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    DOE Gives $13M in Grants for Methane Emissions, Some in PA

    money-bag.jpgLast week the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) doled out a total of $13 million in grants for twelve multi-year research projects. The aim of the projects is to develop ways to mitigate methane emissions from natural gas pipelines and storage infrastructure, ways that don’t break the bank. Two of the twelve projects will be run in Pittsburgh. PPG Industries, the Gas Technology Institute and RTI International received a combined $876,639 to study remote monitoring of natural gas pipelines. The University of Pittsburgh and Corning together got a whopping $1.2 million to develop an advanced distributed optical fiber technology for natural gas infrastructure monitoring. Here’s the lowdown from the DOE…
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    Twitter Fight Over PA HB 1391 Royalty Bill

    tweetmeChanneling our inner Joan Rivers: Can we talk? It hurts when a good friend publicly criticizes you. It feels like you’ve been stabbed in the back. Perhaps a case of public criticism is one of the reasons for the developing rancor (we call it a civil war) between landowners and the Marcellus industry in Pennsylvania. Landowners are upset that their royalty checks are, in some cases, pennies–as in less than one dollar. Drillers claim that super low prices they receive for the gas are to blame–that nobody is making money right now. Landowners say that drillers (e.g. Chesapeake Energy) are deducting post-production costs that they shouldn’t be allowed to deduct, resulting in worthless royalty checks. For a number of years landowners in Pennsylvania have supported legislation to force drillers to pay a minimum 12.5% royalty, which is stipulated under a 1979 law. Drillers say post-production costs are written into many contracts and if it’s there, landowners must live by the contract. It’s turning into a mess. We’ve covered it extensively (see our articles on HB 1391). When we write about it, it’s from the perspective of a broken heart that we have a civil war brewing. When mainstream media writes about it, it’s typically with some degree of glee and happiness that “the other side” has infighting going on. An article appearing in today’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette does a good job of summarizing what we’ve previously posted on the issue. However, the Post-Gazette article adds one new bit of information we didn’t know about: earlier this summer there was a Twitter fight/dust-up between PA-NARO (National Association of Royalty Owners) and the MSC (Marcellus Shale Coalition)…
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    Bought & Paid For “Research” Says 2 Marcellus Pipelines Not Needed

    cest-fauxTwo Democrat-run anti-fossil fuel organizations–the Southern Environmental Law Center and Appalachian Mountain Advocates–pooled their donated money together and went out to find a consulting firm with the veneer of respectability that could be bought off to produce a faux “report” slamming two much-needed pipelines. They found an easy mark in Synapse Energy Economics, headquartered in ultra-liberal Massachusetts. The “report” Synapse produced says neither Dominion’s $5 billion, 594-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline (a natural gas pipeline that will stretch from West Virginia through Virginia and into North Carolina), nor EQT’s $3.5 billion, 301-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (from Wetzel County, WV to the Transco Pipeline in Pittsylvania County, VA) are needed. The sham report, titled “Are the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and the Mountain Valley Pipeline Necessary?” (full copy below) is getting picked up by lazy (or propagandist) mainstream news organizations and reported as real news. It’s nothing of the sort. It’s a joke…
    Read More “Bought & Paid For “Research” Says 2 Marcellus Pipelines Not Needed”

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    NatGas Production in Lower 48 Goes Up in August, Thx to Utica

    ihs-markitAlthough there’s less new drilling for oil and gas (at least there’s less if you believe press reports), and although DUCs (drilled but uncompleted wells) are decreasing, overall production in the lower 48 states is actually increasing. IHS Markit says natgas production in August increased month over month for the second month in a row–something that hasn’t happened in a year. Markit says the main reason is an increase in production in the northeast–specifically an increase in production in the Utica Shale. However, there were also increases in other plays. Here’s the full update…
    Read More “NatGas Production in Lower 48 Goes Up in August, Thx to Utica”

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    New Research Finds Natural Gas Can (Literally) Save Your Life

    save-your-lifeUsing natural gas may literally save your life. Researchers from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) recently conducted research using the country of Turkey because that country has made a big shift over the past couple of decades, moving away from other forms of energy and to natural gas. The researchers looked at mortality rates for adults and the elderly and found that mortality rates for both groups dropped, dramatically, over that period. Why? How? Good questions. Because the air is now cleaner thanks to an increase in natgas use, there has been a decrease in pollution linked and a correlating decrease in lung and heart disease deaths among adults and the elderly. It’s in the report. Of course people living longer because of natural gas isn’t good news for anti-fossil fuel nutters…
    Read More “New Research Finds Natural Gas Can (Literally) Save Your Life”

  • Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Tue, Sep 13, 2016

    best of the restThe “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: Why Summit Midstream is focusing on the Utica; DOE Sec. Moniz visits WV; LNG imports coming back to US this winter; onshore drilling heading for a big comeback?; gas traders caught short by Cheniere; and more!
    Read More “Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Tue, Sep 13, 2016”

