Weymouth Compressor Construction Not Likely to Begin This Year

Last week we told you the good news that the Massachusetts Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) has granted an air permit for a compressor station in Weymouth (see Mass. DEP Issues Air Permit for Weymouth Compressor Station). The compressor station is the final component of the Spectra Energy/Enbridge Atlantic Bridge expansion project–a federal project overseen by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Although MA issued the air permit (the main permit), anti-fossil fuelers are doing their best to continue delaying the compressor in hopes of killing it outright.
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A new Pennsylvania PIPE (Pipeline Investment Program) grant for $320,950 will help extend a natural gas delivery pipeline to the Keystone Cement Co. near Allentown, PA, which will allow the plant to replace coal with natural gas, used to manufacture cement. Total cost of the new pipeline project is over $2 million. The grant helps. According to the engineer working on the plan, it takes truck traffic off the roads and lowers costs to the plant.
In May 2018, Liberty Utilities, a New Hampshire company, announced a new pipeline project called Granite Bridge–27 miles of new natural gas pipeline to be buried along Route 101 from Stratham to Manchester (see
Columbia Transmission is on a mission to flow more Marcellus/Utica gas south–all the way to the Gulf Coast in Louisiana. Earlier this week Columbia filed a new application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to build the Louisiana XPress Project, a project to beef up flows along the existing Columbia pipeline system by an additional 850 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) by adding and expanding several compressor stations in Louisiana. Most, if not all of the M-U gas that will flow through it, is heading to Cheniere Energy’s Sabine Pass LNG export facility in Lake Charles.
A small cabal of 18 leftist Virginia state legislators sent a letter to the Federal Energy Regulator Commission (FERC) last week trash talking the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) proposed by Dominion Energy. The odious Sierra Club “applauds these legislators for standing up to polluting corporations like Dominion Energy that are putting their profits over people.” Same old tripe the Clubbers always peddle. What the Sierra Club doesn’t tell you is that there are 140 Virginia legislators, meaning 122 legislators either support, or certainly don’t oppose, ACP. Translation: The vast majority of Virginia residents and their representatives are in favor of ACP.
Super secret sources are whispering to Bloomberg that Energy Transfer is seriously considering selling its 33% ownership stake in the 713-mile, 3.25 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas Rover Pipeline, a line that flows Utica Shale gas from Ohio into Michigan and all the way to Ontario, Canada. Such a sale would net ET somewhere around $2.5 billion. Yes, we’re shocked!
A little good news coming from New England, for a change. Over objections of radical anti-fossil fuel nutters, the Massachusetts Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) on Friday granted an air permit for a compressor station in Weymouth. The compressor station is part of the Spectra Energy/Enbridge Atlantic Bridge expansion project, stalled since 2017. The administration of MA Gov. Charlie Baker (RINO) issued an air permit for the project in January of this year (see
Dominion Energy began work on the 600-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) project in West Virginia in May 2018 (see
In March 2016, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved Tennessee Gas Pipeline’s (TGP) Connecticut Expansion project (see
The pipeline situation today in the Marcellus/Utica region is far different than it was just a year or two ago. Not long ago lack of pipelines meant we had an overabundance of natural gas in the region without buyers, driving prices into the basement. Today? It’s all different. Because of new and expanded pipelines coming online over the past couple of years, producers (i.e. drillers) today have options on where to send their natural gas–fetching far better prices in new markets. In fact, according to the analysts at RBN Energy, “The spate of pipeline expansions and additions in the past two years have not only caught up to production but capacity now far outpaces it.” That’s a big switcheroo.
The Equitrans Expansion Project (EEP) began construction in late 2017. The project is related to Equitrans’ $4 billion, 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project, approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) at the same time as MVP. The $100 million EEP involved upgrading several compressor stations and adding approximately eight miles of pipeline connectors to increase capacity along the Equitrans Pipeline from southwestern Pennsylvania into West Virginia.