Energy Services

Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Dominion Energy | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Madison County | New York | Pipelines

The 2 Types of Opponents to a NY Compressor Plant
December 12, 2014December 12, 2014

In June 2014 Dominion filed an application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to, among other things, build two new compressor stations in upstate New York: one in Chemung County, the other in Madison County–both along an existing pipeline. It’s part of Dominion’s New Market project (see Dominion’s NY Compressor Plants to Move More Marcellus Gas). Some residents in Madison County are opposed to the new 10,880 horsepower compressor that would be built near some homes. More than 150 residents spoke out against it at hearings held by FERC this year (public comments closed on Dec. 5). What struck us, in a recent story about opposition to the plant, is the dichotomy that exists among those who oppose it…
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CNG/LNG | Energy Services | Exporting | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Pipelines | Tennessee Gas Pipeline

More Marcellus Gas Going to Cheniere LNG Export Facility in TX?
December 12, 2014December 12, 2014

Earlier this week Kinder Morgan signed a new 15-year agreement with Cheniere to supply Cheniere’s Sabin Pass LNG export facility near Corpus Christi, Texas. One of the pipelines that will deliver the gas is Kinder’s Tennesses Gas Pipeline. Although the press release doesn’t say so, we believe at least some of the gas that Kinder will provide to Cheniere via the TGP will be Marcellus Shale gas…
Read More “More Marcellus Gas Going to Cheniere LNG Export Facility in TX?”
Energy Companies | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | M&A | New York | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regency Energy Partners | Statewide NY | Statewide PA | Talisman Energy

Talisman Considers Sale of Marcellus Midstream Assets to Regency
December 10, 2014December 10, 2014

Three weeks ago Talisman was rumored to be near a deal to sell its New York/Pennsylvania pipeline system to Regency Energy Partners. Talisman owns some 435 miles of gathering and transmission pipelines in NY/PA. However, the deal, which was supposedly imminent and rumored to be worth $1 billion, still hasn’t happened. Why? Could it be the revived talks by Repsol to buy Talisman (see Rumor Mill: Repsol Once Again Interested in Buying Talisman)? We don’t know. One thing we do know is that corporate raider Carl Icahn, who has his claws deeply into Talisman (as he does with Chesapeake Energy), is the puppet master pulling the strings and forcing the company to sell assets. Here’s the sitrep (situation report) as of a few weeks ago, according to sources talking to Bloomberg News…
Read More “Talisman Considers Sale of Marcellus Midstream Assets to Regency”
Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | MarkWest Energy | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Washington County

MarkWest Builds/Operates Compressor Station w/o Building Permit
December 10, 2014December 10, 2014

Hmmm. Here’s a story we don’t like to report, and fear there’s more to the story than we now know, but report it we must. MarkWest Energy, arguably the largest and most important midstream (pipelines & processing plants) company in the Marcellus and Utica Shale, was denied a building permit to construct a building to house several natural gas compressors in West Alexander (Donegal Township, Washington County), PA–but they went ahead and built it anyway, without the permit. The rogue compressor station is now up and running but has to use generators to supply power because the town won’t let them hook up electric since they’re still in violation of the building permit…
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Energy Companies | Energy Services | EQT Corp | Equitrans/EQT Midstream

EQT Changing Name (but Not Ownership) of Midstream Subsidiary
December 10, 2014December 10, 2014

Two years ago EQT spun off its midstream operations into a subsidiary and sold stock in it. That is, they floated an initial public offering (IPO) and raised over $260 million for the new subsidiary company (see EQT Midstream IPO Rakes in the Cash). On Monday of this week, the company said it will file paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission to create a new company, called HoldCo, as a master limited partnership (MLP). HoldCo is being formed to take ownership of EQT Midstream and the IPO will float 21.3 million units. That is, EQT is getting a second bite of the IPO apple by creating an umbrella company to take ownership the midstream company, although EQT plans to purchase “more than 80%” of HoldCo’s stock themselves…
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Broome County | Chenango County | Delaware County | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | New York | Pipelines | Regulation | Schoharie County | Tennessee Gas Pipeline

Kinder Files with FERC, NED Pipeline Changes Path in NY & MA
December 9, 2014December 9, 2014

MDN has chronicled the sad state of Massachusetts and its obtuse opposition to the Kinder Morgan Northeast Energy Direct (NED) project, a pipeline that would make both their natural gas and electricity costs a lot cheaper. We told you Kinder planned to change the path of the pipeline to avoid about half of Massachusetts on its way from New York to the Boston area (see Kinder Morgan Changes Route for Pipeline from MA to NH). What you may not know is that MA doesn’t have sole ownership of obtuseness. New York wants in on some of that action too. NIMBYs in Columbia County, NY have been kicking up a fuss over the pipeline, so when Kinder filed their new preferred route yesterday (see updated map below), they altered the course and shifted it north from Columbia County to Rensselaer County, following an existing right-of-way owned by National Grid…
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Iroquois Gas Transmission | New York | Pipelines | Schoharie County | Spectra Energy

