FERC Accepting Comments on Draft EIS for OVCX Pipe in PA-WV-OH
Earlier this year, Equitrans Midstream announced it had filed a new pipeline expansion project with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (see Equitrans Files New $160M Pipe Expansion Project with FERC). Called the Ohio Valley Connector Expansion Project (or OVCX), the $160 million project will add compression along Equitrans pipelines in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia that allow the company to flow an extra 350 MMcf/d (million cubic feet per day) of natural gas. It appears OVCX is Equitrans’ “plan B” if the ultimate horror happens and Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) can’t be completed. FERC recently issued a draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) and is accepting comments on that document (and the project) until Nov. 21.
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EQT has sued its own (former) law firm, Baker Botts, and one of the partners at the firm, for allegedly giving the company bad advice with respect to the Hammerhead Pipeline gathering system owned by Equitrans Midstream (EQT’s former subsidiary). The lawsuit seeks at least $1 million in damages. Baker Botts is based in Texas, so the lawsuit was filed in the 61st District Court in Harris County, TX. Hammerhead is a $555 million, approximately 190-mile gathering system created by Equitrans to gather EQT’s production in southwest PA and haul it (64 miles) to Mobley, WV, where it will connect with the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) and EQT’s Ohio Valley Connector pipeline (see 
The Catholic nuns of Lancaster County’s Adorers of the Blood of Christ are still, all these years later, trying to shake down Williams for more money because of a pipeline that runs underneath a cornfield owned by the sisters (hence our nickname for them). Using lawyers from Big Green groups, the nuns argued their “religious beliefs” were offended by the pipeline because it flows a nasty, filthy fossil fuel that causes global warming. We’ve lost track of how many lawsuits the sisters have filed, using OPM (other people’s money). The most recent lawsuit, filed in the Philadelphia-based U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals, was just shot down by the court.
Howard Energy Partners (HEP) is a midstream/pipeline company that owns and operates natural gas and crude oil pipelines, natural gas processing plants, refined products storage terminals, deep-water dock and rail facilities, fractionation facilities, hydrogen production facilities, renewable diesel logistics facilities, and other related midstream assets in Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Mexico. The company owns more than 600 miles of natural gas gathering pipelines with some 100+ of those miles located in the PA Marcellus. Yesterday, Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo) announced it has purchased a controlling interest (87%) in HEP. AIMCo is the new owner.
Rumors are circulating on Capitol Hill that the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is eyeing Nov. 15 for Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Chairman Richard “Dick” Glick’s confirmation hearing for a second five-year term. We sincerely hope those rumors are wrong. Glick, a Democrat and former wind lobbyist who is an extreme anti-pipeline radical, was first appointed to FERC under Donald Trump. He was nominated by Joe Biden for reappointment to a second five-year term last May (see 
Last December, Columbia Gas Transmission pre-filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to build the Virginia Reliability Project that will add 100 MMcf/d of incremental capacity on Columbia’s system to serve delivery points in southeast Virginia, namely Virginia Natural Gas (see 
Yesterday Equitrans Midstream, the builder and majority owner of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project, issued its third quarter 2022 update. The big news (for us) was that Thomas F. Karam, CEO of Equitrans, said that if the 95% complete MVP is going to get finished, it’s probably going to take an act of Congress to do it. The same three clown judges (our words) of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals are signaling they will continue to block MVP, says Karam. In contrast to the clouds over MVP, yesterday’s update shared a bit of good news for a second Equitrans project.
The Freeport LNG export facility experienced an explosion and fire in early June (see 
U.S. Senator Joe Manchin, Democrat from West Virginia, ended his political future when he sold out the country by voting in favor of the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which is actually a mini-Green New Deal bill (see 
The clown judges who occupy the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (4th Circus) appear ready to reject another water permit granted by the West Virginia Dept. of Environmental Protection to cross streams and rivers and swamps to finish up the 94% complete Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). Three judges from the 4th Circus were appointed back in 2017 to hear appeals against the project. All three are profoundly bigoted and prejudiced against natural gas pipeline projects.
Sometimes natural gas pipelines leak. Hey, it happens. Not often, but it happens often enough that pipeline companies must prepare risk assessments of the potential hazards posed by a pipeline leak. They now have a new tool to make those assessments. According to a new study published by researchers at Southern Methodist University, soil moisture content is the main factor that controls how far and at what concentration natural gas spreads from a leaked pipeline underground.
This is, indeed, a sad day. Last Thursday, Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC (MVP), which is majority owned by and is operated by Equitrans Midstream Corp., filed a notice to voluntarily dismiss eminent domain proceedings against landowner holdouts in North Carolina for land needed to build an extension of MVP into the state, called MVP Southgate. An Equitrans spokesman said the company hasn’t given up on the Southgate extension. We don’t believe it for a New York minute. We’ve seen this movie before when PennEast Pipeline canceled eminent domain, first in Pennsylvania (see 
As part of its third quarter 2022 update, Kinder Morgan (KM) CEO Richard Kinder said his company is bullish on U.S. LNG exports. Kinder said he expects (predicts) U.S. LNG exports will more than double, from the current 11 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) to 28 Bcf/d by 2030–less than eight years away. KM flows around 50% of all the molecules that get exported as LNG from this country, so Kinder should know a thing or two about the LNG market.
Republicans in the Pennsylvania Senate have, since April 2021, refused to appoint new members to the five-member Public Utility Commission (PUC) in response to Democrat Gov. Tom Wolf’s unilateral push to force the state to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon tax scheme (see