The Appalachia-to-Texas Express (ATEX) ethane pipeline was completed and began to flow 125,000 barrels per day of Marcellus/Utica ethane to the Gulf Coast in 2013. Enterprise Products Partners, the builder and operator of the pipeline, is now considering upgrades that will expand capacity along the pipeline another 50,000 barrels per day.
Read More “Enterprise Looks to Expand ATEX Ethane Pipeline to Gulf Coast”
The wheels of justice sometimes grind sloooooowly–but they do grind and eventually decisions are made. In 2017, rich, snobbish homeowners in an “upscale” Philadelphia suburb development asked a Pennsylvania appeals court (Commonwealth Court) to stop Sunoco Logistics from building the Mariner East 2 pipeline through the edge of their high-priced development (see Rich Homeowners in Philly Suburb Claim ME2 Work Stirring up Arsenic).
Read More “Yet Another Defeat for ME2 Pipeline Antis in PA Court”
The Mariner East pipeline projects (plural) are an important part of the shale energy story in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia. As is the Marcus Hook Industrial Complex (what we call the Marcus Hook refinery). Currently between Mariner East 1 and 2, somewhere around 170,000 barrels of NGLs (mostly ethane and propane) flow to Marcus Hook and most of that gets exported to other countries. Mariner East 2X is currently under construction and due to come online next year, increasing that number significantly. For many Marcellus/Utica drillers, selling NGLs is the difference between being profitable and not profitable.
Read More “Deep Dive into Future of Mariner East Pipes & Marcus Hook Terminal”
The Independent Oil & Gas Association of West Virginia (IOGAWV) is already hard at work on legislative priorities for next/upcoming session of the WV legislature–which actually does not begin until Jan. 8, 2020. In WV the full legislature only meets for 60 days each year (other states can learn a lesson). IOGAWV is planning both a defensive (protect what we have) and offensive (new initiatives) strategy for next year. What’s on the list?
Read More “WV Shale Industry Gets Ready for Next Legislative Session”
To his credit (we don’t often heap praise on him), Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf toured a Mariner East 2 pipeline construction site in Chester County near Philadelphia last Thursday, along with some Democrat politicians, and told anti-pipeline residents “NO” to their faces when they asked him to shut down the Mariner East pipeline system. He was polite, but firm, telling them he disagrees with their position of the need to permanently shut down the Mariner pipelines. “Do a better job” with construction and impacts from the project? Sure, according to Wolf. Shut it all down permanently? NO.
Read More “PA Gov. Wolf Meets Mariner East Antis F2F, Won’t Shut Down Pipes”
Last October NEXUS Pipeline, a $2.6 billion, 255-mile interstate pipeline that runs from Ohio to Michigan, received permission from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to begin partial operation (see Yes! NEXUS Pipeline OK’d by FERC to Begin Service). It wasn’t long before the entire pipeline began to flow a full 1.5 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of Utica Shale gas to Michigan, and from there on to Sarnia, Ontario. Although the pipeline has been online for less than a year, Enbridge (the builder) is about to replace a half-mile segment of it in the City of Green–which has local residents hopping mad.
Read More “NEXUS Pipe Replacing Section in Green, OH < 1 Yr After Startup"
Last Wednesday MDN brought you the news that CNX Resources had laid off some 50 employees, with rumors circulating that more layoffs were coming (see CNX Resources Lays Off 10% of Total Workforce – More Cuts Coming?). Looks like the rumors were right. The company let go another 20 people late last week, making the new total 70 out of work–some 14% of the CNX workforce.
Read More “CNX Resources Lays Off Another 20 Workers – 14% Now Gone”
Can it be possible that the shale industry and anti-shale environmentalists (those who irrationally espouse the end of using all fossil fuels) can actually agree on something? Turns out, we can! The something we agree on is opposition to PA Gov. Tom Wolf’s plan to tax a single industry, shale drilling, $4.5 billion in order to use that money for Big Government programs.
