Pipelines

Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pipelines | Regulation | Rockies Express Pipeline | Statewide OH

REX Pipeline Zone 3 East-to-West Project Gets FERC Approval
March 3, 2015March 3, 2015

A big announcement yesterday from Tallgrass Energy Partners, owners of the Rockies Express Pipeline (REX). REX has received approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to modify “certain facilities” along the REX pipeline from Monroe County, OH all the way to Moultrie County, IL–something they call the Zone 3 East-to-West Project. When complete, it means REX will flow an additional 1.2 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day from the Utica and Marcellus to Midwest markets. A second important announcement: The Seneca Lateral of the REX (Noble County, OH) is now fully operational. REX upgraded compressor stations along the Seneca Lateral which has boosted available capacity on the pipeline to 600 million cubic feet per day…
Read More “REX Pipeline Zone 3 East-to-West Project Gets FERC Approval”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | New York | Pipelines | Statewide NY | Williams

Latest Anti-Drilling Attack on Constitution Pipeline: “It’s Illegal”
March 3, 2015March 3, 2015

We’ve noticed a renewed effort on the part of anti-drillers to stop the already FERC-authorized Constitution Pipeline, slated to run from Susquehanna County, PA–where they can actually drill for natural gas–through upstate New York to Schoharie County (see FERC Issues Final Approval for Constitution Pipeline in PA/NY). New York State’s Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) must grant what’s called a 401 Water Quality Certificate that allows the Constitution to lay pipe through and under swamps, creeks and other bodies of water. The DEC held a series of public hearings on the Constitution (see Pro-Drillers Out in Force at Constitution Pipeline Hearing in Binghamton). Last week the time for public comment closed–which is why we’re now seeing anti-drillers launching a coordinated attack, as a last-ditch effort to stop the Constitution. Their attack includes sympathetic (and sycophantic) media stories and an attempt to re-brand the Constitution as “the Keystone XL pipeline of natural gas.” What a joke! Bobby Kennedy Jr. went on MSNBC (a network virtually no one watches) to make some outrageously false claims about the Constitution pipeline and FERC. It all adds up to a well-coordinated, well-funded attack by Big Environment trust funders…
Read More “Latest Anti-Drilling Attack on Constitution Pipeline: “It’s Illegal””
Energy Services | EnLink Midstream | Guernsey County | Industrywide Issues | Noble County | Ohio | Pipelines | Washington County (OH)

EnLink OH Condensate Pipe in Trouble? Open Season Extended Again
March 2, 2015March 2, 2015

EnLink Midstream is clearly having trouble getting enough business to justify building a new condensate pipeline in Ohio. In August 2014, EnLink announced a new 45-mile condensate pipeline that will stretch across Guernsey, Noble and Washington counties in Ohio (see EnLink Midstream Announces New Condensate Pipeline in ORV). The project, which connects to another EnLink pipeline in Washington County, is called the Ohio River Valley Pipeline, or ORV. In mid-December, EnLink launched a 30-day binding open season for shippers to sign up for capacity on the new pipeline (see EnLink Launches 1 Month Open Season for ORV Condensate Pipeline). An open season is the time when shippers sign on the dotted line and commit to paying for and using the pipeline when it’s built. If EnLink doesn’t get enough customers, they won’t build it. In January EnLink announced there were extending the open season another six weeks (see EnLink Extends Open Season for OH Condensate Pipeline by 6 Weeks). Those six weeks have come and gone, and guess what? EnLink has just announced they’re extending the open season again, another six weeks…
Read More “EnLink OH Condensate Pipe in Trouble? Open Season Extended Again”
Belmont County | Economic Impact | Energy Services | Energy Transfer Partners | Harrison County | Industrywide Issues | Jefferson County (OH) | Jobs | Monroe County | Ohio | Pipelines

List of Towns in 4 SE OH Counties Getting ET Rover Pipeline
February 26, 2015February 26, 2015

