Federal Judge Lets Rover Enter Most OH Properties for Tree Clearing
On Friday, Feb. 3, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) gave a final approval for Energy Transfer’s Rover Pipeline project–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 (see ET Rover Pipeline Gets Final Approval by FERC). Rover immediately began cutting down trees along the path in Ohio, on property where landowners have signed easements and voluntarily granted access. However, some landowners, either signed or unsigned, have not yet granted access. So Rover went to court, seeking eminent domain declarations (see Time’s Up – Rover Pipe Uses Eminent Domain on Holdout OH Landowners). Yesterday a federal judge granted Rover a preliminary injunction that allows the company to enter most properties–at least for those who have already signed or are actively negotiating with Rover. There are a few holdouts (21 owners of 15 parcels) where certain legal hoops still need to be jumped through–but they will also soon have to allow Rover access. What are last minute offers by Rover to landowners for easements? Rover isn’t saying, but some landowners are mentioning $70 to $80 per linear foot as a good number…
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Naysayers and peak oil & gas theorists always ignore the 800 pound gorilla in the room when they make their pessimistic predictions that “any day now” oil and gas production from shale will decline into oblivion. The 800 pound gorilla? Shale drillers keep getting better at what they do. Technology is changing. Techniques change. And drillers get more out of the holes they drill today than they did last year, and the year before that, and the year before that. Across all American shale plays, wells in January 2017 produced an average of three times more gas and oil than they did in January 2014. Let us put that another way: Today’s wells are producing 300% more than wells drilled just three years ago! Here’s another startling fact: the shale play with the most improvement in production is the Utica. Wells in the Utica are producing, on average, 4.2 times (420%) more today than they did three years ago…
In January we brought to your attention a developing situation–a fight, really–by a few large regulated electric utilities that seek to have Ohio re-regulate the electric industry (see 
Ohio Gov. John “severance tax” Kasich is Johnny One Note when it comes to his desire to tax the Utica Shale industry and transfer their hard-earned money away to other people who didn’t earn it. In January, Kasich announced he would obstinately include a nosebleed-high Utica Shale severance tax (6.5%) in his biennium budget–again (see 
Yesterday Chesapeake Energy provided a glimpse into their plans for 2017. In Chessy’s “gudiance” for 2017, we learn that the company plans to up the number of active drilling rigs (nationwide) from 10 to 17. We also learn that last year Chessy spent ~$1.75 billion to drill 213 new wells, and place 428 wells into production–the difference between the two numbers being they finished up already-drilled wells, or DUCs. This year? They will spend ~$2.5 billion to drill ~400 new wells–essentially doubling the number of wells drilled–and place ~450 into production. The only problem (from our perspective) is that most of the drilling will happen in places other than the Marcellus/Utica. Of the new wells they plan to drill, only 10-15 new wells will get drilled in the Marcellus, and 40-50 new wells in the Utica. Chessy says they will complete and turn into production 50-60 Marcellus wells in 2017, and 70-80 Utica wells. Translation: Not a lot of new drilling in our neighborhood, with more of an emphasis on completing already-drilled wells…
Some farms not only produce products like milk, meat, eggs and/or crops–some farms produce energy. Would it surprise you to learn that in 2014 (the most recent year with stats available), energy companies paid farmers a staggering $2.9 billion for the energy extracted from private farms? The U.S. Dept. of Agriculture posted a brief blurb from their Amber Waves magazine yesterday, recounting stats from a report released last November. The report, “Trends in U.S. Agriculture’s Consumption and Production of Energy: Renewable Power, Shale Energy, and Cellulosic Biomass” (full copy below) points out it’s not just oil and gas extraction that farmers receive income from. Some farmers lease their land for solar and wind generation. Some biomass. However, it was one particular chart and stat that caught our attention: About 9.6% of Pennsylvania farms received energy income in 2014. The average amount received, per farm? $157,000! Almost all of that revenue came from the Marcellus Shale…
Last week we pointed out that of all the major pipeline projects we had hoped the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) would approve before Norman Bay quit the Commission in a huff, that NEXUS (runs through Ohio) did not get a go-ahead (see 
The clock just ran out for Ohio landowners who either thought Energy Transfer’s Rover Pipeline would not get authorized, or hoped to hold out and get higher rates of payment to agree to allow the pipeline to cross their land. As pipeline companies often say, the use of eminent domain to gain access to property is a “last resort.” The time of last resort has come. As soon as Rover received its final authorization from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Friday (see 
When reporting on the flurry of Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approvals from last Friday, before Commissioner Norman Bay resigned in a huff over losing the chairmanship of the agency (and leaving the Commission with only two Commissioners, not enough to vote on more projects), we noticed there was one major Marcellus/Utica pipeline project that didn’t receive a final approval: the NEXUS Pipeline project. NEXUS is a $2 billion, 255-mile interstate pipeline that will run from Ohio through Michigan and eventually to the Dawn Hub in Ontario, Canada. It is a critically needed pipeline 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. In December FERC issued a positive final Environmental Impact Statement (see 
In December the Bureau of Land Management proceeded with an online auction for BLM-controlled land in Ohio’s Wayne National Forest (see 
A few weeks ago MDN highlighted a developing issue in Ohio that potentially impacts Utica/Marcellus shale in the region (see 
Kinder Morgan has proposed the UTOPIA (Utica To Ontario Pipeline Access) pipeline, a 12-inch ethane pipeline that will run ~240 miles across the state of Ohio where it will connect with another pipeline and (eventually) flow ethane all the way to a cracker plant in Canada. That is, if they can get some holdout landowners to allow them onto their land (see 
In December 2013 MDN first reported a new $250 million pipeline on the way in the Utica Shale from Marathon Petroleum Corporation, the largest refiner in the Utica Shale region (see 
MDN reported in September that American Electric Power is selling four electric generating plants to a newly formed joint venture of Blackstone and ArcLight Capital Partners (see