Pipelines

Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Supply Chain

Marcellus Midstreamers Turn to Calif. Company for Compressor Power
March 19, 2014March 19, 2014

Even companies as far away as California are successfully selling their manufactured products to the Marcellus and Utica Shale industry–albeit the products they manufacture are pretty specialized. Capstone Turbine Corporation of Chatsworth, CA issued a press release yesterday to announce three midstream operators in the Marcellus/Utica have placed orders with the company for power plants that will power multiple compressor stations and pipeline interconnections. Captstone doesn’t name the customers, but we can certainly guess who they may be (although we won’t).

To be honest, this is pretty obscure (i.e. uninteresting) stuff for most. Our point? Big supply chain bucks (millions) have just been spent–and it’s money that could potentially be spent with manufacturers closer to home, if those manufacturers exist, and if they get plugged into the northeast shale supply chain. So pay attention companies that manufacture power plants! Here’s the Capstone press release with a few more details…
Read More “Marcellus Midstreamers Turn to Calif. Company for Compressor Power”
Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | TC Energy/TransCanada

TransCanada’s ANR Pipeline to Reverse & Carry Marcellus Gas South
March 14, 2014March 14, 2014

This week TransCanada’s ANR Pipeline announced an open season to gauge interest on carrying plain old natural gas from the Marcellus and Utica Shale region all the way to the Gulf Coast. The plan is to reverse the flow of the ANR Pipeline that stretches from Indiana to the Gulf, and get the gas to Indiana by using the ANR Lebanon Lateral, a pipeline that goes from Lenanon, OH to the mainline ANR in Indiana. TransCanada is offering up to 600,000 dekatherms per day (Dth/d).

Here’s the story from NGI’s excellent Shale Daily publication:
Read More “TransCanada’s ANR Pipeline to Reverse & Carry Marcellus Gas South”
Accidents | Columbia Pipeline Group | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kanawha County | NiSource | Pipelines | West Virginia

NTSB Faults NiSource/Columbia for WV Pipeline Explosion in 2012
March 12, 2014March 12, 2014

On December 11, 2012, a portion of the Columbia Gas Transmission pipeline (owned by Nisource) exploded near Sissonville, WV, 10 miles north of Charleston. The resulting fire burned for more than an hour and shut down a portion of nearby Interstate 77 for days (see Columbia NatGas Pipeline Explodes Near Charleston, WV). It’s been a long time coming, but on Monday the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), that did a full investigation of the explosion, turned in their final report. It was pretty damning for NiSource/Columbia. The conclusions of the investigators are that a) the pipe had corroded in that section–a long time ago, and b) Columbia hadn’t inspected that section of pipeline since (unbelievably) 1988. In other words, it was an accident waiting to happen.

Below we have the press release from the NTSB with their high level findings, then the full 32-page report released Monday, and finally, the lame response issued by NiSource/Columbia “thanking” the NTSB for just ripping them a new one…
Read More “NTSB Faults NiSource/Columbia for WV Pipeline Explosion in 2012”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Pipelines | Tennessee Gas Pipeline

Anti-Drillers Turn Out to Oppose TGP Pipeline Expansion Across MA
March 7, 2014March 7, 2014

As you may recall, a few weeks ago MDN was a bit dumbfounded that residents of Massachusetts were being so reasonable about the prospect of Kinder Morgan expanding the Tennessee Gas Pipeline across the state to deliver critically needed new supplies of natural gas to New England (see Reaction to TGP’s Planned Pipeline Across Massachusetts). It’s Massachusetts for heaven’s sake! Home of some of the looniest of the loons, lefties of the left. And here they were, being all reasonable. The stars were out of alignment.

It took a little time, but true to expectations, here come the MA nutters out of the woodwork to oppose the pipeline. They’re spitting and sputtering and mouthily proclaiming Kinder Morgan has “no idea who they’re dealing with.” Now THAT’S more like the wacky MA residents we know and love. The stars are now realigned in the eco-nut firmament…
Read More “Anti-Drillers Turn Out to Oppose TGP Pipeline Expansion Across MA”
Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Regulation

Industry Supports Bill Forcing FERC to Approve Pipelines <1 Year
March 6, 2014March 6, 2014

Apparently a year is not long enough for employees at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to approve new pipeline applications. FERC is the agency charged with approving new interstate natural gas (and other types of) pipelines. It’s a long, arduous, and complex process to approve and build a new pipeline. You might think if an agency had 100% completed paperwork before them it wouldn’t take an entire year to evaluate and approve it–but indeed, it often takes longer. Much longer. Years, in fact.

