Pipelines

Industrywide Issues | Medina County | Ohio | Pipelines | Supply Chain

OH Company Buys Canadian Pipeline Coating Manufacturer
September 15, 2016September 15, 2016

RPM International Inc. is a manufacturing company based in Medina, OH. It is the owner/maker of such name brands as Rust-Oleum. RPM’s subsidiaries that are leaders in specialty coatings, sealants, building materials and related services across three segments. One of those segments is the oil and gas industry. So it’s no surprise that RPM has just bought out Specialty Polymer Coatings, Inc. (SPC), a Canadian manufacturer of high-performance coatings for the global oil and gas pipeline market. No details of the deal were announced, but we do know that SPC has annual net sales of $26 million. The upshot: another Ohio company will get more deeply involved in the shale oil and gas industry–just one more way oil and gas (and shale) benefits everyone…
Read More “OH Company Buys Canadian Pipeline Coating Manufacturer”
Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide PA | Sunoco Logistics

PA DEP Tells Mariner East 2 to Correct “Significant Deficiencies”
September 14, 2016September 14, 2016

Mariner East 2 – click for larger version

John Hohenstein, the head honcho for dams, waterways and wetlands with the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) sent a strongly-worded missive (21 pages long, full copy below) to Matthew Gordon, principle engineer and project manager for Sunoco Logistics’ Mariner East 2 pipeline project last week. The letter was an assessment of Mariner East 2’s application with the state to cross numerous waterways and swamps as it is (mostly) built next to existing pipelines and stretches across 17 PA counties, spanning the state. In the letter Hohenstein tells Gordon there are “significant technical deficiencies” in the application, and unless those deficiencies are addressed by November 7, Sunoco can kiss stream-crossing approval goodbye…
Read More “PA DEP Tells Mariner East 2 to Correct “Significant Deficiencies””
Delaware County (PA) | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Lease & Royalty Payments | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Sunoco Logistics

PA Town’s Angst Over Mariner East 2 Pipeline Near School, Park
September 14, 2016September 14, 2016

There is no doubt Sunoco Logistics Partners has been pushing a boulder up a hill when it comes to the Mariner East 2 pipeline project–a $2.5 billion, 350-mile natural gas liquids (NGL) pipeline that will run from eastern Ohio through the state of Pennsylvania to the Marcus Hook refinery near Philadelphia, carting ethane, butane and propane to the facility from both the Utica and Marcellus region. For over a year the project was mired in legal challenges of whether or not it can claim public utility status, with a right to use eminent domain. In July, PA’s Commonwealth Court ruled it is a public utility with a right to use eminent domain (see Sunoco LP Wins Major Court Decision for Mariner East 2 Pipeline). But the fight continues–town by town. Nowhere is that more evident than Middletown Township in Delaware County, PA. Monday night the town council voted, unanimously, to put an ordinance on the docket for council members to vote on at the Sept. 26 meeting, an ordinance that if passed, will allow Sunoco LP to move forward with building the pipeline on public land in the town–in one case across a park, and in another close to an elementary school…
Read More “PA Town’s Angst Over Mariner East 2 Pipeline Near School, Park”
Accidents | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Spectra Energy | Westmoreland County

Spectra Admits Detecting Corrision in Exploded TETCO Pipe 4 Yrs Ago
September 14, 2016September 14, 2016

