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UGI Energy Building 2 New Pipelines in NEPA for Cabot O&G

UGI Energy Services, a subsidiary of UGI (a utility company in northeast PA) announced yesterday they are building two new pipelines in northeast PA for $80 million that will allow them to transport an additional 300 million cubic feet of natural gas per day. The new capacity is 100% spoken for by the prolific producer Cabot Oil & Gas–the first and so far still the largest producer of dry gas in the Marcellus Shale–pumping more than a billion cubic feet per day from Susquehanna County, PA (see The Cabot O&G Marcellus Rocketship – To the Moon!).

One stretch of pipeline will expand UGI’s Auburn Gathering System. The other will expand pipeline from Clifford Township to Union Dale Borough. Here’s the particulars of two new pipes that will bring much-needed extra capacity to Cabot…
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NatGas Replaces Coal to Generate Electricity in Steamtown USA

Coal has been a fixture in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area for generations. It is so much a part of the fabric of the community that there is a National Park smack in the middle of downtown Scranton called Steamtown National Historic Site. Railroad engines used to run on coal back in the day–so it figures Scranton was a major nexus for trains–the city was really the coal capital of the northeast. So when natural gas displaced coal at a 50 year-old coal-powered electrical generating plant south of Wilkes-Barre a few years ago, that was interesting and noteworthy. The Hunlock plant was converted to run on natural gas by installing two new turbines. The waste heat from the new turbines now powers the old/original turbine once powered by heat from burning coal. It’s called “combined cycle” electric generation and it’s happening across the United States.

The Obama EPA has demonized coal to the point that electric generating plants are switching (by necessity) to natural gas in large numbers. Hey, *something* has to create electricity–a very small scintilla of electricity comes from so-called alternative sources like wind and solar. Fossil fuels will, for generations to come, bear most of the burden when it comes to creating the electricity that powers your smart phone, lights, and your (*cough*) electric car. That’s the stark reality. The following article is an intriguing look at how utilities convert aging coal-fired electric plants into less-polluting, more efficient natgas-fired plants–in this case plants that run on Marcellus Shale gas…
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UGI/AmeriGas Talks up the Marcellus & NEPA Auburn II Pipeline

AmeriGas Partners is the nation’s largest propane company, serving 2 million+ residential, commercial, industrial, agricultural and motor fuel propane customers from 1200 locations in all 50 states. Chances are in a city of any size, there’s an AmeriGas storefront someplace around town. AmeriGas is also a subsidiary of PA-based utility company UGI. AmeriGas/UGI held a conference call yesterday to discuss the company’s first quarter financial performance (their quarters are slightly different from calendar year quarters).

There were a number of references to the Marcellus made by John Walsh during the call. Walsh is the vice chairman of AmeriGas and president of UGI. Most of those Walsh’s references revolved around UGI’s Auburn Pipeline gathering system that finally went live last year (see UGI Wins! Auburn Pipeline with Marcellus Gas in NEPA Goes Live). We’ve selected out relevant portions of Walsh’s remarks from yesterday mentioning the Marcellus Shale and it’s importance to UGI’s future:
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UGI Wins! Auburn Pipeline with Marcellus Gas in NEPA Goes Live

It’s been a loooong uphill battle for utility company UGI with their Auburn Pipeline system, but by persisting, they’ve finally won against staggering odds. We’re happy to report that the Auburn Pipeline is now fully operational and Marcellus gas is flowing through it. The final leg of the Auburn, which connects the Tennessee Gas Pipeline with the Transco pipeline, is now done. Initially UGI proposed a compressor station in Luzerne County, but that was scrapped (see Luddites of Luzerne: UGI Scraps Plan for PA Compressor Station). The compressor was later built in Wyoming County.