Southeast OH will soon see a lot of new pipelines being laid, and along with it, a lot of new jobs. Energy Transfer Partners recently briefed Monroe County Commissioners on the ET Rover pipeline project, an 800-mile, $4.4 billion pipeline that will connect the Marcellus and Utica Shale region to Canada (see ET Rover Pipeline’s 800-Mile Journey Begins with FERC Filing). If the pipeline is laid as currently planned in the southeastern portion of Ohio, the pipeline will traverse 46.31 miles in Monroe County, 34.99 miles in Belmont County, 20.06 miles in Jefferson County and 17.7 miles in Harrison County. Here’s a list of the lucky townships in those four counties where the pipeline is due to go…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | PennEast Pipeline | Pipelines

Antis Show Up at NJ FERC Hearing to Dis PennEast Pipeline
February 26, 2015February 26, 2015

Hundreds of people turned out for the first-ever Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) hearing in New Jersey for the PennEast pipeline. You knew the nutters were lined up and ready–just about to burst waiting to get in front of the cameras and microphones to tell their silly tales of not why the pipeline should not be rerouted here or there to avoid something important–but why it should never, ever on God’s green earth NEVER get built. Some 90 people signed up to spew, and of course they didn’t disappoint. There was talk of George Washington and the Hessians (look up your American history if you don’t know what Hessians were); THE Delaware Riverkeeper herself, Maya van Rossum, made a star-studded appearance; and there were calls from some to “stand your ground” and never, ever on God’s green earth NEVER allow this evil, disgusting pipeline to get built…
Read More “Antis Show Up at NJ FERC Hearing to Dis PennEast Pipeline”
Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Research | Spectra Energy

Access Northeast Pipeline — Pulling Ahead of Kinder’s NED Project?
February 20, 2015February 20, 2015

Spectra Energy’s Access Northeast pipeline project is shaping up to be a worthy competitor to Kinder Morgan’s proposed expansion of the Tennessee Gas Pipeline, a project they call Northeast Expansion Direct (NED). On Wednesday, Spectra announced a new partner for Access Northeast–National Grid–along with an open season to sign up more potential customers–mostly electric generating companies (called LDCs or Local Distribution Companies) that use natural gas to fire their plants. The new partnership means Spectra has locked up electric generating plants that serve 70% of all the electric customers in New England–and they’re trying to get even more. Spectra is also trying to build as little new pipeline as possible, using looping (new pipeline laid next to existing pipeline) in areas where extra capacity is needed. Below we have the announcement about the open season and National Grid joining the project, a copy of the Access Northeast project map, and a brand new study by ICF commissioned by the Access Northeast partners that details how this project will save New Englanders $1 billion+ per year in electric costs. We also throw in a few of our own observations on this bold plan and whether or not the region can support both the Access Northeast and NED projects…
Read More “Access Northeast Pipeline — Pulling Ahead of Kinder’s NED Project?”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Northampton County | PennEast Pipeline | Pennsylvania | Pipelines

PA’s Schizophrenic Anti-Drillers: Go Slow, Hurry Up
February 19, 2015February 19, 2015

Anti-drillers are an interesting (and hypocritical, perhaps schizophrenic) bunch, as we’ve pointed out many times. They eschew “dirty” fossil fuels, yet they use fossil fuels every day, from the moment they wake up to the moment they go to bed (and even while they’re sleeping). Take the anti-drillers in Pennsylvania. A story mainstream media refused to report was the fact that the PA State Democrat Party–the home of anti-drillers in the Keystone State–passed an official plank in their platform in June 2013 ahead of the election for governor that would place an ongoing moratorium on all new Marcellus Shale drilling in the state (see PA Democrat Party Votes to End Marcellus Shale Drilling Statewide). Their reasoning? We need more data. We need to slow it down. We don’t have enough facts. We need to deliberate. Contrast that with anti-drilling Supervisor Andy Donello from Upper Nazareth Township in southeast PA (and others like him) with respect to the PennEast Pipeline…
Read More “PA’s Schizophrenic Anti-Drillers: Go Slow, Hurry Up”
CNG/LNG | Exporting | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Processing Plants

