Marcellus/Utica Ethane Exports Head to Europe, Asia, S. America

The Marcellus/Utica region has far more ethane production than we can use–even if the mighty Shell and PTT cracker plants were both in-service and operating. In fact, ethane is still (for many M-U drillers) a waste product that must be blended with natural gas or otherwise disposed of. Drillers are paying to get rid of ethane! Exporting ethane is an important way for M-U drillers to, in some cases, break even and make a profit.
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You know anti-fossil fuelers are getting desperate when they make silly claims like a clean-burning natural gas power plant on the Hudson River (Orange County, NY) is killing crows and trees. One well known anti claims she witnessed the “sudden death” of 200 crows. And the trees in her backyard are “collapsing.” It’s all supposedly because of a nearby state-of-the-art power plant.
We love to hear about companies born in the Marcellus/Utica grow up and expand to other regions. One such company is Deep Well Services, which expanded from our region into the Permian, and now, to another country (see
Score a minor victory for the forces of evil. As we reported yesterday, two days ago Enbridge’s Weymouth, Massachusetts compressor station, about to come online, experienced a second emergency shutdown (see
Another week of double-digit gains in the Enverus rig count! The US oil and gas rig count jumped 18 to 326 in the week ended Sept. 30, according to a Platts report evaluating Enverus numbers. Last week the rig count was up by 15 (see 
Evolution Well Services, headquartered in Houston with a regional office in Pittsburgh, specializes in “electric” fracking–using natural gas from the well pad (instead of diesel fuel) to power turbines to create electricity that drives fracking pumps. Evolution fracks for at least one Marcellus/Utica E&P (see
Competitive Power Ventures’ (CPV) Fairview Energy Center, a 1,050-megawatt natural gas AND ethane-fueled combined-cycle electric generating plant in Cambria County, PA, went online ahead of schedule back in December (see 
A few weeks ago Enbridge began testing its Weymouth, Massachusetts compressor station project, the final piece of the company’s $452 million Atlantic Bridge expansion project. As sometimes happens when you begin testing, there was a problem. A gasket failure led to an unplanned release of 265 Mcf of gas (see
In February MDN brought you news about a new half-billion-dollar petrochemical plant that will convert Marcellus Shale gas into feedstock (chemicals) to be used in agriculture, manufacturing, medicine, and transportation, coming in Clinton County, PA (see
In July Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf signed into law House Bill (HB) 732, a bill that will grant tax breaks to companies willing to build brand new petrochemical plants in the Keystone State–plants that use huge quantities of Marcellus Shale gas (see
In July Dominion Energy announced it is throwing in the towel and canceling the 600-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) project that would have stretched from West Virginia to North Carolina. The company also announced it is selling its pipeline business to Warren Buffett (see
Equitrans Midstream, which used to be part of EQT as EQT Midstream, is still EQT’s main squeeze when it comes to gathering pipelines connected to its wells. The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) announced yesterday it has fined Equitrans $427,650 for “slips, stabilization, and erosion and sedimentation violations at pipeline sites in Greene, Washington and Westmoreland counties.”
Pieridae Energy’s Goldboro LNG project, located in Nova Scotia (with the potential to export Marcellus/Utica molecules) has been on our radar for years. In August Pieridae hired a senior VP to run the project (see
Consulting powerhouse Ernst & Young (EY) has just published results from a new survey titled “Oil & Gas Digital Transformation and Workforce Survey.” The survey/study finds “digital transformation” of oil and gas companies is essential to the future of our industry. What, exactly, is “digital transformation”? We’ll tell you.