Industrywide Issues

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    Pipeline Rage: Anti Hits Flagger with Car in Lancaster Co.

    Daniel Forry

    This is “old” news. An old man (77 years old) got so “riled up” against Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline work happening near him in Lancaster County, PA that in three separate incidents he either engaged in violent acts, or threatened to. It’s old news in the sense that two of the incidents happened in March and one in June. However, the three incidents are just now coming to light. In one case, the crotchety old anti inched his car forward and “tapped” a flagger–someone standing on the roadway to prevent cars from passing and hitting workers who were crossing the road. In another incident, the man attempted to drive around a flagger, actually hitting him. The man’s actions are not only threatening and menacing, they are illegal and violent. What’s to say that next time the old man won’t simply run someone down? According to the District Attorney’s office no one was injured during his bouts of “pipeline rage.” The man has been served with papers to appear in court to answer for his illegal actions. Here’s the kicker. The old man, Daniel K. Forry, is a member of the board of education for the Hempfield School District…
    Read More “Pipeline Rage: Anti Hits Flagger with Car in Lancaster Co.”

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    CNX Resources Fined $250K for PA Pipe Construction Violation

    UPDATE 7/19/18: Aside from stiff fine for letting some muddy water get into a nearby creek, there is a second aspect to this story uncovered by ace reporter Jamison Cocklin at NGI’s Shale Daily: the local gathering pipeline CNX was building (and has now abandoned) in Indiana County was supposed to connect to a test Utica well they are/were drilling there. Abandoning that pipeline puts the future of CNX’s Utica drilling in the area in doubt. See NGI’s story: CNX Cancels Plans for Pipeline to Gather Natural Gas from Deep Utica Test Pad.

    CNX Resources was installing a pipeline in Indiana County, PA and apparently didn’t, according to the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), properly construct erosion barriers for the project. It rained, hard, and sediment-laden water went over the erosion barriers and got into an unnamed stream, which empties into Mudlick Run, a “high quality water” creek. In other words, a tiny creek got muddy, and some of that muddy water *may have* entered a slightly bigger creek. And for that violation, CNX is going to pay a whopping $250,000 fine. The DEP says following an inspection in March, the DEP ordered CNX to fix the problem by April 3, but as of May 16 the problem had still not been fixed. CNX disputes that they violated their permits and has told the DEP they’ve quit building that particular pipeline. In order to make it all go away, CNX is paying the DEP a $250K negotiated shakedown, PLUS pay to fix the “problem”…
    Read More “CNX Resources Fined $250K for PA Pipe Construction Violation”

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    Duke Energy Plans 1 Bcf LNG Plant in NC Fed by Marc/Utica Gas

    Robeson LNG facility location – click for larger version

    Some exciting news from Piedmont Natural Gas, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Duke Energy. The company recently announced it plans to spend $250 million to build a 1 billion cubic feet LNG storage facility in southern North Carolina, in Robeson County. Gas is liquefied and stored as backup for residential customers to use during periods of high demand–mainly wintertime. And guess which pipeline (now under construction) will terminate right there, in Robeson County? That’s right, the Atlantic Coast Pipeline–a joint venture between Dominion Energy and Duke Energy. The new LNG facility will also be able to use gas from a second pipeline in the county–Williams’ Transco. The Transco pipeline flows Marcellus gas all the way from northeastern PA. Translation: Marcellus/Utica gas will feed the 1 Bcf LNG plant, an important new (big) customer for our our natural gas…
    Read More “Duke Energy Plans 1 Bcf LNG Plant in NC Fed by Marc/Utica Gas”

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    Misguided Philly Moms Arrested for Illegal ME2 Pipeline Protest

    Last week two young mothers, no doubt radicalized by watching Captain Planet cartoons when they were growing up, sat themselves down in front of construction equipment in Middletown, PA (Delaware County, near Philadelphia) in an attempt to block construction of the Mariner East 2 Pipeline. The two, along with a handful of other mothers (and grandmothers) call themselves the “Mama Bear Brigade.” They held a “Teddy Bear Picnic” at the construction site, and sang children’s songs with new non-children lyrics. The “mama bears” have decided our nation’s laws no longer apply to them if they don’t happen to like the law, so they elected to take the law into their own hands. Frankly, they’re just a handful of misguided and misinformed moms who believe the pipeline will explode and kill everyone living in “the blast zone.” What’s funny about the story are the comments. One commenter said this: “Why do liberal losers always give themselves stupid nicknames…Lock them up and build the pipeline!” There were other comments we can’t repeat here since we’re a family-friendly blog. Here’s the story of some misguided moms who believe they’re protecting their kids by breaking the law…
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    $83.7B Chinese Investment in WV Shale & Petchem Still Alive?

