MPLX Cornerstone NGL Pipe Done by End 2016, New Projects Coming
Marathon Petroleum Corporation’s MPLX midstream/pipeline division, which includes what used to be called MarkWest Energy, issued its second quarter 2016 update yesterday. Among the important bits of news, MPLX’s Cornerstone Pipeline is currently under construction and will be completed by the end of this year. Cornerstone is a $250 million, 50-mile natural gas liquids pipeline being built by Marathon from the MarkWest cryogenic processing plant in Cadiz (Harrison County, now owned by Marathon), northwest connecting to M3’s fractionator plant in Scio (also in Harrison County) and M3’s cryogenic processing plant in Leesville (Carroll County) before terminating and connecting to Marathon’s refinery in Canton, OH (see Marathon Petroleum’s Newly Announced “Cornerstone” Utica Pipeline). The pipeline will carry, at various times, crude oil, condensate and natural gasoline. From Canton, Marathon plans to move condensate and NGLs to Midwest refining centers and into Canada. Other exciting news: Marathon’s engineering teams continue to “evaluate synergistic projects” for the Marcellus/Utica, including “a butane-to-alkylate facility, a regional NGL export solution in the Northeast, and a long-haul pipeline to the Gulf Coast, such as a reversal of the Centennial Pipeline.” Very cool. Here’s the MPLX update…
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Canadian driller and midstream company Epsilon Energy had a shareholder rebellion in 2013 and threw out the sitting board of directors (see 
Once the Obama Dept. of Justice burst the dream of merging with Halliburton (see 
Contrary to the BH view that drilling will remain in the crapper for the rest of 2016 (see Baker Hughes Laid Off 3K in 2Q16, No Drilling Recovery in 2016), CARBO Ceramics, a company that supplies sand and ceramic beads used in fracking, was more upbeat about the rest of the year in their second quarter 2016 update. CARBO’s CEO Gary Kolstad said, “…the second quarter likely marked the bottom for activity levels as both oil and natural gas commodity prices and the North American rig count started to recover,” and “Sales volumes began to improve as the quarter progressed. In addition, with the increasing commodity prices, we have received increasing customer inquiries about procuring ceramic proppant for completions in the second half of 2016.” In other words, things are beginning to look up–at least according to CARBO. Their own numbers don’t seem to reflect that optimism. Total proppant sales (as measured in millions of pounds sold) were down an astonishing 75% year over year: 448 million pounds sold in 2Q15 vs. 112 million pounds sold in 2Q16. Here’s the CARBO upbeat 2Q16 update…
The U.S. State Department and West Virginia University (WVU) want to give other countries interested in developing their own shale deposits a helping hand. The State Department’s Bureau of Energy Resources has reached a cooperative agreement with WVU to create the International Forum on Unconventional Gas Sustainability and the Environment, or INFUSE, a unique technical program dedicated to increasing other countries’ understanding of best practices for unconventional gas resource development. INFUSE will use a mix of classroom and in-the-field activities. Here’s the lowdown on INFUSE…
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: Northeast natgas production vs. takeaway capacity; the ugly side of pipeline politics; more pipeline opposition in New England; pipeline opposition in NJ; M&A activity picked up in 2Q16; why oil prices are heading into the $30s again; National Oilwell Varco not ready to call the bottom of the market just yet; one nation, fueled by natgas (with liberty and justice for all); and more!
On Monday MDN brought you the news that 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, had gotten buy-in from most of the people to whom it owes $1.8 billion to turn that debt into ownership in the company (see 
Last August MDN told you about a lawsuit brought by a group of left coast radicalized children who want to force the federal government to become communist and “force action” on mythical climate change (see 
We’re not sure how important (or not) this news is, but it’s certainly worth reporting. Yesterday the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) announced it will “consider” a motion for an evidentiary hearing on PennEast Pipeline’s application about whether or not the pipeline is needed in New Jersey. Last month radicals at the Eastern Environmental Law Clinic (EELC) on behalf of enviro-Nazis at the New Jersey Conservation Foundation (NJ Conservation) and Stony Brook – Millstone Watershed Association (SBMWA), filed a motion requesting FERC conduct a hearing to assess whether there evidence of public need in New Jersey for the proposed PennEast Pipeline. Yesterday FERC said they’ll consider a hearing–FERC has not (yet) said it would actually conduct such a hearing. Here’s the news as sent to us from the radicals…
National Fuel Gas (NFG), the Buffalo-based utility giant with both a drilling subsidiary (Seneca Resources) and a midstream/pipeline subsidiary (Empire Pipeline) filed an application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in March 2015 for a pipeline project they call Northern Access 2016 (later renamed to simply Northern Access Project, dropping the “2016” part). The $455 million project includes building 97 miles of new pipeline along a power line corridor from northwestern Pennsylvania up to Erie County, NY. The project also calls for 3 miles of new pipeline further up, in Niagara County, along with a new compressor station in the Town of Pendleton (see 
Each month MDN tracks how many rigs oilfield services company Patterson-UTI Energy reports operating–as a proxy for when/if the drop in rig counts for the Marcellus/Utica will turn around. Patterson operates a number of rigs in the northeast, as well as other areas of the continental United States (and Canada). After more than a year, Patterson’s June report finally showed a small turnaround (see 
Constellation, a subsidiary company of Exelon Corporation, announced a deal yesterday with ConEdison Solutions (a subsidiary of New York’s Consolidated Edison) to buy ConEdison Solutions’ retail electricity and natural gas business. The deal means more than 560,000 commercial, industrial, public sector and residential customers across 12 Northeastern, mid-Atlantic, and Midwestern states, Texas, and the District of Columbia will become part of the Constellation family. Interestingly, ConEdison said it is selling its (regulated) electricity and natural gas business to focus on its (deregulated) renewable energy, sustainability services and energy efficiency business. Why is this Marcellus news? We see it as a potential new market for Marcellus/Utica Shale gas. Below is the announcement, along with some analysis of what’s really going (the motivation) with this deal…
