In March Gastar Exploration announced it would close on a deal to sell its remaining Marcellus/Utica assets “on or before April 8th” (see Gastar Leaving the Marcellus/Utica “on or before” April 8th). True to their word, last Friday Garstar said the deal is done and they are not completely out of the northeast. Where did they go?…
Read More “Gastar Officially Gone from Marcellus/Utica – Sells to Tug Hill”
A group of UK researchers/professors have just published a new study on fracking and traffic-related environmental impacts from it. The study is titled “Investigating the traffic-related environmental impacts of hydraulic-fracturing (fracking) operations” (full copy below) and appears in the journal Environment International. The authors conclude that heavy truck traffic from fracking operations has a negligible impact on the environment. Here’s the funny part: the authors aren’t all that happy with their own findings. But to their credit, the researchers don’t screw with the data and attempt to hide or change their findings–as some hucksters do from American universities like Duke and Cornell…
Read More “Authors of UK Fracking Study Dismayed that Fracking is Safe”
The last refuge of the desperate in Lebanon County, PA to stop new pipelines from being built is to use the courts to try and delay or stop both the Williams Transco Atlantic Sunrise or the Sunoco Logistics Partners Mariner East 2 pipelines. That refuge is now gone–at least for Mariner East 2. Last Thursday Lebanon County Judge Robert Eby ruled that yes, Mariner East 2 is an intrastate as well as interstate pipeline–giving it authority under PA state law to use eminent domain for those (very) few holdout landowners who refuse to bargain in good faith and simply want to stop the pipeline…
Read More “Lebanon County Judge Says Mariner East 2 Can Use Eminent Domain”
THE Delaware Riverkeeper, a radical left-wing group that’s not much more than its director, Maya van Rossum, and a lawyer, continues (with big money funding from NGOs like the Heinz Endowments and the Park Foundation) to aggressively attack the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. We warned you last year that Riverkeeper was attempting to overload FERC’s approval process for the PennEast Pipeline by encouraging anti-drilling zealots to register, en masse, as “intervenors” (see Delaware Riverkeeper Scams FERC in Review of PennEast Pipeline). Riverkeeper even asked their wacko followers to register their own children as intervenors–again in an attempt to overload FERC’s workload. Riverkeeper has sued FERC God knows how many times now (see THE Delaware Riverkeeper Sues FERC, Tries to Close it Down). But since none of those efforts are working, Riverkeeper (and van Rossum) are trying yet another tactic. They want the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to conduct a “review” of FERC in hopes that somebody–Obama? Congress? another agency?–at the federal level will come down on FERC to prevent the agency from doing its job–reviewing and approving new pipelines. We have evidence…
Read More “Delaware Riverkeeper Keeps Up Aggressive Attack on FERC, New Angle”
“I hate frackers more than you do and I’ll screw them more than you will.” “No, I hate them more than you do!” And so it goes with the Democrats running in the primary for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania. The three candidates vying to run on the Dem ticket in November are all, to one degree or another, anti-fracking. The lead candidate is Kathy McGinty, former chief of staff for failing Gov. Tom Wolf and former head of the Dept. of Environmental Protection under Ed “fast Eddie” Rendell. Her challengers are accusing her of being in bed with the frackers. She says fracking is OK–as long as you regulate it to death. None of them are qualified to be Senator, but then look who’s president right now…
Read More “PA Senate Race – Dems Try to Outdo Each Other as Anti-Frack”
Is this how it started in Nazi Germany in the 1920s? No, we’re not being melodramatic. Those are the thoughts flying through our heads when we read that the Attorney General from the U.S. Virgin Islands–an unincorporated “territory” of the United States–issued a subpoena to the conservative think tank Competitive Enterprise Institute demanding all communication between it and ExxonMobil on the issue of mythical “climate change.” The AG, a radical Democrat, is fishing to see if he can sue Exxon into extinction, because people at Exxon may have an opinion on climate change contrary to the radical AG’s opinion. No longer can adults have honest disagreements on important issues like climate change. Now, if you disagree and attempt to offer evidence to support your position, including communication with a “non-approved” source–you may end up in jail and your money stripped away. The parallels between what leftists today are doing and leftists did nearly a century ago in Germany are chilling. The first thing to go is freedom of expression…
Read More “Rise of the New (Environmental) Nazis – Free Speech Under Attack”
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: FERC lets REX pipeline add more shippers; Ravenna Oil expanding; Utica conf optimistic; pipeline rules will have dramatic impact on PA; methane madness infects Washington, DC; NGL prices head higher; global temp record is the smoking gun on collusion & fraud; and more!
