Industrywide Issues

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    Pittsburgh Mayor Embarrasses Himself Following Trump Paris Speech

    Mayor Bill Peduto

    Last Thursday when President Trump committed to pulling the U.S. out of the horrible Paris climate treaty, he said this: “I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris.” What do you think he meant by that statement? We watched the speech, and we immediately burst with pride that Trump was putting our citizens first. But the radical/left/Democrat mayor of Pittsburgh thought he would make some political hay from Trump’s speech, saying he was “personally offended” by Trump’s remark. Why? Mayor Bill Peduto said Trump’s remark evokes “a dated image of Pittsburgh as an old city stuck in the 19th century, relying on steel and coal.” Do you think that’s what Trump meant? Of course not. And Peduto knows it. He later admitted he knew what Trump meant when he said, “Maybe he should have a speech writer that understands the difference between cities and regions and not just try to use cute iteration in order to make a point.” Uh, Mr. Mayor, we think the word you wanted to use is “alliteration.” Obviously Trump was using a play on words, an alliteration that used the “p” sound for an American city to compare it with Paris. An iteration means to repeat something. Perhaps the reporter misquoted the mayor? Regardless, Pittsburgh and some 100 other cities (and a number of lefty states) have piled on since the Trump Paris announcement to say “we’ll still do Paris anyway.” Fine. Does that mean you’re willing to transfer billions of dollars from your citizens, to give it away to other countries, to achieve a 0.17 Celsius reduction in “global warming temperatures” by the year 2100? Because that’s exactly what the Paris “treaty” was all about–soaking Americans and giving their money (and jobs) to other countries. If you think the Paris treaty was actually about reducing temperatures across the globe, you are sorely mistaken… Read More “Pittsburgh Mayor Embarrasses Himself Following Trump Paris Speech”

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    NatGas Grudge Match: Marcellus vs Haynesville

    One of the important new markets Marcellus/Utica drillers have been eagerly awaiting is the southeast–and the Gulf Coast. Once the Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline ($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) is built, more gas will flow to points in the South. Much of the new demand for natural gas in the South is from new natural gas-fired electric plants. Another pipeline to feed the South is the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (Dominion Energy’s $5 billion, 594-mile natural gas pipeline that will stretch from West Virginia through Virginia and into North Carolina). And EQT’s Mountain Valley Pipeline ($3.5 billion, 301-mile pipeline that will run from Wetzel County, WV to the Transco Pipeline in Pittsylvania County, VA). Some pipelines already take our gas all the way to the Gulf Coast (see Rex Energy to Ship Marcellus Gas to Midwest & Gulf Coast in Nov). However, Marcellus/Utica is getting a competitor in the South and the Gulf Coast. The once all-but-dead Haynesville Shale, located in Louisiana, has roared back to life and will compete with cheap Marcellus/Utica gas in the South and the Gulf… Read More “NatGas Grudge Match: Marcellus vs Haynesville”

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    NY Building Not Just One, but Eleven (!) NatGas-Fired Micogrids

    In May MDN told you that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo had announced plans to construct a new “state-of-the-art, locally-sourced mini-power grid” that will connect to the statewide electric grid but will also be able to operate independently, to power the Empire State Plaza in Albany–a complex of buildings in downtown Albany housing much of New York State government (see NY Gov Cuomo Building New Fracked Gas Elec Plant to Power Albany!). The energy-efficient microgrid will supply 90% of the power for the 98-acre downtown Albany complex, and is expected to save the Plaza more than $2.7 million in annual energy costs. The project will also remove more than 25,600 tons of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere each year – the equivalent of taking more than 4,900 cars off the road–supporting New York’s goal to reduce emissions by 40 percent by 2030 from 1990 levels. In an emergency, it can power a shelter for Albany residents. So what will power the magical microgrid and deliver this nirvana of cheaper electricity AND reduce so-called greenhouse gas emissions at the same time? Is it a huge solar array errected in Albany or in the nearby countryside? Nope–the sun doesn’t always shine. Must be a wind farm, maybe off the coast of Long Island? Nope. The wind doesn’t always blow. The magic fuel for the magic microgrid is, you guessed it–fracked shale gas from the Marcellus. Here’s something that will leave you (as it did us), speechless: Gov. Cuomo recently handed out $1 million each for 11 more microgrid projects–as seed money to get them going (making them eligible for more money from the NY Green Bank). And yes, each and everyone one of those 11 microgrids will be powered primarily by fracked shale gas. If that doesn’t beat all…
    Read More “NY Building Not Just One, but Eleven (!) NatGas-Fired Micogrids”

