Marcellus Drilling News

Delaware County (PA) | Energy Services | Huntingdon County (PA) | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Sunoco Logistics | Washington County

Mariner East 2 Pipeline Constructions Begins Across PA
February 21, 2017February 21, 2017

Pop the cork on the champagne bottle! Sunoco Logistics Partners has begun construction of the Mariner East 2–a $2.5 billion, 306-mile natural gas liquids (NGL) pipeline that will run from eastern Ohio through the state of Pennsylvania to the Marcus Hook refinery near Philadelphia. Last week the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) gave its final approval for the project (see Finally! PA DEP Issues Final Permits for Mariner East 2 Pipeline). It didn’t take long for a coordinated attack from the the enviro left–THE Delaware Riverkeeper, the Philadelphia-based Clean Air Council and the Mountain Watershed Association (see Maya & Friends Sue (Once Again) to Stop Mariner East 2 Pipe). However, their efforts have (so far) failed, as we observed yesterday (see Last Minute Attacks Fail to Stop Mariner East 2 Pipeline Progress). Although you can’t discount a liberal judge throwing up roadblocks, the very good news is that construction has begun across PA–in Delaware County in the east, Huntingdon County in central PA, and Washington County in the west…
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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Research

Frackenstein Returns – Insights on Microbes in Fracked M-U Wells
February 21, 2017February 21, 2017

For the first time, scientists reconstructed the genetic material from microbes in shale formations (represented here) being drilled for natural gas – click for larger version

Last year MDN shared with you the news that researchers from Ohio State University analyzed the genomes of microorganisms (i.e. bacteria) that live in Utica Shale wells and found little communities of microscopic critters that live in those shale wells, including a brand new critter that lives only in fracked Utica Shale wells (see Frackenstein! Researchers Find New Life Form in Fracked Utica Wells). The hypothesis is that fracking itself created this new mutated life form. The researchers call this new microorganism “Frackibacter” (pronounced frack-uh-back-tor). We call it Frackenstein! Who knew fracking didn’t destroy life, but actually creates it?! Not long after the original announcement, those same researchers, in poring over their data, discovered those tiny critters may actually INCREASE natural gas output from the well (see Frackenstein 2: Gassy Utica Critters May Increase Well Output!). Since that time the same researchers have continued to review their data and now have important insights to add: microbes from the surface get injected deep in the earth during the fracking process. And those microbes do a good job of adapting and surviving, even in an environment with a lot of chemicals and minerals. That adaptation means more methane is produced, but it also means more corrosion of pipes and equipment. The researchers hope scientists will use this information to produce better fracking fluids and equipment used to extract natural gas…
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Electrical Generation | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Regulation | Statewide OH

OH Fight to Re-Regulate Electric Industry – Impacts on Shale
February 21, 2017February 21, 2017

In January we brought to your attention a developing situation–a fight, really–by a few large regulated electric utilities that seek to have Ohio re-regulate the electric industry (see OH Power Cos. Try to Stop Gas-Fired Plants with “Re-Regulation”). We make no bones about the fact we think that’s a very poor idea. It will have the effect of raising electric rates for consumers, and eliminate unregulated shale gas power plants. It is a move by big corporations to eliminate competition–using Ohio’s laws do it. Three of the state’s biggest electric utilities trying to do this: FirstEnergy, American Electric Power, and Dayton Power and Light. Shame on them. One of the most vocal critics of re-regulation is Bill Siderewicz, the owner of Clean Energy Future (based in Boston). Clean Energy is in the process of building two Utica gas-powered electric plants in Lordstown, spending more than a billion dollars to do it. If re-regulation happens, those plants won’t open. Is there a case to be made for re-regulation? Is Siderewicz correct in his assessment that re-regulation is simply re-monopolization under a new name? A recent article in the Youngstown Vindicator does a good job of presenting both sides of this very important issue…
Read More “OH Fight to Re-Regulate Electric Industry – Impacts on Shale”
CNG/LNG | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Summit County

OH Company Joins Team to Develop Low-Pressure CNG Tank for Cars
February 21, 2017February 21, 2017

A. Schulman, Inc., headquartered in Fairlawn, OH, supplies plastic compounds and resins which are used as raw materials in a variety of markets. Yesterday the company announced that they will join several other companies in a joint effort to develop and produce the world’s first commercially viable low pressure natural gas storage tank for motor vehicles. A year ago MDN brought you news about a breakthrough in CNG (compressed natural gas) tanks for passenger vehicles (see New CNG Tanks on the Way for Passenger Vehicles – Game Changer?). The typical CNG fuel tank is big and bulky and holds compressed gas at a pressure of 3,600 pounds per square inch (psi). United Technologies Corp. innovated a new tank that is much smaller, using “activated carbon adsorbents” technology that will allow CNG to be stored at 1,000 psi. United Technologies licensed their technology to Adsorbed Natural Gas Products, Inc. (ANGP) which will manufacture the new fuel tanks. A. Schulman announced yesterday they are partnering with ANGP to make manufacturing those tanks possible…
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Industrywide Issues | Regulation

