ND Protesters Pollute the Water/Land They’re Protesting to Protect
Here’s a story fake news outlets like the Washington Post refuse to cover. The bought-and-paid-for protesters in North Dakota, supposedly protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline over concerns it may pollute local water supplies, have themselves created a dire situation with their illegal protest camp that now threatens the same local water supply (used by Indian tribes) that they supposedly are protesting to protect! The situation perfectly encapsulates the brain-dead philosophy and motivation of this group of environmental anarchists. Forbes contributor David Blackmon has written a brilliant article that should be on the front page of every news outlet in the country. But you won’t find this story in any of the fake “mainstream” news outlets–because the story doesn’t support the fake narrative they’re trying to get you to believe. Read the following and try not to let your blood boil…
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Employees of federal government agencies, like the Environmental Protection Agency, are supposed to conduct official business of the agency in the open. That is, employees, BY LAW, cannot shield their communications–phone, email, instant messages, etc.–by using encrypted services. The law is there so those auditing, or making requests via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), have access to just how the people’s business is getting done. Republicans on the House Committee on Science, Space & Technology have reason to believe that some career employees at EPA are breaking that law by shielding their communications (i.e. colluding with radical environmentalists)–and Congress is demanding answers…
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: UGI aims to bring natgas to Tunkhannock, PA; time to let Sunoco build Mariner East 2; Range Resources’ landlord puts office building up for sale; Energy Transfer completes deal to get $3.4B in funding for pipeline projects; Rockies natgas revival; learning to frack; energy exports boost allies; and more!
Yesterday Chesapeake Energy provided a glimpse into their plans for 2017. In Chessy’s “gudiance” for 2017, we learn that the company plans to up the number of active drilling rigs (nationwide) from 10 to 17. We also learn that last year Chessy spent ~$1.75 billion to drill 213 new wells, and place 428 wells into production–the difference between the two numbers being they finished up already-drilled wells, or DUCs. This year? They will spend ~$2.5 billion to drill ~400 new wells–essentially doubling the number of wells drilled–and place ~450 into production. The only problem (from our perspective) is that most of the drilling will happen in places other than the Marcellus/Utica. Of the new wells they plan to drill, only 10-15 new wells will get drilled in the Marcellus, and 40-50 new wells in the Utica. Chessy says they will complete and turn into production 50-60 Marcellus wells in 2017, and 70-80 Utica wells. Translation: Not a lot of new drilling in our neighborhood, with more of an emphasis on completing already-drilled wells…
Midstream (i.e. pipeline) giant Williams has just created a brand new executive position–Chief Operating Officer (COO). The position was created for Micheal G. Dunn, formerly president of Questar Pipeline and executive vice president of Questar Corporation. Does Questar ring a bell? It should. Questar is, or rather was, a Rockies-based integrated natural gas company operating through three principal subsidiaries. In an attempt to diversify out of the northeast, Dominion bought Questar in September for $4.4 billion (see 
FTS International is the largest private (no publicly traded stock) well completion company in North America. In 2015 FTS fracked EQT’s ginormous Scotts Run 591340 dry Utica well in Greene County, PA producing an initial production (IP) of 72.9 million cubic feet of natural gas per day (see 
A California company that manufactures small electric-generating plants that run on natural gas, has just sold three more of their “microturbines” to midstreamers in the Marcellus Shale play. This is not the first time Capstone Turbine Corporation has sold their devices to pipeline companies in the Marcellus (see 
Anti-pipeline insanity has metastasized in Tompkins County, NY (i.e. Ithaca). Members of the Tompkins County Energy and Economic Development Task Force object to building seven miles of 10-inch natural gas pipeline in the Lansing area (suburb of Ithaca)–because the pipeline flows a fossil fuel. They have objected to the point that the local utility company wanting to build it, NYSEG (New York State Electric & Gas), has floated an alternative plan: Build a compressor station for existing customers, and no new customers are allowed to receive natgas service. Ever. Period. Talk about nuts! The tinfoil hat folks on the Task Force instead want NYSEG (or someone else) to invest in so-called alternative energy projects to meet the energy demand for new customers. That is, the Task Force is prejudiced against the type of energy residents prefer to use–to the point of forcing another choice on them. Only in the Communist Paradise of Ithaca…
