PennEast Pipeline Files Official Application with FERC, Antis Mad
Party time! Yesterday PennEast Pipeline filed their full, official application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for permission to commence building their $1 billion, 118-mile, 36-inch diameter pipeline that will deliver approximately 1 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day from the Marcellus gas fields of northeastern PA to locations in southeastern PA and across the border to Trenton, NJ. The long-term benefits to the pipeline are many–lower natural gas and electricity costs for millions of consumers. In addition, during construction the pipeline will generate an estimated $1.6 billion of economic impact during design and construction alone, supporting approximately 12,160 jobs and an associated $740 million in wages. This is good news for all Pennsylvanians and New Jerseyites. Of course anti-fossil fuel nutters also issued an angry press release claiming the PennEast Pipeline will do “irreparable harm” if built…
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THE Delaware Riverkeeper, Maya van Rossum, and a bunch of her anti-fossil fuel pals delivered a letter on Wednesday to America’s most liberal governor, PA Gov. Tom Wolf, asking him to immediately suspend all further Marcellus drilling in the state and while he’s at it, stop building any new pipelines. They also “demand” (their words) that Wolf shut down his Pipeline Infrastructure Task Force which he created back in May (see 
A new research paper has just been published that purports to evaluate potential “stressors” on streams from unconventional (i.e. shale) oil and gas drilling–including drilling in the Marcellus/Utica. The paper is titled “Stream Vulnerability to Widespread and Emergent Stressors: A Focus on Unconventional Oil and Gas” (full copy embedded below) and is written by a group of researchers from the University of Arkansas, University of Central Arkansas, University of Wyoming, Wilkes University, the U.S. Geological Survey and Waterborne Environmental Inc. In a cursory review the paper does indeed appear to be heavy on science and absent the usual political arguments. However, the one great negative for this paper is that it is published in the online “journal” PLOS ONE, a publication with very low academic standards and home to a number of previous “fracking will kill you” types of “research” papers (see 
When you sell something to yourself, it doesn’t take nearly as long as selling it to someone else. One week ago MDN told you that Antero Resources (the drilling company) is selling their integrated water delivery business to Antero Midstream (subsidiary pipeline company) in what is called a “drop down” transaction (see 
Dominion, one of the biggest utility companies in the Marcellus/Utica region, is going on a buying spree. The object of their desire? Their very own midstream (pipeline) company subsidiary, Dominion Midstream Partners. Dominion’s board has authorized the company to spend up to $50 million to buy units (think shares of stock) in their midstream subsidiary. Usually companies buy their own stock/units for two reasons: (1) because they believe it to be undervalued/a bargain (i.e. opportunism), or (2) to prop up the share price (i.e. defending their investment). Which one is this?…
Magnum Hunter Resources (MHR), a significant independent gas driller focused exclusively on the Marcellus/Utica region, continues to build out its executive team. In August MHR added a new Chief Operating Officer (see 
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: OH judge ruling Oct 2 on NEXUS; antis fighting OH EPA compressor station regs; Mass. AG still trying to stop NED pipeline; silly fractivist antics during Pope visit; El Niño a nightmare for gas producers; does OPEC have the last laugh; and more!
The partisan (Democrat) West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy, which pretends to be nonpartisan and above the political fray but isn’t, has just published a so-called policy brief titled “A Win-Win Marcellus Shale Tax Incentive” (full copy below). The “brief” attempts to make the case for doubling or tripling the severance tax on natural gas liquids produced in WV (from 5% to 10% or 15%)–giving exemptions to the tax increase for those who keep the NGLs extracted in the state. The recommendation hopes to boost the attractiveness of petrochemical plants like the proposed Odebrecht cracker plant that would use ethane, the primary NGL extracted in WV, by making it more expensive to send WV’s ethane across the border, to say either Shell’s proposed cracker in PA or PTT Global’s proposed cracker in OH. The tone of the “report” is that WV has been raped and pillaged in the past–their precious coal stolen and carted away to other states–and WV can’t let that history repeat itself again. Better to shut down drilling rather than have any of it “exported” to other states. It is misguided and faulty thinking…
Two years ago MDN reported on a University of Michigan research project called the Hydraulic Fracturing in Michigan Integrated Assessment (see 
Last week MDN told you that Ohio’s RINO legislators continue to work on raising the Utica Shale severance tax in the state “behind closed doors” (see 
It’s strange, but true. Sometimes a single article that quotes a single financial expert/leader can dramatically affect a company’s stock price. Such is the case with CONSOL Energy. Last week an article in the Wall Street Journal quoted a hedge fund manager (investor playing with big piles of money) who said, in essence, he continues to bet that CONSOL’s stock will continue to drop in value, called a “short position” (for background on understanding short selling, see our article 
Gulfport Energy recently announced they have awarded $35,000 in grants for 10 projects in four Ohio counties, including projects benefiting local citizens in Guernsey and Belmont counties (Utica Shale country). The grants in varying amounts were given to schools, labor unions and colleges–for educational programs. One of the grants, for $5,000, will be used to purchase Google Chromebooks for 150 middle school students. Google’s Chrome OS is the official operating system for MDN (we LOVE it). Nice to see Gulfport blessing local schools and organizations in the regions where they operate…
Weatherford International is the fourth largest oilfield services company in the world, employing some 44,000 people. They have a branch office in Canonsburg, PA (Pittsburgh area) with major operations in the Marcellus/Utica. By comparison, Weatherford competitor Halliburton is the #2 largest oilfield services company in the world. A strange thing happened to Weatherford on Monday. The public company floated new shares of stock and new IOUs (i.e., convertible notes) hoping to raise $1 billion in cash. But a few hours after they announced the offering, they withdrew it because “while investor interest was strong for this offering” (so said the company), the price those investors were willing to pay for the new stock and notes was not anywhere near what Weatherford wanted. After withdrawing the offering, Weatherford’s stock tanked. Last Thursday Weatherford’s stock (WFT) traded as high as $11.15 per share. Yesterday it closed at $8.87 per share, down 20% from Thursday’s high…