Energy Services

CNG/LNG | Dominion Energy | Energy Services | Exporting | Industrywide Issues | Maryland | Statewide MD

Dominion to Begin Cove Point LNG Construction in Next 2 Mos
July 15, 2014July 15, 2014

Despite the best protest efforts by anti-drillers against the Cove Point, Maryland LNG export facility in Washington (see our stories from yesterday and today), Dominion waits for final approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory commission (FERC) to begin construction. Dominion previously got a green light from the Dept. of Energy last September (see Celebrate! Dominion Wins DOE Approval for MD LNG Export Facility). Dominion also got an initial green light from FERC (see FERC Final EIS: Cove Point Won’t Hurt Environment). However, Dominion needs a final approval from FERC before they can begin construction. They expect that approval very soon…
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Energy Services | GreenHunter Resources | Industrywide Issues | Ohio County | Pipelines | Wastewater | West Virginia

GreenHunter’s Unidentified Barge Facility Pipeline Destination
July 15, 2014July 15, 2014

John Jack, VP of business operations for GreenHunter Water, is being a bit cagey. Two weeks ago GreenHunter announced they will build three new, short pipelines for different purposes: one for frack wastewater/brine, one for fresh water, and one for condensate (see 3 New (Short) Pipelines from GreenHunter in Tri-state Area). Two of the pipelines will originate in southwestern PA and one in WV. All of them will connect with one of GreenHunter’s barge terminals on the Ohio River. That’s what Jack is being cagey about: where will the three pipelines connect? Which barge terminal?…
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Concord Energy | Industrywide Issues | NGLs | Trucking | West Virginia | Wood County

New Truck-to-Rail Transload Facility for Condensate/NGLs in WV
July 14, 2014July 14, 2014

Marcellus and Utica Shale drillers who are looking to sell more of their condensate and natural gas liquids (NGLs) have a new option. Concord Energy has just announced they will open a new Utica/Marcellus condensate & NGL transloading facility (truck to rail) in Parkersburg, WV. The new facility, which should be operational by mid-August of this year, will allow Concord to ship up to 150,000 barrels per month of condensate and NGLs. Here’s the particulars…
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Appalachian Oilfield Services | Crime | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Statewide OH

Feds Slap Appalachian Oilfield Svcs with $129,802 for Back Wages
July 11, 2014July 11, 2014

The federal government has slapped Appalachian Oilfield Services with a hefty fine. The U.S. Dept. of Labor investigated the company and found they were shorting employees by not paying them overtime. So 25 Appalachian employees working in Ohio will be given $129,802 in back wages/overtime according to an announcement by the DOL. Appalachian Oilfield Services is based in Lafayette, LA but as the name suggests, they focus on northeast drilling–providing equipment and personnel to assist with fracking operations. The company has an office in New Matamoras, OH. Here’s the feds tooting their own horn…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Athens County | Energy Services | GreenHunter Resources | Industrywide Issues | Meigs County | Ohio | Regulation | Wastewater

Athens County, OH Anti-Drillers Try to Delay GreenHunter Dock
July 11, 2014July 11, 2014

The anti-drilling nutters of Athens, OH are at it again. They’ve just discovered what MDN told you on Tuesday–that GreenHunter Water has filed an application with the U.S. Coast Guard to get permission to build a barge facility in Meigs County (see GreenHunter Seeks Approval for Barge Facility in Meigs County, OH). The Athens nutters (see Break the Law in OH, Get an Award – Anti-Drilling Nuttery on Display) are now accusing the Coast Guard of undue secrecy because they didn’t beat the drums and sound the gongs that a private company had filed an application with them…
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | MarkWest Energy | NGLs | Pipelines

Kinder Morgan Y-Grade NGL Pipeline from NE to SW Still Alive
July 10, 2014July 10, 2014