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    Europe Approves GE Takeover of Baker Hughes, Co Gets a New Name

    Last October, MDN brought you the news that Baker Hughes, the world’s third largest oilfield services company, had struck a deal to combine/merge with/sell itself to GE’s oil and gas business (see Breaking: Who Needs Halliburton? Baker Hughes Merging with GE O&G). The deal, according to the Wall Street Journal, will result in a new company that will be 65.5% owned by GE and 37.5% owned by Baker Hughes shareholders. The deal, IF it gets approved by the Dept. of Justice, will create a company with $32 billion in revenues. Make no mistake, aside from all of the “partnership” talk, this is GE buying out Baker Hughes. The CEO of the new company will be Lorenzo Simonelli, chief executive of GE Oil & Gas. The board of directors for the new company will have 5 members appointed by GE and 4 members appointed by Baker Hughes. The deal, if it happens, would catapult the new Baker Hughes, which will have the name Bear Newco, past Halliburton to become the world’s second largest oilfield services company. Get this: The deal may even catapult the new company to become the world’s number one oilfield services company–eclipsing Schlumberger! As we said at the time: The question now is, will the Dept. of Justice approve the deal? Last year the Obama DOJ killed the proposed Baker Hughes merger with Halliburton (see Obama DOJ Kills Halliburton/Baker Hughes Merger, Deal “Terminated”). Perhaps in an early sign that the DOJ will approve this merger, the European Commission has given its blessing on the deal…
    Read More “Europe Approves GE Takeover of Baker Hughes, Co Gets a New Name”

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    Saudis, Others Cuts All Ties with Qatar – LNG Opportunity?

    Click for larger version

    The following story intrigued us, not the least of which because it has the potential to affect the Marcellus/Utica region. Out of the blue, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain have all “cut ties” with the country of Qatar. That includes shutting down pipelines that flow LNG and natural gas out of Qatar. Why? Because, they claim, Qatar supports “extremism”–by which they mean terrorism. This is truly rich. All of the countries cutting ties have their own issues in supporting terrorism. So if they accuse “one of their own” for doing the same thing, how much worse must be Qatar? There is another interesting aspect to this story–related to the idiot Al Gore. Gore and a couple of his ultra-rich buddies started a cable television channel in 2005 called Current TV. The channel flopped, big-time. So Al and his buddies sold it in 2013–to Qatar. Well, actually it was sold to Al Jazeera, the official Qatar state-run media agency, owned by the ruling family of Qatar. Qatar didn’t want the channel, which they immediately threw in the trash. They wanted access to all of the cable systems the channel was running on for their Al Jazeera station. Yeah, you don’t hear about it much, but Al Gore sold his TV channel to terrorist-friendly Qatar–for $500 million. Back let’s get back to the Marcellus. Both Egypt and the UAE are “highly reliant on Qatari gas via pipeline and LNG.” With those lines now cut for the foreseeable future, it opens up a new market for Marcellus/Utica gas to be exported to Egypt, the UAE and perhaps others… Read More “Saudis, Others Cuts All Ties with Qatar – LNG Opportunity?”

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    WV Drillers & Landowners Want New Law re Post-Production Issue

    Earlier this week MDN reported on the recent West Virginia Supreme Court decision to reverse it’s earlier decision and allow EQT (and by extension, other drillers) to deduct some post-production expenses from royalties paid to landowners (see WV Supreme Court Reverses Itself, Post-Production Deductions OK). The Leggett v. EQT case turned on the meaning of three short words: “at the wellhead” (see WV Supreme Court Post-Production Royalty Case Hinges on 3 Words). This latest final final decision must be the…well…final decision, right? Not so fast. There is another Supreme Court case from 2006, Tawney v. Columbia Natural Resources, which also dealt with post-production expenses and found drillers do not have the right to deduct them from royalties. But there are differences. “Leggett deals with the statute on royalties, while Tawney is about lease contracts.” It’s a pretty safe bet that a new case will be filed challenging Tawney in light of the Leggett decision. All of this back and forth in the courts is unsettling for both drillers and landowners. Both sides are in agreement about one thing: They both want the WV legislature to pass a new law clarifying the issue of post-production deductions…
    Read More “WV Drillers & Landowners Want New Law re Post-Production Issue”