On April 29, Spectra Energy’s Texas Eastern Transmission (TETCO) “Delmont Line 27” pipeline exploded in Westmoreland County, PA, seriously injuring one resident who still cannot walk after being burned over much of his body (see Texas Eastern Pipeline Explodes near Pittsburgh, Antis Celebrate). The reason for the explosion and fire was corrosion on welds covered with a particular kind of pipe tape no longer in use (see Spectra Says PA Pipeline Explosion “Unacceptable,” Blames Pipe Tape). Brace yourself for news that may make you angry: An investigation four years ago (in 2012) discovered corrosion in the very area where the pipe would eventually explode. Spectra says they documented the corrosion, but pipe corrosion happens over time–this is nothing new–and the thing to do is to monitor it. Spectra planned to reexamine the welds and the corrosion again in 2019, per the normal and accepted safety schedule. According to Spectra, until now it has been observed that corrosion of pipes happens at a rate of no more than 2-3% per year. In the case of the exploding TETCO pipeline, the corrosion rate was vastly accelerated, more like 10-15% per year since the last examination. What made it speed up?…
Read More “Spectra Admits Detecting Corrision in Exploded TETCO Pipe 4 Yrs Ago”
Industrywide Issues | Litigation | New York | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide NY

NGSA Lobbies Fed Court, DEC to Advance 2 Stalled Pipelines in NY
September 14, 2016September 14, 2016

The Natural Gas Supply Association (NGSA) has gone into action to support two currently-stalled pipeline projects in the People’s Republic of New York, where Chairman Cuomo rules. Yesterday the NGSA filed a brief in federal court to respond to an effort by the rogues gallery of environmental extremist groups (including Catskill Mountainkeeper, Riverkeeper, Sierra Clubbers and other ne’er–do–wells) to stop the Constitution Pipeline from getting built. The Constitution is a $683 million, 124-mile pipeline from Susquehanna County, PA to Schoharie County, NY carrying Marcellus gas. The enviro groups sued in federal court to challenge the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) environmental review of the Constitution. If the wackos can get FERC’s review cast aside, they can slow the project to the point where they can (hopefully for them) kill it. That’s the game plan. NGSA is pushing back, legally. Also this week the NGSA asked the NY State Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to get off its rear-end and approve air permits for Dominion’s New Market Project–a fairly dull $159 million capacity upgrade to an existing natural gas pipeline which runs across upstate New York from the PA line, west of Horseheads, and then northeasterly to the state’s Capital Region. Once again the DEC is doing their master’s bidding by refusing to grant necessary air permits for the New Market Project to proceed…
Read More “NGSA Lobbies Fed Court, DEC to Advance 2 Stalled Pipelines in NY”
Dominion Energy | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Rex Energy

Rex Energy to Ship Marcellus Gas to Midwest & Gulf Coast in Nov
September 13, 2016September 13, 2016

Higher prices for Rex Energy’s Marcellus/Utica gas are on the way. Why? Because the company will, beginning in November, begin to ship some of its gas out of the northeast–to the Midwest and Gulf Coast, where it can get higher prices. So says Rex in an update issued yesterday. Rex issued an operational update yesterday to discuss recent results and the next round of drilling they plan to do–4 more wells on the Vaughn pad in Carroll County, OH–and the news that a new high pressure gathering system is on the way in Butler County, PA. Included in the update is the good news that Rex will begin to ship 100 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) of natgas to the Gulf Coast and 30 MMcf/d to the Midwest, starting in November, via two different pipelines. Which pipelines?…
Read More “Rex Energy to Ship Marcellus Gas to Midwest & Gulf Coast in Nov”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Dominion Energy | Energy Companies | Energy Services | EQT Corp | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Research

Bought & Paid For “Research” Says 2 Marcellus Pipelines Not Needed
September 13, 2016September 13, 2016

Two Democrat-run anti-fossil fuel organizations–the Southern Environmental Law Center and Appalachian Mountain Advocates–pooled their donated money together and went out to find a consulting firm with the veneer of respectability that could be bought off to produce a faux “report” slamming two much-needed pipelines. They found an easy mark in Synapse Energy Economics, headquartered in ultra-liberal Massachusetts. The “report” Synapse produced says neither Dominion’s $5 billion, 594-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline (a natural gas pipeline that will stretch from West Virginia through Virginia and into North Carolina), nor EQT’s $3.5 billion, 301-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (from Wetzel County, WV to the Transco Pipeline in Pittsylvania County, VA) are needed. The sham report, titled “Are the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and the Mountain Valley Pipeline Necessary?” (full copy below) is getting picked up by lazy (or propagandist) mainstream news organizations and reported as real news. It’s nothing of the sort. It’s a joke…
Read More “Bought & Paid For “Research” Says 2 Marcellus Pipelines Not Needed”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | PennEast Pipeline | Pipelines

