Is Marcellus/Utica Gas Getting Exported from Cheniere’s Sabine Pass?
One of the reasons we periodically report, and keep a close eye on, Cheniere Energy’s Sabine Pass LNG export facility in southern Louisiana is our suspicion that at least some Marcellus/Utica gas makes its way to that facility and gets exported to other countries. We’ve never been able to prove our suspicion, but we got a lot closer to proving last February when Williams confirmed that the mighty Transco Pipeline now has a direct connection to Sabine Pass (see Williams Confirms Transco Now Ships Gas Directly to Cheniere LNG). Our friends at RBN Energy have done a deep dive into this topic. Using flow data and their own knowledge of pipelines and reports about new projects coming online, RBN has determined that “there are early indications that recent pipeline takeaway and reversal projects from the producing region and the resulting connectivity are indirectly bridging the divide.” Meaning that by using indirect routes (gas passed from one pipeline to another to another), indeed some of our gas is making its way to the Sabine Pass export facility…
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Fire it up! On Friday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) granted Energy Transfer permission to fire up the three units that make up the Carroll County Compressor Station (called Compressor Station 1) that helps compress and flow natural gas through the mighty Rover Pipeline. According to the letter from FERC authorizing the startup of the compressor station, FERC is authorizing “partial” service to commence. Since ET wanted to start the station on Friday, we expect the plant is by now up and running. The effect will be dramatic. According to stats released by NGI (Natural Gas Intelligence), which has an excellent Rover Tracker application on their website (
Listen up job seekers in eastern Pennsylvania: The International Brotherhood of Teamsters is looking for 400 people to work on building Williams’ Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline–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. The job fair is happening TODAY (Friday) and TOMORROW (Saturday) ath the Harrisburg-Hershey Crown Plaza located at 23 South 2nd Street in Harrisburg (8am-4pm both days). According to the Teamsters, there are “hundreds of jobs to fill” and they are “looking to expand our workforce quickly.” Qualifications? You need to be 21 years old or older, have a driver’s licence, and be willing to travel. Construction experience is a plus, but not required. Here’s the deets…
Blasting and drilling work in Lebanon County, PA related to building the Mariner East 2 Pipeline may have caused old deposits of MTBE (a gasoline additive) that had been stored at an old Sunoco facility to dislodge and migrate–into a nearby farmer’s water well. A subcontractor doing blasting work on Sept. 11 experienced “complications” during a detonation. Pieces of rock and debris hit a nearby house and swimming pool. Not a good thing. That blasting may also have led to the migration of MTBE to a nearby farm where MTBE had not previously been detected. Also not a good thing. Sunoco used to operate the Quentin terminal from 1940 to 1993 that served as a petroleum storage facility for the original Mariner East Pipeline–that flowed petroleum. That pipeline has since been repurposed and now flows natural gas liquids. Leaks from the old storage facility were known to have contaminated the ground in the area. It appears the blasting may have disturbed some of the pollution sitting under ground…
In July 2016 MDN told you about a smallish, but important pipeline project in the Delmarva Peninsula area, which includes most of Delaware and portions of Maryland and Virginia. Eastern Shore Natural Gas’ 2017 System Expansion project will bring new sources of natgas from an interconnection Eastern Shore has with the mighty TETCo (Texas Eastern Company) pipeline near Philadelphia (see 
The debate rages, both nationally and on the state level (in Pennsylvania, anyway) about the best way to reduce fugitive methane. That is, to stop methane from leaking out of pipes and into the atmosphere where it supposedly contributes to mythical man-made global warming. Leaving aside the nonsensical global warming stuff, it’s in the best interests of any producer (or pipeline company) to ensure no methane molecules leak out of the system. It’s the stuff they extract and sell! They don’t want their inventory flying away into heaven. The debate is how best to ensure less methane leaks. On one side you have the typical Big Government types that want to regulate everything, down to the type of equipment you use to detect leaks and the methods for fixing it. We have nothing against common sense regulations, but as everyone knows, government tends to screw things up, rather than fix things. On the other side you have drillers and midstream companies who content “just give us a standard and let us figure out how best to meet that standard.” Case in point is Southwestern Energy. Southwestern launched a leak detection and fixing program five years ago–and has dramatically cut the amount of methane leaking from its operations. Southwestern, and others, show us the way it should be done, WITHOUT needing onerous regulations from the federal government or from the regulation-happy PA Gov. Tom Wolf…
