Energy Services

Columbia Pipeline Group | Energy Services | NiSource

Who Gets the Kids in NiSource/Columbia Gas Divorce?
December 3, 2014December 3, 2014

At the end of September MDN brought you the news that NiSource, owner of Columbia Gas, will be spinning Columbia off into its own company in 2015 (see NiSource Splits in Two: Columbia Pipeline Will be Separate Company). NiSource the utility will remain focused on being a utility, and Columbia Gas will be spun off into it’s own company called Columbia Pipeline Group (CPG) under a master limited partnership (MLP) structure. It’s an amicable divorce. But you know, when people get divorced, they have to split everything–including the kids. Who gets the kids? NiSource and Columbia issued an announcement today detailing which executives will stay with NiSource, and which will go with Columbia–along with a list of who will sit on which board of directors…
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Regulation | TC Energy/TransCanada

More Marcellus Gas Set to Flow into Canada Following NEB Approval
December 2, 2014December 2, 2014

TransCanada, one of North America’s largest midstream (pipeline) companies, has just received a key approval from the Canadian National Energy Board (NEB) that allows the company to raise rates on their main natural gas pipeline. The NEB approval ratified an agreement between TransCanada and its shippers worked out some two years ago. The reason the approval is news is this: “It gives all shippers the flexibility to source gas from various geographic locations including the Marcellus shale plays in the U.S., while ensuring that tolls are stable and set at levels that allow TransCanada to recover its system-wide costs.” In other words, more (cheap and abundant) Marcellus Shale gas will likely begin to flow into Canada. And that’s a good thing, as Martha Stewart says…
Read More “More Marcellus Gas Set to Flow into Canada Following NEB Approval”
Accidents | Energy Services | Harrison County | Industrywide Issues | MarkWest Energy | Ohio | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide OH

MarkWest Fined $320K by Ohio EPA for Mud Spills in Creeks/Swamps
December 1, 2014December 1, 2014

MarkWest Energy, the largest midstream company in the Marcellus/Utica, has spent the last three years building pipelines in eastern Ohio to connect wells to processing plants and to larger interstate pipelines. In the process, the company has spent some $2.2 billion building 350 miles of pipeline (and processing plants)–and MarkWest isn’t done yet. However, during the rapid buildout of infrastructure in the Buckeye State, some minor spills have happened along the way. When drilling under creeks and swamps (otherwise renamed as “wetlands”), occasionally drilling mud spilled out–some 19 different times between 2012 and 2013. The Ohio EPA has concluded their investigation and has just fined MarkWest $320,000 for the series of spills…
Read More “MarkWest Fined $320K by Ohio EPA for Mud Spills in Creeks/Swamps”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Pipelines | Tennessee Gas Pipeline

Anti-Pipeline Arguments in New Hampshire Debunked by MDN Reader
December 1, 2014December 1, 2014

A conservative and a liberal get into a discussion at a local landfill about a plan to run a new pipeline through their state…. Sound like the setup to a joke? It’s no laughing matter. MDN subscriber Rick G. from New Hampshire recently had such an encounter. The arguments Rick heard from those opposed to the Kinder Morgan pipeline, and his counter arguments, are instructive for us all…
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Economic Impact | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | UGI Energy Services

UGI Central Penn Natgas Rates Go Down Thanks to the Marcellus
December 1, 2014December 1, 2014

Once again, the cost of natural gas for customers in northeast and central Pennsylvania is going down. UGI, a major utility in PA, announced last week that rates for customers of their UGI Central Penn Gas subsidiary will go DOWN starting today. Why? Instead of buying expensive natural gas produced in the Gulf of Mexico and flowing it, via pipeline, to PA, UGI is now sourcing some 80% of their natural gas from the local Marcellus Shale. Thank you Marcellus! Here’s the announcement, with how much customers will save, on average, per month…
Read More “UGI Central Penn Natgas Rates Go Down Thanks to the Marcellus”
Energy Companies | Energy Services | EnerVest | EV Energy Partners | GASFRAC | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Tuscarawas County | Utica Shale

Details on GASFRAC’s Waterless Frack Test in OH Utica
November 26, 2014November 26, 2014

Two weeks ago MDN was (we believe) the first to call attention to a very short reference in the quarterly update from Canadian oilfield services company GASFRAC–a line that says GASFRAC had finally begun fracking a Utica Shale well using their waterless technology (see GASFRAC Begins Waterless Fracking Job in OH Utica). At the time we had no details about where the well is located, and who the exploration company is that GASFRAC is doing the work for. We now know those bits, thanks to some ace reporting by Tom Knox at Columbus Business First…
Read More “Details on GASFRAC’s Waterless Frack Test in OH Utica”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Dominion Energy | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Statewide WV | West Virginia

