeline already in the ground (has been for decades) is about to be reactivated!” Indeed. Three residents from West Cornwall Township in Lebanon County have filed a zoning appeal against the county for issuing permits to Sunoco Logistics allowing a pump station in the township…
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide PA | Sunoco Logistics

Sunoco Logistics Will Build $2.5B Mariner East 2 Pipeline
November 7, 2014November 7, 2014

Click image for larger version

Big news from Sunoco Logistics. Yesterday the company announced they’ve now signed up enough customers that they will proceed (if they get regulatory approval) to build a second Mariner East pipeline–Mariner East 2–which will run alongside the existing Mariner East pipeline from eastern OH and western PA all the way to the Philadelphia area and the Marcus Hook refinery. Sunoco Logistics did not mention who those customers are who have signed up, but they did say based on the commitments, they will spend $2.5 billion (!) to build the new pipeline and to expand the Marcus Hook operation by adding a propane dehydrogenation (PDH) plant to manufacture propylene. The new pipeline will flow natural gas liquids including propane, butane and ethane…
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Braskem | Energy Services | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Odebrecht | Processing Plants | Statewide WV | West Virginia | Wood County

WV Gov. Tomblin Leads Trade Mission to Brazil re Cracker Plant
November 7, 2014November 7, 2014

West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin’s office has announced that the Governor and first lady, along with Keith Burdette, Secretary of the West Virginia Dept. of Commerce and several other officials, are going on a road trip to Brazil to babysit, er advance the ball on the ethane cracker plant planned for the Parkersburg, WV area by Brazilian company Odebrecht and its sister company Braskem. The trade delegation will discuss “next steps” with their counterparts–to ensure everything is on track. It’s also a nice little junket/vacation to get the Guv (a Democrat) out of town after his state essentially turned Republican underneath his feet in Tuesday’s election…
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Energy Services | EnLink Midstream

EnLink Midstream Floats Notes, Hopes to Raise $400M for Expansion
November 7, 2014November 7, 2014

EnLink Midstream, the merger of the old Crosstex Energy and Devon Energy midstream division, has major operations in the Marcellus/Utica region. So it was with interested we noticed the company is raising more cash by floating notes (pieces of paper, debts to be repaid at a future date) with the goal of getting $400 million to use in expanding their operations…
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Energy Services | MarkWest Energy

MarkWest 3Q14: 2.6 Bcf/d of Gas Processed, 800 Mmcf/d New Capacity
November 6, 2014November 6, 2014

MarkWest Energy, the largest midstream company operating in the Marcellus/Utica, issued their third quarter update yesterday. The company processed Marcellus and Utica Shale gas volumes averaging 2.6 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) during 3Q14. The also placed into service 800 million cubic feet per day (Mmcf/d) of new processing capacity, with the addition of Sherwood IV & Sherwood V in the Marcellus Shale and Cadiz II and Seneca III in the Utica Shale. In addition, MarkWest signed up new customers American Energy Partners in the Utica Shale and PennEnergy Resources and EdgeMarc Energy in the Marcellus Shale. The company continues to aggressively push forward in the northeast to build out infrastructure that’s desperately needed…
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Crestwood Midstream | Energy Services

Crestwood Midstream 3Q14: Continued Expansion in the Marcellus
November 6, 2014November 6, 2014

Yesterday Crestwood Midstream Partners, a midstream company with a large operation in the Marcellus Shale, released their third quarter update and financial numbers. They also held an analyst call. From the two, we learn that Crestwood is near completion of extra compression for its MARC I North-South pipeline which will add an extra 200 million cubic feet per day of capacity. We also learn that the company has connected 49 new Antero Resources wells in West Virginia to their gathering network during the first nine months of this year. Crestwood CEO Bob Phillips said, on the analyst call, that in 2015 Crestwood will have access to 3.3 billion cubic feet per day of Marcellus dry gas production. He predicts Crestwood will become the “intermediate gatherer of choice” in 2015…
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Northampton County | PennEast Pipeline | Pennsylvania | Pipelines

