Industrywide Issues

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    More Suitors Line Up to Buy Williams – Spectra Energy Makes a Bid

    Early in the year, midstream giant Energy Transfer Equity began an attempt to woo another midstream giant Williams into a buyout. Williams resisted and the whole thing went public in June when ETE announced they would pursue a hostile takeover (see Energy Transfer Makes “Indecent Proposal” to Buy Williams for $48B). Williams has continued to spurn the overtures of ETE and has instead gone shopping for another suitor (see Williams Continues to Resist ET Offer, Talks with Other Suitors). We now know of one serious alternative suitor to ETE. Reuters published an exclusive, insider story revealing that Spectra Energy is now bidding to merge with/takeover Williams. Kinder Morgan is also interested and sniffing around, but at this point Spectra seems to be in the lead…
    Read More “More Suitors Line Up to Buy Williams – Spectra Energy Makes a Bid”

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    Anti-Pipeline “Hands Across Our Land” Protest in VA & WV a Bust

    Hands Across Our Land, a minuscule gathering in three locations in Virginia and one location in West Virginia organized by the far left Sierra Club and the extremists of 350.org, held “protests” so small yesterday that if it weren’t for local media looking for any story to report during the summer doldrums, nobody would have noticed there even was a protest. Casual observers would have thought, “Oh, there’s a small group, perhaps a (nutty looking) family out for a stroll.” The “protesters” were there to object to two necessary, innocuous, safe natural gas pipelines from being buried in the ground–Dominion’s 550-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline which is due to run from West Virginia through Virginia and into North Carolina; and EQT/NextEra US Gas Assets’ 330-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline from West Virginia into southern Virginia. As is typically the case, most of the protesters were in their 50s and 60s, former hippies who have found a new cause (anti-fossil fuels) to rejuvinate their otherwise meaningless lives…
    Read More “Anti-Pipeline “Hands Across Our Land” Protest in VA & WV a Bust”

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    A Strong Case for Exporting Marcellus/Utica Shale Gas

    Yesterday the price of natural gas trading at the benchmark Henry Hub delivery point in southern Louisiana traded for $2.71 per thousand cubic feet (Mcf). At the Algonquin Citygate (Boston), where the price is known to spike due to pipeline shortages, the price was $2.59/Mcf. At Dominion South in southwestern Pennsylvania, the price was trading at $1.33/Mcf. And at the Tennessee Gas Pipeline Zone 4 Marcellus in northeastern Pennsylvania, gas traded at (don’t cry): $0.70/Mcf. A lousy 70 cents. (All prices are from the top notch NGI Daily Gas Price Index reporting service.) We are awash in natural gas in this country–a good thing. But we need exports and we need exports desperately or production will go down and prices won’t recover all that much. MDN spotted a press release from Platts touting their Japan/Korea Marker (JKM) service. In that release, they report the average price being fetched for natural gas trading in northeast Asia. You know how much they get for gas there? $8.01/Mcf. That’s 3x what gas is fetching on the Henry Hub, and 11x what it’s fetching at Tennessee Zone 4. Can we possibly make a stronger case that we need to export our cheap, abundant and clean-burning natural gas to other countries? Is it not a good thing to become a net exporter once again, instead of being indebted to the other countries of the world, countries that are gradually buying our country one piece at a time?…
    Read More “A Strong Case for Exporting Marcellus/Utica Shale Gas”

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    Marcellus/Utica Tied to $43.8B in New NE Industrial Projects

    How much of an impact does Marcellus and Utica Shale drilling (and its associated activities) impact the northeast economically? We now have a pretty good idea, thanks to research done by Industrial Info Resources, a research company based in Sugarland, TX. Industrial Info is tracking more than $43.8 billion in industrial capital and maintenance projects that are set to kick off from now through 2016 in the Northeastern U.S. and New England. Industrial Info says, “Abundant natural gas from Marcellus Shale wells in Pennsylvania are responsible for much of the activity”…
    Read More “Marcellus/Utica Tied to $43.8B in New NE Industrial Projects”

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    PA DEP: We’re Not Close to Being Done with New Drilling Regs

    you ain't seen nothing yetYou know what happens when you elect Big Government liberals to important positions, like governor? You get high taxes and onerous regulations across all industries–but particularly on the drilling industry. Welcome to Pennsylvania and the floundering administration of Gov. Tom Wolf and his PennFuture sidekicks who pretty much run the whole show for Wolf–including the PennFuture Sec. of the Dept. of Environmental Protection, John Quigley. PennFuture is an anti-drilling environmental group that Quigley used to work for prior to being appointed by Wolf to run the DEP, the agency in charge of drilling (how’s that for ironic?). On a conference call yesterday Quigley said, of the current round of new drilling rules and regulations, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. He plans to attack the Marcellus industry with even more onerous rules and regulations in the coming months and years of a (hopefully) one-term Wolf administration. Quigley is making his onerous list and checking it twice; gonna find out who’s naughty and naughtier (there is no nice in fossil fuels, ya know)…
    Read More “PA DEP: We’re Not Close to Being Done with New Drilling Regs”

