FERC Approves Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline! Cabot Grabs More Capacity
1/4/17 Update: Williams finally issued its own press release about this, which we’ve included below.
On the last business day of 2016, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a favorable final environmental impact statement (EIS) for one of the major pipeline projects in the Marcellus/Utica: the $3 billion Williams Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline project. The FERC EIS for Atlantic Sunrise (full copy embedded below) said that although there may be some adverse environmental effects from the project, those effects can be “reduced to less-than-significant levels” by Williams via the plans submitted. FERC considered five alternative routes and chose to stick with the preferred route proposed by Williams. However, FERC did ask Williams two make minor tweaks to four locations along the route of the pipeline. Cabot Oil & Gas, the main customer for the 1.7 billion cubic feet of capacity, was positively giddy with the announcement. Cabot released their own press release to say that although they previously gobbled up 850 million cubic feet (MMcf) of capacity along the new pipeline, they are adding another 150 MMcf to that number, giving the company a grand total of 1 billion cubic feet (out of 1.7 Bcf) of capacity along the pipe when it’s built. Holy moly! That will be 1 Bcf per day of Cabot’s gas going from Susquehanna County, PA to other states, outside the region. VERY smart move by Cabot. Below we have the news and feedback/analysis about the announcement…
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On the last business day of 2016, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a favorable final environmental impact statement (EIS) for the Williams Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline (see today’s companion story). Not to be confused with that project, also on the last business day of the year, FERC issued a favorable draft (not final, but draft) EIS for the $5 billion, 594-mile Dominion Atlantic Coast Pipeline project. This is a huge milestone and an indication that FERC will later issue a favorable final EIS, and then a certificate to allow the project to get built. FERC cautioned there is still more work to be done by Dominion to complete field surveys and submit proposals on certain issues that need to get resolved. However, the draft EIS says based on what they see so far, FERC has confidence that Dominion can minimize damage to the environment in building the pipeline. Of course the childish antis came out of the woodwork to begin bleating and blatting, as they so often do, that they pipeline will kill everyone and everything in its path. Typical…
In September, MDN brought you research on 10 of the largest Marcellus/Utica drillers that have “hedged” their 2017 production (see 
In December MDN told you that anti-fossil fuelers who oppose Sunoco Logistics Partners’ Mariner East 2 Pipeline were making a last, desperate attempt to stop the project by appealing an eminent domain case to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court (see 
In April 2016 MDN told you about the Guernsey Power Station–a new Utica/Marcellus natural gas-fired electric generating plant proposed for Guernsey County, OH (see 
In the closing days of 2016, Gulfport Energy, an Oklahoma City-based independent oil and natural gas exploration and production company (“driller”) that is a “top 5” driller in the Ohio Utica Shale, announced that its chief financial officer (CFO) has up and left. Just like that. Aaron Gaydosik, Gulfport CFO, is leaving “to pursue an external opportunity.” While defections in the top ranks of big drillers like Gulfport are not unheard of, they do give investors the jitters. And it makes one wonder what’s going on at the company, given that Gaydosik had only been in that job for the past 2.5 years. Was he pushed out? Did he find a better gig? Inquiring minds want to know…
Last week the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry released employment numbers for the Marcellus industry for the second quarter of 2016. Yes, you read that right–the jobs numbers released were for 2Q16, April through June. Why such a delay? Who knows!? What followed is instructive. The numbers show that year over year, from 2Q15 to 2Q16, those employed by the Marcellus industry went down by 32%. However, the same report shows overall those directly employed by the drilling industry doubled over the past nine years. Yes, we hit a down cycle and lost some jobs, but we’re still light years ahead (and a heck of a lot better off) than where we were just a decade ago. Also keep in mind: we are once again on the upswing with jobs, since 2Q16…
Each weekday Marcellus Drilling News locates and shares news from the Marcellus and Utica Shale. Over 50,000 people read MDN each month. Here is a summary of the top 10 most-read stories on MDN for all of 2016. We hope this will give you insight into what stories captured the interest of those in the industry, and landowners as well. Let’s do this David Letterman Top 10 style…
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: Friends and foes wait on appeals court for ruling in Constitution Pipeline; OH voters want no part of frack bans; natgas shows signs of returning to Lycoming County; PA Gov Wolf rejects natgas-powered data center, kills 500 jobs; Spectra paying $1.2 million to run pipe through few miles of New England forest; shale gas in north Georgia?; RBN’s top 10 for 2017; Trump’s energy policy; what lies ahead for 2017; and more!
A significant court case was decided last week in West Virginia. The WV Supreme Court ruled in a gas royalty case that not only has significant implications for WV landowners (and drillers), but also may reverberate across the border into neighboring Pennsylvania where the same issue has been a long and contentious fight–what we call a civil war between landowners and drillers. Like all such cases, this one is complicated and not easy to summarize, but we’ll do our best. The WV Supremes have just handed down a decision that says, in essence, that EQT (and by extension other drillers) cannot deduct post-production expenses when calculating royalty payments to landowners. Specifically, the justices in their ruling said that drillers can “not deduct from that (royalty) amount any expenses that have been incurred in gathering, transporting or treating the oil or gas after it has been initially extracted, any sums attributable to a loss or beneficial use of volume beyond that initially measured or any other costs that may be characterized as post-production.” Yikes! That is fantastic news for landowners who now have a case to recoup money deducted from their checks–and really bad news for drillers who will owe that money. The big winners are, of course, the lawyers who will litigate this for years to come. However, hold on to those briefs–EQT has just appealed the decision, asking the WV Supreme Court to reconsider their decision, gently chiding the court for erring in their interpretation of state law on royalties…
The legal beagles at global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright continue to do us all a huge favor. Researchers at the law firm issue a quarterly legislative action update looking at bills and laws previously voted on, and new bills/laws introduced, affecting the oil and gas industry in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia. The “Quarterly legislative action update: Marcellus and Utica shale region” for 4Q16 (full copy below) begins with a quick listing by state for existing or new laws introduced, with descriptions for each bill/law. This is, in one place, pretty much everything you need to know about what new laws (i.e. regulations) are coming down the pike that will affect the Marcellus and Utica Shale drilling industry…
In March of this year, MDN told you that LNG Limited (from Australia) registered with the Canadian government for an environmental assessment for a pipeline they want to build in Nova Scotia–the Bear Paw Pipeline (see