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    Carole King: VA Pipeline Makes Me Feel Like an Unnatural Woman

    Another famous white, rich, aging, hippie woman has lined up against pipelines. At least this famous white, rich, aging hippie, Carole King, has talent–unlike Yoko Ono who is talentless, someone who still rides the coattails of her famous husband, God rest his soul. Carole King doesn’t need fame or to increase her personal fortune, unlike Ono. So why is she speaking out against the Dominion’s Atlantic Coast Pipeline and where it will run in Virginia? Because the pipeline will come close to land owned by Yogaville, an “ecumenical spiritual retreat” in Buckingham County, VA that King has $upported for decades. Most folks think of yoga as funky pretzel-like stretches people do at the gym or at a special class at your local community college. What they may not know is that yoga is as much a spiritual practice (i.e. religion) as it is an exercise routine. Apparently King is one of its practitioners. Makes her Feel Like A Natural Woman. Good for her. Whatever gets you through the day, right? King wrote directly to Dominion CEO Thomas F. Farrell II to request he ax the pipeline plan and instead stick up solar panels and windmills. Here’s why King is wrong about the Atlantic Coast Pipeline affecting Yogaville…
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    2 Marcellus LNG Export Projects Get Canadian Approval

    Two Canadian LNG export projects have made significant progress–but both are still far away from actually getting built. A year ago MDN supplied you with a list of five potential Canadian LNG export projects along the East Coast of Canada (see List of LNG Export Projects for Marcellus/Utica Shale Gas). Two of those projects–Bear Head LNG and Goldboro LNG, both located in Nova Scotia–have received a green light from the U.S. Dept. of Energy (see 2nd Canadian LNG Plant Gets U.S. Approval to Export Marcellus Gas). Both projects received a green light last week from the Canadian National Energy Board (see the article below). The gazillion dollar question is: Where will the natural gas come from that gets exported via these facilities? We’ve long hoped that Marcellus Shale gas would be some of that gas–we have way more than we can use here at home. But at the recent RBN Energy “State of the Energy Markets” conference in New York City, RBN’s Rusty Braziel said virtually none of the gas going to New England via the proposed Kinder Morgan Northeast Energy Direct pipeline nor the Spectra Energy Access Northeast pipeline would be exported. Frankly, if Marcellus gas doesn’t get piped to Canada, we think there’s virtually no chance these LNG projects will get built. Our sentiments were recently echoed by Moody’s Investors Services (see Moody’s: “Vast Majority” of LNG Export Projects Will be Canceled). So, read the following article, but do so with your head swiveling around as ours is. Will Marcellus gas get exported? Will the Maritimes & Northeast pipeline get FERC permission to reverse its flow and send gas from the U.S. into Canada? Will Kinder and Spectra actually build their pipelines to New England? A lot of unanswered questions when you consider whether or not Canada will actually build any of these LNG projects…
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    Medical Doctor Exposes Anti-Pipeline Lies about PennEast

    Dr. Gilbert Ross, M.D., is the senior director of medicine and public health at the American Council on Science and Health in New York. Dr. Ross penned an eloquent article that exposes the lies being peddled by the “leaders” of Hopewell Township, New Jersey in their vote to prevent construction of the PennEast Pipeline in the township. Dr. Ross makes the point that we have repeatedly made (although far less eloquently) for years here on MDN: The real philosophy that underpins the actions of people opposing fracking, pipelines, anything to do with shale–is an irrational hatred of fossil fuels. But opposers can’t cast their opposition in those terms or they would be laughed out of office and out of public meetings. So they use FUD–fear, uncertainty and doubt–to make the hoi polloi believe oil and gas drilling and pipelines are somehow a threat, a danger to everyone and everything. That is, they lie about the risks associated with oil and gas in order to advance their own twisted anti-fossil fuel agenda. Here to make the point better than we do is Dr. Ross, writing in a major New Jersey newspaper…
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    PA Releases Study on Bakken Crude Shipments Passing Through

    God protect us from politicians whose “top priority” is to protect us. MDN previously told you that America’s most liberal governor, PA Gov. Tom Wolf, hired a high-priced consultant from the University of Delaware in April to do a top to bottom review on railway safety with a focus on how PA might better “protect” (i.e. prevent) Bakken shale oil shipments traveling through the state on the way to refineries (see PA Gov Wolf Takes Aim at Bakken Oil Trains Traveling Thru PA). The high-priced consultant, Dr. Allan Zarembski, has turned in his assignment with 27 recommendations (full copy of his report below). In eyeballing the list some of the recommendations certainly look reasonable: slow down to 35 mph if you’re passing through a city with a population of 100,000 or more; test the tracks three times a year; hire inspectors who know what they’re doing; etc. We suspect when the experts at Norfolk Southern and CSX have had a chance to review the report we’ll hear how these recommendations are intended to slow or stop crude by rail (CBR) shipments through PA. We’d like to be wrong about that, but given Wolf’s behavior an uppity attitude toward the railroads so far, we’re pretty sure we aren’t wrong…
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    Well Completion/Operational Safety Co. Comes to PA Marcellus

