Industrywide Issues

Braskem | Energy Services | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Odebrecht | Processing Plants | Statewide WV | West Virginia | Wood County

Economist Briefs WVU-P on Odebrecht Ethane Cracker
October 20, 2014October 20, 2014

In February, the former director of West Virginia University’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research and professor emeritus at WVU, Tom Witt, released a study about the coming economic miracle that will be the Odebrecht ethane cracker plant in Parkersburg, WV (see Economist Releases Report on WV Cracker Plant’s Economic Impact). Witt’s previous employer, WVU, also hired him to brief them about this coming economic miracle. They specifically want to be sure their educational programs will help prepare the local workforce. Witt briefed the Parkersburg Board of Governors earlier this month. What did he tell them?…
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Industrywide Issues | Supply Chain

Key Secret to Landing New Business from the NE Shale Industry
October 17, 2014October 17, 2014

If you own, or work for, or manage, a small- to medium-sized business, how do you get potentially lucrative new deals from the flourishing Marcellus and Utica Shale drilling industry? It’s an important question and one we’re often asked. Although there’s no magic–networking and word of mouth and being in the right place at the right time helps–there is one thing that a small or medium-sized business can do to dramatically increase your chances of scoring new business from the shale industry. What is that one thing? Getting an ISNetworld certification. And what the heck is ISNetworld?…
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Pipelines

Kinder Morgan Plans Chicago Pipeline Expansion for Marcellus/Utica
October 17, 2014October 17, 2014

Kinder Morgan’s Natural Gas Pipeline Company of America (NGPL) announced yesterday the open season for a plan to expand their Gulf Coast mainline pipeline from the Rockies Express Pipeline (REX) interconnection in Moultrie County, Illinois, to points north on NGPL’s pipeline system. They aim to increase capacity by 450,000 dekatherms per day (437 million cubic feet per day). The project involves new construction of $100 million and the end result is to move more Marcellus and Utica Shale gas to more than 100 delivery points in the Chicago area…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Dominion Energy | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Randolph County | West Virginia

Verbal Dueling at Anti-Pipeline Meeting in Randolph County, WV
October 17, 2014October 17, 2014

A couple of West Virginians verbally sparred at an “open house” conducted by the West Virginia Wilderness Lovers yesterday to essentially bad mouth and denigrate Dominion and their planned $5 billion Atlantic Coast Pipeline project. The incident happened in Mill Creek (Randolph County), WV. One local landowner, who we will charitably say was making some wild claims about Dominion and the pipeline (it’s going to blow up and burn his family to ashes), was challenged by a pipeline union worker, also from Randolph County…
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Industrywide Issues | Regulation

Obama EPA & BLM will Launch Methane Regs After Nov. Election
October 17, 2014October 17, 2014

In April MDN warned you that the Obama EPA is coming for natural gas–i.e. “methane”–as part of Obama’s so-called Climate Action Plan. We warned you that the oil and gas sector are about to be bloodied (see Rogue Obama EPA Goes on Methane Witch Hunt). We hate it when we’re right about such things, but we were. MDN received an email alert from the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) about this very issue. The EPA (and the Bureau of Land Management), according to the IPAA, will unveil devastating new regulations AFTER the November elections…
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Anadarko | Energy Companies | EOG Resources | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

More on NY AG Schneiderman’s Bullying of Anadarko & EOG Resources
October 17, 2014October 17, 2014

If a mafia boss walks into a business owner’s store and “informs” that owner that the owner will start doing things the good fellas way (pay money, say 10% of all revenue) in return for “protection” from the “bad guys” that otherwise may make a visit to that place of business, it’s called a shake down. If we substitute “New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman” for mafia boss and “oil/gas company” for business owner, you’d have what’s just happened in New York State–and it’s called “good government.” Schneiderman isn’t personally getting rich from the deal he’s just forced down the throats of two major o&g companies (we don’t think, anyway). But make no mistake–the businesses Schneiderman targets would lose massive amounts of money in lower stock valuations if they don’t agree to Schneiderman’s “offer.” Schneiderman held the gun of his office to the collective heads of Anadarko Petroleum and EOG Resouces over the issue of fracking (something not even happening in NY), and they agreed to dance and sing his tune. They’ve just been shaken down. Here are the details…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues

