Kentucky

Accidents | Enbridge | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kentucky | Pipelines

TETCO Remains Closed in KY Following Blast, NE Production Back Up
August 7, 2019August 7, 2019

Last Thursday the Texas Eastern Transmission Company (TETCO) pipeline exploded near a trailer park in Lincoln County, Kentucky (see TETCO Pipe Explodes in Kentucky Killing 1; Southbound M-U Gas Stops). The blast and resulting fire killed one woman, injured five more, and destroyed five homes in the area. It shut down the pipeline in that area which flows 1.7 billion cubic feet of Marcellus/Utica gas (Bcf/d) south to the Gulf Coast. The pipeline will remain shut down “at least” until next Monday, Aug. 12.
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Accidents | Enbridge | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kentucky | Pipelines

TETCO Pipe Explodes in Kentucky Killing 1; Southbound M-U Gas Stops
August 2, 2019August 2, 2019

TETCO Pipeline explosion/fire in Kentucky

Early yesterday morning around 1:20 am, the Texas Eastern Transmission Company (TETCO) pipeline exploded near a trailer park in Lincoln County, Kentucky. The blast and resulting fire killed one woman, injured five more, and destroyed five homes in the area. Flames shot up more than 300 feet into the air, visible from neighboring counties.
Read More “TETCO Pipe Explodes in Kentucky Killing 1; Southbound M-U Gas Stops”
Kentucky | Rogersville Shale | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Rogersville Shale Test Wells in KY, WV Appear to be a Flop
January 7, 2019January 7, 2019

Rogersville Shale location – click for larger version

The clock has run out on state confidentiality laws and results are now available for several test wells drilled in both the Kentucky and West Virginia in the Rogersville Shale–and the results are rather lackluster.
Read More “Rogersville Shale Test Wells in KY, WV Appear to be a Flop”
Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kentucky | Kinder Morgan | NGLs | Pipelines | Tennessee Gas Pipeline

Kinder Morgan Cancels UMTP – Utica Marcellus Texas Pipeline
October 19, 2018October 19, 2018

Once again it seems environmentalists in Kentucky have won–stopping yet another NGL (natural gas liquids) pipeline. On Wednesday Kinder Morgan, one of (perhaps the) largest pipeline companies in North America, announced it is canceling plans to convert part of its Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) that currently flows natural gas from the Gulf Coast to the northeast, to reverse the pipeline and flow natural gas liquids (NGLs) from the Marcellus/Utica region to the Gulf Coast. The project, called Utica Marcellus Texas Pipeline (UMTP), would have cost $4 billion. Instead, Kinder says it will still seek to reverse a big portion of TGP, but will instead flow M-U natgas south, instead of NGLs.
Read More “Kinder Morgan Cancels UMTP – Utica Marcellus Texas Pipeline”
Diversified Energy | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Kentucky | M&A | Statewide VA | Statewide WV | Virginia | West Virginia

Diversified Gas & Oil Buys Core Appalachia for $183M
October 12, 2018October 12, 2018

Diversified Gas & Oil continues its mission to buy as many non-shale (conventional) oil and gas wells as it can in the Appalachian Basin. In June, MDN brought you the exclusive news that Diversified had purchased EQT’s Huron Shale assets in Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia for $575 million (see Diversified Gas & Oil Adds to Conventional Assets in KY, VA, WV). They’ve just done it again. This week Diversified announced a deal to buy out Core Appalachia for $183 million, which includes ~5,000 producing wells (90% of production is natgas) and 1.3 million acres in West Virginia, Kentucky and Virginia.
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Catalyst Energy | Kentucky

Catalyst to Restart Drilling Program in Kentucky Using Shale Tech
October 5, 2018October 5, 2018

There’s only so much you can cram into a 65 character headline. We wanted to say more. Catalyst Energy was, until 2017 (when it quit drilling new wells) a conventional-only oil driller focused mainly on western Pennsylvania. It quit drilling due to low oil prices. Catalyst has just announced that, pending the outcome of a new round of investments it’s seeking, the company will restart its drilling program–but this time with a twist. Catalyst is transforming itself from a conventional to an unconventional driller.
Read More “Catalyst to Restart Drilling Program in Kentucky Using Shale Tech”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kentucky | Kinder Morgan | NGLs | Pipelines | Tennessee Gas Pipeline

Opposition to Kinder Morgan NGL Pipeline Plan Builds in Kentucky
October 1, 2018October 1, 2018