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    Explosion, Fire Shut Down PA NatGas Electric Power Plant

    talen-energy-fire2There was an explosion, followed by a fire, at a natural gas-fired electric generating plant last night at Talen Energy’s Lower Mount Bethel power plant along Depues Ferry Road in Lower Mount Bethel Township, Northampton County, PA (Lehigh Valley area). Near as anyone can tell, the explosion and fire had nothing to do with natural gas or the plant itself. The explosion and fire were in an electrical transformer on the outside of the building that houses the machinery producing electricity. The entire plant is currently shut down, not producing electricity, to fix the transformer and to understand what happened to prevent it from happening again. Nobody was injured. The entire thing is pretty much a non-event. We mention it because of the breathless way it’s being reported–with headlines trumpeting a fire at a natgas power plant. Every year (month? week?) transformers blow up around the country outside of other types of buildings, including nuclear plants (see this one from Sept. 4 in Florida, and this one from Aug. 30 in Tennessee). Because natural gas is connected to the story in Northampton County, it’s a major headline. Again, natgas had nothing to do with explosion and subsequent fire… Read More “Explosion, Fire Shut Down PA NatGas Electric Power Plant”

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    New NatGas-Fired Electric Plant Proposed for Chesapeake, VA

    macquarieMacquarie Infrastructure has filed an application to build a new natural gas-fired electric generating plant in Chesapeake, Virginia, the state’s third most populous city, located near Norfolk. The facility, called Matex Virginia Power, would produce 1,400 megawatts of electricity by using three gas combustion turbines and one steam turbine. It’s not (yet) known how the new plant will get its gas, although Dominion’s planned $5 billion, 550-mile long Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) project is scheduled to have a branch going to Chesapeake. It’s not much of a stretch to think that ACP will feed this new plant, bringing Marcellus/Utica gas from the north to the plant. Here’s the good news, followed by reaction from environmental Nazis that oppose it…
    Read More “New NatGas-Fired Electric Plant Proposed for Chesapeake, VA”

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    NJ Sierra Club Game Plan – Kill Pipelines by Slowing Approvals

    PennEast in NJ
    PennEast in NJ – click for larger version

    An Associated Press article tackles the issue of the dozen plus natural gas pipelines planned to carry new supplies of Marcellus/Utica gas into New Jersey, and how/why those projects are moving along so slowly. Today is the final day for public comment on the much-needed PennEast Pipeline from the Wilkes-Barre, PA region southeast to the Trenton, NJ area. The next step is an environment study, to be done by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). THE Delaware Riverkeeper (aka Maya van Rossum) along with other virulent anti-fossil fuel nutters, like the NJ Sierra Club, are vigorously opposed–throwing as much horse manure and legal roadblocks at the project as they can. In other areas of the country it would take a project like PennEast about seven months to get approved. So far it’s been over two years for PennEast, with an end now in sight IF construction begins next year. The article is an update on the PennEast, with comments mostly against (a few for). The interesting part of the article is, for us, the very last sentence. We’ve told you for years that the game plan from antis is to delay and slow down approvals in hopes of getting projects canceled. We’ve had a front row seat of that (very effective) strategy here in New York State. The interesting final sentence in the AP article is an admission by the NJ Sierra Club that delay of PennEast is indeed their game plan, with the intent to “kill the pipeline”…
    Read More “NJ Sierra Club Game Plan – Kill Pipelines by Slowing Approvals”

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    UTOPIA Pipeline Still Battling OH Landowners with Eminent Domain

    UTOPIA Pipeline Project map
    UTOPIA Pipeline Project map – click for larger version

    Kinder Morgan’s UTOPIA (Utica To Ontario Pipeline Access) pipeline is a 12-inch ethane pipeline that will run 240 miles and will only be built in Ohio–therefore the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) won’t be involved in permitting the project. In April we asked the question, Why is UTOPIA Pipeline Less “Controversial” than NEXUS in Ohio?. Perhaps that question was premature, because not long after we ran a story that Kinder Morgan was suing holdout landowners using eminent domain to allow the pipeline (see UTOPIA Pipeline Sues Holdout OH Landowners Using Eminent Domain). The real eye-popper was reading just how much Kinder Morgan was offering for easements to property owners. Of course what a landowner is offered depends on how many feet of land the pipeline will cross. Some landowners were offered up to $63,300 for an easement. In some cases, the offers were “more than 10 times the appraised value of the easement.” It’s certainly in a landowner’s best interest to settle before being forced to settle (for far less) via eminent domain. So how is the process going? The lawyer for one group of landowners says KM’s offers are low, not high. Here’s an update on the legal battles in the Buckeye State over UTOPIA…
    Read More “UTOPIA Pipeline Still Battling OH Landowners with Eminent Domain”

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    OH EPA Grants Permits for 5 NEXUS Pipeline Compressor Stations