    Gulf Coast Western, an oil and gas driller that focuses on the Gulf Coast region in the U.S., announced yesterday they have formed an oilfield services subsidiary after acquiring Midland, Texas-based Frac Restraints LLC in late 2014 and Weatherford, Texas -based CND Energy Services in early 2015. The new subsidiary–Gulf Coast Western Energy Services–will provide well completion and operational safety services to the oil and gas industry. The new company’s target markets? Shale plays in South and West Texas, and the Marcellus and Utica Shale fields in Pennsylvania…
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    GreenHunter Changes Strategy with USCG re Wastewater Barging

    change of strategyGreenHunter Resources, the fresh water and wastewater subsidiary of driller Magnum Hunter Resources, has changed strategies and has backed off their tough talk in dealing with the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) with respect to barging brine down the Ohio River. You may recall MDN was the first to decipher just what was going on between GreenHunter and the USCG with respect to GreenHunter’s intention on barging (see GreenHunter/Coast Guard War of Words — MDN Explains It). The USCG is being manipulated by the Obama administration into blocking a request for GreenHunter to begin barging of wastewater (brine, actually). GreenHunter informed the USCG they have the legal right to do it under an existing 1987 rule that allows for it. The USCG has said not so fast, brine from shale wells may contain more radioactivity than brine from conventionally drilled oil and gas wells. In so many words, GreenHunter told the USCG they would move forward, daring the USCG to stop them (see GreenHunter to Coast Guard, We’re Barging While You Fiddle Around). As recently as May, GreenHunter claimed barging would begin soon (see GreenHunter Says OH River Wastewater Barging to Begin September). However, in an analyst conference call on Friday reviewing second quarter 2015 results, both parent company CEO Gary Evans and GreenHunter COO Kirk Trosclair changed their tune. Now GreenHunter is talking with the USCG again and attempting to convince them to let barging operations begin. You can hear the frustration both in GreenHunter’s comments, and in the comments by investors probing them on the topic…
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    FANG Protesters Chain Themselves to RI Compressor Station Gate

    FANG logoLet’s talk about optics and the strategies employed by fossil fuel haters. We’ll leave aside our standard argument that people who hate fossil fuels, like natural gas, are wildly hypocritical as their very existence is a direct result of the benefits of fossil fuels. Today we focus on two men who hit life’s lottery–one (younger) became a pediatrician, the other (older) a physics professor. Last week the two chained themselves to the entrance of Spectra Energy’s Burrillville, Rhode Island compressor station to call attention to Spectra’s Algonquin Incremental Market (AIM) project to beef up the compressor station and add pipelines to bring more cheap, abundant, clean-burning Marcellus Shale natural gas to gas-starved Rhode Island and other New England states. The two protesters belong to a fossil fuel hate group called FANG–Fighting Against Natural Gas. Using PVC pipe, chicken wire and (yes) tar, they intertwined their arms to make it extremely difficult to un-knot them. The police had to cut away a section of the fence and cart the fence and the two protesters to the hospital where doctors and nurses had to waste time untangling the mess. The optics, of course, is that FANG wants you to hear about a doctor and a physics professor (supposedly smart people) who put themselves in harm’s way to protest something–so the something must be evil and rotten since these two virtuous “high value” (and smarter than the rest of us) members of society are sounding the alarm. We think you should focus on different optics–the logo/mascot FANG uses on their website (pictured here, taken from their website). A wolf bearing its fangs indicates extreme danger–and a willingness to go to extremes to cause property, and perhaps even bodily, damage. Homeland Security should take note…
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    OH Anti-Drilling November Ballot Measures Tossed in 3 Counties

    Anti-drillers in Ohio are persistent–we’ll grant them that. Local anti-drillers in three Ohio counties–Athens, Fulton and Medina–have been hoodwinked (are being used by) Big Green groups like the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF), attempting to get so-called Community Bill of Rights measures on the ballot in those counties. Problem is, the Ohio Supreme Court has already ruled such measures unconstitutional (see OH Supreme Court Strikes Down Home Rule in Gas Drilling Case). And yet, certain counties with high concentrations of wackos keep trying again and again and again–even though the very same type of measure has already been ruled illegal. What was that definition of insanity promulgated by Albert Einstein? “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” That about sums up the latest efforts by Athens, Fulton and Median county anti-drillers. They’ve filed petitions with enough signatures to once again put so-called “home rule” measures on the ballot. But this time officials in those three counties appealed to the Ohio Secretary of State who has ruled, striking down the ballot measures. A small victory for sanity in Ohio…
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    WV Shale Drillers: New Safety Regs on the Way in 2016

