Pennsylvania

Alpha Natural Resources | Energy Companies | Greene County (PA) | Pennsylvania | Rice Energy

Rice Energy Offers Bankrupt ANR $200M for Marcellus/Utica Assets
April 13, 2016April 27, 2016

In March MDN told you that Alpha Natural Resources (ANR), primarily a coal company with 27,400 acres of Marcellus/Utica Shale leases, was throwing in the towel and calling it quits (see Alpha Natural Resources Selling Marcellus/Rice Energy Stake). In March ANR received what it called a “stalking horse bid” for the Marcellus acreage. It will come as no surprise that the bidder, as we learned yesterday, is none other than Rice Energy. Rice and ANR previously worked together on a joint venture. Yesterday Rice confirmed it has entered into a purchase agreement “to acquire Marcellus and Utica assets in central Greene County, Pennsylvania for $200 million in cash, subject to purchase price adjustments.” Rice also announced they will float a new round of stock in order to finance the $200 million purchase (see today’s companion story). Here’s the details on the Rice offer to buy ANR’s Marcellus/Utica assets…
Read More “Rice Energy Offers Bankrupt ANR $200M for Marcellus/Utica Assets”
Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA House and Senate Panels Vote to Reject DEP’s New Drilling Regs
April 13, 2016April 13, 2016

Yesterday the Pennsylvania State House and Senate energy committees voted to disapprove the state Dept. of Environmental Protection’s proposed new Article 78 and 78a drilling rules. In February when the Pennsylvania Environmental Quality Board (EQB) approved the new regulations after those regs were vigorously opposed by conventional drillers in the state, the Pennsylvania Independent Oil & Gas Association (PIOGA) blasted the decision calling the DEP “deceptive” (see PA Board Adopts New Drilling Regs, PIOGA Blasts DEP “Deceptive”). The Pennsylvania Independent Petroleum Producers Association (PIPP) filed a lawsuit on March 24, 2016, in the Commonwealth court of Pennsylvania challenging the legality of controversial new regulations (see PA Conventional Drillers File Lawsuit to Stop New DEP Regulations). The fight has now gone to the legislature, which has some, but not ultimate, authority to derail the new regulations. Yesterday the legislature used that authority when the energy committees for both houses voted to not approve the new regs. What happens next? The state’s the Independent Regulatory Review Commission (IRRC) will review the new regs on April 21 and make a decision about whether to approve them or not…
Read More “PA House and Senate Panels Vote to Reject DEP’s New Drilling Regs”
Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County

Cabot Talks About Appeal Request re Tragic Dimock Verdict
April 13, 2016April 13, 2016

Last week MDN brought you news that mainstream media has all but ignored, in hopes of burying it: Cabot Oil & Gas has filed a legal motion to appeal the OJ jury decision to award two landowner families in Dimock, PA $4.24 million (see Cabot Files Appeal in Dimock Case – Alleges Judicial Misconduct). The jury made the award even though there was hard evidence that Cabot did not cause methane migration into the landowners’ water wells. Which is why we call them the equivalent of the OJ jury. Total disregard for evidence and decide “with your heart” instead. “That evil big oil & gas company has boatloads of money. Look at those little kids on the stand. Let’s just give them some money, even if the evidence says otherwise.” That must have been the thinking. At any rate, on Sunday Cabot, who has until now been silent about the appeal, issued the following statement. They’re either asking for (a) the court to overturn the verdict, or (b) order a new trial because of judicial misconduct on the part of the landowners’ attorney…
Read More “Cabot Talks About Appeal Request re Tragic Dimock Verdict”
Energy Companies | Ethane | Exporting | Industrywide Issues | NGLs | Pennsylvania | Rex Energy | Statewide PA

Rex Energy Cuts Deal to Export Ethane, Propane to Europe via Philly
April 12, 2016April 12, 2016

Rex Energy has stepped up to be the second Marcellus/Utica driller to cut a deal using the Mariner East pipeline to ship ethane, propane and (eventually) butane from western PA to the Marcus Hook refinery in Philadelphia, and from there load it onto ships heading to (in this case) Europe. Range Resources was the first driller to use Sunoco Logistics Partners’ Mariner East pipeline to send ethane to Marcus Hook and on to exporting (see Range Resources Ethane Heading to Marcus Hook Beginning February). The Swiss-based company INEOS cut a deal to buy Range Resources ethane to power both Norwegian and Scottish cracker plants (see Cracker Plant in Scotland “Brought Back to Life” Thx to Marcellus Ethane). Now, Rex Energy has cut a deal with INEOS to buy ethane, propane and butane, according to an announcement yesterday by Rex. The particulars (i.e. financial aspects) of the deal were not announced…
Read More “Rex Energy Cuts Deal to Export Ethane, Propane to Europe via Philly”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