Click for larger version

What is it about Kentucky? Is everybody in the Bluegrass State allergic to NGL (natural gas liquids) pipelines? Another government official, this time the mayor of Lexington, is the latest (in a long list) to oppose Kinder Morgan’s plan to convert part of their Tennessee Gas Pipeline to flow NGLs–called the Utica Marcellus Texas Pipeline (UMTP) project.
Read More “Opposition to Kinder Morgan NGL Pipeline Plan Builds in Kentucky”
Diversified Energy | Energy Companies | EQT Corp | Kentucky

EQT Employees in Kentucky Vote to Unionize
August 1, 2018August 1, 2018

A group of 116 EQT production employees who live and work in Kentucky have voted to form a union to protect their jobs and benefits. It is unusual–frankly unheard of–for unions to make inroads with an exploration and production company (E&P) like EQT. Why this group and why now? The fire was lit when EQT announced it is selling its Huron Shale assets to Diversified Gas & Oil (see Diversified Gas & Oil Adds to Conventional Assets in KY, VA, WV). Those assets include transferring 250 workers (including the 116 working in Kentucky) to Diversified. The workers are afraid of what typically happens when such deals occur–“efficiencies” are sought, which usually translates into layoffs and whacking benefits. To get out ahead of that, the group voted to unionize. Here’s the story of a small group unionizing, and the prospects of unionization happening elsewhere in the Marcellus/Utica…
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CNX Resources | Diversified Energy | Energy Companies | Kentucky | Statewide VA | Statewide WV | Virginia | West Virginia

EQT Confirms Sale of Huron Shale to Diversified for $575M
July 2, 2018July 2, 2018

MDN exclusively brought you the news, on June 19, that Diversified Gas & Oil had purchased EQT’s Huron Shale assets in Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia for $575 million (see Diversified Gas & Oil Adds to Conventional Assets in KY, VA, WV). At that time, Diversified did not disclose who it had purchased the assets from. MDN provided a guess, but that guess proved wrong. Within an hour of posting about the sale, an MDN tipster confirmed for us the seller was EQT, which we subsequently updated, providing the MDN audience with the inside skinny. On Friday, June 29, EQT issued a press release (below) confirming that yes, it was they who had sold the acreage/assets, including nearly 12,000 wells with 200 million cubic feet per day of natural gas production, to Diversified. The deal also includes 2.5 million acres of leases and some 6,400 miles of gathering pipelines. What we didn’t know about the deal (until now) is that it includes 8 field offices and 250 employees. Here’s the EQT announcement with full details of the deal…
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Energy Companies | EQT Corp | Kentucky

EQT Looks to “Graduate from” (Exit) Huron Shale “Prep School”
June 5, 2018June 5, 2018

Looks like EQT, the largest natural gas-producer in the U.S., is graduating from prep school. That is, EQT is about to sell all of its remaining assets in the Huron Shale play. The Huron is located mainly in West Virginia and Kentucky, also poking up into Ohio and traveling along the edge of Virginia. Most of EQT’s considerable Huron assets (some 12,000 wells) are located in Kentucky. From what we can tell, most of those wells are conventional. That is, not horizontal wells but vertical. The Huron was EQT’s early experiment in shale before shale was “a thing.” EQT played around in the Huron to learn how to drill in shale. According to former CEO Steve Schlotterbeck, “the Huron play was like prep school for us.” Last Thursday EQT filed a Form 8-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission advertising the news they have plans to sell their Huron assets–not only the wells but the pipeline system that connects the wells…
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Industrywide Issues | Kentucky | Processing Plants

$325M Gas-to-Liquids Plant Coming to Floyd County, KY
May 14, 2018May 14, 2018

Last week RCL Chemical announced it has partnered with Y2X Infrastructure to build a $325 million gas-to-liquids (GTL) plant in Floyd County, Kentucky. GTL plants convert natural gas, a hydrocarbon, into other hydrocarbons, like diesel fuel, gasoline, solvents and waxes. An abundance of cheap natural gas in the Marcellus/Utica is one of the prime motivators for establishing GTL plants in the region. Although we’ve heard plenty of talk about such plants, we’ve only seen a few prototypes get built thus far. The RCL/Y2X story caught our attention because Kentucky hates new gas pipelines, yet wants to build a plant that will use gas coming from pipelines (see KY Court Decision Goes Against Pipelines re Eminent Domain). Perhaps attitudes in the Bluegrass State are changing? According to RCL, necessary infrastructure (pipelines) are already present in Floyd, one of the primary reasons RCL wants to locate in Floyd. The company says it will begin construction by the end of this year and have the GTL plant built and operating by 2020. The original plan, a few years ago, was to build a coal-to-liquids (CTL) plant in neighboring Pike County. That plan was eventually scrapped and this new plan to build a GTL project has taken its place…
Read More “$325M Gas-to-Liquids Plant Coming to Floyd County, KY”
Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kentucky | Kinder Morgan | Litigation | NGLs | Pipelines | Tennessee Gas Pipeline

