PA DCED Invests Another $3.2M in “Last Mile” PIPE Grant Projects
Pennsylvania’s Pipeline Investment Program (or PIPE) issues grants covering part of the cost for building new natural gas pipelines to connect homes and businesses, typically in rural parts of the state, to homegrown Marcellus Shale gas supplies. We’ve written about many of the PIPE grant projects in the past (see our PIPE stories here). Three more PIPE grants were announced yesterday by the Pennsylvania Dept. of Community and Economic Development (DCED), grants totaling $3.2 million.
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Holy smokes! What just happened? For months (and months and months) the cumulative number of weekly permits issued to drill new shale wells in the Marcellus/Utica has fluctuated from the low teens to perhaps 30 total on the upper end. Last week, from Jan. 17-23, an amazing 61 permits were issued to drill new shale wells. Double the usual. Wow! Pennsylvania issued 24 new permits, Ohio issued 9, and blow-the-doors-off-we’ve-never-seen-so-many-permits-issued-in-one-week for West Virginia, the Mountain State issued 28 new shale permits.
EQT Corporation, the largest natural gas producer in the United States, announced last Friday that all of its natural gas produced in Washington and Greene counties in Pennsylvania (the majority of its production, some 4 Bcf/d) is now officially certified as “responsibly produced” gas by two different certification organizations: Equitable Origin and MiQ. That 4 Bcf/d of certified gas represents 4.5% of all natural gas produced in the U.S.
Rising Phoenix Royalties (RPR) announced it has purchased the future royalty payments from a landowner in the Marcellus Shale, in Washington County, PA. This latest purchase by RPR covers 98 acres drilled under by Range Resources. This is not the first RPR transaction we’ve reported on.
A natural gas pipeline project management company based in Canonsburg, PA, GW Ridge LLC, ceased all operations in November and filed for bankruptcy in a Texas federal court. Creditors owed money filed a competing Chapter 7 bankruptcy action against the company in Pittsburgh and GW Ridge withdrew its Texas filing and agreed to allow the Pittsburgh case to proceed. A Chapter 7 (as opposed to a Chapter 11) means the company has stopped all operations and its assets will be sold or auctioned and the money given to creditors. GW Ridge is no more.
Last Thursday CNX Resources reached a plea deal with the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office over alleged violations of the Air Pollution Control Act and bad recordkeeping. Yeah, you read that right. State Attorney General Josh Shapiro (a real putz) leveled criminal charges against CNX over miscounting how many times the company used a pig (pipeline inspection gauge) to clean out a pipeline in Washington County, PA. An anti-fossil fuel zealot who lives near the pigging station complained about noise and emissions and ran squealing to the AG (pun intended).
Headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, Holland Services provides (used to provide) abstract and title examination services for the oil and gas industry. Holland maintained a large regional office in Washington, PA. A press release issued by the U.S. Department of Labor says the DOL has finally, after more than six years of endless lawsuits, forced Holland to pay back wages totaling $43 million owed for overtime to some 700 PA workers. As a side benefit the DOL has driven Holland into bankruptcy–the cherry on top for antis infesting the government agency.
Just two weeks ago MDN told you that Robinson Power Company LLC planned to resume construction of the Beech Hollow Power Plant in Robinson Township (Washington County), PA, a 1,000-megawatt Marcellus-fired project (see 
A healthy number of permits were issued to drill new shale wells across the Marcellus/Utica region last week. Pennsylvania issued 19 new permits in both southwest and northeast PA. Ohio issued 8 new permits, all of them to a single driller (Ascent Resources) for two well pads in two different counties. West Virginia issued 9 new permits–all but 2 of them were issued to Antero Resources in Tyler County.