In August of last year, Kinder Morgan and MarkWest Energy announced a new natural gas liquids (NGL) pipeline from Ohio to the Gulf Coast (see 2 New OH Projects: Cryo Processing Plant & NGL Pipeline to Gulf). The pipeline will convert some 900 miles of existing Tennessee Gas Pipeline system and build another 200 miles of new pipeline in Texas and/or Louisiana. The project eventually got a nickname–the “Y-Grade Pipeline”–and conducted an open season from last November into December (see Kinder Morgan/MarkWest Proposed NGL Pipeline Gets a Nickname, Map). A sharp MDN reader wrote in to ask, what the heck is going on? Is this project still in the works? So MDN went nosing around…
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | TC Energy/TransCanada

TransCanada to Enter Marcellus/Utica with ANR Pipeline Expansion
July 10, 2014July 10, 2014

TransCanada Corporation, the company perhaps most known (and reviled by the anti-drilling left) for their proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline, is making moves to grab a piece of the action in the Marcellus/Utica Shale. Last week TransCanada announced a non-binding open season until July 28 for shippers to grab capacity on a proposed expansion of their ANR pipeline–something they call the ANR East Project. The Project will provide Marcellus and Utica drillers with options to ship their gas out of the northeast to the Midwest, Gulf Coast, and even to Ontario, Canada. As part of the project, new pipeline would be built…
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Pipelines | Tennessee Gas Pipeline

Survey Work Already Begun on Kinder Morgan TGP Expansion Thru MA
July 10, 2014July 10, 2014

MDN has chronicled Kinder Morgan’s Tennessee Gas Pipeline expansion through Massachusetts to bring badly needed new natural gas supplies to New England. The governors of six New England states (5 Democrats, 1 Republican) want that pipeline–bad (see Blue State Blues: 6 New England States Want New Natgas Pipeline). In fact, the Democrat governor of Massachusetts wants it bad. But some MA communities, like that run by the mob-like town manager of Andover, MA, aren’t thrilled with the plan (see Lib MA Town Tells Tenn. Gas Pipeline: Stay Outta Town!). Seems that Kinder reps were rumored to be contacting landowners around Andover for permission to come on the property to survey. A town meeting in Erving, MA on Tuesday brings us new news about the Kinder TGP project–surveying has already begun…
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Electrical Generation | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | NRG Energy

The Future of Natgas – Personal Electric Generators?!
July 9, 2014July 9, 2014

Last December MDN editor Jim Willis attended and reported on the Platts Global Energy Outlook Forum in New York City (see Energy Industry Leaders Gather at Platts Forum in NYC). One of the most interesting speakers at that event was David Crane, CEO of electricity-generating giant NRG Energy. At that event Crane touted a pretty radical idea: About 1/3 of all U.S. homes have natural gas pipelines running to them. Crane believes technology exists to allow those homeowners to produce their own electricity with small units powered by natural gas, thereby cutting out the local electric utility. A recent article in Forbes magazine details why Crane’s idea isn’t just idle speculation…
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Energy Services | GreenHunter Resources | Industrywide Issues | Meigs County | Ohio | Regulation | Wastewater

GreenHunter Seeks Approval for Barge Facility in Meigs County, OH
July 8, 2014July 8, 2014

Over the past few years GreenHunter Water, a subsidiary of Magnum Hunter Resources, has purchased seven barge facilities along the Ohio River with the stated intent to transport frack wastewater from up the river in places in Pennsylvania and West Virginia and even Ohio, to further down the river in Ohio–where it would be offloaded and disposed by injection well. We wrote in May 2013 of the long road to receiving federal approval for such a plan (see The Long (Federal) Road to Approve GreenHunter’s Barge Terminals). Then in October it seemed like an approval from the U.S. Coast Guard was imminent (see Coast Guard Green Lights Barge Transport of Frack Wastewater). Here we are in July 2014–and still no Coast Guard approval in sight, which is disappointing…
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Electrical Generation | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Spectra Energy

Spectra Energy to the Rescue! New England Pipeline Expansion
July 8, 2014July 8, 2014

