Industrywide Issues

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    Desperate Antis Try One Last Legal Maneuver to Stop Mariner East 2

    You may recall our story about the daughter of a Huntingdon County, PA landowner, radicalized by Big Green groups (as evidenced by her association with well known protesters previously arrested), who took to a tree on her mom’s property in order to illegally stop crews working on tree clearing for the Mariner East 2 pipeline (see PA Anti Literally Goes Up a Tree to Stop Mariner East 2 Pipeline). It ultimately didn’t matter, because Sunoco came back and cut down the few trees they need to cut anyway (see Sunoco Tricks Radicalized Protester – Returns and Cuts More Trees). Eventually law enforcement got around to arresting the daughter, and the mom (who also trespassed during tree clearing). Law enforcement also arrested a serial criminal trespasser/anti who aided and radicalized them. Unfortunately, in a miscarriage of justice, the charges against all three were dropped (see Charges Dismissed Against Tree Sitting Anti in Huntingdon County). The up-a-tree girl and her mom, with backing by Big Green money, continue to litigate. They are being used by Big Green, and fossil fuel-hating Big Green lawyers for the mom and daughter think they’ve found a clever legal tactic to stop Mariner East 2–not just from their property, but from being built across the state period. It is their final “hail Mary” pass…
    Read More “Desperate Antis Try One Last Legal Maneuver to Stop Mariner East 2”

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    KM Files to Reverse Louisiana Pipe, Send Marcellus Gas to Gulf

    Seems like every few weeks we read about yet another pipeline either getting built, or reversed, in order to send Marcellus/Utica gas to other parts of the country. The latest one that surprised us (hadn’t heard of it before) is Kinder Morgan’s plan to add bidirectional capacity to their Kinder Morgan Louisiana pipeline (KMLP) to flow gas to Cheniere Energy’s Sabine Pass LNG export facility. KMLP is a pipeline in Louisiana–how does reversing it get Marcellus gas to Sabine Pass? As you might have guessed, KMLP connects with other pipeline systems, including Columbia Gulf Transmission and ANR Pipeline. Both of those pipeline systems, which flow Marcellus gas, are adding bidirectional capacity as well. When it’s all done, (more of) our gas will head to Sabine Pass for liquefaction and then export to other countries. How cool is that? Here’s an update on KMLP changing directions…
    Read More “KM Files to Reverse Louisiana Pipe, Send Marcellus Gas to Gulf”

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    Spectra, Enbridge Shareholders Approve $28B Merger

    Combined infrastructure – click for a larger version

    In September MDN told you about the proposed deal by Canadian pipeline operator Enbridge Inc. to buy out pipeline operator Spectra Energy (based in Houston) in an all-stock deal (see Canadian Enbridge Buying US Spectra Energy for $28B). Spectra has a number of critical pipeline infrastructure projects under way or planned in the Marcellus/Utica region, including the planned Access Northeast pipeline to New England, the mighty NEXUS pipeline planned to span Ohio, the currently under construction Algonquin Incremental Marketing (AIM) pipeline project, and three projects (Access South, Adair Southwest and Lebanon Express) under way to expand one of the largest natural gas pipelines in the U.S. (and in the northeast)–the Texas Eastern Transmission (Tetco) pipeline. This is a big deal for our region. Last week the shareholders of both companies voted to approve the proposed buyout/merger. Provided everything goes according to plan, the marriage will take place in 1Q17…
    Read More “Spectra, Enbridge Shareholders Approve $28B Merger”

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    Sierra Club Targets Marcellus Pipe Projects Using Antitrust Laws

    The litigious and environmentally radical Sierra Club, backed by Big Green money from billionaires like Tom Steyer, is attempting to block two important pipeline projects in the Marcellus: Dominion’s $5 billion, 594-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP), a natural gas pipeline that will stretch from West Virginia through Virginia and into North Carolina; and DTE Energy/Spectra Energy’s 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’s no secret groups like the Sierra Club have tried to stop such projects. But their latest strategy in opposing these two projects is worthy of examination. The Clubbers are claiming that ACP and NEXUS have an unfair competitive advantage over alternative energy sources, like wind and solar, and therefore should be stopped. That is, the Sierra Club is attempting to use U.S. antitrust laws dating back to the late 1800s in an attempt to claim these pipelines are anti-competitive and therefore should be canceled. Talk about chutzpah…
    Read More “Sierra Club Targets Marcellus Pipe Projects Using Antitrust Laws”