Read More “Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Mon, Apr 11, 2016”
The Pittsburgh Business Times hosted an event yesterday in Beaver County, PA–the place where Shell is spending money to explore whether or not to build an ethane cracker plant. Seems like we’ve been writing about Shell’s potential ethane cracker forever. We’ve chronicled just about every up and down. We’ve also highlighted various initiatives they’ve undertaken since announcing Monaca, PA as their chosen site–something they did back in March 2012, now four years ago (see Shell Announces Location of Ethane Cracker Plant). Since that time Shell has purchased the property where they want to build the plant; they’re building a bridge and roads to the plant site; they’ve leased office space near the plant site. They’ve done a whole lot more. What we didn’t realize is that when you add it all together, according to Pat Nardelli, a partner at Castlebrook Development and speaker at the PBT event, Shell has spent “half billion to date if not more, and it’s going up every day.” Yikes! In this economy nobody blows a half bil on something they just decide to walk away from…
Read More “Shell has Spent “Half a Billion Dollars” on PA Cracker Already!”
Last week MDN told you about the daughter of a Huntingdon County, PA landowner radicalized by Big Green groups–as evidenced by her association with well known protesters previously arrested–who took to a tree on her mom’s property in order to illegally stop crews working on tree clearing for the Mariner East 2 pipeline (see PA Anti Literally Goes Up a Tree to Stop Mariner East 2 Pipeline). Even though she was breaking the law–and a judge’s order–local law enforcement couldn’t be bothered with climbing the tree to arrest her (see ‘Wackos in the Trees’ Protest Continues in Huntingdon County, PA). Nor, does it seem, did they arrest her after she came down on April 1. She stayed up a tree until April 1 because crews can no longer clear trees for fear of harming the threatened Indiana bat species that sometimes hangs out in those trees. Or at least, that’s what we thought. In a very clever move, tree clearing crews returned to the property this week, after April 1, and cleared more trees previously inhabited by the nutty landowner’s daughter. Don’t worry, they got permission…
Read More “Sunoco Tricks Radicalized Protester – Returns and Cuts More Trees”
In a positive sign for the now-delayed PennEast Pipeline that is scheduled to run from Wilkes-Barre, PA to Trenton, NJ, yesterday the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved Williams’ $116 million Garden State Expansion Project in New Jersey. Why is it a good sign for PennEast? Because the project is being built to help connect gas that will come through the yet-to-be-built PennEast Pipeline to a yet-to-be-built (but approved in January) pipeline in New Jersey–the Southern Reliability Link pipeline (see Southern NJ NatGas Pipeline Approved by State BPU). FERC wouldn’t approve the Garden State Expansion Project unless it believes it will also approve the PennEast, plain and simple. That’s sure to give THE Delaware Riverkeeper a real bad case of heartburn…
Read More “FERC Approves NJ Pipeline – More Marcellus Gas on the Way!”
Cabot Oil & Gas has appealed the (OJ-like) jury verdict in the “Dimock” case–a case where the jury ignored the evidence and instead found Cabot guilty of methane contamination of two families’ water wells in Dimock, PA–even though the families admit their wells were fouled BEFORE Cabot began to drill (see Dimock Jury Levies $4.25M Judgement Against Cabot in Dimock Case). Not a single news outlet is covering the appeal. Mainstream media’s favorite tactic is to ignore stories in hopes people won’t notice. Fortunately there are now alternative news outlets, like MDN, where you can learn the truth. The only way we knew about the Cabot appeal was through friend Phelim McAleer, the talented director and star of the documentary FrackNation. Phelim is reporting the appeal on his Facebook page. In the appeal, Cabot says the attorney for the plaintiffs engaged in “repeated misconduct” during the trial. She’d lob false innuendos and statements that were immediately retracted–but the jury heard and obviously believed her. You can’t “unhear” a false statement. In other words, she gamed the system–she didn’t play by the rules. Cabot is asking a judge to overturn the verdict…
Read More “Cabot Files Appeal in Dimock Case – Alleges Judicial Misconduct”
The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (Ohio EPA) has just issued a series of draft general permits for compressor stations in the state and is inviting public comment. Currently each compressor station and the operations surrounding such a station are evaluated on a case-by-case basis in the Buckeye State. The general permits (plural) would create a template–a standard that everyone must meet–to streamline the process. Sounds reasonable. That is, until you dig into the requirements. We haven’t gone through the various draft general permit documents ourselves, but the radicals at the Environmental Defense Fund have–and they like what they see. Which means it’s bad for the oil and gas industry…