Kentucky County Suing to Stop TGP from Reversing Pipeline for NGLs
April 10, 2018April 10, 2018

Rowan County, KY

In February MDN told you that Kentucky antis went to court to try and block a plan by Kinder Morgan to convert a portion of the Tennessee Gas Pipeline that flows natural gas from the Gulf Coast to the northeast, to reverse the pipeline and flow natural gas liquids from the Marcellus/Utica region to the Gulf (see Kentucky Antis File Lawsuit to Stop TGP NGL Pipe Reversal). The reversal is part of a $4 billion project called the Utica Marcellus Texas Pipeline (UMTP) project. The first step in reversing the existing pipeline was approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last October (see FERC Advances Plan to Reverse Part of TGP to Haul M-U NGLs to Gulf). Antis in Kentucky got their bluegrass knickers in a twist over FERC’s action. They filed a request for “rehearing” of FERC’s decision, which is the first step in a process that typically ends up in court. Normally FERC has 30 days to decide on a rehearing, however, they have a tactic they call a “tolling order” which allows them to extend the amount of time to make a rehearing decision–indefinitely. FERC pulled out the tolling order card and played it last November (see FERC Frustrates Kentucky Radicals Seeking to Stop TGP Pipe Reversal). The ticked-off antis filed a lawsuit challenging the FERC tolling order. While all of that continues to play out, one of the Kentucky counties along the TGP route–Rowan County–is filing its own lawsuit to stop the reversal and conversion of the pipeline. No, Rowan County has no standing to file such a lawsuit, but apparently they’ll need to learn that the hard way…
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Industrywide Issues | Kentucky | Landfills

Whatever Happened to Illegally Dumped Frack Waste in KY Landfill?
February 15, 2018February 15, 2018

Click image for larger version

In March 2016, MDN reported that 47 dumpsters full of concentrated frack waste from OH, PA and WV was illegally dumped in a Kentucky landfill in Estill County, KY (see Marcellus/Utica Frack Waste Illegally Dumped in Kentucky Landfill). The cuttings were buried between July and November in 2015, near as anyone can tell. The landfill sits across the road from a school. Normal frack waste has extremely low (usually no) radioactivity. But when drill cuttings are further processed and concentrated, as was the case with this series of loads, the naturally occurring radiation present can become more concentrated. Fortunately there’s no indication of a problem at the landfill: no indication that it’s leaking radioactivity into the water table, etc. But parents and residents were rightly up in arms (see Local Residents Demand KY Landfill Accepting Frack Waste Close). We last provided an update on this situation in July 2017 (see Update on Illegally Dumped Frack Waste in Kentucky Landfills). What’s happened since then? Not much. The radioactive waste is still there, buried. Still no signs of any leakage or problems. The landfill owners were fined and are required to create a mitigation plan. State officials want to keep the waste right where it is–best not to disturb it. But some locals want it dug up and moved–to somewhere/anywhere else. Here’s the latest on the “hot mess” in Estill County’s landfill…
Read More “Whatever Happened to Illegally Dumped Frack Waste in KY Landfill?”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kentucky | Kinder Morgan | Litigation | Pipelines | Regulation | Tennessee Gas Pipeline

Kentucky Antis File Lawsuit to Stop TGP NGL Pipe Reversal
February 15, 2018February 15, 2018

