Industrywide Issues

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    Antis Wrong: No Link Between Fracking & Smallmouth Bass Decline

    Back in 2012 Congressman Camille “Bud” George, Democrat from Clearfield County, PA, opened his big mouth and tried to blame fracking for a problem with smallmouth bass in the Susquehanna River (see PA Dems Blame Marcellus Drilling for Smallmouth Bass Problem). Last May, the nutters from a group called “Occupy the Constitution Pipeline Route” repeated the same accusation, showing a picture of a diseased smallmouth with a huge tumor (see below). Thing is, none of it is true. Earlier this week the head of PA’s Dept. of Environmental Protection, John Quigley, and the head of PA’s Fish and Boat Commission, John Arway, both said the smallmouth bacterial disease issue is unrelated to fracking…
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    New LNG Facility Green Lighted in Canada, Would Use Marcellus Gas

    Another LNG export facility along the East Coast of Canada has just received a green light from the Canadian National Energy Board (NEB). To be honest, this one was not previously on our radar. The facility would be built and owned by Hiranandani Group of Mumbai, India. They’re using a subsidiary company called Atlantic Coast (or AC) LNG Inc. The plan is to build the facility in Nova Scotia and (mostly) use Marcellus/Utica gas imported from the United States via the Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline (M&NE). Currently the M&NE flows from north to south, from Canada to the U.S. There is serious talk of reversing the flow. In fact, at some points for brief periods the flow already gets reversed, during peak demand periods in Canada. The NEB has granted AC LNG a permit to import up to 2.3 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of U.S. natural gas. The permit also grants them the right to export up to 2 Bcf/d from the terminal, if built. Some of the particulars…
    Read More “New LNG Facility Green Lighted in Canada, Would Use Marcellus Gas”

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    Repsol Not Happy with Spectra’s Atlantic Bridge, Pipeline Reversal

    A number of Canadian LNG export facilities being planned for eastern Canada are dependent on obtaining cheap, abundant Marcellus and Utica Shale gas from the U.S. Today we highlight news of a new (to us) entrant into the LNG race, AC LNG (see our companion story). How will Marcellus and Utica Shale gas get to the northern reaches of Canada? Via the Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline LLP (M&NE), a pipeline that stretches from the Boston area all the way to the northern reaches of Nova Scotia. Historically the M&NE pipeline has brought natural gas south, from Canada to the U.S. One of the sources of the gas traveling south on the M&NE is the Canaport LNG facility in New Brunswick–which imports LNG and regassifies it and sends it out over the M&NE. Repsol, a huge Spanish oil company, is the owner of the Canaport facility. So it’s no surprise that Repsol is sounding the alarm and asking the question: What happens to the gas we send south if M&NE reverses its flow and begins sending gas north?…
    Read More “Repsol Not Happy with Spectra’s Atlantic Bridge, Pipeline Reversal”

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    API 2016 State of American Energy Report

    Earlier this week the American Petroleum Institute (API) released its annual report, the State of American Energy (full copy below). Several themes are prominent in the report: shale energy’s creation of jobs, the economic growth we’ve experienced due to shale energy, and the fact we are now more secure than we’ve been in generations with respect to energy. We’re far less dependent on foreign oil than we were just a few years ago. That’s great news!…
    Read More “API 2016 State of American Energy Report”

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    PA DEP Issues “Final” New Drilling Regulations; Industry Pushback

    PA DEPJohn Quigley, the Secretary of the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), yesterday released a finalized version of proposed new oil and gas drilling regulations, otherwise known as Chapters 78 and 78a. A copy was sent to the Environmental Quality Board (EQB) for their required review which is planned for Feb. 3. The entire set of revised/new regulations (copy below) will then get published in the Pennsylvania Register and become final. Both the Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC), representing unconventional drillers, and the Pennsylvania Independent Oil & Gas Association (PIOGA), representing conventional drillers, have come out against the new regulations. The MSC says the new regulations will cost the industry $2 billion annually without a corresponding benefit for the environment or safety, and PIOGA minces no words when it says the four-year revision process “has been flawed to the point of being fraudulent”…
    Read More “PA DEP Issues “Final” New Drilling Regulations; Industry Pushback”

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    NY Town Barred from Selling Water to Shell for PA Fracking

    In March 2012, the village board in Painted Post (Steuben County), NY voted to sell water to Shell for use in fracking operations across the border in Pennsylvania. The Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC) gave its blessing to Painted Post to sell up to 1 million gallons of water day. But the decision didn’t sit well with power-hungry anti-drillers. The nutters from the radical Sierra Club sued to stop the deal in June 2012 (see Sierra Club Sues to Stop Water Sales in Steuben County, NY). A lower court ruled in favor of the radicals and struck down the deal. On appeal, a corrupt state appellate court has upheld the lower court’s ruling. Shell will have to find water from another source–not that they’re drilling any wells right now anyway…
    Read More “NY Town Barred from Selling Water to Shell for PA Fracking”

