Statewide PA

Atlas Energy | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Atlas Energy Issues 2015 Update + More Details on Company Layoffs
February 26, 2016February 26, 2016

Yesterday Atlas Energy issued its fourth quarter and full year 2015 update. Atlas, as we’ve pointed out in the past, has sold most of its Marcellus assets in two huge deals: a $4.3 billion deal with Chevron in 2011 and in a $7.7 billion deal with Targa Resources in 2014. Atlas operates mostly conventional (some unconventional) oil and gas wells in a number of states: New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, Indiana, Alabama, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico. Sizable company. Recently, as MDN has exclusively reported, the company laid off a number of its employees (see Atlas Energy Update – 125 Layoffs Companywide). We’ve since learned, from a highly placed source with knowledge of the layoffs, that the number of companywide layoffs is closer to 150–approximately 20% of the Atlas workforce. There’s no mention of that in yesterday’s update. So what does the update show? Atlas lost $240 million in 2015–but if you back out the paper losses of impairments and depreciation, the company actually made money. In the update Atlas mentions they shut in their prolific Marcellus wells in Lycoming County, PA during 4Q15 due to low prices. Below is the Atlas update, and more details about how many Atlas employees were laid off–and where…
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide PA | Sunoco Logistics

Sunoco LP Delays Construction of Mariner East 2 Pipeline
February 26, 2016February 26, 2016

On a quarterly analyst phone call yesterday, Sunoco Logistics Partners CEO Mike Hennigan admitted applying for and receiving “hundreds of permits” has delayed construction of the Mariner East 2 pipeline. There is no worry that the project won’t happen–it will. It’s just that the timetable for when construction begins (and ends) has changed from a year ago when they first announced the project. In prepared remarks, and then later under questioning from several analysts, we have discovered that Sunoco LP will not make a definitive go/no go decision on whether to build a second pipeline as part of the Mariner East 2 project, until the backhoes begin to dig for the original Mariner East 2 pipeline. When will that be? Hennigan was hard to pin down. One analyst made a reference to ME2 being ready in either first or second quarter 2017–but Hennigan would not verify that timeline. Below are select portions of the phone call transcript where Hennigan and others are talking about Mariner East 1, 2, 2X and the Marcus Hook refinery…
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Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Guest Post: 7 Important Points to Know About Dimock Trial
February 25, 2016February 25, 2016

By Phelim McAleer

The Ely and Hubert families of Dimock, Pennsylvania are suing Cabot Oil & Gas for allegedly polluting their water. The case is hugely significant because Dimock has been characterized as “Ground Zero” for water allegedly contaminated by fracking. It was featured in the documentaries Gasland 1 & 2 and has been the subject of national and international news reports. Countless celebrities have also pushed the lie that Dimock’s water was contaminated with fracking fluid. But the case has thrown serious doubts on the narrative being spun by activists. The plaintiffs’ case is looking very shaky, indeed. Here are seven key points that have emerged as the case enters its second day.
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | PennEast Pipeline | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide PA

THE Delaware Riverkeeper Hosts Class to Stop PennEast Pipeline
February 24, 2016February 24, 2016

THE Delaware Riverkeeper, Maya van Rossum, has staked much of her credibility on stopping the PennEast Pipeline. The PennEast, as you may recall, is a $1.2 billion, 114-mile, 36-inch diameter pipeline that will deliver approximately 1 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day from the Marcellus gas fields of northeastern PA to locations in southeastern PA and across the border to Trenton, NJ (see PennEast Pipeline Files Official Application with FERC, Antis Mad). It’s a pipeline, buried in the ground and after a few years no one even knows where it’s buried without calling 811. And yet van Rossum and her ilk vehemently (we’d say irrationally) oppose it for one reason: it flows a fossil fuel through it. And so she’s staked her own credibility, and the credibility of the organization she leads (with Big Green money backing it) by stopping the PennEast. One way she’s trying to slow it down is by registering children as “intervenors” with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the organization charged with reviewing and approving the project (see Delaware Riverkeeper Scams FERC in Review of PennEast Pipeline). Her latest angle of attack? Conduct a 6-hour “workshop” to train people as “volunteer monitors” to “document natural features that would be in jeopardy” from the pipeline–whatever that means…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA | Taxation

PA Gov. Wolf Bans Leases on State Land & Busts DCNR Budget
February 23, 2016February 23, 2016

What happens when anti-drilling lib Dems, like PA Gov. Tom Wolf, get their way? Revenues dry up and the lib Dems have to raid other sources to make up for it. And that’s just what’s happening with the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR). Tom and the Dems made a big deal about not leasing nor allowing any more drilling on or under PA state lands. In fact, one of the first things Wolf did upon taking office in early 2015 was to slap a moratorium on any new state land drilling (see PA Gov Wolf Signs Exec Order to Ban Drilling Under State Land). What followed? No more lease payments for the DCNR, and royalties have fallen dramatically on land previously leased and drilled on/under. Now the DCNR faces a budget shortfall of $51 million–because of no new leases courtesy of Wolf. Wolf’s solution? Steal $61.3 million from the “general fund” to prop up DCNR. Typical…
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Lease & Royalty Payments | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

