Marcellus Drillers Choking Back Supply, Waiting for New Pipelines
It’s a theme often repeated here on MDN and in mainstream media: We need more pipelines in the Marcellus/Utica. The problem, of course, is that it’s easy and fast to add new rigs and drill new wells in nothing flat. But at some point all of those wells flowing all of that gas need larger interstate pipelines to get the gas to market–markets in New England, New York and New Jersey, the south, the Midwest, even the Gulf Coast. The Marcellus/Utica is producing more than 25% of all the gas being produced in the country–way more than we can use ourselves. We need to move the gas to other parts of the country that can use it. So new wells come online, but it takes, literally, years to build a new pipeline. Why? Mostly because government regulatory agencies grind so slowly. We have an imbalance. What are drillers in the northeast doing to address the situation? Choking back their wells so they flow less. In some cases they’re shutting the wells in to stop them producing–until new pipelines are finished providing access to new markets so they can sell gas for a higher price. The latest mainstream media source to note this trend is Bloomberg…
Read More “Marcellus Drillers Choking Back Supply, Waiting for New Pipelines”
Canadian company TransCanada is perhaps best known for its Keystone XL Pipeline project, a 1,179-mile crude oil pipeline from Alberta, Canada, to Nebraska–if it ever gets built. Lord Obama opposes the pipeline and as we all know when a dictator opposes something, it doesn’t happen. The Keystone XL Pipeline would flow Canadian crude oil as far south as Texas. However, moving Canadian oil isn’t the only thing TransCanada does. They’re also owners of electric generating plants, and one of the markets they have their eye on is the northeast with its access to abundant, clean-burning Marcellus Shale gas. Last week TransCanada announced a deal to buy the Ironwood natural gas-fired power plant located in Lebanon, Pennsylvania. Ironwood produces up to 778 megawatts of electricity–enough electricity to power over half a million homes. TransCanada is paying $654 million to buy the plant…
Shhh. We have to whisper for this bit of news. Pennsylvania state budget talks began yesterday–“quietly” according to mainstream (Democrat) media. Staffers from no less than four House and Senate caucuses met yesterday, and will continue their meetings today and tomorrow, to see if they can hammer out a compromise budget. The dirty little secret is that no Gov. Wolf staffers are invited. Republicans and Democrats will work out the budget without Wolf and then let Wolf pretend it was all his idea in the first place. That’s how mainstream media covers for one of their own who’s gone off the rails as much as Wolf has. WORD IS (shhh! keep your voice down)…(oops, sorry)…word is that the budget negotiators will first agree how much extra spending they can get away with–put a number to it. After that they’ll figure out how they will raise insane amounts of new revenue to pay for it all. Yes, a potential severance tax is (unfortunately) still alive and kicking. We hope and trust Republicans will hold true and refuse any new taxes on the Marcellus Shale industry…
Even the election of judges for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court is political, sadly. Extreme leftist environmental groups in PA, including Clean Water Action, the Pennsylvania Sierra Club, PennEnvironment, and Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania are engaging in political activities (in violation of their non-profit, tax-exempt status) by endorsing a slate of candidates and pushing their members to vote for those candidates. We know this will be a complete shock for you, but the three candidates running for three open seats on the Supreme Court being pushed by the enviro extremist groups are all (gasp) liberal Democrats who are likely to vote against the Marcellus Shale industry on cases that come before the high court…
More evidence of the insanity of well-funded Big Green groups like Food & Water Watch, THE (arrogant) Delaware Riverkeeper, Clean Air Council and others. Not getting enough traction on their own, 20 Big Green groups have decided to collude in violation of their non-profit status. The 20 groups held a “massive” joint rally yesterday in Philadelphia (pictures look like there’s maybe three dozen people present) to announce the formation of a new coalition called Green Justice Philly. The object of the coalition is to push back against the plan to make Philadelphia an energy hub in the northeast–like Houston is in the southwest. The gang of 20 have pledged to coordinate their lies and attacks on the fossil fuel industry, hoping to stop forward progress against fossil fuel companies, which they call “lawbreakers.” The gang of 20 is pressuring Philadelphia City Council to decline new permits for companies like Philadelphia Energy Solutions (PES)–which operates the East Coast’s largest refinery on the banks of the Delaware River–hoping to prevent PES from building anything new or expanding their existing operation any further in Philadelphia. The gang of 20 wants to choke off new jobs and new investment if those jobs and investment comes from the evil, vile fossil fuel industry. Boggles the mind…
Testing laboratory Exova is a sizable international company with 4,500 workers in 142 locations around the world. Exova, with headquarters in Edinburgh, Scotland, has just added its newest testing lab–number 143–in Pittsburgh. The main customer base they’re aiming for in the Pittsburgh region is the Marcellus/Utica industry. A lot of what Excova does is test metals (and other materials) for corrosion and wear and tear. With all of the pipeline work going on in the Marcellus/Utica, it certainly makes sense for Exova to want a piece of that action…
