Empire Pipeline LLC, based in New Orleans, Louisiana, NOT to be confused with the National Fuel Gas Company subsidiary Empire Pipeline (in NY and PA), has purchased “an operational and financial interest” in TROO Clean Environmental LLC, based in Belmont County, Ohio. TROO provides recycling of Marcellus/Utica frack wastewater.
Read More “Louisiana’s Empire Pipeline Buys Ohio Frack Water Recycler TROO”
The Ohio Oil and Gas Energy Education Program (OOGEEP), a nonprofit energy education and public outreach organization, recently commissioned a poll of Ohio voters in eight eastern counties–in the Ohio Valley area. The counties surveyed include those with the most active Utica Shale drilling in the state. The poll asked residents’ about their views on shale drilling and its related activities. Some 88% said the natural gas and oil industry is important to their community, and 78% support natural gas and oil development in the Ohio Valley area.
Read More “78% of Southeast Ohio Voters Support Utica Shale Drilling”
The Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) issued third quarter 2019 numbers for Utica shale oil and gas production last Friday. Drum roll please! The numbers show new state record highs for quarterly oil AND natural gas production, the most ever since quarterly reporting began in 2013. Through the roof! Utica oil production was up 29.8% over 3Q18, and Utica natural gas production was up 11.3% over 3Q18.
Read More “Ohio Utica 3Q19 O&G Production New Record: Oil Up 30%, Gas Up 11%”
The Risberg Line, a 60-mile pipeline from Crawford County, PA to Erie County, PA and from there across the border into Ashtabula County, OH, went into service on Friday with a ceremonial ribbon cutting and a literal turning of the valve by Ohio Lt. Governer Jon Husted. Pop the cork on the champagne!
Read More “Risberg PA-to-OH Pipeline Starts – Flows Marcellus Gas to OH”
In Nov. 2017 the Ohio Attorney General’s office under then-AG Mike Dewine (RINO swamp dweller, now governor) sued Energy Transfer at the prompting of the Ohio EPA claiming the company’s Rover Pipeline project was guilty of “polluting state waters while constructing a natural gas pipeline across Ohio” (see OH EPA Director Manipulates Atty General to Sue Rover Pipeline). A Stark County judge threw the case out in March of this year (see OH Judge Tosses AG’s Lawsuit Against Rover Pipe Enviro Violations).
Read More “Ohio AG Lawsuit Against Rover Pipe Tossed by Appeals Court”
Columbia Gas of Ohio says it can’t build local natural gas delivery pipelines fast enough to meet the demand for new customers. “We’re adding new customers, commercial, industrial, residential, in every quadrant of the region” according to Columbia Gas President Dan Creekmur. And he doesn’t it see it stopping any time soon. So the company is spending big bucks (nine figures) to build new local gas pipelines–this year!
Read More “Columbia Gas of Ohio Investing $100M to Flow More M-U Gas”
The rig count in the Marcellus/Utica region is crashing–down to its lowest level for a December since the M-U became a “thing.” It’s now lower than the levels reached in 2014, which was the advent of the first “crash” in rig counts. BUT (and this is a big BUT), lower rig counts do not necessarily mean less drilling or less production. How can that be?
Read More “Marcellus/Utica Active Drilling Rig Count Crashes to 24”
Near the end the year for the past 3-4 years we inevitably hear that PTT Global Chemical will not, as promised or implied, make a final investment decision (FID) about building a multi-billion dollar ethane cracker in Belmont County, Ohio, but that the FID will instead happen “next year.” Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (RINO) met with PTT representatives yesterday to discuss the project. No announcements. No new promises. No FID announced. Another disappointment (cue George Michael song “Last Christmas”).
Read More “Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine Meets with PTT re Cracker – Still No FID”
The mafiosi at FirstEnergy lost their lawsuit filed with the Ohio Supreme Court in a bid to block a referendum aimed at giving all Ohio residents the right to vote to overturn an ill-conceived corporate welfare law passed that puts $1 billion into FirstEnergy’s pocket in order to keep two failing nuclear power plants open. Although they lost the case, FirstEnergy claims the Supreme Court decision is a “victory” for their attempt to keep their grubby hands on taxpayer’s money. How does that work?
