Industrywide Issues

Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | Washington County

Thailand & Japan Partner to Build 3rd Big Marcellus Ethane Cracker
September 29, 2014September 29, 2014

Word has leaked out that Thailand’s largest chemical company–Bangkok-based PTT Global Chemical–and Japan’s fifth largest general trading company/conglomerates–Tokyo-based Marubeni Corp.–have formed an alliance and are actively looking to build an ethane cracker plant in the Marcellus/Utica region. The first such ethane cracker was announced by Shell in 2012, to be located in Beaver County, PA. The second was announced last year by Odebrecht, targeted to be built in Parkersburg, WV. We also recently told you about a “baby cracker”–a much smaller version of an ethane cracker coming to Monroe County, OH (see Ohio to Get “Baby” Ethane Cracker Originally Slated for WV). The PTT/Marubeni cracker will be the third big/major cracker plant for the northeast–with the caveat “if built” (which applies to all of these projects). The word on the street is that PTT/Marubeni have been looking for nearly a year…
Read More “Thailand & Japan Partner to Build 3rd Big Marcellus Ethane Cracker”
Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Range Resources Corp | Regulation | Washington County | Wastewater

Did DEP Mishandle Range Wastewater Impoundment Investigation?
September 29, 2014September 29, 2014

Range Resources has had a long-running dispute with some of the neighbors near some of it’s wastewater impoundments in Washington, PA. Without recounting the details (see MDN’s previous stories here), the entire thing came to a head recently when the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) completed their investigation and fined Range the highest amount any driller has paid so far in the modern shale drilling era (see PA DEP Fines Range Resources $4.15M for Wastewater Impoundments). Part of the deal is that Range is closing those impoundments. There are, of course, legal actions involved, as you might expect. One of the neighbors near the Yeager impoundment sued Range with claims of well water contamination from chemicals leaking from the impoundment. The DEP determined the landowner’s well was not contaminated by the Range impoundment and the landowner challenged that finding in DEP’s version of court, the Environmental Hearing Board. Testimony at the hearing last week from a DEP official about the investigation indicates the DEP “might have used incomplete and inaccurate test information to decide whether chemicals leaking…contaminated a water well and springs”…
Read More “Did DEP Mishandle Range Wastewater Impoundment Investigation?”
Commodity Price | Industrywide Issues

Will ‘Dominion South’ Replace ‘Henry Hub’ for Natgas Pricing?
September 29, 2014September 29, 2014

From time to time MDN will cover stories about the price of natural gas because price determines whether or not drillers will bother to sink holes in the ground to extract natgas. One area we’ve not delved into a great deal is the trading of natural gas. We prefer to point you to top notch publications like NGI’s Daily Gas Price Index for stories about the price of natgas. However, there is a story out today from Reuters that talks about a possible change coming in how the price of natgas gets quoted. A really big change…
Read More “Will ‘Dominion South’ Replace ‘Henry Hub’ for Natgas Pricing?”
Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Supply Chain

Rigmaids to the Rescue – Cleaning Up After Dirty Men (and Women)
September 29, 2014September 29, 2014

Let’s be honest, men are sometimes slobs. Men (and women) who work in a dirty profession like operating equipment at a drill pad, can generate a lot of filth. That’s where Pennsylvania company Rigmaids comes in. At every well pad is at least one (usually more) trailers where the men (and women) hang out–wash their hands, track mud, store food in refrigerators that sometimes go bad–the list goes on. Rigmaids will visit the pad site and clean out those filthy trailers and make them sparkle again. For a price…
Read More “Rigmaids to the Rescue – Cleaning Up After Dirty Men (and Women)”
Blue Ridge Mtn Res/Magnum Hunter | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Eureka Midstream | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pipelines | Statewide OH | Statewide WV | Triad Hunter | West Virginia

Magnum Hunter’s Pipeline System Boosts Volumes in OH/WV
September 26, 2014September 26, 2014

A second announcement from Magnum Hunter over the past two days is not nearly as important as the first–but interesting nonetheless. Magnum Hunter announced yesterday that Eureka Hunter–Magnum’s pipeline gathering subsidiary–has bumped up the volume of gas flowing through the system to an average 316,500 million Btus per day, or roughly 307 million cubic feet (Mmcf) per day. Fully one-third of the gas flowing through the system, which is located in West Virginia and Ohio, comes from another Magnum Hunter subsidiary–Triad Hunter. Lot’s of “Hunters” out there. 😉 Here’s the announcement of the increasing volumes flowing through Eureka Hunter’s pipelines these days…
Read More “Magnum Hunter’s Pipeline System Boosts Volumes in OH/WV”
Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Taxation

