When people communicate, that’s a good thing. When a shale well “communicates” with nearby conventional wells, that’s a bad thing. And that’s what happened with a CNX Resources Utica well being fracked in Westmoreland County last week.
Read More “CNX Hits Major Problem Fracking Utica Well Near SWPA Reservoir”
A huge crack of sunshine has just shown through the court system with respect to pipeline projects. A case decided on Jan. 25 in the DC Circuit Court of Appeals which technically has nothing to do with either the Williams Constitution Pipeline project nor the National Fuel Gas Company Northern Access Pipeline project (both being blocked by New York State), may be the one court decision to break open the logjam and allow both projects to begin construction.
Read More “Recent Fed Court Decision Gives NY Pipes Hope for Bypassing Cuomo”
Speaking of National Fuel Gas Company’s Northern Access Pipeline project, NFG asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) last November to extend the project timeline by an extra three years, to give them more time to fight with Cuomo in court and actually get the pipeline built once lawsuits from the state are exhausted (see NFG Asks FERC for Extra 3 Yrs to Build Northern Access Pipe in NY). Last Thursday FERC granted that request.
Read More “Northern Access Pipe Gets 3-Year Extension to Build in NY”
In November, Dominion Energy said that their 600-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) would be delayed, with a partial startup in 2019 and full startup for everything else in mid-2020 (see Dominion Energy 3Q18: Atlantic Coast Pipeline Delayed to 2020). The company also said the price tag had gone up from $6.5 to $7 billion. Strike all that. Last week Dominion said the startup will now be even later, and the cost even more.
Read More “Dominion Delays Atlantic Coast Pipeline Again – 2018 Update”
The Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry (PA Chamber) recently filed a brief in Commonwealth Court opposing THE Delaware Riverkeeper in a case that still has us angry and baffled. The case brought by Riverkeeper is clear across the state, hundreds of miles from the Delaware River Basin where Riverkeeper supposedly operates, and attempts to force a local municipality to adopt zoning ordinances it doesn’t want to adopt. And it involves Martians.
Read More “PA Chamber Files Brief in Martian School Court Case”
Last week a pipeline at a single Michigan compressor station caught fire and exploded (see Michigan NatGas Compressor Station Catches Fire, Explodes). That single compressor (single point of failure, as it turns out) is responsible for pumping natgas to two-thirds of Michigan residents, including all those big automobile assembly plants Michigan is famous for.
Read More “MI NatGas Compressor Stn Fire Leads to GM, Ford Plant Closures”
Yes, we told you so. We told you that if our friends in PA were to unwisely reelect Tom Wolf for a second (and thankfully final) term as governor, he would continue to fight for a Marcellus-killing severance tax each and every year of his ignominious second term. Democrats (and some Republicans) just can’t keep their hands off other people’s money–it’s in their DNA.
Read More “PA Gov. Wolf Launches Severance Tax Fight 5th Year in a Row”
How the voters of northeast Pennsylvania who support shale energy continue to reelect Gene Yaw as their State Senator is beyond us. He’s proven in the past that he will fold like a cheap suit on the issue of a severance tax. He did so once again yesterday, implying he supports Democrat Gov. Wolf’s latest effort to tax the shale industry into oblivion.
Read More “PA Sen. Gene Yaw, in Heart of Marcellus, Supports Severance Tax”
In November the Pennsylvania Supreme Court agreed to hear a case, Briggs v. Southwestern Energy, that is hands-down the most important court case to ever happen regarding the Marcellus Shale in PA. And no, we’re not exaggerating. A blizzard of briefs by Southwestern and those supporting Southwestern were filed earlier this week.
Read More ““Rule of Capture” Briefs Filed w/PA Supreme Court in Briggs Case”
Tallgrass Energy, builder and operator of the mighty Rockies Express (REX) pipeline which is a critical link that flows Marcellus/Utica gas to Midwestern markets, dropped a bombshell announcement yesterday. The company said that investment firm Blackstone is buying a “controlling” interest in the company. Which raises the question, will Blackstone indeed “control” the company?
Read More “Blackstone Buys Controlling Interest in Tallgrass Energy”
The U.S. Energy Information Administration recently published its Annual Energy Outlook for 2019. Among the numbers EIA released are predictions about how much natural gas liquids (NGLs) the U.S. will produce between 2018 and 2050. EIA says production will go up 32% over that period, to 5.8 million barrels per day (b/d). Guess where most of that increase will come?
Read More “EIA Says NGL Production Will Grow Massively in Marcellus/Utica”
Here’s an interesting twist on the theme of drillers shorting leaseholders out of royalty money. Usually such cases involve drillers claiming post-production deductions from landowner royalty checks. This time the landowner/rightsholder is Columbia Gas Transmission (pipeline company owned by midstream giant TransCanada), and the claim is that Southwestern Energy (driller) is not paying royalties for gas produced but not actually sold.
Read More “Columbia Sues Southwestern Energy for Shorting Royalties in WV”
A pipeline compressor station for Consumers Energy (Michigan utility company) experienced an explosion and fire yesterday morning. The facility is located in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan in Macomb County.
Read More “Michigan NatGas Compressor Station Catches Fire, Explodes”
The folks who keep track of these things expect today’s record-cold polar vortex in the Midwest and northeast (coldest temps in more than a generation, hey, what was that about global warming?) will create the highest demand/usage of natural gas for a single day–ever. Prognosticators also predict a “freeze-off” in the Marcellus/Utica, causing a temporary 1 Bcf/d decrease in production.
Read More “All-Time Record NatGas Demand Expected Today; M-U “Freeze-Off”?”
Canadian pipeline giant TransCanada, which owns the Columbia Pipeline system here in the U.S., blames the Marcellus/Utica for a huge drop in volumes flowing through its Canadian Mainline from Western Canada to Ontario and Quebec.
Read More “Lowball Western Canadian Gas Can’t Compete with Marcellus/Utica”
Virginia House of Delegates member Lee Ware, a Republican, has “quietly” introduced a bill in the General Assembly that would block Dominion Energy, builder of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP), from passing along costs related to the pipeline to the electric generating plants and their ratepayers that will use the cheap natural gas made available by the pipeline.
Read More “Va. Bill Would Block Atlantic Coast Pipe from Passing Along Costs”