Industrywide Issues

Industrywide Issues

New Energy Network Coming This Fall to a Computer/TV Near You
February 3, 2015February 3, 2015

The same people who helped launch television networks like MTV, E!, Nickelodeon and VH1 has been hired to help launch a new 24/7 network (cable channel) devoted entirely to…wait for it…energy! According to a press release issued yesterday, “America’s Energy Network (AEN), is the first and only television network exclusively dedicated to the Energy Industry. AEN plans to officially launch in the fall of 2015. The network’s goals will include creating, marketing and distributing original content and programming focused on important and timely issues to positively shape the industry and to build an informative, interactive and creative digital media destination to highlight the industry’s business, lifestyle, values and community.” You can be sure shale will be a big part of the programming for the new AEN. And the biggest shale play in North America is the Marcellus, so one might assume the Marcellus will be a big topic for AEN. How cool is that?!…
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Blue Racer Midstream | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Mahoning County | Ohio | Processing Plants | Utica Shale

Blue Racer Shelves Plans for Mahoning, OH Wet Gas Plant
February 2, 2015February 2, 2015

It was only last August that Blue Racer said they would build a new $70 million wet gas processing plant in Mahoning County, OH (see Blue Racer to Build New Wet Gas Plant in Mahoning County, OH). A Blue Racer Midstream executive backpedaled last Thursday at the Marcellus-Utica Midstream conference and said those plans are now shelved, indefinitiely. Why? That part of the shale play “hasn’t panned out yet” for the company…
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Accidents | Industrywide Issues

List of Accidents Related Marcellus/Utica Shale Drilling 2010-2015
February 2, 2015February 2, 2015

The Intelligencer/Wheeling News-Register ran a couple of articles on accidents in the Marcellus/Utica yesterday. One of the articles chronicled a list of 21 incidents that have happened in the Ohio River Valley over the past 4-5 years, since shale drilling has heated up. That got us to wondering–how big a problem are accidents in the Marcellus/Utica region? We condensed The Intelligencer’s list and trolled through the considerable MDN archives (see our Accidents category) to produce a list of accidents since early 2010. Most of the accidents did not involve injuries–but some of them did. More accidents than we’d like to admit resulted in deaths. We must never forget this is a dangerous industrial activity and we must always be on guard to make it safer. We have nothing to hide and reflecting on what’s happened in the past is a good thing…
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Accidents | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines

Marcellus/Utica – More Dangerous than Other Shale Plays?
February 2, 2015February 2, 2015

The recent ATEX Express pipeline explosion/fire in Brooke County, WV has folks asking questions (see ATEX Ethane Pipeline Explodes, Burns in Brooke County, WV). It’s not the first accident in Brooke County. In 2013 Chesapeake Energy had a hydraulic line fail at an active drilling site that ended up torching five tractor-trailers and did $8 million in damage (see Update on Chesapeake Energy Well Fire in Brooke County, WV). Over the past 4 to 5 years, since there’s been active drilling in the Marcellus/Utica, there have been 21 serious accidents/incidents in the Ohio Valley alone (and a number of others outside the Ohio Valley, see our companion article today) related to either drilling or pipelines. By comparison, there have been a handful of accidents and incidents in the North Dakota Bakken–and only one pipeline incident to speak of. Is it a fair comparison to make–safety in the Bakken vs. the Marcellus/Utica?…
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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide PA | Wastewater

What Does Marcellus Wastewater Disposal Look Like in 10-15 Years?
February 2, 2015February 2, 2015

An interesting and well-written article appears in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review on the topic of disposal and recycling of frack wastewater. Once upon a time drillers in Pennsylvania would send frack wastewater to the local municipal sewage treatment plant. That ended in 2011 under Dept. of Environmental Protection Secretary Michael Krancer (see PA DEP, Marcellus Shale Coalition Admit Drilling Wastewater Likely Contaminating Drinking Water). Today, some 90% of frack wastewater, which includes both flowback (the stuff that comes back out of the hole for the first couple of weeks following a frack job) and produced water (the naturally occurring water from the depths that continues to come out after the initial frack job), is recycled and used for more fracking. But according to experts quoted, that can only go on for perhaps another 15 years. What happens after that? How do Marcellus/Utica drillers dispose of wastewater when there’s more than they can reuse?…
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Blue Racer Midstream | Economic Impact | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Williams

Marcellus-Utica Midstream Conf: $30B of NE Infrastructure Needed
January 30, 2015January 30, 2015

