Industrywide Issues

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    Broken Record: Wolf, Dems & RINOs Float 4% Severance Tax

    Every year it’s the same thing from “America’s most liberal governor,” PA’s Gov. Tom Wolf: propose a severance tax on natural gas production, a tax in addition to the existing impact tax (which is already the equivalent of a severance tax), and demagogue the issue in hopes of shaming/pressuring/bullying Republicans into passing such a tax. When/if such a tax is passed, give every last dime of it to teachers unions in the Philadelphia area–the people who elected Wolf to office. That’s been Wolf’s modus operandi since he assumed office. And it has just happened again, for the fourth time. Wolf, along with two liberal Democrats and two Republicans in Name Only (RINOs, from the Philly area) gathered yesterday to announce new severance bills introduced in both the PA House and Senate that will slap a Marcellus-killing 4% tax on shale production, on top of the existing ~4% impact tax. Here we go again…
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    PA Court Rules ME2 Pipe has Power of Eminent Domain, Period

    One of the ways anti-fossil fuel groups have tried to stop the Mariner East 2 Pipeline project is by tying it up in court. Various lawsuits have been filed going back years (see our list of lawsuit stories here). One litigant, a Big Green group headquartered in Philadelphia, the so-called Clean Air Council, has tried repeatedly to get the courts to deny ME2 the right to use eminent domain in cases where landowners refuse to cooperate (see Clean Air Council’s Strange War Against Mariner East Pipeline). CAC argued that ME2 is not a “public utility” and therefore not entitled to the use of eminent domain. That argument flamed out. They also argued since ME2 crosses a state boundary–into a small part of Ohio–it’s not an intrastate but interstate project and should be subject to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) instead of the PA state Public Utility Commission (PUC). That argument bombed too. CAC then argued ME2 is using a public taking for a private enterprise (not for the public good). Also tossed out. A court case that began in 2015 made its way to the PA Commonwealth Court and yesterday the Commonwealth Court finally shut down the CAC’s long-running lawsuit once and for all, denying their wild claims…
    Read More “PA Court Rules ME2 Pipe has Power of Eminent Domain, Period”

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    ATF Cuts Back on Agents Hunting for Perps Who Stole Dynamite

    As we previously reported, someone(s) stole a bunch of dynamite and the blasting caps (used to ignite the dynamite) on the weekend of April 14-15 from a locked storage trailer sitting at an Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline construction site in Lancaster County, PA (see Dynamite Stolen from Atlantic Sunrise Pipe Site in Lancaster County, PA). The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) immediately swung into action, offering $20,000 for information leading to an arrest and flooding the county with agents (see ATF Doubles Reward re Stolen Dynamite; 40 Agents in Lancaster Co.). Then last week, someone discovered some, perhaps all of the stolen dynamite (see Stolen Dynamite from Atlantic Sunrise Site Discovered in Creek). The ATF has still not found a suspect. They now believe the amount of dynamite recovered was all of it. Some 10 agents are left in the county, working their way through interviewing 900 workers who had access to the site…
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    Atlantic Sunrise Doles Out $264,300 in Grants to Schools, Towns

    Pipeline companies are known for their largess in showering local schools, towns and nonprofit agencies with money for worthy causes. Among those who engage in this civic practice is Williams’ Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline project. Atlantic Sunrise is a $3 billion, 198-mile pipeline project running through 10 Pennsylvania counties to connect Marcellus Shale natural gas from northeastern PA with the Williams’ Transco pipeline in southern Lancaster County, PA. In 2015, the Atlantic Sunrise Community Grant Program was established to benefit community organizations in communities within the Atlantic Sunrise footprint. Since 2015, the Atlantic Sunrise has doled out more than $2 million across the 10-county project area in support of noteworthy projects. And they’ve just done it again. A total of 41 PA organizations have just received a total of $264,300 in contributions–more than a quarter of a million dollars! We have the full list below, along with information about how your organization can apply for the next round…
    Read More “Atlantic Sunrise Doles Out $264,300 in Grants to Schools, Towns”

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    1st Cove Point Marcellus Shipment to Japan Goes Thru Panama Canal

    LNG Sakura – now on its way to Japan

    A sharp MDN reader recently emailed us to ask about that first shipment of Marcellus Shale LNG exported from Cove Point that is heading to Japan, wondering if the ship would transit through the Panama Canal to get to Asia. We had to say we didn’t know! But now we do know. And the answer is “yes”–that ship is going through the Panama Canal. Last week MDN reported that the second shipment of Marcellus molecules from Cove Point had been loaded onto the LNG carrier Sakura, and that the Sakura is heading to Japan (see Cove Point LNG Ships First Marcellus Cargo to Japan). Before June 2016, large LNG carriers could not pass through the Panama Canal. In 2016 new locks were installed to make it possible for larger ships, like the Sakura, to transit through. By using the Panama Canal, ships save an extra 7,800 miles, bypassing a trip around the tip of South America. Since 2016 more than 300 LNG carriers have used the Canal. Here’s the news that the Sakura is already through the Canal and now in the Pacific Ocean, steaming toward Japan…
    Read More “1st Cove Point Marcellus Shipment to Japan Goes Thru Panama Canal”