Read More “Ohio EPA Seeks Comments on New Permits for Compressor Stations”
We’ve now gone beyond cutting into the bone and sinew with rig count losses–we’re now severing limbs. February’s Baker Hughes rig counts were awful, with both international and U.S. counts hitting record lows (see Rig Counts for World, US & Marcellus/Utica Crash in February). Somehow, it got worse in March. International rig counts went down 33 from 1,018 counted in February to 985 in March. In the U.S., rig counts went from 532 in February to 478 in March–a loss of 54 (10%). Month after month it just keeps going lower. Will the patient survive the carnage? On a more positive note, the number of rigs in PA, OH and WV cumulatively (the Marcellus-Utica) went down by just 1 rig. PA’s count went up 1 rig, OH’s count went down 2 rigs, and WV’s count stayed the same. Here’s the details…
Read More “Rig Counts for World, US Continue Steep Slide in March; M-U Down 1”
4/17/16 NOTE: Spectra Energy contacted MDN to express concerns that our headline leaves the wrong impression. A Spectra spokesman commented: “The story, particularly the headline, portrays the NEXUS Gas Transmission project as being canceled. This is untrue; NEXUS filed a Certificate Application with the FERC in November of 2015 and has consistently met its regulatory milestones since that time. The project is on schedule and we anticipate FERC issuing its approval to proceed in the second-half of 2016, thereby allowing us to achieve our in-service date of late 2017.” MDN does not mean to imply the project won’t happen–the speaker at the conference we reported on is the one saying that. We’re simply reporting what she said, which we found newsworthy. Spectra takes issue with the opinion that the project may get canceled–they are committed to building it. We have modified the shorter headline that did say “NEXUS Nixed” to say “NEXUS May Get Nixed” to be more accurate. We regret any wrong impression it may have left. Make no mistake, MDN hopes NEXUS happens! We’re rooting for it!
On Wednesday, the Canton Regional Chamber of Commerce and ShaleDirectories.com co-hosted the Utica Upstream conference at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, OH. By all accounts we’ve read, it was an excellent event. (Note: ShaleDirectories is partnering with Sourcewater to present UpStream PA 2016 in State College on April 19). We spotted several articles about Utica Upstream, and all of them focused totally, or in part, on the presentation made by Maria Cortez of energy research firm/consultant Wood Mackenzie. Cortez was clearly the bell of the ball. Among her observations on Wednesday: Ohio landowners will lose $6.5 billion in lost income in the next five years thanks to the drilling slowdown; drillers will buy out other drillers at a rapid pace this year and next; the Utica needs at least 11 rigs to keep production at current levels (right now they’re running 11!); some 150-250 drilled but uncompleted wells (DUCs) will be the focus for drillers for the time being; and the NEXUS pipeline likely will NOT get built. But wait, there’s more!…
Read More “Utica Event: OH Landowners Will Lose $6.5B in 5 Yrs, NEXUS May Get Nixed”
Yesterday MDN reported on the antics of anti-fossil fuelers in New York in their quest to stop an oil pipeline from Albany to New Jersey (see NY Antis Attempt to Stop Pilgrim Pipelines with Local Bans). Antis in NY aren’t the only ones up in arms over the Pilgrim Pipeline project. A “rowdy” group of New Jerseyites are also miffed and want their county government to put the kibosh to the pipeline plan…
Read More “NJ Residents “Get Rowdy” in Opposition to NY-NJ Pilgrim Pipeline”
Last week MDN told you that the federal Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) has published new rules for the handling of silica and silica dust (see OSHA Publishes New Silica Dust Rule, O&G Must Comply by 2018). As we pointed out at the time, the “good news” if there is any, is that the new rules don’t take effect for the oil and gas industry for two years. However, more than just the oil and gas industry are affected by the rules. The Louisiana chapter of The Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) has filed a petition against OSHA to block the new rules. AGC represents more than 26,000 firms, including over 6,500 general contractors and over 9,000 specialty-contracting firms. AGC was joined by an alphabet soup of other associations in their petition. A second petition was filed by the American Foundry Society (AFS) and the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM). Both petitions were filed with the U.S. District Court for the 5th Circuit. Notably, associations for the oil and gas industry, while critical of the proposed new rules, have not (yet) joined these other industry groups in filing a petition with the court…
Read More “OSHA Sued to Prevent New Silica Dust Rule – but Not by O&G”