West Virginia

Antero Resources | Doddridge County | Energy Companies | Energy Services | MarkWest Energy | West Virginia

Doddridge, WV Drilling & Processing is Marcellus-Central
October 27, 2017October 27, 2017

Doddridge County, WV

There’s no question that Doddridge County is one of the most active counties in West Virginia, with respect to the Marcellus/Utica industry. Doddridge is home to MarkWest’s Sherwood complex, the single largest gas-processing complex in the Northeast with eight cryogenic processing facilities. Antero Resources, an active (really big) driller in Doddridge, is building a huge wastewater recycling facility in the county. As we reported in September, the tax base in the county has tripled over the past seven years (see Doddridge County, WV Tax Base Triples in 7 Yrs Thx to M-U Shale). Dominion Energy also has a large presence in the county with hundreds of miles of gathering and interstate pipelines. Yes, Doddridge is a happenin’ place when it comes to the Marcellus. We’d call it “Marcellus-Central” in WV…
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Economic Impact | Electrical Generation | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

List of 26 Shale Gas-Fired Electric Plant Projects in OH-PA-WV
October 24, 2017October 24, 2017

Last week the The Independent Power Producers (IPPs) of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia wrote an official letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) detailing their objection to a proposed plan by the Dept. of Energy (DOE) to give special treatment to electric power generating facilities powered by coal and nuclear plants. The DOE recently ordered FERC to devise new market rules favoring coal and nukes on the premise they contribute to “grid resiliency.” The IPPs writing the letter in opposition represent at least 26 shale gas-fired electric plant projects across the three states, which will contribute $21 billion to those state economies and generate 20,000+ jobs. Below we have the letter sent to FERC by the IPPs. That letter prompted our friends at Energy in Depth to produce a list of the projects the IPPs are building (or have built) in the tri-state area. It is an impressive list. We liked it and grabbed it to share with the MDN audience…
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Clay County | Cunningham Energy | Energy Companies | Kanawha County | West Virginia

Cunningham Energy Strikes More Oil in WV
October 23, 2017October 23, 2017

Cunningham Energy is a small oil driller based in West Virginia. In 2015, Cunningham struck oil in the Big Injun sandstone formation in Clay County, WV (see Cunningham Strikes Oil in West Virginia’s Big Injun Territory). In 2016, Cunningham announced they would target another shallow formation, the Weir Sand formation, a few layers below the Big Injun (same group of rocks called the Mississippian system), once again looking for oil (see Cunningham Using Horizontal Drilling to Target Weir Sand in WV). Last week Cunningham provided an update to say they’ve hit a milestone by producing 20,000 barrels of oil production from two new shallow horizontal oil wells located in Clay County, once again targeting the Big Injun. They also said they will soon begin to drill those previously mentioned Weir wells in Kanawha County. Normally we don’t cover news from conventional drillers, but Cunningham is interesting for a few reasons. While the rock layers Cunningham targets are layers typically targeted by conventional oil drillers, the lines are beginning to become blurred between conventional and unconventional. Cunninghamton targets shallow layers using horizontal drilling, and they drill increasingly longer laterals. Yet they don’t frack their wells. What is the definition of conventional vs. unconventional drilling? In brief, unconventional is the marriage of both horizontal drilling AND fracking. If you don’t have both, you don’t have what we consider an unconventional well. Yet conventional wells, like those drilled by Cunningham, increasingly have characteristics of unconventional wells, like long horizontal laterals (used to be vertical-only). Cunningham, in their promotional material, talks about one day drilling shale wells. Looks like they’re getting practiced up and ready…
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Energy Companies | Energy Services | EQT Corp | Equitrans/EQT Midstream | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

EQT’s Equitrans Expansion Project Gets PA DEP Water Permit
October 23, 2017July 8, 2019