Day two, and the concluding day at the Hart Energy Marcellus-Utica Midstream Conference in Pittsburgh, proved as interesting as the first day (for a day one recap, see Marcellus-Utica Midstream Conf: Marcellus is “Best of the Best”). One of the speakers on day two was Scott Williams, executive VP and chief commercial officer for Blue Racer Midstream, who spoke about his company’s processing plants in the northeast. Blue Racer’s Natrium, WV plant connects to Sunoco Logistics’ Mariner West ethane pipeline, which carts Blue Racer’s ethane to Sarnia, Ontario (Canada) and the Nova Chemicals Corunna ethane cracker. Blue Racer also operates the Berne processing plant in Monroe County, OH. According to Williams, “in excess of $30 billion worth of infrastructure still needs to be built” in the northeast. Wow! That should keep a variety of companies busy for a while. A VP from midstream giant Williams (which recently bought out Access Midstream) agrees…
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Beaver County | Energy Companies | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | Shell

Shell Trimming $15B in Spending Next 3 Years – PA Cracker?
January 30, 2015January 30, 2015

Shell released their fourth quarter 2014 results yesterday, along with comments on what’s ahead for 2015. Full year profits for Shell were up in 2014–to $19 billion (a mind-blowing number). However, the company plans to trim $15 billion worth of spending in over the next three years. Ouch. MDN wondered if the Shell ethane cracker plant planned for Monaca, PA is on the list to trim…
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Accidents | Brooke County | Energy Services | Enterprise Products Partners | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | West Virginia

PHMSA Update on ATEX Pipeline Explosion in WV – Faulty Weld?
January 30, 2015January 30, 2015

It’s been five days since a section of the Appalachia to Texas (ATEX) Express ethane pipeline ruptured/exploded and burned in Brooke County, WV (see ATEX Ethane Pipeline Explodes, Burns near Follansbee, WV). Since the pipeline is under the regulatory oversight of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), that organization is doing the investigation into the accident. The rupture and resulting fire burned approximately 24,000 barrels of ethane and scorched some 5 acres of woodland. What has the PHMSA learned so far? Not much. They have some theories, according to an initial report. It appears that the 20-inch pipeline ruptured near a section that had been welded together…
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CNG/LNG | Economic Impact | Exporting | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | Statewide PA

PA-Based Air Products Wins Another Gulf LNG Plant Contract
January 30, 2015January 30, 2015

Air Products is a Wilkes-Barre, PA manufacturer that builds huge rocket-looking “production trains” or “heat exchangers”–pieces of equipment that turn natural gas into liquefied natural gas, or LNG. Last September, Air Products signed a deal to produce two heat exchangers for an LNG export plant in Texas (see Air Products Wins Contract for TX LNG Plant, Marcellus Connection?). They’ve done it again! Air Products announced Wednesday they’ve signed another agreement–this one is to produce three heat exchangers for the Cameron LNG Liquefaction Project, located in Hackberry, Louisiana. As with the Texas plant, we believe there’s a connection to the Marcellus in this new sale…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | PennEast Pipeline | Pipelines

NJ Conservation Group Opposes PennEast Pipeline – Self Interest
January 30, 2015January 30, 2015

Bet you didn’t know that if the PennEast Pipeline, a 110-mile pipeline from Wilkes-Barre, PA to Trenton, NJ is built, it will pollute the drinking water for 2.5 million people. That’s the faux claim made by the New Jersey Conservation Foundation in a resolution they’ve just passed opposing the project. It’s pretty obvious the board of the Foundation is packed with anti-fossil fuelers (all of whom use fossil fuels every day of their lives). Such is the wacky world of anti-drillers. Make reckless and false claims, have those claims picked up and amplified by a sycophantic media that NEVER challenges them on those claims, and try to bend the unthinking public’s will against a project like the PennEast. Standard play book…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA Gov Wolf Signs Exec Order to Ban Drilling Under State Land
January 29, 2015January 29, 2015

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf is, disappointingly, keeping campaign promises to his anti-drilling supporters. Today he will make a trip to Benjamin Rush State Park in northeast Philadelphia to sign an executive order to prohibit (for now) any more leases for drilling under (not on) state-owned land. The move is creating child-like excitement among far-left “environmentalist” groups like PennEnvironment–well known for rabid anti-drilling activities. You may recall two governors ago Democrat Gov. Ed Rendell was hell bent for leather in leasing state-owned land for drilling ON said land. After his voracious appetite for money was sated and his Democrat cronies in the legislature spent all $444 million of it, Rendell tried to pretend that he’s an environmentalist by slapping an executive order–a moratorium–on any more leasing of state-owned land. Hypocrite. Last year Gov. Tom Corbett lifted that moratorium with an executive order of his own so that another $75 million of badly needed revenue could be raised by leases for drilling under (not on) state land. Today, Gov. Wolf will turn down that $75 million with an executive order of his own for purely political pandering reasons. How utterly disappointing (but not surprising)…
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Energy Services | Energy Transfer Partners | Industrywide Issues | Lease & Royalty Payments | Ohio | Pipelines | Richland County | Statewide OH

