Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide PA | Williams
Williams Files Leidy South Project with FERC to Expand PA Transco
Last December MDN brought you news of a new Transco pipeline expansion project, the Williams “Leidy South Project,” to expand Transco capacity in Pennsylvania (see Williams Unveils “Leidy South Project” to Expand Transco in PA). The good news is that Williams has just officially filed a full application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to build Leidy South.
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In March, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf traveled to an elementary school in South Philadelphia with the message that only a severance tax on Marcellus Shale production stands in the way of cleaning up lead paint problems that are poisoning the little kiddies at the school (see 
We love happy endings, and this story has one. Despite claims by anti-fossil fuelers that the Tenaska Westmoreland Generating Station in southwestern PA would spread disease and death if it got built, it’s been up and running since last December–producing power and generating money for both its builders and the community–and everyone is just fine. Cue the Pete Seeger song “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” and replace “Flowers” with “Antis”…
Yet another cockamamie “study” (i.e. propaganda) about the negatives of fracking–this one done by the University of New Hampshire claiming a few hikers and outdoor enthusiasts in Pennsylvania will have to find someplace else to hike and enthuse…because of evil Marcellus fracking. The thing that really angers us is that Pennsylvania taxpayers paid for this “study”!
CNX Resources, formerly the CNX Gas division of CONSOL Energy, released its second quarter update yesterday. The big news is that during 2Q CNX drilled the longest new Marcellus well ever…at 19,609 feet! The company reports production jumped 10%, from 123 Bcfe last year to 135 Bcfe in 2Q19, and net income jumped 216% from $61 million last year to $193 million in 2Q19.
The actions of one man seeking access to confidential risk assessments and plans for the Mariner East pipelines in the Philadelphia area will, if successful, put information into the public domain that terrorists can potentially use. Note we don’t believe it is the intent of this man to grant access to sensitive information to terrorists. But that is the consequence, the outcome, the result of his actions–if a court now reviewing the case grants his request.
Cabot Oil & Gas is the only Marcellus/Utica driller that is profitable quarter after quarter and year after year. So the market pays attention to what Cabot does, because they’ve figured out how to make money in a low commodity price environment. Last Friday Cabot released second quarter numbers. CEO Dan Dinges talked about the balance of 2019 and even a bit about what to expect in 2020.
In March we told you about National Fuel Gas Company’s (NFG) FM100 Project in northwestern Pennsylvania that will beef up and extend an existing pipeline network to flow an extra 330 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) of Marcellus gas to Williams’ mighty Transco Pipeline (see 
It’s hard to miss the stories in oil and gas (even national) media: Company after company, in particular oilfield services companies, are predicting a big slowdown in drilling during the second half of 2019. Over the past few days OFS companies including Schlumberger, Halliburton, Patterson-UTI, Superior Energy Services, Helmerich & Payne, and RPC have all predicted a coming decline (crash?) in drilling in the near future. What about the Marcellus/Utica region? Does the coming slowdown affect us too?
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette newspaper has engaged in a months-long smear campaign to imply the shale industry in southwestern PA is guilty of causing a “cluster” of rare childhood cancers–even though there’s an old uranium dump in the same vicinity as those cancer clusters (see 
JKLM Energy, a Pennsylvania gas drilling company founded by Buffalo Bills owner Terry Pegula, is “temporarily halting” operation of its single drilling rig (in Potter County) due to the low price of natural gas.
A landowner in Pike County, PA called King Arthur Estates LP, challenged Kinder Morgan’s Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) over the amount of money they should receive to have a pipeline cross its land–and has won the right to use PA’s more generous laws on compensation rather than the federal government’s more stingy laws on “just” compensation. The decision sets a precedent for all PA landowners.
The City of Philadelphia owns the largest municipal-owned natural gas utility in the country, Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW). Philly sits not far from, and now benefits from, abundant, clean-burning natural gas deposits in the PA Marcellus. And yet there are those lunatic nutjobs who want Philadelphia to do what the city of Berkeley, California (which we call Beserkley) did and ban the use of natural gas in new buildings. Philly, to its shame, is conducting a “study” to figure out how to transition PGW away from selling natgas. The so-called study is being funded by Bloomberg, meaning it’s a shame from the start–not a true study but a propaganda piece.
Mainstream media, via a single Associated Press story, is reporting a decision by Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court yesterday is largely a “win” for the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection with respect to Chapter 78a regulations. The AP story de-emphasizes what we consider the larger story–that the drilling industry already won most of the case last year (see