List of 2016 Shale Gas Innovation Contest Finalists
April 12, 2016April 12, 2016

On May 18, the Ben Franklin Shale Gas Innovation & Commercialization Center (SGICC) will announce four $20,000 winners of this year’s Shale Gas Innovation Contest. In addition to showcasing the 12 finalists, this year’s event will also feature a Poster Contest highlighting research underway related to the oil and gas sector–from four major regional research universities. Below we have the list of all 12 finalists with a description of their qualifying technologies. Among the list is one of our favorite companies, HalenHardy, a previous winner of another SGICC award for Shale Gas Environmental, Health, & Safety (see HalenHardy Wins Ben Franklin EHS Award for Silica Air Shower). HalenHardy is headed by serial and intrepid entrepreneur (and MDN friend) Donny Beaver. Good luck Donny!…
Read More “List of 2016 Shale Gas Innovation Contest Finalists”
Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide OH | Statewide PA

HBK 2016 Energy Assessment, Predictions for OH/PA on Pipes, Taxes
April 12, 2016April 12, 2016

CPA/consulting firm HBK (Hill, Barth & King) is fresh out with their 2016 Energy Assessment–an analysis of energy trends, opportunities, challenges and risks. In the assessment (full copy below) HBK Energy Advisors (a division of HBK) weighs in on issues like Obama’s odious Clean Power Plan, renewable energy, LNG and more. Of particular interest to MDN is a series of predictions made not in the official assessment, but in an accompanying blog post on the HBK website. The analysts make a series of predictions for Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Jersey and Florida. The first prediction for Ohio is that pipeline work in the Buckeye State will increase, mostly due to the NEXUS pipeline. Which we find interesting. Just last week we told you an analyst from Wood Mackenzie predicted the NEXUS won’t get built (see Utica Event: OH Landowners Will Lose $6.5B in 5 Yrs, NEXUS Nixed). Now we have another analyst/company saying it will get built! Have a look at HBK’s predictions and see if you agree with them…
Read More “HBK 2016 Energy Assessment, Predictions for OH/PA on Pipes, Taxes”
Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Lebanon County | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Sunoco Logistics

Lebanon County Judge Says Mariner East 2 Can Use Eminent Domain
April 11, 2016April 11, 2016

The last refuge of the desperate in Lebanon County, PA to stop new pipelines from being built is to use the courts to try and delay or stop both the Williams Transco Atlantic Sunrise or the Sunoco Logistics Partners Mariner East 2 pipelines. That refuge is now gone–at least for Mariner East 2. Last Thursday Lebanon County Judge Robert Eby ruled that yes, Mariner East 2 is an intrastate as well as interstate pipeline–giving it authority under PA state law to use eminent domain for those (very) few holdout landowners who refuse to bargain in good faith and simply want to stop the pipeline…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | PennEast Pipeline | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Delaware Riverkeeper Keeps Up Aggressive Attack on FERC, New Angle
April 11, 2016April 11, 2016

THE Delaware Riverkeeper, a radical left-wing group that’s not much more than its director, Maya van Rossum, and a lawyer, continues (with big money funding from NGOs like the Heinz Endowments and the Park Foundation) to aggressively attack the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. We warned you last year that Riverkeeper was attempting to overload FERC’s approval process for the PennEast Pipeline by encouraging anti-drilling zealots to register, en masse, as “intervenors” (see Delaware Riverkeeper Scams FERC in Review of PennEast Pipeline). Riverkeeper even asked their wacko followers to register their own children as intervenors–again in an attempt to overload FERC’s workload. Riverkeeper has sued FERC God knows how many times now (see THE Delaware Riverkeeper Sues FERC, Tries to Close it Down). But since none of those efforts are working, Riverkeeper (and van Rossum) are trying yet another tactic. They want the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to conduct a “review” of FERC in hopes that somebody–Obama? Congress? another agency?–at the federal level will come down on FERC to prevent the agency from doing its job–reviewing and approving new pipelines. We have evidence…
Read More “Delaware Riverkeeper Keeps Up Aggressive Attack on FERC, New Angle”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

