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Storage Well Leak Fix in Cambria County Failed, Leaked 1.4 Bcf

On Friday, MDN reported that one of the ten natural gas storage wells at the Equitrans Rager Mountain Gas Storage Area in Jackson Township, Cambria County (in Pennsylvania) that was leaking roughly 100 MMcf/d of gas had finally been plugged (see “Massive” Gas Storage Well Leak in Cambria County Finally Plugged). Not so fast. Friday morning, nearby residents once again heard the telltale roaring sound and smell of gas. The well began to leak again. It took a specialist company, Cudd Well Control, until Sunday (another two days) to finally get the leak stopped and concrete poured into the hole to permanently plug the leak.
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“Massive” Gas Storage Well Leak in Cambria County Finally Plugged

Equitrans Midstream (formerly EQT Midstream) owns the Rager Mountain Gas Storage Area in Jackson Township, Cambria County, in Pennsylvania. Beginning Nov. 6th, one of the wells at the Rager Mountain area (a depleted conventional well drilled in 1965) began leaking methane around the well casing (see Equitrans Gas Storage Well in Cambria County, PA is Leaking). The good news is that the leak, as of yesterday, is plugged. But not before the well leaked an estimated 1 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of methane into the atmosphere–roughly 10% of the gas stored at the Rager Mountain Gas Storage Area.
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Equitrans Gas Storage Well in Cambria County, PA is Leaking

Equitrans Midstream (formerly EQT Midstream) owns the Rager Mountain Gas Storage Area in Jackson Township, Cambria County, in Pennsylvania. Since Nov. 6th, one of the wells at the Rager Mountain area (a depleted conventional well drilled in 1965) has been leaking methane. Residents living in the area were first alerted to the leak by a very loud hissing or roaring sound, and the odor of natural gas. The smell (hydrogen sulfide) persists. Equitrans is trying to fix the leak and is making progress, but gas continues to escape between two of the well’s casings.
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CPV’s PA Marcellus Gas & Ethane-Fired Power Plant Wins Award

Competitive Power Ventures’ (CPV) Fairview Energy Center, a 1,050-megawatt natural gas AND ethane-fueled combined-cycle electric generating plant in Cambria County, PA, went online ahead of schedule back in December (see CPV Marcellus-Fired Electric Plant in Cambria Goes Online Early). The plant is unique in that it can use both methane AND ethane as a power source–the first and only such plant in the world.
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PA Fines Sunoco $355,636 for Old Mariner East 2 Pipe Violations

Credit: Scott Blanchard / StateImpact Pennsylvania (click for larger version)

In early 2018 Sunoco Logistics Partners (aka Energy Transfer) agreed to pay a massive (historically high) $12.6 million fine to the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) for “permit violations related to the construction of the Mariner East 2 pipeline project” (see Sunoco LP Pays PA DEP $12.6M to Resume ME2 Pipeline Construction). It wasn’t the only fine the ME projects have incurred. Last Thursday Sunoco agreed to pay *another* $355,636 for a series of “inadvertent returns” (i.e. drilling mud spills) that happened more than a year ago, between August 2018 and April 2019.
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PA Gas-Fired Power Plant Hedges NatGas Prices with Ethane Use

CPV Fairview Energy Center

Competitive Power Ventures’ (CPV) Fairview Energy Center, a 1,050-megawatt natural gas AND ethane-fueled combined-cycle electric generating plant in Cambria County, PA, went online ahead of schedule back in December using Marcellus methane (see CPV Marcellus-Fired Electric Plant in Cambria Goes Online Early). However, the plant is designed to mix ethane in with methane and burn the mix. The new plant completed tests and began blending in Marcellus ethane in March (see ‘First of Its Kind’ Methane/Ethane PA Power Plant Now Online). Why blend? To keep costs down.
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‘First of Its Kind’ Methane/Ethane PA Power Plant Now Online

CPV Fairview Energy Center (click for larger version)

Competitive Power Ventures’ (CPV) Fairview Energy Center, a 1,050-megawatt natural gas AND ethane-fueled combined-cycle electric generating plant in Cambria County, PA, went online ahead of schedule back in December (see CPV Marcellus-Fired Electric Plant in Cambria Goes Online Early). The plant went online using Marcellus gas (methane). However, the plant is designed to mix ethane in with methane and burn the mix. CPV announced yesterday tests for blending in ethane are now complete and the plant is operating at a 75/25 ratio of methane to ethane. According to CPV, Fairview Energy Center is “the first and only facility of its scale in the world to possess high content ethane blending with natural gas capabilities.”
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CPV Marcellus-Fired Power Plant in Cambria “Ahead of Schedule”

Competitive Power Ventures (CPV) finally broke ground and began to build a new Marcellus gas-fired power plant in Cambria County, PA in October 2017 (see CPV Marcellus-Fired Power Plant in Cambria, PA Breaks Ground). Located 60 miles east of Pittsburgh, the CPV Fairview Energy Center is a 1,050-megawatt natural gas and ethane-fueled two-by-one combined-cycle electric generating plant expected to begin commercial operations in early 2020. It looks like that schedule may actually move up.
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Indiana Co Sets Up Shop in W PA Thx to Marcellus-Fired Gas Plants