Seems that Kinder Morgan and their planned expansion of the Tennessee Gas Pipeline across Massachusetts isn’t the only company to respond to the plea from New England’s governors to get more natural gas coming to the region (see Blue State Blues: 6 New England States Want New Natgas Pipeline). Spectra Energy has responded to the call to get more gas going to New England. Last week Spectra announced plans to expand the Algonquin and Maritimes pipeline systems adding an additional 1 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day by 2017, much of it slated for New England’s electric generating plants…
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Energy Services | Enterprise Products Partners | Industrywide Issues | MarkWest Energy | Pipelines | Sunoco Logistics | Williams

Envelope Please: 4 of 5 Top Midstream Companies in Marcellus/Utica
July 8, 2014July 8, 2014

Who’s the “best of the best” when it comes to the midstream sector–for the entire country? It probably won’t surprise you to learn that the #1 midstream company in the Marcellus, by size of operations in the Marcellus, claimed the top spot in EnergyPoint Research’s 2014 Oil & Gas Midstream Services Customer Satisfaction Survey. That company is, of course, MarkWest Energy. What may surprise you is that Sunoco Logistics, currently under an intense smear campaign by anti-drillers who want to prevent the Mariner East natural gas liquids pipeline from beginning operation, came in at #2. Two other companies with major operations in the northeast are also in the top 5…
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Allegheny County | Energy Services | Fluid Delivery Solutions (FDS) | Industrywide Issues | M&A | Pennsylvania

3 Investment Cos Buy Fluid Delivery Solutions – Terms Not Disclosed
July 7, 2014July 7, 2014

Three private equity companies (investment firms) announced last week they have acquired a majority interest in Fluid Delivery Solutions (FDS), an oilfield water management company that provides fresh water transfer and storage for drillers in the Marcellus, Utica and other shale plays. Terms of the buyout were not disclosed, however, FDS’ management and staff will remain in place. Essentially FDS has transferred ownership to investors with deep pockets but have kept the keys to the company…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Energy Transfer Partners | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines

Opposition from Anti Drillers to ET Rover Pipeline in Michigan
July 7, 2014July 7, 2014

Why is it reporters, when writing about proposed pipelines, and talking about the gas that flow through them, always seem to use the same pejorative phrasing. Word for word out of the reporter anti-drilling stylebook it’s usually something like “gas extracted through the controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking,” as Gannett reporter Keith Matheny writes in the Detroit Free Press when talking about the recently announced ET Rover pipeline from Energy Transfer Partners that will cross Michigan (see Big News: ETP “Rover” Marcellus/Utica Pipeline to Midwest/Canada). For their part, anti-drillers quoted in such stories always seem to use the same phraseology too…
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide PA | Sunoco Logistics

Branding Squabble Among Sunoco Siblings over Mariner East Project
July 7, 2014July 7, 2014

For MDN, an interesting story in the Philadelphia Inquirer tackles the tricky issue of branding and the very visible brand of Sunoco. It seems Sunoco that sells you your gasoline at filling stations across the country is often confused with Sunoco Logistics, the company that builds pipelines, like the Mariner East pipeline. Mariner East would repurpose a pipeline that crosses the state of Pennsylvania from west to southeast and would deliver natural gas liquids, including propane, to the Marcus Hook refinery near Philadelphia. Mariner East has faced still opposition (see More Pushback from PA Residents on Proposed Mariner East Pipeline). Anti-drillers are trying to tarnish the Sunoco name and that has Sunoco the filling station company concerned…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Lancaster County | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Transco | Williams

Chains & Old Ladies: Kinky Protest Talk in Lancaster County, PA
July 3, 2014July 3, 2014

We’ve pointed out the hardened anti-drillers who oppose the Williams Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline project in Lebanon County, PA only number around 50 people–out of a population of 133,568 residents in that fine county (see Lebanon County Anti-Pipeline Meeting Yields a Surprise). When denied a public forum to spew and spout, they sit on the floor and behave like babies (see Williams’ Smart Open House in Lebanon County Confounds Antis). And when they still can’t get their way, they bring in lawyers (see Lebanon PA Anti-Drillers Plot Ordinance Against Williams Pipeline). In neighboring Lancaster County, they have a small anti-pipeline contingent too–but interestingly they were able to get 75 anti-drillers to turn out for a protest last weekend–a full 50% more than Lenanon County has been able to muster…
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