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M-U Gas Pipeline Flows Hit All-Time High – Coming Constraints

The experts at RBN Energy continue their series of blog posts about pipelines that flow Marcellus/Utica gas to other regions with a look at two pipelines that connect directly to Canada: Tennessee Gas Pipeline and Empire Pipeline. In this post we learn that natural gas flows from the M-U over this past weekend hit a new record high of 17.3 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d). We also learn M-U pipelines flowed an average of 16.7 Bcf/d in April–an all-time high for any month! The problem is we’re now maxed out and need more pipelines.
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DC Fed Court Hears Anti Lawsuit to Block 2.1 Miles Gas Pipe in MA

Food & Water Watch, the virulent, leftist anti-fossil fuel group, will get its day in court today in the organization’s bid to block a tiny 2.1-mile pipeline looping project in western Massachusetts. But lest you think the lawsuit being argued today before the liberal D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals is just about a small pipe project in liberal Massachusetts, think again. FWW is attempting to use this case to shut down all future pipeline projects too. Is the fix in with this case?
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NJ DEP Approves TGP NatGas Compressor Station to Help NYC

In an effort to flow more natural gas to a starving New York City, Kinder Morgan cut a deal with utility company Consolidated Edison in 2019 to provide more gas by beefing up capacity along its Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) that feeds NYC, allowing Con Ed to avoid cutting customers off from natgas hookups (see Con Ed Deal May End Westchester, NY Gas Moratorium…in 2023). Part of KM’s plan to beef up TGP includes building a super-quiet, zero-emissions electric compressor station in West Milford Township in Passaic County. The West Milford compressor is one big step closer to reality following approval by the state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP).
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TGP Fined $800K in Massachusetts for Pipe Project Done Years Ago

Mass. AG Maura Healey

Corrupt Massachusetts Attorney General, Maura Healey, is forcing Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) to pay the state $800,000 for alleged violations of environmental laws that happened three years ago while building a couple of miles of pipeline through a state forest. The “damage” was done in 2017. Does Healey have nothing better to do than review long-completed projects and gin up faux violations to shake down companies for big money? Does anyone else think that’s grossly corrupt? And, are there any companies left operating in Massachusetts with this kind of hostility toward business?
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NJ Water Agency Approves TGP NatGas Compressor Stn to Help NYC

The New Jersey Highlands Water Protection and Planning Council (“Highlands Council”) is a regional planning agency that works in partnership with municipalities and counties in the Highlands Region to help them implement the state’s 2004 Highlands Water Protection and Planning Act (the Highlands Act). The Highlands Council has just given its blessing for a Tennesee Gas Pipeline (TGP) compressor station in Passaic County, NJ, near the border with Westchester, NY.
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NJ Town Wants Say in TGP NatGas Compressor Station Project

Last year, in an effort to flow more natural gas to a starving New York City, Kinder Morgan cut a deal with utility company Consolidated Edison to provide more gas by beefing up capacity along its Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) that feeds NYC, allowing Con Ed to avoid cutting customers off from natgas hookups (see Con Ed Deal May End Westchester, NY Gas Moratorium…in 2023). Part of KM’s plan to beef up TGP includes building a super-quiet, totally electric compressor station in West Milford Township (Passaic County), NJ.
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Kinder Morgan 2Q Update: Elba Island, Tennessee Gas Pipe to NYC

Earlier this week Kinder Morgan, one of (perhaps THE) largest pipeline company in the U.S., issued its second-quarter update. While most headlines blare that the company “lost” $637 million during 2Q, what they don’t say (until you read a few paragraphs in) is that it was a paper loss. Yes, revenue was down. But if you take the impairment (writedown) charge away, KM actually made $363 million in profit during 2Q. It was not, however, KM’s financial performance that caught our attention. It was the update on Marcellus/Utica projects like the Elba Island LNG export facility and a new project to expand Tennessee Gas Pipeline to provide more gas into New York City that caught our eye.
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Tennessee Gas Pipeline Plans Compressor Stn for N. New Jersey

