Industrywide Issues

Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | M&A | Marathon Petroleum | MarkWest Energy

Former MarkWest Energy CEO Urges Vote Against Marathon Buyout
November 5, 2015November 5, 2015

What’s this? All is not butterflies, unicorns and kisses in the Marathon Petroleum takeover of MarkWest Energy. It was only a little over three months ago that MarkWest announced it was selling itself to Marathon (see Midstream Bombshell: MarkWest Sells Itself to Marathon Petroleum). Since that time both companies have been in a hurry to get the deal done. Last week Marathon told investors the deal will be done by the end of this year (see Marathon 3Q15: Closing on MarkWest Merger “Later this Year”). And just last Friday MarkWest told unitholder (equivalent of stockholders) to hurry up and vote (see MarkWest Tells Unitholders Time to Sign Proxy for Marathon Sale). However, one of the biggest single shareholder in MarkWest, the co-founder of the company and former CEO, John Fox, is telling MarkWest in an open letter that they’re nuts for selling…
Read More “Former MarkWest Energy CEO Urges Vote Against Marathon Buyout”
Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | M&A | Marathon Petroleum | MarkWest Energy

MarkWest 3Q15: $49M Profit, Expansions Continue, Buyout on Track
November 5, 2015November 5, 2015

MarkWest Energy, which is selling itself to Marathon Petroleum (a move opposed by it’s co-founder, see today’s related story) issued their third quarter 2015 financial and operational update yesterday. On the financial side the company made quite a bit less money in 3Q15 than it did in 3Q14–$49.2 million vs $86 million–but the fact remains it made money. It didn’t lose money as so many other companies in the Marcellus/Utica region did during 3Q15. That’s a big success in our book! On the operational side, MarkWest started up the Sherwood IV processing plant in Doddridge County, WV during the last three months. There’s more expansion coming to the Sherwood facility later this year. MarkWest also signed a huge deal with Ascent Resources (formerly American Energy, Aubrey McClendon’s company) to build a dry gas gathering pipeline system on 100,000 acres of Utica Shale land in Belmont and Jefferson counties in Ohio. And yes, they also mention the Marathon buyout deal too…
Read More “MarkWest 3Q15: $49M Profit, Expansions Continue, Buyout on Track”
Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide PA

NEPA State Senator Introduces Bill to Regulate Rural Pipelines
November 5, 2015November 5, 2015

A northeastern Pennsylvania State Senator, Lisa Baker, has introduced Senate Bill (SB) 1044 that would regulate thousands of miles of gathering pipelines (and compressor stations) that are currently not regulated in PA. The bill, introduced on Oct. 26 and co-sponsored by three other Republicans and two Democrats, is colloquially called the Rural Pennsylvania Pipeline Safety Act. The bill gives the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) the power to regulate rural pipeline operators. The Gas Processors Association is watching it closely and says they will be a part of its development going forward. Below we have a brief overview of the bill, along with a full copy as filed on Oct. 26…
Read More “NEPA State Senator Introduces Bill to Regulate Rural Pipelines”
Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Westmoreland County

PA County Court Rules Drilling OK in Ag/Residential District
November 5, 2015November 5, 2015

Since the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s horrible decision in the infamous “Robinson” case that ruled local municipalities have the right to regulate oil and gas drilling via local zoning ordinances, there have been several cases where anti-drillers have tried to turn the decision (a decision they earnestly desired) on its head. The “Supreme” justices decided that local towns and cities can control where drilling takes place–although they must reserve at least one zoned district (industrial) where they allow oil and gas drilling (see PA Supreme Court Rules Against State/Drillers in Act 13 Case). What the antis didn’t factor is that there are some local communities with clear-thinking and straight heads on their shoulders–communities that may evaluate a request for drilling and grant an exception to allow it, in oh, say a agricultural/residential area instead of just an industrial area. Perhaps the most famous example of such a case currently being litigated is in Butler County where parents from the Mars School School district along with two Big Green groups from Philadelphia are using the courts to block, since last November, legally permitted and town-approved drilling 3/4 of a mile from the Mars School District (see Rex Drilling Operation Near Mars School Put on Hold). The convoluted argument from antis is, in essence, zoning regulations are not strict enough. That’s not what the Act 13 decision was about. You can’t have your cake AND eat it too. Some towns will decide to allow drilling under their zoning laws that you may not agree with! A similar case has just been decided in Westmoreland County in local county court–and it’s very good news for the Marcellus industry…
Read More “PA County Court Rules Drilling OK in Ag/Residential District”
Athens County | Industrywide Issues | Jackson County | Lawrence County (OH) | Monroe County | Morgan County | Noble County | Ohio | Perry County | Regulation | Washington County (OH)