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    NEXUS Pipeline Gets a President – Jim Grech

    James “Jim” Grech

    The NEXUS Pipeline project is 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. It is a joint venture between DTE Energy and Spectra Energy. Earlier this month we brought you the great news that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has approved the project (see FERC Approves NEXUS Pipeline, Project on Track for 2017). As we get close to beginning construction, which will happen sometime early next year, the project needs a leader. It now has one. James “Jim” Grech, formerly an executive vice president at CONSOL Energy, is the new president of NEXUS Pipeline…
    Read More “NEXUS Pipeline Gets a President – Jim Grech”

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    Elba Island LNG Update: Non-FTA Exports Approved, Dump Truck City

    Elba Island LNG

    Kinder Morgan’s Elba Island, Georgia (near Savannah) proposed LNG export facility received a green light from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in June (see KM’s Elba Island LNG Export Plant Approved by FERC). Kinder has since started construction at the site. Further good news: the U.S. Dept. of Energy has just granted Elba Island permission to export LNG to non-Free Trade Agreement countries. What does the Georgia’s Elba LNG plant have to do with Marcellus/Utica? The Williams Transco pipeline runs through Georgia. Kinder owns and operates the 200-mile Elba Express pipeline, which connects the LNG facility to the Transco. Currently Elba Island imports LNG, getting it to market via the Transco. However, Williams has been on a mission to send Marcellus gas south–including to Georgia (see Marcellus Gas Heading to Georgia via Transco Pipeline). Marcellus Shale gas will, via the Transco, be at least some of, if not the primary, source for gas exported from the Elba Island facility. After getting FERC approval, Kinder began work on the expansion project last month. Currently some 325 dump trucks come and go every day at the site (7,800 per month!). Below is the news about DOE granting permission for non-FTA exports to Elba, along with an update on the frenetic pace of activity to build the new facility…
    Read More “Elba Island LNG Update: Non-FTA Exports Approved, Dump Truck City”

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    French Supermajor Total Buys 23% Stake in Tellurian LNG

    Charif Souki

    Total, a French multinational integrated oil and gas company and one of the six “Supermajor” oil companies in the world, has just purchased a 23% stake in Tellurian Investments for $207 million. Tellurian is building the Driftwood LNG export facility in southern Louisiana (see Fired Cheniere Energy CEO Charif Souki’s Revenge: Driftwood LNG). Tellurian CEO Charif Souki was fired one year ago this month by Carl Icahan from Cheniere Energy, the LNG exporting company he co-founded (see Evil Corporate Raider Carl Icahn Claims Another CEO Scalp). We used to feel bad for Souki, but no more–not since he made an ass of himself by saying in a CNBC interview he would reconsider his American citizenship if Donald Trump won the presidency (see Will Charif Souki Renounce His American Citizenship?). We’re still waiting for Souki to go back to his native Egypt–or perhaps now, to France. That would be fitting. At any rate, here’s the details on Total investing in Souki’s Tellurian investments, which is a play to get in on the hot LNG export action in the U.S….
    Read More “French Supermajor Total Buys 23% Stake in Tellurian LNG”

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    Shell Seeks to Horse Trade Air Pollution Credits for Cracker Plant

