$1.1B Utica-Powered Electric Plant in Columbiana Gets State Approval
Natural gas-fired electric plants are a really big deal throughout the Marcellus/Utica region. Each time one of these plants gets built, it injects upward of $1 billion (or more) into the local and regional economy, creates 500 or more temporary jobs and 25-30 permanent jobs. And the gas it uses…oy vey! They are an important new customer for the abundant supplies of natural gas we have. So it’s a big deal when a new plant gets announced, and then, when that plant gets officially approved. Last October (nearly a year ago now) Advanced Power Services announced they want to build a second mega-electric generating plant that taps into and uses Ohio’s Utica Shale. The new plant will generate a whopping 1,100 megawatts of electricity and be located in Columbiana County, OH (see New $1.1B Utica-Powered Electric Plant Coming to Columbiana County). Good news: the Ohio Power Siting Board has given the project its blessing. Construction will begin in January 2017…
Read More “$1.1B Utica-Powered Electric Plant in Columbiana Gets State Approval”
Ohio’s Ninth District Court of Appeals has upheld the right of NEXUS Gas Transmission to enter onto private land in order to conduct surveys for a potential pipeline route. Ohio’s Sixth District Court previously made a similar ruing in favor of NEXUS. Top energy law firm Bricker & Eckler argued for NEXUS in both cases and turns in the following report:
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: Utica Shale decline curves 2014 to 2016; Permian gas output remains high; Trump promises $50 trillion energy economic stimulus; Kinder Mogan’s biggest failure; trends in midstream M&A; why Japan’s LNG demand will increase; and more!
With apologies to Meghan Trainor, the second and final day at Shale Insight was “All about that Trump, bout that Trump–no Hillary.” However, as exciting as it was to hear The Donald (we’ll share the notes we took during his speech below), we heard an even better speaker yesterday: A young man (kid, really) by the name of Alex Epstein, author of the book “The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels” and founder of the Center for Industrial Progress. As we did yesterday, we will give you our highlights and impressions of sitting in on several of the days main sessions, followed by a plethora of links to stories from reporters who were there covering the event–mostly those there to cover the Trump speech. We also link to the full text of The Donald’s speech below. Buckle up! Here we go…
A Williams Transco Leidy pipeline ruptured in Lycoming County, PA in June 2015 (see 
Sometimes the boneheaded decisions of others can benefit us. Take, for example, Scotland–where the government has placed a moratorium on fracking until…until the cows come home? Or is it sheep? The Swiss-based company INEOS is a young but rapidly growing chemical company with roughly $40 billion in sales per year. INEOS’ competitors would be companies like BASF, Bayer and Dow Chemical. INEOS has its fingers in a lot of pies. One of those pies is an ethane cracker plant in Grangemouth, Scotland. Because Scotland has not, and apparently will not, frack its own abundant, clean supply of natural gas (which would produce associated amounts of ethane), INEOS is forced to look elsewhere for large supplies of ethane–or shut the plant down. Rather than shut it down, INEOS has contracted with Marcellus/Utica drillers who send their ethane to the Marcus Hook refinery near Philadelphia where it then gets loaded onto ships the length of two football fields–to carry the ethane to places like Grangemouth. The first such shipment of Marcellus/Utica ethane heading to Grangemouth is set to arrive over the next few days. And Scotland’s tragic loss is our great gain, because INEOS has signed contracts to keep our ethane flowing to Grangemouth for the next 15 years…
We don’t mind telling you that the royalty issue in Pennsylvania, specifically passage of House Bill (HB) 1391 to ensure landowners are guaranteed 12.5% royalty checks regardless of post-production costs, is a thorny issue for MDN. We can see both sides of the issue, but tend to favor the landowner side–slightly. The drilling industry knows that there is no bigger booster for them than MDN. So our periodic coverage and editorializing in favor of 1391 is a bone of contention. Drillers are not happy with your faithful editor. A long-time MDN subscriber and friend who works for a sizable driller in PA recently wrote us an email that (a) lays out the case for not tampering with existing, signed contracts, and (b) gently chides MDN for taking the landowners side in this issue. We asked for and received permission to bring you his email. As we responded to our friend, we are interested in getting this issue settled quickly. It breaks our heart to see allies divided. We all need to be firing at the other side, not within our own ranks. MDN is happy to run guest posts and views on this issue (or any issue). This letter writer does a good job, and makes a compelling case, for NOT passing HB 1391. Does he change your mind on the issue?…