So-Called ‘Pipeline Air Force’ to Track Dominion Pipeline in WV
November 26, 2014November 26, 2014

Just when you think you’ve heard it all, along comes another bizarre twist from those who oppose shale drilling. As we’ve reported in a number of stories, Dominion is planning to build a 550-mile, $5 billion natural gas pipeline from West Virginia through Virginia and into North Carolina. It’s called the Atlantic Coast Pipeline project and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is now evaluating it (see Dominion Asks FERC to Start Environmental Review of SE Pipeline). Apparently a group of people who oppose the pipeline plan to keep an eye on it as it’s built (they must figure it’s a foregone conclusion that it will get built). They’ve somehow gotten ahold of three airplanes that they will use to spy from the sky as the pipeline gets built through the mountains of West Virginia…
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | PennEast Pipeline | Pipelines

New Jersey Resources Update: NJ Loves Natgas & PennEast
November 26, 2014November 26, 2014

A casual news consumer may think that the State of New Jersey is somewhat anti-drilling and takes a dim view of natural gas. After all, the NJ legislature has twice passed a bill that would ban any frack waste from entering the state (see NJ Gov. Christie Vetoes Frack Waste Ban 2nd Time). And opposition to the PennEast Pipeline that runs from PA to NJ has been loud and shrill on the NJ end. What you may not know, however, is that two NJ utilities are partners in the PennEast Pipeline project (see NJ’s Largest Utility Becomes 5th Partner in PennEast Pipeline). New Jersey Resources, one of the two PennEast partners, yesterday issued an update on 2014 with guidance for 2015. The thing that caught our eye? NJR continues to add new natgas customers at a rapid clip–and they’re jazzed on the prospects for the PennEast Pipeline and new sources of cheap, abundant Marcellus Shale gas that will flow to NJ…
Read More “New Jersey Resources Update: NJ Loves Natgas & PennEast”
Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Pipelines | Regulation | Tennessee Gas Pipeline

Kinder Morgan Changes Route for Pipeline from MA to NH
November 25, 2014November 25, 2014

Kinder Morgan has, for some time, been locked in a battle with far-left anti-fossil fuelers in Massachusetts who oppose KM’s plan to extend the Tennessee Gas Pipeline across the width of the state in an attempt to deliver cheap, abundant, clean-burning Marcellus Shale natural gas to New England. Those same anti-fossil fuelers use fossil fuels throughout the day every day of their lives, but fail to see the hypocrisy in their twisted position. Pressure against the pipeline, called Northeast Energy Direct (or NED) is mounting as both MA U.S. Senators–both are Democrat–oppose it (see Both Mass. Senators Oppose TGP Northeast Energy Direct Pipeline). Two weeks ago KM proposed an alternate route (see map below). The alternate route, now said to be the preferred route, will shave off something like half of the distance the pipeline stretches across MA and instead chart a course northward–through southern New Hampshire–following the route of an existing power line. The cool thing? NH wants it…
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Pipelines | Tennessee Gas Pipeline

KM Takes on Minority Partner in Northeast Energy Direct Pipeline
November 25, 2014November 25, 2014

More Tennessee Gas Pipeline – Northeast Energy Direct (NED) news today. Aside from today’s companion story today that Kinder Morgan (KM) is seriously considering a route change for the pipeline–away from Massachusetts and into New Hampshire–a second bit of important news. KM has cut a deal with Canadian-based utility company Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. to invest in the NED project. KM is selling off up to a 10% ownership in the NED project to Algonquin in return for an investment of up to $400 million…
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Columbia Pipeline Group | Columbiana County | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Hilcorp Energy | NiSource | Ohio | Utica Shale

Hilcorp Begins Drilling the Brinker Field in Columbiana County, OH
November 25, 2014November 25, 2014