    Chinese yuan

    Is China’s $83.7 billion investment in West Virginia’s shale and petrochemical industries, announced last November, on hold or not? In early April, when the current “trade war” with China began to heat up, we said this with respect to the deal China signed to invest $83.7 billion in West Virginia shale and petrochemicals: “However, if a trade war does develop, it would be foolish to not think those investments (withholding them) will be used against us.” (see Will Trade War with China Affect $83.7B Investment in WV Shale?) In June at the Northeast U.S. Petrochemical Construction Conference in Pittsburgh, our fears (and prediction) were confirmed. Chinese officials were due to attend the event and announce the first round of investments in WV. However, Brian Anderson, director of the West Virginia University Energy Institute, said given the trade war now on with China, the officials elected to stay home instead. Anderson said, “The pending trade war has put this project in jeopardy” (see Trade War Puts $83.7 Billion Chinese Investment in WV on Hold). But what’s this? Anderson now appears to have changed his tune. He recently told a reporter, “In terms of the development process, we continue to move forward…We’re even working on the next potential visits by officials and team members, so it’s not just the high-level executives, but development teams.” Hmmm. Which is it? Is the deal in jeopardy or moving forward?…
    Read More “$83.7B Chinese Investment in WV Shale & Petchem Still Alive?”

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    Seneca Lake LPG Storage Project is Now Officially Dead

    Basil Seggos, Commissioner of the New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation (and tool of Andrew Cuomo and Big Green radicals) has officially killed the Seneca Lake LPG storage project planned near Seneca Lake. In May, Crestwood, the project’s sponsor, said the depleted salt cavern that would house the LPG (propane) underground may leak in one small area (see Crestwood Testing Proposed LPG Storage Site @ Seneca Lake for Leaks). That was all the Big Green radicals, including Seggos, needed as an excuse to kill the project. Seggos saw his opening and took it. Last Thursday Seggos issued a 31-page ruling denying the project (copy below). It’s obvious from the length of the report and the stated reasons that he uses, that Seggos had already, long ago, decided to deny the project. He talks about cockamamie, airy fairy things like the project is “inconsistent with the character of the local and regional Finger Lakes community.” Really? As if the salt mining operation that used to be there was consistent with the character of the region? It’s all nonsense. This report was written months ago, before the “leak” issue was known. The fact that one small part of the underground storage caverns (plural) is not airtight was the magic bullet Seggos needed to pull the trigger. And he did. While Crestwood has not yet responded and admitted that the project is dead, we see no way it can now move forward. Hey Schuyler County, how does it feel to kiss a $30 million addition to your tax base goodbye? What’s that? Nobody is left who lives in Schuyler County any more? Guess we know why…
    Read More “Seneca Lake LPG Storage Project is Now Officially Dead”

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    Top 25 Producing Gas & Oil Wells in Ohio Utica for 1Q18

    The Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) issued production numbers yesterday for the first quarter of 2018. Natural gas production was up an astounding 43% over the same period last year. In fact, Utica natgas production hit a new all-time high of 531.3 billion cubic feet (Bcf) in 1Q18. However, Utica oil production was down 3.6% over the same period last year. Ohio’s oil production has seesawed over the past few years. It increased last quarter and the quarter before. But prior to 3Q17, oil production was mostly down. Once again Ascent Resources, founded by the late Aubrey McClendon, dominated the top 25 highest-producing gas wells (17 of the top 25). However, Eclipse Resources grabbed the top slot in 1Q18 with a well in Monroe County that produced an amazing 2.9 Bcf all by itself! Eclipse also (as in the previous quarterly report) grabbed a majority of the top 25 most-producing oil wells, with 13 of 25 wells on the list. The top 4 oil wells were Eclipse wells, all located in Guernsey County. Below we have the ODNR’s high level overview of the numbers, along with MDN’s own exclusive analysis showing: the top 25 producing gas wells, the top 25 producing oil wells, and then the top 25 gas and oil wells as ranked by average production per day. There is a difference. The longer an oil or gas well is online, the less it produces. Newer wells produce more. We show you which wells are not just producing the most quantity overall, but which wells are producing at the fastest (most productive) rates–even if those wells haven’t yet been online a full three months. We also include a link to the complete list (Google Spreadsheet) of 1,949 wells included in the 1Q18 ODNR report, in a more useful format than that provided by ODNR…
    Read More “Top 25 Producing Gas & Oil Wells in Ohio Utica for 1Q18”

