Pipelines

Energy Services | Enterprise Products Partners | Industrywide Issues | MarkWest Energy | Pipelines | Sunoco Logistics | Williams

Envelope Please: 4 of 5 Top Midstream Companies in Marcellus/Utica
July 8, 2014July 8, 2014

Who’s the “best of the best” when it comes to the midstream sector–for the entire country? It probably won’t surprise you to learn that the #1 midstream company in the Marcellus, by size of operations in the Marcellus, claimed the top spot in EnergyPoint Research’s 2014 Oil & Gas Midstream Services Customer Satisfaction Survey. That company is, of course, MarkWest Energy. What may surprise you is that Sunoco Logistics, currently under an intense smear campaign by anti-drillers who want to prevent the Mariner East natural gas liquids pipeline from beginning operation, came in at #2. Two other companies with major operations in the northeast are also in the top 5…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Energy Transfer Partners | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines

Opposition from Anti Drillers to ET Rover Pipeline in Michigan
July 7, 2014July 7, 2014

Why is it reporters, when writing about proposed pipelines, and talking about the gas that flow through them, always seem to use the same pejorative phrasing. Word for word out of the reporter anti-drilling stylebook it’s usually something like “gas extracted through the controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking,” as Gannett reporter Keith Matheny writes in the Detroit Free Press when talking about the recently announced ET Rover pipeline from Energy Transfer Partners that will cross Michigan (see Big News: ETP “Rover” Marcellus/Utica Pipeline to Midwest/Canada). For their part, anti-drillers quoted in such stories always seem to use the same phraseology too…
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide PA | Sunoco Logistics

Branding Squabble Among Sunoco Siblings over Mariner East Project
July 7, 2014July 7, 2014

For MDN, an interesting story in the Philadelphia Inquirer tackles the tricky issue of branding and the very visible brand of Sunoco. It seems Sunoco that sells you your gasoline at filling stations across the country is often confused with Sunoco Logistics, the company that builds pipelines, like the Mariner East pipeline. Mariner East would repurpose a pipeline that crosses the state of Pennsylvania from west to southeast and would deliver natural gas liquids, including propane, to the Marcus Hook refinery near Philadelphia. Mariner East has faced still opposition (see More Pushback from PA Residents on Proposed Mariner East Pipeline). Anti-drillers are trying to tarnish the Sunoco name and that has Sunoco the filling station company concerned…
Read More “Branding Squabble Among Sunoco Siblings over Mariner East Project”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Lancaster County | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Transco | Williams

Chains & Old Ladies: Kinky Protest Talk in Lancaster County, PA
July 3, 2014July 3, 2014

We’ve pointed out the hardened anti-drillers who oppose the Williams Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline project in Lebanon County, PA only number around 50 people–out of a population of 133,568 residents in that fine county (see Lebanon County Anti-Pipeline Meeting Yields a Surprise). When denied a public forum to spew and spout, they sit on the floor and behave like babies (see Williams’ Smart Open House in Lebanon County Confounds Antis). And when they still can’t get their way, they bring in lawyers (see Lebanon PA Anti-Drillers Plot Ordinance Against Williams Pipeline). In neighboring Lancaster County, they have a small anti-pipeline contingent too–but interestingly they were able to get 75 anti-drillers to turn out for a protest last weekend–a full 50% more than Lenanon County has been able to muster…
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Blue Ridge Mtn Res/Magnum Hunter | Energy Companies | Energy Services | GreenHunter Resources | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

3 New (Short) Pipelines from GreenHunter in Tri-state Area
June 30, 2014June 30, 2014

GreenHunter Resources, a subsidiary of Magnum Hunter Resources, is making small moves to compete with MarkWest Energy and Williams. Today, GreenHunter announced they are building (in a partnership with Major Pipeline LLC) three new, short pipelines. The three pipelines represent a total of 34 miles of new pipeline, when added together. One pipeline each will be dedicated to brine/wastewater, fresh water, and condensate. Two of the pipelines will originate in southwestern PA and one in WV. All of them will connect with one of GreenHunter’s barge terminals on the Ohio River. Also in the mix is a condensate “splitter”…
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Energy Services | Energy Transfer Partners | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pipelines | Statewide OH

Big News: ETP “Rover” Marcellus/Utica Pipeline to Midwest/Canada
June 27, 2014June 27, 2014

