Pipelines

Ethane | Exporting | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide PA | Sunoco Logistics

Marcellus Ethane Sets Sail for Europe Next Month
January 11, 2016January 11, 2016

We’re almost there! As MDN told you last June, INEOS, one of Europe’s largest petrochemical companies, had commissioned and purchased two tankers to ferry Marcellus/Utica ethane from the Marcus Hook refinery near Philadelphia to Norway and Scotland (see Ineos Gets Ready to Begin Ethane Exports from Marcus Hook, PA). The final leg of the Mariner East Pipeline is ready to go online, and the twin tankers are ready to be loaded. In February, the first shipment of Marcellus ethane will set sail from Philadelphia bound for Norway…
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Columbia Pipeline Group | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kanawha County | Pipelines | West Virginia

Columbia Pipeline Gets FERC Approval for WV Utica Access Project
January 11, 2016January 11, 2016

Columbia Pipeline Group has just received a green light from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to proceed with their Utica Access Project. The project will cost Columbia $45 million and involves building five miles of new pipeline and upgrading compressor stations in Kanawha County, WV. When complete, the project, begun under NiSource (before Columbia separated into its own company), will transport 200 million cubic feet per day of Utica Shale gas for Eclipse Resources Corporation to liquid trading points on the Columbia Gas Transmission interstate pipeline system…
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Columbia Pipeline Group | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide VA | Statewide WV | Virginia | West Virginia

Columbia Pipeline Files to Build $850M WB XPress Project in WV/VA
January 11, 2016January 11, 2016

In addition to receiving Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approval for the Utica Access Project, Columbia Pipeline Group has just filed their full, official application with FERC for approval of the $850 million WB XPress Project, consisting of two new compressor stations, 26 miles of pipeline replacement located along existing corridors, and 2.9 miles of new pipeline in Virginia and West Virginia. The WB XPress Project will expand capacity of the Columbia Gas Transmission pipeline in the region by 1.3 billion cubic feet per day, linking Marcellus gas supplies to new markets…
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Commodity Price | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines

New Pipelines in the Marcellus Dramatically Improved Prices in 2H15
January 11, 2016January 11, 2016

What a difference a few pipelines can make. Last week the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) issued their Natural Gas Weekly report (excellent report, great overview of the industry at large). One of the brief articles included in last week’s EIA update was story about the “basis differentials” for the Marcellus, and how they’ve narrowed. Basis differential means “how much does the gas trading at a given location trade above or below the standard Henry Hub price.” For example, last summer gas trading at Transco’s Leidy Hub in the Marcellus was trading for $1.65 million British Thermal Units (MMBtus) BELOW the Henry Hub price. In December, the gap had narrowed and Transco Leidy Hub prices were, on average, trading around 89 cents/MMBtu below the Henry Hub price. That’s a vast improvement in just six months. Why the narrowing in trade price? New pipelines came online in the latter half of last year, carting Marcellus Shale gas to new markets. More demand (i.e. new markets) equals a bump up in price…
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Economic Impact | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Pipelines | Tennessee Gas Pipeline

Shortages Begin: Tangible Result of No Pipelines in New England
January 8, 2016January 8, 2016

In December 2014 the Massachusetts-based utility Berkshire Gas Company announced the amount of natural gas they could purchase from the Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) was at full capacity. There’s no additional gas supplies to buy–unless TGP builds their Northeast Energy Direct (NED) expansion project. So Berkshire was forced to tell new customers for natural gas in portions of Franklin County they won’t be able to tap into Berkshire’s line (see Guts: No New Pipeline in MA? Then No New Natgas for Utility Customers). In September, the Massachusetts Dept. of Public Utilities (DPU) approved long-term contracts for three utilities, including Berkshire Gas, to buy natural gas supplies from TGP’s NED pipeline when/if it gets built (see Mass. Approves Plan for Utilities to Buy Gas from New Pipeline). Anti-drilling nutters promptly sued to stop that plan (see Anti Group Sues to Stop Mass. Utilities from Buying Natural Gas). It’s now a year after Berkshire’s first announcement that some communities in Franklin County won’t get new natgas service. Berkshire has had to expand the prohibition area. They’re now turning down new businesses in neighboring Hampshire County, which is causing a stir. We’re not sure why antis don’t get it. No new gas, no new service. It’s pretty simple. Below is the story of a jilted Texas Roadhouse, who says they wouldn’t have purchased land and built had they known they couldn’t get natgas service. Translation: more businesses will stay away, or perhaps even leave, because they can’t get natgas due to the shortage…
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CNG/LNG | Exporting | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Processing Plants | Regulation