    In June 2015, a full year ahead of Shell’s final investment decision (FID) to build a multi-billion dollar ethane cracker plant complex in Beaver County, PA, the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection issued the project air quality permits–which was a “critical” requirement for Shell before making their decision (see Shell Receives Air Quality Permit from PA DEP for Cracker Plant). Two months later, two litigious Big Green environmental groups with deep pockets–the Philadelphia-based Clean Air Council and the Washington, DC-based Environmental Integrity Project–tried to scuttle the project by appealing the DEP’s issuance of the air quality permits (see Big Green Groups File to Block Shell Cracker Air Quality Permit). Fortunately the DEP blew off the Big Green appeal. However, the issue of air pollution is not yet totally resolved. In order for Shell to build the plant–a plant that will have a fair amount of emissions–they need to buy pollution credits from other plants. That is, if other plants are installing new air pollution controls, or shutting down, Shell can buy their emissions allotments, and use them for the cracker project. In the end, it’s all about controlling how much of the nasty stuff, like volatile organic compounds (VOCs) gets pumped into the air in a given region. But there’s a problem. Shell can’t find enough VOC credits to buy, so they’re proposing a deal with the DEP to buy a different kind of credit instead–NOx or nitrogen oxides. Will the DEP allow Shell to horse trade NOx for VOCs? That’s the billion dollar question…
    Read More “Shell Seeks to Horse Trade Air Pollution Credits for Cracker Plant”

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    REX Pipeline Adds Yet More Capacity, Now Flowing Extra 450 MMcf/d

    Last Wednesday MDN (via a story from NGI) brought you the good news that the Rockies Express Pipeline (REX) had begun to flow an extra 200 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) of natural gas from East to West along the pipeline–moving more Utica and Marcellus gas from Ohio to places like the Chicago area (see Reversed REX Pipeline Goes from 1.8 Bcf to 2.0 Bcf). REX previously filed a plan with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to add another 800 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) of capacity along the reversed portion of the pipeline. In late November, FERC gave REX the go-ahead to start additional compressors added at three locations along the route. The plan is to have all of the extra 800 MMcf/d flowing by the end of this year. On Wednesday, as we noted, 200 MMcf/d of additional capacity kicked in. Then on Friday, NGI reported another 250 MMcf/d was added, meaning 450 MMcf/d was added to REX’s capacity in a single week. That’s another 450 MMcf/d of yummy, clean-burning fracked Utica/Marcellus shale gas flowing to the Midwest that wasn’t a week ago. We love it when a plan comes together…
    Read More “REX Pipeline Adds Yet More Capacity, Now Flowing Extra 450 MMcf/d”

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    PA Drillers Don’t Have to Plug Old Wells Before Fracking, For Now

    On Oct. 8, after five years in the making, Pennsylvania adopted new shale drilling regulations (see PA’s New Chapter 78a Drilling Regs Go into Effect Oct 8). Although the regs were ready at the end of the Gov. Tom Corbett Administration, Corbett fumbled the ball and the regs didn’t get adopted, which left them vulnerable to the incoming left-leaning Tom Wolf. Wolf’s people mangled the regulations under the Dept. of Environmental Protection Dictator/Secretary John Quigley, who got fired over unethical collusion with Big Green groups (see Smoking Gun: Copy of the Email that Got John Quigley Fired). Some of the good stuff remained, but onerous new elements were introduced. One of the onerous new regulations has to do with abandoned and orphaned wells. PA is dotted with hundreds of thousands of oil and gas wells drilled since the first well drilled in 1859. The problem is that the state has only mapped and is aware of under 10,000 of those wells. If a driller happens to horizontally drill through one of those old wells, water and chemicals (more likely methane) can take an express elevator to the surface and come out where it shouldn’t–perhaps contaminating water supplies, among other unfortunate outcomes. The new Chapter 78a regulations attempted to handle the situation by requiring drillers to map and plan for how they will avoid that outcome–by avoiding and plugging any abandoned or orphaned wells up to 1,500 feet away. The problem for drillers is that they often do not own the lease rights and have no legal right to enter land up to 1,500 feet away to conduct surveys and plug wells–a catch 22 situation. And plugging a well isn’t cheap. Should drillers today have to pay for something someone else did decades ago? The Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC), on behalf of its shale drilling members, sued to stop abandoned well provision (along with several other provisions), which a judge agreed to do, at least for now until a full trial can decide the issue (see PA Judge Temporarily Blocks Some DEP Chapter 78a Drilling Regs). The judge put a temporary order blocking the abandoned/orphaned well provision in November, and upheld that block again in December. For the time being, Marcellus drillers do not have to map and plug old wells that don’t belong to them…
    Read More “PA Drillers Don’t Have to Plug Old Wells Before Fracking, For Now”