Canada’s 1st LNG Export Facility Gets Green Light; Marcellus Gas?
February 19, 2015February 19, 2015

The Bear Head LNG export facility in Nova Scotia, Canada has just taken another huge step forward. You may recall last August when we outlined the $2.2 billion project proposed by Australian company Liquefied Natural Gas Limited, or LNGL (see Deal to Purchase Site for Nova Scotia LNG Plant Advances Quickly). On Tuesday, the company reported they have received necessary Canadian regulatory approvals to move forward with the project. Why are we going on about an LNG plant in Nova Scotia? Because Marcellus Shale gas will feed it…
Read More “Canada’s 1st LNG Export Facility Gets Green Light; Marcellus Gas?”
Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Snyder County | UGI Energy Services

UGI Building 35-Mile Pipeline for Panda Power Electric Plant
February 18, 2015February 18, 2015

Panda Power announced yesterday that they will build a new 1,000-megawatt electric generating plant powered by Marcellus Shale gas in Snyder County, PA (see today’s companion story). In order to get Marcellus gas to the plant site, a 35-mile pipeline is needed. Enter UGI, one of Pennsylvania’s largest utility companies with a midstream subsidiary that builds pipelines. UGI has committed $160 million to build the 20-inch pipeline needed to supply the plant…
Read More “UGI Building 35-Mile Pipeline for Panda Power Electric Plant”
DTE Energy | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines

DTE Energy Analyst Call: Utica/Marcellus Big Part of Co’s Future
February 16, 2015February 16, 2015

DTE Energy is a major utility and midstream company headquartered in Detroit, MI. DTE is part owner of the Millennium Pipeline across NY, sole owner of the Bluestone Gathering system in Susquehanna County, PA, and partner in the NEXUS Pipeline planned to cross OH. DTE is also the part owner of the Vector Pipeline, a pipeline that until recently has moved gas from Chicago (coming from Canada) to storage facilities in Michigan. A number of shippers have stopped using Vector for that purpose and it will now be used to flow Utica Shale gas, delivering it to both the NEXUS Pipeline and to Energy Transfer Partners’ ET Rover pipeline. According to DTE officials on an analyst call last Friday, the Utica and Marcellus Shale play a big role in the company’s future. Below we’ve extracted the juicy bits from the analyst call touching on the Utica/Marcellus, NEXUS and Vector pipelines, and how company officials say it all ties together…
Read More “DTE Energy Analyst Call: Utica/Marcellus Big Part of Co’s Future”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Pipelines | Tennessee Gas Pipeline

Conway MA Offers Lame Excuses to Oppose Tenn Gas Pipeline
February 16, 2015February 16, 2015

If it wasn’t so tragic, it would be funny. Otherwise “intelligent” people in the Massachusetts town of Conway have concocted an ominous “report” on the proposed Kinder Morgan expansion of the existing Tennessee Gas Pipeline through their area. Since there are no real negatives to building the pipeline (it IS a pipeline, it gets buried in the ground never to be seen or heard from again)–they have to invent negatives to oppose it. Here’s how the lie goes: shale gas has a lot of radon in it (it doesn’t), and the gas traveling through the pipeline will be shale gas with radon, and EVERYONE knows those pipelines leak like sieves (it’s a wonder any gas actually makes it to market through those pipelines), and that leaking, nasty, fracked shale gas with radon will leak out and cause cancer. Just one teeny, tiny problem with that particular lie. How do you mitigate radon? Anyone? That’s right: You vent it into the air where it dissipates immediately…
Read More “Conway MA Offers Lame Excuses to Oppose Tenn Gas Pipeline”
Accidents | Brooke County | Energy Services | Enterprise Products Partners | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | West Virginia

ATEX Express Ethane Pipeline Now Fixed, 100% Back Online Today
February 13, 2015February 13, 2015