Competitive Power Ventures (CPV) finally broke ground and began to build a new Marcellus gas-fired power plant in Cambria County, PA in October 2017 (see CPV Marcellus-Fired Power Plant in Cambria, PA Breaks Ground). Located 60 miles east of Pittsburgh, the CPV Fairview Energy Center is a 1,050-megawatt natural gas and ethane-fueled two-by-one combined-cycle electric generating plant expected to begin commercial operations in early 2020. An Indiana company supplying scaffolding to work on that plant was so impressed with the project, and others like it popping up in PA, that the company has decided to establish a branch operation in Johnstown, PA.
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CPV Marcellus-Fired Power Plant in Cambria, PA Breaks Ground

CPV Fairview Energy Center – click for larger version

It took a few years, but Competitive Power Ventures (CPV) has finally broken ground and has begun to build a new Marcellus gas-fired power plant in Cambria County, PA. Located 60 miles east of Pittsburgh, the CPV Fairview Energy Center is a 1,050-megawatt natural gas and ethane-fueled two-by-one combined-cycle electric generating plant expected to begin commercial operations in early 2020. CPV held the groundbreaking ceremony at the site on Tuesday–a former brownfield site off Route 271 near Vinco in Jackson Township. President and CEO Gary Lambert said it “only” took three years to get through the permitting process, from conception to groundbreaking. That seems like two years too many to us, but hey, who are we? Local officials attended and are pumped. According to Bruce Baker, Jackson Township supervisors’ chairman, “This is arguably one of the biggest events that ever happened in Cambria County – especially Jackson Township, for sure.” The project will take 30 months to build, providing jobs for up to 500 people during construction, and when it’s done, the plant will power 1 million homes. All powered by Marcellus Shale gas…
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$700M CPV Power Plant in Cambria, PA Gets Ready to Break Ground

Click for larger version

It’s taken a few years, but we are now only a few months away from groundbreaking to build a new Marcellus gas-fired power plant in Cambria County, PA. Competitive Power Ventures (CPV) will build the $700 million CPV Fairview Energy Center off Route 271 near Vinco, in rural Jackson Township (see 2 Natgas-Fired Electric Power Plants Coming to Cambria County, PA). Last June the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) held a public hearing on an Air Quality Plan Approval Application for the project (see Voice Support for CPV NatGas Power Plant in Cambria County, PA). After securing financing and filling out a forest worth of paperwork, CPV Fairview Energy is almost ready to begin construction. What can the locals expect from this new plant? Perhaps a field trip to another CPV power plant, in New Jersey, can enlighten us…Continue reading

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PA Launch 1st of 29 CNG Stations for Public Transit Buses

Yesterday Pennsylvania officials converged on Cambria County to unveil what is the first of 29 total CNG (compressed natural gas) fueling facilities that are being built in a public/private partnership for PA’s public bus transit fleet. Beginning this year and stretching through 2021, Trillium CNG will build and operate a total of 29 CNG fueling stations around the state. PA is paying Trillium, which is a subsidiary of Loves Travel Stops (see Love’s Travel Stops Buys Trillium CNG, Expands CNG Network), $84.5 million to build the stations. In addition to fueling public vehicles, some of the locations will be open to the public. Once the project is completed in 2021, those 29 CNG fueling stations will provide natgas for more than 1,600 CNG buses at transit agencies across the state–an important new market for homegrown, PA Marcellus Shale gas…
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Voice Support for CPV NatGas Power Plant in Cambria County, PA

Cambria County PA
Cambria County PA – Credit: Wikipedia

Anti fossil fuelers in Pennsylvania have gone so bizarrely off the rails they object to ANYTHING that uses, touches or mentions “natural gas.” They have, quite simply, left their senses. They are irrational. One of the latest examples is their total opposition to allowing new clean-burning natural gas-fired electric plants to be built. We told you in a companion story today that Elizabeth Township (near Pittsburgh) is refusing to site a natgas-fired electric plant on an old landfill site, suitable for no other purpose (see Elizabeth Twp Rejects Clean Invenergy Power Plant at Dump Site). The next battle will be at a hearing for a proposed plant in Cambria County. Competitive Power Ventures (CPV) is planning a $900 million natgas-fired power plant to be located off Route 271 near Vinco in Cambria County (see 2 Natgas-Fired Electric Power Plants Coming to Cambria County, PA). The PA Dept. of Environmental Protection will hold a hearing in Mineral Point next Tuesday on the proposed CPV project. It’s important for natural gas supporters to turn out and voice your support…
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2 Natgas-Fired Electric Power Plants Coming to Cambria County, PA

Cambria County PA
Cambria County, PA

KeyTex Energy, based in Greensburg (Westmoreland County), PA, wants to build a Marcellus gas-fired electric power plant in Cambria County at a former prison site. Regional power grid operator, PJM Interconnection, will need to weigh in on the project and determine whether or not electrical substation upgrades are needed. A second natgas-fired electric plant, planned by Competitive Power Ventures, is already much further along the curve with another planned power plant. The $900 million CPV plant will be located off Route 271 near Vinco in Cambria County. CPV is now putting out bids for the electricity it will produce, and getting ready to begin construction. If both of these projects get built in Cambria (a good chance they both will), they will use cheap, abundant and clean-burning natural gas from the Marcellus and Utica Shale. Electric generating plants are an important new market to sop up some of the overcapacity we have in the Marcellus/Utica. Here’s the low down on these two natgas electric plants being planned…
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