EQT’s Equitrans (pipeline) Expansion Project is on track to begin construction by the end of this year–likely sometime in November. We first covered this project in 2015 (see Time to Support EQT Mountain Valley & Equitrans Pipelines @ FERC). The Equitrans Expansion Project will upgrade compressor stations, add approximately eight miles of pipeline connectors to upgrade capacity on the Equitrans Pipeline from southwestern Pennsylvania into West Virginia. The $100 million project, when completed, will expand capacity on the Equitrans pipeline by 600 million cubic feet per day (Mmcf/d). The project when introduced was slated to be done by the end of 2018. Looks like they will keep that schedule. On Friday, October 13, 2017, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity for both the $100 million Equitrans Expansion Project and $3.5 billion Mountain Valley Pipeline. The two projects are connected. On Saturday, the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection issued, via publication in the Pennsylvania Register, federal water crossing permits for the Equitrans Expansion Project. The bulldozers can’t be far behind…
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Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Court Backs WVDEP Move to Cancel Permits for Mountain Valley Pipe
October 20, 2017October 20, 2017

In March, the West Virginia Dept. of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) issued a federal water crossing permit for the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP)–a $3.5 billion, 301-mile pipeline that will run from Wetzel County, WV to the Transco Pipeline in Pittsylvania County, VA (see WV DEP Grants Mountain Valley Pipeline Water Crossing Permit). In June, a group of profoundly radical “environmental” organizations (Sierra Club, West Virginia Rivers Coalition, Indian Creek Watershed Association, Appalachian Voices and Chesapeake Climate Action Network) filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit against the WVDEP for doing their job issuing the permit (see Radicals File Lawsuit Against WV DEP for Approving MV Pipeline). Because of the pressure of that lawsuit, the WVDEP caved and reversed their decision in September, rescinding (called “vacating”) the permit for MVP (see Trouble for Mountain Valley Pipe: WV DEP Withdraws Water Permit). The WVDEP said they will “re-evaluate the complete application to determine whether the state’s certification is in compliance with Section 401 of the federal Clean Water Act.” On Tuesday, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld WVDEP’s decision and granted the agency’s motion to invalidate the previous certificate they granted the project. Which means the process begins all over again–a temporary victory for antis. It’s temporary because while all of this nonsense was going on, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved the project–so it will get built…
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Belmont County | Braskem | Energy Services | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Processing Plants | PTT Global | West Virginia | Wood County

Locals Pumped About OH Cracker; WV Cracker Still Not Dead
October 20, 2017October 20, 2017

Belmont County Port Authority Director Larry Merry says he “can’t think of a single reason” why PTT Global Chemical won’t build a promised $6 billion ethane cracker facility in Dilles Bottom. Mike Jacoby, VP of business development for the Appalachian Partnership for Economic Growth concurs, saying he is “optimistic” and sees “no problems” ahead for the PTT cracker. In addition to locals in Ohio pumped about the PTT cracker and the promised final investment decision by the end of this year, there is still hope for a cracker plant in West Virginia too. WV officials say Braskem is still expressing interest in a cracker project in the Parkersburg area. Here’s some of the chitter-chatter among pumped-up officials attending a forum last month in Wheeling, WV…
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Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Marshall County | Seismic Testing | Southwestern Energy | West Virginia | Wetzel County

Southwestern Energy Offers $5/Acre for Seismic Testing in WV
October 19, 2017October 19, 2017

In 2014, Southwestern Energy cut a massive deal to buy 413,000 Marcellus/Utica acres from Chesapeake Energy, most of it in northern West Virginia, for $5.375 billion (see Chesapeake Sells Close to 25% of Marcellus/Utica Operation). Southwestern has done some drilling on that acreage since, but all the signs are now visible that the company intends to really ramp up their WV drilling program. In August, Southwestern nailed down some missing acreage in the Wheeling area by leasing 66 acres from the Wheeling Park School District for $231,000 (see Wheeling Park HS Signs Lease with Southwestern for $3500/Acre). Just last week we reported that midstream giant Williams has cut a deal with Southwestern to provide gathering and processing for over 200,000 acres in Marshall and Wetzel counties (see Williams Launches Major WV Expansion to Serve Southwestern Energy). And now, further evidence: A contractor working for Southwestern plans to begin seismic testing covering 260 square miles–stretching from Donegal (Westmoreland County), PA through northern WV all the way to Shadyside (Belmont County), OH–next year. The contractor, in speaking with members of the Bethlehem Village Council (Wheeling, WV area), said Southwestern is offering the “standard” price of $5 per acre for seismic testing…
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Brooke County | Electrical Generation | Industrywide Issues | Regulation | West Virginia