New LNG Facility Green Lighted in Canada, Would Use Marcellus Gas
January 8, 2016January 8, 2016

Another LNG export facility along the East Coast of Canada has just received a green light from the Canadian National Energy Board (NEB). To be honest, this one was not previously on our radar. The facility would be built and owned by Hiranandani Group of Mumbai, India. They’re using a subsidiary company called Atlantic Coast (or AC) LNG Inc. The plan is to build the facility in Nova Scotia and (mostly) use Marcellus/Utica gas imported from the United States via the Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline (M&NE). Currently the M&NE flows from north to south, from Canada to the U.S. There is serious talk of reversing the flow. In fact, at some points for brief periods the flow already gets reversed, during peak demand periods in Canada. The NEB has granted AC LNG a permit to import up to 2.3 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of U.S. natural gas. The permit also grants them the right to export up to 2 Bcf/d from the terminal, if built. Some of the particulars…
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CNG/LNG | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Exporting | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Regulation | Repsol | Spectra Energy

Repsol Not Happy with Spectra’s Atlantic Bridge, Pipeline Reversal
January 8, 2016January 8, 2016

A number of Canadian LNG export facilities being planned for eastern Canada are dependent on obtaining cheap, abundant Marcellus and Utica Shale gas from the U.S. Today we highlight news of a new (to us) entrant into the LNG race, AC LNG (see our companion story). How will Marcellus and Utica Shale gas get to the northern reaches of Canada? Via the Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline LLP (M&NE), a pipeline that stretches from the Boston area all the way to the northern reaches of Nova Scotia. Historically the M&NE pipeline has brought natural gas south, from Canada to the U.S. One of the sources of the gas traveling south on the M&NE is the Canaport LNG facility in New Brunswick–which imports LNG and regassifies it and sends it out over the M&NE. Repsol, a huge Spanish oil company, is the owner of the Canaport facility. So it’s no surprise that Repsol is sounding the alarm and asking the question: What happens to the gas we send south if M&NE reverses its flow and begins sending gas north?…
Read More “Repsol Not Happy with Spectra’s Atlantic Bridge, Pipeline Reversal”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Pipelines | Regulation | Tennessee Gas Pipeline

NH New State Motto: “Live as Slaves then Die” – Plans to Nix Pipe
January 7, 2016January 7, 2016

The official motto for the State of New Hampshire used to be “Live Free or Die.” Sometime over the past 200+ years it changed. These days the new motto in New Hampshire is, “Live as Slaves then Die.” How else do you explain why NH leaders (Republicans!) have introduced a blizzard of bills that would essentially outlaw a simple natural gas pipeline from being added to the ground–in a state where thousands of miles of pipelines are already buried in the ground? Why are they all of a sudden allergic to the safest form of transportation in existence? The only explanation we can find is, they want to be slaves to Big Green and forsake modern conveniences like electricity and automobiles…
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Columbia Pipeline Group | Energy Services | GE Oil & Gas | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines

Columbia Gas Gets “Intelligent” Pipelines from GE/Accenture
January 7, 2016January 7, 2016