Next up was opposition to a simple “gate station” or metering station. Even though another gate station had been in the area for 50 years, UGI still had to battle the forces of anti-drilling to build a new one (see Back to Kindergarten: UGI Explains NatGas Gate Stations). The gate station got built. Once all the court battles were fought, and won, UGI prevailed and the Auburn is now complete, which is very good news for consumers who will benefit from cheap, regionally extracted Marcellus Shale gas…
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Victory! UGI Nears Completion of New Pipeline Gate Station

It’s a small victory, but a victory nonetheless. The point where two different natural gas transmission pipelines connect–to transfer gas from one to the other–is called a gate station. Utility company UGI wanted to build a gate station near Scranton, PA so it could tap into locally-produced (and very cheap) Marcellus Shale gas from northeast PA. And of course anti-drillers objected, even though there’s been another gate station operating safely in the area for 50 years (see Anti-Drillers Try to Stop Pipeline Connector in NE PA and Back to Kindergarten: UGI Explains NatGas Gate Stations).

In August a judge finally cleared the way for UGI to build their new gate station–and it’s nearly done. Finally! A victory against the anti-drilling Luddites…
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UGI to Invest $1.2B to Upgrade Pipelines in PA to Deliver NatGas

UGI is Pennsylvania’s largest natural gas distributing utility serving more than 586,000 natural gas customers in 45 counties. Along with that many customers comes a lot of underground pipelines–some of which need to be replaced. So UGI is on a quest to hire at least 100 new full-time workers to help replace them. They plan to spend $1.2 billion on the project to upgrade their infrastructure in PA.

So what does UGI’s new pipeline replacement project have to do with the Marcellus Shale?…
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UGI Victory: Judge Rules in Favor Marcellus Gate Station in NE PA

MDN told you back in April about UGI’s (a Scranton-area public utility) plan to build a new pipeline connector–called a gate station–so they could tap into abundant, cheap and locally produced Marcellus Shale gas to sell to its customers. UGI’s plan will lower the gas bill for thousands of its customers and use local Marcellus gas instead of gas piped in from the Gulf Coast. Fantastically, some hardened anti-drillers opposed the new gate station with claims of air pollution, dire consequences, blah blah–the usual banal excuses–even though there has been another gate station operating in the area for more than 50 years (see Anti-Drillers Try to Stop Pipeline Connector in NE PA).

Anti-drillers tried to stop the UGI gate station by invoking local zoning ordinances at the town level. Fortunately, a level-headed administrative law judge has put a stop to those efforts and has ruled that UGI may go ahead and build the new Marcellus gas gate station…
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PA Anti-Drillers Beat a Dead Horse with New Anti-Pipeline Report

Recipe for the perfect anti-drilling, anti-pipeline “meatless” report: Start with anti-drilling politicians in six southeastern Pennsylvania towns who hypocritically use fossil fuels themselves but demand others not use them; add in a few environmental-sounding names from surrounding areas like “Big Woods” and “French Creek”; talk about the breeding habits of bog turtles; use a lot of pretty pictures of wilderness landscapes, flowers, plants and even a few predatory animals; throw in some pictures of humans walking in said pristine landscapes; and sprinkle phrases like “exceptional value” or “high quality” throughout. The result? A so-called report titled “Important Resources of the Hopewell Big Woods and the Potential Impacts of Pipeline Development on the Landscape” (full copy embedded below).

The report is so devoid of any real analysis and science one of the (obviously carnivorous) anti-drillers who commissioned it said it was too light on substance and he wants to see a report “with some meat on it”…
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Anti-Drillers Try to Stop Pipeline Connector in NE PA

Even though a pipeline connection, known as a “gate station,” has existed in Wyoming County, PA (northeastern part of the state) for the past 50 years, apparently no one noticed it existed (see Back to Kindergarten: UGI Explains NatGas Gate Stations). A small number of anti-drillers oppose a plan by local utility company UGI to build a second pipeline connector/gate station in the area. It’s not a compressor plant–just a connector. And even though it will lower their natural gas bills, they don’t want it. Why? They (erroneously) believe it’s a back-door way for UGI to build a new compressor plant in the area, apparently:
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Berks County Officials Think Commonwealth Pipeline Will Rise Again

