Industrywide Issues

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    EPA Director Scott Pruitt Suspends Obama WOTUS Rule

    In May 2015 the Obama rogue Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) along with the Obama U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) released a finalized rule clarifying what “Waters of the United States” (WOTUS) means vis a vis what can be regulated under the federal Clean Water Act (see EPA Power Grab: Redefines Waters of the U.S. to Include Everything). Essentially the rule change redefined everything down to mud puddles (no, we’re not exaggerating) as being subject to the federal Clean Water Act. It was yet another attempt to bring oil and gas regulation under the purview of the federal government, a violation of the U.S. Constitution. We won’t recount the history of lawsuits and counter lawsuits that have ensued. We’ll only tell you that in January the U.S. Supreme Court entered the fray by determining which courts can here lawsuits regarding WOTUS (see U.S. Supreme Court Changes Jurisdiction for WOTUS Challenges). We said this last week: “Because of legal wrangling, [EPA Administrator Scott] Pruitt must take two years to develop a replacement for the destructive version of WOTUS–and in the meantime, the Obama version of WOTUS (sadly) remains in effect.” Little did we know, but Pruitt has just pulled off a coup by giving an order to suspend/delay the Obama version of WOTUS until a new version is ready (in two years). Finally, a little sanity is restored to environmental regulation…
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    Penn State Students Brainwashed by “Fossil Free” Campaign

    Crazy Bernie Sanders (yes THAT Bernie Sanders, U.S. Senator from Vermont) along with ultra-radical 350.org and its leader Bill McKibben, have launched a new campaign called Fossil Free. It’s actually “thinking free” (as in the absence of all thinking), but we’ll leave that for another post. The new campaign is the ultimate outcome of global warming belief metastasized. Bernie, who is a political rock star for naive young Millennials, appeared with several other speakers at an event in Washington, D.C. that was live streamed to more than 300 “watch parties” across the country. The theme of the campaign is to end the use of all fossil fuels. One of the watch parties was a group of students at Penn State. By all accounts, the young skulls full of mush sat there bedazzled by Crazy Bernie–mouths open, drool trickling down the corner of their mouths. They were brainwashed. They worship this almost-octogenarian for who knows why? The problem is, these kids have not been taught to think critically. They accept, at face value, the lies spread by people like Sanders and McKibben. The kids just automatically believe it–like a blind faith–because Bernie says it. Penn State is (or was) a good school. What’s going on that they’re turning out kids who don’t, and won’t, think for themselves? Here’s recap of the Penn State Crazy Bernie “watch party”…
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    Dominion Cove Point Begins Producing LNG – for Shell

    On Monday, Dominion Energy CEO Tom Farrell reported that the company’s Lusby, Maryland Cove Point LNG export facility will become operational and begin to export LNG in “early March” (see Dominion CEO Says Cove Point LNG Operational in “Early March”). Then yesterday, Dominion issued a press release to say Cove Point has now (as of this week) begun producing LNG! What gives? This “we’re now producing LNG” is part of the commissioning process which began back in December (see Dominion Cove Point LNG Export – Dress Rehearsal Begins). Feed gas is imported and used for testing purposes, and is the final step before the plant goes online into full production. The feed gas came from Shell (sourced from Nigeria), and Shell will take delivery of the LNG that results. When the initial commissioning is done, Marcellus/Utica gas will then begin flowing to the plant and the LNG produced will begin shipping (by “early March”) to Japan and India…
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    PA IFO Says 2017 Impact Fee Revenue Near Record High

    Since 2012, Pennsylvania has collected the equivalent of a severance tax from Marcellus Shale drillers via something called an impact fee. Same concept as a severance tax. You drill a well, gas comes out, you pay a tax. Except with an impact fee you pay whether or not anything comes out of the ground (a more reliable source of tax revenue than a severance tax). The impact fee quickly started to generate hundreds of millions of dollars a year in extra revenue for Pennsylvania–60% of which goes back to the communities where drilling happens (which Philadelphia politicians hate), and 40% of which goes to the black hole of Harrisburg for redistribution (which Philadelphia politicians love). Drilling began to slow in 2014, and crashed in 2015/2016, with low low commodity prices for natgas. As the price went down, so too did the number of new wells drilled. Impact fee revenue (which is delayed a year) also went down. The impact fee doled out this year is based on revenues raised in 2017. The PA Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) does a pretty good job of guesstimating how much impact fee revenue will be generated. Last July, the IFO predicted impact fee revenue from 2017 would end up being around $222 million in revenue (see IFO Predicts PA Impact Fees for 2017 Will Soar, Near Record High). Now that the year is in the can and production reports are rolling in, the IFO now predicts impact fee revenue will end up at $219.3 million. The all-time high for a single year’s impact fee revenue was 2013, when it was $225.7 million. Looks like 2017 will come within a whisker of that record. Meaning higher levels of new drilling is now “back” in the PA Marcellus…
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    PA Senate Ctte Passes Resolution to Restore Drilling in State Parks