PennEast Pipeline Plan Sprouts an Off-Shoot to Lehigh Valley
November 6, 2014November 6, 2014

The 100+ mile PennEast Pipeline, proposed by six joint-venture partners including utility company UGI and pipeline company Spectra Energy (see Spectra Energy Becomes 6th Partner in PennEast Pipeline Project), is slated to run from Luzerne County in northeastern Pennsylvania through southeastern PA and into New Jersey, near Trenton. The planned route is still being worked out. However, the PennEast Pipeline has just sprouted an extra off-shoot or “lateral” off from the main pipeline. This new 2-mile section will connect the main PennEast Pipeline to a UGI Gas interconnection facility in the Hellertown (Northampton County) area–delivering cheap Marcellus Shale gas to the Lower Saucon and Bethlehem areas, otherwise known as the Lehigh Valley…
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Blue Ridge Mtn Res/Magnum Hunter | Energy Companies | Energy Services | GreenHunter Resources

GreenHunter 3Q14: More Red Ink; Wastewater Volumes Go Up
November 5, 2014November 5, 2014

GreenHunter Resources, the midstream (pipelines & disposal wells) division of Magnum Hunter Resources, issued their third quarter update yesterday. The company continues to bleed money: They’ve lost $6.1 million year-to-date during the first 9 months of this year (vs losing $1.8 million during the same period last year). However, amidst the bad news there was some good news: four new Class II saltwater injection wells in Meigs County, OH are almost ready to go online, and total wastewater disposal volumes are up 41% over this time last year. Now if they can only stop the bleeding on the profit side of the ledger…
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Pipelines | Tennessee Gas Pipeline

The Urgent Case for Gas Pipelines in New England
November 5, 2014November 5, 2014

Right now natural gas in Japan is costing around $18 per thousand cubic feet. All gas in Japan is imported. In New England? Gas futures trading for January 2015–the price utilities and others will pay based on contracts for January–is $19 per thousand cubic feet. New England is located just a few hundred miles from the most abundant source of natural gas on earth–the Marcellus Shale–where sometimes the price of gas goes below $2 per thousand cubic feet. What in the world is going on? Lack of pipelines to bring the gas from the Marcellus to New England. With many people on fixed incomes facing a jump of $40 per month or more in higher electricity prices (electricity in New England is largely created by natural gas-powered plants), it seems a bit silly to oppose projects like Kinder Morgan’s Northeast Energy Direct expansion of the Tennessee Gas Pipeline, no?…
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Bradford County | Electrical Generation | Energy Services | IMG Midstream | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County | Wyoming County (PA)

Details on IMG’s “Tiny” Marcellus-Powered Electric Plants in NEPA
November 4, 2014November 4, 2014

In August MDN told you about a string of seven small electrical generation plants to be built in northeastern Pennsylvania by IMG Midstream (see 7 Small Marcellus-Powered Electric Plants Coming to NEPA). Last Friday IMG presented details of their plans to the Northern Tier Regional Planning and Development Commission in Wellsboro, PA. Plans call for the small, 20-megawatt plants to built in Susquehanna County (2 plants), Bradford County (3 plants), and Wyoming County (2 plants). Two additional plants are now planned for southwestern PA, bringing the grand total to nine plants for IMG…
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Carroll County | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Processing Plants | Utica East Ohio Midstream | Utica Shale

UEO Midstream Processing Plant in Carroll County Online Soon
November 4, 2014November 4, 2014

The Utica East Ohio Midstream natural gas processing plant in Leesville (Carroll County), OH, will be, according to county officials, operational within the next couple of weeks. When it comes online, the plant will process 200 million cubic feet per day of Utica Shale natural gas…
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Energy Services | FTS International | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | M&A

FTS International Buys J-W Wireline for Undisclosed Amount
November 4, 2014November 4, 2014