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    List of 6 NatGas-Fired Electric Plants Coming to Michigan

    Last June DTE Energy filed paperwork in Michigan to build a new “state-of-the-art” natural gas-fired power plant in St. Clair County (see DTE Energy Files to Build New Natgas-Fired Elec Plant in Michigan). The gas-fired plant will produce 1,100 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 850,000 homes. If all goes according to plan, the new $1 billion plant will go online in 2022, helping to offset three coal-fired plants set to retire by 2023. Although environmental groups launched a campaign against the project (see Michigan Anti Fossil Fuelers Oppose DTE Gas-Fired Plant Proposal), their efforts were too little too late. Last week the Michigan Public Service Commission approved the project! In addition, we spotted an article about five more natgas-fired plants planned for Michigan (full list below). As we always point out, there is a considerable amount of Utica/Marcellus gas heading into Michigan via the Rover and NEXUS pipelines. These plants are all potential customers for our gas supplies…
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    Cabot Says 2 NEPA Gas-Fired Plants Go Operational by June 1

    Lackawanna Energy Center – concept drawing

    Tucked away in the comments made by Cabot Oil & Gas CEO Dan Dinges on an investor conference call last Friday, MDN picked up on what we consider big news: Both the Moxie Freedom (Luzerne County, Wilkes-Barre area) and Lackawanna Energy Center (Lackawanna County, Scranton area) Marcellus-fired power plants are about to go fully operational–sometime in May (by June 1). Both plants will exclusively use Marcellus gas extracted by Cabot in Susquehanna County, PA. For nearly a year the plan had been for Moxie Freedom to be built and online in May of this year, so that announcement isn’t so much a surprise as it is welcomed news (see NEPA Moxie Freedom Power Plant on Track for May 2018 Launch). However, in March we reported Lackawanna was going through a “short” commissioning stage and would be firing up at any time (see Gas-Fired Power Plant Near Scranton Nears Startup; Yellow Smoke). The Lackawanna project has faced fierce local resistance. A group of Democrats got themselves elected to the local town board in Jessup, taking office in January, trying their best to block startup of the Lackawanna project by employing a Big Green lawyer (who works for Riverkeeper) at a cost to taxpayers of $225/hour. Looks like it was wasted money as Dinges says Lackawanna will be operational, with large volumes of Cabot gas flowing to it, within weeks…
    Read More “Cabot Says 2 NEPA Gas-Fired Plants Go Operational by June 1”

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    Philly Dem Senator Tries to Shut Down ME2 Pipe Construction

    PA State Senator Andy Dinniman

    A Chester County, PA (Philadelphia area) Democrat State Senator by the name of Andy Dinniman (who we think looks like Tony Soprano) continues his mission to stop the Mariner East 2 (ME2) project. This is nothing new for Dinniman. He’s been agitating and lobbying and demanding and pouting for over a year in his quest to shut down ME2 (see our Dinniman stories here). According to a press release from Dinniman issued last Thursday, the Senator has filed “a formal legal complaint and a petition for interim emergency relief with the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) to prohibit construction of the Mariner East 2 (ME2) and Mariner East 2X (ME2X) pipelines in West Whiteland Township.” Dinniman claims Sunoco Logistics Partners (builder of ME2) has 20 days to respond to the complaint. No doubt Sunoco will respond, and there’s little doubt the PUC will not do anything about Dinniman’s request…
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    1 MVP Tree Stand Comes Down, VA Gov. Calls Sitters “Unlawful”

    Va. Gov. Ralph Northam

    An update on the ongoing situation where several radicals are sitting in the tops of trees (or on a platform) to try and stop the Mountain Valley Pipeline from cutting down said trees in order to install the pipeline. There are, by our informal count in sifting through the news, four “tree sits”–with three of them in Virginia and one in West Virginia, along with a “pole sit”–someone perched on top of a pole that is held upright by ropes to nearby trees. The pole sit is in Virginia as well. Democrat politicians in Virginia have by and large supported the illegally trespassing lawbreakers (see Virginia Democrat Lawmakers Side with Lawbreakers in MVP Protest). We pointed out the Dem lawmakers might change their tune if MDN showed up with a tent and camped out in their driveway, trespassing on their land. One can dream. At any rate, the new news is this: One of the tree sitters in Virginia decided to give up the protest. As soon as he/she was on the ground the stand was disassembled and removed by the U.S. Forest Service. So that’s one of the four tree sits gone. Everyone else is still in place. U.S. Senator from Virginia, Tim Kaine (the loser who ran with Hillary) says he supports the lawbreakers. Typical. However, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam was more nuanced. Northam tried to have his cake and eat it too. He called the protesters “unlawful” and indicates he doesn’t support them, but then he turned around and said police should continue to feed and protect them. Typical swamp dweller response…
    Read More “1 MVP Tree Stand Comes Down, VA Gov. Calls Sitters “Unlawful””

