Statewide OH

Chesapeake Utilities | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | M&A | Ohio | Pipelines | Statewide OH

Chesapeake Utilities Completes $59M Purchase of OH Midstream Co.
April 9, 2015April 9, 2015

In February MDN told you about Chesapeake Utilities, a diversified energy company with businesses in natural gas distribution, transmission and marketing, electricity distribution, propane distribution and wholesale marketing (nothing to do with Chesapeake Energy) purchasing a small midstream company in Ohio–Gatherco, Inc (see Chesapeake Utilities Buys OH Midstream Co, Targets Shale Industry). Part of the motivation is to target the Utica Shale industry in Ohio by building gathering pipelines. Last week Chesapeake Utilities announced the deal is now done and Gatherco has been renamed and merged with Chesapeake subsidiary Aspire Energy of Ohio…
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Energy Services | Energy Transfer Partners | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pipelines | Statewide OH

ET Rover Pipeline Launches New Website, Updated Route Maps
April 8, 2015April 8, 2015

ET Rover is a now 711-mile (down from 830-mile) Marcellus/Utica natural gas pipeline that will serve mostly U.S. customers that will cost $3.7 billion (down from $4.4 billion) to build and run from PA, WV and eastern OH through OH into Michigan and eventually into Canada (see ET Rover Pipeline’s 800-Mile Journey Begins with FERC Filing). As with all Marcellus/Utica pipeline projects, ET Rover hasn’t been without its detractors and legal issues (see OH Law Firm Asks FERC to Stop ET Rover Pipeline Eminent Domain). Yesterday Energy Transfer Partners, the company that will build ET Rover, announced a new website. They also provided updated maps to county libraries along the proposed path of the pipeline’s route…
Read More “ET Rover Pipeline Launches New Website, Updated Route Maps”
Energy Companies | Energy Services | EV Energy Partners | Industrywide Issues | M&A | Ohio | Pipelines | Statewide OH | Williams

Williams Buys Out EVEP Interest in Utica East Ohio Midstream for $575M
April 7, 2015April 7, 2015

In early February, MDN told you that EV Energy Partners, a company with a huge amount of leased acreage in the Ohio Utica Shale region, was looking to sell its 21% interest in Utica East Ohio (UEO)–a midstream/pipeline company operating in Ohio (see EVEP Wants to Sell Interest in Utica East Ohio/More Utica Acreage). Yesterday EV announced they found a buyer–none other than Williams, EV’s partner in UEO. Williams currently owns 49% of UEO and is paying EV $575 million in cash to relieve them of their 21%, for a grand total operating interest of 70% ownership…
Read More “Williams Buys Out EVEP Interest in Utica East Ohio Midstream for $575M”
Buckeye Partners | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Michigan | Ohio | Pipelines | Statewide MI | Statewide OH

Buckeye Partners Expanding MI/OH Refined Products Pipeline East
April 6, 2015April 5, 2015

Buckeye Partners, headquartered not in Ohio but in Houston, TX, launched an open season for an expansion of a pipeline that we somehow missed, on January 30. Called the Michigan/Ohio Pipeline Expansion Project, the expanded pipeline project is for flowing “refined petroleum products” (things like gasoline, kerosene and heating oil) and will run from Woodhaven and Detroit, Michigan, and from Toledo and Lima, Ohio, to destination points in both Ohio and Western Pennsylvania. Buckeye reports the open season is now closed and was successful and they plan to move forward with expansion plans, slated to be complete by the second half of 2016. Does the expansion include building any new pipeline?…
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Ohio | Pipelines | Statewide OH

FERC Will Not Oversee UTOPIA NGL Pipeline Project in Ohio
April 2, 2015April 2, 2015