Sometime today, the Appalachia-to-Texas Express (ATEX) ethane pipeline will once again be fully operational. On January 26 a section of the pipeline in Brooke County, WV ruptured and caught fire (see ATEX Ethane Pipeline Explodes, Burns in Brooke County, WV). The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) is investigating but so far they don’t have a final determination. When that section of the pipeline went offline, two of four processing facilities that feed ethane to the line we bumped off. Starting today, all four processing plants will once again be flowing ethane through the ATEX…
Read More “ATEX Express Ethane Pipeline Now Fixed, 100% Back Online Today”
Carbon County | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Luzerne County | PennEast Pipeline | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation

More Silly Antics from Antis at FERC PennEast Pipeline Hearing
February 13, 2015February 13, 2015

We’ve been to a number of Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) scoping hearings, as well as hearings by the New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation. Whether it’s a hearing on pipelines, compressor stations or shale drilling, anti-fossil fuel nutters always show up and it seems as if they read from the same script every time. The latest example of that comes from Carbon County, PA where the silly antics of antis was on full display once again, this time at a FERC hearing on the PennEast Pipeline. Example: One anti-pipeline nutter used part of her 3 minutes of talk time to read the lyrics from a Disney movie (boggles the mind)…
Read More “More Silly Antics from Antis at FERC PennEast Pipeline Hearing”
Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Williams

Williams CEO Says Pipeline Opposition Equals More Coal Use
February 13, 2015February 13, 2015

In a recent interview, the CEO of Williams, Alan Armstrong, was quite candid: The problem slowing natural gas pipeline development is not the low price of oil and gas–it’s politics. Armstrong says he would prefer federal oversight, by FERC, shutting out “local voices” that muck up the works. We’re not sure we totally agree with that viewpoint. Freedom and liberty are messy things, but we understand his sentiment. Armstrong points out there’s no one “who’s in charge” when it comes to pipelines, and process which makes for endless debates and trying to reconcile innumerable opinions…
Read More “Williams CEO Says Pipeline Opposition Equals More Coal Use”
CNG/LNG | Exporting | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines

Repsol Accelerates Plan for Canadian LNG Exports Fed by Marcellus
February 12, 2015February 12, 2015

Spanish oil giant Repsol loves North American shale. In December, Repsol purchased the troubled Canadian company Talisman Energy for $8 per share (see Spanish Respol Buys Marcellus E&P Talisman Energy for $8/Share). That deal is awaiting regulatory approval before it becomes official. Repsol is also contemplating building an LNG (liquefied natural gas) export facility along the coast of Saint John, Newfoundland. Those plans, according to new filings with Canada’s National Energy Board, have been accelerated. Part (much?) of the gas that will feed the Saint John LNG operation will come from, yes, the Marcellus and Utica Shale…
Read More “Repsol Accelerates Plan for Canadian LNG Exports Fed by Marcellus”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Pipelines | Regulation | Tennessee Gas Pipeline

Anti Groups Beat Export Drum in Opposing MA Pipeline
February 11, 2015February 11, 2015

Anti-fossil fuelers continue to try and make the case that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission should not allow Kinder Morgan to build an extension to the Tennessee Gas Pipeline through Massachusetts, called the Northeast Energy Direct project. Their favorite tactic is to find an issue that they believe will resonate with the general population and push for all it’s worth on that issue–with the gleeful help of mainstream (or “drive-by”) media. The latest wedge issue they’re harping on is that natural gas flowing through the pipe will get exported–implying that none of the gas flowing through the pipeline will benefit New Englanders. We previously dealt with the complex issues behind exporting (see Canadian LNG Exports, New England Pipelines & the Marcellus). Will some of the gas flowing through the TGP pipeline get exported to Canada and liquefied into LNG and exported across the ocean? No doubt. Will most of it get exported? No…
Read More “Anti Groups Beat Export Drum in Opposing MA Pipeline”