Kentucky antis have gone to court to try and block a plan by Kinder Morgan to convert a portion of the Tennessee Gas Pipeline that flows natural gas from the Gulf Coast to the northeast, to reverse the pipeline and flow natural gas liquids from the Marcellus/Utica region to the Gulf. Part of the 964-mile project runs through Kentucky (see KM Plans to Convert Tennessee Gas Pipeline to Flow M-U NGLs South). The first step in the reversal process was approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last October (see FERC Advances Plan to Reverse Part of TGP to Haul M-U NGLs to Gulf). Antis in Kentucky got their bluegrass knickers in a twist over FERC’s action. They filed a request for “rehearing” of FERC’s decision, which is the first step in a process that typically ends up in court. First the “aggrieved party” (antis are in a perpetual state of being aggrieved) must request a rehearing. If FERC denies the rehearing request, antis (Big Green groups with deep pockets representing them) then file a lawsuit in federal Appeals Court to try and stop FERC from continuing to approve the project. Normally FERC has 30 days to decide on a rehearing, however, they have a little tactic they call a “tolling order” which allows them to extend the amount of time to make a rehearing decision–indefinitely. FERC pulled out the tolling order card and played it with the TGP project last November (see FERC Frustrates Kentucky Radicals Seeking to Stop TGP Pipe Reversal). The antis aren’t waiting. They’ve just filed a lawsuit challenging the FERC tolling order. Here’s the latest from the enviro nuts in the Bluegrass State…
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kentucky | Kinder Morgan | Pipelines | Regulation | Tennessee Gas Pipeline

Part of TGP’s Broad Run Pipe Expansion Starts Up in Kentucky
January 31, 2018January 31, 2018

In December 2016 MDN brought you news about Kinder Morgan’s “Broad Run Expansion Project” that will expand transportation capacity of natural gas on the existing Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) system. Antis tried to stop the project, but the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission rejected their pleas (see FERC Denies Anti Request to Stop KM’s Broad Run Expansion Project). The Broad Run Expansion includes construction of two new compressor stations in Kanawha County, WV, one new compressor station in Davidson County, TN, and one new compressor station in Madison County, KY. TGP is also increasing compression capacity by modifying two of its existing compressor stations in Powell and Boyd counties in KY by replacing existing capacity with new, higher-rated horsepower compression units. The project will provide an extra 200,000 dekatherms per day (Dth/d) of transportation capacity along the same path as the Broad Run Flexibility project, which was placed in service on Nov. 1, 2015. All of the additional gas will come from Antero Resources and their Marcellus/Utica program. Kinder/TGP has been busy working on the $406 million project and the pieces are now coming together. On Monday, FERC sent a letter to KM/TGP telling them the brand new compressor station in Madison County, KY can begin operations. KM plans to have the entire project up and running by June 1st of this year…
Read More “Part of TGP’s Broad Run Pipe Expansion Starts Up in Kentucky”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kentucky | Kinder Morgan | Pipelines | Tennessee Gas Pipeline

FERC Frustrates Kentucky Radicals Seeking to Stop TGP Pipe Reversal
December 5, 2017December 5, 2017

What’s in the water in Kentucky? Seems to be a state full of anti-drilling, anti-pipeline nutters. Kentucky has been responsible for killing at least one pipeline, the Bluegrass Pipeline that would have flowed Marcellus/Utica NGLs (natural gas liquids) all the way to the Gulf Coast (see Bluegrass Pipeline Aborted Before It was Born – RIP). That project would have involved laying 200 miles of new pipeline through Kentucky, and wealthy horse farms would have none of it. Kinder Morgan is making a run at a similar project–but this time the pipeline is already in the ground. Kinder Morgan, as we previously reported, is working on a project to convert 964 miles of the Tennessee Gas Pipeline, part of which runs through Kentucky (KM Plans to Convert Tennessee Gas Pipeline to Flow M-U NGLs South). Kinder wants to reverse the flow of TGP, which currently sends natural gas from the Gulf Coast to the northeast, turning it around and sending natural gas liquids from the Marcellus/Utica to the Gulf Coast. The first step in the process was recently approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (see FERC Advances Plan to Reverse Part of TGP to Haul M-U NGLs to Gulf). Antis in Kentucky have their bluegrass knickers in a twist over FERC’s action. They’ve filed a request for “rehearing” of FERC’s decision, which is the first step in a process that will end up in court. First the aggrieved party must request a rehearing. If FERC denies the request, the antis (using Big Green money) then file a lawsuit in federal Appeals Court to try and stop FERC from continuing to approve the project. Normally FERC has 30 days to decide on a rehearing, however, they have a little tactic they call a “tolling order” which allows them to extend the amount of time to make a rehearing decision–indefinitely. FERC has pulled out the tolling order card and played it with the TGP project–and that has the Kentucky nutters fuming…
Read More “FERC Frustrates Kentucky Radicals Seeking to Stop TGP Pipe Reversal”