Statewide PA

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    Marcellus/Utica Identity Crisis – What Should Our Region Call Itself?

    Being a marketing guy, MDN editor Jim Willis knows that crystallizing a concept into a few key words is critical. You have to be able to convey your meaning in as few words as possible–and those words must be pregnant with meaning. Jim was lucky enough to name this blog/news site Marcellus Drilling News, which (mostly) conveys its purpose–to report on happenings in the Marcellus (later adding the Utica) region. A very smart person who’s given a lot of thought about our industry is Kathryn “Katie” Klaber. Katie owns her own consulting firm–The Klaber Group. But before that, she was founder and president of the Marcellus Shale Coalition (a well-named organization). Katie lives and works in Pittsburgh. In a recent article for the Pittsburgh Business Times, Katie ponders over Pittsburgh (and our industry’s) “identity crisis”–by which she means our lack of good branding. Sometimes our industry and region is referred to as “Appalachia.” But that term often connotes the mountains of West Virginia, spreading out into Kentucky. Sometimes we are referred to as the “Marcellus/Utica basin,” which gets a lot closer to meaningful, but connotes drilling and leaves out the downstream. And sometimes we’re called “the Northeast.” But folks in Ohio consider themselves Midwesterners, not northeasterners. Why is it important to lock down an accurate, pregnant-with-meaning description for our entire industry (upstream, midstream and downstream), and our geographic region? According to Katie, it comes down to two words: capital investment. We need to brand ourselves and do it sooner rather than later, if we want to grow business in our neck of the woods…
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    Demand Picks Up for Pipeline Workers in PA Downstream

    Here on MDN we talk a lot about big interstate natural gas pipelines–like Rover and NEXUS, Atlantic Sunrise and Atlantic Coast. But we don’t talk so much about the tiny (in diameter) gas pipelines that connect to people’s homes. In oil and gas industry parlance, those pipelines belong to the “downstream”–or the end users of natural gas. From time to time we’ve covered stories about NiSource and other utilities spending big money to replace aging local distribution pipelines (see NiSource 3Q14: A Lot of Irons in the Fire, Spending Billions). However, we’re starting to see more such stories. The latest is from Philadelphia-based PECO, Pennsylvania’s largest electric and natural gas utility delivering gas to more than half a million customers. In a story about PECO’s project to replace gas mains near Philly, we learn there is so much work in replacing old gas lines, there is now a premium on contractors and qualified pipe mechanics…
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    Lawyer Says PA Budget Unconstitutional Based on Enviro Rights Law

    If the only tool you have is a hammer, you are tempted to treat everything as a nail (Abraham Maslow, 1966). Such is it with radical anti-drillers who recently won a case at the PA Supreme Court by the skin of their teeth. The case dealt with the narrow issue of how PA can spend revenue raised by leasing and allowing drilling for oil and gas under state-owned land (see PA Supreme Court Hands Antis Partial Victory re State Land Drilling). A divided court ruled that money from royalties must be used only for Big Green causes, and cannot be used even to fund operations at the Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR). The decision was based, in part, on PA’s so-called Environmental Rights Amendment, “guaranteeing” the “right” to “clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment”–without defining how those “rights” are to be administered. The radical lawyer who won the case is now attempting to use that narrow decision–in a case about funding the DCNR–to make the preposterous claim that PA’s budget, as drafted, is “unconstitutional.” Like a broken record, he keeps going on about the Environmental Rights Amendment…Environmental Rights Amendment…Environmental Rights Amendment…
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    The Man You Can “Thank” for PA’s Enviro Rights Amendment Mess

    Franklin Kury was a young lawyer and PA House of Representatives member back in the late 60s/early 70s. He was, at that time, the author of Pennsylvania’s so-called Environment Rights Amendment (Article I, Section 27 of the PA Constitution). For 40 years the ERA didn’t have much of an impact–but then activist, liberal, leftist judges got ahold of it and (ab)used it to screw with the Marcellus Shale industry in the state. Things “all changed” on June 20 when the PA Supreme Court (ab)used the ERA to tell the Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) it can’t use money raised from shale drilling to help fund itself–a bass ackwards view of things if ever we’ve heard of one (see PA Supreme Court Hands Antis Partial Victory re State Land Drilling). The court based their decision, in part, on the ERA. And that has 80-year old geezer Kury doing cartwheels…
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    PA Doubles Number of Shale Wells Drilled in First 6 Months of 2017