In December 2013, MDN told you about Kinder Morgan’s new NGL (natural gas liquids) pipeline cleverly named UTOPIA (Utica To Ontario Pipeline Access). UTOPIA is a $500 million, 210-mile, 10-inch pipeline from Harrison County, Ohio to Riga, Michigan and from there connecting with another pipeline heading into Windsor, Ontario (see UTOPIA is Coming! The UTOPIA Pipeline, that is…). Kinder has held an open season and in January 2016 they will file a full application and target November 2016 to begin construction. What we didn’t know, or realize (until today) is that all of the new pipeline that needs to be constructed for the project will happen within Ohio. No new pipeline is needed in Michigan or indeed into Ontario. Why is that important? Because newly constructed pipeline doesn’t cross state lines, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) will not be involved with approving or overseeing construction for the project. Because it’s all within Ohio, the lead agency for approval and oversight will be the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, with an assist from the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (an agency drunk on its own power)…
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Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Statewide OH | Taxation

OH Gov “Tax Oil and Gas” Kasich Wants to Run for White House
March 31, 2015March 31, 2015

Go Tax Young Man! Er, ah, no. “Go West young man! Land on the moon! Go to Mars!” Those were the words of the very animated, very self-important and very deluded Ohio Gov. John Kasich last week as he spent time…in Ohio, where he’s governor, trying to run his state? No. Kasich spent last week in New Hampshire where he’s trying to gin up excitement for a potential run as president on the GOP ticket. Earth (and conservatives) to RINO Kasich: There’s no way in &@!! conservative Republicans will vote for you in an election. We’re done voting for RINOs (like Bob Dole/John McCain/Mitt Romney/Jeb Bush/Chris Christie/John Kasich). We will only swing the lever for real conservatives, not people who want to tax the oil and gas industry into oblivion as you’re proposing to do Gov. Kasich. If a RINO like Kasich is at the top of the ticket, the Republicans will lose the presidency, once again, because conservatives will stay home–including MDN. Here’s more about John “foreigner hunter” Kasich on the campaign trail, hoping to spark interest in a potential run for The White House…
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Industrywide Issues | New York | North Carolina | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide NY | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide VA | Statewide WV | Virginia | West Virginia

USGS Says There’s Plenty More Fossil Fuels to Come in Appalachia
March 31, 2015March 31, 2015

There were plenty of fossil fuels in the past 150 years in Appalachia–an area stretching from the northeast to the south–and there’s plenty more where those came from. That’s the conclusion from an updated series of papers collected together in a new U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper (#1708) called “Coal and Petroleum Resources in the Appalachian Basin: Distribution, Geologic Framework, and Geochemical Character” (free access, linked below). The USGS says, “Professional Paper 1708 is a modern, indepth collection of reports, cross sections, and maps that describe the geology of the Appalachian basin and its fossil fuel resources. This publication supplements and updates older USGS regional studies of Appalachian basin coal and petroleum resources.” Here’s an abstract/summary of what’s in the new report…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Cuyahoga County | Industrywide Issues | Lancaster County | Litigation | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide OH | Statewide PA

CELDF Costing Towns Big $ With Losing Pipeline/Drilling Bans
March 30, 2015March 30, 2015

Communities that attempt to block pipelines (and drilling) with illegal so-called community rights ordinances that seek to block those activities are losing in court and, in at least some of the cases, taxpayers in those communities end up paying the legal fees for the pro-drilling side. That’s the good news we find in an article by a PBS “reporter” (we’d call her an anti-drilling propagandist) writing on the StateImpact Pennsylvania website. To the small group of fossil fuel-hating nutters in Conestoga Township (Lancaster County), PA, you may want to consider the considerable cost of launching yet another campaign funded by outsiders Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF), the shadowy group behind much of this mischief. Be sure to ask the CELDF if they’re willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees if you lose (as you surely will) a legal challenge to a pipeline ban in the township. Make them put their money where their huge mouth is…
Read More “CELDF Costing Towns Big $ With Losing Pipeline/Drilling Bans”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pipelines | Regulation | Spectra Energy | Statewide OH | Summit County

CORNy Effect on FERC: NEXUS Forced to Consider Alternative Route
March 30, 2015March 30, 2015

