We Now Know New Name for CONSOL’s Gas Unit Post-Split
CONSOL Energy, headquartered in Pittsburgh, began life as a coal company some 150 years ago. For the past half dozen years MDN has reported on CONSOL’s transformation from coal company to natural gas company. That transformation is now nearly complete. In July, CONSOL filed paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission that lays out a plan to split the company in two, into a coal company and a natural gas exploration and production company (see CONSOL Energy’s Split into 2 Companies Nearly Complete, New Name?). CONSOL the coal company will retain the CONSOL Energy name and get various coal mines and other coal-related assets. The CEO of the coal company will be Jimmy Brock. Meanwhile, CONSOL the natural gas driller will get a new name and retain the other assets. Nick DeIuliis will remain president and CEO of the natgas company. Current CONSOL shareholders will get shares in the separated coal company, as well as retain their shares in the gas company. While no specific date is given for the final split, the company remains committed to getting it done sometime by the end of this year. Oh, what’s the new name for the gas company? CNX Resources Corp.…
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MDN has run two stories about a new Marcellus/Utica drilling company called Pin Oak Energy Partners, one in August (see 
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…
Nuverra Environmental Solutions (formerly Heckmann) is one of the largest companies in the United States that handles transportation and disposal of shale drilling wastewater and leftover rock and dirt from drilling. The company has major operations in the Marcellus/Utica region. In January 2016, the company, going through tough economic times, was de-listed from the New York Stock Exchange (see 
Events related (or of interest) to the Marcellus and Utica Shale, primarily pro-drilling events.
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: PA PUC earns high marks from the feds; 11 well permits issued in OH Utica; Cheniere’s Sabine Pass Train 4 gets green light; Permian associated gas is a party crasher; Sen. Inhofe holds up final 2 FERC nominees; Trump taps ex-lobbyist from EPA #2 job; dismantling Obama’s attempt to kill fossil fuels; the “Amazon effect” in oil; US CO2 emissions down in 2016; Fiat Chrysler CEO says pushing electric cars now will “endanger the planet”; and more!
Listen up job seekers in eastern Pennsylvania: The International Brotherhood of Teamsters is looking for 400 people to work on building Williams’ Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline–a $3 billion, 198-mile natural gas pipeline project running through 10 Pennsylvania counties to connect Marcellus Shale natural gas from northeastern PA with the Williams’ Transco pipeline in southern Lancaster County. The job fair is happening TODAY (Friday) and TOMORROW (Saturday) ath the Harrisburg-Hershey Crown Plaza located at 23 South 2nd Street in Harrisburg (8am-4pm both days). According to the Teamsters, there are “hundreds of jobs to fill” and they are “looking to expand our workforce quickly.” Qualifications? You need to be 21 years old or older, have a driver’s licence, and be willing to travel. Construction experience is a plus, but not required. Here’s the deets…
While the Teamsters are holding a job fair today and tomorrow in Harrisburg to recruit for pipeline workers (see today’s lead story), next week Shell and the Community College of Beaver County (CCBC) will hold two back-to-back career expos on the other side of the state, in the Pittsburgh region, to “inform residents about all the current and emerging job opportunities” at Shell’s ethane cracker plant. On Thursday, Oct. 12, Shell will host the Pennsylvania Chemicals Military Petrochemical Day from 8am to 2pm–for former military service members. The event will be held in room 9103 of CCBC’s Learning Resources Center. Then at 6pm on the 12th, a free career expo will be held at the CCBC Dome–open to the public. Preregistration is not required, but is encouraged. This is your chance to meet with folks face-to-face who can help you land a job working on (or in) the mighty Shell ethane cracker. Don’t miss it!…
Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) is the single largest company in India, and one of the largest energy companies in the world. RIL invested $3.5 billion in a Marcellus joint venture with Atlas Energy in 2010, and later battled Chevron to buy Atlas–but Chevron won, so RIL became a jv partner with Chevron. RIL currently has 3 U.S. shale joint ventures: the Chevron jv in the Marcellus (owns 40% of that acreage), a jv with Carrizo Oil & Gas in the northeast PA Marcellus (owns 60% of that acreage), and a jv with Pioneer Natural Resources in the Texas Eagle Ford (owns 45% of that acreage). Back in 2015, RIL signaled they are looking to dump all of their U.S. shale assets (see 