WV Builder Tells PSC Power Plant Can Burn Methane AND Ethane
October 18, 2017October 18, 2017

Energy Solutions Consortium, aka the father and son team of Andrew and Matthew Dorn–have been trying to build a 750 megawatt natural gas-fired electric plant in Follansbee (Brooke County), WV for years. In fact, the Dorns have a number of gas-fired electric plant projects on the board for WV, and have since 2015 (see Big News: 3 More Marcellus-Powered Electric Plants Coming to WV). However, the regulatory environment in WV creeps along, like molasses, and none of the projects are even under construction–yet. Last month WV’s Commerce Secretary Woody Thrasher said WV is downright unfriendly to electric plant projects (see WV Sec Commerce Says State Unfriendly to Gas-Fired Power Plants). Never a truer word spoken. Yesterday Andrew Dorn was in Charleston to testify before the state Public Service Commission about his company’s plans for the Follansbee plant. One of his comments caught our eye. The plant will be able to flip back and forth between burning methane and ethane, depending on the price. Dorn said his dual-fuel plant will give drillers in the region an outlet to sell their ethane, in case they can’t sell ethane to a cracker plant…
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Dominion Energy | Energy Services | Equitrans/EQT Midstream | Industrywide Issues | North Carolina | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide VA | Statewide WV | Virginia | West Virginia

FERC Approves Atlantic Coast, Mountain Valley Pipeline Projects
October 16, 2017October 16, 2017

Great news delivered late Friday afternoon: The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued final, full approvals for both the Atlantic Coast and Mountain Valley pipeline projects. Atlantic Coast is a $5 billion, 594-mile natural gas pipeline that will stretch from West Virginia through Virginia and into North Carolina. Mountain Valley is a $3.5 billion, 303-mile natural gas pipeline that will run from Wetzel County, WV to the Transco Pipeline in Pittsylvania County, VA. Both projects still face an uphill battle before they get built. The North Carolina Dept. of Environmental Quality (DEQ) issued a rejection letter for Atlantic Coast last week (see NC DEQ Rejects Plan for Atlantic Coast Pipeline – What’s Next?). The rejection, while a setback, does not mean the project is barred from the Tar Heel State. It simply means Dominion must provide more information to NC DEQ. Similarly, Mountain Valley first received a water permit from the West Virginia Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) in March, later to be withdrawn in September (see Trouble for Mountain Valley Pipe: WV DEP Withdraws Water Permit). Again, not a catastrophic development–it just slows down the process. Although FERC approved both projects, one of the three FERC commissioners, Cheryl LaFleur (Obama appointee holdover) voted against approving both projects. Her stated reason is that she does not think either project is in the public interest. Antis are (predictably) frothing at the mouth over FERC’s approvals, promising to sue, protest, and do whatever it takes to stop both projects. However, with FERC’s blessing, these projects are now assured of getting built. Below we have copies of the FERC approvals, along with select reaction to the news…
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Energy Services | GreenHunter Resources | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Lewis County | West Virginia

Former GreenHunter Expanding in West Virginia with 160 Jobs
October 13, 2017October 13, 2017

Fountain Quail Energy Services, which is the new name for the company that used to be called GreenHunter Resources, is planning to expand in Lewis County, WV. A WV lawmaker says he’s talked Fountain Quail into expanding in an industrial park in Jane Lew, bringing 160 jobs to the site. In December 2015 MDN reported that Magnum Hunter Resources (MHR) finally filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection (see Sad Day: Magnum Hunter Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy). MHR has a variety of subsidiary companies. One of those companies, GreenHunter Resources (water and wastewater), also succumbed and filed for bankruptcy–in March 2016 (see Another Sad Day: GreenHunter Resources Files for Bankruptcy). Restructuring was completed for GreenHunter in May 2016 and the company emerged from bankruptcy under the ownership of a private equity firm. A few months later, GreenHunter shed its former name and merged with/took on a new name: Fountain Quail. The CEO of Fountain Quail is the former Executive Vice President and COO of GreenHunter, Kirk Trosclair. The COO of Fountain Quail also previously worked for GreenHunter. Here’s the update that Fountain Quail is once again on the road to expansion, putting the past behind it…
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Energy Companies | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Marshall County | Pipelines | Processing Plants | Southwestern Energy | West Virginia | Wetzel County | Williams