    In a story about PA’s “moribund” drilling industry beginning to turn around, the AP notes some news that we think it pretty significant. For the first six months of 2017, PA shale drillers have drilled 397 shale wells. That’s more than twice the number they drilled in the first six months of 2016. There are now 20 additional drilling rigs active in the Marcellus, and fracking crews are in “short supply.” This is all great news for the PA Marcellus, something to celebrate on the day after July 4th…
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    Radical Enviros Continue to Make Trouble for PA DCNR re Lease Rev

    As MDN reported in June, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court of Appeals, in a sharply divided 3-2 decision, sided with virulent anti-drilling group Pennsylvania Environmental Defense Foundation against the state in saying that any royalties generated from drilling on state-owned land MUST be used solely for conservation and the environment (see PA Supreme Court Hands Antis Partial Victory re State Land Drilling). The aim of the PA EDF is to disrupt Marcellus Shale drilling by any means necessary. This is one of those means. The three liberal justices who rendered the decision say the law is clear on intent–that money raised from leasing state-owned lands for drilling must be used for environmental purposes. The PA EDF arrogantly told the State of Pennsylvania that the money raised from drilling can’t be used for general operating expenses of the Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR)–the very organization that oversees the state lands and is in charge of said leasing (see Radical Enviros Now the Tail Wagging the PA DCNR Dog re Funding). But the Supremes, in their “wisdom,” decided to send the case back to the lower Commonwealth Court for a decision about the disposition and spending of money raised from signing bonuses. The decision the Supremes made in June only affects royalties. Now the radicals at the PA EDF are telling the Commonwealth Court that signing bonuses are in the same camp as royalties–that PA should not be able to use them for anything other than Big Green causes. Since there is no new leasing of PA state land under lib Dem Gov. Tom Wolf, a decision by the court will affect money already received and spent, from 2009-2010…
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    PA Budget Massively Overspends, Increases Pressure for Sev. Tax

    Pennsylvania does not have a revenue problem–it has an overspending problem. Once again the Republican-majority legislature in PA is caving to the siren song/pressure of wild-spending, liberal Democrats and will pass a budget that is $2 billion over the revenue they can reasonably expect–sprinkled with giveaways like an extra $100 million for teachers unions–and beginning next week the Republicans will face a barrage of media stories and pressure to create a severance tax to help make up the difference. Already we’re seeing stories about the need for a “fair gas tax” and that a severance tax is “long overdue.” What about passing a “fair budget” that doesn’t overspend? What about “fiscal responsibility” that’s long overdue? Where are those stories? And, when will Republicans learn to quit playing the Dem’s game?…
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    PA Dems Continue to Push Severance Tax Instead of Spending Cuts

    Pennsylvania does not have a taxing problem, as people like Gov. Tom Wolf pretend–it has a spending problem, as in they spend beyond their means. The last governor that tried to correct that problem–Tom Corbett–got handed one term in the big chair for his efforts at dealing honestly with it. Big Education and Big Labor knifed Corbett in the back, politically, after he cut the mammoth increase in their growth. (FEED ME FEED ME) If you want to know why PA is in budget trouble, look no further than it’s Secretary of the Dept. of Community and Economic Development, Dennis Davin. Every econ growth guy we’ve ever talked to knows that increasing taxes gets less of what you tax–it is an incontrovertible fact in economics. Yet Davin, who’s boss is utter failure Tom Wolf, is pushing hard for a huge tax increase on the Marcellus industry–the very industry that has singlehandedly kept PA out of an economic abyss. And yet the guy who should understand the issue the best, is pushing hardest for the tax. That tells you all you need to know about the Wolf Administration and it’s utter failure…
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    PA Anti Strategy: Weaponize Recent Court Ruling Against Shale Dev