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    Group of Kids Sues U.S. Govt to Force Action on “Climate Change”

    A truly sad and maddening story, all at the same time. A group of 21 kids, ages ranging from 8 to 19, have been so thoroughly brainwashed by their schools and Saturday morning cartoons that they have banded together and filed a lawsuit in federal court (in liberal Oregon) against the federal government to force the government to “do something” about mythical climate change. OMG! It got hot yesterday–must be we’re burning too much fossil fuels and belching out carbon!! OMG! It got cold yesterday–must be…we’re burning…too much fossil fuels and belching out…carbon?! The answer is always the same–man causes the climate to change–so the question doesn’t really matter. Neither does common sense or actual, real science. The folly is, of course, that since the first Big Bang or Act of Creation or whatever you believe, the climate has always changed. It’s always gotten hotter, or colder, over spans of millennia. Ice ages come, ice ages go. Warm spells come and warm spells go. But climate changers don’t bother with history or science. They just make it up as they go. And so these precious, young, very stupid kids believe the wacko adults around them and have, with the assistance of hardened leftist adults, launched a sue-and-settle lawsuit. What’s a sue-and-settle lawsuit?…
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    Dominion Buys 26% of Iroquois Gas Transmission Pipeline

    Dominion has just purchased themselves a bigger seat at the Marcellus/Utica midstream (pipeline) table with the purchase of 26% of the Iroquois Gas Transmission System. The Iroquois, you may recall, is one of two pipelines that will connect to the Constitution Pipeline to be built by Williams starting later this year. The Constitution will flow 650 million cubic feet (MMcf) per day of Marcellus Shale gas mostly from Cabot Oil & Gas wells in Susquehanna County, PA. The 125-mile Constitution will run from PA into New York and connect with the Iroquois (and the Tennessee Gas Pipeline) in Schoharie County, NY. The Iroquois is a 416-mile interstate natural gas pipeline running from the U.S.-Canadian border at Waddington, NY, through NY and western Connecticut to its terminus in Commack, NY, and from Huntington to the Bronx, NY. The Iroquois supplies clean-burning natural gas to local distribution companies (LDCs) an electric power generators in New England and the greater New York City area. Increasingly the Iroquois is flowing Marcellus Shale gas. It is that pipeline that Dominion has just purchased a major piece of…
    Read More “Dominion Buys 26% of Iroquois Gas Transmission Pipeline”

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    Carole King: VA Pipeline Makes Me Feel Like an Unnatural Woman

    Another famous white, rich, aging, hippie woman has lined up against pipelines. At least this famous white, rich, aging hippie, Carole King, has talent–unlike Yoko Ono who is talentless, someone who still rides the coattails of her famous husband, God rest his soul. Carole King doesn’t need fame or to increase her personal fortune, unlike Ono. So why is she speaking out against the Dominion’s Atlantic Coast Pipeline and where it will run in Virginia? Because the pipeline will come close to land owned by Yogaville, an “ecumenical spiritual retreat” in Buckingham County, VA that King has $upported for decades. Most folks think of yoga as funky pretzel-like stretches people do at the gym or at a special class at your local community college. What they may not know is that yoga is as much a spiritual practice (i.e. religion) as it is an exercise routine. Apparently King is one of its practitioners. Makes her Feel Like A Natural Woman. Good for her. Whatever gets you through the day, right? King wrote directly to Dominion CEO Thomas F. Farrell II to request he ax the pipeline plan and instead stick up solar panels and windmills. Here’s why King is wrong about the Atlantic Coast Pipeline affecting Yogaville…
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    2 Marcellus LNG Export Projects Get Canadian Approval

