Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Thu, Sep 10, 2015
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading:
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Elk County | Indiana County | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Wastewater
Grant Twp, PA Calls DEP “Chicken $h*t” re Injection Well Permit
Grant Township in Indiana County, PA has a problem: They’ve hired a potty mouth lawyer to represent them who has a HUGE conflict of interest. Grant’s town attorney is also the lawyer for (and executive director of) the litigious and extreme left-wing group Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF), a group committed to ending the use of fossil fuels. We’ve written plenty about the antics of the CELDF, including their lawsuit on behalf of an ecosystem (see It Speaks! An “Ecosystem” has Filed to Join a Lawsuit in PA). CELDF/Grant Twp. attorney Thomas Linzey is calling the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) “chicken shit” for their decision to delay a decision on whether to grant a permit for an non-controversial injection well in the township…
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EQT Looks to Drill on Abandoned Golf Course in Pittsburgh Suburb
Is Marcellus drilling about to come to a suburb of Pittsburgh? It appears the answer to that is a resounding, “Yes!” EQT, according to a landman that works for the company, plans to put a mega drill pad with up to 14 wells on an abandoned golf course in the eastern burbs of Allegheny County. EQT has approached neighbors surrounding the property, attempting to sign them to leases. Predictably, some of the neighbors are for it, and some are against it…
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Ineos Gets Ready to Begin Ethane Exports from Marcus Hook, PA
Click image for larger version As MDN told you in June, exporting of Marcellus/Utica ethane from the Marcus Hook facility near Philadelphia will become a reality later this year when Ineos Olefins & Polymers, one of Europe’s largest petrochemical companies, begins loading two Large Gas Carriers (LGCs) with ethane bound for Norway and Scotland (see Marcellus/Utica Ethane to be Exported to Europe Starting This Year). We get an update on that €600 million ($671 million) Ineos export project from the Financial Times, along with a very interesting tidbit we’ve not heard before: ethane from Marcus Hook will also head to an ethane-powered electric generating plant in Panama…
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Boardwalk Pipeline Partners | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pipelines | Statewide OH
Northern Supply Access Proj. Expands OH to Gulf Pipeline Capacity
Click map to view larger version Last week MDN told you that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) had approved a project by Boardwalk Pipeline Partners to reverse the flow on their Texas Gas Transmission pipeline to haul natural gas from the Utica/Marcellus to the Gulf Coast (see FERC Approves Important Utica-to-Gulf Coast Pipeline Reversal). We have word on a second project, called the Northern Supply Access Project, also related to the Utica/Marcellus and the Texas Gas Transmission pipeline. FERC recently announced they will conduct an Environmental Assessment (EA) on the Northern Supply Access Project…
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Phila. Gas Works: Will Take 45 Years to Upgrade Unsafe Pipelines
Natural gas customers in Philadelphia could have had all of the outdated and unsafe pipes belonging to the aging Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW) pipeline network replaced within 5-10 years, paid for by UIL Holdings Corporation, a Connecticut-based gas and electric utility holding company that offered to buy PGW in a deal brokered by Democrat Mayor Michael Nutter. But the corrupt Philadelphia City Council torpedoed the deal (see Philly City Council Kills the Phila. Gas Works $1.86B Deal). Now PGW ratepayers are going to see an increase–instead of a decrease–in their utility rates in order to “speed up” the pace of replacing unsafe natural gas pipes throughout the city. What does “speed up” mean for a government-owned utility?…
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Study Says Universities Divesting Fossil Fuel Stocks Lose Big $
A researcher with the California Institute of Technology has taken a close look at what would happen if five major universities–Harvard, Yale, MIT, Columbia and NYU–heeded the siren call of anti-fossil fuel nutters to divest their considerable endowments from holding any fossil fuel-related stocks. Just those five universities would lose a combined $200 million of value in their stock portfolios should they divest from fossil fuel stocks. Such efforts have been going on for some time. Not long ago Syracuse University divested all fossil fuel stocks, which will lead to losses in their endowment fund (see Syracuse U Divests from Fossil Fuels, NYU Says “Irresponsible”). The California Institute of Technology report, titled “The Divestment Penalty: Estimating the Costs of Fossil Fuel Divestment to Select University Endowments” (full copy below) is a cautionary research report to prevent mistakes like SU’s from being repeated…
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | NEXUS Pipeline | Ohio | Pipelines | Wayne County (OH)