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    Former Head of Fed Pipeline Agency Sticks Up for Rover re Leaks

    We’ve spilled plenty of digital ink covering the Rover Pipeline and its recent troubles with “inadvertent returns” (i.e. leaks) of non-toxic drilling mud, called bentonite (see Rover Pipeline Accident Spills ~2M Gal. Drilling Mud in OH Swamp). Rover and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA) have been in a spat over “numerous” leaks–with OEPA claiming they’ve levied a $431,000 fine on Rover, although it turns out the fine is not yet officially levied (see Turns Out OEPA & Columbus Dispatch Were Lying – Rover NOT Fined). The leak issue has led to FERC shutting down, for now, any further underground horizontal drilling to install pipeline (see FERC Slaps Rover Pipeline with Stop Drilling Order). On MDN, we have, admittedly, been pretty hard on Rover. Seems to us they are rushing too fast, leading to mistakes–mistakes the industry can’t afford to be seen making. Have we (and others) been too hard on Rover? We spotted an editorial by Ohio resident and the former head of the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), the agency charged with oversight for developing and enforcing regulations for 2.6 million miles of pipeline transportation in the U.S., sticking up for Rover. Brigham McCown says accidents happen and that Rover, “responded to the situation promptly and by the book to control any potentially larger fallout.” Is he right? Is Rover being unfairly criticized for accidents that are bound to happen?… Read More “Former Head of Fed Pipeline Agency Sticks Up for Rover re Leaks”

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    Air Products Closing Wilkes-Barre LNG Manufacturing Plant

    Air Products owns a manufacturing plant located on the outskirts of Wilkes-Barre, PA. If you’ve ever heard of the Air Products business, you may conjure up an image of small cylinder tanks of helium or other “rare” gases sitting inside a chain fence. Yes, Air Products sells gases by the tank, but they also manufacture the mother of all gas tanks in their Wilkes-Barre facility–huge rocket-looking “production trains” or “heat exchangers,” which are pieces of equipment that turn natural gas into liquefied natural gas, or LNG. The heat exchangers manufactured by Air Products in Wilkes-Barre are two-thirds of a football field long (180 feet), used by plants all over the world to condense natural gas into a liquid. We’ve written about Air Products a few times, theorizing some of the heat exchangers they manufacture are being used by plants to liquefy Marcellus/Utica gas (see our Air Products stories here). Sadly, Air Products has just met with its employees at the Wilkes-Barre plant to let them know the plant close on August 1st, resulting in a layoff of 75 employees. Air Products is not getting out of the heat exchanger manufacturing business. They own a second plant in Port Manatee, Florida. The Wilkes-Barre plant is limited in the size of the exchangers it makes, while the Florida facility is not. Demand for shorter exchangers is down, meaning no work for the plant. Also, the Wilkes-Barre facility must ship the huge exchangers they manufacture via railroad to Philadelphia–a process that takes five days. The Florida facility is located at port where the exchangers are loaded directly onto ships heading to other countries, where much of the product is destined. It seems in the end, geography is what defeated Air Products’ Wilkes-Barre operation… Read More “Air Products Closing Wilkes-Barre LNG Manufacturing Plant”

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    Canadian Co. Uses Virtual Pipeline to Sell LNG in New England

    For some time, MDN has had an eye on a trend we find exciting: “virtual pipelines,” by which we mean facilities located along a pipeline that compress natural gas, load it onto tanker trucks, and then distribute that gas to businesses that are not fortunate enough to be located near a natgas pipeline. With irrational opposition to pipelines rampant, virtual pipelines are a good alternative. We recently highlighted a new project coming in our own area of Broome County, NY (see NG Advantage Virtual Pipeline May be Coming to MDN’s Backyard). We have a new twist on the virtual pipeline–something we’ve not read about before: Setting up a virtual pipeline for LNG (liquefied natural gas) instead of CNG (compressed natural gas). Typically virtual pipelines are CNG-based, far easier to transport and to use. Gaz Metro is Quebec’s largest natural gas distributor with an LNG facility in Montreal. Gaz Metro also happens to own Vermont Gas Systems. Gaz Metro recently beefed up its Montreal LNG plant and is now trucking LNG to Vermont and other New England states, targeting large industrial users and energy companies who use LNG for “peaking”… Read More “Canadian Co. Uses Virtual Pipeline to Sell LNG in New England”

