NEXUS Pipe Revved Like a Race Car, Waiting for FERC Green Flag
NEXUS is a $2 billion, 255-mile interstate natural gas pipeline that will run from Ohio through Michigan and eventually to the Dawn Hub in Ontario, Canada. Its purpose is to move Utica and Marcellus Shale gas from an over-saturated market in the northeast to markets in the Midwest and Canada. It is a joint venture between DTE Energy and Spectra Energy. Last December, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued a positive final Environmental Impact Statement for the project (see FERC Approves NEXUS Pipeline, Project on Track for 2017). The remaining obstacle for NEXUS is to obtain a certificate of public convenience and necessity from FERC, to begin construction. NEXUS had hoped to have that approval in hand on Feb. 3rd, when FERC issued a flurry of such certificates. However, NEXUS didn’t get one (see In FERC’s Game of Musical Chairs, NEXUS Pipeline Left Standing). That led some to ask, Is there still a market need for the NEXUS Pipeline project? (see Has the Clock Run Out for NEXUS Pipeline?). According to NEXUS president James Grech, you can lay those doubts and fears to rest. At the Utica Capital Midstream Seminar held earlier this week, Grech told audience members that the project is a “race car sitting there revved and all ready to go,” just waiting for a full quorum at FERC to green light (or rather wave the green flag) so they can begin construction. Grech indicates the project is ready to go, and WILL go, as soon as FERC approves it. That is, if a lawsuit by the CORNballs doesn’t derail it…
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We’ve all heard and read about the massive protest camp that formed in North Dakota (see 
Anti-fossil fuel agitators in Youngstown, aided and abetted and whipped into a frenzy by the radical Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF), have grown tired of losing. Six times now they have gotten enough signatures to put a so-called Community Bill of Rights (i.e. anti fracking) measure on the ballot for voters. And six times they have lost. As we reported in May, the nutters are making another run at it, placing an anti-fracking measure on the ballot for the seventh time. But this time there’s a twist–they want to legalize illegal actions of “civil” disobedience (see 
As MDN previously reported, Duke Energy needs to replace an aging pipeline, built in the 1950s, near Cincinnati, OH–or some people in Cincy will have to go without natural gas (see 
For some reason we’ve always loved stories about how shale energy has revitalized the short line railroad industry. Maybe it’s from some deep-seated psychological connection of playing Monopoly as a child and loving to own the railroads on the board–including the Short Line. Who knows? We’ve just stumbled across another such shale energy story connected to a short line railroad. This one involves the mighty Rover Pipeline, now under active construction across Ohio and in Michigan. When Energy Transfer, the company building the $3.7 billion, 711-mile Marcellus/Utica natural gas pipeline began to look at logistics and where they would store all of the pipeline and other materials needed to construction the mammoth project, they happened across a rail yard and transloading facility located in Massillon (Stark County), OH. Massillon Logistics, founded in 2004 by Steve and Dave DiPietro, had launched Republic Short Line Railroad (RSL), along with four other subsidiaries, to operate at a former steel mill site (465 acres) now called the Massillon Energy & Technology Park. RSL and the expansive park were just what Energy Transfer needed for Rover. The pipeline project has provided RSL with a boatload (or rather, rail yard) of business and money to grow… 
Several radical environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, Michigan Residents Against the ET Rover Pipeline, and the Ohio-based nutters at FreshWater Accountability Project filed an official request with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to pull the Corps’ issuance of a “blanket” approval for the Rover Pipeline to use underground horizontal directional drilling (HDD) and instead require Rover to get a permit for each of the 45 bodies of water they intend to drill under with the technique. Which would, of course, bring the project to a halt–the intended outcome by the radicals. The groups are attempting to capitalize on several leaks experienced by Rover using HDD, including a 2 million gallon drilling mud spill in April that continues to generate headlines today (see 
Rover is Energy Transfer’s $3.7 billion, 711-mile Marcellus/Utica natural gas pipeline that will run from PA, WV and eastern OH through OH into Michigan and eventually into Canada. On April 13, Rover workers experienced an “inadvertent return” of “horizontal directional drilling fluid”. That is, they sprung a leak and spilled nearly 2 million gallons of drilling fluid (see 