Enter Congressman Mike Pompeo, Republican from Kansas. Last year he introduced H.R. 1900 which would bring some “discipline” to the process by making FERC approve or deny newly proposed pipeline projects within a year of receiving all necessary paperwork. Jeff Wright, director of FERC’s Office of Energy Projects, promptly threatened lawmakers, telling them if FERC is backed into a corner, the agency will simply start denying projects left and right (see FERC Warning to Lawmakers: Back Us in a Corner, You’ll be Sorry). We hadn’t heard anything further on H.R. 1900 since Wright’s threat, until we spotted this…
Read More “Industry Supports Bill Forcing FERC to Approve Pipelines <1 Year”
Access Midstream Partners | Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Chesapeake Fire Sale Continues: Marcellus/Utica Compressor Plants
March 5, 2014March 5, 2014

Chesapeake Energy continues to sell off bits and pieces of the company, making corporate raider (and the company’s second largest investor) Carl Icahn happy. The latest ballast to go over the side are 103 “compression units” in the Marcellus/Utica region, purchased by Access Midstream (which used to be Chesapeake Midstream before it was tossed over the side too), and 334 “compression units” scattered throughout the south, southwest and west, sold to Exterran Partners. Total proceeds for Carl Icahn, er Chesapeake? $520 million.

Here’s the announcement from Chesapeake, followed by the announcement from Access Midstream about their “bolt-on” acquisition…
Read More “Chesapeake Fire Sale Continues: Marcellus/Utica Compressor Plants”
Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Regulation | Transco | Williams

Williams Happy with FERC Progress on NE Pipeline Expansions
March 4, 2014March 4, 2014

Yesterday Williams issued a press release touting last Friday’s Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issuance of a final environmental review for the Transco Pipeline’s Rockaway Lateral and Northeast Connector expansions. The final review is prelude to a final decision by FERC to green light the projects, something Williams (the owner of Transco) clearly believes will happen. The final FERC decision will be issued this spring. When it is, and when Williams builds those expansions, it means more gas will flow to New York City by next winter–in time for the winter heating season.

The irony is, of course, that none of the gas flowing through the Transco to NY will be from New York State itself but instead will come mostly from the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania. Keep an eye out for the loonies who are bound to come out of the woodwork to oppose the expansion. Perhaps we’ll see more nutjobs like those that opposed the now-functioning Spectra Energy pipeline to Manhattan (see NYC Pipeline Protesters Get Naked, Paint Themselves Green). Here is yesterday’s “attaboy FERC” announcement from Williams:
Read More “Williams Happy with FERC Progress on NE Pipeline Expansions”
Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | New York | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Public Opinion | Regulation | Statewide NY | Statewide PA | Williams

Constitution Pipeline Payments to Groups – Donations or Payola?
March 3, 2014March 3, 2014

What do you call it when a company pays money to local organizations and agencies before the project has been fully approved by federal, state and local agencies? These payments, mind you, are not fees for permits or licenses, but voluntary chunks of money offered to groups that may be affected by the project if it’s built–in this case a pipeline. Is it called, Good corporate citizenship? Being a responsible member of the local community? Or perhaps, payola?

Regardless of what you call it, the Constitution Pipeline, a desperately needed natural gas pipeline that will run from the gas fields of Susquehanna County, PA to central New York where it will connect to two major interstate pipelines, has now paid out more than $1 million in “community grants” to help build support for the pipeline. Is that a good thing, or bad? We think it’s time to have that discussion…
Read More “Constitution Pipeline Payments to Groups – Donations or Payola?”
Accidents | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA Marcellus Industry’s Biggest Fines & Biggest Violators
February 28, 2014February 28, 2014

NPR’s StateImpact Pennsylvania is only too happy to bring us the breathless news of who the baddest of the bad were in the Marcellus drilling industry in PA for 2013. How do they measure who was naughty and who was nice? Well, they’re all naughty (right?), but the naughtiest were those who paid the biggest fines last year. It may surprise you to know that the when you add all fines together, the company paying the most in 2013 was Williams, a pipeline operator–not a driller. Williams settled up in 2013 for violations going back several years, mostly related to accidents and drilling mud spills that resulted from foul weather (including Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee). Williams’ total fine tab in 2013 was $388,694 (for violations occurring in 2011-2012). Coming in at #2 was National Fuel Gas Company’s Seneca Resources subsidiary. They were clipped $377,000 for violations occurring from 2010 to 2013.

