Oct 31 Deadline to Send Comments to Ohio EPA re NEXUS Pipeline
Yet another deadline approaches for the NEXUS Pipeline, a $2 billion, 255-mile interstate pipeline that will run from Ohio through Michigan and eventually to the Dawn Hub in Ontario, Canada. It is a critically needed pipeline to move Utica and Marcellus Shale gas from an over-saturated market in the northeast to markets in the Midwest and Canada. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is charged with evaluating and approving (or not) the project. However, as often happens, various state agencies are also involved in the project. One of those agencies if the Ohio EPA (Environmental Protection Agency). In September the Ohio EPA issued permits to allow NEXUS to build five new compressor stations along the pipeline’s route through OH (see OH EPA Grants Permits for 5 NEXUS Pipeline Compressor Stations). The Ohio EPA is back, this time considering whether (or not) to issue stream crossing permits to NEXUS. The pipeline will cross streams and swamps (i.e. “wetlands”) in these watersheds: Upper Ohio, Tuscarawas, Mahoning, Cedar-Portage, Lower Maumee, Ottawa-Stony, Black-Rocky, Huron-Vermilion and Sandusky. The public (i.e. YOU) have until next Monday, Oct. 31, to file comments on NEXUS’ “401 water quality certification” as it is called. Get writing!…
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We spotted what is, to us, a fascinating story about propane use across the country. There are those, like LP Gas magazine, that closely watch usage trends for propane. As you may know, propane is an NGL, or natural gas liquid. It is one of the hydrocarbons that comes out of a borehole drilled to extract either oil or natural gas. Along with oil and gas other hydrocarbons come out of the hole–NGLs like propane, ethane, butane, etc. One of the places propane is increasingly produced, and consumed, is in the northeast–because of Marcellus/Utica drilling. The sharp editors at LP Gas noticed an historically unusual trend–a spike way up in propane usage in one of the main regions tracked, in the northeast. The explanation for the spike up in usage? Propane is getting exported from the Marcus Hook refinery. Therefore much larger volumes of propane are being “consumed” by those exports. Which we find fascinating. We are producing AND consuming propane within the Marcellus/Utica region. That is, we’re generating wealth by exporting propane. We knew about ethane exports already happening at Marcus Hook (see 
Black & Veatch, a global engineering, consulting, construction, and operations company that is a major player in the oil and gas market, has just-released a new report: 2016 Strategic Directions: Natural Gas Industry Report (see a copy below). The new report tackles market outlooks for the upstream, midstream and downstream segments. One of the sections that caught our eye: power market opportunities, which explores how coal plant retirements and lower operating dispatch costs have moved natural gas to its place as the primary energy source in the United States. Also in the report, the attitudes of those working in the industry is optimistic. But the report authors issue a note of caution: “Yet, this optimism may be masking some substantial warning signs, particularly for upstream and midstream players. Tight controls on capital investments, tied to the low margins inherent in today’s pricing environment, have constrained new projects. Lower crude oil prices have revitalized petrochemical projects in the downstream sector, particularly in international markets, but investors still question long-term viability. This raises a key question for how organizations are, or are not, positioned to take advantage of an eventual pricing correction.” In other words, drillers and pipeline companies shouldn’t be popping the cork on the champagne bottle just yet. Here’s the fifth annual natgas update from B&V…
A couple of legal beagles from the Fox Rothschild law firm (in NJ) are sounding the alarm that two bankruptcy court decisions in New York State are threatening to up-end the midstream industry across the country. We tend to agree with them. Earlier this year, MDN brought you the news that a NY bankrutpcy court judge had allowed Sabine Oil & Gas, going through bankruptcy, to cancel a pipeline gathering contract with Cheniere’s Nordheim Eagle Ford Gathering in Texas (see 
We’ve written a number of stories about Pennsylvania House Bill (HB) 1391 that would guarantee landowners receive a 12.5% minimum royalty on the gas extracted from their land, regardless of post-production costs. The issue has led to what MDN calls a civil war between landowners (particularly in Bradford County, PA) and the drilling industry. The clock is ticking and this week is it for this legislative session in PA. If supporters of HB 1391 don’t get the bill passed this week, it will have to be reintroduced and go through the entire process again next year. Supporters like Doug McLinko, a Bradford County commissioner, have warned of serious consequences for the industry if the bill doesn’t get passed. The industry appears to have convinced enough lawmakers to keep the bill bottled up so it doesn’t come to the floor for a vote, which riles landowners. HB 1391’s supporters in the legislature are sounding like it’s already over for this year, and that they will have to fight again next year. We’re concerned what this ongoing situation will do for what has, in the past, been good relations between landowners and drillers. That relationship appears to be souring, at least for some landowners…