Bolt Construction builds compressor, dehydration and metering stations for pipelines that serve the oil and gas industry. According to Bold VP Todd Miller, this year the company has experienced its biggest surge in construction activity since the shale boom first started. Since November, Bolt has been “bidding nonstop” on pipeline jobs. And in fact, the company has had to “turn down quite a few” of those jobs. Why? Not enough skilled workers. Bolt is looking for welders, pipe-fitters, superintendents and foremen to keep up with the work they do have… 
Last Thursday Rice Energy President Toby Rice gave Ohio U.S. Senator Rob Portman a tour of the “Son Uva Digger” well pad in Belmont County, OH. Cool name. Although no doubt Portman thought of the trip as a photo-op, from his comments following the visit, it sounds like Portman actually learned something. Portman now “gets it” with respect to rapid changes in technology that have vastly reduced the footprint of drilling operations–better for the environment, less hassle for residents who live nearby. He also gets just how much money shale drilling is pumping into the local, state and national economy. Sounds like the Rice brothers have made a convert of Sen. Portman–so three cheers for them! This is how we win the battle–one person at a time. And if that person happens to be a U.S. Senator, all the better. Here’s how it went last week when Rob went to Belmont… 
Jefferson County, OH is not the first (or even second or third) county you think of when you think “Utica drilling.” But that may soon change. Jefferson shares borders with other counties that are heavily drilled–Carroll, Harrison and Belmont. There has been some drilling in Jefferson in the past, but with the slowdown over the past few years, not much has happened. But according to Ascent Resources and Chesapeake Energy, their respective companies are putting a renewed focus on the county in the coming months. Which is good news indeed. Couple that with a possible ethane cracker plant coming to Belmont County, and (according to the Chamber of Commerce), Jefferson is heading for “a brighter future” thanks to the Utica industry… 
We’ve spilled plenty of digital ink covering the Rover Pipeline and its recent troubles with “inadvertent returns” (i.e. leaks) of non-toxic drilling mud, called bentonite (see 
A comprehensive study by Cleveland State University researchers shows just how mind-blowing the economic investment in Ohio has been from the Utica Shale. The just-published study, titled “Shale Investment Dashboard in Ohio” (full copy below), finds that between upstream ($39 billion), midstream ($8 billion) and downstream ($3 billion), all related to the Utica Shale, there has been an incredible $50 billion invested in Ohio since Utica drilling began in 2011. It’s really hard to overstate just how big a deal this is. Can you image a $50 billion economic stimulus from the government? No way! It would never happen. And if it did, the money would come out of YOUR pocket–from taxpayers. But this $50 billion ALL came from the private sector. Good ole capitalism. Free enterprise. Private ownership. Private property. Love it! It’s what our great country was built on. Let’s dig into the numbers and relish this fantastic news…
Rover is Energy Transfer’s $3.7 billion, 711-mile Marcellus/Utica natural gas pipeline that will run from PA, WV and eastern OH through OH into Michigan and eventually into Canada. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), charged with overseeing interstate pipeline projects, granted final approval for the project in early February (see 
It was full speed ahead for Energy Transfer’s Rover Pipeline construction project in Ohio–until a series of drilling mud spills hit, including one that dumped some 2 million gallons of bentonite mud into a wetland near the Tuscarawas River in Stark County, OH (see 
Hilcorp has woken up and come alive in the Ohio Utica Shale–for the first time this year. The company recently filed for permits to drill three new Utica wells in Columbiana County. Which is interesting. Hilcorp zigs when everyone zags. Most drilling in the Ohio Utica currently happens in southeastern Ohio–in counties like Belmont, Monroe and Guernsey. When the play first became active for shale drilling, much of the early action happened in Carroll County, and Columbiana. But lately (over the past 2-3 years) most drilling moved south. But Hilcorp, with acreage in the northern Utica in both Ohio and Pennsylvania, continues to make money staying north. In fact, Hilcorp has been called the “dominant active prospector” in the northern tier area of the Utica Shale–an area including Columbiana, Mahoning and Trumbull counties in OH and Lawrence and Mercer counties in PA. Hilcorp is strong and steady. They make money when they drill. So we take this as a good sign that drilling is heating up in the northern Utica… 