Midstream company Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) announced a major new Marcellus/Utica Shale pipeline infrastructure project yesterday that will transport up to 3.25 billion cubic feet per day of northeast shale gas to markets in the Midwest and Canada. Dubbed the Rover Pipeline Project, ETP says they already have three important (and big) customers lined up to use the new pipeline system, including Aubrey McClendon’s American Energy Partners, Antero Resources and Range Resources. A binding open season to sign up more customer begins today and runs for a month. The first leg of the new pipeline will connect PA, WV and southeast OH processing plants by crossing Ohio, following an existing pipeline route. A second leg will connect northwestern OH to Canada by slicing up through Michigan. Here’s the particulars, along with a map…
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CNG/LNG | Energy Companies | Ethane | Exporting | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Range Resources Corp

Range Announces Multiple Agreements to Sell Natgas & Ethane
June 27, 2014June 27, 2014

A big, important announcement from Range Resources yesterday to go along with the big, important news that ETP will build a new Marcellus/Utica pipeline (see today’s lead story). Range confirmed ETP’s announcement yesterday that they (Range) will be a customer for the new Rover Pipeline that crosses Ohio and will eventually connect to Canada. In fact, Range says they are the “foundation” shipper on that new pipeline, which is due to be in service October 2017. Range will ship 400,000 million Btus (or 388 million cubic feet) per day on the Rover Pipeline–for 20 years. In addition, Range also announced agreements to sell their Marcellus gas for export via the Cheniere LNG export facility in Sabine Pass and via a second unnamed LNG facility. And the really big news (for MDN)–Range has signed up to become the second source of ethane for the Odebrecht WV cracker plant. They also plan to sell ethane to the Sasol cracker plant planned in Lake Charles, LA…
Read More “Range Announces Multiple Agreements to Sell Natgas & Ethane”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Lebanon County | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Williams

Lebanon PA Anti-Drillers Plot Ordinance Against Williams Pipeline
June 27, 2014June 27, 2014

The hippie anti-drilling pipeline protesters from Lebanon Pipeline Awareness (Lebanon, PA) once again failed to get more than 50 people to turn out for another stop-the-Atlantic-Sunrise-Pipeline meeting, held last night held at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Lebanon. As MDN previously predicted, last night’s meeting was to plot a strategy to launch frivolous lawsuits (see Lawsuits Next Act for Anti-Pipeline Group in Lebanon County, PA?). An ambulance-chasing lawyer from out of town showed up and told the anti-drillers in attendance that their best chance of stopping the pipeline is not, however, frivolous lawsuits–it is instead an illegal zoning ordinance…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Lebanon County | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Transco | Williams

Lawsuits Next Act for Anti-Pipeline Group in Lebanon County, PA?
June 25, 2014June 25, 2014

The hippie protesters of Lebanon Pipeline Awareness are feeling positively rejuvenated. They haven’t had this much fun since the 1960s. The anti-fossil fuel group was formed in Lebanon County, PA to oppose a new 27-mile pipeline Williams plans to build as part of its Atlantic Sunrise Project (see Williams Plans $2.1B Transco Pipeline Expansion, 100% Sold Already). Lebanon Pipeline Awareness can’t get more than 50 people to attend their meetings, and when they do show up, they have to be handed talking points so they know what to say (see Lebanon, PA Group Coaches Blind Followers to Oppose Pipeline). When denied a public forum at a recent Williams open house on the proposed pipeline, the Lebanon protesters sat on the floor and stomped their feet like the babies they are (see Williams’ Smart Open House in Lebanon County Confounds Antis). What to do now? They can’t get any traction with public opinion, so the next act is to hire a lawyer and file frivolous lawsuits…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Pipelines | Tennessee Gas Pipeline

Small Group in Ashfield, MA Vote to Oppose Kinder’s TGP Pipeline
June 25, 2014June 25, 2014

An anti-driller from Ashfield, MA says she wants her chance to stand in front of a Kinder Morgan bulldozer to try and stop the proposed Tennessee Gas Pipeline expansion from coming through their town. We sincerely hope she gets the opportunity. 🙂 Some 200 “voters” who are virulent anti-drillers packed an Ashfield town meeting to vote in favor of two resolutions against the proposed Kinder Morgan TGP pipeline (for background, see Reaction to TGP’s Planned Pipeline Across Massachusetts). The Democrat governor of Massachusetts and the governors of five other New England states want and desperately need that pipeline (see Blue State Blues: 6 New England States Want New Natgas Pipeline). But true to form, at least some towns along the proposed route, including Ashfield, have revived the old hippie brigade to begin a round of new protests (gives their lives a little purpose, a chance to relive the glory years of the 60s)…
Read More “Small Group in Ashfield, MA Vote to Oppose Kinder’s TGP Pipeline”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | New York | Otsego County | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide NY | Williams