    Two Canadian LNG export projects have made significant progress–but both are still far away from actually getting built. A year ago MDN supplied you with a list of five potential Canadian LNG export projects along the East Coast of Canada (see List of LNG Export Projects for Marcellus/Utica Shale Gas). Two of those projects–Bear Head LNG and Goldboro LNG, both located in Nova Scotia–have received a green light from the U.S. Dept. of Energy (see 2nd Canadian LNG Plant Gets U.S. Approval to Export Marcellus Gas). Both projects received a green light last week from the Canadian National Energy Board (see the article below). The gazillion dollar question is: Where will the natural gas come from that gets exported via these facilities? We’ve long hoped that Marcellus Shale gas would be some of that gas–we have way more than we can use here at home. But at the recent RBN Energy “State of the Energy Markets” conference in New York City, RBN’s Rusty Braziel said virtually none of the gas going to New England via the proposed Kinder Morgan Northeast Energy Direct pipeline nor the Spectra Energy Access Northeast pipeline would be exported. Frankly, if Marcellus gas doesn’t get piped to Canada, we think there’s virtually no chance these LNG projects will get built. Our sentiments were recently echoed by Moody’s Investors Services (see Moody’s: “Vast Majority” of LNG Export Projects Will be Canceled). So, read the following article, but do so with your head swiveling around as ours is. Will Marcellus gas get exported? Will the Maritimes & Northeast pipeline get FERC permission to reverse its flow and send gas from the U.S. into Canada? Will Kinder and Spectra actually build their pipelines to New England? A lot of unanswered questions when you consider whether or not Canada will actually build any of these LNG projects…
    Read More “2 Marcellus LNG Export Projects Get Canadian Approval”

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    Medical Doctor Exposes Anti-Pipeline Lies about PennEast

    Dr. Gilbert Ross, M.D., is the senior director of medicine and public health at the American Council on Science and Health in New York. Dr. Ross penned an eloquent article that exposes the lies being peddled by the “leaders” of Hopewell Township, New Jersey in their vote to prevent construction of the PennEast Pipeline in the township. Dr. Ross makes the point that we have repeatedly made (although far less eloquently) for years here on MDN: The real philosophy that underpins the actions of people opposing fracking, pipelines, anything to do with shale–is an irrational hatred of fossil fuels. But opposers can’t cast their opposition in those terms or they would be laughed out of office and out of public meetings. So they use FUD–fear, uncertainty and doubt–to make the hoi polloi believe oil and gas drilling and pipelines are somehow a threat, a danger to everyone and everything. That is, they lie about the risks associated with oil and gas in order to advance their own twisted anti-fossil fuel agenda. Here to make the point better than we do is Dr. Ross, writing in a major New Jersey newspaper…
    Read More “Medical Doctor Exposes Anti-Pipeline Lies about PennEast”

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    PA Releases Study on Bakken Crude Shipments Passing Through

    God protect us from politicians whose “top priority” is to protect us. MDN previously told you that America’s most liberal governor, PA Gov. Tom Wolf, hired a high-priced consultant from the University of Delaware in April to do a top to bottom review on railway safety with a focus on how PA might better “protect” (i.e. prevent) Bakken shale oil shipments traveling through the state on the way to refineries (see PA Gov Wolf Takes Aim at Bakken Oil Trains Traveling Thru PA). The high-priced consultant, Dr. Allan Zarembski, has turned in his assignment with 27 recommendations (full copy of his report below). In eyeballing the list some of the recommendations certainly look reasonable: slow down to 35 mph if you’re passing through a city with a population of 100,000 or more; test the tracks three times a year; hire inspectors who know what they’re doing; etc. We suspect when the experts at Norfolk Southern and CSX have had a chance to review the report we’ll hear how these recommendations are intended to slow or stop crude by rail (CBR) shipments through PA. We’d like to be wrong about that, but given Wolf’s behavior an uppity attitude toward the railroads so far, we’re pretty sure we aren’t wrong…
    Read More “PA Releases Study on Bakken Crude Shipments Passing Through”

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    Well Completion/Operational Safety Co. Comes to PA Marcellus

    Gulf Coast Western, an oil and gas driller that focuses on the Gulf Coast region in the U.S., announced yesterday they have formed an oilfield services subsidiary after acquiring Midland, Texas-based Frac Restraints LLC in late 2014 and Weatherford, Texas -based CND Energy Services in early 2015. The new subsidiary–Gulf Coast Western Energy Services–will provide well completion and operational safety services to the oil and gas industry. The new company’s target markets? Shale plays in South and West Texas, and the Marcellus and Utica Shale fields in Pennsylvania…
    Read More “Well Completion/Operational Safety Co. Comes to PA Marcellus”

