Kanawha County

Antero Resources | Doddridge County | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Kanawha County | Litigation | Statewide WV | West Virginia

More People Pile on Antero, Seek to Join Mass “Nuisance” Lawsuit
February 2, 2016February 2, 2016

Last September MDN told you about the troubling news that more than 200 residents in WV (likely those who don’t own the mineral rights under their land) began filing “scores” of “nuisance” lawsuits over the past couple of years against Antero Resources and Hall Drilling, in places like Doddridge County (see Scores of “Nuisance” Lawsuits Against WV Drillers Combined). The lawsuits claim excessive traffic, odors and noise from nearby drilling make it “impossible” for them to enjoy their homes. The troubling development was that all of these lawsuits (dozens? hundreds?) had been rolled up into one mega lawsuit that sits before the WV Mass Litigation Panel. In other words a class action lawsuit. Since then we’d not heard anything, until we read about two more such lawsuits filed in Kanawha County. The lawyers want to add the two to the existing mass litigation case…
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Cunningham Energy | Energy Companies | Kanawha County | West Virginia

Cunningham Using Horizontal Drilling to Target Weir Sand in WV
January 11, 2016October 23, 2017

This story is, for us, fascinating. A small driller based in West Virginia, Cunningham Energy, is zagging while everyone else is zigging. We told you in 2013 that Cunningham planned to drill three “shallow” horizontal wells in Clay County, WV (see The Injuns are Coming! Injun Formation Drilling, that is). Cunningham targeted the Big Injun sandstone formation, looking for oil. They struck oil this past year (see Cunningham Strikes Oil in West Virginia’s Big Injun Territory). Once again Cunningham is targeting a shallow formation, this time the Weir Sand formation, a few layers below the Big Injun (same group of rocks called the Mississippian system), once again looking for oil. Cunningham announced last week they are drilling two new horizontal wells, this time in Kanawha County, WV…
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Columbia Pipeline Group | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kanawha County | Pipelines | West Virginia

Columbia Pipeline Gets FERC Approval for WV Utica Access Project
January 11, 2016January 11, 2016

Columbia Pipeline Group has just received a green light from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to proceed with their Utica Access Project. The project will cost Columbia $45 million and involves building five miles of new pipeline and upgrading compressor stations in Kanawha County, WV. When complete, the project, begun under NiSource (before Columbia separated into its own company), will transport 200 million cubic feet per day of Utica Shale gas for Eclipse Resources Corporation to liquid trading points on the Columbia Gas Transmission interstate pipeline system…
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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Kanawha County | Meetings | West Virginia

WSJ Reporter Russell Gold to Keynote Fracking Forum at WVSU
September 22, 2015September 22, 2015

Next Tuesday, Sept. 29, West Virginia State University (WVSU) will sponsor a forum on fracking and shale at WVSU’s James C. Wilson University Union in Institute, WV. The forum, titled “Fracking: In the Beginning Was the Source Rock” is free and open to the public. Keynoting the event will be award-winning Wall Street Journal energy reporter Russell Gold, who authored the book “The Boom: How Fracking Ignited the American Energy Revolution and Changed the World.” This is a unique opportunity to hear (and ask questions) of someone with expert insights into the shale revolution in the Marcellus/Utica and beyond–and what he sees on the horizon for the future…
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Columbia Pipeline Group | Energy Services | Kanawha County | West Virginia

Columbia Pipeline Worker Risks His Life to Save a Stranger in WV
July 20, 2015July 20, 2015

Countless times we’ve seen the oil and gas industry demonized by people who hold to strange philosophies–like oil and gas are fossil fuels and fossil fuels threaten the climate of Mother Earth and the use of said fossil fuels must be ended. It’s a cockamamie and frankly false philosophy–but it motivates many to demonize not only the industry, but those who work in it (or support it). Sometimes it helps to put a face on people who work in the industry. Like Michael Marques, who works for Columbia Pipeline Group–a major pipeline company headquartered in Houston, TX but with a major presence in the Appalachian (Marcellus/Utica) region. Marques was on his way to a service call in Kanawha County, WV when he noticed a local resident caught in the Pocatalico River during a flash flood. Without hesitating, Marques jumped in, risking his own life, to save the life of a man he didn’t know. That’s the kind of salt-of-the-earth people who work in the oil and gas industry. Here’s the story of Michael Marques–a hero–and his action to save local resident Bobby Lawson…
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Energy Companies | Energy Corporation of America | Kanawha County | West Virginia

