Group of Protesting/Ignorant Kids Briefly Block Philly Refinery
A small group of ignorant children (look the photo) preened and pretended to actually know something when they marched outside of the Philadelphia Energy Solutions (PES) refinery in South Philly where PES would like to expand by leasing an extra 200 acres at the Southport facility. The children blocked traffic causing a backup, making drivers unhappy. The kids also prevented trucks from entering and exiting the facility–for about 10 minutes. Philly police watched and did nothing. Sycophantic media (StateImpact) claimed there were “around 100” but a picture of the event shows nine (that we can see), none of whom appear to be old enough to drink beer. PES is pushing the concept of making Philadelphia an “energy hub” and they (PES) want to ship Marcellus Shale gas from the Southport facility location after piping it there from other parts of PA. A number of people are bidding on the property and it’s not at all a foregone conclusion that PES will get it (see Marcellus Caught in Crossfire of Philly Port Leasing Controversy). Apparently the subtleties of who may one day lease and operate the site were completely lost on the ignorant kids running around behaving badly…
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As we reported yesterday, last Friday Williams and the Constitution Pipeline filed a request with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to extend their application to build the Constitution Pipeline from Susquehanna County, PA to Schoharie County, NY (see 
MDN editor Jim Willis grew up going to auctions. Sometimes it was a farm auction–equipment like tractors and balers and manure spreaders. Sometimes a livestock auction–cows and horses and pigs and goats. But most often it was attending the local bric-a-brac auction on Saturday nights in South New Berlin (NY)–at Toby’s Auction Center. If we close our eyes and imagine it, we can still “see” the sights and sounds (and smells!) of the auction, where everything from cassette players to zucchini squash to antique Japanese pottery was sold. You can tell a lot about economic conditions from the local auction–including equipment auctions in the oil and gas industry. At a recent o&g equipment auction in Indiana County, PA, a couple of things were apparent: (1) the conventional drilling industry in PA, NY and elsewhere is struggling, and (2) it’s still a buyer’s market for drilling equipment–which indicates the turnaround hasn’t arrived quite yet…
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: Northeast gas vs. Gulf Coast gas; NY solar project wants to cut down 350 acres of trees!; OH rig count up to 16; Democrats don’t like natgas anymore; O&G companies are survivors; headwinds for natgas prices; and more!
Just last week MDN predicted that Atlas Resource Partners (ARP), a publicly-traded exploration and production master limited partnership (“MLP”) with operations in basins across the United States including the Marcellus and Utica Shale plays, was heading for a bankruptcy (see 
Today’s lead story on MDN is about Atlas Resource Partners’ plan to file a pre-packaged bankruptcy turning some $900 million of debt into ownership equity (see Atlas Resource Partners Filing for Bankruptcy Tomorrow). Another Marcellus/Utica company is doing something similar, but without filing for bankruptcy. In April MDN told you about Rex Energy’s plan to convert some outstanding debt into shares of stock (see 
Stone Energy, an independent oil and natural gas exploration and production company (E&P) headquartered in Lafayette, Louisiana drills mainly in the Gulf of Mexico but also has a presence in the Marcellus/Utica Shale with 75,000 acres of leases. Last year Stone quit drilling in the northeast and actually shut-in part of their production due to low prices (see 
Yesterday ExxonMobil and Saudi Arabian petrochemical giant SABIC announced they have formed a joint venture partnership and are evaluating (and plan) to build yet another ethane cracker plant complex along the Gulf Coast–in either Texas or Louisiana. The Gulf Coast has numerous such plants already in operation. The northeast has (so far) none. Why the two companies are not looking to the northeast is beyond us. In their announcement the companies said they want to locate along the Gulf Coast “near natural gas feedstock.” Why is this an MDN story? Because (a) pipelines are planned from the Marcellus/Utica region to the Gulf Coast, and this cracker, if built, will be yet another new market for our gas, and (b) because it will likely compete with the crackers that do get built in the northeast. Shell has committed to building one in Pennsylvania, and PTT Global Chemical will make a final investment decision in 2017 on a planned cracker in Ohio. A new Exxon/SABIC cracker will compete for our gas supplies, we have no doubt. Here’s yesterday’s joint announcement…
It’s not the place of a news organization, the “fourth estate” and watchdog of the government, to whore itself to a major political party. But that’s exactly what Bloomberg News has done. Shame on them. Yesterday in Philadelphia, at the Democrat National Convention, Bloomberg News sponsored a meeting of radicals in the Dem party to discuss the myth of man-made global warming–and how the Dems can force autocratic action down the throats of all Americans in the name of so-called climate change (the euphemism for global warming, something that hasn’t happened now for 20 years). Does anyone care anymore that our mainstream news services have sold their souls to the Democrat Party? Apparently not…
A group of rabidly left “environmental” groups–including Oil Change International, Appalachian Voices, Bold Alliance, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Earthworks, Environmental Action, Sierra Club (national), 350.org, Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, Protect Our Water/Heritage/Rights (Virginia & West Virginia), Sierra Club West Virginia Chapter, and Friends of Water (West Virginia)–recently published a piece of fiction titled, “A Bridge Too Far: How Appalachian Basin Gas Pipeline Expansion Will Undermine U.S. Climate Goals” (full copy below). As indicated by the title, these Nazi-like groups want to stop all new pipeline construction, repairs to existing pipelines, ANYTHING to do with a pipeline that flows natural gas or other fossil fuels. Why? They’re true believers that the earth is catastrophically heating up (it isn’t), and that mankind is causing it by burning fossil fuels (we aren’t). Their answer is to take the human race back to the Stone Ages when we burned cow dung and wood, apparently. One thing is for certain–you can’t even build windmills and solar panels without fossil fuels–so their so-called precious renewables aren’t an option. We wonder if they ever listen to themselves actually talk…