    On Tuesday, Pennsylvania State Senate Resolution 104 passed in the Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee (party line vote, Republicans voted for, Democrats against). SR 104, introduced by Sen. Camera Bartolotta, urges PA Gov. Tom Wolf to get off his rear-end and reauthorize drilling in PA state forest land. The bill stands a good chance of being passed by the full Senate, which has the radicals at PennFuture up in arms. They issued a press release (i.e. marching orders to slavish Democrat Senators) to oppose the resolution. Frankly, they don’t have anything to worry about. As we pointed out yesterday with respect to the Senate’s so-called bipartisan resolution to study the sloooooow way DEP issues permits, resolutions aren’t worth the paper they’re written on (see PA Senate Ctte Sends “Study Slow DEP” Resolution for Full Vote). A resolution is a suggestion–it does not have the weight of law. Wolf can (and almost certainly will), ignore it. Resolutions are an exercise in futility. Still, it may score a political point or two–illuminating how Wolf is blocking an important revenue source from being tapped…
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    PA DEP Tries to Convince Landowners/Drillers to Plug Orphan Wells

    Earlier this week MDN told you about a new bill that passed the Ohio legislature and now awaits Gov. John Kasich’s signature called House Bill 225, which triples the amount of money set aside to cap orphan wells in the Buckeye State (see OH Orphan Well Bill Wins Praise from Both Drillers & Enviros). The bill also “creates a more streamlined and efficient process for identifying and plugging” orphan wells. The amazing thing about the bill is this: both Big Green groups and the drilling industry support it! So-called orphan wells are old conventional oil and gas wells that have been abandoned (for decades). They are hazards for shale drillers who stumble across them when drilling new wells. If you drill horizontally and clip an old/abandoned well, it becomes like an elevator pumping fluids and gas to the surface. Ohio has an estimated 600 orphan wells. In Pennsylvania, it’s a whole other story. PA has some 200,000 orphan wells! The main issue in PA has been who will pay to cap them? Most of PA’s orphan wells are not mapped or known. Yet some of them are known–by the landowners on whose land they sit. A second (very important) issue in PA is that if a landowner or driller tries to cap an orphan well they come across, the party doing the work may be liable if there are any environmental impacts from the effort. Let’s see, nobody to pay for it–and if you assume all the legal risk. It’s a recipe for “Don’t touch that orphan well with a 10 foot pole!” In what is too coincidental to be a coincidence, the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection has just launched a program “encouraging private-sector partners to become Good Samaritans, by participating in a program that helps cap dangerous abandoned oil and gas wells statewide.” Was the DEP goaded into doing something about orphan wells after seeing the success Ohio is having? Whether coincidence or not, the DEP is telling landowners and drillers: If you pay for it and plug it yourself, first getting the DEP’s “mother may I?” permission, you will not be on the hook legally (i.e. can’t be sued) later on if “this old well” ends up harming the environment…
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    OH Supreme Court Rejects Challenge to Forced Pooling Law

    On Tuesday, the Ohio State Supreme Court rejected a case in which landowners who were made part of a “unitization order” (i.e. forced pooling) had objected claiming their property rights were stripped away without due process. In legal terms, the landowners claimed it was a “taking” of their property without just compensation. The Supreme Court rejected the case because, they said, there were other legal means the landowners could have tried first (a lower court) before appealing the case direct to the Supremes using something called a mandamus action. In essence, the Supremes said, “Nice try, but you need to jump through the proper hoops first.” Ultimately the Supremes did not rule on the Constitutionality of the claim itself because the case had gotten to them via the wrong path. We’re guessing the landowners will now go back to square one and use the path laid out by the Supremes. Here’s the low down on the rejection by the Supremes, from the legal beagles at the Vorys law firm…
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    The Great Chesapeake Massacre III: Lawler Fires Another 400 People

    2/2/18 Update: Have we been unfair in our characterization of Doug Lawler? Perhaps. We don’t know Doug–have never met him. He started firing masses of people at Chessy before the downturn hit. He arguably inherited a troubled company. We intensely dislike Carl Ichan and other corporate raiders, so we attributed Doug’s actions to Carl’s influence. MDN received a very nice note from a subscriber who personally knows Doug Lawler and has a different perspective to offer, which we’re happy to pass along. He said: “Jim, regarding your article on CHK, Doug Lawler probably learned a lot from Carl Icahn, but knowing Doug the way I do, I can assure you it hurt him to release people at his home office or other areas of operations. He was left with a mess and will take him years to clean it up. Hopefully with oil & gas prices stabilizing and going up, CHK will become profitable.” We thank our subscriber for sending that along!