Scott Pruitt Confirmed to Lead EPA – Swamp Draining Begins
February 21, 2017February 21, 2017

New EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt

Last Friday Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt was confirmed by the U.S. Senate to become the next Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. This is seriously great news. In 2014 MDN editor Jim Willis moderated a panel discussion at an industry summit held in Oklahoma City and heard Mr. Pruitt in person. Here’s what Jim said at that time: “Be sure to watch the very first video on the Midcontinent page. It is the keynote delivered by Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt. Jim just about stood up to cheer when he talked. Wow! We later joked (in the third session) that we’d be happy to trade our AG in NY for Pruitt any day of the week. Pruitt’s talk was outstanding.” (See Oil & Gas Awards Summits, Looking Back & Looking Forward [Video]). Ever since he was nominated we’ve been jazzed. The EPA under Obama has been a rogue, out-of-control agency. A labor union representing more than 9,000 EPA employees actively opposed Pruitt’s confirmation. We personally think those 9,000 employees should be fired. Reagan did it with recalcitrant air traffic controllers when their union went on strike–and air traffic control is a whole lot more important when it comes to the daily safety of Americans than the EPA. If the employees try to block Pruitt from doing his job–out they go. At any rate, when the final Senate vote was tallied, RINO Susan Collins of Maine once again showed she’d rather be a Democrat than a Republican, voting against Pruitt. On the other side, two scared-to-death-they-won’t-win-reelection-next-year Democrats, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, voted for Pruitt. Mysteriously, the EPA website now welcomes their new Administrator with open arms (funny how that works). Today will be his first day on the job since yesterday was a holiday. Pruitt has already said that Obama’s Clean Power Plan and horrible Waters of the United States regulations are toast. Let the swamp draining begin!…
Read More “Scott Pruitt Confirmed to Lead EPA – Swamp Draining Begins”
CNG/LNG | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Research | Shell

Shell Launches LNG Outlook 2017 – Rapid Growth Ahead
February 21, 2017February 21, 2017

Click for larger version

On Monday, Shell launched its first-ever “LNG Outlook,” an assessment of the global liquefied natural gas (LNG) market. Shell, you may recall, purchased BG in 2016 (announced in 2015), the largest such deal (at $69.7 billion) since Exxon bought Mobil and merged it in. The reason for the purchase? LNG (see LNG Love Story: Shell Makes Play to Buy BG in $69.7B Megamerger). According to the outlook released by Shell yesterday, global demand for unliquefied natural gas is expected to increase by 2% a year between 2015 and 2030, while LNG demand will rise at twice that rate–4 to 5% per year. The outlook says that while many expected a big increase in new LNG supplies that would outpace demand in 2016, something unexpected happened. Demand for LNG kept pace with supply due to a spike in demand coming from Asia and the Middle East. Two of the fastest growing buyers are China and India, growing their imports at a steep clip. Add to that, six new countries began importing LNG last year: Colombia, Egypt, Jamaica, Jordan, Pakistan and Poland. What it all spells is that even with more LNG supplies coming online in the U.S. (and other countries, like Australia), the demand is there to sop up the supply. Here’s the Shell LNG Outlook, first edition…
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Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Tue, Feb 21, 2017
February 21, 2017February 21, 2017

The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: Northeast natgas pipelines – more capacity needed?; PennEast makes more grants; real estate agency doing well in the Utica Shale; Williamsport newspaper editors disagree with PA Gov Wolf severance tax; pipelines coming to Indiana County; raining on the gas market’s parade; will natgas prices avoid a collapse this year?; here comes the next wave of the oil boom; and more!
Read More “Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Tue, Feb 21, 2017”
Earthquakes | Energy Companies | Hilcorp Energy | Industrywide Issues | Lawrence County | Pennsylvania | Regulation

DEP Says Fracking at PA Utica Wells “Likely” Caused Earthquakes
February 20, 2017February 20, 2017