The NEXUS Pipeline is a proposed 42-inch, now $2 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 (see NEXUS Gas Pipeline Pre-Files with FERC, New Details Come to Light). MDN told you about a local anti-drilling group that’s trying to stop it or change it, flying under the acronym of CORN–Coalition to Reroute NEXUS (see CORNy Opposition to NEXUS Pipeline in Eastern Ohio). It looks like the CORNballs may have had an effect. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) told Spectra Energy and the other companies building the NEXUS they’ve been getting a lot of complaints and FERC wants the companies to investigate an alternative route for the NEXUS, away from the CORNfields of Green (Summit County), OH…
Read More “CORNy Effect on FERC: NEXUS Forced to Consider Alternative Route”
Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Research | Statewide OH

OOGA’s DeBrosse Report: 2014 a Breakout Year for Utica Shale
March 27, 2015March 27, 2015

Each year the 3,200-member Ohio Oil and Gas Association (OOGA) issue the DeBrosse Memorial Report (full copy below). The report is a high level look at where (and how much) drilling there has been in the state–and what they’re finding (methane, oil, NGLs). The latest report, recounting 2014, was released at the recent OOGA Annual Winter Meeting in Columbus. Needless to say the latest report shows the exponentially increasing importance of the Utica Shale in the state. Last year a full 61% of all new wells drilled and completed in the state were shale wells. The report also shows the state produced 11 million barrels of oil from the Utica Shale. In 2013 the Utica produced 4.3 million barrels of oil. Welcome to Utica-land!…
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Ohio | Pennsylvania | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

2015 Northeast Oil & Gas Awards: A Quick Recap & List of Winners
March 27, 2015March 27, 2015

This is a shout out to the marvelous people we (meaning me, Jim Willis) met in Pittsburgh on Wednesday at the 3rd Annual Oil & Gas Awards. I was truly humbled and thrilled to meet so many MDN readers! You gave me some great feedback on MDN–feedback that has me thinking about some new initiatives going forward. So stay tuned for the future and what I believe will be some good things coming. During the day I was privileged to host two panel discussions. A special thank you to the panelists on the “Minimizing Environmental Impact” panel: Melissa Hamsher, Vice President at Eclipse Resources; Lauren Parker, Principal at Civil & Environmental Consultants; and Gregg Stewart, Permitting Manager with PennEnergy Resources. And a special thank you to the panelists on the “Health and Safety” panel: Charlie Dixon, Safety and Workforce Director with Ohio Oil and Gas Energy Education Program; Frank Harrison, President of Areion Energy; and Chad McCutcheon, Communications Professional with McCutcheon Enterprises. Stellar panelists all! They made me look good, and that’s a hard thing to do. 😉 There were about 150 attendees at the Industry Summit during the day. MDN will bring you videos (when they become available) for each of the sessions. The evening was the “main” event–a gala awards ceremony with folks decked out in tuxedos and evening gowns. We have the complete list of winners for the 2015 Northeast Oil and Gas Awards below…
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Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Even with Capex Budgets/Jobs Slashed, NE Production Still Rising
March 25, 2015March 25, 2015

Capital expenditure budgets slashed 20%, 30%, 40% and more. Mass firings in the thousands by oilfield services companies. The mad dash to raise cash to keep going. Shutting in wells to slow or stop production. Some days it seems like the news is all doom and gloom. But what’s this? Even though rig counts are down, capex is slashed and jobs are dwindling, production in the Marcellus/Utica will continue to go UP in 2015. You read that right. How can that be? According to some excellent research published by NGI’s Shale Daily, production will continue to go up because “efficiencies in drilling techniques and low operating costs are overcoming the energy industry downturn.” That is, good old American ingenuity is once again figuring out how to do more with less. What did the ace reporters at Shale Daily discover when they dug down into the data?…
Read More “Even with Capex Budgets/Jobs Slashed, NE Production Still Rising”
Lease & Royalty Payments | Ohio | Statewide OH

Strategy Change? Some Buy Mineral Rights in OH Instead of Leasing
March 23, 2015March 23, 2015