    Map_NEXUS_Full
    NEXUS Pipeline – click for larger version

    An important milestone in advancing the NEXUS Pipeline in Ohio. The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last week issued air permits to NEXUS to build five compressor stations. NEXUS is a $2 billion, 255-mile interstate pipeline that will run from Ohio through Michigan and eventually to the Dawn Hub in Ontario, Canada (see Spectra Energy Files Formal FERC Application for NEXUS Pipeline). It is a critically needed pipeline to move Utica and Marcellus Shale gas from an over-saturated market in the northeast to markets in the Midwest and Canada. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is charged with evaluating and approving (or not) the project. However, as often happens, various state agencies are also involved in the project. In this case the Ohio EPA can’t approve or disapprove of the pipeline itself, but granting air emissions permits for the compressor stations that will move the gas through the pipeline is important. So we celebrate one more positive sign that NEXUS will get built…
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    DCNR Blocks New Marcellus Drilling on PA State Lands

    DCNR logoWhat happens when you put a virulent anti-driller in charge of a state’s forestry service, a state that previously had a small, safe, healthy program to allow some shale drilling, giving taxpayers a break with a source of new revenue? Of course the anti-driller immediately tries to quash any more new drilling efforts. And that’s just what has happened with former PennFuture president and current Secretary of the PA Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR), Cindy Dunn. We called for her firing back in June when she was caught using–we’d say misappropriating–taxpayer money to send her staff to Big Green reeducation events (see Time to Fire Cindy Dunn, Last of Wolf Admin’s PennFuture Radicals). But no. She remains at her post, obstructing drilling in any way she can. The latest in her efforts is an updated plan from the DCNR’s Bureau of Forestry, which manages 2.2 million acres of state lands, in which the DCNR pledges to block any new Marcellus drilling on state lands and outlines their plans to begin hassling those who own mineral rights under state lands (and can legally extract shale gas) by requiring “definitive proof” that they own the mineral rights. In other words, they’re going to try and tie rights owners and drillers up in so much red tape, they’ll never even think about drilling a new well on state land…
    Read More “DCNR Blocks New Marcellus Drilling on PA State Lands”

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    Halcon Resources Exits Bankruptcy in Just 1.5 Months

    Halcon ResourcesGetting a pre-packaged bankruptcy today is like ordering a McDonalds Happy Meal–just order and drive up to the window and pick it up. Simple. In July Halcon Resources, a Utica Shale driller that “guessed wrong” by leasing 140,000 Utica Shale acres in the northern part of the play (in Ohio) and currently doesn’t drill on any of that acreage, filed for a pre-packaged bankruptcy (see Halcon Resources Files for “Pre-Packaged” Bankruptcy). Less than a month and a half after first filing, Halcon has emerged from bankruptcy court with $1.8 billion worth of debt magically erased. When Halcon filed back in July, they listed $3.12 billion in debt and $2.85 billion in assets. In August the company’s market capitalization, calculated as the number of outstanding shares of stock times the per share price, otherwise know as the company’s “worth” or “value”–was under $50 million (see Halcon’s Market Cap Falls Below $50M, NYSE Threatens to De-List). When debtors have no other choice than to accept a plan turning their debt into equity (shares of stock), it doesn’t take long to file the paperwork and be on your way. Here’s Halcon’s news that they now live again to fight another day–just not in the Utica…
    Read More “Halcon Resources Exits Bankruptcy in Just 1.5 Months”

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    Moxie Chooses EthosEnergy to Run NEPA NatGas Electric Plant

    ethoseenergyIn June 2014 MDN broke the news that Moxie Energy was in the hunt to begin a third new Marcellus gas-powered electric plant project in Pennsylvania, near Wilkes-Barre (see Moxie Energy in Hunt for Third Marcellus-Powered Electric Plant?). Indeed, our suspicions were borne out. In November 2015 Moxie selected Gemma Power to build the plant, and construction began a month later (see Moxie Marcellus-Powered Electric Plant Breaks Ground in NEPA). The 850-megawatt plant will use local Marcellus Shale gas to power it. Last week came the news that Moxie has contracted with EthosEnergy to run and maintain the plant. EthosEnergy announced it will 20 full-time employees from the area to run the plant. This is great news, signaling the project nears completion and start-up…
    Read More “Moxie Chooses EthosEnergy to Run NEPA NatGas Electric Plant”

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    Antero Midstream Floats $650M in New IOUs

    antero-midstreamLast Thursday Antero Midstream, the wholly-owned midstream subsidiary of powerhouse Marcellus/Utica driller Antero Resources, announced it is floating a round of “senior notes” (otherwise known as IOUs) to help the company pay off older debt. New debt for old debt. Not a game we enjoy playing, but Wall Streeters dig it. Antero Midstream first said they hoped to get $500 million for the notes, but later issued a second announcement “upsizing” the offering (like supersizing your fries at McDonalds) to $650 million. Such upsizing is typical (we’ve seen it dozens of times before). Here’s the announcements from Antero from last week…
    Read More “Antero Midstream Floats $650M in New IOUs”