The Marcellus Landman Leaveth
February 23, 2016February 23, 2016

The person who negotiates leases for drilling and pipelines (and for other oil and gas related transactions) is called a landman–regardless of whether the person doing the negotiating is a man or a woman. Landmen play an important part in the shale business–including here in the Marcellus/Utica. Sometimes they’re reviled as being “high pressure”–as in “sign this lease now while I’m here, I won’t come back, this is your one and only chance.” We don’t like landmen like that. But there are those who do the job and do it well–and we cherish them. They don’t use high pressure tactics, they wait for you to run your lease by a lawyer (as you ALWAYS should). They come back. They keep at it. They’re the best kinds. Thing is, landmen in the Marcellus/Utica are now a dying breed. They’re changing jobs. Why? Because there’s so little leasing going on these days. A recent article highlights the situation of what we call the Landman Leaveth…
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Energy Services | Energy Transfer Partners | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

FERC Says Rover Pipeline as Planned Negatively Impacts Environment
February 22, 2016February 22, 2016

In December 2014 Energy Transfer Partners filed their draft Resource Reports of environmental survey data with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for the ET Rover pipeline (see ET Rover Pipeline’s 800-Mile Journey Begins with FERC Filing). Rover is an 800-mile, $4.4 billion pipeline that will connect Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio, crossing pretty much the entire state of Ohio heading northwest before entering Michigan and eventually taking a dog-leg into Ontario. In February of 2015, exactly a year ago, ET filed a full application with FERC. Last week FERC responded with a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS)–and the news was not so good for Rover. FERC found “adverse and significant” impacts from the project as planned and delivered to ET nearly 25 pages of recommendations that ET will need to fix before they get an approval. Is this a fatal blow to Rover? Or just a speed bump? Time will tell…
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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Taxation

John “Severance Tax” Hanger Quits Tom Wolf Administration – Why?
February 22, 2016February 22, 2016

One of the most left-wing partisans in Harrisburg, serving in the Tom Wolf Administration, is calling it quits. John Hanger, whom we once considered a reasonable man but who later proved he is not, is Wolf’s Secretary of Policy and Planning. Hanger has been one of the most shrill voices in Harrisburg in demanding a Marcellus-killing severance tax. Wolf is making a second ill-fated run at a severance tax and by all accounts Hanger was pushing it hard. And then he up and quit. Why? He says it’s because his wife and daughter live in Massachusetts (where she is vice-provost for faculty affairs at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.) To his credit, John has been married for 36 years to the same woman (she must be a saint!). However, we think he’s leaving for a different reason…
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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA Pipeline Task Force Report: 658 Pages, 184 “Recommendations”
February 19, 2016February 19, 2016

In May 2015 Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf and his underling Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) Secretary John Quigley created a “Task Force on Pipeline Infrastructure Development” (see Disaster on the Horizon: PA Gov Wolf Creates Pipeline Task Force). The purpose of the group was “to identify best practices for pipeline siting, permitting and safety.” We won’t recount all of the twists and turns–of how the Task Force was packed with government employees beholden to Wolf, etc. Along the way antis tried to protest and derail the meetings held by the Task Force (see PA DEP Sec. Quigley Calls Pipeline Protesters “Badly Misinformed”). The final meeting has been held and the final report is now in. Yesterday Quigley released the Task Force’s Final Report, all 658 pages of it with 184 recommendations (full copy below). Along with the release of the final report, Quigley also issued what he calls the top 12 recommendations coming from the Task Force for how PA can and should handle a coming expansion of gathering pipelines in the state…
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Air Quality | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

More on Wolf/Quigley 4-Point Plan to Reduce Methane Emissions
February 19, 2016February 19, 2016

In January Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf announced a 4-point plan to supposedly reduce the amount of methane leaking from various oil and gas related activities–like drilling, compressor stations, etc. (see PA Gov. Wolf’s Plan to Kill Drilling via Methane Emissions Regs). A few days later Wolf’s Secretary for the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), John Quigley, further expounded on this manifestly poor idea (see Quigley Expounds on Methane Emissions Plan: Drillers to Get Hosed). The concern is that methane is a so-called greenhouse gas and that “fugitive” methane escapes into the atmosphere and will toast ole Mom Earth. Dumb as rocks–but there it is. To prevent old Mom Earth from toasting, Wolf and Quigley’s answer is the same as every liberal Democrat’s answer: more regulation. Last week the DEP revealed a little bit more about where they’re going with this…
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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide PA | Taxation

“Independent” Fiscal Office Says PA Impact Fee Revenue Drops 17%
February 18, 2016February 18, 2016