Next month when New Yorkers go to the polls to cast their votes (an illusory scam in Communist NY), there will be three Propositions on the ballot. One of the three is called, “Authorizing the Use of Forest Preserve Land for Specified Purposes.” The one-paragraph description implies municipalities will have more flexibility in using “preserved” land–so long as they designate the same amount of land to be added back to the pool of preserved land. It also allows bicycle trails and public utility lines to cross preserved land. However, what the description does not say (which can be found in a full reading of the proposition) is this: the proposition “prohibits the construction of a new intrastate gas or oil pipeline that did not receive necessary state and local permits and approvals by June 1, 2016.” So no new intrastate (within the state) pipelines through preserved land, period. Ever. Even though electric lines crossing preserved land are just fine. Why is Gov. Cuomo trying to hide this from residents? Will NY residents even wake up and notice they don’t know what they’re actually voting for (or against)? That’s how sleazy politics is played in the Empire State…
According to experts speaking at the Platts Houston Energy Forum held yesterday, new pipelines going into service in the Marcellus/Utica region are having an effect. Pipeline constraints–not enough capacity to get the gas to markets outside of the region–are easing. Prices in some areas of our region where gas is bought and sold are improving (going up), but prices still have a long way to go. Perhaps the biggest eyeopener is that at least in the near-term, we may end up having more pipeline capacity than gas to fill it. By next spring, another 4.57 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of new pipeline capacity will go online: Access South and Adair Southwest projects on Texas Eastern Transmission will add another 520 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d); Leach XPress on Columbia Gas Pipeline will add 1.5 Bcf/d; Rover Pipeline will get finished, bringing online an additional 2.55 Bcf/d (on top of the existing 700 MMcf/d flowing now). Here’s what the experts had to say about what’s coming down the pike in our region over the next year or so…
For more than two years MDN has chronicled the journey of Competitive Power Ventures (CPV) to build a $900 million Marcellus gas-fired electric plant in Wawayanda, NY, called the Valley Energy Center. Early on the project faced court challenges, but a judge gave final approval to build it in September 2015 (see 
This story is really rich. Consolidated Edison (ConEd) is one of the nation’s largest investor-owned energy companies. ConEd is a utility, operating in the New York City area. It is one of the largest (perhaps the largest) seller of natural gas in NYC area. In a press release that has us equally laughing and crying, ConEd floats a new plan to meet the “growing natural gas demand” it’s seeing from customers. Early in the release ConEd states the facts: “construction of new natural gas pipelines [in New York] is not keeping pace with growing demand.” Why? Because New York has a corrupt governor, Andrew Cuomo, who caters to wild radicals that give him money for his campaigns. Yes, CORRUPT. And so Cuomo issues edicts to executive agencies, like the Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC), to deny permits for new pipelines. Hence, NY doesn’t have enough pipelines to flow increasing demand for natural gas. ConEd just admitted that. So how does ConEd plan to solve the problem they have? Maybe anchor a floating LNG import terminal off Long Island? Nope. Virtual pipelines to haul more gas to its facilities? Nope. How about rail cars hauling CNG or LNG? Nope. Here’s the brilliance at ConEd–they want to raise everyone’s gas and electric rates so they can pay building owners to not use as much gas! What?! That’s right, ConEd has filed a rate case with the New York State Public Service Commission that requests permission to raise rates and pay people to use less natural gas. Welcome to Wonderland (i.e. New York), Alice…
Last week MDN reported the Canadian National Energy Board (NEB) had approved of TransCanada’s plan to lowball the price to haul natural gas all the way from Alberta (in western Canada) to the Toronto Dawn Hub in eastern Canada (see 
In August the D.C. Court of Appeals ruled in a case that (we previously thought) may have long-term, very negative consequences for the oil and gas industry related to pipeline development (see 