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FERC Tells Rover, Leach XPress Pipes to Redesign Routes in SE OH
Two major pipeline projects have just received a big red light from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), pending changes to their plans. Energy Transfer’s Rover pipeline, 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, along with Columbia Pipeline’s Leach XPress, running from Marshall County, WV through Ohio to Leach, KY, got word from FERC that a small section where the pipelines cross must be reworked or it’s a “no go” for both projects…
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On Monday MDN brought you the latest quarterly production numbers for the Ohio Utica Shale, direct from the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (see 
Rice Energy and farmers in rural Belmont County, OH have a great relationship. You can tell by the way each talks about the other. Farmers love Rice because the company is responsible and works with farmers to protect their land and farming livelihood. And the farms of Belmont County have treated Rice Energy well–very well. Yesterday MDN reported on first quarter 2016 production in Ohio (see 
We’ve written plenty of stories about midstream (pipeline) companies “giving back” to the communities where they either currently, or plan in the future, to operate. Typically midstream companies donate a few thousand dollars to various nonprofit groups. It adds up. Recently PennEast Pipeline donated $85,000 to 17 different groups (see 
The Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) has just issued production numbers for the first quarter of 2016. Compared with first quarter 2015, production numbers in 1Q16 continue to impress. Natural gas production from shale is up 80% year over year, and oil production is up 24% y/y. Below we have the ODNR’s high level overview of the numbers, along with MDN’s own exclusive analysis showing: the top 25 producing gas wells, the top 25 producing oil wells, and then the top 25 gas and oil wells as ranked by average production per day. There is a difference! The longer an oil or gas well is online, the less it produces. Newer wells produce more. So we show you which wells are not just producing the most quantity overall, but which wells are producing at the fastest (most productive) rates–even if they haven’t yet been online a full three months. We also include a link to the complete list of 1,351 wells included in the 1Q16 ODNR report–in a more usable format than that provided by the ODNR…
Earlier this month MDN shared with you the news that Munroe Falls (Summit County), OH had filed yet another frivolous lawsuit against Beck Energy to prevent drilling–after already losing a similar case before the Ohio Supreme Court (see 
We have to confess this story completely escaped us–until now. But we think we know why. We spotted a story (below) in a Wheeling, WV newspaper about an Ohio driller who was caught–back in 2011–dumping about 50 gallons per week of brine from some of his oil wells into an open ditch in Monroe County, OH. The story implies the brine (i.e. wastewater) is from fracked wells. The story is wrong. The brine is from conventional oil wells, not fracked shale wells. The driller/operator of the wells is one Donald Hercher and he’s just been sentenced to four days in jail, two years of probation, and a $70,000 fine. Aside from setting the record straight, the reason the story interests us is because of several other aspects of Hercher’s punishment–he’s being forced to write and publish an article in three trade journals “to educate readers on the ‘Waterways of the U.S.'” and to donate $5,000 to a private organization…
Gentlemen, start your engines! Your economic engines, that is. The news earlier this week that Shell has made the commitment to move ahead and build an ethane cracker plant in Monaca, PA has, as we knew it would, set the region buzzing (see 
The NEXUS Pipeline is a $2 billion, 255-mile interstate pipeline that will run from Ohio through Michigan and eventually to the Dawn Hub in Ontario, Canada (see 
A group of business and government leaders from Ohio and West Virginia in what is called the Mid-Ohio Valley have banded together to form an economic development group called Shale Crescent USA. The group has been some two years in the making and officially launched yesterday at a public event in Washington County, OH. The aim of the group is to attract manufacturers (particularly petrochemical manufacturers) to set up shop in the region. Leaders of the new organization point out the unique location, with the mighty Ohio River to barge materials and products in and out, and the location right on top of the most abundant supplies of cheap natural gas in the entire world. In addition to yesterday’s event, the group launched a website: 
Some 160 people showed up for the Utica Midstream Seminar held yesterday at the National Football Hall of Fame in Canton, OH. The event, sponsored by the Canton Regional Chamber of Commerce and ShaleDirectories.com, provided updates on three major pipeline projects either under construction or soon to be under construction in the Buckeye State: Marathon Petroleum’s Cornerstone Pipeline, Spectra Energy’s NEXUS pipeline project, and Energy Transfer’s Rover pipeline project. Here’s what reps from each organization had to say about their respective projects…
An update on the notorious case of illegal frack wastewater dumping near Youngstown, OH that happened in 2012 and 2013. Ben Lupo, previous owner of D&L Energy and its associated company Hardrock Excavating, directed employees to dump frack wastwater hauled by Hardrock into a drain that emptied into a stream that emptied into the Mahoning River near Youngstown, OH (see 
We often debate whether or not a bit of news is actually interesting for the MDN audience. Will this bit of news help either a landowner, driller, midstreamer, supply chain company or investor if they knew about it? The following story comes down right on the line for us. We could go either way, but we elected to include it. We don’t know when, exactly, but at least two years ago SemGroup Corporation, a publicly traded (shares of stock) midstream company that moves mostly oil from the wellhead to market, started up a master limited partnership (MLP) subsidiary called Rose Rock Midstream. An MLP issues “units” instead of shares of stock. MLPs have certain tax advantages for investors. We ran a story in June 2014 about Rose Rock buying some of Chesapeake Energy’s assets, including a trucking operation that services the Utica Shale in Ohio (see