WV Supreme Court: Mountain Valley Pipe Can’t Survey w/o Permission
The Mountain Valley Pipeline is a $3.5 billion, 301-mile pipeline that will run from Wetzel County, WV to the Transco Pipeline in Pittsylvania County, VA. The project, which filed an official application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in October 2015, is being built by EQT, NextEra Energy and several other partners (see Mountain Valley Pipeline Files FERC Appl, Now Just Matter of Time). In order to build the pipeline, you first have to survey the route. Landowners in both West Virginia and Virginia have resisted, forcing the project to go to court to try and force recalcitrant landowners to allow a survey. In April 2015 Mountain Valley sued WV landowners (see Mountain Valley Pipeline Sues 103 WV Landowners for Survey Access). In March 2016, Mountain Valley won a lawsuit in Virginia (see Mountain Valley Pipeline Wins Right to Survey in VA w/o Permission). However, the WV lawsuit has ground on with appeals. Finally it reached the WV Supreme Court and yesterday the court ruled–in favor of landowners, disallowing survey access for the project (see a copy of the 31-page opinion below). Which is interesting. This decision sets up a potential Constitutional crises…
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The West Virginia Oil & Natural Gas Association (WVONGA) has hired Anne C. Blankenship, an attorney with Babst Calland, to serve as executive director. She has some big shoes to fill following the sudden death of WVONGA’s former director Corky DeMarco (see 
Chesapeake Energy, which continues to be strapped financially, embarked on a mission to lighten the debt load years ago–first under co-founder Aubrey McClendon, and then more aggressively under his successor, Doug “the ax” Lawler. Many pieces of the company have been sold off: the Oilfield Services division, all of its Haynesville Shale assets, all of its Barnett Shale assets…we could go on. Chessy loves to do land deals. In December 2014 Chesapeake sold off 413,000 Marcellus acres mostly in West Virginia (see 
You know how Democrats in Pennsylvania vilified and viciously attacked pro-energy Republicans over the past two years, especially with regard to a severance tax. PA Gov. Tom Wolf has been one of the worst. The media in PA has stood behind Wolf and his calls to enact a Marcellus-killing, so-called severance tax, on top of the existing impact fee + corporate income tax which amounts to a rate higher than a severance tax in states like Texas. We were told, repeatedly, that Republicans blocking Wolf’s desire for a new tax (to pay back teachers’ unions) would be political death for the Republicans. The Republicans, most of whom have held firm and resisted such severance tax lunacy, have been called every name in the book and told “at the next election, you’re gone.” Guess what? After Tuesday’s elections, Republicans in PA now hold the LARGEST MAJORITIES in both the House and Senate than they have held IN DECADES! The voters in PA have spoken, and anti-fossil fuel numskulls have been drummed out of power. And not just in PA…
While the worldwide Baker Hughes rig count slide back a bit in October, from 934 in September to 920 in October, the rig count in the U.S. once again, for the fourth month in a row, went up. The average U.S. rig count for October was 544, up 35 from the 509 counted in September. However, the rig count was down 247 from the 791 counted in October 2015–so we still have a long ways to go. The Marcellus/Utica rig count was up for the third month running. In October the M/U rig count went up by 4 with 3 additions in PA (now 25 rigs) and 1 in WV (now 10 rigs). OH stayed even running with an average of 14 rigs…
In March MDN brought you the news that Primus Green Energy, a gas-to-liquids (GTL) technology company announced they would build a 160 metric tons per day (MT/day) methanol plant using the company’s proprietary technology at “a manufacturing site in the Marcellus shale region” in 2017 (see 
Blue Wolf Capital Partners is on the hunt to find bargains and believes they’ve found one with Extreme Plastics Plus (EPP). Headquartered in West Virginia, EPP provides oilfield environmental containment services in the Marcellus Shale, Utica Shale, Eagle Ford, Permian Basin and other Mid-Continent sites. EPP specializes in environmental lining, above ground storage tanks, composite rig mats, secondary steel wall containment systems and rig vac systems. EPP has a problem–they are in bankruptcy. Blue Wolf has been selected as the “stalking horse” bidder to buy the company and put it back on its feet…
In June 2014 Dominion filed an application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to construct and operate new compression facilities at existing compressor stations in Marshall County, WV and Monroe County, OH, and certain other facilities, collectively called the Clarington Project (see 
Yesterday EQT announced a pair of deals that will net the company another 60,000 Marcellus/Utica acres including 44 Marcellus wells producing a collective 44 million cubic feet equivalent per day (MMcfe/d) of natural gas. Most of the acreage (42,600) is in three West Virginia counties, with another 17,000 acres in three Pennsylvania counties. EQT is paying a total of $683 million for the two deals. In the first deal, EQT is buying Trans Energy, Inc., which will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of EQT. EQT is also buying Trans Energy joint venture partner Republic Energy’s share in their Marcellus jv. The land is located in Marion, Wetzel and Marshall counties (WV). In the second deal, EQT is buying 17,000 acres from an unidentified third party in southwestern PA, in Washington, Westmoreland and Greene counties. EQT describes the purchases as adding acreage to their “core development area.” You may recall that EQT closed a deal in July, just three months ago, to purchase 62,500 acres from Statoil in WV for $407 million (see 
Tim Greene is owner of Land & Mineral Management of Appalachia and a former West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection inspector. He knows a thing or two about leasing and drilling in the Mountain State. As part of a recent article, Greene was asked about the many leases signed five years ago that are coming up for renewal (or release). Greene said five years ago landowners in WV and OH were getting signing bonuses of $5,000 per acre and more, with royalties going as high as 20%. As those leases come up for renewal, Greene cautions landowners that they won’t see anywhere near those terms if they sign again. What will they see?…
In February MDN brought you exclusive news that Shell had begun approaching landowners in Beaver County to get them to sign easements for two ethane pipelines to feed the mighty cracker plant they plan to build in the county (see 
The 2017 Northeast Oil & Gas Awards has received a boatload of nominations for the upcoming awards ceremony in Pittsburgh next March. LOTS of nominations. The folks at the Oil & Gas Awards will be contacting each nominee to see if they want to participate this year. Below is the entire list of nominees. Note: there is still time to nominate your company! The deadline is Dec. 14th. Below we have a list of everyone nominated so far, and the list of categories for which your company can be nominated…
We have, as long as we’ve been writing the MDN website, warned that the federal Environmental Protection Agency, particularly under B.H. Obama, is an out-of-control, lawless, aggressive cancer on the country. The EPA has repeatedly attempted to UNCONSTITUTIONALLY control oil and gas drilling–something only state governments have the right to regulate. The EPA has repeatedly sought to influence (i.e. control) o&g development via other means–like expanding the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, and Waters of the United States (WOTUS). The latest evidence of EPA’s illegal overreach comes with EPA’s bullying of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). EPA is telling FERC to get its head screwed on straight with respect to an approval for two Marcellus/Utica projects–Leach Xpress and Rayne Xpress Expansion projects. EPA says FERC is ignoring mythological man-made global warming bullcrap in their review of the projects, and EPA is demanding a meeting with the top brass at FERC to bully them into submission…
At last year’s Utica Summit III event held in Stark, OH, Tom Gellrich of consulting firm TopLine Analytics, a company that “closely follows ethane markets,” said he thinks the first ethane cracker to get built will be the Shell cracker plant in Beaver County, PA. He was right. Shell announced their official decision to move forward earlier this year. At that same event Gellrich said he thinks the Marcellus/Utica region will see three, possibly four, ethane crackers built (see 