On Friday, the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection held a hastily-called webinar to discuss findings that, frankly, aren’t all that newsworthy or surprising. After 10 months of study, the DEP has concluded that zipper fracking activities by Hilcorp in Lawrence County, PA “likely” caused a series of earthquakes in April 2016 so minor that nobody could feel them. And the DEP concluded this after 10 months of study, when a week before the DEP itself issued the permits to drill in Lawrence County, Hilcorp drilling was shut down about seven miles away, across the border in Mahoning County, Ohio, for potentially causing low-level earthquakes there (see Hilcorp Awarded Permits to Drill 7 New Wells Near Earthquake Zone). It wasn’t exactly rocket science to connect the dots and speculate that fracking over top an active fault had caused the low-level earthquakes on the PA side of the border, as it had on the OH side of the border. As we’ve stressed multiple times here on MDN, earthquakes related to shale are almost always connected with injection wells–when large amounts of liquid are injected near a fault. Earthquakes from fracking activities are rare–like under 10 times, ever, out of millions of fracked wells. Statistically zero. Still, let’s not let a good “crisis” go to waste. The DEP, in releasing a report about the incident (full copy below), said they will work up new regulations to detect and prevent such statistically zero occurrences from happening again…
Read More “DEP Says Fracking at PA Utica Wells “Likely” Caused Earthquakes”
Energy Services | Energy Transfer Partners | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Washington County

Dealing with Pipeline Cos. – Lessons re Rover’s Eminent Domain
February 20, 2017February 20, 2017

Two weeks ago MDN ran a story about the fact that time has run out on recalcitrant landowners in Ohio who have refused to negotiate with Rover Pipeline–and are now being sued using eminent domain (see Time’s Up – Rover Pipe Uses Eminent Domain on Holdout OH Landowners). Because of our nutty (or should we say batty) environmental regulations that require pipeline companies to clear trees only from Oct. 1 to Mar. 31 due to U.S. Fish and Wildlife regulations against disturbing nesting bats, and because the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) was slow off the mark in approving the Rover project, the company must now clear trees in double time. There is no time left to negotiate–even though landowners have had two years to do so. As a last resort, Rover is using eminent domain procedures in court to (yes) force their way onto property and get it ready for construction this summer. Perhaps a little-known fact: Rover also runs through portions of Washington County, PA. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette found a couple of landowners with sad stories about the big bully Rover using eminent domain against them. Look, we’re not unsympathetic. If we owned a farm (as one of the interviewees does) and they want to run the pipeline through a prized hay field, we’d likely be opposed too. However, the story highlights the fact that others in similar circumstances worked hard early on with Rover to reroute the pipeline through their property–and were successful. The moral of the story is this: the pipeline WILL come, your best chance of influencing WHERE it comes happens EARLY in the process…
Read More “Dealing with Pipeline Cos. – Lessons re Rover’s Eminent Domain”
Industrywide Issues | Lease & Royalty Payments | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA Rep. Garth Everett Reintroduces Minimum Royalty Bill, 3rd Time
February 20, 2017February 20, 2017

Third time’s the charm? The Pennsylvania General Assembly convenes for two-year sessions. Almost six years ago during the 2013-2014 session of the General Assembly, PA Rep. Garth Everett introduced “minimum royalty” legislation that would guarantee PA landowners would get minimum royalty payments of 12.5%–regardless of any kind of post-production expenses. It was called House Bill (HB) 1684 and it failed to even come to the floor for a vote (see PA Royalty Bill 1684 Off the Agenda, Likely for Rest of 2014). Everett re-introduced it during the 2015-2016 session, renamed HB 1391. Once again, near the end of the term, it failed to get a full vote (see PA Royalty Bill Dead for Another Year – Supporters Vow to Fight On). Everett is not giving up. Last Friday he re-introduced the bill for the third time, this time called HB 557. Does it stand a chance?…
Read More “PA Rep. Garth Everett Reintroduces Minimum Royalty Bill, 3rd Time”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide PA | Sunoco Logistics

Last Minute Attacks Fail to Stop Mariner East 2 Pipeline Progress
February 20, 2017February 20, 2017

We appear to be in the final death throes of radical environmental efforts to block the construction of Mariner East 2–a $2.5 billion, 306-mile natural gas liquids (NGL) pipeline that will run from eastern Ohio through the state of Pennsylvania to the Marcus Hook refinery near Philadelphia. Last week the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) gave its final approval for the project (see Finally! PA DEP Issues Final Permits for Mariner East 2 Pipeline). It didn’t take long for a coordinated attack from the the enviro left–THE Delaware Riverkeeper, the Philadelphia-based Clean Air Council and the Mountain Watershed Association (see Maya & Friends Sue (Once Again) to Stop Mariner East 2 Pipe). On Thursday they asked the PA Environmental Hearing Board to block construction until they can figure out a new way to try and stop the project, claiming “irreparable harm” will happen if construction proceeds. On Friday a judge refused their request. They asked the judge to reconsider a few hours later, after they had manufactured new “evidence” for the judge. Meanwhile, supervisors in West Goshen (a Philly suburb) filed a complaint against Mariner East 1 and 2 with the PA Public Utility Commission, in a apparent effort to stop any new construction there. Try as they might to stop it, this pipeline is about to get built…
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Arsenal Resources | Energy Companies | Mountaineer Keystone