9 Years Later Fracking Set to Begin in Ohio’s Wayne National Forest
November 5, 2015November 5, 2015

Wayne National Forest (WNF) is the only national forest in Ohio and portions of it are found in Athens, Gallia, Hocking, Jackson, Monroe, Morgan, Noble, Lawrence, Perry, Scioto, Vinton, and Washington counties. WNF is a “patchwork” of public land scattered among private land. Some 60% of the mineral rights below WNF are privately owned. Back in 2012 MDN told you that the U.S Forest Service, after holding up drilling in WNF since 2006, had cleared the way to allow fracking to begin (see Fracking Coming to Wayne National Forest in SE OH). Then any potential fracking came to a screeching halt because it was delayed by yet another federal agency–the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Since 2012 the BLM has moved like a snail, but finally (finally!) the BLM has scheduled public scoping hearings for Nov. 17, 18 and 19. Things are moving once again. Once the hearings are done, there will no reason not to move forward with plans to drill (and frack!) in the WNF…
Read More “9 Years Later Fracking Set to Begin in Ohio’s Wayne National Forest”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | New York | Research | Statewide NY

Bought & Paid For: NY Anti-Drilling Researcher Gets $1.25M Grant
November 5, 2015November 5, 2015

There’s a new thing going around–it’s called “advocacy science.” And boy oh boy does it ever pay big bucks! Here’s how it works: Attend an Ivy League school like Cornell, do some “research” with a pre-determined outcome (i.e. ignore real science), wait a few years–and collect $1.25 million?! That’s how it worked out for Elaine Hill, currently a University of Rochester Medical Center researcher who did sloppy research that she published as a Cornell student (without peer review) in 2012. The “study” found babies born near fracked wells are allegedly more likely to have low birth weights than those not born near fracked wells (see her paper here). Later studies that grabbed headlines used her work as its foundation (see MSC Devastating Critique of “Low Birth Weight Near Fracking” Study). Hill is now being richly rewarded for her efforts in aiding the anti-drilling cause. The National Institutes of Health (your tax dollars at work) have just awarded Hill–yes Hill, one person–a staggering $1.25 million grant to do more “research.” In essence, she’s set for life. Bought and paid for. A millionaire. All it took was trading on the name of Cornell University and ignoring real science to get there. Here’s the kicker–her degree isn’t in biochemistry or biology or medicine or any hard science. Hill’s degree is in economics…
Read More “Bought & Paid For: NY Anti-Drilling Researcher Gets $1.25M Grant”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | CNG/LNG | Crime | Dominion Energy | Energy Services | Exporting | Industrywide Issues | Maryland | Statewide MD

Cove Point Protesters Disrupt Monday Night Football Game on TV
November 4, 2015November 4, 2015

The crazies have done it again. Did you happen to watch Monday Night Football this past Monday? It was the Indianapolis Colts playing the Carolina Panthers at the Bank of America stadium in Charlotte, NC. During the game, protesters of the Dominion Cove Point LNG plant “dramatically” rappelled from an upper deck and unfurled a banner that said “BoA: Dump Dominion”. Note that the teams are from North Carolina and Indiana, nothing to do with Maryland where the Cove Point plant is. The only tie-in is the stadium is named after Bank of America and BoA has some financial/commercial connection to Dominion. In fact, 99.9% of the people in the stadium or watching by television didn’t even know what was meant by the banner! The protesters not only endangered themselves, they endangered the people underneath them. What if the protesters had fallen? No, we’re not concerned for the nutjobs if they had Darwined themselves and dropped like a rock. We’re concerned about the people underneath them. What if the banner had fallen on people? What if a shoe had flown off one of these nutters and hit a baby on the head? The protesters finally came down and were promptly arrested for their crime…
Read More “Cove Point Protesters Disrupt Monday Night Football Game on TV”
CONSOL Energy | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Noble Energy | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide PA | Wastewater

PA Allows Wastewater Pipelines to be Buried – With No Regulations
November 4, 2015November 4, 2015

