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Kinder Morgan 4Q15: Cutting Dividend, PA Pipeline Progress
Yesterday Kinder Morgan, the largest midstream company in the U.S., released their fourth quarter 2015 update. The update starts with the news that KM is lowering the cash dividend in order to avoid chasing new loans. KM says by cutting the dividend they will be able to self-fund new projects, which ultimately benefits everyone, including shareholders. The update also chronicles progress made on three Pennsylvania pipelines: the Susquehanna West Project (Tioga and Bradford counties, the Orion Project (Pike County), and the Triad Expansion Project (Lackawanna County). Below is the full update from KM…
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Last week Kinder Morgan’s Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) filed their official, full application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) seeking approval for their Orion Project. The project will cost $143 million and construct 13 miles of “looping” pipeline in Pike and Wayne counties, Pennsylvania. The project will boost capacity on the TGP by another 135 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d), allowing TGP to pump more Marcellus Shale gas to Mid-Atlantic and New England states. If all goes according to plan, the TGP Orion upgrade will be complete and in-service by June 2018…
If you’re a Big Green group, like THE Delaware Riverkeeper, you have millions of dollars to a) launch lawsuits against the natural gas industry, and b) buy yourself research studies that support your twisted viewpoints. It is the latter that happened yesterday. CNA, a not-for-profit organization once called the Center for Naval Analyses, sells itself to the highest bidder (the oldest profession in the world). Most recently they sold themselves to THE Delaware Riverkeeper (we certainly hope they used protection). CNA and THE Delaware Riverkeeper held a press briefing yesterday to release a “study” by CNA titled “The Potential Environmental Impacts of Fracking in the Delaware River Basin” (full copy below). What did the “researchers” at CNA, which is based in Arlington, VA just outside the DC orbit, find? If the moratorium is lifted and shale drilling is allowed in the Delaware River Basin–essentially Wayne and Pike counties in Pennsylvania–CNA says it will lead to “land cover disturbance” in “core forest areas”, extreme water withdrawals from poor little creeks and streams, nasty wastewater polluting everything, erosion everywhere, multiple compressor stations and untold ill health impacts for 75,000 people who live close to all of this mess. See what $320,444 (the actual cost of this study) can buy you? We hope it felt good for Riverkeeper…
In the summer of 2012, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) began a groundwater survey in Pike County, PA. Pike, located in northeastern PA, is one of the counties with the dubious distinction of being under the regulatory purview of the Delaware River Basin Commission which has, so far, refused to allow any Marcellus Shale drilling. The survey’s purpose is to provide baseline numbers prior to any Marcellus drilling activity. So, just to be clear, there has been NO drilling thus far in Pike nor anywhere near Pike. And yet, what did the USGS survey, published in July 2014 (full copy below) show? Some 80% of the water wells tested in Pike have “detectable concentrations of methane” and 10% of the wells (2 of the 20 tested) have high levels of methane. Not only that, 85% (!) of the wells tested have (gasp) really high radon levels–over the proposed safe limit of 300 picocuries per liter. One well was as high as 4,500 picocuries! But it gets worse–there’s also measurable quantities of nasty stuff like barium, strontium, and the dreaded chloride (salt). And yet, not a Marcellus Shale well in sight. Now how can that be?…