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    Wireless Device Monitors Abandoned PA Wells for Fugitive Methane

    What if there was a small device, about the size of a paperback novel, that could sniff the air and detect fugitive methane, escaping into the atmosphere? And what if that small device was operated with rechargeable batteries, and the batteries recharged every day using solar energy? And what if that device could also then transmit data about the air quality via the internet to servers back at HQ? And what if it could operate remotely, like at an abandoned well site? Dream no more. Such a device exists. We first heard about PixController’s Optical Methane Emissions Detection System (OMEDS) when it won a $25,000 prize from the 2015 Shale Gas Innovation Contest (see Winners of $100K for 2015 Shale Gas Innovation Contest Announced). The OMEDS has just won a second prize, the Global “Internet of Things” Challenge for Innovation, a contest held in Barcelona Spain. Seems innovations happening in the Marcellus are making international headlines… Read More “Wireless Device Monitors Abandoned PA Wells for Fugitive Methane”

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    Three Cheers! Trump Pulls U.S. Out of Horrible Paris Climate Treaty

    We wonder how many people actually watched President Trump’s address yesterday, announcing his decision to pull out of the horrible (and so-called) Paris climate treaty? Did *you* watch it? Or did you rely on the non-stop “hate Trump” mainstream media tirade that reported, endlessly, that we’re now all fried and the future of Mom Earth is over. What…utter…garbage. If you listened to President Trump, as we did, you would have learned that if we had stayed in this VERY bad deal, the United States would have been punished economically–transferring billions of our taxpayer dollars to other countries for generations to come. All in the name of supposedly stopping global warming. China and India would get to add as many coal-fired electric plants as they want–while we would have to close ours down, essentially shifting our jobs to other countries. The deal was bad from the beginning. Even if we had stayed in and even if all countries lived up to their obligations under the treaty, the projected difference in lowering global temps by 2100 would have been 0.17 Celsius–little more than one-tenth of a degree. After spending hundreds of billions of dollars. THIS PLAN WAS INSANE from the start. But you won’t learn that from mainstream media. We’ve found a few responses to Trump pulling out of Paris, from people who DO believe in global warming, but have the guts to tell the truth about the disastrous Paris deal and why it’s a GOOD THING Trump pulled out of it…
    Read More “Three Cheers! Trump Pulls U.S. Out of Horrible Paris Climate Treaty”

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    The Truth About EPA’s “Mass Advisory Board Firings”

    What role should appointed (i.e. not-elected) Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) boards have with respect to environmental regulations in our country? It’s a valid question and timely, given the recent negative news coverage over EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s action in not automatically reappointing some board members. The way the press howls about it you would think board members have a Divine Right to be on those boards. Did you know there are 20 such “advisory boards” at the EPA? And did you know that many of the board members receive EPA grants–in the millions of dollars? This is the swamp Trump repeatedly referred to when campaigning. It’s downright corrupt. And yet when Pruitt tells board members that will have to stoop to the level of reapplying if they want to stay on a board, establishment Washington has a cow. The EPA, as we’ve written about for years, has profound impact on the oil and gas industry–hence our interest. MDN friend Steven Heins, an energy and regulatory consultant and former vice president of communication for Orion Energy Systems, has written a guest post for MDN musing over the EPA’s advisory boards and the role of the public and private sectors with regard to environmental issues… Read More “The Truth About EPA’s “Mass Advisory Board Firings””

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    Application Filed to Drill/Frack 1st Shale Well in Illinois

    Technically, this is not a Marcellus/Utica story, but it is (and should be) of interest to those of us who concentrate on the Appalachian region. The very first application has been filed in Illinois for a permit to drill and frack a shale well. Woolsey Operating Co., headquartered in Kansas, has filed a high volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing (HVHHF) application with the Illinois Dept. of Natural Resources (DNR). The DNR has assigned the application Review Number HVHHF-000001 — the very first. Which is momentous. We’ve only seen two mainstream news sources (from Illinois) pick up on what is really big news. No national news sources have covered it–yet. The press release from the DNR provides some details, like the location of the proposed well (southern Illinois, in White County). What the announcement and news stories don’t say is which rock layer will the shale well target? MDN found the answer by reviewing the application…
    Read More “Application Filed to Drill/Frack 1st Shale Well in Illinois”