Inspired by the criminal actions of eco-terrorists in North Dakota (see 
Last week Jason Pigott, vice president of operations for Chesapeake Energy, addressed analysts at a conference and disclosed that the company ran an experiment by pumping 25,000 tons (i.e. 50 million pounds) of sand down a single shale well bore. Incredible! And they found by doing so that output from the well was 70% higher than it normally would have been. Sand acts as a proppant to “prop open” cracks and holes in the fractured rock, allowing gas trapped in small pockets to escape. Chessy is calling the experiment “propageddon.” Catchy. At the conference Pigott said, “What we’re doing is unleashing hell on every gas molecule downhole.” Strong words! The well they tried it with is located in Louisiana. We highlight this story because what they learn there will no doubt come to the Marcellus/Utica as well…
Two weeks ago MDN told you that TransCanada is attempting to block Marcellus/Utica gas from entering the eastern Canadian market by lowballing pipeline transportation costs from western Canada (see 
Here’s a story you have to go to a non-US (i.e. objective) newspaper to find. Stephen Tindale is a “lifelong green” and once ran the organization Greenpeace, for five years. He’s written and published an op-ed in the UK Sun titled, “As a lifelong Green, I’M convinced fracking’s the only solution to energy problems.” You read that right! Here’s someone with a brain–someone willing to open his mind and willing to objectively view the evidence before his eyes. And what does he see? Fracking shale formations is the answer, not the problem. Here’s what he said last week…
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce recently launched a “What If…?” series to counter the radical “keep it in the ground” movement–a movement that irrationally hates the use of fossil fuels. In August the Chamber released their first such report, titled “What If…Energy Production was Banned on Federal Lands and Waters?” (see 
The rogue and out-of-control federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) continues its bullying ways when it comes to the oil and gas industry. Just coming to light (for us) is an action last week by the EPA to fine Crestwood Midstream’s Finger Lakes LPG Storage subsidiary $312,000–for not filing the right paperwork for their facility in upstate New York. Note that the fines are NOT for leaking methane or propane, NOT for endangering the public, NOT for actually doing ANY kind of environmental harm. The fines are for not filing the proper paperwork. The EPA is behaving like the mob running a protection money racket. Crestwood has to pay the EPA $154,000 in fines, and then pay $158,000 for new equipment for three local fire departments located near the facility. The antis are already using this paperwork violation as yet another reason to bleat and blat about Crestwood’s proposed underground propane storage facility along the shores of Seneca Lake. The paperwork violation is for a Crestwood/Finger Lakes LPG Storage facility in the next county–nowhere near Seneca Lake where the proposed propane facility is located. Makes no difference. Antis say it’s yet more evidence that Crestwood can’t be trusted to safely operate the propane storage facility…
Bradford County, PA landowners and their titular leader, county commissioner Doug McLinko, are keeping up the pressure on PA’s legislators to pass House Bill (HB) 1391 to guarantee landowners receive 12.5% royalties. Earlier this week we noted the county had released a powerful new video to support their cause (see 
Some more disappointing news for Williams’ Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline project, a $3 billion, 198-mile project running through 10 Pennsylvania counties to connect Marcellus Shale natural gas from PA with the Williams’ Transco pipeline in southern Lancaster County. One week ago MDN brought you the news that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) announced it is actively reviewing two alternative routes for the Central Penn Line (an important part of the Sunrise project), accepting public comments on the two alternative routes until Nov. 14 (see 
In January of this year, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) launched five investigations into four pipelines, three of which operate in the northeast, to determine whether or not those pipelines have been “substantially” overcharging their customers with the excuse of “we have to recover our costs” (see 
The rogue and out-of-control federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) continues its drive to illegally control oil and gas drilling in this country. Their latest transgression: the EPA has just issued new ozone “guidelines” for oil and natural gas systems, to supposedly reduce smog-forming emissions in large population centers. The new guidelines are not, the EPA says, required regulations (yet), but only “recommendations for state and local air agencies to consider as they determine what emissions limits to apply to covered sources in their jurisdictions.” We all know today’s “recommendations” are tomorrow’s “regulations.” That’s how it works with overbearing statists. The thing is, the EPA has issued these so-called guidelines BEFORE their own research is all done. They’ve jumped the gun once again…