Funny how old stories become new again. Back in September 2012 MDN first told you about the Brinker Storage Field, a 35,000-acre area in Columbiana County, OH used by Columbia Gas to store natural gas supplies in the Berea Sandstone formation. They’ve been storing gas in it for more than 50 years. The problem that we highlighted back in 2012 is that landowners, who signed leases to allow that storage, were going to get shafted out of royalties for leases Columbia had signed with Hilcorp to drill Utica Shale wells under the Brinker area (see Columbia Gas & Hilcorp Meet with Landowners in Brinker Field). A few months after a meeting with Columbia and Hilcorp reps, many landowners signed revised leases that cut them in on the action–with a 15% royalty (see Some Brinker Field (OH) Leases Revised, Others in Lawsuit). However, some landowners sued. It appears they lost since Hilcorp has filed for permits to begin active drilling in the Brinker. The Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) has already approved 6 of 25 permit applications from Hilcorp, and we expect the others will also be approved…
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Energy Services | Kinder Morgan

Shareholders Approve Kinder Morgan Plan to Merge 4 into 1
November 25, 2014November 25, 2014

We’re not quite sure what all of the hullabaloo is about, but last Thursday the various boards and shareholders in four different Kinder Morgan companies voted to merge the four into one. That is, Kinder Morgan’s subsidiaries will, on paper, go from four entities to one entity. Kinder Morgan is buying out itself, in essence. Kinder Morgan is the country’s largest midstream/pipeline company and it was certainly news a few months ago when Kinder CEO Richard Kinder–the man who pioneered the use of the master limited partnership (MLP)–announced he was shedding the MLP and would merge his empire into one entity. He now has the blessing of the shareholders to do just that–and when done, the $44 billion deal will apparently be the biggest thing since sliced bread…
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Broome County | Crestwood Midstream | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | New York | NGLs | Schuyler County

Crestwood Execs on Radio to Promote Propane Storage @ Seneca Lake
November 25, 2014November 26, 2014

New York State is stuck in reverse. We can’t get shale drilling going. And shrill anti-fossil fuelers have gone so far as to illegally block the entrance to the future site of an underground storage facility for liquefied petroleum gas (propane) because they believe converting the depleted salt cavern into storing natural gas will lead to fracking in NY (see 10 Antis Arrested for Blocking Crestwood Facility at Seneca Lake). It’s so backward it’s hard to find words. However, there is hope. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has now blessed the Crestwood project, and the NY State Dept. of Environmental Conservation, which has delayed approving the project since 2009, has finally issued a draft permit and scheduled a hearing next February that will (hopefully) lead to a permanent permit to allow the facility. Which is why anti-drillers have been nuttier than usual lately. The Joint Landowners Coalition of New York (JLCNY) is hosting a radio program on the Sunday after Thanksgiving to air the real story of this facility and what it will mean for all New Yorkers…
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Accidents | Blue Racer Midstream | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Noble County | Ohio

Was the Blue Racer Accident in Noble County, OH Preventable?
November 24, 2014November 24, 2014

Nearly two weeks ago there was a fatal accident at a Blue Racer Midstream condensate pumping skid in Noble County, OH in which an electrical contract worker was killed (see Blue Racer Midstream Explosion Kills One Worker in OH). There was precious little information about the accident–what caused it–at the time. And since then, we’ve spotted nothing. We know it takes time to investigate such things, but usually there is at least an update or two during that period. We did, however, spot a letter to the editor from a veteran oilfield petroleum engineer who claims the accident was preventable. Since this engineer doesn’t work in the northeast and has no personal knowledge of the accident, we thought it was a pretty brash statement to make. Or was it?…
Read More “Was the Blue Racer Accident in Noble County, OH Preventable?”
Energy Services | Ergon | Lawrence County (OH) | Ohio

New (Utica?) Oil Terminal Operation Coming to Lawrence County, OH
November 24, 2014November 24, 2014

Ergon, a privately-held company headquartered in Mississippi, owns an oil refinery in Newell, West Virginia (since 1997). Earlier this month Ergon reported purchasing a petroleum storage facility/terminal located in Ironton, Ohio. The stated purpose is to increase their capacity to purchase and transport crude oil in the Ohio River Valley region. What is that news?…
Read More “New (Utica?) Oil Terminal Operation Coming to Lawrence County, OH”
Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Processing Plants | Regency Energy Partners | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | Sunoco Logistics | West Virginia

Sunoco Logistics, Regency Energy Presentations from Analyst Day
November 24, 2014November 24, 2014

Last week both Regency Energy Partners, which purchased PVR Partners a little over a year ago (PVR having a major footprint in the Marcellus/Utica), along with Sunoco Logistics, another major midstream player in the northeast, participated in an analyst day last week at Ritz-Carlton in Dallas. While we don’t have a transcript, we do have the PowerPoint slide decks from both companies. And what we find on some of those slides is illuminating…
Read More “Sunoco Logistics, Regency Energy Presentations from Analyst Day”