Energy Services

Aither Chemicals | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Processing Plants | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Aither: 5 Compounds Customers Want from a Cracker Plant
August 1, 2012August 1, 2012

Aither Chemicals remains committed to building an ethane cracker plant somewhere in the Marcellus/Utica Shale region, preferably in the Kanawha Valley region of West Virginia. An ethane cracker plant uses ethane (from wet gas) to “crack” it into other chemical compounds. Ethane is most commonly cracked to make ethylene, a raw material used in plastics.

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Butler County | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | MarkWest Energy | NGLs | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Processing Plants | XTO

MarkWest Signs Deal with XTO to Process NGLs in PA
August 1, 2012August 1, 2012

MarkWest has just signed a deal with XTO Energy (XTO is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Exxon Mobil) to extend MarkWest’s natural gas liquids (NGLs) gathering pipeline in Butler County, PA to XTO’s processing plant. Previously MarkWest announced plans to extend the same pipeline from its Houston, PA complex to the Bluestone complex in Butler County. With this announcement, MarkWest will further extend the pipeline from Bluestone to XTO’s plant.

This deal will grant MarkWest the right to fractionate and market NGLs from XTO. Adding this new pipeline to other recently announced pipelines by MarkWest, when everything is built and running, MarkWest will have 3 billion cubic feet of gas processing capacity and 270,000 barrels per day of fractionation capacity throughout the Marcellus and Utica Shale.

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Energy Services | NiSource

NiSource 2Q12 Earnings Report – Marcellus & Utica Projects
July 31, 2012July 31, 2012

NiSource Inc., parent company of Columbia Natural Gas and increasingly an important midstream player (pipelines & compressor stations) in the Marcellus and Utica Shale region, issued its 2012 second quarter earnings report today. MDN has extracted the sections of interest for the Marcellus and Utica Shale below.

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Dominion Energy | Energy Services | Harrison County | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Ohio | Pipelines

Union Protests Dominion Pipeline Work in Eastern Ohio
July 26, 2012July 26, 2012

The Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) is complaining that Dominion East Ohio is building a pipeline in Harrison County, Ohio using workers from West Virginia (two counties away).

Union members protested on Tuesday at a Dominion pipeline construction site in Stock Township. It wasn’t their first protest against “out of state workers.”

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Access Midstream Partners | Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Energy Services

Chesapeake Midstream Changes Name to Access Midstream
July 25, 2012July 25, 2012

Chesapeake Midstream Partners, a pipeline and processing plant company formerly owned by Chesapeake Energy but recently sold to Global Infrastructure Partners to generate cash, is changing its name. It will now be known as Access Midstream Partners.

In addition to the name change, the new entity also announced new members of the board. From the Access Midstream Partners press release:

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Broome County | Delaware County | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | New York | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Schoharie County | Susquehanna County | Williams

Williams Holds Public Sessions for New Constitution Pipeline
July 23, 2012July 23, 2012

MDN editor Jim Willis attended a “meet and greet” session by Williams about their proposed new Constitution Pipeline. This is a first-hand account of that meeting.

Gas production from northeastern Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale is so plentiful, new pipelines are necessary to move it to market. That was the message from Williams Corporation last Wednesday night at the West Windsor Fire Hall located just miles outside of Binghamton, NY.

Williams was on hand to discuss the proposed Constitution Pipeline, a joint venture between Williams and Cabot Oil & Gas to build a 121-mile pipeline from the Marcellus-rich area of Susquehanna County, PA north to Schoharie County, NY.

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Economic Impact | Energy Services | GE Oil & Gas | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Ohio | Stark County

How Many GE Employees will Come to Canton, OH?
July 19, 2012July 19, 2012

Although Chesapeake is leaving town, moving the majority of its 200 employees who work in offices in Canton to a new facility they’re building 7 miles away in Louisville (see this MDN story), it’s not all bad news for Canton.

GE will build a new facility in Canton where some 30 new jobs will be created to manage GE’s area Marcellus and Utica Shale operations. But it’s going to cost Canton up to $84,000 per year for five years to seal the deal.

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Energy Services | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | OriginOil | Wastewater

OriginOil Uses Algae to Clean Frack Wastewater
July 19, 2012July 19, 2012

OriginOil, Inc., based in Los Angeles, is a biomass company that produces and markets a patent-pending commercial system using algae to produce crude oil. Think of it as a renewable fossil fuel! Their system is also used to clean water, using algae as a pollution absorber.

A new application for OriginOil is using their algae system to process flow back water—wastewater from hydraulic fracturing of shale oil and gas wells. OriginOil announced today they have created a new oil and gas division and appointed the former President of Exxon Arabian Gulf as an advisor to the business.

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Energy Services | GES | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Tom Ridge Forms Alliance with GES to Promote Marcellus
July 19, 2012July 19, 2012

Former PA Gov. Tom Ridge heads his own consulting service called Ridge Policy Group, specializing in “government relations” and “issue management.” Ridge was heavily involved in the past with the Marcellus Shale Coalition—he was their public spokesperson for a year, a contract which ended in 2011.