PA Senate Race – Dems Try to Outdo Each Other as Anti-Frack
April 11, 2016April 11, 2016

“I hate frackers more than you do and I’ll screw them more than you will.” “No, I hate them more than you do!” And so it goes with the Democrats running in the primary for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania. The three candidates vying to run on the Dem ticket in November are all, to one degree or another, anti-fracking. The lead candidate is Kathy McGinty, former chief of staff for failing Gov. Tom Wolf and former head of the Dept. of Environmental Protection under Ed “fast Eddie” Rendell. Her challengers are accusing her of being in bed with the frackers. She says fracking is OK–as long as you regulate it to death. None of them are qualified to be Senator, but then look who’s president right now…
Read More “PA Senate Race – Dems Try to Outdo Each Other as Anti-Frack”
Beaver County | Economic Impact | Energy Companies | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | Shell

Shell has Spent “Half a Billion Dollars” on PA Cracker Already!
April 8, 2016April 8, 2016

The Pittsburgh Business Times hosted an event yesterday in Beaver County, PA–the place where Shell is spending money to explore whether or not to build an ethane cracker plant. Seems like we’ve been writing about Shell’s potential ethane cracker forever. We’ve chronicled just about every up and down. We’ve also highlighted various initiatives they’ve undertaken since announcing Monaca, PA as their chosen site–something they did back in March 2012, now four years ago (see Shell Announces Location of Ethane Cracker Plant). Since that time Shell has purchased the property where they want to build the plant; they’re building a bridge and roads to the plant site; they’ve leased office space near the plant site. They’ve done a whole lot more. What we didn’t realize is that when you add it all together, according to Pat Nardelli, a partner at Castlebrook Development and speaker at the PBT event, Shell has spent “half billion to date if not more, and it’s going up every day.” Yikes! In this economy nobody blows a half bil on something they just decide to walk away from…
Read More “Shell has Spent “Half a Billion Dollars” on PA Cracker Already!”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Crime | Energy Services | Huntingdon County (PA) | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Sunoco Logistics

Sunoco Tricks Radicalized Protester – Returns and Cuts More Trees
April 8, 2016April 8, 2016

Last week MDN told you about the daughter of a Huntingdon County, PA landowner radicalized by Big Green groups–as evidenced by her association with well known protesters previously arrested–who took to a tree on her mom’s property in order to illegally stop crews working on tree clearing for the Mariner East 2 pipeline (see PA Anti Literally Goes Up a Tree to Stop Mariner East 2 Pipeline). Even though she was breaking the law–and a judge’s order–local law enforcement couldn’t be bothered with climbing the tree to arrest her (see ‘Wackos in the Trees’ Protest Continues in Huntingdon County, PA). Nor, does it seem, did they arrest her after she came down on April 1. She stayed up a tree until April 1 because crews can no longer clear trees for fear of harming the threatened Indiana bat species that sometimes hangs out in those trees. Or at least, that’s what we thought. In a very clever move, tree clearing crews returned to the property this week, after April 1, and cleared more trees previously inhabited by the nutty landowner’s daughter. Don’t worry, they got permission…
Read More “Sunoco Tricks Radicalized Protester – Returns and Cuts More Trees”
Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County

Cabot Files Appeal in Dimock Case – Alleges Judicial Misconduct
April 8, 2016April 8, 2016

Cabot Oil & Gas has appealed the (OJ-like) jury verdict in the “Dimock” case–a case where the jury ignored the evidence and instead found Cabot guilty of methane contamination of two families’ water wells in Dimock, PA–even though the families admit their wells were fouled BEFORE Cabot began to drill (see Dimock Jury Levies $4.25M Judgement Against Cabot in Dimock Case). Not a single news outlet is covering the appeal. Mainstream media’s favorite tactic is to ignore stories in hopes people won’t notice. Fortunately there are now alternative news outlets, like MDN, where you can learn the truth. The only way we knew about the Cabot appeal was through friend Phelim McAleer, the talented director and star of the documentary FrackNation. Phelim is reporting the appeal on his Facebook page. In the appeal, Cabot says the attorney for the plaintiffs engaged in “repeated misconduct” during the trial. She’d lob false innuendos and statements that were immediately retracted–but the jury heard and obviously believed her. You can’t “unhear” a false statement. In other words, she gamed the system–she didn’t play by the rules. Cabot is asking a judge to overturn the verdict…
Read More “Cabot Files Appeal in Dimock Case – Alleges Judicial Misconduct”
Baker Hughes | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Rig Counts for World, US Continue Steep Slide in March; M-U Down 1
April 8, 2016April 8, 2016