Read More “FirstEnergy Loses OH Supreme Court Case to Block Referendum”
One of the selling points to make big interstate pipeline projects more palatable to the general public, at least in Ohio, has been the fact they pay annual property taxes. We can tell you from personal experience that a small pipeline in the Town of Windsor (NY, yes! NY) has meant lower property tax bills for MDN editor Jim Willis. Two very large pipeline projects in Ohio, Rover and NEXUS, are asking Stark County to reduce their assessments so they can pay less in taxes–up to 50% less.
Read More “NEXUS and Rover Pipes Ask Stark County, OH for BIG Tax Cut”
A group of 10 community colleges scattered throughout southwestern Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio and northern West Virginia have formed the Tristate Energy and Advanced Manufacturing Consortium, or TEAM, with the aim of training skilled workers for cracker plants and other petrochemical-related manufacturing operations. The cooperative has crafted a “stackable-credentials model” that offers “a career pathway from certifications to post-secondary degrees, up to and including a master’s degree.” Forwarding thinking!
Read More “10 Colleges in PA-OH-WV Form Program to Train Cracker/Mfg Workers”
The Risberg Line, a 60-mile pipeline from Crawford County, PA to Erie County, PA and from there across the border into Ashtabula County, OH, began construction in February. Risberg cost roughly $86 million to build and will flow 55 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) of gas from the PA Marcellus to the northern tip of Ohio in Ashtabula County. In mid-November, RH energytrans, the builder, asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for permission to start it up by Dec. 1 (see Risberg PA-to-OH Pipeline Project Ready to Start Dec. 1). FERC granted permission and as near as we can tell the pipeline is now up and running.
Read More “FERC Authorizes Startup for Risberg PA-to-OH Pipeline”
An interesting Ohio Supreme Court ruling from last week caught our attention, thanks to the legal beagles at Vorys. As with most of these cases, this one is complex. But we want to highlight *why* it’s important right up front: Landowners (or mineral rights owners, usually the one and the same but not always) have a longer period of time, 21 years, to bring an action to reclaim their severed mineral rights than the previously thought 15 years–in certain situations. That was the upshot in Browne v. Artex Oil Co.
Read More “OH Supremes Rule Landowners have 21 Yrs to Claim Lease Expiration”
In January 2016, Kinder Morgan committed to building the UTOPIA (Utica To Ontario Pipeline Access) pipeline, a 12-inch ethane pipeline that would run 286 miles across the state of Ohio where it would connect with another pipeline to flow Marcellus/Utica ethane all the way to a cracker plant in Canada (see Kinder Morgan Ready to Move Forward with UTOPIA East Pipeline). In January 2018 UTOPIA went online (see UTOPIA has Arrived! KM OH Pipe Flowing Ethane to Canadian Cracker). Kinder’s 50% joint venture partner in UTOPIA, Riverstone Holdings, announced yesterday it has sold its interest to a consortium of South Korean companies.
Read More “South Korea Buys 50% Stake in M-U’s UTOPIA Ethane Pipeline”
Duke Energy has a plan to build a critically-needed natural gas pipeline near Cincinnati, OH to replace an old pipeline built in the 1950s. Duke needs to replace the pipe or some of the half million Duke customers in the region won’t get natural gas any more. A group calling themselves NOPE–Neighbors Opposing Pipeline Extension, tried their best to defeat the project. We call them DOPEs–Dummies Opposing Pipeline Extension. The good news is that the DOPEs lost. Yesterday the Ohio Power Siting Board (OPSB) gave Duke final approval to build the alternative route proposed by Duke for the project.
Read More “Ohio Approves Duke Energy 14-Mile Cincinnati NatGas Pipe”
JobsOhio, a private, nonprofit corporation that works works on behalf of the state to drive job creation and new capital investment in Ohio by attracting business, contracts out economic research to Cleveland State University (CSU)–to keep tabs on the Utica Shale industry. Last year CSU researchers found that from 2011-2017 the Utica Shale had attracted an amazing $70 billion in new private sector energy investments (see Ohio Utica Attracts Amazing $70 Billion Investment…So Far). CSU is back with the latest numbers and has added another $7.7 billion to the pot for 2018, meaning total Utica investments from 2011 to the end of 2018 are nearly $78 billion!
Read More “CSU Study: Ohio Shale Industry Investment $78B and Counting”