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    PA DEP Green Lights Wastewater Injection Well in Clearfield County

    Here’s one that flew mostly under the radar. The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) has just granted final approval for the state’s ninth wastewater injection well to begin operation. The DEP approved Sammy-Mar, LLC’s Povlik #1 injection well, located in Huston Township, Clearfield County, more than two years after the federal Environmental Protection Agency had approved it. Huston Township in Clearfield County, unlike Highland Township in Elk County, and Grant Township in Indiana County, did not oppose the well. You may recall the DEP approved injection wells in Elk and Indiana counties in March, and had to sue the towns involved over their illegal home rule laws that sought to keep the wells out (see PA DEP Issues 2 Wastewater Injection Well Permits, Sues 2 Towns). This time around, Huston Twp wisely decided not to attempt regulating what only the state, by law, can regulate. This injection well will be an important new resource for Marcellus drillers to dispose wastewater…
    Read More “PA DEP Green Lights Wastewater Injection Well in Clearfield County”

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    WV Supreme Court: Non-Participating Rights Owner Can’t Stop Lease

    Just yesterday we told you about an important court case that had gone to the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals (see WV Rights/Pooling Case May have Big Impact on Shale Industry). In brief, the case was appealed from a lower court where a judge found that a “non-participating” mineral rights owner, someone who owned a quarter of the rights for a property in Marshall County, had the power to object and stop a lease of the property for oil and gas drilling. We thought it strange that the lower court judge would make such a decision, which threatens to up-end thousands of leases in WV that are similar. Little did we know that as we were publishing that story, the WV Supreme Court was rendering its decision. All five justices voted to overturn the lower court ruling and preserve sanity for leases in the Mountain State… Read More “WV Supreme Court: Non-Participating Rights Owner Can’t Stop Lease”

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    PA Hearing Board Reduces EQT Fine from $4.5M to $1.1M

    In October 2014, the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) fined Marcellus driller EQT a whopping $4.53 million for a leaky wastewater impoundment in Tioga County, PA (see PA DEP Levies Biggest Fine Ever, $4.5M Against EQT). While EQT did not say there wasn’t a problem with leaks at the site, they did say the way the DEP calculated the fine is unreasonable and arbitrary. EQT appealed the fine and the case all the way to the PA Supreme Court. In December 2015, the high court handed EQT a “procedural victory” by saying EQT has a point about the manner in which the DEP is calculating the fine (see PA Supreme Court Gives EQT “Procedural Victory” in $4.5M Fine Case). The Supreme Court sent the case back to a lower court, PA Commonwealth Court, for follow up work, and in January 2017, a three-judge panel ruled that the method the DEP currently uses to assess fines–by how many days pollution lingers, instead of by how many days the initial release of pollution lasted–is not legal nor common sense (see EQT Wins Court Case Against PA DEP re $4.5M Wastewater Leak Fine). The judges said such a method in fining, “would result in potentially limitless continuing violations.” Under the old way of calculating fines, the DEP was considering upping the fine on EQT to an insane $157 million. Calculating it under the new way will mean a fine of around $120,000. We thought with that ruling it was all done and dusted. Not so. The soap opera continued when the DEP appealed the Commonwealth Court panel’s ruling back up to the PA Supreme Court where the Supremes will consider it all over again (see DEP Appeals $4.5M Wastewater Leak Fine Against EQT to Supremes). Into this mess, let’s now throw in another wrinkle. While the courts have been grappling with issues of procedure and whether or not the DEP can assess fines the way it claims it can (that is, Constitutional issues), at the same time the matter was brought up before the PA Environmental Hearing Board (EHB), a sort of quasi-court set up to hear appeals of decisions made by DEP. The EHB has decided to adjust the fine down significantly–from the DEP’s initial levy of $4.53 million down to $1.1 million. Here was their reasoning… Read More “PA Hearing Board Reduces EQT Fine from $4.5M to $1.1M”