Energy Services

Energy Services | Energy Transfer Partners | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pipelines | Statewide OH

Big News: ETP “Rover” Marcellus/Utica Pipeline to Midwest/Canada
June 27, 2014June 27, 2014

Midstream company Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) announced a major new Marcellus/Utica Shale pipeline infrastructure project yesterday that will transport up to 3.25 billion cubic feet per day of northeast shale gas to markets in the Midwest and Canada. Dubbed the Rover Pipeline Project, ETP says they already have three important (and big) customers lined up to use the new pipeline system, including Aubrey McClendon’s American Energy Partners, Antero Resources and Range Resources. A binding open season to sign up more customer begins today and runs for a month. The first leg of the new pipeline will connect PA, WV and southeast OH processing plants by crossing Ohio, following an existing pipeline route. A second leg will connect northwestern OH to Canada by slicing up through Michigan. Here’s the particulars, along with a map…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Lebanon County | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Williams

Lebanon PA Anti-Drillers Plot Ordinance Against Williams Pipeline
June 27, 2014June 27, 2014

The hippie anti-drilling pipeline protesters from Lebanon Pipeline Awareness (Lebanon, PA) once again failed to get more than 50 people to turn out for another stop-the-Atlantic-Sunrise-Pipeline meeting, held last night held at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Lebanon. As MDN previously predicted, last night’s meeting was to plot a strategy to launch frivolous lawsuits (see Lawsuits Next Act for Anti-Pipeline Group in Lebanon County, PA?). An ambulance-chasing lawyer from out of town showed up and told the anti-drillers in attendance that their best chance of stopping the pipeline is not, however, frivolous lawsuits–it is instead an illegal zoning ordinance…
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Crestwood Midstream | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Inergy | New York | NGLs | Regulation | Statewide NY

JLCNY to Cuomo: Authorize Seneca Propane Storage Facility
June 27, 2014June 27, 2014

For years MDN has told you about the proposed Inergy (now Crestwood Midstream) plan to open a badly needed underground propane storage facility along the shore of Seneca Lake in New York–in an already depleted salt mining cavern. In March 2013, 12 virulent anti-drilling protesters were arrested for blocking access to the facility–a facility that hasn’t yet been fitted for propane (see NY Protesters Arrested for Blocking NatGas Storage Facility). We’ve also pointed out New Yorkers pay nosebleed rates for propane because our governor refuses to permit the facility (see Northeast Propane Shortage – Andrew Cuomo Partially to Blame). There is a new effort under way to get some action on the Seneca propane storage facility from the 70,000-member Joint Landowners Coalition of New York…
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C&J Energy Services | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | M&A

2 Companies Merge to Form Top 5 Frack Services Company
June 27, 2014June 27, 2014

On Wednesday, C&J Energy Services, a smaller completion services company focused on the Permian and Eagle Ford Shale plays, announced they will merge into Nabors Industries, a completion and production company with operations in many on- and off-shore areas, including a major presence in the Marcellus Shale. The $2.86 billion deal will produce a new company using the C&J name but essentially owned by Nabors that will be in the top 5 fracking services companies in the U.S. They will compete with giants like Halliburton and Baker Hughes…
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | M&A | New Source Energy

Buyouts in Oilfield Services Sector Impact Marcellus/Utica
June 27, 2014June 27, 2014

A second oilfield services companies merging story today. Yesterday New Source Energy Partners announced their buying out two smaller companies–Erick Flowback Services and Rod’s Production Services. Both companies being purchased are headquartered in Oklahoma but both have meaningful operations in the Marcellus and Utica Shale. The $117 million deal means that New Source’s footprint in the Marcellus/Utica just got a lot bigger…
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Access Midstream Partners | Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Lease & Royalty Payments | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

2nd PA Class Action Lawsuit Against Chesapeake re Royalty Fraud
June 26, 2014June 26, 2014

We’ve only spotted this news in (so far) two legal publications, but last Friday the Suessenbach Family Limited Partnership, using a Wilkes-Barre, PA law firm, launched a “sprawling class action” lawsuit against Chesapeake Energy and Access Midstream accusing the two companies of a $5 billion scheme to defraud landowners out of royalties rightfully due to them. MDN previously covered how this scheme worked (see Chesapeake Shafting Landowners out of Royalties Mess Gets Messier). This is the second such class action against Chesapeake over royalties in PA we’re aware of (see Bad to Worse: PA Royalty Owner Asks Court for Chessy Class Action). There are all sorts of ramifications from this latest lawsuit…
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Blue Ridge Mtn Res/Magnum Hunter | Energy Companies | Energy Services | GreenHunter Resources | Industrywide Issues | NGLs | Trucking

