MVP, ACP Pipes Receive Very Few Violation Notices in WV
It would be great when you are drilling a well, or building a pipeline, that when a state government inspector swings by to check up on the project, they don’t spot any problems. Especially for big projects like pipelines that run hundreds of miles. It would be nice, but not reality. Something always happens here and there. Unforeseen. Like weather with torrential rain, resulting in runoff from a ditch you just dug. The inspector swings by the next day and notices water and dirt where it’s not supposed to be, and voila, a “notice of violation” (NOV) is issued. It happens. That’s the way the world works. For Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) and Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP), both with segments in West Virginia, NOVs have been and no doubt will continue to be issued. How many NOVs would you imagine have already been issued for each project in WV? How many is “too many” and indicates the project builders are being sloppy?
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Miracle of miracles, two (!) Democrat FERC commissioners (Cheryl LaFleur and Dick Glick), along with one Republican commissioner (Chairman Neil Chatterjee), voted unanimously to extend the time frame by another two years for Williams to build the Constitution Pipeline. As you may recall, the Constitution was stopped cold by corrupt NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his lackeys at the state Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC). Constitution is planned to run from Susquehanna County, PA up into, and mostly situated in, New York State. Cuomo won’t be happy with this decision because it’s a very loud and clear signal that FERC believes the project *will* some day get built.
Last week National Fuel Gas Company (NFG), which operates drilling subsidiary Seneca Resources and pipeline subsidiary Empire Pipeline, issued its fourth quarter 2018 (everyone else’s 3Q18) update. Via Seneca Resources, NFG drills wells in northcentral and northwestern PA. Via Empire Pipeline, they build and maintain hundreds of miles of pipelines in PA and New York, where the company is headquartered. NFG operates a utility (gas and electric) company in addition to Seneca and Empire. A lot of spinning plates to watch. But they do a great job. Much of the focus of the update was on the upstream–on Seneca Resources. According to CEO Ron Tanski, in 2019 more than half of the company’s capital expenditures will go for Seneca’s drilling program. Seneca has and will continue to operate three drilling rigs, with plans to expand production by 24%.
A number of times we’ve highlighted a cool training program offered by the The Gas Technology Institute (GTI). The 
Flashback: In May of this year, Energy Transfer CEO Thomas Long said Rover Pipeline would be fully online by June 1st (see 
In September, MDN told you that Dominion Energy had sold two “merchant” (non-regulated) natural gas-fired electric generating plants for $1.23 billion to Starwood Energy. And at the same time, Dominion announced it was shopping its 50% ownership stake in Blue Racer Midstream (see 
Dominion Energy shared two bits of big news yesterday during their third quarter 2018 update. The first is that they’ve agreed to sell their 50% stake in Blue Racer Midstream (see Dominion Sells Its 50% Share in Blue Racer Midstream for $1.5B). The second bit of news, big news (for us), is that Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) is now officially delayed–from late 2019 to “mid-2020” for a full startup. The price tag for ACP is going up too: $7 billion (up from $6.5 billion). But it’s not all bad news for ACP. Some pieces of the project will still go online in 2019, just not all of it. Dominion is taking a “phased in-service approach” to bringing the project online. The delays are due to the “FERC stop work order and delays obtaining permits necessary for construction.” We put it this way: The delays due to a myriad of frivolous lawsuits from Big Green groups means everyone will now pay more. Thanks Big Green.
Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Co. (Transco) is the crown jewel of Williams. Transco is a 10,200-mile pipeline system with 53 compressor stations extending from South Texas to New York City. The recent Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline project in northeast PA that went online Oct. 6 is part of Transco, feeding more Marcellus gas into the Transco system to flow that gas south. During yesterday’s Williams third quarter update, CEO Alan Armstrong hinted that yet another new Transco project, “Project #1,” is in the works and will be announced during 4Q18. Project #1 will expand Transco’s capacity in Zones 3-6, allowing more Marcellus/Utica gas to flow south–perhaps all the way to the Gulf Coast.
Williams’ Transco Pipeline has just won a major eminent domain court case for its Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline project that will have implications for all pipelines. Yes, Atlantic Sunrise is now in the ground and flowing natural gas (see 
We previously highlighted Virginia Natural Gas’ (VNG) “Southside Connector” project, a 9-mile pipeline from Norfolk, VA to Chesapeake, VA that VNG says will fill a gap between two main supply lines, essential to meet growing natural gas demand in the Chesapeake area. The final 2,000 feet of pipeline needs to be laid, but will run under a river and shipyard located on the bank of the river. The shipyard owner adamantly opposes the pipeline and has launched an all-out campaign to stop it (see 
The Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) is ramping up to begin training local Virginia residents as construction workers for Dominion Energy’s Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP). The initial training will start in Buckingham County. LIUNA’s training includes both classroom and hands-on training. Folks have been pestering LIUNA for months, asking why they have not already begun training. The reason is simple: You don’t begin training until you’re ready to put people into the field to use that training. You don’t train them and then wait for months on end–while they forget what they just learned. LIUNA’s training program launch means that construction on ACP in Virginia is about to ramp up in a big way.
“Come on Jim, quit writing so much about pipelines! Write more about upstream/drilling!” We have had MDN subscribers tell us that (no lie). But here’s the thing: What happens with pipelines *directly* affects what happens with drilling–the willingness of companies to drill more. Case in point: Over the past few weeks two new pipelines have come online: Williams’ Atlantic Sunrise and DTE Energy’s NEXUS. More capacity along Energy Transfer’s recently completed Rover also recently came online. The effect of the three combined has been dramatic. Production volumes have shot up another 1 Bcf (billion cubic feet) in the past month, to over 30 Bcf/d. And get this: While the Appalachian spot price for gas was $1/Mcf (thousand cubic feet) on Oct. 8 ($2 *below* the Henry Hub price), on Oct. 24 the Appalachian price was averaging $3/Mcf! Just 12 cents below Henry. A movement of $2/Mcf! Behold the power of pipelines and why we write about them so much.