FERC Clears 1 Bcf/d Rayne Xpress Pipe to Begin Service
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 FERC Approves $1.8B Leach & Rayne XPress Pipeline Projects). The two projects work together to move Marcellus/Utica gas all the way to the Gulf Coast. The Leach XPress project involves construction of approximately 160 miles of natural gas pipeline and compression facilities in southeastern Ohio and West Virginia’s northern panhandle, flowing 1.5 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of gas all the way to Leach, Kentucky (hence the name). Rayne XPress works hand in glove with Leach. There is an existing natgas pipeline from Leach, KY all the way to the Louisiana Gulf Coast. That pipeline is called the Rayne, for Rayne, LA. The Rayne Xpress project beefs up the Rayne pipeline with new compressor stations to add an additional 1 Bcf per day of capacity–Marcellus and Utica Shale gas capacity that will flow to the Gulf Coast. Both projects are scheduled to go online this month. Leach XPress isn’t ready yet, but Rayne XPress is. Yesterday FERC granted Columbia Pipeline (now owned by TransCanada) permission to begin flowing gas along Rayne–Marcellus/Utica gas–all the way to the Gulf Coast…
Read More “FERC Clears 1 Bcf/d Rayne Xpress Pipe to Begin Service”
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 
Yesterday MDN received an email from subscriber Sandy R. who lives in southwestern PA. Her land is leased to Range Resources, and she recently read that Range “now has their own pipelines to carry Marcellus gas to better paying markets.” In our response to Sandy, we mentioned that although producers sometimes buy a share of a pipeline, they rarely own pipelines outright. More often they sign long-term (10-20 year) agreements with large midstream companies to reserve capacity along pipelines. We went looking for which pipelines Range might have reserved capacity on that are near where Sandy lives, and found two things that caught our attention. One is a recent statement from Range bragging (our word) about a strategy they put in place 10 years ago to get enough pipeline capacity to move Marcellus gas out of the region to better paying markets. The second thing is we located a list of major northeast pipeline projects with the pipelines Range has reserved capacity along highlighted in yellow. Cool! So below is an article mentioning some of the pipelines Range says will be a game-changer for them in the near-term, followed by that list of pipelines they have reserved capacity along…
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has just escalated a much-needed war with the CORRUPT, Andrew Cuomo-directed Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) in New York. We won’t recount the entire history, but the DEC had arbitrarily, after more than one year of review, ruled against issuing a federal water crossing permit for a tiny 7.8 mile pipeline Millennium needs to build from its main pipeline to an electric generating plant under construction in Orange County. The power plant is due to be completed in early 2018–and needs a fuel supply. In a monumental decision, FERC overruled NY DEC in September (see 
A cabal of three, rabid, radical so-called environmental groups are once again trying to obstruct the legally-permitted Mariner East 2 (ME2) natural gas liquids pipeline project in Pennsylvania. Clean Air Council, THE Delaware Riverkeeper and the Mountain Watershed Association filed a motion with the PA Environmental Hearing Board, a special court set up to hear appeals of decisions made by the Dept. of Environmental Protection, to revoke permits previously issued by the DEP for the ME2 project–WITHOUT holding a trial. The groups are attempting to rush through a decision to block work on the pipeline by claiming there are “facts” in the case “not in dispute” and that the judge can simply take the reigns of justice into his own hands and rule by fiat. The heart of their case is that DEP granted federal water crossing permits for ME2 for “exceptional value” swamps, er, a, wetlands–and ya know, that just ain’t right. Even the attorney for the odious (and odoriferous) Clean Air Council says the judge won’t rule on the motion for at least two months–which is about the time the pipeline will be done anyway. So we’re not quite sure what these rabid groups hope to accomplish with their latest stunt. Perhaps it’s yet another fundraiser? The holidays are fast approaching…
Yesterday midstream and utility giant Dominion Energy issued their third quarter 2017 update. During an analyst phone call, Dominion CEO Thomas Farrell shared some great news regarding both the Cove Point LNG export facility and Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP). Farrell said Cove Point will “begin generating LNG” in November, “conclude commissioning” in December and be fully operational by the end of this year. Fantastic! In response to a question by an analyst about Atlantic Coast Pipeline, Farrell said he expects water permits from West Virginia, North Carolina and Virginia will all be issued by the middle of December. Again, fantastic! These two projects are HUGE with respect to the future of the Marcellus/Utica region. Christmas has come early this year. 🙂 Below is yesterday’s 3Q17 update for Dominion, along with the latest slide deck and select comments pulled from the analyst phone call…