Below are the top 5 violators cumulatively (adding up all of their violations), along with the top 5 biggest single violations from last year, in the PA Marcellus drilling industry:
Read More “PA Marcellus Industry’s Biggest Fines & Biggest Violators”
Access Midstream Partners | Chemung County | Economic Impact | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | New York | Pipelines | Processing Plants

MDN Plants a Big Fat Kiss on Access Midstream
February 28, 2014February 28, 2014

Because it’s Friday and we’re in a jovial mood, we’ve decided to award an “at-a-boy/girl” award today, to… Access Midstream. A few years ago Chesapeake Midstream was spun off into it’s own company and later renamed Access (see Chesapeake Midstream Changes Name to Access Midstream). Access has a serious presence in the Marcellus and Utica Shale region, among other shale basins across the country.

So why the recognition today? Because even though New York politicians like Gov. Andrew “can’t-make-a-decision” Cuomo have obstinately refused to allow shale drilling in the state, Access is building a new office building in Big Flats, NY, near Corning/Elmira. The location happens to be close to the PA border and of course Access will use the office as a regional HQ for its operations in northeastern PA. Access already has a presence in the Big Flats area and has had for several years. They’ve decided it’s time to build a new regional HQ and consolidate several locations into one. The point is, Access could just as easily have built their new building a few miles away in PA, which is what 99.9999999% of other industry-related companies have done (NY is the BIGGEST loser). However, Access decided to throw us NYers a bone and build their facility, employing 135 people, in our high tax, business-unfriendly and drilling hostile state. And so we say, thank you! And, are you crazy?!…
Read More “MDN Plants a Big Fat Kiss on Access Midstream”
Boardwalk Pipeline Partners | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines

Serious Concerns about Boardwalk Pipeline Partners Continue
February 27, 2014February 27, 2014

Two weeks ago MDN told you about the developing story that Boardwalk Pipeline Partners has hit a serious rough patch and their stock price was plummeting (see Boardwalk’s Stock Drops Like a Rock – Trouble in Midstreamland?). The situation has not improved and their stock price is down nearly 50% from where it was just a short time ago. Why do we care?

Boardwalk is in a joint venture with Williams to build the Bluegrass NGL pipeline from the Marcellus/Utica all the way to the Gulf Coast. The Bluegrass has hit trouble, ironically, in the Bluegrass state of Kentucky with anti-drillers opposing it every step of the way (see the list of MDN’s Bluegrass pipeline trouble stories here). With one of the two Bluegrass pipeline partners in financial straights, what does that mean for the pipeline project? Especially since they have competition and it’s a horse race with a Kinder Morgan/MarkWest joint venture (see “Midstream Knife Fight” – Who Will Have 1st Operational NGL Pipeline to Gulf?). Here’s the latest analysis of how, and why, Boardwalk finds itself in the position they are now in…
Read More “Serious Concerns about Boardwalk Pipeline Partners Continue”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Pipelines | Tennessee Gas Pipeline

Mass. Anti-Drillers Finally Wake Up, Begin Opposing TGP Project
February 27, 2014February 27, 2014

About a month ago MDN noted, with some shock, that townships across Massachusetts were reacting to overtures by Kinder Morgan to expand the Tennessee Gas Pipeline across the state (to bring in more abundant, cheap Marcellus Shale gas) with reasonableness and an open mind (see Reaction to TGP’s Planned Pipeline Across Massachusetts). We always thought Massachusetts residents as a whole were slightly left of Vlad Putin. But we were (happily) wrong! We observed it’s funny how a 10x price jump in natural gas had turned New Englanders into a more reasoned, considered bunch.