In March 2019 natural gas utility Consolidated Edison, which supplies Manhattan, the Bronx and most of Westchester County, slapped a moratorium on new natural gas customers from hooking up to the grid in Westchester due to lack of gas supplies (see Moratorium on New Gas Hookups in Westchester County Begins Today). In April 2019 Con Ed announced a deal with Kinder Morgan’s Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) to flow more gas to Westchester (and NYC), but not until 2023 (see Con Ed Deal May End Westchester, NY Gas Moratorium…in 2023). We have more details about TGP’s plan, including a plan to construct a new compressor station in northern New Jersey. Good luck with that!
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Fed Court Rejects Rhode Island Indians’ Attempt to Stop Pipeline

The Narragansett Indian Tribe in Rhode Island won’t be smoking the peace pipe any time soon. The Tribe tried to block construction of Tennessee Gas Pipeline’s (TGP) Connecticut Expansion pipeline project as a violation the National Historic Preservation Act by not protecting “ceremonial stone landscapes” supposedly found along the path of the pipeline (see Indian Tribe Fights FERC Over Tiny Pipeline in Mass. The Tribe asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to reconsider its approval of the project, which FERC refused, so the Tribe sued in federal court last summer (see Rhode Island Indians Take FERC to Court re Massachusetts Pipeline). The federal court ruled the Tribe did not have standing in February, and yesterday the court refused to reconsider their decision.
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FERC Approves Tennessee Gas Pipe Expansion to Springfield, Mass.

Among a flurry of new approvals, last Thursday the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) gave final approval to Tennessee Gas Pipeline’s “261 Upgrade” project–a project to build approximately 2.1 miles of 12-inch diameter pipeline loop and replace two older, less efficient compressor units with a single new and more efficient compressor unit at the location of Compressor Station 261 in Agawam, Massachusetts.
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Landowner Wins Fed Case to Get More $ from Pipeline Using PA Law

A landowner in Pike County, PA called King Arthur Estates LP, challenged Kinder Morgan’s Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) over the amount of money they should receive to have a pipeline cross its land–and has won the right to use PA’s more generous laws on compensation rather than the federal government’s more stingy laws on “just” compensation. The decision sets a precedent for all PA landowners.
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Rhode Island Indians Take FERC to Court re Massachusetts Pipeline

In March 2016, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved Tennessee Gas Pipeline’s (TGP) Connecticut Expansion project (see FERC Approves TGP Connecticut Expansion Pipeline Project). The project involves building 13.42 miles of new pipeline loops in three states: Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York. When completed, the new looping will serve an additional 72,100 dekatherms of (mostly) Marcellus Shale gas to three utility companies in Connecticut.
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Con Ed Deal May End Westchester, NY Gas Moratorium…in 2023

Good news for residents and politicians in Westchester County, NY! (Yes, we’re being facetious.) Consolidated Edison, the local electric and gas utility for parts of New York City and its suburbs, says they’ve cut a deal with Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) to get more gas supplies flowing to Westchester County (northern suburb of NYC) and they will potentially lift their moratorium on new natgas customer hookups…four years from now in 2023.
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LNG Liquefaction Plant May be Coming to Central Massachusetts

Northeast Energy Center, LLC, plans a $100 million LNG plant in Charlton. (Liberty Energy Trust)

As it happens, this is the second LNG liquefaction plant story that landed on our desk today. Northeast Energy Center, backed by Liberty Energy and NorthStar Industries, is proposing to build an LNG liquefaction plant in central Massachusetts. Our other LNG plant story today (see Big News! Marcellus LNG Export Plant Coming to Landlocked NEPA) makes sense to us because that plant is located in the middle of a rich Marcellus gas region in northeast Pennsylvania. But building an LNG plant in the middle of Massachusetts, far from low-cost gas supplies? What gives?
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Kinder Morgan Cancels UMTP – Utica Marcellus Texas Pipeline

Once again it seems environmentalists in Kentucky have won–stopping yet another NGL (natural gas liquids) pipeline. On Wednesday Kinder Morgan, one of (perhaps the) largest pipeline companies in North America, announced it is canceling plans to convert part of its Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) that currently flows natural gas from the Gulf Coast to the northeast, to reverse the pipeline and flow natural gas liquids (NGLs) from the Marcellus/Utica region to the Gulf Coast. The project, called Utica Marcellus Texas Pipeline (UMTP), would have cost $4 billion. Instead, Kinder says it will still seek to reverse a big portion of TGP, but will instead flow M-U natgas south, instead of NGLs.
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