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    EQT Midstream Consolidates, Buys Gulfport JV Share for $175M

    As EQT gets ready to split the company into two companies later this year, the midstream (pipeline & processing plants) portion of the company yesterday announced a complicated “drop down” deal to streamline the midstream operation. The short version is this: EQT has midstream assets spread throughout three companies on paper–EQT Midstream Partners, EQT GP Holdings, and Rice Midstream Partners. Yesterday the company announced all three are being merged under one umbrella–EQT Midstream Partners. As you’ll read in the EQT announcement, the entire deal is complex–with various entities buying assets from the others. One of the more interesting aspects of the deal is that EQT Midstream is buying EQT’s (the driller’s) Olympus Gathering System and EQT’s 75% interest in the Strike Force Gathering System. EQT Midstream is also buying out Gulfport Energy’s 25% interest in Strike Force, meaning EQT Midstream will now own 100% of Strike Force–a gathering pipeline system in the dry gas Utica covering 98,000 acres in Belmont and Monroe counties, in Ohio. Here’s the news that EQT is getting its midstream ducks in a row…
    Read More “EQT Midstream Consolidates, Buys Gulfport JV Share for $175M”

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    XTO Plan to Drill Wells at Former Golf Course Delayed by Zoning Bd

    In February MDN told you that XTO Energy, the shale drilling arm of Exxon Mobil, has plans to begin drilling five new shale wells in Armstrong County, PA on a former golf course (see XTO Plans 5 Shale Wells at Former Golf Course in Armstrong County). XTO presented a plan in February to build a drill pad on what used to the seventh green at the former Phoenix at Buffalo Valley Golf Course in Freeport, PA. The plan calls for drilling 4 Marcellus wells and 1 Utica well on the pad. Some 20 residents showed up for the February meeting. Not a single one spoke out against the plan. Nor did any of the Freeport officials. Last night the Freeport Zoning Board met, ostensibly to vote on XTO’s plan. However, the officials delayed the vote, claiming “there was just too much information to digest.” No date is yet set for another meeting to consider XTO’s “too much information” proposal…
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    Canadians Adopt Draconian Methane Regs, Which is Good for U.S.

    Unless they walk it back, the country of Canada may well have just shot its very large oil and gas industry in the head. How? By adopting new regulations that aim to cut methane emissions in the oil and gas sector in half by 2025. The problem is, Canada has no idea of how much methane the industry actually emits now. “Half of what?” is the question. But radical antis don’t let a little thing like actual measurements and real science get in the way. They already have an answer–they’ll simply make it up. They plan to “model” it, fantasizing about how much is emitted now, and then demand a cut of half that amount. All of which favors the U.S. oil and gas industry because (so far) we haven’t tipped over into lunatic methane regulations the way the Canadians just have. It was certainly tried under Obama (via the courts and the EPA), but under Trump, methane reduction edicts from the federal government have been walked back. Perhaps when Canada realizes it’s about to literally jump off a cliff and lose an entire industry, they’ll walk their regs back too. If not, oh well! We here in the U.S. will be more than happy to take over the markets previously served by the very dead Canadian oil and gas industry…
    Read More “Canadians Adopt Draconian Methane Regs, Which is Good for U.S.”

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    BLM Blocks Eclipse from Completing Utica Well in Wayne Natl Forest

    Melissa Hamsher, Eclipse Resources

    Something pretty cool took place yesterday in Washington, D.C. MDN friend Melissa Hamsher, vice president for Health, Safety, Environmental and Regulatory with Eclipse Resources (headquartered in State College, PA), testified before the U.S. House of Representatives’ Resources Committee. Melissa has been a speaker on several panels MDN editor Jim Willis has moderated over the years at the annual Oil & Gas Awards Industry Summit in Pittsburgh. The uncool thing is what Melissa was in D.C. to testify about, which is that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), after auctioning off parcels in the Wayne National Forest (WNF), is now stopping Eclipse from drilling under those parcels. Eclipse had already bundled some of the BLM parcels they won at auction with neighboring private land, setting up a drill pad on private (not public) land when the BLM stepped in and stopped Eclipse’s first under-construction Utica well in WNF, claiming the BLM needs to conduct a “new environmental analysis” before drilling can continue. At every turn BLM, while pretending to act in good faith by conducting auctions of WNF land, has acted in bad faith to block Eclipse’s progress after winning those auctions. Melissa shined a bright light on the sleazy tactics used by BLM at a Congressional hearing exploring the “unfair weaponization of the National Environmental Policy Act”…
    Read More “BLM Blocks Eclipse from Completing Utica Well in Wayne Natl Forest”