NJ Sierra Club Game Plan – Kill Pipelines by Slowing Approvals
September 12, 2016September 12, 2016

PennEast in NJ – click for larger version

An Associated Press article tackles the issue of the dozen plus natural gas pipelines planned to carry new supplies of Marcellus/Utica gas into New Jersey, and how/why those projects are moving along so slowly. Today is the final day for public comment on the much-needed PennEast Pipeline from the Wilkes-Barre, PA region southeast to the Trenton, NJ area. The next step is an environment study, to be done by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). THE Delaware Riverkeeper (aka Maya van Rossum) along with other virulent anti-fossil fuel nutters, like the NJ Sierra Club, are vigorously opposed–throwing as much horse manure and legal roadblocks at the project as they can. In other areas of the country it would take a project like PennEast about seven months to get approved. So far it’s been over two years for PennEast, with an end now in sight IF construction begins next year. The article is an update on the PennEast, with comments mostly against (a few for). The interesting part of the article is, for us, the very last sentence. We’ve told you for years that the game plan from antis is to delay and slow down approvals in hopes of getting projects canceled. We’ve had a front row seat of that (very effective) strategy here in New York State. The interesting final sentence in the AP article is an admission by the NJ Sierra Club that delay of PennEast is indeed their game plan, with the intent to “kill the pipeline”…
Read More “NJ Sierra Club Game Plan – Kill Pipelines by Slowing Approvals”
Energy Services | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Lease & Royalty Payments | Litigation | NGLs | Ohio | Pipelines | Statewide OH

UTOPIA Pipeline Still Battling OH Landowners with Eminent Domain
September 12, 2016September 12, 2016

UTOPIA Pipeline Project map – click for larger version

Kinder Morgan’s UTOPIA (Utica To Ontario Pipeline Access) pipeline is a 12-inch ethane pipeline that will run 240 miles and will only be built in Ohio–therefore the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) won’t be involved in permitting the project. In April we asked the question, Why is UTOPIA Pipeline Less “Controversial” than NEXUS in Ohio?. Perhaps that question was premature, because not long after we ran a story that Kinder Morgan was suing holdout landowners using eminent domain to allow the pipeline (see UTOPIA Pipeline Sues Holdout OH Landowners Using Eminent Domain). The real eye-popper was reading just how much Kinder Morgan was offering for easements to property owners. Of course what a landowner is offered depends on how many feet of land the pipeline will cross. Some landowners were offered up to $63,300 for an easement. In some cases, the offers were “more than 10 times the appraised value of the easement.” It’s certainly in a landowner’s best interest to settle before being forced to settle (for far less) via eminent domain. So how is the process going? The lawyer for one group of landowners says KM’s offers are low, not high. Here’s an update on the legal battles in the Buckeye State over UTOPIA…
Read More “UTOPIA Pipeline Still Battling OH Landowners with Eminent Domain”
Air Quality | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | NEXUS Pipeline | Ohio | Pipelines | Regulation | Spectra Energy | Statewide OH

OH EPA Grants Permits for 5 NEXUS Pipeline Compressor Stations
September 12, 2016September 12, 2016