Former Gov. Tom Ridge Predicts PA Will Get Severance Tax
September 26, 2014September 26, 2014

Although we have a run-down on the news coming from the Shale Insight conference in today’s lineup (see Shale Insight News – Roundup of Who Said What), there is one bit of news that to us, towers above the rest. Former PA Gov. Tom Ridge was always a bit squishy back in the day–not truly a conservative. But an OK guy and an able governor. He’s a very important figure in Pennsylvania politics, even today. Ridge was, as you may recall, the very first Secretary of Homeland Security under George W. Bush following the 9/11 Islamic terrorist attack on this country. At yesterday’s closing session, Ridge said he believes Pennsylvania will adopt a severance tax, which is a very bad sign in our opinion…
Read More “Former Gov. Tom Ridge Predicts PA Will Get Severance Tax”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Public Opinion | Statewide PA

MSC Launches Major PR Campaign to Change Public View of Fracking
September 26, 2014September 26, 2014

Channeling in our inner Martha Stewart: “Fracking is a good thing.” One of the announcements made at this year’s Shale Insight event was from the host Marcellus Shale Coalition. They have just launched a major public relations campaign to change the word “fracking” from having negative connotations to having positive vibes. The campaign is called Fracking: Rock Solid for PA and sports three commercials that will be aired in media markets across the state. The advertisements will encourage people to type in the web address rocksolidfacts.com, a vanity URL that then forwards them to the MSC’s United Shale Associations website at this address: //unitedshaleadvocates.com/rocksolidfacts/. On that page visitors can watch a 3-minute video that shares the real facts about fracking in Pennsylvania…
Read More “MSC Launches Major PR Campaign to Change Public View of Fracking”
Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | MarkWest Energy | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Washington County

Fines Total $151K for 2 Incidents at MarkWest Chartiers, PA Plant
September 26, 2014September 26, 2014

MarkWest continues to feel the effects of problems they’ve experienced at the company’s Houston Gas Processing Plant in Chartiers Township (Washington County), PA. MarkWest had expanded the plant–doubling its operations. When new equipment went online in July, things didn’t go as planned and there was emergency flaring–burning of gas–at the plant (see Smoke at MarkWest Chartiers, PA Gas Processing Plant). It wasn’t long before the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) started handing out violation notices (see MarkWest Served Violation Notice for Chartiers Processing Plant). The company had a previous $71,000 fine for improper flaring at the plant stemming from incidents in April of this year. With the July incident, another $80,000 fine was assessed, totaling $151,000 in fines for the plant in the past six months…
Read More “Fines Total $151K for 2 Incidents at MarkWest Chartiers, PA Plant”
Energy Companies | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Lycoming County | NFG Midstream | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation

PA DEP Fines NFG Midstream $250K for Pipeline Violations
September 26, 2014September 26, 2014

The PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) has just slapped NFG Midstream Trout Run LLC $250,000 for pipeline violations in Lycoming County, PA. NFG Midstream is a subsidiary company of National Fuel Group–the big utility and driller (via their subsidiary Seneca Resources) headquartered in Buffalo, NY. The fine is for “multiple violations” of the Clean Streams Law and DEP regulations during construction of the Trout Run Gathering System pipeline in five Lycoming County municipalities during 2011 and 2012. The DEP documented “continuing violations at multiple locations” over a 7-month period. NFG has already paid the fine…
Read More “PA DEP Fines NFG Midstream $250K for Pipeline Violations”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation | Statewide VA | Virginia

Sierra Clubbers Call on Virginia to Not Frack Until More “Study”
September 26, 2014September 26, 2014

Must be anti-drillers all use the same playbook. Maybe they all read Saul Alinsky’s book “Rules for Radicals” (Saul Alinksy is the same guy who heavily influenced Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton). The anti-drilling playbook goes like this: When you think fracking may actually, finally start to happen, call for more studies to ensure it’s “safe.” New York has done this to get effect–so other locales think they can borrow the same tactic. The corollary is: If drilling is already happening, say it’s unsafe and should be suspended pending further studies. Study study study. That’s the mantra. Even though there have already been plenty of studies and mountains of data and proof that fracking is safe. All you have to do, if you’re a radical environmental group, is issue a press release and call for a study to plant the seed that the industry is hiding something. So it was no surprise to learn that the Virginia Sierra Club wants (surprise!) a study before shale drilling is allowed in the Old Dominion…
Read More “Sierra Clubbers Call on Virginia to Not Frack Until More “Study””
Education | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide PA | Supply Chain