Williams Launches Major WV Expansion to Serve Southwestern Energy
October 13, 2017October 13, 2017

Yesterday Williams announced a new, major deal with Southwestern Energy to expand its network of gathering pipelines and processing facilities in West Virginia, to serve Southwestern’s increasingly aggressive drilling program in the state. Williams will expand its its Oak Grove processing plant to handle extra wet gas that will flow into it from Southwestern’s 135,000-acre wet gas (i.e. NGL) drilling program in Marshall and Wetzel counties. Southwestern targets wet gas in the Marcellus and Upper Devonian in those two counties. The expansion will give the Oak Grove plant the capability to process an additional 1.8 billion cubic feet per day of wet gas. But wet gas isn’t the only focus. Williams is also expanding its pipeline network to an additional 71,500 dry gas acres, again in Marshall and Wetzel counties, targeting Southwestern’s dry gas Utica program. In the same announcement, almost as an afterthought (but for us is a really big deal), Williams announced it will connect its system to Columbia Pipeline’s (now TransCanada) Leach XPress and Mountaineer XPress pipelines, “to boost market access and diversify gas pricing opportunities.” Leach XPress, which is part of a project including Rayne XPress, will send gas all the way to the Gulf Coast (see Columbia Gas: $1.75B for 2 Projects to Send Marcellus Gas to Gulf). Leach XPress began construction earlier this year. Mountaineer XPress will send gas to Leach, Kentucky (as will Leach Xpress), and from there on to a variety of other markets in the Midwest and South–as well as the Gulf Coast (see Details on Columbia Pipeline Mountaineer XPress Pipeline Project). Mountaineer Xpress received a favorable final environmental impact state from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in July of this year, but is still waiting on other permits before it begins construction. Here’s the news about Williams expanding in the Mountain State…
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Antero Midstream | Antero Resources | Doddridge County | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Wastewater | West Virginia

Antero Taps Veolia to Handle TENORM Waste at WV Water Facility
October 13, 2017October 13, 2017

In 2015 Antero Resources hired Veolia Water Technologies Inc. (subsidiary of France-based Veolia) to build a new shale wastewater recycling facility in Doddridge County, West Virginia (see Antero Building New 60K Bbl Wastewater Recycling Facility in WV). The new facility, which is slated to take two years to build and cost Antero $275 million, will process 60,000 barrels of wastewater per day. The facility is still under construction. The plant will separate water, salt and radioactive particles. The salt can be sold to municipalities for use as road salt–but frankly there’s not enough of a market to sell it all. And not all of it will be of sufficient quality to be sold that way. So Antero is also spending $20 million to build a landfill next to the plant (see Update on Antero’s $275M Wastewater Facility in WV). This week we also learned that Antero will spend another $70 million with Veolia–in addition to the $275M they’re paying Veolia to build the plant–paying Veolia $70M over 10 years to handle the “loading, packaging, transporting and proper disposal of water treatment sludge” the plant will produce. The sludge contains TENORM–technologically enhanced, naturally occurring radioactive materials. Veolia will ensure the TENORM sludge is carefully handled and properly disposed…
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Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Marcellus/Utica Rig Count Race Tightens: OH Count Closes in on PA
October 11, 2017October 11, 2017

