Energy Services

Energy Services | Enterprise Products Partners | Industrywide Issues | Jefferson County (OH) | Litigation | Ohio | Pipelines

OH Judge Rules in Case on Ethane Pipeline Survey
May 14, 2012May 14, 2012

MDN highlighted a story last week in which Enterprise Products Partners, the company building a new ethane pipeline across Ohio, sued a farmer to gain access to his land in order to survey it to chart a route for the pipeline (see this MDN story). The farmer offered alternative routes to avoid prime hay fields but Enterprise turned him down. A common pleas court judge, on Friday, sided with…

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Energy Services | Hydro-Recovery | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Tioga County (PA) | Wastewater

Frack Wastewater Treatment Plant in Blossburg, PA Expands
May 14, 2012May 14, 2012

Hydro-Recovery operates a shale gas fracking wastewater treatment facility in Blossburg (Tioga County), PA. It’s just announced a $15 million expansion of the plant with plans to add an additional 20-25 employees and ramp up to 24/7 operations. Construction is set to start as soon as permits are received on a “crystalizer and six 500,000 gallon storage tanks.”

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Crosstex Energy | Energy Services | Utica Shale

Crosstex Energy Buys Clearfield Energy for Utica Assets
May 9, 2012May 9, 2012

Crosstex Energy, L.P., a midstream natural gas company headquartered in Dallas, TX that operates approximately 3,300 miles of pipeline, ten processing plants and four fractionators, wants a piece of the Utica Shale action and announced they are buying out privately-held Clearfield Energy to get it.

From the Crosstex press release:

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Dominion Energy | Dominion Exploration | Energy Companies | Energy Services

Dominion Announces Marcellus/Utica Shale Expansion
May 9, 2012May 9, 2012

Dominion Resources, the third-largest public utility in the U.S., held its annual shareholder’s meeting in Pittsburgh on Tuesday where president & CEO Thomas Farrell announced plans to expand natural gas pipeline and processing projects in every state where there is Marcellus and Utica Shale.

Ten company-endorsed candidates were voted on and approved for the board of directors. But six shareholder proposals, largely anti-drilling in sentiment, were voted down:

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Beaver County | Butler County | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | MarkWest Energy | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Processing Plants | Rex Energy | Sumitomo

MarkWest Buys Keystone Midstream for $512M
May 8, 2012May 7, 2012

Pipeline giant MarkWest has just gobbled up another, albeit much smaller, competitor. MarkWest announced yesterday it is purchasing Keystone Midstream for $512 million. Keystone is owned by Stonehenge Energy Resources and Rex Energy with operations primarily in Butler County, PA.

As part of the deal, MarkWest will gain contracts and a partnership with Rex Energy and Sumitomo Corporation to transport and process their rapidly expanding production in the liquids-rich portion of the Marcellus Shale in Butler and Beaver counties in Pennsylvania. MarkWest and Rex are also exploring a deal for Utica Shale production in eastern Ohio.

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Antero Resources | Brooke County | Chesapeake Energy | Doddridge County | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Harrison County | Industrywide Issues | MarkWest Energy | Marshall County | Ohio County | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Processing Plants | Washington County | West Virginia

MarkWest Inks Two New Deals to Expand Processing in WV
May 8, 2012May 7, 2012

MarkWest has been in the news a lot lately, signing a raft of new agreements and even buying out a competitor. Last Friday, MarkWest announced they had signed an agreement (terms not disclosed) to expand MarkWest’s processing capacity in the Marcellus Shale to handle more Chesapeake production. The areas covered by the agreement include northern West Virginia (Brooke, Ohio and Marshall counties), and Washington County in Pennsylvania.

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Energy Services | Enterprise Products Partners | Industrywide Issues | Jefferson County (OH) | Litigation | Ohio | Pipelines

Ethane Pipeline Company Sues Farmer to Gain Access to Land
May 7, 2012May 7, 2012

Enterprise Products Partners 1,230 mile ethane pipeline from Pennsylvania to the Gulf Coast, called the ATEX Express (Appalachia to Texas), has hit a snag in Ohio and is suing a farmer who refuses to let them on the property for survey work.

The proposed ATEX Express pipeline includes building 353 miles of new pipeline through Ohio. They’re on a schedule, and they don’t want delays. So when Nancy and David Hyde asked Enterprise to find a different route other than go through David’s best hay field, Enterprise said “no” and is suing them to allow them on the property. As with most lawsuits, this one is complicated.

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Antero Resources | Brooke County | Chesapeake Energy | Doddridge County | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Harrison County | Industrywide Issues | MarkWest Energy | Marshall County | Ohio County | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Processing Plants | Washington County | West Virginia

MarkWest Inks Major New Deals with Chesapeake & Antero
May 4, 2012May 4, 2012

MarkWest announced today two major new agreements to provide expanded natural gas processing and pipeline capacity for Chesapeake Energy and Antero Resouces in the Marcellus Shale. The deal with Chesapeake covers Brooke, Ohio and Marshall counties in WV, and Washington County, PA. The deal with Antero covers Doddridge and Harrison counties in WV. The new agreements, which include processing natural gas liquids, mean MarkWest will build new gathering pipelines and add compressor stations to their existing operations.