Who knew that pipelines could actually be “intelligent”? We sure didn’t. GE and Accenture have just announced that Columbia Pipeline Group (CPG) is the first company to deploy their “Intelligent Pipeline Solution”–a breakthrough software solution that helps pipeline operators make informed decisions about pipeline safety and integrity. Columbia Pipeline Group has deployed the GE/Accenture Intelligence Pipeline Solution on 15,000 miles of interstate pipelines–much of that flowing Marcellus and Utica Shale gas. The software monitors pipeline threats, improves risk management and provides “situational awareness” in near real-time…
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Pipelines | Regulation | Tennessee Gas Pipeline

FERC Extends New England Pipeline Comment Period by 1 Week
January 6, 2016January 6, 2016

The comment period during which those in favor of, or more likely, those opposed to, the Tennessee Gas Pipeline Northeast Energy Direct (NED) project was supposed to end today, Jan. 6. But the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has extended the comment period for one more week because a glitch with FERC’s online commenting system–a glitch that prevented people from filing comments from Dec. 24-27 and Dec. 31-Jan. 3. Oops. To compensate FERC is extending the window. It also gives antis more time to sleazily file as intervenors (see Intervenor Contagion Catching on with Radical Green Groups in NE). Here’s the poop scoop…
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Berks County | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Sunoco Logistics

How to Successfully Negotiate a Pipeline Easement & How Not To
January 5, 2016January 5, 2016

This is the story of two landowners in Berks County, PA whose property Sunoco Logistics needs to cross/use for the Mariner 2 set of pipelines. One landowner, on whose property Sunoco not only wants to install the pipeline but also wants to install a big valve in his front yard, successfully negotiated with Sunoco and got his price. The other landowner, who owns a dog park where Sunoco wants to put a pipeline, hasn’t negotiated and is trying to stop the pipeline from coming through his property. Guess which landowner will be the biggest loser? Here’s the story of how to craft a pipeline deal, and how not to, if you are a landowner faced with the threat of eminent domain…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Fulton County | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Medina County | NEXUS Pipeline | Ohio | Pipelines | Regulation | Tennessee Gas Pipeline

Intervenor Contagion Catching on with Radical Green Groups in NE
January 5, 2016January 5, 2016

Like a contagion moving through the small-but-dedicated anti-fossil fuel movement in the northeast, the strategy of filing as an “intervenor” in pipeline permitting is catching on. MDN first alerted you to this sleazy tactic being used by THE Delaware Riverkeeper back in October 2015 (see Delaware Riverkeeper Scams FERC in Review of PennEast Pipeline). In short, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has a process known as a motion to intervene. Individuals, towns and organizations with a vested, *legitimate* interest can file to “intervene” in a pipeline project application, which gives them special standing to receive updates from FERC and to ensure their views are fully considered by FERC. THE Delaware Riverkeeper and others began registering everyone–including their own children–as “intervenors” which essentially overloads FERC’s system and greatly slows down the permitting process (ses FERC Confirms “Intervenors” Slowing Down Pipeline Approvals). It is an abuse of the system–but then anti groups are no strangers to violating the rules, or laws. They revel in “catch me if you can” behavior. Intervenor abuse is catching in Massachusetts where radical greens are trying the same tactic to slow down approvals for the Tennessee Gas Pipeline’s Northeast Energy Direct (NED) project. Radical greens in Ohio are also using the tactic to try and slow down approvals for the NEXUS pipeline there. The intervenor contagion has now spread from PA to MA to OH, with no end in sight…
Read More “Intervenor Contagion Catching on with Radical Green Groups in NE”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Pipelines | Tennessee Gas Pipeline

Mass. Green Radicals Plan 3-Day, 34-Mile Pipeline Walk-a-Thon
January 5, 2016January 5, 2016