    Just like those 80s slasher movies that did so well at the box office that studios kept making more of them (Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, etc.), Doug “the ax” Lawler, CEO of Chesapeake Energy, is back with part III of mass firings at the company. In October 2013 when Lawler was newly appointed as CEO (by Chesapeake’s board, which was under the influence of corporate raider Carl Ichan), he swung his ax and fired 800 people in one gory episode, promising that was the last of it (see The Great Chesapeake Massacre: Lawler Fires 800 People in One Day). It worked so well the first time, Lawler came back with a sequel two years later (see The Great Chesapeake Massacre II: Lawler Fires Another 740 People). It’s now a little over two years since the sequel, and Lawler is back for a third time, firing another round of people–400 this time, 13% of the workforce. The latest victims worked at HQ in Oklahoma City. When corporate raiders take control of a company, as Icahn did at Chesapeake, they pressure management to fire people and sell assets–in a bid to make the stock price jump higher so they can sell their shares of stock at a higher price, pocketing the profit. It’s disgusting to ruin people’s lives and pretend it’s “just business.” At any rate, Icahn is long gone from Chessy, but Lawler learned his lessons well by sitting at the feet of the master. This is rich: Lawler said because the company has sold so many of its assets, it no longer needs the people. Kind of a vicious cycle. Fire people, sell assets. Fire more people, sell more assets. Where does it end? Pretty soon Lawler will be able to cater the company’s office Christmas party with a personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut…
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    Rover “Frustrated” with FERC Order to Stop Drilling at Tuscarawas

    In a strongly worded letter dated Sunday, Rover Pipeline tells the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) they are “frustrated by the inaccurate central premise underlying the letter received from” FERC shutting down drilling at the Tuscarawas River location. On Jan. 24 FERC sent a letter to Rover stopping drilling at Tuscarawas, which had only restarted in December (see FERC Stops Rover Drilling Near River After 200K Gal Mud Disappears). In April 2017, some 2 million gallons of drilling mud went down the hole near the Tuscarawas River and popped back out where it should not have, harming a wetland by smothering aquatic life (see Rover Pipeline Accident Spills ~2M Gal. Drilling Mud in OH Swamp). That 2 million gallon “spill” in April triggered a shutdown of all HDD work in Ohio. It was only last December that Rover was allowed, by FERC, to resume more HDD work at the Tuscarawas site (see FERC Gives Rover OK to Resume All HDD Work, Incl. Tuscarawas River). After “losing” another 200K gallons down the hole, FERC shut it down a second time, on the 24th. So why is Rover frustrated? Because (a) losing some drilling mud was predicted and expected, and (b) NONE of the 200K gallons of mud lost has come back to the surface. There is no “inadvertent return,” as it’s called. Rover says 200K gallons staying down the hole, in the ground and not coming back out, is no big deal. That’s why they’re frustrated…
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    Part of TGP’s Broad Run Pipe Expansion Starts Up in Kentucky

    In December 2016 MDN brought you news about Kinder Morgan’s “Broad Run Expansion Project” that will expand transportation capacity of natural gas on the existing Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) system. Antis tried to stop the project, but the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission rejected their pleas (see FERC Denies Anti Request to Stop KM’s Broad Run Expansion Project). The Broad Run Expansion includes construction of two new compressor stations in Kanawha County, WV, one new compressor station in Davidson County, TN, and one new compressor station in Madison County, KY. TGP is also increasing compression capacity by modifying two of its existing compressor stations in Powell and Boyd counties in KY by replacing existing capacity with new, higher-rated horsepower compression units. The project will provide an extra 200,000 dekatherms per day (Dth/d) of transportation capacity along the same path as the Broad Run Flexibility project, which was placed in service on Nov. 1, 2015. All of the additional gas will come from Antero Resources and their Marcellus/Utica program. Kinder/TGP has been busy working on the $406 million project and the pieces are now coming together. On Monday, FERC sent a letter to KM/TGP telling them the brand new compressor station in Madison County, KY can begin operations. KM plans to have the entire project up and running by June 1st of this year…
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    PA Senate Ctte Sends “Study Slow DEP” Resolution for Full Vote