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    Analyzing Gulfport’s Decision to Diversify Away from the Utica

    Last week MDN told you about Gulfport Energy’s deal to buy 85,000 acres of leases with 48 horizontal wells in Oklahoma’s SCOOP shale play in a $1.85 billion deal (see Gulfport Energy Expands into SCOOP, New Stock & IOUs to Pay $1.85B). At the time we said, “we jealously wish they were investing that money here [in the Utica] and not there.” Looks like we’re not the only ones questioning Gulfport’s strategy of “diversifying away from the Utica.” None other than energy analyst Richard Zeits, our favorite Seeking Alpha author, did a deep dive into the deal. He found that Gulfport paid $27,000 per acre and although they paid for it with a fair amount of equity, they also increased their debt load “significantly.” Zeits said, “The move into a new core area raises questions with regard to the company’s macro outlook for the Utica/Marcellus region.” Hmmm. Here’s what else the oracle of energy had to say about Gulfport’s SCOOP deal…
    Read More “Analyzing Gulfport’s Decision to Diversify Away from the Utica”

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    Radicals Plan “Civil” Disobedience Against FL Marcellus Pipeline

    Click for larger version

    Have you noticed what was entirely predictable (and predicted by MDN) with respect to pipeline projects in the east? Suddenly they’re all bosom buddies and first cousins of the Dakota Access Pipeline. The hew and cry goes out from fossil fuel haters that ANY new natural gas pipeline project–even those that have been years in the planning and are now being constructed–must suddenly stop because the mob desires it. We have another such mob-opposed project to add to the list–a Marcellus gas pipeline Florida. Wait…what? Florida?? You read that right. Spectra Energy (and partners NextEra Energy and Duke Energy) are building a $3.2 billion, 515-mile interstate natural gas pipeline in Florida, Georgia and Alabama to deliver Marcellus gas to the southeast. The project, called Sabal Trail Transmission, has been underway for the past three years and is already half built and due to be completed and online in June 2017–six short months from now. Sabal Trail will connect to Williams’ Hillabee Expansion Project, which is a new pipeline spur built off the huge Transco pipeline system (see Williams Building Alabama Pipeline with Marcellus Connection). Williams is reversing a portion of the Transco to bring Marcellus gas south. And all of a sudden a bunch of anti-fossil fuel dunderheads have woken up in Tallahassee and they don’t want that nasty Sabal Trail pipeline after all. Oh gee, let’s just shut it all down and go home. The radicals are planning an act of (un)civil disobedience in January to express their mob rule displeasure with the project…
    Read More “Radicals Plan “Civil” Disobedience Against FL Marcellus Pipeline”

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    Indians No Friends of the Pilgrims (as in Pipeline)

    In November 2015, MDN told you about Pilgrim Pipeline Holdings, developing an East Coast pipeline to carry refined petroleum products such as gasoline, diesel, heating oil, and jet and aviation fuel northbound from Linden, New Jersey to Albany, New York (178 miles). In addition, a second Pilgrim pipeline will carry crude oil from Albany south to NJ and other locations. Two pipelines, side by side, liquids flowing through them in different directions (see Will Pilgrim Pipeline be Allowed to Settle in the NY World?). The oil that would flow south from Albany comes from trains delivering crude from the Bakken Shale play–a double evil in the sight of radical anti-fossil fuelers. So they turned up the pressure on the spineless Andrew Cuomo (see NY Antis Hope Gov. Cuomo Will Halt Pilgrim Pipeline’s Progress). The pressure worked (he’s so predictable). In September the state Dept. of Environmental Conservation and the state’s Thruway Authority, working together, informed Pilgrim they will need to submit to a detailed anal exam, called a full environmental review, before obtaining approval. Anti-fossil nutters rejoiced that the project has been slowed (gives them a chance to kill it). But Pilgrim spun the news as a good thing–saying they welcome the full environmental review to prove the safety and righteousness of their proposal. We’ve seen that movie before–remember the Constitution Pipeline? At any rate, fossil fuel haters are still worked up about the possibility that those rascally Pilgrims will slip across the continent, laying a pipeline in their wake. So, just like other projects (see today’s story about the Sabal Trail Pipeline), antis are invoking the sacred name of the great Dakota Access Pipeline killing gods to rain down death and destruction on the innocent Pilgrims…
    Read More “Indians No Friends of the Pilgrims (as in Pipeline)”