GE Donates $10M to Fund New Penn State Shale Gas Center
September 26, 2014September 26, 2014

Earlier this week Penn State announced they are receiving a grant/investment from GE to the tune of $10 million to study and improve natural gas supply chains and systems. Penn State’s Center for Collaborative Research on Intelligent Natural Gas Supply Systems at Penn State (CCRINGSS) will, according to the announcement, have “researchers and students from many disciplines in collaborative work with various industry stakeholders. The center will seek to advance efficiency and environmental sustainability both through technological innovations and improved supply chain management.” The money GE is giving to Penn State for the CCRINGSS will be used for research projects, buying equipment and funding undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral fellowships. More from the announcement…
Read More “GE Donates $10M to Fund New Penn State Shale Gas Center”
Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide PA | Wastewater

Stanford Study Tells Us What We Knew 3 Years Ago About Wastewater
September 24, 2014September 24, 2014

A new research study from Stanford University titled “Enhanced Formation of Disinfection By-Products in Shale Gas Wastewater-Impacted Drinking Water Supplies” proves what we already knew more than three years ago: When you send frack wastewater untreated, or lightly treated, to a municipal sewage treatment plant–the plant can’t get the residual water clean enough to not cause problems down river. Back in 2011, then-PA DEP Sec. Michael Krancer ended the practice of municipal treatment plants without special equipment from processing frack wastewater (see PA DEP, Marcellus Shale Coalition Admit Drilling Wastewater Likely Contaminating Drinking Water). Not long after it was shown that bromide levels–one of the hazards of treating frack wastewater with chlorine–had fallen after the ban (see Marcellus Wastewater Ban Leads to Lower Bromide in PA Rivers). Here we are three years later and a new study says the same thing…
Read More “Stanford Study Tells Us What We Knew 3 Years Ago About Wastewater”
Cardinal Gas Services | Energy Companies | Energy Services | EV Energy Partners | Industrywide Issues | M&A | Ohio | Pipelines | Statewide OH | Total | Utica Shale

Total, EVEP Sell Interest in Cardinal Midstream to S Koreans for $612M
September 24, 2014September 24, 2014

In August MDN told you that a pair of Korean companies were sniffing around Cardinal Midstream Services–looking to buy up to a 34% stake in the company (see Cardinal Gas Courts S Koreans to Invest in Utica JV). Cardinal is a midstream operator (pipelines and processing plants) in the Utica Shale. The Koreans are sniffing no more. Yesterday, one of the investor/owners of Cardinal, French oil giant Total, announced they’re selling their 25% stake in the company to two Korean companies…
Read More “Total, EVEP Sell Interest in Cardinal Midstream to S Koreans for $612M”
Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Regulation | Research

GAO Report Recommends Feds Start Regulating Gathering Pipelines
September 24, 2014September 24, 2014

Instead of “planes, trains and automobiles” it was “trains, trucks, barges and pipelines” in a report just released by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). The report, prepared for Congress and delivered to them in August but only publicly released two days ago, is titled “OIL AND GAS TRANSPORTATION: Department of Transportation Is Taking Actions to Address Rail Safety, but Additional Actions Are Needed to Improve Pipeline Safety” (full copy below). In the report, the GAO, along with the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), recommends the feds get involved with regulating gathering pipelines–the low pressure pipelines that connect directly to the well. Those pipelines have historically been regulated by the states themselves…
Read More “GAO Report Recommends Feds Start Regulating Gathering Pipelines”
Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Regulation | Statewide OH

Final Comments Due on Ohio’s Revised Well Pad Construction Rules
September 24, 2014September 24, 2014

The Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) recently posted revisions to their well pad construction rules. The revised rules (full copy below) now go through a comment period that ends on October 6th. This is a process that started back in February…
Read More “Final Comments Due on Ohio’s Revised Well Pad Construction Rules”
Industrywide Issues | Residual/Recovery

Torrent Energy Gets Investment to Fund Residual Gas Capture Tech
September 24, 2014September 24, 2014

Torrent Energy Services leases and operates big mechanical refrigeration units used by Utica drillers and pipeline companies in the field–mobile units–that captures and cools natural gas and gas liquids that would otherwise be lost to flaring or as emissions into the air. The technology captures the gas, mostly methane and ethane, so it can be used to power equipment in the field. The one thing Torrent needs more of is money. So CSL Capital Management is investing in the company, providing “growth capital to accelerate its business plan.” The amount of the investment by CSL was not disclosed in an announcement made yesterday…
Read More “Torrent Energy Gets Investment to Fund Residual Gas Capture Tech”