Industrywide Issues

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    Hydropower Not “Green Enough” for Wacko Environmentalists

    Apparently wacko environmentalists don’t oppose just fossil fuels (including natural gas) because fossil fuels will “suppress” the growth of so-called renewables. Sometimes wacko environmentalists oppose their own precious renewable sources of energy. Self-loathing? Perhaps. Get this: Some enviros in New England are opposing hydropower that comes from Canada into New England because it comes via high-power transmission lines that don’t look pretty, and because (yes) it may mean other “favored” forms of so-called renewables, like ugly wind farms and unreliable solar, won’t develop as quickly. Hydro will stunt their growth. It’s silly and it’s sad–kind of like parents who favor one child over another. We bring you the story below for two reasons: (1) To point out the irrational, unreasoning and childish behavior of these so-called green supporters, and (2) to illustrate the folly of choosing which forms of energy people should/should not have the right to use. These wacko environmentalists think they’re smarter than you and know which forms of energy you should allow in your life…
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    NY Gov. Cuomo Vetoes Port Ambrose LNG Import Terminal

    vetoA rather abrupt end for an issue that was just getting started. Liberty Natural Gas filed a plan back in 2010, prior to the Marcellus Shale revolution, to construct an off-shore LNG import (not export) facility off the coast of New York and New Jersey–in the ocean. A floating LNG facility called the Port Ambrose project. A pipeline would run from the off-shore terminal to Jones Beach, NY and from there would connect to a Transco pipeline lateral. The U.S. Coast Guard recently gave their blessing to the project (see Coast Guard Approves Port Ambrose LNG Import Terminal Near NYC/NJ). Liberty has tried to sell the project to New York and New Jersey anti-drilling nutters by saying the gas would come from Trinidad and wouldn’t be that nasty, fracked gas loaded with radon (see Liberty Says “Non-Fracked” Trinidad Gas Better than Marcellus Gas). Needless to say that was a whopping error on Liberty’s part–to smear the entire drilling industry in a vain attempt to garner favor with Kool Aid drinking global warmers, just to make a buck. Liberty’s “it’s not fracked gas” rationale didn’t stop the antis–they were just beginning to organize with protests and rallies–their version of a tailgate party at an NFL game. And now New York Gov. Cuomo has gone and ruined it for them. Cuomo, with the stroke of a pen, has vetoed the project. It’s dead. Done. Finished. Won’t happen…
    Read More “NY Gov. Cuomo Vetoes Port Ambrose LNG Import Terminal”

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    Exceptionalism: Why the Marcellus Stands Alone Among Shale Plays

    In a recent analysis of the shale oil and natural gas industry in the U.S., Reuters analyst John Kemp says that there are big differences in shale oil and shale gas when it comes to price. He posits that oil output will be “less resilient” than gas when it comes to maintaining profitability with lower prices. Kemp offers the following comments and rationale for why and how the Marcellus (and Utica) has changed the natural gas industry–what he called “Marcellus Exceptionalism”…
    Read More “Exceptionalism: Why the Marcellus Stands Alone Among Shale Plays”

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    Sunoco LP Fined $59K for Fixing Pipe Running Thru 7 Swamps

    Talk about damned if you do, damned if you don’t… Sunoco Logistics Partners needed to do maintenance (i.e. fix things) along the Mariner East 1 pipeline–an 80 year-old petroleum pipeline repurposed to flow natural gas liquids (NGLs). Some of the places where they need to fix it, the pipeline runs underground beneath a number of swamps–smelly, stagnant water where mosquitoes with West Nile virus breed. Today swamps are called “wetlands.” Go figure. Because Sunoco didn’t get a “Mother May I?” permit from the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) before fixing the pipeline in seven swamps, the DEP has fined the company $59,000. No doubt if Sunoco had waited for permits issued in triplicate and didn’t fix the pipeline, something would have spilled and there would have been an even bigger fine (and lawsuit) for that! A real no-win situation…
    Read More “Sunoco LP Fined $59K for Fixing Pipe Running Thru 7 Swamps”

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    Wolf Says You’ll Love the Budget Deal; Repubs Say, What Deal?