A last minute change made to proposed new drilling regulations in Pennsylvania will mean (if adopted) that drillers can bury wastewater pipelines instead of being required to run them on top of the ground. Companies typically use pipelines in areas where it would be disruptive to have multiple truck trips in and out of an area. They’re also used to lower the cost of transporting wastewater (cheaper through a pipeline than by tanker truck). The change came after a letter-writing campaign launched by CONSOL Energy and their joint venture partner Noble Energy. But there’s a bit of controversy over the new standard that permits lines to be buried: the buried wastewater lines aren’t regulated. Not yet anyway…
Read More “PA Allows Wastewater Pipelines to be Buried – With No Regulations”
Industrywide Issues | Marshall County | Sand/Proppant | West Virginia

Unimin Energy Expands Frac Sand Terminal in Benwood, WV
November 4, 2015November 4, 2015

Unimin Energy Solutions – Marcellus/Utica Terminal Network – click for larger version

A Texas-based company, Unimin Energy Solutions, has 11 frac sand terminals throughout the Marcellus/Utica region (see the map). The most recent terminal they opened was this past June in Jerry Run, WV (see Unimin Energy Opens 11th Marcellus/Utica Frac Sand Terminal). Another of those 11 sites is in Benwood (Marshall County), WV. Last week Unimin held a grand opening of its 2nd unit train capable terminal at Benwood. The Benwood terminal now has almost 20,000 tons of silo storage capacity and can load up to 55 frac sand trucks per hour. CSX Railroad shuttles unit trains continuously to replenish frac sand inventory at the site. Details on last week’s soirée…
Read More “Unimin Energy Expands Frac Sand Terminal in Benwood, WV”
Chautauqua County | Electrical Generation | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | New York | NRG Energy | Regulation

Dunkirk, NY Coal-Fired Electric Plant Closing in January 2016
November 4, 2015November 4, 2015

As MDN previously reported, a coal-fired electric generating plant near Buffalo (in Dunkirk) was slated to be converted to burn natural gas–a win/win for everyone (see Dunkirk, NY Electric Plant Saved – Converting from Coal to NatGas). Oh sure, radical environmentalists like the Sierra Club opposed it, but that’s to be expected. Crazy people do crazy things. Everything seemed to be fine until a competitor hauled NRG, the plant’s owner, into court to dispute the change from coal to natgas. Sounds equally crazy that a competitor can stop the change, but NRG says fighting the case will take years, so they’re just going to close the plant down (see Lawsuit Prevents NY Power Plant from Converting to NatGas, Closing). Sadly, last week the New York State Independent System Operator (NYISO) gave its blessing to NRG to close down the Dunkirk plant. This is an economic nuclear bomb for that community. The Town of Dunkirk gets 40% of its tax revenue from the plant. What will they do now?…
Read More “Dunkirk, NY Coal-Fired Electric Plant Closing in January 2016”
Columbia Pipeline Group | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines

Columbia Pipeline 3Q15: Update on Numerous Pipeline Projects
November 4, 2015November 4, 2015

Yesterday Columbia Pipeline Group (CPG) issued its very first, fully independent quarterly update and financial report since being separated from NiSource into its own 100% independent company. Income was up year over year. The CPG update includes a section devoted to the status of pipeline projects they’re working on. It’s a considerable list of important (for the Marcellus/Utica) projects, including: East Side Expansion, Mountaineer XPress, Gulf XPress, Leach XPress, Rayne XPress, WB XPress, Washington County (PA) Gathering project, Big Pine Expansion project and the Pennant Joint Venture. Here’s the update…
Read More “Columbia Pipeline 3Q15: Update on Numerous Pipeline Projects”
CONE Midstream | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines

CONE Midstream 3Q15: Continued Pipe Expansion in West Virginia
November 4, 2015November 4, 2015

CONE Midstream is a joint venture between CONSOL Energy (the CO in CONE) and Noble Energy (the NE in CONE), formed in August 2014 (see CONSOL & Noble Energy Form New Marcellus Midstream Company). Yesterday CONE issued their third quarter 2015 update. While CONE touted their exponential growth in the volume of gas flowing through their system earlier this year (see CONE Midstream’s Strong Beginning, Hits 500 Mmcf/d 6 Mos Early), there was no mention of current or predicted future flow volumes in the update, nor in the investors conference call. Although there was one vague reference that we found. The 3Q15 update (below) provides the financials for the company and does mention where they have been spending money to expand their system–mainly in West Virginia. Here’s the low down…
Read More “CONE Midstream 3Q15: Continued Pipe Expansion in West Virginia”
Electrical Generation | Industrywide Issues | New York | Oswego County | Regulation

NY Gov Cuomo Vows to Fight FitzPatrick Nuke Plant Closure
November 4, 2015August 11, 2016