The benefits of shale energy are almost too numerous to list. Contrary to the ninny nannies who spit and spout and preen about yelling the sky is falling if we frack one more well–the OPPOSITE is the truth. Shale is GREAT for America, in so many ways. Channeling our inner Donald Trump, “It’s very very great. So great you won’t believe how great it is. You’re gonna love it!” Here’s just one more way shale is great. A researcher from Clemson University (in South Carolina) poured over mortgage data for the state of Pennsylvania. As you know, not all of PA is blessed with being located in the Marcellus Shale–but much of it is. The intrepid Clemson researcher found in reviewing records from 2004 to 2011 that those with mortgages who live in areas where there is Marcellus Shale defaulted on those mortgages 58% LESS than the statewide average. That is, shale means there’s more money to pay bills, a mortgage being one of them. Might we say that the Marcellus can literally save the family farm? Yes, we can say it, and back it up with data! The Clemson researcher also found living in a shale region boosts your FICO credit score…
In the southeastern U.S. much of the Big Green opposition to pipelines has centered on preventing pipeline companies from entering properties to complete required surveys. If you can stop the process before it begins (so they reason), it saves them from having to hop in the VW Microbus and go to (pot smoking) anti-pipeline rallies all over the place. Peace man! Landowners in West Virginia and Virginia have challenged the rights of various pipeline companies to enter their property. It happened with EQT’s Mountain Valley Pipeline (see 
Running a bulldozer a few feet into a swamp–without written permission–can land you in a lot of hot water. That’s what Spectra Energy is learning following such an incident. Well, we don’t know if it was actually a bulldozer or not, but here is what we do know. On August 28, 2016, Algonquin Gas Transmission (a Sepctra company) experienced a break in the drill stem while attempting the pullback of a 5,000-foot-long HDD (horizontal directional drill) along the Hudson River in New York. The work being done is for Spectra’s Algonquin Incremental Market (AIM) Project. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) had an on-site Compliance Monitor, and that person WAS informed that Algonquin believed the break was within a wetland (i.e. swamp) adjacent to the drill entry side, and that Algonquin would like to “excavate the wetland” which includes removing a few trees, to access the drill stem. The Compliance Monitor (sort of like the old Soviet political officer) told Algonquin that he needed more information before taking such an action. Then it all gets muddled. Algonquin says it was a misunderstanding, and the FERC Compliance Officer says they ignored him (our interpretation of what’s being said). At any rate, the upshot is if Algonquin had waited for the written permission slip from the political officer, er, a, Compliance Monitor, there wouldn’t be a story. But Algonquin went ahead, encroaching on about 381 square feet of swamp–about the size of an average living room. And because of it, FERC has rained down hell fire on Algonquin…
Maya van Rossum, who is THE Delaware Riverkeeper (the river’s mamma), got 182 of her friends, whom she calls “organizations” to sign a letter and sent it to the U.S. Senate demanding (she always demands, never politely asks) for hearings into the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Why? Because they’re actually doing their job–and that just can’t stand. Instead, she wants FERC shut down so no new pipeline projects will get approved. That’s the only acceptable outcome for Mamma Maya. She alleges that FERC is misusing its power under the federal Natural Gas Act. One of Mamma Maya’s friends, CORNball Paul Gierosky (cofounder of COalition to Reroute Nexus, or CORN) says: “FERC is corrupt and needs to be reformed.” What hubris…
Each year the consultants at Deloitte conduct a survey of oil and gas industry professionals. What does this year’s 2016 survey find? The survey, titled “2016 Oil and Gas Industry Survey” (full copy below) finds that 24% of industry executives believe the recovery has already begun, while 33% believe it will begin in early 2017, for a combined 57% who say we’ve either already turned the corner, or soon will. The long, dark night appears to be over and we’re just now seeing the crack of dawn again. Here is what the people who eat, sleep and drink oil and gas say about our cherished industry…
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce recently launched a “What If…?” series to counter the radical “keep it in the ground” movement–a movement that irrationally hates the use of fossil fuels. In August the Chamber released their first such report, titled “What If…Energy Production was Banned on Federal Lands and Waters?” (see 
One of the interesting tidbits to come out of yesterday’s first day of the Shale Insight conference in Pittsburgh was an off-the-cuff remark from Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s special assistant for infrastructure, Yesenia Bane, who said that Gov. Wolf is “willing to talk” with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to ask him to approve the Williams Constitution Pipeline project in the Empire State. Bane said Wolf has met with Williams and other stakeholders in the Constitution project, and apparently Wolf was impressed enough that he’s willing to add his own voice to those calling for an approval of the Constitution. Democrat on Democrat. Mano a mano. Should be interesting, if Wolf ever gets up the nerve to do it…