    Yet another mass delusion campaign has begun to convince Pennsylvanians that what just happened didn’t happen. And what just happened? Newly-elected neophyte Gov. Tom Wolf didn’t get anything important he wanted in the budget deal that’s quickly taking form–except for getting the second highest sales tax rate in the country. That he got, and he’s trying to spin that as a big positive. What is Wolf, and a sycophantic, servile mainstream media, saying? “He hung tough. He didn’t get everything, but by gaw he got a lot of it and it’s all good for the state. Yeah he didn’t get a Marcellus severance tax, but pay no attention to the man behind the curtain! Wolf got all this other great stuff for the teachers’ unions to pay them back for supporting him and everybody loves Wolf. You’re gonna love it–just you wait and see.” That about sums up the tone and style of “reporting” on the deal. Meanwhile, some rather honest Republicans from the Altoona area are saying, (1) the budget deal is most certainly not done yet, (2) schools are a never-ending sinkhole for money–they want more money in good times and bad, and (3) if the state had implemented a severance tax, it would have finished off the Marcellus industry where drilling is now at a minimum even without the extra tax. Wow, what a breath of fresh air to hear politicians who tell the truth…
    Read More “Wolf Says You’ll Love the Budget Deal; Repubs Say, What Deal?”

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    Boone Pickens Schools Obama on Keystone Decision, Energy “Plan”

    A little common sense from a man who has deep wells of common sense, T. Boone Pickens is a Texas oil man (pronounced “aall man” in a Texas accent) needs no introduction. In the pages of Forbes magazine, Boone Pickens takes President Obama to task for rejecting the Keystone XL pipeline–essentially calling him a non-leader and a coward. We have his column below, titled “President Obama, ‘No’ Is Not An Energy Plan.” The way we’ll introduce it is with a personal story that has nothing to do with nothing, except there’s a tie-in with Boone Pickens. When MDN editor Jim Willis was a (very) young man, he had the privilege and honor to first intern, and later be on staff in the Ronald Reagan White House. Jim was (perhaps still is) a hick from upstate New York. He always felt like Alice in Wonderland when arriving at work at the Old Executive Office Building (part of the White House complex) and seeing people walk by on the sidewalk that you see each night on the news. He could look out a window on the front lawn of the White House and watch the nightly news segments being taped! Very cool stuff for a young guy. Also very cool to see the President in person on rare occasions. The office in which Jim worked was Presidential Personnel–the employment agency for all of the thousands of positions appointed by the President throughout the federal government. In the office where Jim worked were three other people–all ladies. Two of them were the daughters of billionaires–Ross Perot’s daughter Nancy, and Boone Pickens’ daughter Liz…
    Read More “Boone Pickens Schools Obama on Keystone Decision, Energy “Plan””

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    Free Online Resource: “Oil 101” – Good Overview of O&G Industry

    EKT Interactive, an online training company, has previously published a free six-part series they call “Oil 101”–aimed at giving workers (and others) interested in the oil and gas industry a working knowledge of the industry. EKT will publish a new 10-part series in January. The curriculum is fast-paced and provides an overview of how things work, the special terminology for the industry (every industry has its own lingo), and an overall conceptual framework. How do all of these puzzle pieces fit together? Meanwhile, the six mini-courses they offer now that are part of Oil 101–which include sections on upstream, midstream and downstream–are available for free when you register on their website. We’ve done a quick scan and believe it’s a worthwhile resource–something you may want to check out (www.ektinteractive.com). Here’s the announcement about the free stuff they have now, and what they have planned for January…
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    Poo Lagoon: Turning Piles of Pig Poo into Green Money

    Blue LagoonRemember the movie The Blue Lagoon from 1980? It starred Brooke Shields stranded on an island with somebody else (who remembers?, doesn’t matter). At that time it was every young man’s fantasy to grow up on a desert island with Brooke Shields! Since it’s Friday and we’re in a lighthearted mood, we thought we would bring you the story of the “poo lagoon”–as in pig poo. And no, we’re not making this up! Smithfield Foods, operator of nine humongous pig farms in northern Missouri (with 2 million pigs) stores all of the pig poo produced in 88 “poo lagoons” (their words, not ours) where it decomposes and throws methane into the atmosphere like nobody’s business. Methane escaping into the atmosphere drives global warmers into a near-catatonic state of worry that the methane escaping will cause Mother Earth to fry. So in an effort to lessen the angst of warmers, and to make a little coin on the side, Smithfield Foods is using a European technology to harness the methane coming from all of that crap to purify it (get rid of the bacon smell) and sell it…
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    Marathon Increases Cash Dowry for MarkWest Buyout by 63%