Spectra Energy Alliance with Iroquois to Sell Marcellus Gas to NE
December 9, 2014December 9, 2014

In July Spectra Energy announced a pipeline project that would compete with Kinder Morgan’s plan to run a pipeline across Massachusetts to help alleviate natural gas bottlenecks in New England (see Spectra Energy to the Rescue! New England Pipeline Expansion). Spectra’s pipeline eventually got a name and a partner: The $3 billion project is called Access Northeast and the partner is Northeast Utilities (see Spectra Energy New England Pipeline Gets a Name & a Partner). Yesterday, Spectra announced not a new partner, but a new alliance with a competitor. Iroquois Gas Transmission has agreed to provide Marcellus Shale gas to Spectra’s Access Northeast pipleine. The two will connect at the Wright, NY Interconnect in Schoharie County…
Read More “Spectra Energy Alliance with Iroquois to Sell Marcellus Gas to NE”
Broome County | Chenango County | Delaware County | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | New York | Pipelines | Regulation | Schoharie County | Williams

NY Landowners Get Eminent Domain Threat from Constitution Pipeline
December 8, 2014December 8, 2014

As we reported last week, it’s great news that the Constitution Pipeline has now received its final green light and construction is about to begin (see FERC Issues Final Approval for Constitution Pipeline in PA/NY). Some of the hardest work now lies ahead. Unfortunately, some landowners refuse to negotiate a right-of-way and so, just a few days after FERC gave the go-ahead, those landowners have received a “sign now or else” letter threatening the use of eminent domain, from Williams…
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Energy Services | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | UIL Holdings

UIL Makes it Official: $1.86B Deal to Buy Phila. Gas Works is Dead
December 5, 2014December 5, 2014

Sensing that the corrupt Philadelphia City Council will not budget–will not even talk to UIL Holdings about their proposed $1.86 BILLION offer to purchase the municipal-owned Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW)–the company has pulled the plug on the deal. It’s now officially 100% dead. Even though UIL has assured and reassured anyone who would listen that they won’t come in and fire the union workers, and that they would accelerate an already-ambitious schedule of upgrading PGW’s failing pipeline infrastructure, City Council members are stuck in the pockets of powerful unions and shadowy others in the background who opposed the deal. UIL has been more than patient. Philly’s dream of being an “energy hub” in the northeast is also dead along with the deal…
Read More “UIL Makes it Official: $1.86B Deal to Buy Phila. Gas Works is Dead”
Antero Resources | CNG/LNG | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Exporting | Industrywide Issues | WGL Holdings

WGL & Antero to Provide Marcellus Gas to India via Cove Point
December 5, 2014December 5, 2014

An exciting announcement yesterday. You know that Dominion was given the green light in September and is now building an LNG (liquefied natural gas) export facility in Cove Point, Maryland (see Dominion Gets Final Fed Approval to Build Cove Point LNG Plant). Dominion has already lined up Japan and India to purchase all of the LNG the plant can produce. The question has remained, who will ship natural gas to the plant, and where will that gas come from? Stands to reason most of it (perhaps all of it) will come from the Marcellus and Utica. We previously told you that Cabot Oil & Gas is one of the suppliers–supplying 0.35 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of gas to Japan when the plant is up and operating (see Cabot Signs Deal to Export Gas via Cove Point, MD). We now know of the first official supplier for India: WGL Midstream, using Marcellus gas supplied by Antero Resources…
Read More “WGL & Antero to Provide Marcellus Gas to India via Cove Point”
Columbiana County | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Monroe County | Ohio | Pipelines | Regulation | Spectra Energy | Statewide OH

FERC Approves OPEN Pipeline in Eastern OH, Gas Goes to Gulf Coast
December 5, 2014December 5, 2014

Christmas continues to come a few weeks early for some of our biggest midstream (pipeline) companies. MDN told you earlier this week that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) had approved the Constitution Pipeline from NEPA up into NY. We now have word that FERC has approved Spectra Energy’s OPEN (Ohio Pipeline Energy Network) project in Ohio. Spectra originally announced the project in December 2011, a project that will build 76 miles of new pipeline from Columbiana County to Monroe County to connect to the Texas Eastern Pipeline, and then reverse the flow–make it bidirectional–on the Texas Eastern in order to carry Marcellus and Utica Shale gas from eastern Ohio to the Gulf Coast. Spectra finally filed a full, official application with FERC in February of this year (see Spectra Energy Files Formal Request with FERC for OPEN Pipeline). On Tuesday, FERC gave its final blessing for the OPEN project…
Read More “FERC Approves OPEN Pipeline in Eastern OH, Gas Goes to Gulf Coast”
Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Lease & Royalty Payments | Pipelines | Tennessee Gas Pipeline