From the MarkWest press release:

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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Lackawanna County | Luzerne County | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | UGI Energy Services

Marcellus Shale Gas Coming to Scranton/W-B Customers
May 4, 2012May 4, 2012

UGI Utilities, a regional gas and electric utility provider with offices in Reading and Wilkes-Barre, wants to be the first utility in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area to offer their customers natural gas exclusively from the Marcellus Shale. How? UGI’s subsidiary, UGI Energy Services, announced last fall they would spend $150 million to extend the Auburn Gathering Line into Luzerne County. The Auburn pipeline will bring natural gas from wells in Wyoming and Susquehanna counties to Luzerne where UGI has operations and offices.

As part of the extension project, on April 7 UGI made application with the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to build a compressor station in West Wyoming, a small borough in Luzerne County:

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Aither Chemicals | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kanawha County | Processing Plants | West Virginia

New Movement on the Aither Chemicals Cracker Plant in WV?
May 3, 2012May 3, 2012

A month and a half ago it seemed imminent that Aither Chemicals would announce they would build a new ethane cracker plant at the Bayer CropScience plant site at Institute Industrial Park, located in Kanawha County, near Charleston, WV (see this MDN story). Bayer CropScience, owner of the site, and MarkWest Energy, a huge pipeline company, were named as potential partners in the deal. But the expected announcement never came, and all has been silent since.

An article in the Charleston Daily Mail caught MDN’s eye, an article that says the local city of Nitro, WV have filed a petition with Kanawha County to annex 44 properties surrounding the Bayer CropScience plant. The properties in that area of the county are unincorporated—no official town or city municipal government control—and if Nitro annexes the property surrounding the plant, it prevents any other communities from trying to annex the plant itself at some future date.

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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 | Schoharie County | Susquehanna County | Williams

Williams & Cabot Partner on New 120-Mile PA to NY Pipeline
May 3, 2012May 3, 2012

Williams Partners and Cabot Oil & Gas are working on a new 120-mile natural gas pipeline, dubbed the Constitution Pipeline, that will stretch from Susquehanna County, PA through Broome County, NY, and on through Chenango County, Delaware County, and terminate in Schoharie County, connecting to the Iroquois Gas Transmission pipeline and the Tennessee Gas pipeline (see the map embedded below).

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Aqua America | Energy Services | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Lycoming County | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | PVR Partners

New Water Pipeline Reduces Water Truck Trips in PA
May 1, 2012May 1, 2012

Aqua America and Penn Virginia Resource Partners (PVR) issued a press release yesterday to call attention to a recently completed private pipeline project in the Marcellus Shale in north-central PA. What’s new and different about this pipeline is what it carries: water. The newly completed pipeline supplies water to drilling sites without the need for water trucks—and that’s the “angle” Aqua America and PVR are pushing. They tout the fact that already, in less than a month of operation, the pipeline has eliminated more than 2,000 water truck trips.

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Energy Services | Energy Transfer Partners | Sunoco Logistics

Stop Press: ETP Acquires Sunoco for $5.3 Billion
April 30, 2012April 30, 2012

Just this morning Energy Transfer Partners (ETP), a huge pipeline company that owns 23,500 miles of pipelines and gathering systems, including the largest intrastate pipeline in Texas, announced they are buying Sunoco for $5.3 billion. One of the main reasons for the purchase? ETP said they have a growing interest in the Marcellus Shale and they want Sunoco’s assets in the Marcellus region—a sure sign that midstream and downstream will be where the action is for the foreseeable future. Infrastructure to move gas from point A to point B, and even to end users (consumers) will drive much of the activity in the Marcellus. In that light, the buyout/merger makes sense.

Sunoco is not a driller (“upstream”) but instead is mostly a downstream company, owning pipelines, terminals and marketing assets. Sunoco also has a network of approximately 4,900 retail locations in 23 states.

From the press release:

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Dominion Energy | Energy Services | Exporting | Industrywide Issues

Japan Negotiates to Buy Marcellus Gas
April 27, 2012April 27, 2012

Japan needs natural gas and they need it badly. After the Fukushima nuclear disaster last year, Japan has shut down 49 of their 50 nuclear reactors. That spells an impending shortage of electricity in the country. One of the ways to make it up is by using natural gas. Natural gas currently costs over $17 per million BTUs (mmBtu) in Asia. The U.S. commodity price of natural gas is currently under $2 mmBtu. So Japanese trading house Sumitomo Corp and Tokyo Gas Co Ltd are in talks with Dominion Resources to import up to 2.3 million tons of liquefied natural gas (LNG) per year for 20 years starting in 2017.

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Dominion Energy | Energy Services | Exporting | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Maryland | Statewide MD

Sierra Club Will Try to Block Maryland LNG Export Terminal
April 27, 2012April 27, 2012

The Sierra Club will oppose and attempt to block a facility that will liquefy and export natural gas from Cove Point, Maryland. The very same facility from which Sumitomo and Tokyo Gas are trying to negotiate a deal to receive LNG from Dominion Resources (see this MDN story).

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Energy Services | GASFRAC | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Anti-Drillers Now Trashing LPG Fracking
April 12, 2012April 12, 2012

When the announcement that a group of landowners in Tioga County, NY are about to sign sign leases with eCORP to allow drilling on 135,000 acres using waterless LPG fracking, MDN cautioned against euphoria that pro-drillers finally have a method of extracting natural gas that even anti-drillers can’t complain about. We predicted something eminently predictable: They will find things to object to in LPG fracking because, there is not other way to put this, they hate fossil fuels (see this MDN story).

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