    It was only four months ago that Marathon Petroleum (headquartered in Ohio, fourth largest refiner in the U.S.) announced a deal to buy MarkWest Energy, arguably the premier Marcellus/Utica midstream company (see Midstream Bombshell: MarkWest Sells Itself to Marathon Petroleum). It certainly seemed like the two were on the way to consummating the marriage by the end of this year (see Marathon 3Q15: Closing on MarkWest Merger “Later this Year”). Last week MarkWest told unitholders (think shareholders) it’s time to sign your proxy statements allowing representatives to “vote yes” to the deal (see MarkWest Tells Unitholders Time to Sign Proxy for Marathon Sale). A few days later MarkWest co-founder and former CEO John Fox launched a publicity campaign to announce his strong opposition to the deal (see Former MarkWest Energy CEO Urges Vote Against Marathon Buyout). This week Marathon announced it is increasing its dowry–a one-time cash payment it will make to MarkWest unitholders–from $675 million to $1.075 billion. That $400 million increase pushes the deal value/offer to $15.1 billion. We don’t think it’s a coincidence that last week Fox came out with guns blazing against this deal and this week the dowry went up 63%…
    Read More “Marathon Increases Cash Dowry for MarkWest Buyout by 63%”

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    OH Supreme Court Sends Mixed Signal on “Home Rule” Issue

    Earlier this year the Ohio Supreme Court ruled in a very important court case that the “city” (of 5,000 people) of Monroe Falls could not layer on its own oil and gas regulations over top of state regulations, effectively preventing Beck Energy from drilling on a site in the city already properly permitted (see OH Supreme Court Strikes Down Home Rule in Gas Drilling Case). It was assumed that case would provide precedence and settle the issue once and for all that towns can’t simply pass their own zoning regulations in an attempt to prevent oil and gas drilling. But it appears the mind of the Supremes is far from being settled. Beck Energy, following that case, pressed their advantage and asked the court for an order that directs Monroe Falls to not use zoning ordinances “to prohibit drilling for oil and gas in 99.06 percent of the city’s territory.” On Tuesday the Supreme Court dismissed the request without comment, leaving everyone to wonder what they really intend. It appears to not be a good sign for the drilling industry in Ohio…
    Read More “OH Supreme Court Sends Mixed Signal on “Home Rule” Issue”

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    Shhh…Invenergy Plans Design Changes at Jessup Electric Plant

    As MDN has previously chronicled, Chicago-based Invenergy hopes to build what will be the largest (to date) electric generating plant in the state of Pennsylvania powered by natural gas (see Public Hearing on NEPA Proposed Marcellus-Powered Electric Plant). Invenergy hopes to build the 1300-megawatt plant (incorrectly listed as 1500 megawatts in the excerpt below) in the borough of Jessup (Lackawanna County), near Scranton. The company is making a change in the design of the plant to make it a tad bit quieter, which will make the neighbors happy…
    Read More “Shhh…Invenergy Plans Design Changes at Jessup Electric Plant”

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    3 Western PA Antis Weigh Appeal of Court Ruling in Zoning Case

    Three anti-drillers in Westmoreland County, PA are continuing their quest to deny their neighbors the right to allow natural gas drilling. You may recall one week ago we told you that a clear-thinking western PA county judge ruled that there are two sides to the Act 13 court case–local municipalities don’t always have to rule you *can’t* allow drilling in certain areas, sometimes the decision goes the other way *to* allow it (see PA County Court Rules Drilling OK in Ag/Residential District). In this particular case, three ladies–Dolores Frederick, Patricia Hagaman and Beverly Taylor–have their knickers in a twist that one of their neighbors, a farm owned by John and Anne Slike, wants to allow CNX Gas (i.e. CONSOL Energy) to drill on their property, some 1,200 feet away. The three ladies lost. But as with antis everywhere, the rule of law makes no difference. They (and their lawyer) are still agitating to try and prevent the Slikes from moving forward. They’re deciding whether or not to appeal the decision…
    Read More “3 Western PA Antis Weigh Appeal of Court Ruling in Zoning Case”

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    PA Gathering Pipeline Draft “Recommendations” from Wolf Task Force

