Ohio

Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pipelines | Rockies Express Pipeline | Statewide OH

REX Gets Ready to Ship 1.8 Bcf/d of Marcellus/Utica Gas to Midwest
June 30, 2015June 30, 2015

It takes a long time to turn a big ship around, like a cruise ship or an aircraft carrier. It also takes a long time to turn a big pipeline around–like the Rockies Express Pipeline (REX), which originates in Rio Blanco County, Colorado and sends gas to Monroe County, Ohio. In July 2013 MDN told you that REX was planning to reverse the flow for at least part of the pipeline to start sending Utica and Marcellus shale gas to the Midwest (see REX Reverses Pipeline Flow from OH for Mystery Utica Customer). It’s taken the last two years, but starting August 1 REX will begin to flow natural gas in the opposite direction–from Ohio to Indiana, Illinois and into Missouri–what is called the Zone 3 area of the REX pipeline. RBN Energy calls this a really big deal–one of the most significant events that will happen this year in the U.S. natural gas market. They’re not exaggerating…
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Boardwalk Pipeline Partners | CNG/LNG | Energy Services | Exporting | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pipelines | Processing Plants | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Sabine Pass LNG Export Expansion Approved, Utica Gas Heading There?
June 29, 2015June 29, 2015

Good news for Marcellus/Utica drillers–especially those in the Ohio Utica. Last Friday the U.S. Dept. of Energy issued a final authorization for an expansion to Cheniere Energy’s Sabine Pass Liquefaction LNG export facility in Cameron Parish, Louisiana. The approval means Sabine Pass can now export domestically produced liquefied natural gas (LNG) to countries that do not have a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the United States. The approval expands export capacity at the facility by an extra 1.38 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day (Bcf/d), to a new total of 3.58 Bcf/d. Why is it good for Utica drillers? Because at least one pipeline project will connect from Ohio all the way to the Sabine Pass facility (see Texas Gas Seeks to Reverse Flow of Pipeline from OH to LA), meaning some Utica and Marcellus Shale gas will get exported from the Gulf Coast…
Read More “Sabine Pass LNG Export Expansion Approved, Utica Gas Heading There?”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Medina County | NEXUS Pipeline | Ohio | Pipelines | Regulation

Medina County, OH Antis Trot Out Home Rule Ballot Measure
June 26, 2015June 26, 2015

In February the Ohio Supreme Court, once and for all, struck down so-called “home rule” legislation passed by local municipalities where anti-drillers are able to convince enough citizens to vote for it (see OH Supreme Court Strikes Down Home Rule in Gas Drilling Case). When it comes to creating local laws and zoning ordinances that prohibit or otherwise try to control oil and gas drilling, Ohio state law stipulates only the State regulates it–not towns and villages and cities. That’s the law, and that’s the law the Supreme Court upheld. So along comes Sustainable Medina County, a group of virulent anti-fossil fuelers, with a new petition to put yet another so-called home rule “bill of rights” measure on the ballot in November, this time in an attempt to stop the NEXUS pipeline. What would you call this new initiative in light of the Supreme Court’s decision? We’d call it stark, raving mad…
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Blue Racer Midstream | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Monroe County | Ohio | Pipelines | Processing Plants | Statewide OH

Blue Racer Brings OH Processing Plant Online, Continues to Expand
June 25, 2015June 25, 2015

Blue Racer Midstream, a joint venture between Caiman Energy II and Dominion, shared the good news yesterday that a second 200 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) cryogenic processing plant at its Berne Natural Gas Processing Complex in Monroe County, OH (known as Berne II, yes, they name these things) is now online and operating. Berne II doubles the processing capacity at the plant. Blue Racer also operates a processing AND fractionation complex in Natrium, WV. A 30-mile Y-grade (NGL) pipeline connects the two facilities so that Berne can send along its NGLs to Natrium for further processing. Fractionaters like those in Natrium separate NGLs into their component hydrocarbons, including ethane, butane, propane, etc. In addition to Berne II going online, Blue Racer gave us a general update on the expanding health of their operation: They have 14 long-term major Marcellus/Utica drilling customers; 650 miles of gathering pipelines in OH and WV with another 200 miles of new gathering lines under construction; and gathered volumes have doubled, and processed volumes have tripled in just the last year…
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Columbia Pipeline Group | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pipelines | Statewide OH | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Columbia Pipeline Board Approves 2 Projects from NE to Gulf Coast
June 25, 2015June 25, 2015

