Bradford County | Energy Services | Eureka Resources | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Wastewater
Marcellus Wastewater Plant in PA Gets Ready to Extract Lithium
In March, MDN brought you the news that Eureka Resources, which owns and operates three centralized treatment/recycling facilities that process flowback/produced waters (i.e. wastewater) from the Marcellus Shale, announced a joint venture with MGX Minerals to use MGX’s high tech solution to recover lithium from Marcellus wastewater (see Eureka to Extract Lithium from Marcellus/Utica Wastewater). As of yesterday, MGX’s equipment arrived on site in Bradford County, PA.
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Although we haven’t (yet) had the pleasure of a tour at the massive Shell ethane cracker plant complex in Beaver County, PA (near Pittsburgh), we’ve spoken to others who have. Universally they say it is a marvel to behold. The world’s second largest crane, dubbed “the Mother of All Cranes” is on site, along with about 100 other cranes (no lie, at least 100 cranes). The site is teeming with thousands (yes thousands) of construction workers–some 5,000 right now, and will reach 6,000 by year’s end. But we’ve turned a corner. According to officials, most of the large structures have now been built and the work is shifting to connect them all. Come along with us for a video tour of the facility.
We recently received a press release from IHS Markit, a major analytics company that tracks data in the oil and gas industry. They have a new report that says (sit down please, we’re talking to you MDN reader)…the average price for natural gas over the course of 2020 at the Henry Hub (the NYMEX traded price) will average less than $2 per thousand cubic feet (Mcf). In other words, get ready, the bottom is about to fall out of the market for the price of gas once again. And it’s going to be far worse than a few years go. The last time the price was lower than $2/Mcf on average was in 1995–nearly 25 years ago!
West Virginia shale producers pay a 5% severance tax on all natural gas produced–you knew that, right? And in 2018 WV’s oil and gas producers (mostly shale) paid $138 million in severance taxes (see 
The town of East Goshen, in Chester County, PA (near Philadelphia) has a noise ordinance in place from 10 pm to 7 am. Sunoco Logisitics, working on installing a section of the Mariner East 2 pipeline through the township, requested an exemption to allow them to work all night long. Their argument is that once you start pulling pipe through the hole you’ve just drilled, you can’t just stop. Last week the town supervisors voted against granting the exception. Shhh, quiet after 10.
The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) recently pulled together a report (“findings”) that were circulated to Congress, making the case for a large-scale natural gas liquids (NGL) storage and trading hub in the Marcellus/Utica region. No doubt this report was a response to moves by the radical left to prevent such a hub from receiving any kind of federal loan guarantees.
Consolidated Edison (Con Ed), the electric and natural gas utility that services parts of New York City and to the north of NY, Westchester County, is getting desperate in their bid to locate sites where they can unload CNG (compressed natural gas) trucks into their pipeline network in Westchester County. You may recall Con Ed was the first utility to slap a moratorium on any new natgas customers from hooking up to their supply system in Westchester, back in March (see 
On August 1, Enbridge’s Texas Eastern Pipeline Company (TETCO) pipeline exploded in Lincoln County, Kentucky–killing one and sending six to the hospital (see 
In April, Pennsylvania State Rep. Mike Turzai, Speaker of the House, and a group of conservative Republicans, announced a plan for the future of PA (see 
New York Gov. Andrew “Don Corleone” Cuomo continues his sleazy vendetta against National Grid, the New York City/Long Island gas utility company that is refusing to connect *new* customers to their natural gas system because Cuomo has denied new sources of natural gas for that system. So far NY media is licking Cuomo’s boots on this issue, publishing sob stories that blame National Grid for the hardships now faced in the region. But residents in NYC and Long Island are not fooled. They see what’s really happening.
Tens of thousands of high school students in cities across the U.S. are skipping classes today to attend so-called Global Climate Strike marches. The brainwashed kids are “calling for immediate action to end climate change.” They will be part of a global joint protest, arranged by Big Green groups, purportedly aimed at adults who they say are ignoring the “destruction of the planet.” We suspect some of the kids will take advantage of the day off to go vape somewhere and maybe get a little nookie. Whoops! Did we say that with our out-loud mouth?