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    OH Supremes Blow It, Allow Youngstown Frack Ban on May Ballot

    Although Youngstown, OH voters have voted down various versions of a proposed frack ban law six previous times, on Tuesday the Ohio Supreme Court voted 5-2 to allow a seventh such ballot measure to appear before Youngstown voters on May 8. The kicker: This seventh ballot measure is even worse–far more radical–than the previous frack ban measures voted down. The new ballot measure makes the illegal, legal (see Youngstown Antis Seek to Legalize Anarchy with 7th CELDF Petition). In addition to the usual no fracking, no pipelines pablum, this latest ballot measure has language that makes it legal to break the law. If the ballot measure passes, and if an anti got it into her head to sit in front of a bulldozer that was about to clear ground for a wellpad, or dig a trench for a pipeline, the police would not be able to arrest and remove the law-breaking anti. It would be within her rights to sit there and block legal, legitimate activity–all in the name of saving the planet. That’s the insanity the Supremes, in their “wisdom,” are allowing to go before voters in two weeks. It would be institutionalized anarchy. Of course the ballot measure doesn’t stand a chance of passing, which is good. But it does cause angst, and it causes the adults who live in Youngstown to once again have to spend time and money to defeat it. We wonder, will we be writing about the 25th ballot measure to come before voters after 24 of them have been voted down–say in five years from now? When will Ohioans say “enough” to the CELDF and their radical agitation and send them packing?…
    Read More “OH Supremes Blow It, Allow Youngstown Frack Ban on May Ballot”

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    PA PUC Asks Sunoco to Drill Holes, Pour Concrete to Firm Up ME1

    For more than a year, Marcellus/Utica ethane and propane have been flowing through the converted Mariner East 1 (ME1) pipeline safely, hauling the two natural gas liquids (NGLs) from southwest PA all the way to the Marcus Hook refinery near Philadelphia. The primary shipper using ME1 has been Range Resources, although other companies like CNX Resources use it too. However, ME1 was suddenly switched off on March 3 by order of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) after a sinkhole opened up under the pipeline in Chester County, exposing some of the bare steel to the open air (see PA PUC Shuts Down Mariner 1 Pipeline Due to Mariner 2 Sinkhole). Sunoco Logistics Partners, the owner of ME1, is building a new set of pipelines called Mariner East 2 (ME2) close to the existing ME1. Construction work in the area on ME2 led to the sinkhole that exposed ME1. The PUC shut down ME1 until further notice, requiring Sunoco to conduct a study of the area and provide the PUC with evidence to reassure them that ME1 is OK and will not leak or explode. Sunoco conducted the study, provided its results, and told the PUC it’s time to restart ME1–but the PUC is dragging its feet (see Sunoco Says ME1 Ready to Restart, but PUC is Dragging its Feet). The new news is that the PUC recently told Sunoco that before ME1 can restart, the company must first drill 10 new holes in the area of the sinkholes and pour in concrete (“grout”) in an effort to ensure ME1 doesn’t move around and break open…
    Read More “PA PUC Asks Sunoco to Drill Holes, Pour Concrete to Firm Up ME1”

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    Still No Deal on Property Next to PTT OH Ethane Cracker Site

    Homeowners who live near the location of a possible ethane cracker plant in Belmont County, OH are running out of time to negotiate a deal to sell their properties. Living next door to a cracker plant is not anyone’s idea of paradise. There will be noise, and smells and (yes) some air pollution coming from the plant. Best to sell now before the plant begins construction. However, representatives for PTT Global Chemical which will build the plant (IF it gets built), say they already have all the land they need for the facility (see PTT Global Buys Land for Belmont, OH Ethane Cracker Plant). Not needing the land puts PTT in a good negotiating position. There are 10 homes in the general vicinity of the proposed cracker plant whose owners want to sell. PTT says they’ve offered the homeowners 125% of fair market value for their homes. The lawyer representing the homeowners says the valuations are not accurate. However, it’s far from being a stand-off. There is no malice or vitriol. It sounds to us like both sides think a deal will get done. It just boils down to finalizing numbers. Here’s the latest on real estate for the proposed Belmont cracker plant…
    Read More “Still No Deal on Property Next to PTT OH Ethane Cracker Site”