About 20 radical green protesters in Massachusetts who oppose a pipeline in the ground because it will flow a fossil fuel–natural gas–are planning a 3-day, 34-mile walk-a-thon along a small portion of the pipeline’s pathway. And it’s big news for newspapers in that part of the country. Go figure. We suppose when you get a bunch of kooks and crackpots together it may sell a few more newspapers than reporting on the happenings at the local town board meeting (snore). So why not? The Greenfield, MA Recorder is reporting that monks from the Leverett Peace Pagoda (local Buddhist shrine) will lead a 3-day walk to oppose the Tennessee Gas Pipeline Northeast Energy Direct (NED) project that would deliver abundant, cheap, clean-burning Marcellus Shale gas to New England, ultimately leading to not only lower natgas prices but lower electricity prices. New England pays four times the rate for their electric that other parts of the country pay. Apparently the protesters want to keep it that way permanently. The monks and other green radicals planning the walk will do so in the name of the great Martin Luther King, because (they claim) King was a green radical like they are…
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Energy Services | Enterprise Products Partners | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines

Marcellus/Utica Ethane can Now Hitch a Ride to LA via Aegis Pipe
January 4, 2016January 4, 2016

Last week Enterprise Products Partners reported completing the remaining portion of the Aegis ethane pipeline that runs from Lake Charles, Louisiana to Napoleonville, Louisiana. Aegis is now online and flowing ethane. And that’s good for the Marcellus/Utica. Wait….what? Why is an ethane pipeline built in LA good for the northeast? Because that pipeline will almost certainly be flowing ethane from the Marcellus/Utica. Here’s the connection…
Read More “Marcellus/Utica Ethane can Now Hitch a Ride to LA via Aegis Pipe”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Exporting | Industrywide Issues | NEXUS Pipeline | Ohio | Pipelines | Statewide OH

CORN Questions Canadian Decision to Buy American NatGas via NEXUS
December 23, 2015December 23, 2015

On Monday MDN told you that the Ontario Energy Board (OEB) has cleared the way for the Canadian portion of the NEXUS Gas Transmission pipeline by approving two 15-year contracts to use the pipeline to deliver natural gas to the Dawn Hub (see Canada Approves Marc/Utica NEXUS Pipeline to Dawn Hub in Ontario). A group of anti-fossil fuel radicals who call themselves CORN (Coalition to Reroute NEXUS) has popped up to manufacture a controversy where none exists. Apparently one or two staffers at the OEB offered a dissenting opinion (as is often the case) for why the two contracts for the NEXUS should not be granted. Somehow those internal documents were leaked to the CORNballs (our name for members of CORN) who are now attempting to claim the OEB ignored the recommendation of its own staff and approved the contracts when (according to CORN) it should not have. We wonder if the CORNballs know that an average 7 billion cubic feet of natural gas flows from Canada to the United States every day, and that an average 1.5 Bcf/d flows from the U.S. to Canada every day? Do they know that gas has been going back and forth across our border with Canada for decades? Why do they oppose this particular pathway of trade with Canada, which would strengthen ties with our friends to the north?…
Read More “CORN Questions Canadian Decision to Buy American NatGas via NEXUS”
Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Lease & Royalty Payments | NEXUS Pipeline | Ohio | Pipelines | Statewide OH

Columbus Law Firm: How to Get the Best Pipeline Easement Deal
December 22, 2015December 22, 2015

Goldman & Braunstein is a Columbus, OH law firm that’s carved a niche out of representing landowners in eminent domain disputes with pipeline companies. Earlier this year the firm asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to disallow Energy Transfer Partners’ use of eminent domain in building the ET Rover pipeline (see OH Law Firm Asks FERC to Stop ET Rover Pipeline Eminent Domain). Michael Braunstein and Bill Goldman are at it again. Last week they held a meeting in Huron County, OH to advise landowners who potentially face eminent domain action by the NEXUS Gas Transmission pipeline project. They offer some good counsel. But make no mistake–they’re there to drum up business. Goldman & Braunstein do not say landowners can block the pipeline from coming through their property. What they do say is that their firm can get landowners a better deal, and ensure pipeline installation is “put in properly” by using (yep) Goldman & Braunstein. The firm believes landowners should be paid “over $100 per foot” for any deal they do with NEXUS. That’s the highest per-foot price we’ve ever heard of when it comes to pipeline easements. If they can pull that off, more power to ’em!…
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