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    NH New State Motto: “Live as Slaves then Die” – Plans to Nix Pipe

    The official motto for the State of New Hampshire used to be “Live Free or Die.” Sometime over the past 200+ years it changed. These days the new motto in New Hampshire is, “Live as Slaves then Die.” How else do you explain why NH leaders (Republicans!) have introduced a blizzard of bills that would essentially outlaw a simple natural gas pipeline from being added to the ground–in a state where thousands of miles of pipelines are already buried in the ground? Why are they all of a sudden allergic to the safest form of transportation in existence? The only explanation we can find is, they want to be slaves to Big Green and forsake modern conveniences like electricity and automobiles…
    Read More “NH New State Motto: “Live as Slaves then Die” – Plans to Nix Pipe”

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    Columbia Gas Gets “Intelligent” Pipelines from GE/Accenture

    Who knew that pipelines could actually be “intelligent”? We sure didn’t. GE and Accenture have just announced that Columbia Pipeline Group (CPG) is the first company to deploy their “Intelligent Pipeline Solution”–a breakthrough software solution that helps pipeline operators make informed decisions about pipeline safety and integrity. Columbia Pipeline Group has deployed the GE/Accenture Intelligence Pipeline Solution on 15,000 miles of interstate pipelines–much of that flowing Marcellus and Utica Shale gas. The software monitors pipeline threats, improves risk management and provides “situational awareness” in near real-time…
    Read More “Columbia Gas Gets “Intelligent” Pipelines from GE/Accenture”

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    Ashtabula GTL Plant Builder Velocys Gets New CEO

    MDN Update: Velocys’ former CEO, Roy Lipski, contacted MDN to express concern that our reference to an earlier story about his departure (the way we present it) is misleading and harmful. We apologize. Roy points out that although he left the company, there was, after an investigation, no finding of any wrongdoing. 

    UK-based Velocys is the company building the Ashtabula, OH Gas-to-Liquids (GTL) plant to convert natural gas into other hydrocarbons like diesel fuel and even gasoline. In July 2015, Velocys suspended its CEO, Roy Lipski, for potential misconduct (see Velocys GTL Company Suspends CEO for Possible Serious Misconduct). Velocys said at the time there was no financial misconduct involved (which makes you wonder just what did happen), and a month later, in August, Lipski left the company for good. It’s taken a while, but Velocys has finally located a new CEO. Yesterday they announced the appointment of David Pummell as the next CEO…
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    PA DEP Fines Kinder Morgan $745K for Spills in Philly

    pay fines here signEDITOR’S NOTE: It’s interesting what a negative story can produce. The DEP posted a back-dated press release on their site after MDN released this story pointing out they had not informed anyone but StateImpact. We can assure you the release was not there until we pointed out its absence. You can read the back-dated press release here.

    Is the Democrat-controlled PBS outlet StateImpact Pennsylvania now the official stenographer for PennFuture Secretary of the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), John Quigley? That’s the thought we had when reading a StateImpact story that the DEP has fined Kinder Morgan $745,000 for leaks at two Philadelphia-area storage facilities owned by Kinder. In every case we can recall, going back more than six years of writing the MDN blog site, whenever the DEP fines a driller or midstream company (Kinder is the latter), the DEP issues an official public press release on their own website. Not this time. Apparently the only “news” outlet to receive notification of the fine has been StateImpact because we’ve searched high and low and nobody else is (so far) carrying the news. Why did the DEP not post the news on their own website as they always have in the past? Why did only certain (perhaps just one) news outlets get this particular press release? Hence our observation that perhaps StateImpact is the new official stenographer for the PennFuture DEP. Here’s what the Dems at StateImpact say about the Kinder fine…
    Read More “PA DEP Fines Kinder Morgan $745K for Spills in Philly”

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    Some PA Republicans Beginning to Cave on Severance Tax

    Kudos to Pennsylvania Republicans for hanging tough and pushing back against the bullying of PA Gov. Tom Wolf with respect to a Marcellus-killing severance tax. However, the battle for a severance tax may have taken its toll. At least one, perhaps more, Republicans are going squishy now that the fight is over for the 2015/2016 budget. State Rep. Jim Christiana, a Republican (RINO) from Beaver County (where Shell may build an ethane cracker plant) says he will propose new legislation that creates a 3% severance tax. His tax plan includes abolishing the existing impact fee, which is the equivalent of a severance tax, and using some of the 3% tax revenue to replace the impact fee. Christiana says, “many Republicans support the concept of a severance tax, but simply reject the governor’s punitive approach.” He also says Republicans “have lost the public relations battle in explaining that the impact fee is a severance tax.” In other words Christiana has lost his nerve. Christiana is a major disappointment and, possibly, an harbinger that PA Republicans may cave and pass a severance tax after successfully fending one off this year…
    Read More “Some PA Republicans Beginning to Cave on Severance Tax”