    You have to understand something about politicians–a lesson we learned long ago when working in Washington, D.C. If a politician floats a plan to “study” something, that really means “we’re not going to do a single thing about it.” Over the past couple of years the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) has gotten slower and slower in issuing permits for shale drilling–for simple things, like erosion permits a driller needs to push dirt around to create a well pad. The DEP has a policy of issuing erosion and sedimentation permits 14 days from the date of application. These types of permits are common and necessary when building roads, well pads, etc. As of last summer it was taking the DEP 250 days to issue those permits (see More Pushback on PA Senate Plan to Fix Slow DEP Permit Reviews). The drilling industry has been loudly pushing for a change. The DEP says it has fewer people on staff and that’s the reason for the slowdown. The thing is, the number of requests for permits has gone down too–so that particular argument doesn’t hold a lot of water. PA House Republicans have introduced a number of bills to “fix” the DEP, not least of which is a bill introduced that allows certified third parties to assist the DEP in reviewing permit applications (see Bill Introduced to Fix PA DEP’s Extreme Delays Issuing Permits). The House bill got Gov. Wolf’s attention. Last week he introduced his own plan to fix the DEP–by hiring more people and hiking fees on the drilling industry to pay for it (see PA Gov Wolf Floats Plan to Fix DEP Slow Drilling Permits: Hike Fees). Not to be outdone, the PA Senate now wants to weigh in. Last fall a Democrat Senator from Wilkes-Barre, John Yudichak, floated a “let’s study the problem” resolution (see PA Dem Senator Calls for “Study” to Address DEP Permit Delays). That resolution was just reported out of the Senate Energy Committee (of which Yudichak is the Minority Chair). Yep, both the swamp-dwelling Republicans and Democrats on the committee voted to “study” the DEP slowness problem, meaning they plan to do NOTHING about it…
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    Marcellus Industry AWOL at Philadelphia DRBC Frack Ban Hearings

    Last week the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) held two public hearings in Philadelphia about its proposed plan to ban fracking in the Delaware River Basin (see Low Turnout for Philly DRBC Frack Ban Hearing, Antis Dominate). As we pointed out in our post, you would think a city with 1.5 million residents would turn out more than 120 people on a topic that is sold as “threat to everyone’s drinking water.” But no. Just a relative handful. However, the handful was almost exclusively in favor of the ban. One of two speaker who spoke against the ban was Dan Markind, an attorney in Philly. We’ve highlighted Dan’s comments here on MDN a few times over the years. Smart guy. We don’t always agree with his take, but we do this time. Dan circulated his thoughts after the DRBC hearing. His words are humbling. Dan makes the point that although many who spoke in favor of the frack ban have made up their minds and won’t change, some in the audience were open to being persuaded otherwise. Problem is, nobody from “our side” was there! One rep from the API spoke and left. And that’s it, beside Dan. We fielded nobody to present our side of the argument. As hard as it is to attend these types of events, attend we must. Here’s Dan’s take–that we missed a big opportunity by being AWOL at the DRBC hearings in Philly…
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    NYT, Boston Globe Delve into Russian Gas Coming to America

    The more we read about and dig into the story of Russian gas coming to Boston, the angrier we get. Just yesterday we told you that a rumored second shipment of Russian gas may be heading to Boston (see 2nd LNG Tanker with Russian Gas Coming to Boston?!). We have more details about the story. According to a New York Times article, in 2014 then-President Obama slapped sanctions on the “financiers and producers of Russian oil and natural gas, not the output.” Russia, at that time and since, has tried to “destabilize eastern Ukraine” with an ongoing occupation of Crimea. Sanctions against the financial services and energy sectors followed. Vladimir Putin (one of his cronies) was building an LNG export plant in the Arctic–Yamal LNG. The sanctions were aimed at stopping the plant from getting built–but it got built anyway with the help of Chinese banks. Yamal’s very first shipment of LNG recently left the facility and (as we previously outlined) was offloaded for a couple of days in the UK (see Confirmed: LNG Coming to Boston on Jan 22 is Illegal Russian Gas). What we still don’t understand is this: How can you impose sanctions on the financers and producers, but not on the outcome, the production (gas) itself? That seems crazy. We still think the gas is illegal–but nobody in D.C. (wake up Trump Administration!) is doing anything to stop it. Regardless of whether or not the shipments are illegal, even the far-left libs at the Boston Globe think this is nuts. It is humiliating (and an outrage) that sanctioned Russian gas–the VERY FIRST SHIPLOAD–is now being unloaded in Boston Harbor…
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    2nd LNG Tanker with Russian Gas Coming to Boston?!