Two days ago MDN told you that the FitzPatrick nuclear power plant in Oswego, NY will shut down, largely because it can no longer compete with electric plants powered by cheap Marcellus Shale gas (see PA Marcellus Gas Claims a Nuclear Scalp in Central NY). New York Gov. Cuomo banned fracking, so NY doesn’t produce any cheap, abundant, clean-burning natural gas. That’s a burr under Andy’s saddle. He detests closing the nuke plant because gas has won. So instead of letting market economics (you know, free enterprise) dictate what happens in NY, Cuomo is gearing up to fight the closure of the FitzPatrick nuclear plant. The company that owns FitzPatrick also owns another nuke plant in NY called Indian Point. Cuomo WANTS to shut down Indian Point–has been trying to for years. But he doesn’t want to shut down FitzPatrick. What kind of crazy man is he?…
Read More “NY Gov Cuomo Vows to Fight FitzPatrick Nuke Plant Closure”
Energy Services | GreenHunter Resources | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Meigs County | Ohio | Washington County (OH) | Wastewater

GreenHunter Sues 2 Former VPs + OH Competitor for Conspiracy
November 3, 2015August 4, 2017

8/4/17: There is an important update to this story. The lawsuit brought by GreenHunter was dismissed in June 2017. Please see this post for more details: GreenHunter Lawsuit Against Former Employees Dismissed.

A lawsuit filed by GreenHunter Resources against two former vice presidents of the company is just coming to light. On October 15 GreenHunter filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Ohio against John Jack, former vice president of Appalachia operations for GreenHunter, and against Rick Zickefoose, former vice president and operations manager at GreenHunter. The lawsuit also names Dean Grose, CEO of Comtech Industries and a principle with Water Energy Services–both competitors of GreenHunter. The lawsuit alleges that Jack and Zickefoose shared company secrets with a competitor and then left to work for that competitor, damaging GreenHunter in the process. Some of those secrets–a key part of it–dealt with GreenHunter’s talks with the U.S. Coast Guard over barging brine down the Ohio River…
Read More “GreenHunter Sues 2 Former VPs + OH Competitor for Conspiracy”
CNG/LNG | Dominion Energy | Energy Services | Exporting | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines

Dominion 3Q15: Progress on Atlantic Coast Pipeline, Cove Point LNG
November 3, 2015November 3, 2015

Yesterday Dominion, a huge utility/pipeline company operating in 13 states and organized into multiple corporations, released their third quarter 2015 update. Frankly, the official press release was pretty boring and short–concentrating on the financials. Our chief interest is on the operations side–tell us about the projects under way. So we went trolling through a transcript of yesterday’s investors conference call and sure enough, came up with gold. Tom Farrell, CEO of Dominion, had quite a bit to say in his prepared remarks about the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, the Cove Point LNG export plant, and even about “farmouts” of Utica acreage. Farrell said that surveying is 85% complete for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, and engineering is 75% complete with some contracts for pipe already awarded. Farrell said that overall, the Cove Point project is now 47% done and there are 1,300 workers on site now. Exciting! But what’s this business about farmouts?…
Read More “Dominion 3Q15: Progress on Atlantic Coast Pipeline, Cove Point LNG”
Economic Impact | Electrical Generation | Industrywide Issues | Marshall County | Taxation | West Virginia

Marshall County Commissioner Still Opposes $615M Electric Plant
November 3, 2015November 3, 2015

In August 2014 the Marshall County, WV board of commissioners (a 3-person board) voted to approve a plan to build a Marcellus Shale-powered electric plant in the county (see Marshall County Votes to Accept Gas-Powered Electric Plant). The vote was a bit complicated. In a nutshell, Moundsville Power, a company owned by developers from Buffalo, NY, proposed a deal to the county. They want to build a 549-megawatt plant costing $615 million. But if Moundsville owns the plant, it’s subjected to high property taxes. Moundsville proposed selling the plant to the county but running it for them. In essence the county will own the plant on paper. Because it’s county owned, no property taxes! However, Moundsville would make rental payments to the county–or payments in lieu of taxes (PILOT). The payments would not be as much as if it were taxed–about $13 million less over 30 years. But the county still gets $31 million over those 30 years–and $31M is a whole lot better than $0. Moundsville would not have built the plant at all if not for the PILOT arrangement. One of the three commissioners, Bob Miller, voted against the plan. Now he’s trying to convince the state legislature to overturn the PILOT plan, although he says he still wants the deal with Moundsville to go forward…
Read More “Marshall County Commissioner Still Opposes $615M Electric Plant”