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    Accident: CNG “Virtual Pipeline” Truck Rolls Over in Upstate NY

    One of the arguments/concerns used to defeat a facility near Binghamton, NY that would fill trucks transporting CNG to large customers not lucky enough to be located close to a natgas pipeline is that the trucks used to haul the CNG are “bomb trucks.” Just waiting to explode if they should be in an accident. And you know that sooner or later there will be an accident. NG Advantage had big plans to build a virtual pipeline (gas compression & trucking facility) on the outskirts of Binghamton, in the Town of Fenton. The facility would use gas from the Millennium Pipeline to fill trailers outfitted with a series of CNG canisters. We sat through several information sessions where the safety of those trailers was explained. We looked at one of the rigs, up close and personal. We recall one woman from Hillcrest screeching “It’s so BIG!” upon seeing the tractor trailer–which is much shorter than a standard tractor trailer rig. We heard NG explain that if a truck should be so unfortunate to be in an accident, the safety design would automatically release the gas, which dissipates into the atmosphere immediately–making an explosion or fire extremely unlikely. But facts make no difference in a heated, emotional debate. NG isn’t the only company attempting to service businesses in Upstate with CNG, to compensate for Cuomo’s ban on safe pipelines. Another company, Xpress Natural Gas (XNG), has a virtual pipeline operation based just south of Binghamton in Susquehanna County, PA. Things are so much easier in PA (sigh). An XNG truck was traveling through Otsego County, NY, when the truck overturned on a rural roadway. We thought, this is it. Major explosion, right? Scorched earth everywhere. Ball of fire. Driver burned to a cinder. But no, none of that happened. In fact, NOTHING HAPPENED. The truck overturned, and there it sat until it was pulled back upright again. Perfectly safe, as designed. Which illustrates and exposes the lies so often spread about virtual pipeline operations…
    Read More “Accident: CNG “Virtual Pipeline” Truck Rolls Over in Upstate NY”

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    Columbia Says Landslide Caused Leach XPress Explosion/Fire in WV

    TransCanada’s Leach XPress is a 160-mile natural gas pipeline (and compression facilities) located in southeastern Ohio and West Virginia’s northern panhandle. Leach XPress flows 1.5 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of gas all the way to Leach, Kentucky–hence the name. The pipeline went online January 1st, and a section of it exploded and burst into flames on June 7 (see Leach Xpress Pipeline Explodes in Marshall County, WV). TransCanada (their Columbia Gas Transmission subsidiary) is working hard to get the pipeline back online by “mid-July” (see Exploded Leach XPress Pipe Won’t be Online Until Mid-July). What caused the explosion? That’s been the burning question (no pun intended) since it happened. A stray comment we spotted seemed to indicate it may have been a faulty welding job. But apparently such is not the case. Columbia has told federal regulators that a landslide is the cause of the leak and explosion…
    Read More “Columbia Says Landslide Caused Leach XPress Explosion/Fire in WV”

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    Crestwood’s Seneca Lake, NY LPG Storage Facility Effectively Dead