Judge Grants NEXUS Pipeline Survey Access in Wayne County, OH
The NEXUS Gas Transmission pipeline, a $1.5-$2.0 billion natural gas pipeline that will carry Utica and Marcellus Shale gas spanning 11 counties in Ohio, 3 counties in Michigan, and eventually connect to the Dawn Energy Hub in Canada, has had to take some Ohio landowners to court simply to gain access to their property survey for potential routes. Sometimes county judges rule against NEXUS (see Summit County, OH Judge Denies NEXUS Request to Survey Properties). Most of the time county judges rule in favor of NEXUS (see NEXUS Pipeline Sues for Survey Access, Wins Most of the Time). Another place NEXUS has just won is in Wayne County, where a county judge has ordered two property owners to allow NEXUS access to their property…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Electrical Generation | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | New York | Orange County
Orange County, NY Marcellus-Fired Electric Plant OK’d by Judge
James Cromwell as Zefram Cochrane Several weeks ago MDN told you about local opposition in Orange County, NY to a proposed clean-burning natural gas-fired electric generating plant (see Star Trek Actor with Upstate NY Home Speaks Against Power Plant). We were disappointed that “Zefram Cochrane” (actor James Cromwell) lent his voice to the Luddites of Orange County in opposing the project. No matter. The judge in the case dismissed a lawsuit brought by those opposing the plant. It’s now full warp speed ahead…
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Statement from 2nd Company Working on Belmont, OH Ethane Cracker
Last week the CEO of Thailand chemical giant PTT Global flew to Belmont County, OH to announce his company is spending $100 million over the next 9-12 months on preliminary work to build an ethane cracker plant in the county (see PTT Announces 2 Contractors Working on Belmont Cracker Plant). During the announcement, CEO Supattanapong Punmeechaow said his company had awarded contracts to two companies to work on designs for the plant: Fluor Corporation and Bechtel Enterprises. In last week’s article we ran the Fluor “hey, we’re one of the winners” press release. Below is Bechtel’s version of crowing about the project…
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NY Landowner Coalition Hosting Clam Bake on Sunday in Broome Co.
Clam Bake! It’s time to wind down summer with some fun, and some learning, and to help support the ongoing effort to overturn the frack ban in New York State. The Joint Landowners Coalition of New York (JLCNY) and its education arm JLC United is hosting a Clam Bake this Sunday, September 13 in Vestal, NY from 1-6 pm. Come on out and support a great cause. Tickets are just $55 each$50 each for all of the great food you can eat, and beverages you can drink (including adult beverages). Details below…
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Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Wed, Sep 9, 2015
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading:
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Magnum Hunter Stock Avg Falls Below $1, Receives NYSE Warning
Magnum Hunter Resources has become the third Marcellus/Utica drillers (out of eight) on David Fessler’s “Oil Company Death List” (see 19 Oil/Gas Companies on “Death List” – 8 are in Marcellus/Utica) to receive a notice from the New York Stock Exchange that the company’s stock is in danger of being de-listed because the average price per share has fallen below $1.00 over a consecutive 30-day period…
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Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pipelines | Statewide OH | Utica Shale | Williams
Williams/Chesapeake Ohio Utica Deal Adds 50K Acres & 20 Years
Midstream giant Williams and drilling giant Chesapeake Energy are cuddling a little bit closer in the Ohio Utica Shale. Williams announced today they have signed an agreement with Chesapeake to run gathering pipelines in a new area of the dry gas Utica for Chesapeake in return for signing a contract that binds Chessy to using Williams until 2035. Williams was already gathering natural gas for Chessy on 140,000 acres of Utica Shale land in Ohio. This agreement extends the time on that 140,000 acres by adding another 20 years, and adds another 50,000 acres to the mix…
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August US Rig Counts Go Up Again, but Marcellus Continues to Drop
Oilfield service giant Baker Hughes released their venerable monthly rotary rig count report today for August 2015. The numbers worldwide improved–the international rig count for August was 1,137, up 19 from the 1,118 counted in July. Looking specifically at the U.S., onshore (mostly shale) rig counts climbed from 835 in July to 849 in August, up 14. It does indeed seem as if we’ve turned a corner. This is the second month in a row that U.S. land-based rigs increased month over month (see Baker Hughes July Rig Counts – U.S. May have Bottomed, but Not NE). However, the rig count in the Marcellus/Utica did not improve. It got worse…
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Aither Chemicals | Energy Services | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Processing Plants | Statewide WV | West Virginia
Whatever Happened to Aither Chemical, WV’s “Small” Cracker Plant?