We’ve now gone beyond cutting into the bone and sinew with rig count losses–we’re now severing limbs. February’s Baker Hughes rig counts were awful, with both international and U.S. counts hitting record lows (see Rig Counts for World, US & Marcellus/Utica Crash in February). Somehow, it got worse in March. International rig counts went down 33 from 1,018 counted in February to 985 in March. In the U.S., rig counts went from 532 in February to 478 in March–a loss of 54 (10%). Month after month it just keeps going lower. Will the patient survive the carnage? On a more positive note, the number of rigs in PA, OH and WV cumulatively (the Marcellus-Utica) went down by just 1 rig. PA’s count went up 1 rig, OH’s count went down 2 rigs, and WV’s count stayed the same. Here’s the details…
Read More “Rig Counts for World, US Continue Steep Slide in March; M-U Down 1”
Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA DEP Reignites Initiative re Inspections/Compliance/Enforcement
April 7, 2016April 7, 2016

On Tuesday the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) issued an ambiguous, slightly threatening-sounding announcement about “restarting a process” that will lead to more consistency with “inspections, compliance and enforcement activities.” The announcement does not specifically mention the oil and gas industry, but o&g is a large part of what the DEP does–so presumably this is a new effort to clamp down on drillers and midstream companies. How will the DEP become more “consistent” with inspections and compliance and enforcement? That’s left unsaid. The DEP says it is conducting an “internal review” now, to be completed in May. They promise a coming public notice and comment period this summer…
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eCORP Stimulation Technologies | Energy Services | Fayette County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania

ecorpStim Successfully Fracks PA Marcellus Well Using Baby Oil
April 6, 2016January 18, 2018

Every now and again eCORP Stimulation Technologies, or “ecorpStim” as they are known, reappears with a press release to announce they’re still around. The last such time MDN covered the company was in July 2014 (see ecorpStim Says New Manufacturing Process Lowers Non-Water Frack Cost). ecorpStim’s technology uses non-flammable liquefied propane as the fluid for fracking. It has the benefit of turning back into a gas and coming back out of the hole–captured and sold at a profit (or captured and re-used). One issue is, of course, the cost–although ecorpStim says they have worked hard to lower the cost. Another issue is potential flammability. However, last year ecorpStim began experimenting with “light alkanes” as an alternative fluid for fracking. In everyday language, light alkanes are “baby oil.” A big plus with using baby oil is that it’s nonflammable. It’s also safe for human ingestion and totally safe for the environment. ecorpStim released an announcement yesterday to say they have successfully fracked a Marcellus Shale well in Fayette County, PA using their new baby oil process…
Read More “ecorpStim Successfully Fracks PA Marcellus Well Using Baby Oil”
Energy Companies | Greene County (PA) | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Rice Energy | Statewide PA | Washington County

Rice Energy Fined ~$400K by PA DEP for Not Asking “Mother May I?”
April 6, 2016April 6, 2016

The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) has slapped Rice Energy and a couple of Rice’s subsidiary companies with a hefty fine of $393,500. Egads! Must be Rice did some very nasty things, right? Turns out most of the reason why the DEP fined Rice was for not playing “Mother May I?” with the DEP. In one case Rice installed a waterline between a well pad and an impoundment–without “Mother May I?” permission from the DEP. In another case Rice built a pipeline through a swamp (i.e. “wetland”) without getting DEP “Mother May I?” permission. And in yet another case Rice installed three waterlines under a creek instead of one. Rice’s midstream subsidiary was cited for “not using best management practices”–a severe no no for the DEP. Rice Midstream’s lack of management practice decorum led to a small incidence of erosion that briefly turned a creek brown. Call in the EPA! That’s your PA DEP hard at work for the people–always on the job ensuring those nasty drillers tow the line and pay big fines…
Read More “Rice Energy Fined ~$400K by PA DEP for Not Asking “Mother May I?””