Are you a farmer in Ohio with concerns, or perhaps a general interest, in whether or not pipelines running across your property will negatively affect crop productivity? If you are, Ohio State University wants to talk to you. OSU is looking for 20 to 30 farmers with pipelines in their fields over a period of three to five years to participate in a new research study. Here’s the details of the study and how to participate…
Sometimes it seems like the oil and gas industry, particularly in the Marcellus/Utica region, is some monolithic entity. It is not. Shale is all about people. The Marcellus Shale Coalition has just released a powerful new video called “The Faces of Shale” (watch it below). In the video average people talk about the shale industry and what it has meant to them–by providing jobs and income. It literally puts a face to what is sometimes a faceless entity. Who doesn’t love to hear someone else’s story?! Don’t listen to the lies Big Green pedals. Instead, listen to the people whose lives have been transformed by the miracle of fracking in the Marcellus Shale–people who thank God for the Marcellus…
Yesterday our favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), issued our favorite government report, the Drilling Productivity Report (DPR). The numbers are interesting. The first thing we notice is that shale oil production in America’s top seven shale plays is set to fall around 93,000 barrels per day over the next month–the biggest monthly drop in oil production since 2007. However, you have to put that in context. Since 2007 we’ve also seen the largest gains in production we’ve had in a generation or more. A big movement up can lead to a sizable movement back down. The fact is, we’re still producing more onshore oil than we ever have. Also of note is that natural gas production is set to drop 294 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) over the next 30 days–which is the biggest drop in production of shale gas since the EIA started issuing the DPR, and the fifth month in a row shale gas production has decreased. While the Marcellus will once again see a big decrease in its gas production (expected to drop 215 MMcf/d, which is 73% of the total drop!), the Utica reversed. Last month’s report predicted Utica gas production would drop 4 MMcf/d. This month’s report predicts Utica gas production will increase by a whopping 57 MMcf/d…
An expert speaking at the Utica Summit III yesterday in Stark, OH said he believes the Marcellus/Utica region will see three, possibly four, ethane crackers built. Tom Gellrich of consulting firm TopLine Analytics, a company that “closely follows ethane markets,” said he thinks the first ethane cracker to get built will be the Shell cracker plant in Beaver County, PA…
This is interesting! For some time MDN has tracked the Port Ambrose floating LNG terminal proposed by Liberty Natural Gas that would sit about 20 miles off the coast of New York and 29 miles off the coast of New Jersey, a plan Liberty created back in 2010, before the Marcellus Shale revolution really began to rock and roll. Liberty plans to import natural gas from Trinidad to sell into the northeast. In fact, Liberty took to slamming “fracked” gas from the Marcellus, saying imported gas is better for the U.S. of A. (see 
We know, you think MDN loves to toss out hyperbole and verbal jabs just to get a rise out of people. You think we’re somehow not quite as “serious” (or accurate) as other news/blog sources because of our sometimes “outrageous” comments sprinkled in with the news. Like this comment: Without new natural gas pipelines to New England, like the Kinder Morgan Northeast Energy Direct project or Spectra Energy’s Access Northeast project, New Englanders will experience rolling blackouts for electricity in the future. “There you go again. Nobody believes that! Just another over-the-top comment.” Except–it’s true. It’s not hyperbole. It’s not over-the-top talk. Yesterday the operator of Massachusetts’ only operating nuclear power point, the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth, MA, said they will shutter the plant no later than June 1, 2019. It’s just gotten too expensive to comply with increasingly onerous federal regulations. Not only will 600 jobs be lost, so too will electricity for 600,000 homes. Natural gas powering electric generating plants is the only practical/serious alternative that can be ready in time to take up the slack. Without natgas powering new electric plants, there simply won’t be enough electricity for everybody in New England, and that will lead to brownouts and rolling blackouts. Do you see just how dire the situation is for New Englanders? And yet, a small number of anti-fossil fuelers persist in the fiction that sticking up windmills and solar panels will somehow provide enough energy…
Wow. Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf is as stubborn about wanting to raise PA taxes as a jackass–his party’s mascot. Wolf’s latest proposed budget was voted down last week–with nine Democrats in the House voting against it (see 
Last month MDN told you about the a group of politicians in Stokes County, North Caroline (Board of Commissioners) who voted to pass a three-year moratorium on shale drilling in the county (see 
A Bloomberg article published yesterday perfectly captures what MDN has been saying now for at least five years: the real opposition to fracking and pipelines is not because of health concerns or environmental damage or any of a dozen or more surface arguments. Those issues are all weapons used in a public relations war–used to confuse casual news consumers who don’t bother to read or listen to more than headlines. The real reason–the core reason–why people oppose fracking and pipelines and all the rest is because the disease of global warming belief has metastasized in their liberal brains, and they irrationally want to end the use of all fossil fuels. It’s in black and white, stated plainly, in the Bloomberg article. The article mentions the Marcellus and the Constitution pipeline. It also highlights the activities of serial protester and founder of FANG (Fighting Against Natural Gas), Nick Katkevich, someone we’ve reported on previously (see