FTS International, one of the largest well completion service companies in North America and a big player in the Marcellus/Utica, is buying J-W Wireline Company, one of the largest independent cased-hole wireline companies in North America. J-W also is a player in the Marcellus/Utica. J-W specializes in deep high-pressure perforating, multiple-zone completions, comprehensive cased-hole logging and pipe recovery. That is, they make fracking possible. Here’s the announcement from FTS that one great company is buying another (for an undisclosed amount)…
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Energy Services | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | UIL Holdings

Phila. Energy Solutions Tells Mayor & City Council: Start Talking
November 4, 2014November 4, 2014

Philadelphia Energy Solutions (PES) is the joint venture between The Carlyle Group and Sunoco (now part of Energy Transfer Partners) that owns and operates the Point Breeze and Girard Point oil refineries in Philadelphia–the largest such refining complex on the Eastern Seaboard. PES CEO, Philip Rinaldi, has weighed in on the corrupt Philadelphia City Council’s scuttling of the purchase of Philadelphia Gas Works (see Philly City Council Kills the Phila. Gas Works $1.86B Deal). We suppose it’s understandable, but Rinaldi says precisely nothing in his comments beyond Mayor Michael Nutter is a great guy, but so too is City Council President Darrell Clarke, head of the cabal that scuttled the deal. As head of the Greater Philadelphia Energy Action Team which is attempting to position Philly has an “energy hub,” Rinaldi’s comments are of the tone “Why Can’t We Be Friends” (cue music). He hopes that Nutter and Clarke can start talking to one another again to get this deal done…
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Energy Services | Seventy Seven Energy

Seventy Seven 3Q14: Numbers Head in Right Direction
November 4, 2014November 4, 2014

Seventy Seven Energy, with major operations in the northeast, is the old Chesapeake Oilfield Operating division of Chesapeake–spun off into its own company on July 1, 2014 (see Long Labor & Delivery: Seventy Seven Energy Born Yesterday). Right out of the chute Seventy Seven’s beginning was a little rocky (see Seventy Seven Energy’s 1st Quarterly Update: Revenue Down 6%). However, we now have their second quarterly update–for third quarter 2014–and it seems Seventy Seven has found its sea legs. The numbers are now heading in the right direction for Seventy Seven…
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Beaver County | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Odebrecht | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | Shell

MDN’s “Juvenile” Needling of Shell over Slow Cracker Pace
November 4, 2014November 4, 2014

An MDN reader wrote editor Jim Willis yesterday to take issue with our observation that “it’s about time” Shell did something to advance their ethane cracker project in Beaver County, PA (see Shell to Hold Info Session on Monaca Ethane Cracker Next Week). In a not-so-subtle way, the reader essentially told us to get our heads out of our…frac sand…and take note that Shell has been very active over the past year or so with advancing their project, contrary to our “juvenile” remarks suggesting otherwise. In particular, the old Horsehead Holding Corp. zinc smelter at the site was shut down this past May. The buildings were knocked down and are now almost completely removed from the site. Our not-so-subtle source also pointed us to Jeff Burd’s excellent blog site called Building Pittsburgh. Jeff refers to Shell and their cracker project as being like a duck…
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Chevron | Commodity Price | Energy Companies | Energy Services | EnLink Midstream | Industrywide Issues

EnLink Takes Ownership of Henry Hub from Chevron
November 4, 2014November 4, 2014

Technically this is not a Marcellus or Utica story–but it does has implications for the Marcellus/Utica region. If you’re around the natural gas marketplace in the United States for any amount of time, you will soon run into this strange-sounding price point called “the Henry Hub.” The HH is a market point where natural gas is bought and sold in southern Louisiana. Once upon a time, because of the pipelines running through the Gulf Coast (many of them from off-shore), some 20% of all natural gas flowed through the HH, making it the “benchmark” or best average price for natural gas–used for futures contracts and by NYMEX in commodity trading. All natural gas prices quoted at other sales locations use the HH as its benchmark or “basis” and compare themselves with the HH price. It’s been that way for two decades. The new news is that EnLink Midstream (the former Crosstex Energy and Devon Energy midstream units merged together) has just taken ownership of the pipeline system that includes the HH…
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