Williams 3Q17: Atlantic Sunrise Shines, “Stay Tuned” on Constitution
Last week midstream powerhouse Williams issued their third quarter 2017 update. CEO Alan Armstrong said this about the Transco Pipeline–a key pipeline in the Marcellus/Utica region: “So far in 2017, we’ve placed four of our ‘Big 5’ Transco expansion projects into service including Gulf Trace, Hillabee Phase 1, Dalton Expansion and New York Bay Expansion with the fifth of the ‘Big 5’ expansions – the Virginia Southside II project – expected to be placed in service during fourth-quarter 2017. The incremental capacity from the fully-contracted Transco expansion projects going in service so far this year reflects a 25 percent increase in Transco’s design capacity.” All five of those projects to one degree or another flow Marcellus/Utica Shale gas. Williams is in a multi-year program to reverse the flow of the Transco. Traditionally it has flowed gas from the Gulf to the northeast. The pipeline is in the process of getting turned around, to flow our gas southward, some of it all the way to the Gulf Coast. With respect to the Atlantic Sunrise project–a part of the Transco system–Armstrong reminded listeners on the analyst phone call that some of that project is already up and running: “And on Atlantic Sunrise, we started construction and have already placed a portion of Atlantic Sunrise into early service on September 1 of this year, providing about 400,000 dekatherms a day of firm transportation service on Transco’s existing mainline facilities, and of course that serve delivery points as far south as Choctaw County, Alabama. So we’re really excited to be starting to see the Transco system turn around and be able to deliver volumes to the south. And I can tell you, that’s very much needed as we’re seeing a lot of demand growth occur in the southeast on our system.” As for the stalled Constitution Pipeline in New York State, Armstrong said to “stay tuned” and that there is “plenty of fight left in this dog.” Armstrong sounded encouraged about the prospects of the Constitution. Below is the full 3Q17 update complete with financials, excerpts from the analyst phone call of interest for MDN readers, and the newest slide deck…
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The director of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Craig Butler, continues to go off the rails with a major grudge against Rover Pipeline (see 
We find this story amusing. A group of left-leaning Catholic nuns in Lancaster County, PA, whipped up by radical environmentalists with ties to Big Green organizations, got it into their heads to try and block a very-safe natural gas pipeline from crossing their property–the Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline being built by Williams. The Sisters call themselves Adorers of the Blood of Christ. We call them Sisters of the Corn, because they put a couple of wooden park benches in a cornfield on their property (leased to a local farmer), christening it a “chapel” and claiming because the pipeline would run through the middle of their so-called chapel, building a pipeline is a violation of freedom of religion. In September a federal judge tossed the lawsuit (see 
Last week National Fuel Gas Company, headquartered in Western New York State with drilling subsidiary Seneca Resources and pipeline subsidiary Empire Pipeline, issued its fourth quarter (everyone else’s third quarter) 2017 update. In the accompanying analyst phone call, CEO Ronald Tanski blamed the delay of the Northern Access Pipeline project (delayed by the NY Dept. of Environmental Conservation) for lower earnings than the company would have otherwise realized. Thanks, business UNfriendly NY! You may recall in July NFG filed a lawsuit against the DEC for arbitrarily rejecting the project (see 
In January of this year, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) voted to approve and issue a certificate to Columbia Pipeine’s Leach XPress and Rayne XPress pipeline projects (see 
Exciting! We have a brand new pipeline project to tell you about–located in the Greater Philadelphia area. Although the project is new, the pipeline is old–already in the ground. Talen Energy, birthed in June 2015 from a combination between PPL Energy Supply and certain assets of Riverstone Holdings, is one of the largest competitive energy and power generation companies in North America. Talen’s core business is building and operating electric generating power plants. One of the assets Talen inherited in the merger is an 84-mile pipeline called the Interstate Energy Company which runs from Northampton County, PA through Bucks, Montgomery, and Chester counties, terminating in Delaware County at Marcus Hook. Talen announced yesterday they’ve sold the Interstate Energy Company (the pipeline) to Adelphia Gateway, a subsidiary of New Jersey Resources, for $189 million. The northern 34 miles of the pipeline was converted to flow natural gas back in 1996. The southern 50 miles currently flows oil, but Adelphia (NJ Resources) announced yesterday they will convert the oil portion of the pipeline to instead flow natural gas. The bottom line is that a wide swath of Greater Philly is about to get a new source of clean-burning, abundant fracked PA natural gas…