    Gaseyls tanker (now docked in Boston Harbor)

    A shipment of arguably illegal Russian natural gas (LNG) arrived in Boston Harbor on Sunday and will soon be offloaded, according to Russian news service Sputnik International. The U.S. slapped the Russian Yamal LNG plant, located in the Arctic, with sanctions following Russia’s moves against the Ukraine several years ago. Those sanctions make it illegal to receive gas produced from that plant. So shippers “whitewashed” the gas by unloading it in the UK, and a few days later, reloading it on a different ship–the Gaselys. The Gaselys is now docked and undergoing inspection and will then offload the gas for use in New England. It is an outrage that for a couple of reasons: (1) because New England is blocking pipelines from the Marcellus that would carry domestically produced gas that is cheaper, and (2) the Jones Act prevents our ships from the Gulf Coast and other locations from carting our own LNG to Boston. So, using a slight-of-hand to hide the origin of the gas, illegal Russian gas has now arrived and will be used in New England to heat homes–while they watch the Superbowl. Plenty of irony, wouldn’t you say? But the outrage doesn’t end there. A second shipment of Russian gas is rumored to be on its way to Boston. HELLO–IS ANYBODY AWAKE IN D.C.? How can this continue? Here’s an update on the first shipment now arrived, and a second shipment that quite possibly is now on its way…
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    NTE Energy Plans to Build 550 MW Gas-Fired Elec Plant in CT

    Artist rendering of Killingly Energy Center – click for larger version

    In April 2016, MDN told you NTE Energy, headquartered in St. Augustine, Florida, plans to build several new natural gas-fired electric generating plants, one of them in Connecticut (see NTE Energy Developing 3 NatGas-Fired Electric Plants in CT/NC/OH). Since that time NTE has been busy with all of three projects. The Connecticut project is called Killingly Energy Center, a 550-megawatt plant that will be located near Killingly, CT. NTE has secured a site for the plant, filed a request to connect to the power grid, filed for an air permit and filed with the siting council. NTE expects to get all of the various permits they need sometime by the second quarter of this year (May-June time frame). When they do get the necessary permits for Killingly, construction will begin (in 2Q of this year). No doubt Marcellus gas will feed the plant, which will go online in 2021 (it takes a few years to build these things). NTE will spend $500 million on the project and employ 250-350 people to build it. But what about the location? You know how allergic New Englanders are to any new natural gas-related infrastructure! NTE is also building a plant in Ohio. The mayor of the city where the Ohio plant is getting built (Middletown, OH) is giving his “full-throated support” of NTE and is telling Killingly they don’t have anything to worry about. NTE does what they say they’ll do, and they do it right. So far Killingly appears to be playing ball. Killingly Town Council approved agreements with NTE earlier this month. When the plant gets built, Killingly will see $90 million in tax revenue over the next 20 years. Who wouldn’t sign on the dotted line for 90 million bucks?! Below is news about the project along with a recent PowerPoint presentation loaded with information about the Killingly Energy Center…
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    WV Co-Tenancy, Royalty Transparency Bills Make Progress

    As predicated, a co-tenancy bill has been introduced in this year’s 60-day session of the West Virginia legislature (see Co-Tenancy Front and Center for WV Legislature as Session Nears). What is co-tenancy? It is legislation that will give a majority of rights owners of a property the authority to sign a lease on behalf of all the rights owners. It corrects a situation in which multiple rights owners are listed for a property–sometimes 200 or more rights owners for a single piece of property! It is often difficult, if not impossible, to track them all down and get them to sign on the dotted line. Co-tenancy corrects that situation, opening up more Marcellus and Utica acreage that can be drilled. Last Thursday a co-tenancy bill was introduced in the House Energy Committee–House Bill (HB) 4268–which should see an initial vote this week. Various groups are lobbying for and against the bill. The WV Surface Owners Rights Organization is pushing for two amendments, without which they won’t support the bill. Although co-tenancy is a major emphasis for Marcellus/Utica drillers, a different bill is a major emphasis for landowners–a bill to provide greater transparency of royalty statements (more information provided on statements). House Bill (HB) 4270 already passed in a vote by the House Energy Committee last week. It still has to pass muster with the House Judiciary Committee, but the bill seems to be off to a fast start. Here’s a rundown on these two important bills, with copies of the bills as introduced, with background on the backroom wheeling and dealing over the co-tenancy bill…
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