Judge Certifies Royalty Class Action Against EQT, CONSOL in VA
This is a story we have not previously covered on MDN. It goes back to 2010 and involves two of the biggest Marcellus/Utica drillers–although in this case the issue is not related to the Marcellus/Utica. Landowners in southwestern Virginia previously sued both EQT and CONSOL Energy’s CNX subsidiary over charges that EQT and CNX shorted landowners out of royalties owed to them, claiming post-production expenses, deductions for severance taxes, etc. that should not have been taken. The wells drilled were conventional wells–some 3,347 EQT wells and 4,261 CNX wells. The vertical wells targeted methane extraction from coal seams–not horizontal wells through shale, which is far more common today. Some lawsuits were green lighted as class action cases in 2013, with a potential for “thousands of landowners” to participate in sharing $30 million in payouts. Last week a federal judge certified three of the five class action lawsuits, allowing them to move forward…
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A few weeks ago MDN reported on an upcoming meeting (to be held March 27) in Monroe County, OH to announce a new project to build a 485-megawatt Utica gas-fired electric plant (see 
West Virginia has become a hotbed of pipeline projects. You don’t realize it until you stand back and consider all of the proposed projects for major interstate natural gas (or gas liquids) pipelines. There are, in fact, nine such major projects on the board. Some of them either are, or soon will be, under construction. Not all of them are yet approved by their respective regulatory agencies–but most are. If we were to bet, we’d bet most of the nine will get built. Can you name all nine projects? Let us give you some help: Atlantic Coast, Mountain Valley, Western Marcellus, WB XPress, Leach XPress, Mountaineer XPress, Buckeye XPress, Rover, and Appalachian Storage Hub. Actually that last one, the storage hub, is a series of six pipelines–but we lump them all into one project. Here’s a summary of each project, most of them coming soon to the Mountain State…
Antero Resources is one of the biggest drillers in the Marcellus/Utica. Antero can’t seem to buy enough Marcellus acreage, mostly in West Virginia. Last year the company snapped up close to 80,000 Marcellus acres, mostly in WV (see 
EXCO Resources was once a sizable player in the Marcellus. They still have 145,000 net acres in the Marcellus, with 124 horizontal Marcellus wells drilled and in production. However, EXCO, as we pointed out a year ago, has abandoned the Marcellus at this point (see 
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: The implications of the Dimock verdict; Maryland Gov. Hogan’s “flexibility” on fracking; Gov. Cuomo pressures PSC to cover up clean energy costs; Supreme Court denies Trump effort to halt EPA water rule; Cheniere LNG export milestone; US shale – the new swing producer; and more!
Big news broke Friday afternoon. Short history lesson for those who are new to MDN: There were 14 families along the Carter Road area of Dimock Township, PA (Susquehanna County) that reportedly experienced turbidity in their water from methane migrating, supposedly from Cabot’s drilling operations nearby. The state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) investigated in 2010 and declared Cabot guilty and imposed stiff fines and requirements, including a requirement to install permanent water treatment systems at each home and even an offer to each of the families to pay twice what their property was worth at the time (see 
As sometimes happens, Williams has had to file 27 eminent domain lawsuits against landowners in northeastern and central Pennsylvania–landowners who have refused to negotiate with the company to allow the now FERC-approved Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline to cross their property. We understand the reluctance of some landowners who would rather not have the pipeline cross their property. But we also understand the necessity of the project–and the need to be reasonable. Some landowners are not reasonable. And so eminent domain is a rare, option-of-last-resort necessity in those cases. But don’t shed too many tears for landowners now being sued. One PA landowner in Luzerne County (Wilkes-Barre area) was originally offered $260,000 for an easement on 7.6 acres of land ($34,211/acre!). He refused. The price has now dropped to $225,000. Guess he should have signed before eminent domain was on the table…
The Millennium Pipeline stretches ~244 miles from Independence in Steuben County, NY to Buena Vista in Rockland County, NY. The Millennium, which is supplied by local production and storage fields and interconnecting upstream pipelines, serves customers along its route in New York’s Southern Tier region and helps meet the energy needs of northeast markets. In August 2016, the Millennium filed an application for what it calls its Eastern System Upgrade (see 
Pennsylvania State Rep. Jason Ortitay, Republican who represents of Washington and Allegheny counties in southwestern PA, last week introduced PA House Bill (HB) 1003 which would require the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) to compile, organize and list all permits related to oil and gas drilling in two places: in one location in the Pennsylvania Bulletin, and on the DEP website. At first blush this seemed a bit odd to us. In the past MDN published a research report called the Marcellus and Utica Shale Databook. In producing that work, MDN editor Jim Willis would regularly (3x per year) access DEP permit data–which is available from the DEP website. Granted, the information is not the easiest to find, and when you locate it, you must download it and suck it into a database to get any meaningful value out of it. However, on a basic level, permit data IS available to the public from the DEP website–right now. We read a copy of the proposed bill (see it below). MDN’s takeaway after reading the bill: This bill has more to do with “encouraging” the DEP to speed up permit approvals than it does with making information publicly available…
Positive economic signs continue to pop up with respect to Shell’s multi-billion dollar ethane cracker project in Beaver County, PA. Here’s the latest major economic impact from the project. A local developer has filed for a state grant to build a massive new housing project 2.5 miles from the cracker site. The new project calls for 450 housing units, retail space, a golf course, swimming pool and parking garage. What’s that? What happens after the cracker is built and the “temporary” workers, who would be living in this new complex for the next 5-10 years, leave? Great question! Answer: Turn it into a retirement community…
Events related (or of interest) to the Marcellus and Utica Shale, primarily pro-drilling events.
Extremist environmental protesters who don’t want to hear any viewpoints other than their own (i.e., fascists who LOVE to suppress free speech), got a bit violent and ugly on Tuesday and shut down a meeting at Duke University (headquarters for insane environmentalism) where the Acting Chairwoman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Cheryl LaFleur, was scheduled to speak. Beyond Extreme Energy was one of the groups behind the illegal action. They have dogged FERC Commissioners for years. Perhaps some in the crowd were the same Beyond Extreme Energy lunatics that Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commissioner Rob Powelson previously called “jihadists”–because they show up at FERC Commissioners’ homes and threaten them (see