    In May, Gov. Wolf announced the creation of a “Task Force on Pipeline Infrastructure Development” that will add an additional layer of interference by anti-drilling “environmental organizations” on where pipelines can and (preferably, from their viewpoint) can’t be laid (see Disaster on the Horizon: PA Gov Wolf Creates Pipeline Task Force). The Task Force was billed as an “unprecedented collaboration of stakeholders” from government, drillers, midstreamers, and anti-drillers (euphemistically referred to as environmentalists). Wolf and his Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) Secretary, John Quigley, appointed 48 members to the task force (see PA Gov Wolf Packs Pipeline Task Force with His Own Minions). The pipeline gang has now held four of six meetings (complete with opposition from Wolf’s kook left-wing fringe, see PA DEP Sec. Quigley Calls Pipeline Protesters “Badly Misinformed”), and some 12 working groups have (yes) done some work. Yesterday the Pipeline Infrastructure Task Force issued a draft report that they plan to officially submit to the governor and the legislature in February 2016. The (gulp) 335-page document contains 184 “recommendations.” Our concern is that recommendations have a way of becoming regulations in the hands of LibDems. Below is a copy of the full draft report along with the DEP press release announcing its release…
    Read More “PA Gathering Pipeline Draft “Recommendations” from Wolf Task Force”

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    Grant Twp, PA Reorganizes to Avoid a Court-Ordered Injection Well

    In October MDN told you about Grant Township in Indiana County, PA. The town had attempted to illegally block a permitted injection well from being drilled and used inside the town’s boundaries. The town folk have been whipped into an irrational frenzy by the radical leftist PA-based group Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF). As usual, the CELDF-promoted so-called Community Bill of Rights failed in court, costing Grant Township taxpayers big bucks to defend (see Fed Judge Overturns Grant Twp, PA Ban on Injection Wells). People without jobs (like those infesting CELDF) have lots of time to be creative–so here’s the latest. They talked enough town folk into passing another/new plan on the November. The town voted to convert itself from being a PA Second Class Township form of organization to being PA Home Rule Charter form of organization–in an attempt to do an end-run around the judge’s ruling last month. Will it work? Probably not, but here we go again–another delay for Pennsylvania General Energy and their plan to drill an injection well. You know the old saying? Justice delayed is justice denied. When will the courts step in and stop this madness?…
    Read More “Grant Twp, PA Reorganizes to Avoid a Court-Ordered Injection Well”

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    Gemma Power Gets Contract to Build Moxie Freedom Electric Plant

    Over a year ago MDN broke the news that Moxie Energy was in the hunt to begin a third new Marcellus gas-powered electric plant project in Pennsylvania (see Moxie Energy in Hunt for Third Marcellus-Powered Electric Plant?). Indeed, our suspicions were borne out and Moxie pursued a project to build a plant in Luzerne County. Moxie is calling it the Freedom project and in November they received approval from Salem Township to proceed (see Moxie’s NEPA Marcellus-Powered Electric Plant Gets 1st Approval). In September Moxie received the all-important approval–permission from the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (see Moxie’s NEPA Marcellus-Powered Electric Plant Gets DEP Approval). We were convinced that like the previous two such projects, Moxie Liberty and Moxie Patriot were sold to Panda Power Funds, the company that is right now building them. However, a press release was just issued by Gemma Power Systems that says Gemma has been selected by Moxie to build the $800 million project. Here’s the details from Gemma on what technology they will use to build the 1,000-megawatt plant near Scranton…
    Read More “Gemma Power Gets Contract to Build Moxie Freedom Electric Plant”

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    EIA Report Predicts NatGas Will Average $2.59/MMBtu This Winter

    Our favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), publishes mountains of data and reports and analysis each day/week/month/year. So much if we did nothing but brought you only stuff published by EIA it would fill our daily reports! We always struggle with how much to share from the EIA. We bring you the monthly DPR (Drilling Productivity Report) because it details EIA’s predictions about what the seven major U.S. shale plays will produce in both oil and gas in the coming month (see the latest one published yesterday, EIA November DPR: Marcellus Production Down Again, Utica Increases). A report also just released is the monthly Short-Term Energy Outlook, a report that looks at the recent history of oil, natural gas, coal, renewables, etc., and predicts what will happen in the coming months/up to one year out. Below we’ve pulled and display the “Highlights” section along with the full section for natural gas. We also include a copy of the full report. It’s important to have the entire context in which natural gas (and oil) exists. We don’t live in a vacuum. The price and abundance (or scarcity) of other forms of energy influence the price and availability of natural gas and oil. Less coal coming? Likely means more natgas. More solar and wind capacity coming online? Likely means less natural gas. The energy market is fascinating and complex and shale energy is but one piece of a very large puzzle. This report helps us wrap our brains around it…
    Read More “EIA Report Predicts NatGas Will Average $2.59/MMBtu This Winter”