ECA’s New Regional HQ in Charleston: More WV Drilling on the Way?
November 19, 2014November 19, 2014

Energy Corporation of America (ECA) is a privately owned company founded in 1963 with corporate headquarters in Denver, CO. The company owns and operates approximately 4,600 (mostly vertical) wells, 5,000 miles of pipeline, and leases more than 1 million acres in North America alone. Most of ECA’s leased acreage is in the northeast, so it came as no surprise when they announced last year that they would build a new regional HQ that will house more than one-third of their employees (see ECA Breaks Ground on WV Regional HQ, Donates $600K to Clay Center). The brand spanking new regional HQ building in Charleston, WV is done (cost $10 million to build) and some 115 employees are now moved into a 60,000 square foot building with room for up to 200 employees. But MDN has discovered a head-scratcher…
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Accidents | Columbia Pipeline Group | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kanawha County | NiSource | Pipelines | West Virginia

NTSB Faults NiSource/Columbia for WV Pipeline Explosion in 2012
March 12, 2014March 12, 2014

On December 11, 2012, a portion of the Columbia Gas Transmission pipeline (owned by Nisource) exploded near Sissonville, WV, 10 miles north of Charleston. The resulting fire burned for more than an hour and shut down a portion of nearby Interstate 77 for days (see Columbia NatGas Pipeline Explodes Near Charleston, WV). It’s been a long time coming, but on Monday the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), that did a full investigation of the explosion, turned in their final report. It was pretty damning for NiSource/Columbia. The conclusions of the investigators are that a) the pipe had corroded in that section–a long time ago, and b) Columbia hadn’t inspected that section of pipeline since (unbelievably) 1988. In other words, it was an accident waiting to happen.

Below we have the press release from the NTSB with their high level findings, then the full 32-page report released Monday, and finally, the lame response issued by NiSource/Columbia “thanking” the NTSB for just ripping them a new one…
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Kanawha County | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Marcellus Companies Move Offices from Charleston to SW PA
November 7, 2013November 7, 2013

A few days ago MDN told you that county officials in some West Virginia counties, like Wood and Pleasants counties, believe drilling may be headed in their direction in the not-too-distant future (see Drilling Creeps Southward According to WV County Clerks). However, the reality on the ground right now is that there have been either no, or perhaps one or two, permits issued for horizontal (shale) drilling in Wood and Pleasants counties (stats come from the latest edition of the Marcellus and Utica Shale Databook).

Another county even further south is Kanawha County, home of the state capitol Charleston. Kanawha has also seen a few permits, but little or no shale drilling yet. In the ramp-up of Marcellus and Utica drilling, a number of drilling-related companies established administrative offices in Charleston. But that’s now changing. Why?…
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Energy Companies | Energy Corporation of America | Kanawha County | West Virginia

ECA Breaks Ground on WV Regional HQ, Donates $600K to Clay Center
June 4, 2013June 4, 2013

Last week Energy Corporation of America (ECA), an oil and gas driller with more than a million acres of leases in the Marcellus and Utica Shale region and operating 4,600 (mostly conventional) wells, broke ground on a new 60,000 square foot company eastern regional headquarters in Charleston, WV. They also made a $600,000 donation to the Clay Center for the Arts and Sciences.

From the company press release:
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Energy Companies | Energy Corporation of America | Kanawha County | West Virginia

ECA Moving/Expanding NE Headquarters to Charleston, WV
March 6, 2013March 6, 2013

Energy Corporation of America (ECA) will unveil plans today to move its eastern regional headquarters from “over the river” in Kanawha City, WV into Charleston, WV proper—at the Northgate Business Park. The new 60,000 square-foot facility is a good sign that ECA will continue to expand its presence in the Marcellus Shale. Headquartered in Denver, CO, ECA owns over 1 million acres of leases from New York to Tennessee, and operates over 4,600 wells (mostly conventional) and over 5,000 miles of pipeline. Most of their northeast operations are in West Virginia.