In August 2014, MDN told you that Columbia Pipeline Group, a division of NiSource, had decided to move forward with investing $1.75 billion dollars for two new projects: the Leach XPress and Rayne XPress pipeline projects (see Columbia Gas: $1.75B for 2 Projects to Send Marcellus Gas to Gulf). Leach Xpress will begin in Marshall County, West Virginia, cross Ohio and end up in Leach, Kentucky. Rayne Xpress will beef up an existing pipeline from Leach, Kentucky that goes all the way to Rayne, Louisiana with new compressor stations and looping. The two projects together mean up to 2.7 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of natural gas can move through the entire system–from West Virginia to the Gulf Coast and all point in between. We commented on the funny name “Leach” for a pipeline. Looks like the marketers at Columbia thought twice about it because the name has changed–for both projects. At least we think so. Yesterday Columbia issued a press release to announce the board of directors has signed off on $2.7 billion worth of investment in two projects: Moutaineer XPress and Gulf XPress. Descriptions for the two projects are almost identical to the descriptions for the Leach and Rayne XPress projects. About the only difference is that the price tag went up for the pair of projects by a billion bucks. The key takeaway from the announcement for us? The capacity to move another 2.7 Bcf/d of Marcellus and Utica Shale gas out of the northeast is on the way in the next couple of years…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Athens County | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pipelines

Radicalized Ohio U Students Vandalize Pipeline Construction Site
June 24, 2015June 24, 2015

Here is another story in our ongoing series of how people have become radicalized by the Big Green movement, turning into law-breakers in the name of saving Mother Earth. This latest story comes from a hotbed of radicalization–Athens, Ohio–where a small group of Ohio University students, complete with orange T-shirts with the slogan “OU Green Energy NOW!” on them, shoveled dirt back into a trench dug to lay a natural gas pipeline. They also wrapped construction equipment at the site with caution tape and plastered stickers on building materials at the site with labels saying “Recalled Due to Improper Energy Policy”. Once again we see a bunch of (in this case) mis-educated Ohio University students who grew up watching Captain Planet reruns, listening to liberal college professors, and believing every word of what they saw on Saturday morning cartoons and what they hear in the lecture hall–that mom and dad and Big Oil companies are destroying Mom Earth and the polar bears. That is, they’ve been brainwashed and now radicalized…
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Belmont County | Energy Services | Ethane | FirstEnergy | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Processing Plants

FirstEnergy Confirms Their Site is Future Home of OH Cracker
June 24, 2015June 24, 2015

More cracker plant talk. Yesterday we told you that Shell has received the air quality permit they need from the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (see Shell Receives Air Quality Permit from PA DEP for Cracker Plant), moving that ethane cracker plant project significantly closer to reality. We also told you that the president and CEO of Odebrecht, the Brazilian company planning to build a cracker plant in WV, has been arrested in a bribery scandal (see Odebrecht CEO Arrested; What Does it Mean for WV Cracker Plant?), making that ethane cracker project less likely, in our humble opinion. The third major ethane cracker in the Marcellus/Utica is planned for Belmont County, OH. PTT Global Chemical, Thailand’s largest integrated petrochemical and refining company, with financial backing from Marubeni Corporation, a Japan-based company conglomerate, plans to build a cracker plant complex in Ohio (see It’s Official: Belmont County Chosen as POSSIBLE Cracker Plant Site). It has been an “open secret” the site for the plant would be at FirstEnergy Corp’s R.E. Burger power plant site along the banks of the Ohio River. FirstEnergy has, until now, denied they are selling the site. But a FirstEnergy official in a round-about way has just confirmed that yes, IF the cracker plant project gets built, it likely will get built at the R.E. Burger site…
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Energy Services | Energy Transfer Partners | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pipelines | Statewide OH | Taxation

For the Children: ET Rover Pipeline $91M in School Taxes 1st Year
June 23, 2015June 23, 2015

In the ongoing fracking wars, pipelines are the latest flash point for irrational anti-drillers. It used to be no one thought twice about a new pipeline going in the ground. But fear mongers from Big Green organizations like the Sierra Club claim those pipelines are a connection straight to Lucifer. We’ve seen groups of anti-fossil fuelers oppose pipelines like the PennEast, the Constitution, the Northeast Energy Direct and many others. One of those many others is the ET Rover pipeline, a 711-mile Marcellus/Utica natural gas pipeline that will serve mostly U.S. customers that will cost $3.7 billion to build and run from PA, WV and eastern OH through OH into Michigan and eventually into Canada. ET Rover is a project of Energy Transfer, the company making a play to take over Williams (see our other stories on that topic). This story is about ET Rover’s campaign to overcome opposition in Ohio where the majority of the pipeline (570 miles of it) will run. According to a press release issued yesterday, the ET Rover pipeline will generate more than $135 million in ad valorem tax revenue for Ohio during its first year in operation. Of that $135 million, an estimated $91 million will be directed to more than 36 local school districts. Perhaps the nutters opposing the pipeline should rethink their opposition before they screw their own kids out of $91 million? As you know, it’s always for the chil’ren. Libraries, hospitals, parks and senior centers are among other local entities that will benefit from the tax revenue from ET Rover…
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Beaver County | Belmont County | Energy Companies | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | Shell