Ridge has found a new Marcellus client, forming a “strategic alliance” with Groundwater & Environmental Services (GES), a company involved with drilling-related issues. MDN gathers from the press release gobbledygook (below) that Ridge will use his extensive rolodex to make business connections in the industry (and in government) for GES, and help out with public relations, raising the visibility of GES. Which is why you hire a famous ex-governor. 🙂

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Energy Services | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Smart Sand

Wisconsin Frack Sand Heading to Marcellus/Utica Shale
July 18, 2012July 18, 2012

Wisconsin frack sand is on the way to the Utica and Marcellus Shale region, thanks to a new long-term partnership between Smart Sand and Canadian Pacific Railway. The partners announced their first initiative will be to build a new frack sand transloading facility in Makoti, North Dakota.

Canadian Pacific is the only railroad in North America that services both the Bakken formation and the Marcellus Shale.

From the joint press release issued today:

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Energy Services | GreenHunter Resources | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Washington County (OH) | Wastewater

GreenHunter’s New Water Facility on Ohio River Goes Live
July 17, 2012July 17, 2012

GreenHunter Water’s new water and wastewater handing facility on the Ohio River in Washington County, Ohio has just gone operational. It is a bulk water storage facility, handling both fresh water used for fracking, and flowback or the salty wastewater that comes out of the ground after fracking.

From the GreenHunter press release:

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Arrowhead Utica Pipelines | Columbiana County | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Marathon Petroleum | Ohio | Trucking

Columbiana Port Authority Helps Shale Industry
July 17, 2012July 17, 2012

The Columbiana County (OH) Port Authority on Monday passed a measure stating they intend to sell 3.6 acres in Wellsville, OH to Marathon Petroleum for $2.4 million. The property is part of the Port Authority’s riverfront industrial park and sits adjacent to Marathon’s storage tank/transfer facility. Marathon will use the property for trucks transporting oil and gas produced from local shale drilling.

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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Patriot Water Treatment | Trumbull County | Wastewater

Patriot Water Fires Back at OEPA & ODNR, Alleges Govt Abuse
July 16, 2012July 16, 2012

Patriot Water in Warren, Ohio lost its permit to dispose of treated shale gas drilling wastewater via the Warren municipal wastewater treatment plant earlier this year. A few weeks ago they won a ruling against Ohio’s EPA (OEPA) and thought that would allow them to restart shipments of treated wastewater, but the OEPA said “not so fast” and has steadfastly refused to reissue a permit to allow it (see this MDN story for background).

Last Friday the president of Patriot Water, Andrew Blocksom, issued a strongly-worded statement saying the OEPA and Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) treatment of Patriot is tantamount to government abuse, and it needs to stop.

We get the full text of Blocksom’s statement from the Youngstown Business Journal:

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Economic Impact | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | NiSource | Ohio | Pipelines | Statewide OH

NiSource Announces $4B Upgrade Plan for Interstate Pipelines
July 13, 2012July 13, 2012

Midstream and utility company NiSource is in the news for a second time this week. On Monday, NiSource announced a joint venture with Hilcorp to build new Utica Shale gathering pipelines and a processing plant in eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania (see this MDN story).

Yesterday NiSource announced a new project to rebuild and upgrade 12,000 miles of its Columbia Gas Transmission interstate pipelines and compressor stations to the tune of $4 billion over the next 15 years. Much of that work will benefit the Marcellus and Utica Shale region, resulting in more shale gas finding its way to market, according to NiSource.

NiSource reps, federal government officials and the Mayor of Columbus held a press conference yesterday to talk about this major new initiative by NiSource. Below is the follow-up press release, rearranged by MDN to show the important information first:

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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Patriot Water Treatment | Regulation | Trumbull County | Wastewater

Ohio DNR Visits Patriot Water Facility in Warren, OH
July 12, 2012December 19, 2012

Patriot Water in Warren, Ohio is fighting a battle on both the legal and publicity fronts. Yesterday they scored some points in the publicity column by (finally) getting a representative from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) to tour their facility.

Brief background: Patriot’s facility processes wastewater from hydraulic fracturing, removing the nasty stuff so the water is clean and able to be disposed of through the local Warren municipal wastewater processing plant. But the Ohio Attorney General, Mike DeWine, and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency rescinded Warren’s permit to accept the wastewater from Patriot, saying Patriot’s technology is not up to scratch (see this MDN story for more background on Patriot’s legal squabble with the OEPA).

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Delaware County (PA) | Economic Impact | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | Sunoco Logistics

Marcellus to the Rescue: Marcus Hook Refinery to Reopen
July 12, 2012December 19, 2012

The Marcus Hook Refinery in the Philadelphia, PA area was closed down in April. Owned by Sunoco, it is one of three refineries in the greater Philly area. A few weeks ago MDN told you about a study that Marcus Hook and Delaware County spent $100,000 on detailing potential uses and markets for the refinery (see this MDN story).

At the time, MDN asked the question if the Marcellus Shale would save the Marcus Hook refinery. Looks like it did. Yesterday, PA Gov. Tom Corbett’s office announced that some of the Marcus Hook Refinery assets have been purchased by Braskem America. Braskem will use it to manufacture polypropylene plastics. The press release says Braskem will secure feedstocks (raw materials) from “multiple sources,” without naming those sources. You can be sure natural gas liquids from the Marcellus and Utica Shale will be a big source—perhaps the main source—for the refinery.

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