More on the new office building:

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Accidents | Columbia Pipeline Group | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kanawha County | NiSource | Pipelines | West Virginia

Thinning Pipeline Caused Explosion Near Charleston, WV
December 27, 2012December 27, 2012

The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), part of the U.S. Dept. of Transportation, has issued a corrective order to Columbia Gas (subsidiary of NiSource) dealing with the pipeline explosion near Sissonville, WV on Dec. 11 (see this MDN story). The PHMSA found that the pipeline section that exploded, which was built in 1967, was getting too thin:

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Accidents | Columbia Pipeline Group | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kanawha County | NiSource | Pipelines | West Virginia

Update on WV Pipeline Explosion Near Charleston
December 13, 2012December 13, 2012

On Tuesday, the 20-inch Columbia Gas Transmission natural gas pipeline exploded near Sissonville, WV—about 10 miles from Charleston (see this MDN story). Yesterday, NiSource, the parent company Columbia Gas, issued this update on the explosion:

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Accidents | Columbia Pipeline Group | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kanawha County | NiSource | Pipelines | West Virginia

Columbia NatGas Pipeline Explodes Near Charleston, WV
December 12, 2012December 12, 2012

This is big news because it’s so extremely rare: A 20-inch natural gas transmission pipeline—the Columbia Gas Transmission pipeline (owned by Nisource)—exploded near Sissonville, WV, 10 miles north of Charleston. The resulting fire burned for more than an hour and has shut down a portion of nearby Interstate 77 for at least two days.

The explosion happened not far from the Lanham Compressor Station, although there is no indication the compressor station had anything to do with the explosion. An investigation into the explosion is just beginning and there are few known facts. The (rather thin) details as we know them:

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Industrywide Issues | Kanawha County | NG Vehicles | West Virginia

Kanawha County’s First CNG Vehicle: $1.89/Gal. to Fill it Up
September 12, 2012September 12, 2012

Earlier this week Kanawha County, WV got its first county vehicle converted to run on compressed natural gas (CNG)—a 2013 Chevrolet Tahoe. They filled it up for the gasoline equivalent of $1.89 a gallon (gasoline currently runs close to $4 per gallon).

It cost $12,000 to convert it to run on both CNG and gasoline, but the county figures by saving more than 50% on each fill-up, it won’t take long to make that money back.

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Aither Chemicals | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kanawha County | Processing Plants | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Aither Chemicals Still Trying for a Cracker Plant in WV
June 22, 2012June 22, 2012

Will West Virginia ever get its own ethane cracker plant? It will if Aither Chemicals, based in South Charleston, WV has any say in the matter. MDN has been following the Aither story for some time. Aither Chemicals, a spin-off/subsidiary of Mid-Atlantic Technology, Research & Innovation Center, was established to build and operate ethane cracker plants that use modern technology making the plants smaller and less expensive to build and operate than tradition cracker plants (see this MDN story for background).

Aither had a deal in principle with Bayer CropScience and MarkWest Energy to build one of these “new” kinds of cracker plants in the Charleston, WV area. That deal was set to be officially announced in mid-March (see this MDN story). But then the wheels came off the wagon and all was silent. No deal, no announcement. Until now.

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Aither Chemicals | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kanawha County | Processing Plants | West Virginia

New Movement on the Aither Chemicals Cracker Plant in WV?
May 3, 2012May 3, 2012

A month and a half ago it seemed imminent that Aither Chemicals would announce they would build a new ethane cracker plant at the Bayer CropScience plant site at Institute Industrial Park, located in Kanawha County, near Charleston, WV (see this MDN story). Bayer CropScience, owner of the site, and MarkWest Energy, a huge pipeline company, were named as potential partners in the deal. But the expected announcement never came, and all has been silent since.

An article in the Charleston Daily Mail caught MDN’s eye, an article that says the local city of Nitro, WV have filed a petition with Kanawha County to annex 44 properties surrounding the Bayer CropScience plant. The properties in that area of the county are unincorporated—no official town or city municipal government control—and if Nitro annexes the property surrounding the plant, it prevents any other communities from trying to annex the plant itself at some future date.

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