We want to alert you to an upcoming webinar that will be worth your time. On Feb. 27 at 2 pm, NGI (Natural Gas Intelligence) will host a webinar titled, “Cracking the Ethane Code in Appalachia,” all about the Shell ethane cracker. NGI’s ace reporter Jamison Cocklin (MDN editor Jim Willis knows Jamison and has the highest regard for his reporting and writing) will moderate. On the call will be an all-star cast: Don Rush, VP of CONSOL Energy; Jim Cooper, American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers; Denise Brinley, PA Department of Community and Economic Development; and Danielle Sandusky, Level 2 Energy. The webinar will help answer questions about the size and scope of the cracker, whether (and how) the cracker will impact drilling decisions, what about competition from other crackers along the Gulf Coast, and more. Below is more information, and a 
We have a concern about the kind of education being offered by the very high-priced University of Pittsburgh. What are the professors actually teaching to those young skulls full of mush? Judging by the kinds of editorials coming from the student-run Pitt News newspaper, we’d have a big concern about the education (or rather, miseducation) coming from Pitt, especially if we were parents of students at Pitt. In today’s editorial, titled “No Mariner East II pipeline, period.”, the writers actually, fantastically say this: “But as our levels of dependency on oil combined with estimates of what’s left in the earth come to a head in the next few decades, investing in infrastructure to increase our fossil fuel consumption is both unwise and irresponsible.” Are these young people just really stupid? Or have they been miseducated? Do they not know that the same flawed, “We’re going to run out of fossil fuels any decade now” thinking has been around for the past 40+ years? And that we have MORE supplies of fossil fuels today than we thought possible just a decade ago? The entire editorial is a rail against Mariner East 2, and against all pipelines, because they flow fossil fuels. This is nuttery. And frankly, it’s not acceptable from so-called “educated” students at a reputable university. We think an investigation should be launched into how this sort of obviously flawed thinking can happen at a place like Pitt…
Noble Energy, a driller with a significant presence in the Marcellus but with a bigger presence in other shale plays, (and operations in other countries and offshore), announced in February that of the four shale plays they operate in onshore in the U.S.–the DJ Basin, Eagle Ford, Delaware and Marcellus–in 2016 they plan to focus on the first three and scale back in the Marcellus, limiting their Marcellus activity to completing previously drilled wells (see 
Yesterday MDN’s favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), issued our favorite monthly report–the Drilling Productivity Report (DPR). The DPR is the EIA’s best guess, based on expert data crunchers, as to how much each of the U.S.’s seven major shale plays will produce for both oil and natural gas in the coming month. For the past four reports, estimating production for November, December, January, and February, Marcellus natgas has increased. The trend continues in this latest report, which forecasts production for the coming month of March. In fact, EIA says natgas production for six of the seven major shale plays will go up–by a lot. In fact, if the numbers prove to be true, the combined natural gas production for the seven major plays will hit a new record high of 49.1 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) in March. Two months ago the EIA predicted natgas production in the Marcellus would zoom up by 160 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d). Last month EIA predicted Marcellus production would go up another huge 188 MMcf/d. This month, it’s even higher: March production will go up 192 MMcf/d! The other big story (for us) is just how much natgas production is rising in the Texas Permian Basin–up another 129 MMcf/d. But wait, the Permian is an oil play, right? Correct. However, more than just oil comes out of the ground–plenty of “associated” natural gas also comes out, along with the oil. The Permian is seeing white hot levels of new drilling. The more oil drilling, the more associated natural gas that comes along with it. Below we have the latest report, long with some analysis…