FERC Allows KM to Begin Broad Run Expansion Project in KY
Last week MDN brought you news about Kinder Morgan’s Broad Run Expansion Project will expand transportation capacity of natural gas on the existing Tennessee Gas Pipeline system. Antis tried to stop the project, but FERC rejected their pleas (see FERC Denies Anti Request to Stop KM’s Broad Run Expansion Project). The Broad Run Expansion includes the construction of two new compressor stations in Kanawha County, WV, one new compressor station in Davidson County, TN, and one new compressor station in Madison County, KY. Tennessee Gas also expects to increase compression capacity by modifying two of its existing compressor stations in Powell and Boyd counties in KY by replacing existing capacity with new, higher-rated horsepower compression units. The project will provide an extra 200,000 dekatherms per day (Dth/d) of transportation capacity along the same capacity path as the Broad Run Flexibility project, which was placed in service on Nov. 1, 2015. All of the additional gas will come from Antero Resources and their Marcellus/Utica program. On Wednesday FERC gave Kinder Morgan permission to upgrade the two existing compressor stations in KY, but (for now) that’s all–something called a “partial notice to proceed”…
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The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) recently commissioned a survey of residents in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Virginia–so-called “battleground” states that can swing either Democrat or Republican come election-time. The survey found that an average of 80% of the respondents support energy infrastructure spending, by both government and private companies. Which is remarkable. When was the last time you heard of 80% of the American electorate agreeing on anything? This survey takes the wind out of the sails of the “keep it in the ground” movement of fossil fuel haters, like those opposing pipeline projects like NEXUS, Rover, PennEast, Atlantic Coast, Atlantic Sunrise, Mountain Valley, et cetera et cetera. Here’s the results of the NAM survey…
The Commonwealth Foundation for Public Policy Alternatives, commonly known as the Commonwealth Foundation or CF, is Pennsylvania’s free-market think tank. CF’s mission is simple: Transform free-market ideas into public policies so all Pennsylvanians can flourish. In a recent post on the CF blog site, the organization makes the strong case that although PA’s levy on shale drillers in the state is called an impact “fee”–it’s actually a tax. Quoting the Independent Fiscal Office (IFO), the CF post says, “the current impact fee is equivalent to a 6.9% severance tax–higher than severance taxes in Louisiana, Wyoming, and West Virginia.” Here’s what CF has to say about PA’s severance TAX…
In 2015 the federal Environmental Protection Agency, after spending four years to evaluate 950 studies on hydraulic fracturing, conducted nine of their own original studies, and came to the conclusion that there is no “widespread, systemic impacts on drinking water” from fracking (see 
For some time we’ve tracked the progress of an LNG export plant planned for the eastern shore of Nova Scotia, the Bear Head LNG project. Of all the Canadian LNG export projects, Bear Head seems to have the most momentum. The project has received most (if not all) of the necessary permits it needs to proceed. But it’s not been without its bumps along the way (see 
Antero Resources, one of the biggest drillers in the Marcellus, is going shopping for cash. In September Antero’s midstream (i.e. pipeline) subsidiary went shopping for cash and got $650 million (see 
Richard Zeits is an oil and gas, commodities, and long/short equity research analyst. He writes on the Seeking Alpha website and is, without a doubt, the best writer we read on o&g matters on the SA website. So when we spotted an article he’s written about Chesapeake Energy, that its “distress risk” (i.e. bankruptcy) is now “remote”–we took notice. It wasn’t long ago that many were betting the company would declare bankruptcy (see 
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: Rockefellers paid for #ExxonKnew AND pulled in NY AG Schneiderman; Chesapeake still #1 driller in the Ohio Utica; Duke study ignores improvements in Marcellus road report; US shale will kill oil price rally; majority of biz execs happier since Trump elected; Asian LNG price goes above $8/Mcf; and more!
Gulfport Energy reports they have just snagged another 12,600 net undeveloped Utica acres located dry gas window of northern Monroe County, Ohio for $87 million. When you run the math, that works out to be $6,905 per acre–far less than the recent $10,000/acre prices we’ve seen. Half of the acreage is “held by production,” meaning wells have either been drilled or are already producing. Analysts figure the land, which is located next to land already leased by Gulfport, will yield something like 105 new wells for the company. Gulfport is head over heels in love with the Utica and plans, as we noted in November, to run an average of six drilling rigs in the Utica in 2017 (see 
It’s certainly not THE highest, but it is certainly one of the highest fines we’ve seen assessed by the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP). Yesterday the DEP fined Rice Energy $3.5 million “for multiple violations of environmental laws at 10 well sites and 6 pipeline locations.” The violations, spanning “several years,” occurred at sites in Washington and Greene counties. Here’s the details…
The worldwide Baker Hughes rig count was up by 5 in November, from 920 in October to 925 in November. That reverses a brief slide back in October when rigs worldwide slide back by 14. However, the rig count in the U.S. went up for the fifth month in a row. The average U.S. rig count for November was 580, up 36 from the 544 counted in October. That’s a two month increase of 71! The Marcellus/Utica rig count was up for the fourth month running. In November the M/U rig count went up by 4 (second month in a row it’s gone up 4) with 2 additions in PA (now 27 rigs) and 2 in OH (now 16 rigs). WV stayed even running with an average of 10 rigs…
The Northeast Gas Association (NGA) is a regional trade association that focuses on education and training, technology research and development, operations, planning, and increasing public awareness of natural gas in the Northeast U.S. NGA represents natural gas distribution companies, transmission companies, liquefied natural gas importers, and associate member companies. These companies provide natural gas to over 10 million customers in nine states. The NGA has just released a 96-page report called the 2016 Statistical Guide (full copy below)–a sort of “year in review” for the gas industry in the northeast. If you could boil it all down, the word that appears prominently throughout is “delay” with respect to important natgas pipeline projects. From the Constitution, which should have already been built by now, to smaller projects, delays were the prominent trend for 2016…
Once a month our favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), issues a Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO). The EIA issued their latest edition on Tuesday. We have a full copy below. We’ve grabbed out the section on natural gas because it includes a couple of key points: (1) EIA predicts that natural gas production in the U.S. for 2016 will see a healthy decline over 2015 levels–1.3 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) less in 2016. That’s the first annual production decline since 2005! (2) The EIA predicts the average price for natural gas at the benchmark Henry Hub will climb from $2.49/Mcf (thousand cubic feet) in 2016 to a whopping $3.27/Mcf in 2017. Why the jump? Growing domestic natural gas consumption, along with higher pipeline exports to Mexico and liquefied natural gas exports. Here’s the natgas section of the STEO, along with a copy of the full report…
Chesapeake Energy is leveraged up to its neck with elaborate loans up loans and notes (IOUs) upon notes. We don’t know how they keep it all straight. Must take an entire department full of CPAs to track it all. No doubt the CPAs escaped CEO Doug Lawler’s ax when he was chopping 1,500 jobs from the company (see