    How LPG storage works – click for larger version

    One by one the nails have been driven into the coffin of a much-needed project in Upstate New York to store LPG–liquefied petroleum gas (i.e. propane). In 2009 Inergy filed a request to convert a depleted salt cavern along the shore of Seneca Lake (in Schuyler County, NY, near Watkins Glen) into a propane/natural gas storage facility. Inergy was later bought by and merged into Crestwood Midstream, and Crestwood Midstream later renamed to Crestwood Equity Partners. The New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has been sitting on its hands from the beginning, refusing to grant the necessary permits to allow the facility to open. We won’t recount all of the ins and outs, ups and downs, of this project (most of them legal). You can read our previous stories here. The one thing the Seneca Lake LGP project has always had going for it, the spark and glimmer of hope, is strong local support from the Schuyler County Legislature. That is, until now. In a unanimous vote Monday night, the legislature voted to rescind its support for the project. It’s not the final nail in the coffin, but we’d call it the next-to-final nail…
    Read More “Crestwood’s Seneca Lake, NY LPG Storage Facility Effectively Dead”

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    Columbus Radical Admits Frack Ban Ballot Measure Not Legal

    Just a few days ago we told you about a group of anti-fossil fuel nutters, backed by the Big Green group CELDF, making yet another run at an illegal frack ban in Columbus, OH (see CELDF Finds New Group of Suckers in Columbus for Utica Frack Ban). Columbus, with a population of 2,078,725 people, found 12,134 suckers (1/2 of 1% of the entire population) to sign a petition to get a so-called Community Bill of Rights on the ballot in November. As we previously pointed out, this initiative is illegal. State law specifically reserves the right to regulate oil and gas activity at the state level–local towns, cities, etc. don’t have the staff or expertise to regulate such activities. In a new article, one of the main agitators behind the ballot measure admits the so-called Community Bill of Rights is likely illegal. But that doesn’t matter to him: “[T]he initiative is still worth pursuing because it brings attention to what he believes is the unfairness of cities not having a say in oil and gas drilling.” So the antis know it’s illegal, it will never stand, but they want taxpayers to have to burn money and time to challenge it anyway. Just because they don’t like fossil fuels and activities to extract them. How do you even have a conversation with someone who is totally irrational?…
    Read More “Columbus Radical Admits Frack Ban Ballot Measure Not Legal”

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    Trump Rips into Germany re Russian NatGas Pipe at NATO Meeting

    Trump at NATO breakfast – credit: CNN

    At first blush this story, which is an international story in the news yesterday and today, may not seem to have a tie-in with the Marcellus/Utica. But it does, very much so. President Trump, in addressing a NATO meeting yesterday in Brussels, Belgium, delivered a blistering verbal attack against Germany. He told those assembled that (1) the U.S. is done being the Europe’s piggy bank, we pay the lion’s share of the NATO budget to defend Europe against Russian aggression, and yet (2) Germany, whose defense bills we’ve been paying for, for more than a generation, insists on building a natural gas pipeline (the Nord Stream 2) that will further enrich Russia and make all of Europe virtual slaves to Russia via natural gas supplies. What’s wrong with this picture?! We’re paying to protect Europe from Russia, and they turn around and spit in our faces by deeply embedding Russia into their own economic futures. Enough. What’s worse is that a former German Chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, is a senior official in Russia’s state controlled energy companies Gazprom and Rosneft that will build the pipeline. He is enriching HIMSELF. It is totally disgusting. Trump told current German Chancellor Angela Merkle, ENOUGH! We will not stand for it. The not-so-subtle threat made by Trump at the NATO meeting is that if Germany persists in building the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, NATO can forget about our money to protect them. They will have to pay their own bills from now on. It’s about time somebody told Europe if they would rather get into bed with Russia rather than us, fine. You go right ahead. You’ll loose our $upport. How does all this relate to the Marcellus/Utica? Via our LNG exports to Europe…
    Read More “Trump Rips into Germany re Russian NatGas Pipe at NATO Meeting”

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    Where is Production Increasing (& Decreasing) in Marcellus/Utica?

    Natural gas production in the U.S. has rocketed skyward in just the past few weeks. According to the experts at RBN Energy, “the abruptness and sheer strength with which production has surged” has “taken the market by surprise.” Gas production rose in every region of the country, but it rocketed in one region in particular. Yep, in the Marcellus/Utica. When you look at how much our region was producing on June 7, and then again on June 28, the difference in just those three weeks is astonishing. Production of natgas soared and was 600 million cubic feet per day higher on June 28 than three weeks prior. Amazing! But production did not increase in every area of the Marcellus/Utica region. In one area, production decreased. Below you’ll find out where production went up, and where it went down in the M-U in June…
    Read More “Where is Production Increasing (& Decreasing) in Marcellus/Utica?”