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 
Blasting and drilling work in Lebanon County, PA related to building the Mariner East 2 Pipeline may have caused old deposits of MTBE (a gasoline additive) that had been stored at an old Sunoco facility to dislodge and migrate–into a nearby farmer’s water well. A subcontractor doing blasting work on Sept. 11 experienced “complications” during a detonation. Pieces of rock and debris hit a nearby house and swimming pool. Not a good thing. That blasting may also have led to the migration of MTBE to a nearby farm where MTBE had not previously been detected. Also not a good thing. Sunoco used to operate the Quentin terminal from 1940 to 1993 that served as a petroleum storage facility for the original Mariner East Pipeline–that flowed petroleum. That pipeline has since been repurposed and now flows natural gas liquids. Leaks from the old storage facility were known to have contaminated the ground in the area. It appears the blasting may have disturbed some of the pollution sitting under ground…
In July 2016 MDN told you about a smallish, but important pipeline project in the Delmarva Peninsula area, which includes most of Delaware and portions of Maryland and Virginia. Eastern Shore Natural Gas’ 2017 System Expansion project will bring new sources of natgas from an interconnection Eastern Shore has with the mighty TETCo (Texas Eastern Company) pipeline near Philadelphia (see 
The debate rages, both nationally and on the state level (in Pennsylvania, anyway) about the best way to reduce fugitive methane. That is, to stop methane from leaking out of pipes and into the atmosphere where it supposedly contributes to mythical man-made global warming. Leaving aside the nonsensical global warming stuff, it’s in the best interests of any producer (or pipeline company) to ensure no methane molecules leak out of the system. It’s the stuff they extract and sell! They don’t want their inventory flying away into heaven. The debate is how best to ensure less methane leaks. On one side you have the typical Big Government types that want to regulate everything, down to the type of equipment you use to detect leaks and the methods for fixing it. We have nothing against common sense regulations, but as everyone knows, government tends to screw things up, rather than fix things. On the other side you have drillers and midstream companies who content “just give us a standard and let us figure out how best to meet that standard.” Case in point is Southwestern Energy. Southwestern launched a leak detection and fixing program five years ago–and has dramatically cut the amount of methane leaking from its operations. Southwestern, and others, show us the way it should be done, WITHOUT needing onerous regulations from the federal government or from the regulation-happy PA Gov. Tom Wolf…
The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) is offering $1 million in grants to companies willing to build “alternative fuel infrastructure projects” in Pennsylvania. What the heck is that? CNG (compress natural gas) fueling stations, propane fueling stations, and electric vehicle charging stations. The catch? The fueling stations must be open and available to the general public, and must be located with the “designated alternative fuel corridors” of certain interstate highways: I-76, I-276, I-476, I-70, I-95, and I-80. PA wants to goose the use of alternative fuels. Here’s the deets on the program…
Last week the radicals at Big Green group PennFuture launched an advertising campaign that targets both U.S. Steel Corp. and the might Shell ethane cracker. The ad campaign, called “Your Toxic Neighbor” includes big ads on the sides of buses and on billboards in the Pittsburgh region. From the beginning of PA Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration, PennFuture radicals have populated his administration. Two PennFuture radicals previously in the Wolf cabinet are now gone: former Secretary of Policy, John Hanger (now gone, supposedly to spend more time with his wife and daughter in Massachusetts) and former Secretary of the Dept. of Environmental Protection, John Quigley (fired for conspiring with Big Green groups and getting caught doing it). The one remaining PennFuture radical still in the Wolf cabinet is Secretary of the Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR), Cindy Dunn. Time for Wolf to show her the door too (see