NEXUS Pipeline – click for larger version

An important milestone in advancing the NEXUS Pipeline in Ohio. The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last week issued air permits to NEXUS to build five compressor stations. 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 (see Spectra Energy Files Formal FERC Application for NEXUS Pipeline). It is a critically needed pipeline to move Utica and Marcellus Shale gas from an over-saturated market in the northeast to markets in the Midwest and Canada. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is charged with evaluating and approving (or not) the project. However, as often happens, various state agencies are also involved in the project. In this case the Ohio EPA can’t approve or disapprove of the pipeline itself, but granting air emissions permits for the compressor stations that will move the gas through the pipeline is important. So we celebrate one more positive sign that NEXUS will get built…
Read More “OH EPA Grants Permits for 5 NEXUS Pipeline Compressor Stations”
Dominion Energy | Energy Services | Herkimer County | Industrywide Issues | Maryland | New York | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide MD | Statewide NY | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Dominion Locks Out Union Workers at Compressor Stations/Pipelines
September 8, 2016September 8, 2016

Yesterday MDN reported the story that Dominion Transmission has decided to lock out union members from working at their jobs in Dominion installations over a contract dispute (see Dominion Locks Out Labor Union Workers in WV-PA-OH-NY-VA-MD). We asked the question of whether and how this might affect certain ongoing projects at Dominion. Apparently some of our comments about Dominion “union busting” rankled some MDN subscribers and may have led them to feel as though we’re taking sides in this issue. In this case, we are not taking sides. We are (uncharacteristically) remaining neutral and simply reporting what we observe based on press reports. We have a number of updates today, including comments from Dominion about why they took the action they took, the response from UGWU Local 69, and clips from stories showing that indeed, as we feared, some of the workers locked out are workers at Dominion compressor stations and pipelines. The somewhat hopeful news is that both sides are set to meet today in West Virginia with a federal mediator for more talks on settling the dispute…
Read More “Dominion Locks Out Union Workers at Compressor Stations/Pipelines”
Bradford County | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Equinor/Statoil | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Tennessee Gas Pipeline | Tioga County (PA)

FERC Approves Another KM Pipeline Project in the PA Marcellus
September 8, 2016September 8, 2016

In April 2015 Kinder Morgan’s Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) subsidiary filed an application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to build 8.2 miles of new looping pipeline in Tioga County, PA and beef up two compressor stations in Bradford County, PA. The $142 million project is called the Susquehanna West Project. The project will increase capacity along a section of the TGP, bumping it up by 145 million cubic feet per day (Mmcf/d). All of the extra capacity is spoken for by Statoil and the wells they’ve drilled in NEPA. Good news: On Tuesday FERC issued their approval for the project, which means construction will begin in January 2017…
Read More “FERC Approves Another KM Pipeline Project in the PA Marcellus”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | NEXUS Pipeline | Ohio | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide OH

OH Anti-Pipeliners Allege Some Letters to FERC were Forged
September 8, 2016September 8, 2016

Virulent anti-fossil fuel nutters who are opposed to Spectra Energy’s $2 billion, 255-mile NEXUS interstate pipeline that will run from Ohio through Michigan and eventually to the Dawn Hub in Ontario, Canada, have stayed up late at night reading through all of the comments sent to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The habit of antis is to generate a blizzard of negative comments to FERC on any given project, sometimes using the names of their children (see Delaware Riverkeeper Scams FERC in Review of PennEast Pipeline). The antis say after reading thousands of comments supplied to FERC, they’ve found “maybe 200” that support the pipeline that are suspicious. In one case they said a letter was signed by someone who has been dead since the 1990s. In other words, the antis are alleging fraud–that pro-drillers or even Spectra Energy itself is engaged in fraudulently sending letters of support from people that don’t support the pipeline. Which is kind of funny, since antis themselves are typically the ones who engage in this kind of fraud! We guess it takes one to know one…
Read More “OH Anti-Pipeliners Allege Some Letters to FERC were Forged”
Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Regulation | Spectra Energy

Spectra Energy Pushes Back Against New England Pipeline Naysayers
September 1, 2016September 1, 2016