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    MVP Construction in Virginia Resumes – Who Pays for Pipe Police?

    Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) voluntarily stopped construction along the pipeline in Virginia on June 29, following heavy rains that resulted in erosion and runoff from the pipe’s pathway (see Mountain Valley Pipe Voluntarily Shuts Down Construction in Va.). At that time, an MVP spokesperson said: “There is no specific timeline for the suspension, however, as soon as upgrades are completed and approved by DEQ, construction can resume.” A week later, on July 6, the DEQ (Virginia Dept. of Environmental Quality) identified two locations where MVP could resume construction. A few days later that number rose to five locations. Work is once again progressing nicely. Of course anti-fossil fuel ninny nannies are carping that the shutdown wasn’t long enough. Some of the complainers promoted (and possibly engaged in) illegal protest activities to try and defeat the project. Which leads us to a second bit of news about MVP. Roanoke and Franklin counties want MVP to pay them back for the cost of police activities required because of the ninny nanny illegal protesters. That’s right! The two counties want to send MVP a bill because protesters engaged in illegal activities that required a police presence. We find their request bass ackwards. The counties should be going after the protesters who broke the law–and the Big Green groups that backed them and agitated them and supported them in their efforts to break the law. That’s who should pay! Not MVP. MVP is performing a legal, publicly beneficial service by building the pipeline. Why should MVP pay for police protection from malcontents and lawbreakers?…
    Read More “MVP Construction in Virginia Resumes – Who Pays for Pipe Police?”

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    Rex Energy Settled Butler County Water Lawsuits for $159K

    Beginning in 2012, MDN reported on the story of a community in western Pennsylvania (in Butler County) whose residents said that nearby drilling by Rex Energy led to contamination of their water wells (see PA Residents Weary of Fight with Rex over Water Contamination and Rex Energy Water Contamination Case Shifts Focus to Water Pipeline). Several of the families sued Rex. The PA Dept. of Environmental Protection, after an extensive investigation, said that Rex’s drilling did not cause the situation. Apparently water quality in the area was never the greatest to begin with. Rex had built a water line in the area to supply water for fracking and had expected to turn over control/ownership of that line in 2013. That water line could be used to supply fresh water to the affected homes. The debate has been: Who will pay to hook up the homes and to maintain the pipes and infrastructure required? Since Rex, according to the DEP, is not to blame for the poor water quality in the area, the company understandably doesn’t want to pay big bucks to connect and maintain the line to residences in the area. As far as we can tell, the water line never got hooked up. However, there has been a resolution of the situation, of sorts. What had been sealed court documents (unsealed because of Rex’s bankruptcy proceedings) show that in April of this year Rex settled with the suing families, paying them between $16,250 and $27,125 each–a cumulative $159,000. Rex maintains the settlement is not an indication of guilt…
    Read More “Rex Energy Settled Butler County Water Lawsuits for $159K”

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    Big Green Pressures Gov. Wolf to Expand Onerous Methane Regs

    This one was easy to predict, because it follows a tried-and-true pattern used by leftists for decades. PA Gov. Wolf’s Administration has been fiddling with proposed regulations to cut down on fugitive methane emissions from drilling and pipelines for years. The regulations are known as General Permit 5 (GP-5) and General Permit 5A (GP-5A). GP-5 applies to pipelines and compressor stations, while GP-5A applies to well pads and drilling. In June, the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection, author of the revised regs, floated its final final final final version of the regs (see PA DEP Releasing Onerous New GP-5 & 5A Methane Regs June 8). The new regs will go into effect in August. But here’s the thing. These onerous regulations apply only to *new* and not *existing* sources of methane emissions. Now that the revised regs are about to go into effect for new sources, right on cue Big Green groups are pressuring Wolf to apply them to existing sources too. That was, of course, the intention all along–to hamstring (and shut down) the Marcellus industry by saddling it with insanely high costs to comply with regulations that won’t do a thing to “save the planet” from methane poisoning. A classic “bait and switch” routine…
    Read More “Big Green Pressures Gov. Wolf to Expand Onerous Methane Regs”