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) is the organization charged with assessing and collecting the state’s impact fee on Marcellus drillers–PA’s equivalent of a severance tax. But that doesn’t stop the the extremely partisan, Democrat-controlled, so-called “Independent” Fiscal Office, or IFO from trying to steal the PUC’s thunder when it comes to announcing revenue from the impact fee. Each year the Dems at the IFO release their estimates for how much revenue will be collected for the impact fee months ahead of the PUC. The IFO doesn’t disappoint this year. Yesterday the IFO released their estimates for the fees to be collected from 2015 drilling (full report below), and the IFO estimates revenues will go down by $38 million over 2014 revenue–to $185.5 million. That’s a 17% decrease, even though the number of wells drilled in 2015 versus 2014 went down 43%. And that’s IF the IFO’s numbers are accurate, which is questionable given their extreme bias…
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Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

PA’s 2015 Production Numbers Show Slight Gain, 4.18 Tcf for Year
February 18, 2016February 18, 2016

There were 653 more producing shale gas wells at the end of 2015 than there were at the end of 2014 in Pennsylvania. By year end 2015, some 6,618 producing wells were online and pumping. However, because the pace of drilling slowed down (older wells don’t produce as much as newer wells), and because drillers began “shutting in” some wells, overall production in PA from shale wells increased a minuscule 2.7% in 2015 over the year before. Still, overall production in PA was extremely impressive: 4.18 trillion cubic feet for the year. The top five producers remained the same in 2015 as 2014, but top producing counties shifted a bit…
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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Taxation

PA Newspaper Claims 25 House Repubicans Want Severance Tax
February 17, 2016February 17, 2016

The unofficial campaign staffer for PA Gov. Tom Wolf working at the Democrat-controlled Harrisburg Patriot-News is Candy Woodall. She calls herself a reporter but in reality she’s a propagandist. Woodall loves to bash the Marcellus industry. Her latest creative writing efforts (otherwise called “reporting”) is to say, essentially, “PA elected Republicans want a severance tax after all–they really wanted it last year, but they voted it down because they didn’t want higher income taxes. They really want to pass a tax on the Marcellus industry this year.” This is pure fiction/fantasy. Woodall claims there are 25 elected Republicans in the PA House who are ready to sign on to a severance tax proposal–yet she doesn’t list their names. Her main source appears to be Wolf’s policy secretary, John Hanger, who ran for governor on a platform of legalizing marijuana. In her latest fiction, Woodall and Hanger savage a truly great Pennsylvanian, House Speaker Mike Turzai, because of Turzai’s steadfast opposition to a tax that would assassinate the Marcellus industry. Woodall implies Turzai is in the pocket of the industry. Hey Candy–did you investigate whether pot growers donated money to Hanger’s campaign the way you “investigated” Marcellus drillers donating money to Turzai’s campaign? No, we didn’t think so…
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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA Senate Democrat Candidates Want to Ban ALL Fracking
February 17, 2016February 17, 2016

Pay attention Pennsylvania voters. You didn’t listen to MDN the last time and elected the disastrous Tom Wolf as your governor–a decision you no doubt kick yourselves for each day. Yes, we told you so. Now listen up–you are facing a U.S. Senate race this November. Sitting Senator Pat Toomey (Republican) is in a tough race to retain his seat. There are (so far) three Democrats running in a primary to oppose Toomey. Two of the three candidates support an immediate ban on fracking–across the state. Everywhere. Both public AND private land (your land!). You CANNOT afford to elect Democrats who want to deny you your Constitutional property rights! PLEASE do not vote for these two extremists who want to ban fracking…
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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA Lawmaker Wants Turnpike to Allow Pipelines, Charge Ongoing Fee
February 16, 2016February 16, 2016

A RINO member of the Pennsylvania House (from the Philadelphia area) has introduced a new bill that he believes is totally brilliant. Rep. Scott Petri, R-Richboro, introduced a bill to give the PA turnpike commission authority to allow use of its right of way for natural gas pipelines–and charge a fee for it (of course). Rep. Petri, you may recall, LOVES severance taxes (see PA Republicans Commit Adultery with Severance Tax – Again). But a severance tax would generate small potatoes compared with a “fee” assessed on gas flowing through pipelines. Instead of calling his proposal to allow pipelines along turnpike corridors a tax, Petri calls it a fee. Same thing. He’s proposing that the turnpike commission (i.e. the State of Pennsylvania) should all natgas pipelines and receive an ongoing fee for the amount of gas flowing through the pipeline. When NOBODY rushes to sign up for such a plan (should it ever pass), the next step would be to force pipeline companies to use said corridors–banning pipelines from being built on private property. That’s our prediction…
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Energy Services | FTS International | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

FTS International Lays off PA Workers – Won’t Say How Many
February 16, 2016February 16, 2016

More job causalities from the slowdown in Marcellus/Utica drilling to report. FTS International, the largest private well-completion company in North America with offices and employees in the Marcellus/Utica, has laid off workers. But they’re not saying how many. There were reports FTS had closed their offices in Eighty Four and Venetia–but FTS says that’s not true. Here’s what’s known (which isn’t much)…
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