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    GreenHunter Changes Strategy with USCG re Wastewater Barging

    change of strategyGreenHunter Resources, the fresh water and wastewater subsidiary of driller Magnum Hunter Resources, has changed strategies and has backed off their tough talk in dealing with the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) with respect to barging brine down the Ohio River. You may recall MDN was the first to decipher just what was going on between GreenHunter and the USCG with respect to GreenHunter’s intention on barging (see GreenHunter/Coast Guard War of Words — MDN Explains It). The USCG is being manipulated by the Obama administration into blocking a request for GreenHunter to begin barging of wastewater (brine, actually). GreenHunter informed the USCG they have the legal right to do it under an existing 1987 rule that allows for it. The USCG has said not so fast, brine from shale wells may contain more radioactivity than brine from conventionally drilled oil and gas wells. In so many words, GreenHunter told the USCG they would move forward, daring the USCG to stop them (see GreenHunter to Coast Guard, We’re Barging While You Fiddle Around). As recently as May, GreenHunter claimed barging would begin soon (see GreenHunter Says OH River Wastewater Barging to Begin September). However, in an analyst conference call on Friday reviewing second quarter 2015 results, both parent company CEO Gary Evans and GreenHunter COO Kirk Trosclair changed their tune. Now GreenHunter is talking with the USCG again and attempting to convince them to let barging operations begin. You can hear the frustration both in GreenHunter’s comments, and in the comments by investors probing them on the topic…
    Read More “GreenHunter Changes Strategy with USCG re Wastewater Barging”

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    FANG Protesters Chain Themselves to RI Compressor Station Gate

    FANG logoLet’s talk about optics and the strategies employed by fossil fuel haters. We’ll leave aside our standard argument that people who hate fossil fuels, like natural gas, are wildly hypocritical as their very existence is a direct result of the benefits of fossil fuels. Today we focus on two men who hit life’s lottery–one (younger) became a pediatrician, the other (older) a physics professor. Last week the two chained themselves to the entrance of Spectra Energy’s Burrillville, Rhode Island compressor station to call attention to Spectra’s Algonquin Incremental Market (AIM) project to beef up the compressor station and add pipelines to bring more cheap, abundant, clean-burning Marcellus Shale natural gas to gas-starved Rhode Island and other New England states. The two protesters belong to a fossil fuel hate group called FANG–Fighting Against Natural Gas. Using PVC pipe, chicken wire and (yes) tar, they intertwined their arms to make it extremely difficult to un-knot them. The police had to cut away a section of the fence and cart the fence and the two protesters to the hospital where doctors and nurses had to waste time untangling the mess. The optics, of course, is that FANG wants you to hear about a doctor and a physics professor (supposedly smart people) who put themselves in harm’s way to protest something–so the something must be evil and rotten since these two virtuous “high value” (and smarter than the rest of us) members of society are sounding the alarm. We think you should focus on different optics–the logo/mascot FANG uses on their website (pictured here, taken from their website). A wolf bearing its fangs indicates extreme danger–and a willingness to go to extremes to cause property, and perhaps even bodily, damage. Homeland Security should take note…
    Read More “FANG Protesters Chain Themselves to RI Compressor Station Gate”

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    OH Anti-Drilling November Ballot Measures Tossed in 3 Counties

    Anti-drillers in Ohio are persistent–we’ll grant them that. Local anti-drillers in three Ohio counties–Athens, Fulton and Medina–have been hoodwinked (are being used by) Big Green groups like the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF), attempting to get so-called Community Bill of Rights measures on the ballot in those counties. Problem is, the Ohio Supreme Court has already ruled such measures unconstitutional (see OH Supreme Court Strikes Down Home Rule in Gas Drilling Case). And yet, certain counties with high concentrations of wackos keep trying again and again and again–even though the very same type of measure has already been ruled illegal. What was that definition of insanity promulgated by Albert Einstein? “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” That about sums up the latest efforts by Athens, Fulton and Median county anti-drillers. They’ve filed petitions with enough signatures to once again put so-called “home rule” measures on the ballot. But this time officials in those three counties appealed to the Ohio Secretary of State who has ruled, striking down the ballot measures. A small victory for sanity in Ohio…
    Read More “OH Anti-Drilling November Ballot Measures Tossed in 3 Counties”

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    WV Shale Drillers: New Safety Regs on the Way in 2016

    Drillers in West Virginia–you’re on notice that Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin thinks it’s time to make shale drilling in the Mountain State safer than it is right now. Translation: new regulations will be coming at you in the 2016 legislative session. Tomblin formed the 19-member Oil and Natural Gas Industry Safety Commission with an executive order (see WV Establishes New Commission to Study Drilling/Pipeline Safety). The aim of the group is to present a list of recommendations in a final report on Nov. 16–a list that will be used to craft new rules and regulations and laws to be presented during next year’s legislative session. Now is the time for drillers to participate in the process. The kickoff session spent much the time reviewing previous accidents and dangers associated with oil and gas drilling…
    Read More “WV Shale Drillers: New Safety Regs on the Way in 2016”