    It’s clear that radical environmentalists who (irrationally) oppose the use of fossil fuels believe the recent decision by Pennsylvania Supreme Court is a gift from Gaia (Mother Earth goddess). As MDN previously reported, last week the Pennsylvania Supreme Court of Appeals, in a sharply divided 3-2 decision, sided with a virulent anti-drilling group, the Pennsylvania Environmental Defense Foundation, against the state in saying that any revenue generated from leasing and drilling on state-owned land MUST be used solely for conservation and the environment (see PA Supreme Court Hands Antis Partial Victory re State Land Drilling). However, denying the state Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DCNR) from funding itself with lease/royalty revenue was inconsequential, a distraction from the real aim. The decision, according to the radicals, further strengthens the state’s so-called Environmental Rights Amendment to the state constitution. What it means, in very practical terms, is that the antis now plan to use a decision ostensibly about how a single state agency gets its funding, to apply the philosophical underpinnings (the right to a clean environment) as a weapon against judges and the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), to force them to consider whether or not issuing a given permit for a project “harms” the “rights” of PA citizens to a “clean environment.” In other words, the radicals are weaponizing a court decision to use against the shale industry–and they’re signaling, via their sycophantic mouthpieces at StateImpact Pennsylvania, that’s exactly what they intend to do…
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    PA DCED Sec Davin Visits Shell Cracker Site, Pushes Severance Tax

    Dennis Davin

    Dennis Davin, Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) took a field trip to visit the Shell ethane cracker site in Beaver County, PA last Friday. Davin was there to do some justified bragging about the facility and what it will mean for the Keystone State over the next 10 years. However, Davin was also there to push for a disastrous severance tax plan. Davin is a smart and competent guy. But he’s also a Democrat and his boss, Gov. Tom Wolf, sends Davin out to try and sell what can’t be sold: a severance tax that would literally kill the Marcellus Shale, the very thing making the Shell cracker plant a reality. Talk about conflicted! But Davin was there to do his master’s bidding, and that he did…
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    Radical Enviros Now the Tail Wagging the PA DCNR Dog re Funding

    As they so often do, radical environmentalists are creating chaos and confusion–this time in Pennsylvania. As MDN reported, earlier this week the Pennsylvania Supreme Court of Appeals, in a sharply divided 3-2 decision, sided with a virulent anti-drilling group, the Pennsylvania Environmental Defense Foundation, against the state in saying that any revenue generated from leasing and drilling on state-owned land MUST be used solely for conservation and the environment (see PA Supreme Court Hands Antis Partial Victory re State Land Drilling). The aim of the PA EDF is to disrupt Marcellus Shale drilling by any means necessary. This is one of those means. The three liberal justices who rendered the decision say the law is clear on intent–that money raised from leasing state-owned lands for drilling must be used for environmental purposes. Now the PA EDF is arrogantly telling the State of Pennsylvania that the money raised from drilling can’t be used for general operating expenses of the Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR)–the very organization that oversees the state lands and is in charge of said leasing. In the upcoming budget, due to be ratified by June 30th, PA Gov. Tom Wolf and the legislature had planned to use $100 million from the lease and royalty fund to “pay for DCNR’s daily operations or be transferred to another fund for statewide environmental and infrastructure projects.” But in an ominous threat, the EDF lawyer said spending money on DCNR operations “doesn’t comply with the court opinion on how the funds can be used.” Which begs the question: What in the world CAN you spend the $100 million raised from royalties and lease fees on?…
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    Braskem Says Future Investment in Marcus Hook Still Possible

    Nearly five years ago, in July 2012, then-PA Gov. Tom Corbett announced that some of the Sunoco Marcus Hook Refinery assets had been purchased by Braskem America (see Marcellus to the Rescue: Marcus Hook Refinery to Reopen). Braskem, a division of Brazilian company Odebrecht, uses the Marcus Hook facility to manufacture polypropylene plastics. The facility gets some of (most of?) its raw materials (i.e. ethane) from the Marcellus Shale. Interestingly, Braskem’s US operations are headquartered in Philadelphia. When it came time to invest $675 million to build a new polypropylene plant–Braskem chose Texas as the site, not Marcus Hook in their own back yard. Which is a huge disappointment. Why the Texas Gulf Coast? Because of “a ready supply of raw material from nearby petrochemical operations.” But that may not be the end of the story. Braskem CEO Mark Nikolich said just because they chose Texas for this project, doesn’t mean they still don’t love Marcus Hook just as much–and it doesn’t rule out expanding the Philly plant in the future. Just as soon as there’s more ethane available (hello Mariner East 2!)…
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    Marcellus/Utica Region Could Support 4 More Crackers, but Will It?