Skeptical MA Farmers Hear From/Talk To Kinder about TGP Expansion
December 5, 2014December 5, 2014

The Massachusetts Farm Bureau Federation is holding its annual two-day convention yesterday and today at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. One of the talks yesterday was given by reps from Kinder Morgan, to talk about the proposed expansion of the Tennessee Gas Pipeline through (now) only part of Massachusetts. What can farmers expect if the Northeast Energy Direct (NED) project cuts across their land? Even though 90% of the pipeline will track with an existing power line right-of-way, how deep will the pipeline be buried? How much of a right-of-way will be required? What about trees? Those questions and more were addressed…
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Economic Impact | Energy Services | Energy Transfer Partners | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Ohio | Pipelines | Statewide OH | Taxation

Property Tax Revenue/Economic Impact from ET Rover Pipeline in OH
December 4, 2014December 4, 2014

Seems like “all of a sudden” large pipeline projects planned for the northeast have begun talking about how much property taxes (and economic impacts) their projects will pay out. Yesterday it was the 550-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline project from Dominion (see Atlantic Coast Pipeline: $25M/Yr in Prop. Tax, $70M/Yr Econ Impact). Today? Energy Transfer Partners’ Rover pipeline, a 620-mile pipeline that will carry Marcellus and Utica Shale gas west, through Ohio into Michigan and on to Ontario, Canada (see Big News: ETP “Rover” Marcellus/Utica Pipeline to Midwest/Canada). How much of an economic impact and how much in property tax will it pay out? We have some numbers…
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Broome County | Chenango County | Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Delaware County | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | New York | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Schoharie County | Susquehanna County | Williams

FERC Issues Final Approval for Constitution Pipeline in PA/NY
December 3, 2014December 3, 2014

We’ve been writing about the Constitution Pipeline for, like, forever! The Constitution is planned to run 124 miles from Susquehanna County, PA up into New York State, all the way to Schoharie County where it will connect to both the Iroquois Gas Transmission pipeline and the Tennessee Gas Pipeline. It will flow some 650,000 dekatherms of natural gas per day (enough natural gas to serve approximately 3 million homes), most of it produced by Cabot Oil & Gas, one of the owners of the pipeline. In October, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a final environmental approval (see Constitution Pipeline Gets FERC Final Environmental Approval). Yesterday, FERC issued its final approval for the project–meaning the shovels will now hit the ground and construction will now begin. Horray!…
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Pipelines | Regulation

Deerfield MA, Kinder Morgan Lawyers Swap Barbs over NED Pipeline
December 3, 2014December 3, 2014

Kinder Morgan has put the town of Deerfield, MA on notice that its attempt to block the Tennessee Gas Pipeline expansion through the town–the Northeast Energy Direct (or NED) project–will not be stopped by a laughable “ban” enacted by the Deerfield Board of (so-called) Health. You may recall MDN covered the Deerfield BOH “order” in October to “cease immediately all of its activities in Deerfield related to the construction of the proposed pipeline within the boundaries of the town” (see Deerfield MA “Bans” Kinder Morgan TGP Pipeline – Or So They Claim). Kinder says, in so many words, nice try, but no cigar…
Read More “Deerfield MA, Kinder Morgan Lawyers Swap Barbs over NED Pipeline”
Dominion Energy | Economic Impact | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Pipelines | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Atlantic Coast Pipeline: $25M/Yr in Prop. Tax, $70M/Yr Econ Impact
December 3, 2014December 3, 2014

The arguments by anti-drillers against pipeline projects, like Dominion’s Atlantic Coast Pipeline which is slated to run from West Virginia to North Carolina, usually amount to this: “There’s no long-term benefit to the communities through which the pipeline runs. We have to ‘put up’ with the darned thing, but we see no benefit from it.” Benefit meaning money–other than a one-time fee paid to landowners through whose land it runs. Dominion is attempting to counter those criticisms by pointing out that once the Atlantic Coast Pipeline is fully operational, it will be paying in excess of $25 million per year to counties and local municipalities in property taxes (see the list below). During construction, the pipeline will generate nearly half a billion dollars per year in economic impact in WV, VA and NC. Once the construction phase is over, through permanent jobs created and associated ongoing operating costs for the pipeline, Dominion projects the pipeline will spur nearly $70 million per year of ongoing economic activity (see full report below)…
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