Read More “Wolf’s PA Severance Tax Now Much Less Likely – Enviros Oppose”
How dumb must you be to not understand that if there’s not enough gas supply, you can’t hook up new customers to the distribution grid? Yet some New York City legislators, 17 of them, are vilifying National Grid, one of NYC’s two main natural gas utilities, because National Grid continues to deny new customers who want gas service to be hooked up. It’s clearly Andrew Cuomo’s fault–he denied permission to build a pipeline to bring new supplies of gas to the region. Yet the legislators close ranks for this putz and blame the company that can’t get those new supplies. Some of these same legislators OPPOSE the pipeline! Yet they want more natgas. What kind of mental gymnastics does that require?
Read More “NYC Dems Blame National Grid Instead of Cuomo for Gas Mortatorium”
Here’s some exciting news. A Canadian-based company, Ainsworth Energy, is planning to build a C$1.9 billion (US$1.4 billion) gas-to-liquids (GTL) plant in Sarnia, Ontario. The plant will convert natgas into methanol, then convert the methanol into gasoline. Since Marcellus/Utica molecules flow all the way to Sarnia via the NEXUS and Rover pipelines, we think there’s a good chance our gas will help feed this plant.
Read More “Will New GTL Plant in Sarnia, Canada Use M-U Molecules?”
Yesterday the PA Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) released their latest quarterly Natural Gas Production Report for April through June 2019 (full copy below). It shows natgas production rose 14.5% compared to the same period last year–to yet another new all-time high of 1,667 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of natural gas. Put another way, that’s 1.7 TRILLION cubic feet of gas produced over a three-month period. There has now been an unbroken chain of quarter-over-quarter increases in horizontal shale gas production in PA for twelve consecutive quarters (three years running).
Read More “IFO: PA Natural Gas Production Hits New All-Time High in 2Q19”
In May, Columbia Gas Transmission was forced to haul the State of Maryland into court over the state’s refusal to grant an easement to drill a tiny 3.5-mile pipeline under the Potomac River (see Columbia Gas Sues Maryland to Allow Pipeline Under Potomac). In June, Maryland’s anti-fossil fuel Attorney General, Brian Frosh, asked a federal court to dismiss the lawsuit (see Maryland Asks Fed Court to Dismiss Lawsuit Questioning Pipe Rejection). Yesterday a liberal judge with the U.S. District Court in Baltimore sided with Frosh, sadly.
Read More “Fed Judge Upholds Maryland Decision to Block Pipe Under Potomac”
Last September MDN brought you news that six men had been charged with conspiring to illegally alter emission systems on 30+ trucks with heavy-duty diesel engines used to haul water and wastewater to and from Marcellus Shale wells (see 6 Charged with Bypassing Emissions Controls on Marcellus Trucks). The sixth and final man charged plead guilty yesterday in U.S. Middle District Court in Pennsylvania.
Read More “Man Pleads Guilty to Bypassing Emissions Controls on Marc. Trucks”
We should have seen this one coming (but didn’t). Yesterday MDN told you that the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) had revoked the right of the Beaver County Conservation District (BCCD) to issue and monitor permits for erosion and sediment control, two permits used in building both pipelines and drill pads (see PA DEP Revokes Beaver County Right to Issue Pipe, Drilling Permits). Antis are now screaming for the DEP to suspend all pipeline work in the county for six months in order to review previously issued permits by BCCD.
Read More “Antis Want Pipeline Work in Beaver County Stopped for 6 Months”
Two weeks ago MDN told you about an incident near Philadelphia in which the flare stack at a Mariner East 2 (ME2) pipeline pump station ignited causing a loud noise, which we likened to flatulence (see PA Antis Trying to Turn ME2 Pipeline Fart into an “Explosion”). We caught he!! on social media for using that reference (hit a real nerve). Here’s the conclusion of that little episode of pipeline flatulence…
Read More “PA PUC Closes Investigation of ME2 Pipeline Fart Near Philly”
In 2006 the Pennsylvania State Legislature passed a bill (signed into law) that protects certain information about pipelines from being divulged via open records requests. It’s all too easy for terrorists (foreign or domestic) to use that information to inflict pain and suffering, even death–or to stop the flows along those pipelines. Good law, good call. But now several PA House members from the Philadelphia area want to pass a new law that would repeal the 2006 law–all in the name of pipeline “transparency.”
Read More “PA PUC Cautions Lawmakers Against Sharing Too Much Pipe Info”