However, some of the nutty bugs have now come crawling out of the woodwork to oppose the pipeline because it will bring that filthy, nasty “fracked” natural gas into the state. It just took them a little longer to come out of their fugue and get organized, but now they have–at least a small handful of them…
Read More “Mass. Anti-Drillers Finally Wake Up, Begin Opposing TGP Project”
CONSOL Energy | Energy Companies | Ethane | Exporting | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Statewide WV | West Virginia

CONSOL Feeling Heat over Ethane Exports to Europe, CEO Defends
February 24, 2014February 24, 2014

CONSOL Energy’s CEO Brett Harvey must be getting some heat over the company’s recent announcement that they have signed an agreement to export ethane from the Marcellus to Europe (see CONSOL to Begin Ethane Shipments Next Year–to Europe?!). Why would we say CONSOL is getting blowback? Because Harvey penned an op-ed that appears in The Intelligencer/Wheeling News-Register giving a spirited defense of their decision. The gist of Harvey’s points, if we might summarize, is this: CONSOL has deep roots and is committed to WV; there’s plenty of ethane to go around, including for exports (and exports bring money into WV); CONSOL is also going to sell ethane to the Odebrecht ethane cracker when/if it gets built; in the meantime, selling ethane to Europe means CONSOL will have more money to invest in WV.

Here’s Harvey’s “it’s OK” op-ed:
Read More “CONSOL Feeling Heat over Ethane Exports to Europe, CEO Defends”
Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Transco | Williams

Williams Plans $2.1B Transco Pipeline Expansion, 100% Sold Already
February 24, 2014February 24, 2014

Amidst the bad news for Williams last week that the company is being targeted by corporate raiders (see Evil Corporate Raiders Double Investment (& Control) in Williams), was a little bright spot of good news. The company announced they plan to expand the Transco pipeline carrying cheap Marcellus Shale gas (mostly from PA) to the Eastern Seaboard–what they call the Atlantic Sunrise Expansion of the Transco. The good news is that nine drillers have signed binding contracts, already sopping up 100% of the planned 1.7 million dekatherms of expansion. The new customers were not named in the announcement.

Williams plans to spend $2.1 billion on the expansion. They will file a request with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in March to get permission to…file a pre-filing. Yeah, it’s complicated–but that’s life in the midstream. Here’s the announcement from Williams:
Read More “Williams Plans $2.1B Transco Pipeline Expansion, 100% Sold Already”
Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Pipelines

NGPL Launches Open Season to Expand, Carry NE Gas South
February 21, 2014February 21, 2014

Two days ago Natural Gas Pipeline Company of America LLC (NGPL), a division of America’s largest midstream company Kinder Morgan, announced a 14-day non-binding open season to gauge interest in the potential expansion of its Gulf Coast mainline system. The expansion would increase NGPL’s flow capability up to 750,000 dekatherms per day of incremental volume from the Rockies Express Pipeline (REX) interconnection at Moultrie, IL. I would reverse the flow at several compressor stations, sending Marcellus and Utica Shale gas south on its pipeline system to Texas and Louisiana.

Here’s Kinder Morgan’s announcement of the NGPL open season, which runs through March 4th:
Read More “NGPL Launches Open Season to Expand, Carry NE Gas South”
Accidents | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Public Opinion | Williams

KY Natgas Pipeline Explosion Used to Fight Bluegrass NGL Pipeline
February 18, 2014February 18, 2014

Last Thursday a section of the Columbia Gulf Transmission Line 200 30-inch natural gas pipeline exploded in rural northern Kentucky (Adair County). These kinds of things unfortunately do happen from time to time. Two people were slightly injured (treated and released). Two nearby houses were destroyed. Emergency shut-off procedures worked. The cause is still not known and nearly a week later the story has all but disappeared from the news.

Although an accident and tragedy, the real damage (potentially) is for the Bluegrass NGL pipeline that Williams is trying to build through Kentucky. The Bluegrass is already facing stiff opposition, as we’ve written about a number of times (see Bluegrass NGL Pipeline Hits Brick Wall in the Bluegrass State). Williams felt it necessary to invoke eminent domain because of the problems they’ve faced in Kentucky, a decision that’s still tied up in court (see Bluegrass NGL Pipeline’s Eminent Domain Challenged in KY Court). Those opposed to drilling and the Bluegrass pipeline will no doubt shamelessly use the Columbia pipeline explosion as fuel for their cause…
Read More “KY Natgas Pipeline Explosion Used to Fight Bluegrass NGL Pipeline”