Are OH Officials Worried about Shell’s PA Ethane Cracker? Nope
June 22, 2015June 22, 2015

In April Ohio officials announced Belmont County, OH has been chosen as the site of a potential ethane cracker plant (see It’s Official: Belmont County Chosen as POSSIBLE Cracker Plant Site). Which led us to admit that since we’ve been teased with a cracker for over three years now–with NO ONE actually committing to such a plant–we’re experiencing “cracker fatigue.” But not long after Shell made some serious moves toward committing to build a cracker plant in western Pennsylvania, not far from Pittsburgh. The most recent positive sign is that Shell finally, after three years of faffing about, earlier this month purchased the property the plant would be built on (see Shell Buys Beaver County, PA Property for Future Cracker Plant). Does a Shell cracker reduce the likelihood of an cracker plant being built less than two hours away in Belmont County, OH? Not according to officials in Ohio. In fact, they’re not worried at all…
Read More “Are OH Officials Worried about Shell’s PA Ethane Cracker? Nope”
Blue Ridge Mtn Res/Magnum Hunter | EdgeMarc Energy | Energy Companies | Ohio | Washington County (OH)

More Utica Drilling on the Way in Washington County, OH?
June 19, 2015June 19, 2015

We’re always on the lookout for signals–little things that we notice that may indicate where drilling will increase or decrease. We think we’ve found another one. EdgeMarc Energy is a small driller headquartered in the Pittsburgh area, formed in 2012. The company, according to their website, now has 50,000 acres leased in the Marcellus and Utica Shales. In checking our Marcellus and Utica Shale Databook series, we’ve not found a single permit issued to EdgeMarc, ever, but we have found a reference on MDN to a joint venture with Magnum Hunter Resources (see Magnum Hunter JV Deal with EdgeMarc to Drill 1,080 Acres in OH). EdgeMarc’s jv with MHR is interesting because the 1,080 acres targeted for jv drilling are in Washington County, Ohio, a county that has seen some, but not a lot, of Utica Shale drilling in the past (an average of 1 permit a month). Here’s the signal we’ve found that perhaps EdgeMarc, or jv partner Magnum Hunter, is about to ramp up more drilling in Washington County, Ohio…
Read More “More Utica Drilling on the Way in Washington County, OH?”
Accidents | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Regulation | Trumbull County | Wastewater

OH Injection Well Operator has Until Today to File Remediation Plan
June 19, 2015June 19, 2015

We’ve been following the story of water contamination in close proximity to five injection wells owned by Kleese Development Associates (KDA) of Warren, OH. The wells were shut down when water contamination was found in a local wetland (swamp) and a nearby pond. But after investigating, the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) found that the injection wells were not the source of chemical contamination, but rather a salvage yard was at fault (see Trumbull Injection Wells NOT the Source of Wetland Contamination). The salvage yard is also owned by KDA, so the company is certainly not off the hook. The last word we had was that the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) along with the Ohio Attorney General’s office executed search warrants for KDA looking for evidence of “environmental crimes” (see Youngstown Injection Wells Previously Shut Down Resume Operation). Meanwhile, the injection wells were reportedly restarted after correcting an issue found by the ODNR when they were there investigating. The new news is that Ohio EPA (not the feds, but Ohio) says KDA has until today to file a remediation plan to clean up a local creek affected by the so-far still undetermined source of a chemical spill coming from the salvage yard…
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Energy Companies | Halcon Resources | Ohio | Trumbull County

False Alarm: Halcon Resources has NOT Resumed Utica Drilling
June 18, 2015June 18, 2015

In January, Halcon Resources said it was slashing its drilling budget and would do no drilling in the Ohio Utica in 2015 (see Halcon Resources: Slashes Drilling Budget 50%, No Utica for 2015). In February, Halcon CEO Floyd Wilson, famous for speaking his mind, responded to an analyst question about their plans for the Utica by joking (see Halcon CEO Floyd Wilson: “What’s the Utica?”). So imagine everyone’s surprise when the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) released a report recently that listed a permit for a Halcon site in Trumbull County (the northern Utica where Wilson once said he wouldn’t drill any more sh***y wells) with a status of “DRILLING”. The Youngstown Business Journal understandably trumpeted this big news (see their story: Halcon Resumes Drilling in Trumbull County). Halcon was quick to respond. It seems that there is no active drilling at that site in Trumbull County–they wanted the permit re-issued just in case they may one day resume drilling. The designation of “DRILLING” in the ODNR report was inaccurate…
Read More “False Alarm: Halcon Resources has NOT Resumed Utica Drilling”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | NEXUS Pipeline | Ohio | Pipelines | Statewide OH