Advice to OH Landowners Approached for Pipeline Easements
January 29, 2015January 29, 2015

The Energy Transfer Partners Rover pipeline (ET Rover) is probably the biggest pipeline project currently under way in the U.S. It’s bigger than the Keystone XL pipeline! In places like Richland and Crawford counties in Ohio, ET Rover is actually two pipelines–42 inches in diameter, sitting side by side. The entire length is 820 miles and will stretch from WV and PA through OH and into Michigan and eventually to Canada. Landowners in Richland and Crawford attended a meeting sponsored by a Columbus law firm last night to hear some sobering truth: the pipeline will happen and it is coming. But that doesn’t mean landowners are helpless. The attorneys offered some good advice that all landowners approached for pipeline easements should listen to…
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Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Regulation | Southwestern Energy | Statewide WV | West Virginia

WV Legislature Passes Bill to Help Southwestern Keep Drilling
January 29, 2015January 29, 2015

Currently in West Virginia, if an E&P company, say Chesapeake Energy, has applied for and received permits to drill dozens or hundreds of wells which are currently in various states of being drilled, and then decides to sell those leases and drilling operations to someone else, like Southwestern Energy, the drilling law passed a few years ago says the new company buying those leases and drilling operations must re-apply for all of those permits to continue drilling. That’s a big problem. Southwestern, you may recall, has just paid Chessy $5.375 BILLION for leases, wells and drilling operations–most of it in WV. Can you imagine what will happen? Rigs idled…people laid off…chaos and confusion. It’s an economic disaster. So you can understand why the WV legislature has dispensed with the rules and passed a bill in record time that fixes the problem, allowing Southwestern (or anyone else) to assume permits on leased property that changes hands…
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Antero Resources | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Reserves (Proved and Unproved)

Antero Proved Reserves Rocket Up 66%; Dev Costs Just $0.61/Mcf
January 29, 2015January 29, 2015

Antero Resources, one of the largest drillers in the Marcellus and Utica Shale region, issued a press release yesterday to crow about some important numbers. The first important number is 66%–as in Antero’s “proved reserves” of natural gas (and liquids and oil) jumped 66% in 2014–to a mind-blowing total of 12.7 trillion cubic feet equivalent (Tcfe). Proved reserves means using existing technology and under these economic conditions, Antero can reasonably, with very high confidence, extract at least 12.7 Tcfe. Astonishing. Another number to crow about: $0.61, as in it costs the company only 61 cents per thousand cubic feet (Mcf) to find and develop/extract that gas. Of course what’s missing in that number is the midstream component–processing and pipelining it to market. But still, it shows that these large companies can still make money even in a low cost environment, which is reassuring…
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Columbia Pipeline Group | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Washington County

Columbia Withdraws Compressor Plan, Seeks Alternative in SWPA
January 29, 2015January 29, 2015

Columbia Midstream Group, a subsidiary of NiSource, has withdrawn an application to build a compressor station in South Strabane Township (Washington County), PA and has, instead, applied to build two smaller facilities at the same site: a launcher/receiver facility and a metering station (both related to pipelines). The land they intend to build on is a 251-acre plot owned by Range Resources. Nearby residents who attended a public hearing on Tuesday night were still against the plan, even though it’s not nearly as big and noisy and polluting as a compressor station…
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Accidents | Brooke County | Energy Services | Enterprise Products Partners | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | West Virginia

Enterprise Releases 2014 Results – Remains Mum on ATEX Explosion
January 29, 2015January 29, 2015

Enterprise Products Partners, a huge $41 billion midstream company with 51,000 miles of pipelines, and the company that built the Appalachia to Texas (ATEX) Express pipeline, released their 2014 results today. In the update is no mention of the explosion and fire along the ATEX in Brooke County, WV that happened on Monday (see ATEX Ethane Pipeline Explodes, Burns in Brooke County, WV). We’ve looked, and haven’t found a peep about what caused the explosion. The agency charged with investigating the pipeline rupture is the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA)…
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