More than 3 1/2 years ago (in January 2012) MDN told you about a plan in West Virginia to use a process patented by Union Carbide in the 1970s to build an ethane cracker plant on the cheap–much less than the typical “world scale” crackers announced by Shell, Odebrecht and others since that time (see Another New Entrant in the Ethane Cracker Plant Sweepstakes). The company created to build the WV “cheaper” cracker plant was called Aither Chemical, a creating of a non-profit funded, in part, by the State of WV. What ever happened to that project?…
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Grant Township in Indiana County, PA has a problem: They’ve hired a potty mouth lawyer to represent them who has a HUGE conflict of interest. Grant’s town attorney is also the lawyer for (and executive director of) the litigious and extreme left-wing group Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF), a group committed to ending the use of fossil fuels. We’ve written plenty about the antics of the CELDF, including their lawsuit on behalf of an ecosystem (see 
Is Marcellus drilling about to come to a suburb of Pittsburgh? It appears the answer to that is a resounding, “Yes!” EQT, according to a landman that works for the company, plans to put a mega drill pad with up to 14 wells on an abandoned golf course in the eastern burbs of Allegheny County. EQT has approached neighbors surrounding the property, attempting to sign them to leases. Predictably, some of the neighbors are for it, and some are against it…
Natural gas customers in Philadelphia could have had all of the outdated and unsafe pipes belonging to the aging Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW) pipeline network replaced within 5-10 years, paid for by UIL Holdings Corporation, a Connecticut-based gas and electric utility holding company that offered to buy PGW in a deal brokered by Democrat Mayor Michael Nutter. But the corrupt Philadelphia City Council torpedoed the deal (see 
A researcher with the California Institute of Technology has taken a close look at what would happen if five major universities–Harvard, Yale, MIT, Columbia and NYU–heeded the siren call of anti-fossil fuel nutters to divest their considerable endowments from holding any fossil fuel-related stocks. Just those five universities would lose a combined $200 million of value in their stock portfolios should they divest from fossil fuel stocks. Such efforts have been going on for some time. Not long ago Syracuse University divested all fossil fuel stocks, which will lead to losses in their endowment fund (see 
The NEXUS Gas Transmission pipeline, a $1.5-$2.0 billion natural gas pipeline that will carry Utica and Marcellus Shale gas spanning 11 counties in Ohio, 3 counties in Michigan, and eventually connect to the Dawn Energy Hub in Canada, has had to take some Ohio landowners to court simply to gain access to their property survey for potential routes. Sometimes county judges rule against NEXUS (see 
Last week the CEO of Thailand chemical giant PTT Global flew to Belmont County, OH to announce his company is spending $100 million over the next 9-12 months on preliminary work to build an ethane cracker plant in the county (see 
Clam Bake! It’s time to wind down summer with some fun, and some learning, and to help support the ongoing effort to overturn the frack ban in New York State. The Joint Landowners Coalition of New York (JLCNY) and its education arm JLC United is hosting a Clam Bake this Sunday, September 13 in Vestal, NY from 1-6 pm. Come on out and support a great cause. Tickets are just 
Magnum Hunter Resources has become the third Marcellus/Utica drillers (out of eight) on David Fessler’s “Oil Company Death List” (see 
Midstream giant Williams and drilling giant Chesapeake Energy are cuddling a little bit closer in the Ohio Utica Shale. Williams announced today they have signed an agreement with Chesapeake to run gathering pipelines in a new area of the dry gas Utica for Chesapeake in return for signing a contract that binds Chessy to using Williams until 2035. Williams was already gathering natural gas for Chessy on 140,000 acres of Utica Shale land in Ohio. This agreement extends the time on that 140,000 acres by adding another 20 years, and adds another 50,000 acres to the mix…
Oilfield service giant Baker Hughes released their venerable monthly rotary rig count report today for August 2015. The numbers worldwide improved–the international rig count for August was 1,137, up 19 from the 1,118 counted in July. Looking specifically at the U.S., onshore (mostly shale) rig counts climbed from 835 in July to 849 in August, up 14. It does indeed seem as if we’ve turned a corner. This is the second month in a row that U.S. land-based rigs increased month over month (see 
More than 3 1/2 years ago (in January 2012) MDN told you about a plan in West Virginia to use a process patented by Union Carbide in the 1970s to build an ethane cracker plant on the cheap–much less than the typical “world scale” crackers announced by Shell, Odebrecht and others since that time (see