Anti-Drilling Former Mayor of DISH, TX Gives FrackNation the Slip!
October 17, 2014October 17, 2014

One of the earliest anti-drilling rallies MDN editor Jim Willis covered by personally attending was held at a Binghamton public school in February 2012. We had a visiting “dignitary”–former Mayor of DISH, TX, Calvin Tillman (see DISH, Texas Mayor Calvin Tillman Visits Binghamton – Marcellus Drilling News was There). It was at that meeting that Jim’s eyes were opened to the fact that many in the anti-drilling movement are ’60s hippies–or hippie wannabes. We weren’t all that impressed with Mayor Tillman’s ramblings. Recently one of our favorite people, Phelim McAleer (producer and star of the FrackNation documentary) caught up with Mayor Tillman, to ask him some tough questions about the “science” Tillman uses in his talks about DISH. Tillman, obviously outclassed by McAleer, slipped out the back door…
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Earthquakes | Harrison County | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Research | Utica Shale

Study Says Series of Unfelt Earthquakes in OH from Utica Fracking
October 16, 2014October 16, 2014

Another day, another “study” that says fracking causes earthquakes–this time in Ohio’s Utica Shale. In typical and now predictable fashion, mainstream media does a “drive-by” with the information–like a drive-by shooting–and then continues on its merry way. Here at MDN we’ll break it down and explain it so you have ALL the facts and not anti-drilling “impressions” of what the data says. First off, an admission that we don’t (yet) have a full copy of the newly published study, which has reportedly been published in the journal Seismological Research Letters (but which we can’t find on their website). We’ve requested a full copy of the paper and are awaiting it and hope to share it with you when we get it. The study is titled, “Characterization of an earthquake sequence triggered by hydraulic fracturing in Harrison County Ohio” and looks at a series of “400 earthquakes” that were so tiny as to be unfelt by anyone–but detectable by finely tuned equipment. The earthquakes happened in Harrison County, OH and are thought (but not proven) to be the result of fracking several Utica wells over top of a previously unknown geologic fault. The author of the study himself says the earthquakes couldn’t even be felt by anyone…
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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide PA | Taxation

New PA Legislation SB 1499 Would Stop Many Pipeline Projects
October 16, 2014October 16, 2014

In a cleverly disguised move to stop Marcellus drilling, two Philadelphia-area state senators–Andy Dinniman (Democrat, Chester) and John Rafferty (RINO, Montgomery)–have teamed up to introduce legislation, Senate Bill (SB) 1499 (full copy below) that would assess an “impact fee” on new pipelines and possibly existing pipelines re-purposed for a different use. The pipelines getting this new fee are pipelines that specifically carry natural gas, NGLs or oil (other pipelines don’t count). The fee would only be assessed on pipelines in what they define as “high-consequence areas” like, you know, the Philly area. Places with lots of residences and businesses. You live in the sticks? They don’t care. You don’t get nuthin. You live someplace “important” like Philly? Soak ’em. Similar to the current drilling impact fee part of Act 13 (this is what’s clever), the money raised stays local–50% of it to the county, 40% to the town/city where the pipeline runs, and 10% to the state Public Utility Commission. How much of this new “impact fee” does the landowner get–the people who are most inconvenienced by having the pipeline? 0%…
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Allegheny County | Beaver County | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Odebrecht | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | Shell | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia | Wood County

Odebrect Cracker Aims to Attract Chemical/Plastics Manufacturing
October 16, 2014October 16, 2014

David Peebles, Odebrecht’s vice president of business development and the guy working to make the $4 billion ethane cracker and petrochemical plant project in Parkersburg, WV a reality, gave some great insights into just how vast and complex a process building that plant is. Speaking yesterday at the Penn State Natural Gas Utilization Conference in Southpointe, PA, Peebles said…
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CNG/LNG | Dominion Energy | Energy Services | Exporting | Industrywide Issues | Maryland | Statewide MD

Dominion Midstream IPO Blows by Best Expectations
October 16, 2014October 16, 2014