GreenHunter Launches Hydrocarbon Hauling Subsidiary in Northeast
June 26, 2014June 26, 2014

GreenHunter Resources is the frack wastewater hauling subsidiary of Magnum Hunter Resources. You may recall yesterday’s lead MDN story about dismissed lawsuits for MH (see Magnum Hunter Wins Dismissal in 5 of 6 Lawsuits Alleging Mismgmt). Yesterday GreenHunter issued a press release announcing a new sub-subsidiary: GreenHunter Hydrocarbons. This “grandson” of Magnum Hunter (“son” of GreenHunter) is a new business line for this increasingly complex corporate entity: They’re getting into the business of hauling natural gas liquids (ethane, butane, propane) including condensate and oil…
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Ashtabula County | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Processing Plants | Velocys

UK-based Velocys Buys Ashtabula, OH GTL Plant
June 25, 2014June 25, 2014

Last September MDN told you about an innovative new $300 million gas-to-liquids (GTL) plant being built in Ashtabula, OH that will convert Marcellus and Utica Shale gas into chemicals and diesel fuel (see Utica Shale Gas-to-Liquids Plant Planned for Ashtabula, OH and More Details on Ashtabula, OH Gas-to-Liquids Plant). The plant is being built by a Houston-based company called Pinto Energy using technology created by Velocys. This morning Velocys announced they’re buying out Pinto Energy lock, stock and barrel–100%–including (and primarily for) the Ashtabula GTL plant now under construction…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Lebanon County | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Transco | Williams

Lawsuits Next Act for Anti-Pipeline Group in Lebanon County, PA?
June 25, 2014June 25, 2014

The hippie protesters of Lebanon Pipeline Awareness are feeling positively rejuvenated. They haven’t had this much fun since the 1960s. The anti-fossil fuel group was formed in Lebanon County, PA to oppose a new 27-mile pipeline Williams plans to build as part of its Atlantic Sunrise Project (see Williams Plans $2.1B Transco Pipeline Expansion, 100% Sold Already). Lebanon Pipeline Awareness can’t get more than 50 people to attend their meetings, and when they do show up, they have to be handed talking points so they know what to say (see Lebanon, PA Group Coaches Blind Followers to Oppose Pipeline). When denied a public forum at a recent Williams open house on the proposed pipeline, the Lebanon protesters sat on the floor and stomped their feet like the babies they are (see Williams’ Smart Open House in Lebanon County Confounds Antis). What to do now? They can’t get any traction with public opinion, so the next act is to hire a lawyer and file frivolous lawsuits…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Pipelines | Tennessee Gas Pipeline

Small Group in Ashfield, MA Vote to Oppose Kinder’s TGP Pipeline
June 25, 2014June 25, 2014

An anti-driller from Ashfield, MA says she wants her chance to stand in front of a Kinder Morgan bulldozer to try and stop the proposed Tennessee Gas Pipeline expansion from coming through their town. We sincerely hope she gets the opportunity. 🙂 Some 200 “voters” who are virulent anti-drillers packed an Ashfield town meeting to vote in favor of two resolutions against the proposed Kinder Morgan TGP pipeline (for background, see Reaction to TGP’s Planned Pipeline Across Massachusetts). The Democrat governor of Massachusetts and the governors of five other New England states want and desperately need that pipeline (see Blue State Blues: 6 New England States Want New Natgas Pipeline). But true to form, at least some towns along the proposed route, including Ashfield, have revived the old hippie brigade to begin a round of new protests (gives their lives a little purpose, a chance to relive the glory years of the 60s)…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | New York | Otsego County | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide NY | Williams

Save the Bald Eagles in NY! Next Hurdle for Constitution Pipeline
June 24, 2014June 24, 2014

