UTOPIA Pipeline Sues Holdout OH Landowners Using Eminent Domain
Just yesterday MDN was commenting that it seems like Ohio antis aren’t all that bothered by Kinder Morgan’s UTOPIA ethane pipeline (see Why is UTOPIA Pipeline Less “Controversial” than NEXUS in Ohio?). Perhaps we spoke to soon! UTOPIA has gotten a lot more controversial since they just filed a flurry of lawsuits against holdout landowners, using eminent domain statutes. The real eye-popper we learn when reading about the eminent domain proceedings is just how much Kinder Morgan was offering for easements to property owners. Of course what you’re offered all 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. Here’s how it’s going for several landowners who object to the pipeline…
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This Thursday the Pennsylvania Independent Regulatory Review Commission (IRRC) will take up the matter of approving recently proposed new drilling regulations from the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection. Conventional drillers in PA strong object to the new rules, Aricles 78 and 78a, and sued to stop the IRRC from reviewing them. They lost (see 
Fairmont Brine operates a small wastewater processing plant in Marion County, WV. Last year Antero Resources pulled the rug out from under Fairmont by jilting Fairmont and contracting with a French company to build a new $275 million wastewater treatment plant in WV (see 
In February MDN brought you the good news that Laclede Group (St. Louis-based natural gas utility) wants to build a 60-mile pipeline from St. Louis through southwest Illinois and connect to the Rockies Express (REX) and Panhandle Eastern Pipeline to grab low-cost Marcellus/Utica Shale gas for Midwestern markets (see 
We find nothing (NOTHING!) more repugnant than so-called Christians who used to worship the One True God who have forsaken their vows and instead now worship Mother Earth. They worship the creation instead of the Creator. Such is the case with a group of pastors from the United Church of Christ who will, this coming Sunday, preach sermons that paint fossil fuels as evil and should be “kept in the ground.” We urge parishioners at those churches to stay home this Sunday. In fact, all UCC members should just stay home this Sunday. Perhaps empty offering plates across the denomination will get the attention of the leadership and encourage them to forget this nonsense…
NTE Energy, headquartered in St. Augustine, Florida, builds new natural gas-fired electric plants. Currently the company is building plants in Southwest Ohio, West Texas and North Carolina. Last Friday NTE announced three more new natgas-fired power plant projects–one in Connecticut, one in North Carolina and one in Ohio. There’s no doubt these plants will use shale gas from the Marcellus/Utica to power them–which is good news for producers in the northeast. Here’s the details from NTE…
Three radical environmental groups well-known for lying about fracking and the oil and gas industry in Pennsylvania–The Center for Coalfield Justice, the Pennsylvania Chapter of the Sierra Club and the Clean Air Council–are accusing Range Resources of intentionally avoiding “wealthy” neighborhoods and instead targeting low-income neighborhoods when drilling wells. The three groups make the claim that Terry Bossert, Range VP for legislative and regulatory affairs, told a meeting of the Pennsylvania Bar Institute that his company company tries to avoid siting shale gas wells near “big houses” where residents might have the financial resources to challenge drilling. Reps from the radical groups claim they heard him say this at the meeting. Range has responded that the comment was a joke–made in jest. The radical groups say it certainly didn’t seem that way to members of the audience. If the comment was not made in jest, it’s deeply troubling and, frankly, boneheaded. The problem is, the groups doing the accusing have lied so much about fracking and frackers, you simply can’t believe what they say. Is this a case of yet another ginned up lie by Big Green groups, or a case of the “boy who cried wolf” by those groups?…
In March MDN told you about a lawsuit filed by the Pennsylvania Independent Petroleum Producers Association (PIPP) against implementation of new rules and changes to existing rules known as Chapters 78 & 78a (see 
An important case regarding royalties was ruled on in the Superior Court of Pennsylvania on April 7th. As with many of these cases, this one is complicated. We’ll do our best to summarize it. A husband and wife leased their property in the 1990s to a company that eventually sold the least to CNX (i.e. CONSOL Energy). The couple later signed another lease with CNX in 2002. Both leases states that CNX will pay the couple one-eighth of the sale price for the gas as a royalty. But more than just the wells on the couple’s land are commingled in a drilling unit, so the way CNX calculate the royalties (as per the lease) is to measure the amount of production at the wellhead and divide accordingly. If the couple’s well produced 20% of the overall volume produced by all the wells in the unit, they get 20% of one-eighth of the sale price. But here’s the thing: the amount of gas that eventually gets sold “down the pipeline” is less than what is produced at the wellhead. As gas travels through pipelines and compressor stations, some of it disappears. The couple’s attorney says because CNX can’t account for 100% of the gas that disappears (maybe more disappears from the neighbor than his client), that CNX is in breach of the lease and owes the couple a royalty based on the gas produced at the wellhead and not based on what is eventually sold “down the pipeline.” A lower court ruled in favor of CNX. Now, the Superior Court of PA has also ruled in favor of CNX and says the clever legal reasoning by the couple’s attorney doesn’t hold water…
Whew. Eclipse Resources dodged a bullet! In February MDN told you that Eclipse Resources, a Marcellus/Utica pure play driller headquartered in State College, PA (but drilling mostly in Ohio) had been put on notice by the New York Stock Exchange that the company’s stock had fallen below $1 per share for too long and would be de-listed if they couldn’t get the price up (see 
Last week MDN told you that Rice Energy had floated stock offerings hoping to raise enough money to buy the Marcellus/Utica assets from the now bankrupt Alpha Resources (see 
Since 2012 MDN has had our eye on a “feel good” story–about a physician who immigrated from India to Bentleyville, PA and his son. The Gosais (doctor father and son) took to investing in hotels in western PA (they began building them in 2000). With the fracking boom, the Gosais began to cater to the Marcellus industry (see