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    2015 NatGas Prices Traded at Lowest Level Since 1999

    Anecdotally we know that the price of natural gas in the U.S. as bought and sold along hundreds of locations on major pipelines was low in 2015. At least it seemed low. Story after story told us it was low. The price of gas as traded at the Henry Hub delivery point in southern Louisiana is used as a proxy for “the price” of natgas nationally–and it was low. But what does the actual data tell us? According to our favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the data confirms what everyone already “felt” was the case: the price of natgas in 2015 traded at its lowest level since 1999. Here’s the proof…
    Read More “2015 NatGas Prices Traded at Lowest Level Since 1999”

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    Explaining the Rift Between Saudi Arabia & Iran; Impact on Oil

    Daniel Markind
    Daniel Markind, Esq.

    You may have noticed a flare-up of tensions in the Middle East between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The “crisis” as it’s being called by news organizations like CNN has quickly escalated with other Arab countries taking sides–most of them siding with Saudi Arabia. The flare-up initially caused an uptick in the price of oil based on fears there may be oil disruptions in the region–but those fears quickly died down and along with it, the price died down too. What is this conflict all about? And how might it affect the price of oil (and gas) in 2016? MDN reader Daniel Markind, an attorney and partner in the Philadelphia law firm Weir and Partners, provides us with an excellent summary/overview of what this conflict is about…
    Read More “Explaining the Rift Between Saudi Arabia & Iran; Impact on Oil”

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    2 New NatGas Electric Turbines Planned Near Richmond, VA

    An electric generating operator with an existing facility near Kings Dominion amusement park (about 20 miles from Richmond, VA) has filed a plan with the Virginia State Corporation Commission seeking permission to build two new smaller natural gas-fired electric generating turbines at the existing facility in Hanover County, VA. The two turbines would create up to 340 megawatts of electricity and would be used only during peak electric demand times–when demand rises due to really cold or really hot weather. Doswell Energy Center already operates four combined cycle natural gas units (producing up to 665 megawatts of electricity) and one other turbine (generating 171 megawatts) at the site. The two new turbines would be built at the same location. There’s little doubt that Marcellus/Utica Shale gas will feed the new turbines, if built. Hanover County officials are on board with the plan…
    Read More “2 New NatGas Electric Turbines Planned Near Richmond, VA”

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    IHS Study: M&A Deals Plunged in 2015, So Did Shale Investment

    No doubt about it, 2015 was a tough year in the shale energy industry. With shale energy, investment happens when drillers decide to drill holes in the ground. Without a hole, money doesn’t get spent. And when money isn’t being spent on drilling, other businesses along the supply chain begin to see their revenue dry up. Global consulting and research firm IHS, or Information Handling Service, has just published the “IHS Energy Global Upstream M & A Review.” As part of their promotion of the new study (must be a customer to score a copy), IHS released a detailed summary of their findings. One finding in particular stood out to MDN: In 2014 unconventional/shale drillers spent $75 billion on upstream (exploration & production) activities. In 2015 that number plunged to less than $30 billion–a 60% drop. That statistic more than any illustrates what happened to the oil and gas industry in 2015. Here’s more great insights from IHS on what happened in 2015…
    Read More “IHS Study: M&A Deals Plunged in 2015, So Did Shale Investment”

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    Antis Celebrate OH Appeals Court Hearing with Street Dramatization

    Note: Somewhere along the way MDN received incorrect information and previously said the case was being heard by the Ohio Supreme Court. It is not. It is being heard by the 8th District Court of Appeals. Our error!

    It may be impolite to say so, but those who oppose fossil fuels, and therefore oppose drilling, and pipelines, and anything/everything to do with fossil fuels, are just plain nuts. They prove it, repeatedly, with their words and their actions. Take the group which purportedly represents a coalition of groups and individuals in Ohio called the Ohio Community Rights Network (OHCRN). Today the 8th District Court of Appeals will hear arguments in a case where one Ohio community, Broadview Heights, illegally tried to pass a so-called Community Bill of Rights that bans fracking. That measure got tossed by lower courts (see OH Antis Handed Crushing Defeat in Broadview Hghts Home Rule Case). But that hasn’t stopped the green faithful from appealing and appealing and appealing. They finally got their day before the high court–so what do they do? They issue a press release calling oil and gas drillers, and the State of Ohio, Goliath, and of course they cast themselves and the wacko citizens of Broadview Heights who passed the frack ban as David. Further, to commemorate this “historic event,” the crazies from OHCRN will present a “street dramatization” at 11:30 am today to illustrate the David vs. Goliath nature of the case…
    Read More “Antis Celebrate OH Appeals Court Hearing with Street Dramatization”