Bowling Green, OH Votes to Deny NEXUS Pipe Easement for City Land
All seven members of the Bowling Green City Council (Wood County) unwisely voted to reject an offer from Spectra Energy’s NEXUS Pipeline to lease 4 acres of city-owned land for the pipeline. Why unwise? Because the project is close to receiving its final federal approval, which will give it the right to use eminent domain to use the land anyway (see FERC Approves NEXUS Pipeline, Project on Track for 2017). Spectra offered $151,000 for the easement and was willing to follow an existing easement already in place for power lines. When (not if) NEXUS gets built, Bowling Green can expect to receive far less in the way of a lease payment. Even though the fix was in before the vote was taken, one lawless resident–Joe DeMare, a Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate in the most recent election (loser)–wouldn’t shut his yap and had to be escorted out by security. Apparently he thought there should be more public comment (i.e. camera and microphone time for himself) before the vote was taken. Whatever. Big Green antis celebrated the vote. We predict it will be a short-lived celebration…
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PDC Energy, a driller in the Wattenberg Field in Colorado and the Utica in Ohio, paused their Utica drilling program in 2015 (see 
The future site of a $5 billion petrochemical complex, including an ethane cracker, in Belmont County, OH is now cleared and essentially ready to begin building on. It has taken nearly a year, but the old R.E. Burger power plant that used to sit along the Ohio River is now just a memory. Belmont County officials say they expect PTT Global Chemical, the company that will build and operate the cracker, will make a final (positive) investment decision by the end of March–in just a few months’ time. Although the project began after Shell’s cracker project in Beaver County, PA, the PTT Global project in Belmont County has almost caught up with the Shell cracker project with respect to site readiness and building the actual buildings that will house the mighty cracker…
As MDN predicted, yesterday the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved the NEXUS Pipeline project (see 
FERC (the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) is not happy with Energy Transfer and their Rover Pipeline. There are two major pipeline projects planned for Ohio: NEXUS and Rover. NEXUS got some FERC love today (see today’s lead story). Rover, on the other hand, is getting the cold shoulder from FERC, from a self-inflicted wound. Let us explain. As a reminder, Rover (an Energy Transfer project) is a $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 short version of what happened is that in May 2015 Rover purchased a house in Carroll County, OH, located near where the pipeline, and a compressor station for that pipeline, is due to run. Rover bought the house to use for offices for several Rover affiliate companies. After buying it, they determined it was “ill-suited for its intended purpose” and decided to demolish the house. Problem was/is, that house was under consideration to be added to the National Register of Historic Places. The house was not yet on the list of Historic Places, but was on a list of properties under consideration. Rover should have reported their decision to demolish the house to FERC but didn’t, which has Rover in hot water with FERC and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. Will Rover’s action kill the project? No. Will it slow down Rover and end up costing the company boatloads of money? Most likely, although Rover disputes that interpretation of events…
For several years MDN has tracked and reported on a lawsuit brought against the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District (MWCD) by an anti-drilling couple in Guernsey County, OH–Leatra Harper and her husband Steven Janstro (backed by the odious Food & Water Watch). At last check in April 2014, the couple had won the right to continue on with the lawsuit (see 
Pipelines have been, and continue to be, a big deal throughout the Marcellus and Utica region. Landowners who are approached about placing a pipeline through their property should (1) never sign the standard contract presented, and (2) never sign anything without first running it by a lawyer. Beyond that, what else should landowners think about/do when negotiating a pipeline easement? Clif Little from the Ohio State University Extension gives us some helpful tips…
The city of Green in Summit County, OH has put NEXUS Pipeline on notice that if surveyors show up to survey in the city and if those surveyors don’t have permission from the landowner, or a judge’s order, those surveyors will be arrested and charged with trespassing. Apparently Green hasn’t gotten the memo that pipelines are the safest form of transportation on earth–period. NEXUS, as well as other pipeline projects, face a classic Catch-22 situation. In order to get the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to grant a certificate to build the pipeline, the pipeline company must first conduct initial surveys to plan the route. With a certificate from FERC in hand, the pipeline then has the power of eminent domain to use on recalcitrant landowners to build the pipeline across their land. The open question is whether or not the pipelines can use eminent domain to conduct the survey ahead of a full FERC certificate. That’s the Catch-22. Surveying doesn’t do a single thing to a property, other than a few guys and gals running around for a short time looking through a transit and taking measurements. It’s a shame that landowners, in some cases, won’t even allow that. So Green has put NEXUS and the world on notice that the city and its residents don’t want to participate in the riches that come from shale. Fine. Let them eat dirt…
In June, Massachusetts-based Clean Energy Future broke ground on their $800 million, 940-megawatt Utica gas-fired electric plant in Lordstown (Trumbull County), OH (see 
It’s always nice when our favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration, says nice things about the Marcellus/Utica. Today the EIA, publishing in its Today in Energy online publication, highlights the Utica Shale and the very necessary pipeline projects that promise to bring more “takeaway” capacity from the ever-expanding Utica. EIA looks at four key pipeline projects: Rover, NEXUS, Leach Xpress and Rayne Xpress. If you add them all together, those four new projects (all due to be completed by end of 2018 or before), will add an additional 6.8 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of takeaway capacity out of the Utica…
A small Worthington (Franklin County), OH driller, Geopetro, has just purchased 37,000 acres, 27 working shale wells and 5 not-yet-hooked-up wells from Chesapeake Energy for an undisclosed amount of money. The wells are located in Columbiana County, OH and Beaver County, PA. All but one of the wells are Utica wells. One of the wells is drilled to the Upper Devonian layer (above the Marcellus). The purchase is a big deal for the small Geopetro. It converts what until now has been mostly a conventional (shallow, vertical only) drilling company into primarily an unconventional/shale company. Welcome to the shale industry!…
Each year MDN partners with the Oil & Gas Awards to promote their Northeast Awards–a way for companies in the industry that operate with distinction to get recognized by their peers. In March 2017 the Northeast Oil & Gas Awards will celebrate their 5th year. Over the past five years there have been thousands of entries and hundreds of finalists and winners. While the O&G Awards boys keep their ears to the ground to discover stellar performers, they want to know who YOU think are the best companies in the region. We are now 4 weeks out until the submission deadline for the 2017 Northeast Oil & Gas Awards (Dec. 14). Here’s how you can nominate your, or someone else’s, company for this year’s awards…