Two weeks ago the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (MA’s highest court) ruled that utility companies, which are heavily regulated and the prices they can charge controlled, cannot pass along the cost of a pipeline to electric ratepayers (see MA Supreme Court Ruling Endangers New England Gas Pipelines). The ruling had the effect of ending contracts from several utility companies with Spectra Energy for their Access Northeast pipeline–to bring Marcellus/Utica natural gas to critically starved-for-gas New England. We speculated at the time that this action may end the Access Northeast project. But a week later, Spectra Energy committed to continuing the project (see Spectra Spits in MA High Court’s Eye – We’ll Still Build Pipeline). However, regional natgas distribution companies, along with LNG importer GDF Suez, continues to try and sink the Access Northeast project for selfish reasons–to suppress competition that would come from the pipeline. It’s all wrapped up in a “tariff” case now before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). It’s complicated, but we’ll try and explain it in lay terms. At the root of the issue is that some existing natgas suppliers in New England benefit from lack of supply in the region (including Engie Gas & LNG, NextEra Energy Resources and PSEG). They benefit from “congestion” and lack of supply in New England–therefore Spectra has taken to calling them “Congestionaters” in their filings with FERC. We call them the Terminators…
Read More “Spectra Energy Pushes Back Against New England Pipeline Naysayers”
Buckeye Partners | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Michigan | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide MI | Statewide OH | Statewide PA

Buckeye Partners Expanding MI/OH Refined Products Pipeline, Again
September 1, 2016September 1, 2016

West to East Project Map – click for larger version

Buckeye Partners is a publicly traded master limited partnership (MLP) that owns and operates 6,000 miles of pipeline. One of those pipelines is the Michigan/Ohio refined products pipeline, which we reported on in April 2015 (see Buckeye Partners Expanding MI/OH Refined Products Pipeline East). At that time Buckeye was pushing its Michigan/Ohio Pipeline Expansion Project to expand the pipeline for “refined petroleum products” (things like gasoline, kerosene and heating oil) to run it from Woodhaven and Detroit, Michigan, and from Toledo and Lima, Ohio, to destination points in both Ohio and Western Pennsylvania. By all accounts the initial expansion was a success, because Buckeye is now conducting an open season for the second phase of the expansion project. Why talk about a gasoline/heating oil pipeline? Because it’s possible that some of the oil that gets refined into gas and heating fuel flowing through this pipeline comes from the Marcellus/Utica…
Read More “Buckeye Partners Expanding MI/OH Refined Products Pipeline, Again”
Accidents | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Spectra Energy | Statewide PA | Westmoreland County

Repair Work on Exploded Texas Eastern Pipeline in PA 25% Done
August 31, 2016September 1, 2016

9/1/16 UPDATE: Spectra Energy contacted MDN and sent us a copy of their progress report on repairs to the section of the TETCO pipeline known as the Penn-Jersey System. Thank you! We have included a copy of their progress report below.

An update on Spectra Energy’s Texas Eastern Transmission’s (TETCO) “Delmont Line 27” which exploded in Westmoreland County, PA on April 29 (see Texas Eastern Pipeline Explodes near Pittsburgh, Antis Celebrate). We previously told you that not only was Line 27 out of commission, so too were three other pipelines running through the same corridor, meaning 1 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day is not reaching certain mid-Atlantic markets (see Update on Spectra Pipeline Explosion Near Pittsburgh). The early evidence points to corrosion along welded seams, although the jury is still out and the exact cause may not be known for months (see Preliminary Guess on TETCO Pipeline Explosion Cause: Corrosion). One of the four lines that was offline (Line 19) was examined and certified by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) in early May to go back online (see TETCO Pipeline Up & Running Post-Explosion; Antis Exploit Accident). However, the other three lines have remained idle pending further investigation (see TETCO PA Pipeline Explosion Still Limiting NatGas Flow Month Later). In June Spectra said they expect to have the full system operating again by November 1st (see Ruptured TETCO Pipeline in PA Offline Until November). How is the effort going? Spectra has completed the initial analysis and is now digging up pipelines in various locations…
Read More “Repair Work on Exploded Texas Eastern Pipeline in PA 25% Done”