Mountaineer Keystone Renames Itself Arsenal Resources
February 20, 2017May 18, 2017

In October 2014, Mountaineer Keystone, a pure play Marcellus/Utica driller headquartered in Pittsburgh, bought out PDC Mountaineer for half a billion dollars, creating a company with 181,000 net acres totally focused on the northeast (see Major New Player in the Marcellus Emerges: Mountaineer Keystone). Mountaineer Keystone got its start in 2010 when founder/CEO Rob Kozel formed the initial management team from former Texas Keystone people. In 2011 the company took a boatload of money from First Reserve, an energy investment firm. We don’t have the back story, but in November 2015, Mountaineer announced that Kozel was out as CEO, and in his place the board has selected David Wood, the current Chairman of the Board at Mountaineer Keystone (see Shake-up at the Top of Marcellus Driller Mountaineer Keystone). Last Friday Mountaineer changed its name–to Arsenal Resources…
Read More “Mountaineer Keystone Renames Itself Arsenal Resources”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Lancaster County | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Williams

Small Group Begins Sleepover to Block Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline
February 20, 2017February 20, 2017

As we reported last week, a small group of anti-fossil fuelers were planning on grabbing their sleeping bags and heading to Amish country for a sleepover at the Magic Tree House (see Antis Plan a Weekend Campout to Protest Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline). Beginning Friday night, a group of about 50 launched their “encampment,” calling it The Stand. Supposedly this is a “peaceful” protest to prevent Williams from digging a trench across the property where the flimsy tree house shack is built. Organizers claim they don’t want any violence, like that in North Dakota (similar “peaceful” protest). They also claim someone would be present at the location from now until they are forcibly removed by law enforcement, in an illegal attempt to block construction of the pipeline. It’s a good thing the ~2.4 million miles of underground pipelines in the U.S. got in the ground before leftist enviro-nutters decided to make an issue out of it…
Read More “Small Group Begins Sleepover to Block Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline”
Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Spectra Energy

Spectra Energy Still Committed to Building New England Pipeline
February 20, 2017February 20, 2017

On Friday midstream (pipeline) company Spectra Energy issued its fourth quarter and full year 2016 update. At the end of update, Spectra provides details on projects it will complete in 2017, those in development to be completed in 2018, and the final category of projects “in development.” It is that last one that caught our eye, because there is one project listed: Access Northeast, the pipeline project Spectra wants to build to bring more Marcellus/Utica shale gas to New England. Our quick take of what Spectra said: When the New England states get their heads out of their…lobster brisket…and pass laws and regulations getting on the same page, we’ll be here ready to build the project and make it happen. That is, Spectra has not given up on Access Northeast–and neither should we. Here’s the expansion projects update section, which includes not only the update for Access Northeast, but details for other projects located in the Marcellus/Utica region…
Read More “Spectra Energy Still Committed to Building New England Pipeline”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | PennEast Pipeline | Pipelines

NJ Sierra Club Tries to Pedal More Lies About PennEast Pipeline
February 20, 2017February 20, 2017

PennEast Pipeline, to their credit, is done being silent when it comes to the lies and distortions of groups like the radical (and lying) New Jersey Sierra Club. Recently PennEast called out the Sierra Club (and THE Delaware Riverkeeper) for their lying ways, without using the word “liar” (see PennEast Pipeline Calls THE Dela. Riverkeeper & Sierra Club Liars). Now the word liar IS used, with respect to the Sierra Club’s latest 100% false claims that PennEast threatens drinking water and is somehow comparable to the Oroville Dam debacle in California. It is a scurrilous accusation, being strongly refuted by PennEast…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Garrett County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Maryland | Regulation | Statewide MD

How Maryland Screwed Garrett County Residents Out of Shale Money
February 20, 2017February 20, 2017

Maryland’s heavily Democrat legislature is doing its best to slap a permanent ban on fracking in the state (see Maryland Democrat Lawmakers Continue to Torpedo Fracking). Such a ban would be a disaster for the state–and for landowners in places like Garrett County (far western MD) where there is Marcellus Shale gas. However, deep and long-lasting damage has already been done by Maryland legislators. In Garrett County energy companies once held leases on 100,000 acres of land–before the legislature and governor diddled away for four years. Today? There are remaining leases on 4,000 acres. That change represents millions of dollars that did not go into the pockets of MD landowners. Maryland seems to be in a race with New York to see which state is the most energy unfriendly state in the country…
Read More “How Maryland Screwed Garrett County Residents Out of Shale Money”