NEXUS Pipeline Files Draft Reports w/FERC, Rejects CORNy Re-Route
June 18, 2015June 18, 2015

Last Friday the NEXUS Gas Transmission pipeline, a $1.5-$2.0 billion natural gas pipeline that will carry Utica and Marcellus Shale gas spanning 11 counties in Ohio, 3 counties in Michigan, and eventually connect to the Dawn Energy Hub in Canada, filed a full set of twelve draft environmental Resource Reports with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). A summary of the filing (included below) shows there are six large customers for the pipeline in Ohio (gas processors, utilities and large industrial companies). In addition to information about who will use the pipeline and the economic benefits that will come from the pipeline, NEXUS also filed information on alternative routes for the pipeline. Of note, one alternative route, proposed by the Coalition to Reroute NEXUS (CORN, which we’ve dubbed CORNy), is flat out rejected by NEXUS. CORNy wants to move the pipeline away from the Canton-Akron area. NEXUS says that’s a bad idea, for lots of reasons…
Read More “NEXUS Pipeline Files Draft Reports w/FERC, Rejects CORNy Re-Route”
Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Statewide OH | Taxation

OH Utica Severance Tax Increase Dead for This Year’s Budget
June 17, 2015June 17, 2015

Once again Ohio Gov. John “foreigner hunter” Kasich will not get a huge hike in the Utica Shale severance tax. Originally Kasich had sought an increase to 2.75%. Then he got greedy and wanted it hiked to 6.5%. When he got resistance from that, he threatened that unnamed groups may push for a ballot initiative that would seek a 10% severance tax (see OH Gov Kasich the Bully: Accept My 6.5% Tax or Risk a 10%+ Tax). Kasich is determined to get a hike in the tax, but then reality set in. Utica drillers are idling rigs and slowing down in the Buckeye State. A big severance tax increase would accelerate that trend and Republicans know it. Yesterday leaders in both the Ohio Senate and House announced there will be no severance tax increase in this year’s budget–so it’s dead for another year. However, all parties continue to “sit at the table” and talk about a possible increase in the future…
Read More “OH Utica Severance Tax Increase Dead for This Year’s Budget”
Economic Impact | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Mahoning County | Ohio | Supply Chain | Vallourec

Youngstown Plant Starts Operations, Selling Pipes to Shale Industry
June 16, 2015June 16, 2015

Although drilling activity in the Marcellus/Utica, indeed across all shale plays, has decreased in the past six months, that doesn’t mean all gas and oil related businesses have been adversely affected. Take Vallourec’s VAM USA LLC subsidiary–a pipe manufacturer with a facility in Youngstown, Ohio. In May, VAM began producing the first pipes for commercial sale at its new premium threading plant in Youngstown. More money, more jobs, rolling into eastern Ohio–thanks to the miracle of hydraulic fracturing. Here’s the details on VAM’s startup in producing pipe products for the shale industry…
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American Energy Partners | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Lease & Royalty Payments | Litigation | Ohio | Statewide OH

Problematic: McClendon’s AEP Not Paying Some of its Bills
June 15, 2015June 15, 2015

Does Aubrey McClendon’s American Energy Partners (AEP)–the new company he founded after being unceremoniously booted from Chesapeake Energy–have cash problems? You certainly wouldn’t think so. At last check in May 2014, McClendon had raised a staggering $8.7 billion in little more than a year (see Aubrey McClendon Raises Huge $8.7B for Shale Drilling…So Far). But the evidence keeps piling up that Aubrey isn’t paying his bills. In April, McClendon created a “blank check” company to raise $200 million in cash (see Aubrey McClendon’s New “Blank Check Company” Looks to Raise $200M). In May, Paloma Resources said a 3-way deal including McClendon’s AEP to lease 130,000 acres in the Ohio Utica Shale went bust because Aubrey didn’t have enough money to close the deal (see McClendon Running Out of Money?! Paloma Utica Deal Goes Bust). Last week MDN told you about a contractor working for AEP with several hundred thousand dollars in outstanding invoices that have gone unpaid–for more than 120 days (see Big McClendon News: Sells 35K Utica Acres, Creates New Company). Now the latest: a group of Ohio landowners have sued McClendon’s AEP along with an affiliate company and a land services company working for AEP, for non-payment of lease bonuses…
Read More “Problematic: McClendon’s AEP Not Paying Some of its Bills”