Save the Bald Eagles in NY! Next Hurdle for Constitution Pipeline
June 24, 2014June 24, 2014

You’ve heard of save the whales, save the snail darters, and maybe even save the tree bats (see Natgas Jumps Thru Hoops for Bats While Solar Farm Torches Turtles). The latest anti-drilling faux excuse for stopping the already-authorized, permitted and public hearing’d to death Constitution Pipeline in upstate New York is, yes, save the American bald eagle! We learn from the anti-drilling Oneonta Star that bald eagles are rather discriminating. They don’t mind traffic noise from a busy interstate highway less than a half mile from their nests–but if Williams happens to do a little blasting of bedrock so they can lay pipe–that will scare the bald eagles right out of their tail feathers…
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Crime | Erie County | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines

ATVs Damage National Fuel’s Pipeline Routes in Western PA
June 24, 2014June 24, 2014

As so often happens, a few bad apples can spoil it for everyone. We’re speaking of rogue ATV (all terrain vehicle) drivers who have vandalized pipeline routes in northwestern PA, and in the process damaging the top soil and grass along those routes which leads to erosion…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Millennium Pipeline | New York | Orange County | Pipelines

NY Anti-Driller Claims Compressor Station Causing Son’s Asthma
June 20, 2014June 20, 2014

A small group of virulent anti-drillers from New York City, who flee the city on the weekends and live in places like Orange County, NY, are once again slandering Marcellus drilling in New York State by targeting industry-related initiatives like pipeline compressor stations. To wit: A family who opposed the compressor station built by the Millennium Pipeline in Minisink, NY (southwest Orange County) now claim their 16-year old son has had a “sudden onset” of asthma which occurs only when they flee the city for the weekends to their summer home in Minisink. They conveniently blame the compressor station. What to do? Hire a so-called consultant to address a small group in the area, get a local reporter to show up and regurgitate a whopping pack of lies to scare everyone who reads the local rag…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Pipelines | Tennessee Gas Pipeline

Lib MA Town Tells Tenn. Gas Pipeline: Stay Outta Town!
June 20, 2014June 20, 2014

Taking the law into his own hands, as fascist liberals typically do, Andover, MA Town Manager Reginald “Buzz” Stapczynski sent a letter to officials at the Tennessee Gas Pipeline telling them to keep their people the h— outta town–at least that was the sentiment expressed. Such nice, tolerant, peaceful people those anti-drilling libs, aren’t they? Just lovers of all mankind, willing to listen to any harebrained viewpoint–until it’s a viewpoint that doesn’t match theirs. Then the baseball bats come out…
Read More “Lib MA Town Tells Tenn. Gas Pipeline: Stay Outta Town!”
American Energy Partners | Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Processing Plants

Aubrey McClendon Gets Back into the Midstream Business
June 19, 2014June 19, 2014

Is Aubrey McClendon getting the band back together again? That is, is he re-creating Chesapeake Energy under the name of American Energy Partners? Perhaps! Yesterday McClendon’s AEP announced that AEP and their major backer Energy & Minerals Group (EMG) are forming a midstream subsidiary called American Energy – Midstream which will invest in pipelines and processing plants in those regions where AEP has active drilling operations–namely the Utica and Marcellus Shale…
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Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Processing Plants | Shell | Shell Midstream Partners

Shell Files IPO to Spin Off Midstream/Pipelines into MLP
June 19, 2014June 19, 2014

While Aubrey McClendon and his financial partner EMG are getting back into the midstream/pipeline business (see today’s story about getting the band back together), Royal Dutch Shell is getting out of the midstream business. Well, not exactly getting out–but Shell announced yesterday that the company has filed paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission to create a pipeline subsidiary called Shell Midstream Partners. The new company would have a master limited partnership (MLP) structure, which floats something akin to, but different from, shares of stock. They’re called units and the reason for spinning it out as a separate company under the MLP banner is tax-related. According to the paperwork Shell has filed, they anticipate raising up to $750 million in unit sales. Will Shell, via this new subsidiary, own any pipelines in the Marcellus/Utica?…
Read More “Shell Files IPO to Spin Off Midstream/Pipelines into MLP”