Rover, Leach XPress Pipelines Become BFFs to Fix FERC Objection
This is how it works with adults, those who wear “big boy pants.” A few weeks ago the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) told Energy Transfer that their Rover pipeline, a $3.7 billion, 711-mile Marcellus/Utica natural gas pipeline that will run from PA, WV and eastern OH through OH into Michigan and eventually into Canada, and Columbia Pipeline that their Leach XPress pipeline, running from Marshall County, WV through Ohio to Leach, KY, that a small section where the pipelines cross must be reworked or it’s a “no go” for both projects (see FERC Tells Rover, Leach XPress Pipes to Redesign Routes in SE OH). Faced with the prospect of not getting an approval, both companies got together in a conference room and figured out how to work together–fast. Both companies have just filed a detailed plan with FERC that says the two pipelines will co-locate their pipelines in the same trench for a 13-mile span in Monroe County, OH to avoid the problems outlined by FERC…
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The Canadian Energy Research Institute (CERI) recently released the “Canadian Natural Gas Market Review” (full copy of the 159-page report embedded below). The study looks at the future of Canada’s natural gas upstream (i.e. drilling) industry, taking into consideration the history of the industry, changing market dynamics due to the advancements in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing technology, the recent drop in oil and natural gas prices, and policy developments (i.e. government interference). In the Executive Summary, which we include immediately below, you’ll read that the Canadians have a lot to say about the Marcellus Shale. Canada is importing more natgas than ever–because of cheap, abundant, clean-burning Marcellus Shale gas in the northeast. The report also comments on Canada’s chances of becoming a big exporter of gas via LNG. Canada can, theoretically, increase its own natgas production by 65% over the next 20 years–but only if a number of planned LNG export facilities go online to provide a market for all of that gas…
We’ve written plenty about President Obama’s so-called Clean Power Plan (CPP), introduced last summer, a plan to force electric generators to convert to using more “renewable” sources of energy–and less fossil fuels (see 
MDN first alerted you to a sleazy tactic used to slow down the pipeline approval process in October 2015 (see 
A poll recently conducted for Consumer Energy Alliance (CEA) shows that Massachusetts voters believe that energy issues are important, and that Massachusetts voters STRONGLY support the use of natural gas for electricity generation, AND the expansion of existing natural gas infrastructure. Some 73% of Mass. voters want to use natural gas to generate electricity. That is an astonishing majority in a very liberal state. Some 68% of those voters say energy issues will affect how they vote in November. Here’s the results…
More money is on the way to the oil and gas sector–so says powerhouse consulting and accounting firm Ernst & Young. An EY survey, titled “Capitalizing on opportunities: Private equity investment in oil and gas” (full copy below) says there is close to $1 trillion in private equity waiting to be invested across all sectors. Some 43% of private equity investors say they are looking to spread some of that money in the oil and gas space. The question is, which region(s) of the world will see appreciable amounts of that investment?…
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: Appalachian driller stocks soared in 1H16; David Einhorn sells 7M shares of CONSOL; OH now as 1,334 shale wells producing; PA PUC approves plans to replace aging natgas pipelines; oil price rally is now over, says world’s #1 oil trader; Crazy Bernie and his anti-fracking friends; US natgas future shines brighter; OPEC worked to screw US shale; and more!
The pieces of a very complicated puzzle continue to fall into place to build what will be Pennsylvania’s largest natural gas-fired electric generating power plant in Lackawanna County, PA–near Scranton. Invenergy plans to build the Lackawanna Energy Center, a 1,480 megawatt plant in Jessup, PA that will cost “well over $1 billion” according to an exclusive MDN source working on the project (not $500 million as we previously estimated). The PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) approved the plant last December (see 
As we do every 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). Month by month Paterson’s rig count has declined over the past year plus. We have been waiting for over a year to report this: We’ve finally turned the corner! The Patterson rig count in June ticked up by 2 rigs–to 55 active rigs (up from 53 in May). Perhaps it’s too early to pop the cork on the champagne, but we are excited and hope/think this portends the slow down has finally hit rock bottom and new drilling is, ever so gradually, beginning to pick up again…
Earlier this month MDN shared with you the news that Munroe Falls (Summit County), OH had filed yet another frivolous lawsuit against Beck Energy to prevent drilling–after already losing a similar case before the Ohio Supreme Court (see 
MDN has previously reported on efforts in Pennsylvania to substitute a so-called “gross receipts tax” (GRT) on natural gas for a severance tax as a way to raise millions of dollars for Democrats’ voracious appetite to spend money (see 
The litigious Sierra Club, an environmental organization that may have been founded for good reasons long ago but has become radicalized in their opposition to all fossil fuels, was dealt a serious legal blow last week. None other than the very liberal District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the Sierra Club–responding to a lawsuit brought by the Sierra Club that tries to force the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to consider factors not within their purview when deciding on whether or not to issue permits for LNG (liquefied natural gas) facilities. The court decision directly affects two Gulf Coast LNG facilities but also has implications for the Cove Point, Maryland LNG export facility currently under construction by Dominion, now about half completed. The Sierra Club tried to argue that the more LNG you export, the more drilling (i.e. “upstream”) activity is needed, and drilling activity and what it produces (natural gas) is causing man-made global warming. Ergo FERC should be required to consider those “impacts” when making its decision on permitting such facilities. The problem is, under FERC’s charter they are specifically NOT allowed to consider such peripheral considerations. FERC is to make its decisions based on real science: Would a potential project impact the local ecology and environment in a negative way? If so, it doesn’t get a permit. The normally chatty Sierra Club went silent following the court’s decision…
Last week MDN reported that Southwestern Energy, a major Marcellus/Utica driller, was floating up to 86 million shares of new stock looking to raise $1.1 billion (see 
Seems this is the week to report on stock offerings. Last week Eclipse Resources, like Southwestern Energy, announced a new stock offering. And like Southwestern (see today’s companion story), Eclipse completed the offering yesterday. Eclipse, a pure play driller focused on the Marcellus/Utica, had planned to sell up to 43 million shares hoping to raise $131 million (see 
Rex Energy, now a pure play driller focused on the Marcellus/Utica (see 
MDN has long pointed out that the United States has more natural gas reserves than any other country on earth, dethroning Russia years ago on that score–thanks to the shale revolution and the miracle of hydraulic fracturing. We’ve often heard the phrase that “the U.S. is the Saudi Arabia of natural gas.” But what’s this? A new research report issued by the respected Rystad Energy, an independent oil and gas consulting service, finds that the U.S. is now the Saudi Arabia of oil too! That is, the U.S. has more oil reserves, because of shale, than Saudi Arabia. Fracking has handed the U.S. what we’ve wanted for years–total energy independence from the tyrants in OPEC…