On Tuesday MDN told you that Dominion was looking to raise $350 million with an initial public offering (IPO) for its new Dominion Midstream subsidiary (see Dominion Midstream IPO Seeks $350M for Cove Point Work). Today we’re happy to report the numbers are in–and Dominion surpassed their goal…
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Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Research

IL Study Finds Marcellus Shale Created 45K Construction Jobs
October 16, 2014October 16, 2014

The director of the labor education program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Dr. Robert Bruno, recently published recently published a new study titled, “Study of Construction Employment in Marcellus Shale Related Oil and Gas Industry” (full copy embedded below). The study looks at natural gas/Marcellus Shale employment data from 2008-2014 for parts of OH, PA, and WV. The study found that the number of jobs for electricians, plumbers, welders, equipment operators and laborers–skilled people who work with their hands–went through the roof because of the Marcellus Shale. Over 45,000 new construction jobs linked to the Marcellus were created. In one year, from 2012-2013, spending in the Marcellus area on construction and maintenance grew over 60%!…
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Commodity Price | Industrywide Issues

EIA Says Marcellus Prices Often Swing $1 Mcf Below Henry Hub
October 16, 2014October 16, 2014

An article published by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) on their online Today in Energy publication from yesterday highlights the ongoing struggle for prices in the Marcellus Shale region to keep pace with the benchmark Henry Hub in southern Louisiana. As MDN pointed out just a few weeks ago, it’s not inconceivable that a delivery point in the Marcellus will one day replace the venerated Henry Hub as the new benchmark price (see Will ‘Dominion South’ Replace ‘Henry Hub’ for Natgas Pricing?). The EIA story points out an obvious truth that bears repeating: When you have more production than you have in pipeline capacity to get that production to markets that want it–you get a surplus of supply and much lower prices. Sometimes those prices can, on a dime, swing to a dollar or more lower than the Henry Hub price…
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Crime | Greene County (PA) | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Wastewater

Illegal Wastewater Dumping in Greene County, PA?
October 15, 2014October 15, 2014

A disturbing bit of news. Officials in Waynesburg, PA (county seat of Greene County, in the very southwestern tip of PA) say about 4,000 gallons of a “gray, milky substance” flowed through the local sewage treatment plant and that the plant’s flow meters spiked up when it happened. In other words, someone, somewhere dumped something down a manhole and that something got processed by the plant and ultimately discharged into Ten Mile Creek. The disturbing bit is that the plant’s operators, along with the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), think the substance dumped may have been frack wastewater…
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Industrywide Issues | Research

EIA Report: Marcellus Exceeds 16 Bcf/d, Produces 37% of Shale Gas
October 15, 2014October 15, 2014

Yesterday the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released the latest monthly Drilling Productivity Report (DPR)–our favorite government agency and our favorite report. The October report, which makes predictions of volumes for November, shows the Marcellus Shale’s output of natural gas pushing by 16 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d), which is more than twice the output of any other shale play (the next highest is the Eagle Ford producing just over 7 Bcf/d). Another amazing number: the output from the Marcellus represents 37% of all shale gas output in the U.S. Below is the full October DPR…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Erie County (NY) | Industrywide Issues | New York | Pennsylvania | Potter County | Statewide PA | Tioga County (PA)

MDN Prediction Comes True: Anti Criticizes Bills Sale to Fracker
October 15, 2014October 15, 2014

Just last week, with respect to the sale of the Buffalo “Marcellus” Bills to East Resources CEO Terry Pegula, we said the following tongue-in-cheek: “What’s interesting to us is that there’s zero talk about how Marcellus “blood money” has purchased the Bills. No talk that Pegula is an evil, nasty fracker….The talk, universally, is of a really great guy with a big heart that’s whip smart and committed to the Buffalo region (he previously bought the NHL Buffalo Sabres team). Where are the crazies and their loony toons criticisms? Where are the protesters? Nowhere to be found” (see Buffalo “Marcellus” Bills – Team Sold to Fracker for $1.4B). Well, such a loon has now been found, and a Wilkes-Barre newspaper published his rantings…
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