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    Antis Reveal True Motivation for Opposing Access Northeast Pipe

    A bunch of wacko New England liberals get together at a local high school to bad mouth the proposed Spectra Energy Access Northeast Pipeline project. That describes just about any town or hamlet in Massachusetts just about any night of the week. These New England libs, who are intolerant of the very fossil fuels that allow them to exist, are actually kind of funny (and sad) when you listen to them. We read yet another such story, about a group of antis in Grafton, MA, and thought you might enjoy our reading our appended comments to the story. Hey, you’ve got to have fun with this stuff–or you’d just get depressed at how obtuse some people can be…
    Read More “Antis Reveal True Motivation for Opposing Access Northeast Pipe”

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    24 States Ask Incoming Trump Admin to Dump CPP on ‘Day One’

    We’ve written plenty about President Obama’s so-called Clean Power Plan (CPP), introduced last summer, a plan to force electric generators to convert to using more “renewable” sources of energy–and less fossil fuels (see Obama Stabs Natural Gas Electric Plants in Clean Power Plan). The CPP outright assassinates coal powered generation, and wounds (but doesn’t kill) natural gas. It is Obama’s attempt at picking winners and losers in who and how we get our energy. Earlier this year 29 states and state agencies, including Ohio and West Virgina, filed an application with the U.S. Supreme Court seeking an immediate stay of the CPP (see 29 States Ask Supreme Court to Stop Obama Clean Power Plan ASAP). In a shock decision, the Supreme Court did just that. In September, the enormously complex CPP got its day in court–in the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (see Obama’s Disastrous Clean Power Plan Goes to Court Today). Last week the attorneys general from 24 of the states opposed to the CPP wrote a letter to President-Elect Trump, RINO Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnel and RINO House Speaker Paul Ryan. The letter (copy below) asks Trump to dump the CPP with an Executive Order on Day One when he takes office, and asks Congress to adopt legislation to prevent the EPA from such an egregious overreach ever again…
    Read More “24 States Ask Incoming Trump Admin to Dump CPP on ‘Day One’”

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    LSE Study: Fracking has Made US Manufacturing More Competitive

    The London School of Economics recently released a research study that prominently features the Marcellus/Utica. In “On the Comparative Advantage of U.S. Manufacturing: Evidence from the Shale Gas Revolution” (full copy below), the authors find America’s shale revolution is revitalizing American manufacturing. If we could vastly simplify the research in just a few words, it is this: While we have enough shale gas to export plenty of it, exporting it is not as economic as exporting oil due to the elaborate processes to liquefy and regassify natural gas–therefore a lot of the gas stays right here at home, making the U.S. one of (if not the) cheapest places on the planet to establish manufacturing plants, especially for manufacturers that use natural gas and NGLs (natural gas liquids). Therefore, manufacturing, especially in the petrochemical sector, is ramping back up in the U.S. The authors cite a study that says for every two jobs created by the fracking industry, another one job is created in the manufacturing sector. The paper also concludes that the shale revolution saved Obama’s bacon by creating hundreds of thousands of jobs. Without shale drilling we would not have recovered as quickly as we did from the economic near-collapse of 2007/2008. Here’s a summary of the research, followed by a full copy of the published paper…
    Read More “LSE Study: Fracking has Made US Manufacturing More Competitive”