A change in strategy? The Wheeling News Register is reporting an uptick in the purchase of mineral rights in the Upper Ohio Valley area. If a landowner owns both the surface and mineral rights, the typical situation is that the landowner will lease the mineral rights to an energy company for a certain period of time, receiving an up-front signing bonus. If drilled, the landowner will receive ongoing royalties from any gas (or oil) produced. But in some cases, instead of leasing, energy companies are buying the mineral rights. That is, the mineral rights become separated from ownership of the land on the surface. The energy company then owns the mineral rights, along with the right to use a bit of the surface to locate a drill pad and wells. The landowner selling the mineral rights gets a higher initial signing bonus by selling the mineral rights as opposed to leasing. But they also get zero royalties when selling the mineral rights. It becomes a decision between a little more money now, or a lot more money later. What kind of money are we talking about?…
Read More “Strategy Change? Some Buy Mineral Rights in OH Instead of Leasing”
Energy Companies | EnerVest | Ohio | Statewide OH

Ohio Clinton Sandstone Horiz Wells on the Increase – Utica-Lite?
March 19, 2015March 19, 2015

There’s once again renewed interest in Ohio’s Clinton sandstone. This time the interest is in drilling horizontal wells–“baby” wells compared to a Utica well. Over a dozen horizontal wells either have been or are now being drilled in the Clinton. One company, traditionally a conventional (vertical-only) driller, says drilling a horizontal well in the Clinton is 3 times more expensive than a vertical-only well, but it’s 7-8 times more productive. Another driller puts the cost at 10 times more than conventional drilling but 20 times more productive. Any way you slice it, it seems that small and large firms alike are taking a close look at the Clinton, drilling for “leftover natural gas and oil.” Here’s details of who’s doing the drilling and where…
Read More “Ohio Clinton Sandstone Horiz Wells on the Increase – Utica-Lite?”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Regulation | Statewide OH

Hall of Shame: Republicans Cancel Fracking Under OH State Parks
March 19, 2015March 19, 2015

Whew–that’s a relief! Ohio state parks are “safe” from that filthy, evil villain “fracking.” It would just be beyond the pale to allow fracking under (not on) state parks which could bring millions of dollars into the coffers of Ohio for RINO Gov. John Kasich to redistribute–say in property tax reductions (like he wants to do with revenue from a super-high severance tax). No no. That goes just too far. We can’t have the state making money from a safe activity like fracking under state parks. And so, once again, Republicans in Ohio have caved. They’ve backed down from a plan that would allow safe drilling under state parks–drilling that towns and cities and numerous municipalities in eastern Ohio allow–because…because they’re spineless? Well, yes! Newly elected House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger, R-Clarksville is one of the spineless wonders. House Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Al Landis, R-Dover, is another. RINO in chief Gov. Kasich was also opposed to safe drilling under state parks, that is, he was for it before he was against it…
Read More “Hall of Shame: Republicans Cancel Fracking Under OH State Parks”
Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Marathon Petroleum | NGLs | Ohio | Pipelines | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Marathon Utica Wet Gas Pipeline Extends Open Season Extra 30 Days
March 18, 2015March 18, 2015

In December 2013 Marathon Petroleum, Ohio’s largest refiner, announced they would build a new Utica Shale pipeline, called Cornerstone (see Marathon Petroleum’s Newly Announced “Cornerstone” Utica Pipeline). Cornerstone will stretch nearly 50 miles from the MarkWest cryogenic processing plant in Cadiz, OH, heading northwest and connecting to M3’s fractionator plant in Scio and M3’s cryogenic processing plant in Leesville on its way to connecting with and terminating at Marathon’s refinery in Canton, OH. The pipeline will flow crude oil, condensate and natural gasoline. In February, Marathon launched an open season to sign up shippers for the new pipeline (see Marathon Announces Open Season on New Wet Gas Pipelines). The open season was due to end on March 13, but Marathon has extended it an extra month–a sign that there may not be as much interest as originally thought for this project (although Marathon says the extra time allows them to handle “significant interest” in the project)…
Read More “Marathon Utica Wet Gas Pipeline Extends Open Season Extra 30 Days”