XcL Midstream Building New Dry & Wet Gas Gathering Pipes in WV
It doesn’t happen often, but every now and again we read about driller or (in this case) pipeline company operating in the Marcellus/Utica we had never heard of before. Such is the case today. A new (to us) midstream company, XcL Midstream, has formed and is already building a dry gas gathering pipeline system in West Virginia, with plans to build a wet gas gathering system in WV too. According to its website, XcL “operates in the premier region of the Appalachia basin in Marshall and Wetzel Counties, West Virginia. XcL Midstream’s Appalachia Connector Pipeline is strategically located at the intersection of every major long-haul interstate pipeline system in Southwest Appalachia and provides shippers with market price optionality.” XcL plans to gather and process dry gas, wet gas (i.e. natural gas liquids), and transport water for its customers. XcL has its headquarters in Canonsburg, PA, near Pittsburgh. The reason that the company popped up on our radar is because Platts ran an article announcing that XcL has signed a customer–THQ Appalachia I, an affiliate of Tug Hill–to use 600 million cubic feet per day (Mmcf/d) on the dry gas pipeline, 200 Mmcf/d on the wet gas pipeline system, and to use a forthcoming water pipeline to boot. Here’s the thing: both XcL and THQ/Tug Hill are backed by private equity company Quantum Energy Partners. So apparently this is one of Quantum’s portfolio companies doing business with another of Quantum’s portfolio companies. In essence, one cousin helping out the other cousin. Perhaps we can call them kissin’ cousins?…
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Statoil, based in Norway, is a big player in the West Virginia Marcellus Shale. Statoil paid property taxes to Brooke, Marshall, Ohio and Wetzel counties (all in WV) in 2015 and later found, during an audit/review, that they had overpaid those counties. They overpaid Brooke by $1.8 million, Ohio by $2.9 million, Wetzel by $1.6 million and Marshall by $342,000 (see 
Marathon Petroleum subsidiary MarkWest Energy and Antero Resources’ midstream subsidiary Antero Midstream have announced a 50/50 joint venture focused on gathering and processing natural gas and natural gas liquids in northern West Virginia (Tyler, Wetzel and Richie counties). Antero Midstream will contribute its gathering operations for 195,000 acres in WV, boosting MarkWest’s total WV Marcellus gathering operation to a huge 360,000 acres. In addition, the JV will add three new processing plants to MarkWest’s Sherwood Complex in Doddridge County, WV. And get this: the JV contemplates building another eight (!) processing plants at Sherwood and a new/second location. Antero expects to invest “up to $800 million” through 2020, and has already made an initial $155 million investment. We think it’s no coincidence that on the same day Antero Midstream announced the deal (yesterday), they also announced a new round of units (i.e. shares of stock) they hope to pedal to raise $198 million. Here’s the details on the JV deal between Antero and MarkWest…
On the last business day of 2016, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a favorable final environmental impact statement (EIS) for the Williams Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline (see today’s companion story). Not to be confused with that project, also on the last business day of the year, FERC issued a favorable draft (not final, but draft) EIS for the $5 billion, 594-mile Dominion Atlantic Coast Pipeline project. This is a huge milestone and an indication that FERC will later issue a favorable final EIS, and then a certificate to allow the project to get built. FERC cautioned there is still more work to be done by Dominion to complete field surveys and submit proposals on certain issues that need to get resolved. However, the draft EIS says based on what they see so far, FERC has confidence that Dominion can minimize damage to the environment in building the pipeline. Of course the childish antis came out of the woodwork to begin bleating and blatting, as they so often do, that they pipeline will kill everyone and everything in its path. Typical…
Lisa Badia, executive director of the Greater Wheeling Coalition for the Homeless “can’t be certain how many homeless people dwell in Hancock, Brooke, Ohio, Marshall and Wetzel counties,” but she is certain that part (much?) of the homeless problem is caused by Marcellus/Utica Shale drilling. Yep, sinking a hole in the ground causes homelessness. How? According to Badia, when drilling came to town 4-5 years ago, a bunch of out-of-staters showed up to work on drilling rigs (and for pipeline companies, etc.). Those out-of-staters began paying sky-high rental rates for apartments and trailers, driving up the price of rental housing throughout the region. And when that happened, folks on welfare could no longer afford to pay the rent (with our taxpayer money). If it’s a decision between booze and cigs or rent, you know what goes! So those po’ folk ended up sleeping on heating grates–because of that nasty, awful fossil fuel drilling…
Statoil, based in Norway, is a big player in the West Virginia Marcellus Shale. Statoil paid property taxes to Brooke, Marshall, Ohio and Wetzel counties (all in WV) in 2015 and later found, during an audit/review, that they had overpaid those counties. They overpaid Brooke by $1.8 million, Ohio by $2.9 million, Wetzel by $1.6 million and Marshall by $342,000. The WV Tax Department argues that Statoil “acted negligently” and exercised “poor judgment” in not finding the mistake sooner. All four counties voted to deny Statoil’s request, so Statoil took them to court, asking the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals to hear the case. However, the Appeals court has just ruled that the cases are not “complex” and don’t require “special treatment,” so back to county court the cases will go…
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 
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 
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has given a preliminary thumbs up to the Mountain Valley Pipeline, 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 last October, is being built by EQT, NextEra Energy and several other partners (see 
Over the years, MarkWest Energy, now a part of MPLX, has built a number of natural gas processing plants in Wetzel County, WV, collectively called the Mobley plant. In September 2014 MarkWest signed a contract with paving and construction company J.F. Allen to design and build a retaining wall so MarkWest could then build the Mobley V plant (in Smithfield). MarkWest says, in a lawsuit they’ve filed against J.F. Allen and other subcontractors, that they didn’t do the job right and it resulted in long delays and millions of dollars in extra costs for MarkWest. Which MarkWest is now trying to recover, requesting a jury trial…
Brooke County, WV makes it four for four in denying Statoil’s request to refund tax overpayments made by the company. Statoil, based in Norway, is a big player in the West Virginia Marcellus Shale. Statoil paid property taxes to Brooke, Marshall, Ohio and Wetzel counties (all in WV) in 2015 and later found, during an audit/review, that they had overpaid those counties. They overpaid Brooke by $1.8 million, Ohio by $2.9 million, Wetzel by $1.6 million and Marshall by $342,000. We previously reported on Marshall’s refusal to refund the money (see 
On Friday MDN reported that Antero Resources has just cut a deal with Southwestern Energy to purchase 55,000 net acres located in Wetzel, Tyler and Doddridge Counties in West Virginia for $450 million (see