The odious Sierra Club is at it again. Using what appears to be endless supplies of money from people like the Rockefellers, the Sierra Club, along with a mishmash of other radical environmental groups, filed an emergency motion in federal court on Monday, asking the court to stop any further work on the Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline. Atlantic Sunrise is a $3 billion, 198-mile natural gas pipeline project running through 10 Pennsylvania counties to connect Marcellus Shale natural gas from northeastern PA with the Williams’ Transco pipeline in southern Lancaster County. Williams, the company building/owning the project, broke ground in September (see 
The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) continues its quest to put Mariner East 2 (ME2) Pipeline construction under a microscope. Two days ago MDN told you that the DEP had issued a Notice of Violation (NOV) for ME2 work in Lebanon County, PA, for spilling LESS THAN 1 gallon of non-toxic drilling mud (see 
In July, President Trump nominateed Kevin McIntyre, co-leader of the global Energy Practice at the Jones Day law firm, as the fifth (and final) FERC commissioner (see 
Hold on or you might get whiplash. In March, the West Virginia Dept. of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) issued a federal water crossing permit for the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP)–a $3.5 billion, 301-mile pipeline that will run from Wetzel County, WV to the Transco Pipeline in Pittsylvania County, VA (see 
UGI is a major utility company in Pennsylvania, providing natural gas and electric service to 700,000 Pennsylvania residents across the state. UGI, via its Energy Services subsidiary, operates natural gas storage facilities, compressor stations, LNG plants and local pipeline gathering systems. UGI operates several gathering systems in northeastern PA. Yesterday the company announced is has purchased an existing gathering system from Rockdale Marcellus for an undisclosed sum. The Rockdale gathering system consists of 60 miles of gathering lines–along with dehydration and compression facilities–located in Tioga, Lycoming and Bradford counties in northeast PA. The system was purchased, on paper, by UGI subsidiary Texas Creek, so the gathering system has been rebranded UGI Texas Creek. MDN has a map of the new system below…
Let the battle begin! TransCanada, one of Canada’s leading midstream/pipeline companies, cooked up a deal last year to pipe natural gas from Canada’s West Coast to the East Coast in order to fend off cheap supplies of Marcellus/Utica gas that will flow into Canada when/if the NEXUS and Rover pipelines get built (see 
We chalk this one up as outrageous. The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) has just shut down further drilling for the Mariner East 2 Pipeline project at Snitz Creek in Lebanon County, PA–because of a “less than one gallon” spill of non-toxic drilling mud. Drilling mud is composed of bentonite–the same clay compound used in kitty litter, toothpaste and cosmetics. A spill of less than a gallon is NOTHING. It’s not even worth reporting. Yet Sunoco Logistics, the company drilling, was honest and reported the “inadvertent return” as it is called. And because Sunoco previously had another small spill at the same location, the DEP, bowing to pressure from radical environmental groups, has halted any further horizontal directional drilling (HDD) work at the Snitz Creek location. This is bizarre, but perhaps not unexpected. It all stems to a deal Sunoco made with the devil…
NEXUS Pipeline has had to use the unpreferred last option and has taken landowners of 42 properties to court using eminent domain in order to secure easements so they can lay pipeline through those properties. NEXUS is a $2 billion, 255-mile interstate pipeline that will run from Ohio through Michigan and eventually to the Dawn Hub in Ontario, Canada. NEXUS received final approval for the project from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in August, the first major pipeline to get approved following a newly restored quorum at FERC (see