You’ve heard of save the whales, save the snail darters, and maybe even save the tree bats (see Natgas Jumps Thru Hoops for Bats While Solar Farm Torches Turtles). The latest anti-drilling faux excuse for stopping the already-authorized, permitted and public hearing’d to death Constitution Pipeline in upstate New York is, yes, save the American bald eagle! We learn from the anti-drilling Oneonta Star that bald eagles are rather discriminating. They don’t mind traffic noise from a busy interstate highway less than a half mile from their nests–but if Williams happens to do a little blasting of bedrock so they can lay pipe–that will scare the bald eagles right out of their tail feathers…
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Industrywide Issues | Nine Energy Services | Supply Chain

4 Companies Merge to Form New Oilfield Services Firm
June 23, 2014June 23, 2014

A new competitor for Halliburton and Baker Hughes? Maybe! Four oilfield services companies, some of which have operations in the Marcellus/Utica, have combined to form a new company. The four companies are: Northern States Completions, Tripoint LLC, CDK Perforating and Integrated Production Services Canada. The new company is called Nine Energy Service and is headquartered in Houston, TX. Why the unusual name Nine? It’s aspirational. On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being perfect, they aspire to be a 9, which is about as good as you can get. Hence the name, which is kind of cool. Here’s the press release announcing the merger of the four into one with hopes of becoming a nine…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Millennium Pipeline | New York | Orange County | Pipelines

NY Anti-Driller Claims Compressor Station Causing Son’s Asthma
June 20, 2014June 20, 2014

A small group of virulent anti-drillers from New York City, who flee the city on the weekends and live in places like Orange County, NY, are once again slandering Marcellus drilling in New York State by targeting industry-related initiatives like pipeline compressor stations. To wit: A family who opposed the compressor station built by the Millennium Pipeline in Minisink, NY (southwest Orange County) now claim their 16-year old son has had a “sudden onset” of asthma which occurs only when they flee the city for the weekends to their summer home in Minisink. They conveniently blame the compressor station. What to do? Hire a so-called consultant to address a small group in the area, get a local reporter to show up and regurgitate a whopping pack of lies to scare everyone who reads the local rag…
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Economic Impact | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | M&A | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | UIL Holdings

Phila. Gas Works Deal in Jeopardy Due to Vacationing City Council
June 20, 2014June 20, 2014

In March, the Democrat mayor of Philadelphia, Michael Nutter, announced a deal to sell the city-owned Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW) for $1.86 billion (see Phila. Gas Works Deal for $1.86B – Marcellus/Utica One of Keys). UIL Holdings Corporation, a Connecticut-based investor-owned gas and electric utility, is the potential buyer. However, it didn’t take long for the union and a former Enron executive to make a play to screw the deal (see Former Enron Exec Makes “Unethical” Play to Derail PGW Deal). City Council has had three months to review the deal put together by Nutter, but now they’re heading out of town on summer vacation and not coming back until September. Will UIL stick around that long?…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Pipelines | Tennessee Gas Pipeline

Lib MA Town Tells Tenn. Gas Pipeline: Stay Outta Town!
June 20, 2014June 20, 2014

Taking the law into his own hands, as fascist liberals typically do, Andover, MA Town Manager Reginald “Buzz” Stapczynski sent a letter to officials at the Tennessee Gas Pipeline telling them to keep their people the h— outta town–at least that was the sentiment expressed. Such nice, tolerant, peaceful people those anti-drilling libs, aren’t they? Just lovers of all mankind, willing to listen to any harebrained viewpoint–until it’s a viewpoint that doesn’t match theirs. Then the baseball bats come out…
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Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Processing Plants | Shell | Shell Midstream Partners

Shell Files IPO to Spin Off Midstream/Pipelines into MLP
June 19, 2014June 19, 2014

While Aubrey McClendon and his financial partner EMG are getting back into the midstream/pipeline business (see today’s story about getting the band back together), Royal Dutch Shell is getting out of the midstream business. Well, not exactly getting out–but Shell announced yesterday that the company has filed paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission to create a pipeline subsidiary called Shell Midstream Partners. The new company would have a master limited partnership (MLP) structure, which floats something akin to, but different from, shares of stock. They’re called units and the reason for spinning it out as a separate company under the MLP banner is tax-related. According to the paperwork Shell has filed, they anticipate raising up to $750 million in unit sales. Will Shell, via this new subsidiary, own any pipelines in the Marcellus/Utica?…
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