It’s been a few months since we’ve brought you news about the monthly average for Baker Hughes’ venerable rig count–largely because after GE completed it’s merger with Baker Hughes they quit issuing monthly press releases from their website! We spotted a story in the Pittsburgh Business Times that talks about Ohio coming close to parity in their rig count with Pennsylvania–which is a really big deal–and the reasons for it. That story sent us looking for the latest rig count numbers and indeed, it’s true. As of September, PA averaged 33 shale rigs in operation, while OH averaged 29–the closest we’ve ever seen it. If you look at the counts for last week (BH does a weekly rig count too), the numbers are even closer: PA with 31 rigs, OH with 29. We don’t typically monitor the weekly counts as they always fluctuate up and down–better to look at monthly averages. But the fact remains that PA has been pretty steady, operating between 32 and 34 rigs per month since January of this year, while OH has gone from operating an average of 20 rigs in January to 29 last month, and West Virginia has gone from operating an average of 8 rigs in January to 15 rigs last month (nearly doubling). Yet PA is static. Is there an explanation? Some experts think there is, and it can be explained in a single word: pipelines…
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Forced Pooling | Industrywide Issues | Regulation | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Another Look at WV’s Co-tenancy & Joint Development Proposals
October 10, 2017October 10, 2017

When MDN editor Jim Willis attended the Shale Insight conference in Pittsburgh two weeks ago, one of the recurring themes he heard from West Virginia officials is that the state urgently needs to pass “mineral efficiency” laws. What they meant by mineral efficiency is another name for co-tenancy and joint development. We’ve written a fair bit about the topic–what we call “forced pooling lite.” In August the West Virginia Oil & Natural Gas Association (WVONGA) announced its intention to push, once again, for co-tenancy and joint development (see WVONGA Makes Plans to Push Forced Pooling Lite in 2018). We spotted an editorial from the co-founder of the West Virginia Surface Owners Rights Organization on the topic co-tenancy and joint development. He has a unique perspective. He calls co-tenancy “majority rules” and joint development “invisible ink.” What does he mean? And what would these two measures do if adopted? And is there really an urgent need for them? Let’s tackle this issue once again…
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Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Lewis County | West Virginia

Lewis County, WV: Pipelines, Drilling Elsewhere Boost Local Economy
October 9, 2017October 9, 2017

Lewis County, WV is not the first county you think of when it comes to the Marcellus/Utica Shale. While Lewis shares a border with the highly drilled Doddridge County, there have been very few shale wells drilled in Lewis. Perhaps we should say there’s been very few permits to drill shale wells in Lewis–we’re not 100% sure if any wells have actually been drilled. But no matter. Lewis has, in the past, benefited greatly from the shale industry. A number of companies are located in Lewis that serve the shale industry, providing jobs for Lewis residents. And pipelines are scheduled to cut through the county–both the $5 billion Atlantic Coast Pipeline and the $3.5 billion Mountain Valley Pipeline. Those two projects alone have the potential to employ hundreds of Lewis County residents. A recent report from the WV Bureau of Business & Economic Research says some 2,000 Lewis County residents (16% of the working population) are employed by natural resources and mining. That number will grow 2% a year for the next five years. In other words, counties like Lewis don’t have to have shale wells drilled to see enormous economic benefits from the shale industry…
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Carbon Appalachian | Energy Companies | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Carbon Natural Gas Buys 780K Acres, 3,100 Mi. of WV Pipe for $41M
October 6, 2017October 7, 2017

Carbon Natural Gas Company, through its affiliate Carbon Appalachian Company, announced earlier this week that the company has purchased another 780,000 acres of conventional (non-shale) leases, along with 3,100 miles of gathering pipelines located “predominantly” in West Virginia–for $41.3 million. You may recall Carbon Natural Gas picked up all of Cabot Oil & Gas’ conventional assets in WV for $21.5 million back in August (see Carbon Natural Gas Buys Cabot’s Conventional Wells in WV-OH-VA). Once again Carbon does not name the seller for this latest round (they also did not with the Cabot deal, MDN pieced that information together). This time we don’t have any evidence or clues to tell you who did the selling. One thing is clear: Now with a total of 1.7 million acres of leases, 7,900 operating conventional wells and 4,700 miles of pipelines, Carbon Natural Gas is locking down much (most?) of the conventional gas business in the Mountain State…

Oct 7, 2017 Update: An MDN source tells us the seller was EXCO Resources. We have not been able to independently verify the tip, but our source is reliable and we wanted to pass along the tip.
Read More “Carbon Natural Gas Buys 780K Acres, 3,100 Mi. of WV Pipe for $41M”