    In March of this year, the Team Pennsylvania Foundation released a report called “Prospects to Enhance Pennsylvania’s Opportunities in Petrochemical Manufacturing” (see PA Study Finds Marcellus/Utica Can Support 4 More Ethane Crackers). The report is derived from a comprehensive study conducted by powerhouse oil & gas consulting firm IHS Markit. According to the report, Pennsylvania can easily handle another two ethane cracker plants (aside from the already under construction Shell cracker), and Ohio and West Virginia can handle another two cracker plants between them, for a total regional capacity of another four ethane cracker plants. But realistically, will another four actually get built in our region? That was the topic addressed during the Northeast U.S. Petrochemical Construction conference held earlier this week in Pittsburgh. PA officials talked openly and honestly about the challenges in attracting more crackers–and about their mission, which is “the development of sites” to attract more crackers. It was an interesting, and candid, discussion with helpful information about what crackers look for in a potential site…
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    Shell’s Ethane Pipeline “Right on Track,” Construction Starts 2019

    Falcon Ethane Pipeline map – click for larger version

    Quite a bit of news came from the recent Northeast U.S. Petrochemical Construction conference held earlier this week in Pittsburgh. One session featured a Shell rep talking about Shell’s Falcon Ethane Pipeline, a pipeline with two “legs” that will feed Shell’s mighty ethane cracker plant in Beaver County, PA (see Shell Working on 94-Mile Ethane Pipeline to Feed PA Cracker). Steady progress is being made in signing up landowners to allow the pipeline across their property. With so many anti groups opposing simple natural gas pipelines, like the CORNballs who oppose NEXUS (see CORNballs Strike Again, File Lawsuit to Stop NEXUS Pipeline), radicals trying to stop active construction on Rover (see Antis Ask Army Corps of Engrs to Yank Rover Pipeline Blanket Approval), and the DOPEs opposing Duke’s tiny pipeline into Cincinnati (see DOPEs Get Ready to Fight 13 Mile Pipeline Near Cincinnati), what Shell is reporting about how they are striking deals with landowners–landowners who actually support Shell and the pipeline–stands out as unique. What’s different about Shell’s ethane pipeline? For one thing, the Shell ethane pipeline is a private project, so it can’t use eminent domain. This is a high stakes gamble for Shell. If one landowner won’t deal and the pipeline doesn’t get built, how will Shell feed the cracker beast? So Shell deals with landowners (i.e. pays them big bucks) in order to get easements signed. Perhaps there’s a lesson here for other pipelines to follow? The Shell rep reported to conference attendees that the Falcon project is “right on track” and construction will begin in 2019, with completion set for 2020. That’s about two years ahead of when the cracker will go online…
    Read More “Shell’s Ethane Pipeline “Right on Track,” Construction Starts 2019″

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    Primoris Lands Another Pipeline Contract for $53M in PA Marcellus

    Primoris Services Corporation, a pipeline building company based in Dallas, TX, has built a number of gathering pipelines in the Marcellus region. We’ve been covering some of the projects Primoris has been involved with since 2013 (see our Primoris stories here). Their announcements don’t name the customer. The amounts are typically in $10-$90 million range. Sometimes it’s easy to figure out who they are doing the work for. Sometimes not. This morning Primoris issued a press release to trumpet the fact they’ve just landed another project to build 27 miles of gathering pipelines in the PA Marcellus–for $53 million. This release is pretty thin. We don’t have good speculation on what part of PA (although in the recent past it’s been in the northeastern part of the state). We reached out to Primoris for more details and got this back: “I’m sorry, but we don’t share that information.” Here’s the piddly bit of information they do share, from the press release…
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    PA Supreme Court Hands Antis Partial Victory re State Land Drilling

    In a sharply divided 3-2 decision (full copy below), the Pennsylvania Supreme Court of Appeals has sided with a virulent anti-drilling group, the Pennsylvania Environmental Defense Foundation, against the state in saying that any revenue generated from leasing and drilling on state-owned land MUST be used solely for conservation and the environment. The state cannot treat, as former Gov. Ed “fast Eddie” Rendell did, revenue from oil and gas drilling on state land as money that can be used for any old cockamamie political reason. That is, the money cannot go into the black hole of the “general fund” in Harrisburg. The three justices who rendered the decision say the law is clear on intent–that money must be used for environmental purposes. Fine. Except the foundation on which they decided the case is PA’s so-called environmental rights amendment. Even though this case is about how money from drilling will get used (a fairly narrow ruling), already antis at PA Big Green groups like THE Delaware Riverkeeper claim they will use this decision and the environmental rights amendment to try and block drilling on state lands because it “violates” the state constitution. That’s where they ultimately want to take this. Block it on state lands first, then go for private land next…
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