The Commonwealth Pipeline, a joint venture between Inergy, UGI and WGL Holdings, was suspended indefinitely just a few weeks ago (see PA’s Commonwealth Pipeline Project Suspended – Indefinitely). However, officials from Berks County, PA, in the southeastern part of the state and a county through which the Commonwealth Pipeline was slated to pass through, don’t buy it. They believe the project will come back to life and pass through their county, eventually…
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PA’s Commonwealth Pipeline Project Suspended – Indefinitely

In December, MDN told you that work on the 120-mile Commonwealth Pipeline, a Marcellus Shale pipeline running from Lycoming County to the Philadelphia area was “on hold” (see Commonwealth Pipeline for Marcellus Region on Hold). You can now change that to work has been “suspended” on the pipeline—indefinitely. Did the anti-drillers win this particular skirmish in the fracking wars?

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Back to Kindergarten: UGI Explains NatGas Gate Stations

Northeastern PA utility company UGI is in a strange position. Geographically the company and it’s natural gas distribution network sit in or near some of the richest deposits of natural gas known to exist in the United States—the Marcellus Shale. All UGI has to do is install some new pipelines here and there, and a compressor station here and there, to bring that low-cost gas to its customers. Currently the gas being delivered to households in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area mostly comes from the Gulf Coast! Why not use gas produced locally, which is far cheaper.

Why not? Because of dullards who oppose installing the new pipelines and compressor stations. Anything to do with natural gas has gotten so divisive and politically charged, that UGI now has to explain (“dumb it down”) to people why lowly gate stations (pipeline connectors) are safe:

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Luddites of Luzerne: UGI Scraps Plan for PA Compressor Station

The forces of anti-drilling and anti-progress have won in Luzerne County, PA. UGI Energy has scrapped plans to build a new pipeline compressor station in Luzerne after facing stiff opposition from citizens and the county zoning board. The zoning board refused to permit the new compressor station last year and UGI was in the process of appealing it with a local court (see UGI Plans Start of PA Marcellus Pipeline Despite Zoning Appeal). Apparently UGI has lost its appetite to fight the Luddites of Luzerne County (maybe there’s a new HBO series in there somewhere?):

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UGI Plans Start of PA Marcellus Pipeline Despite Zoning Appeal

Pennsylvania energy utility UGI is working hard to bring low-cost, locally produced Marcellus Shale gas to its customers in the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton area. Currently UGI gets natural gas for its northeast PA customers from the Gulf of Mexico, which is crazy given the abundant, local Marcellus natural gas supplies all around them. But the Luzerne County zoning board last September denied UGI the right to build a much-needed compressor station that would help bring local gas to local customers (see Luzerne County Denies UGI Permit to Build Compressor Station).

UGI appealed that decision in court, and in the meantime, they’re moving forward with building a 28-mile pipeline anyway—an extension of the Auburn Pipeline from Wyoming County to Luzerne County (see the map below for the route of the new pipeline). If UGI’s appeal for the compressor station for the new pipeline fails, they do have a backup plan…

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UGI & Tenaska Sign Deal to Build New Marcellus Pipeline in PA

Pennsylvania electric & gas utility UGI Corporation announced yesterday they’ve cut a deal with driller Tenaska Resources to jointly develop Marcellus Shale projects in both Potter and Tioga counties in north-central PA. Over the next 10 years UGI will invest $65 million to build a new gathering pipeline system in Potter County, and another $25 million investment in return for a 19% interest in Tenaska’s Tioga County acreage/operations.

From the UGI announcement yesterday:

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Commonwealth Pipeline for Marcellus Region on Hold

A 120-mile**, large (30-inch) Marcellus Shale pipeline from Lycoming County, in northeastern Pennsylvania, all the way to Rockland, Maryland was announced in March of this year. The three companies planning it—Inergy, UGI and WGL Holdings—dubbed it the Commonwealth Pipeline and said it will cost $1 billion to build it (see this MDN story for the original announcement). The three companies offered a non-binding “open season” (period of time when other companies commit to using capacity in the pipeline) and in June announced the open season went better than expected (see this MDN story).

However, the Commonwealth Pipeline is now on hold and work has stopped. What happened?

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