    Drillers in West Virginia–you’re on notice that Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin thinks it’s time to make shale drilling in the Mountain State safer than it is right now. Translation: new regulations will be coming at you in the 2016 legislative session. Tomblin formed the 19-member Oil and Natural Gas Industry Safety Commission with an executive order (see WV Establishes New Commission to Study Drilling/Pipeline Safety). The aim of the group is to present a list of recommendations in a final report on Nov. 16–a list that will be used to craft new rules and regulations and laws to be presented during next year’s legislative session. Now is the time for drillers to participate in the process. The kickoff session spent much the time reviewing previous accidents and dangers associated with oil and gas drilling…
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    Cenergy Expands in WV for 4th Time; Gov Tomblin Celebrates

    Founded in 2006, Cenergy is a West Virginia-based contractor for the natural gas industry providing turn-key facility and equipment engineering and fabrication for natural gas producers in West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania. The Cabell County company last week held a grand opening for an expansion at its Milton, WV facility. Special guest of honor: WV Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin. Gov. Tomblin was there to brag that WV held on to Cenergy and the extra jobs that come with the new expansion. The young-but-rapidly-growing company has expanded four times in Milton and currently employs 170 people, many of them welders…
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    GreenHunter Resources 2Q15: Revenue Down, But Bleeding Less Too

    GreenHunter Resources, the fresh water and wastewater subsidiary of driller Magnum Hunter Resources (now focused totally on the Marcellus/Utica), issued its second quarter 2015 update on Friday. The company is a small company compared to others in the oil and gas space with revenues in the few million per quarter. In 2Q15 GreenHunter’s revenues were $4.6 million, down 33% from $6.9 million in 2Q14. No surprise there since drillers are scaling back their activities. GreenHunter has trimmed its operating loss number–from $3 million in 2Q14 to $1.6 million in 2Q15–so the bleeding is slowing, a good sign. The 2Q15 update below brings us up to speed on a number of interesting initiatives at GreenHunter, including their new wastewater injection wells in Meigs County, OH. However, the interesting thing MDN picked up on was in the unscripted comments during GreenHunter’s earnings call held on Friday with analysts. That’s so important we’re dedicating a separate post to it today. Here is the 2Q15 update from GreenHunter…
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    Tiny Balls & Instant Credit – Oilfield Services Cos. Get Creative

    For some time we’ve told you that drillers in the Marcellus/Utica, as well as other shale plays, have been hammering oilfield services companies on price. Oilfield services companies are companies like Sclumberger (largest such company in the world) and Halliburton (second largest in the world) and Baker Hughes (fifth largest in the world, being gobbled up by Halliburton later this year). Oilfield services companies provide much of the equipment, personnel, chemicals and other supplies to do the actual drilling and fracking of shale wells. They’re the contract workers, hired to do a job. Last December MDN was hearing that oilfield services companies were being forced to discount prices by as much as 20% (see Marcellus Oilfield Services Cos Being Forced to Discount). By February, when it was obvious the price downturn would last for an extended period of time, MDN picked up on Magnum Hunter’s comments that they were getting prices discounted by as much as 40% (see Magnum Hunter Slashes Drilling Budget by 75% for 2015). In addition to slashing prices, oilfield services companies, in an attempt to stay in business, are innovating in two other ways: (1) they’ve become bankers, allowing drillers to buy their services on credit, and (2) refracking existing wells with “tiny rubber-coated balls”…
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    When Will There be Enough Pipelines in the Marcellus/Utica?

    How low can and will prices go in the Marcellus/Utica? Without pipelines like the Constitution, Northeast Energy Direct and Access Northeast (among others), prices for natgas in the Marcellus/Utica can and will go pretty low. Would you believe the price of natural gas selling at the Dominion South trading point in southwestern Pennsylvania briefly hit $0.71 (yes, 71 cents) per thousand cubic feet in early July? Would you believe there’s talk the price could even go as low as 60 cents/Mcf? That’s apocalyptic, end of any more drilling kind of prices. Without pipeline infrastructure, shale drilling shuts down. Which is why it is vital these pipelines get built. One bright spot is the recent reversal of the Rockies Express Pipeline now carting Marcellus/Utica gas to the Midwest (see 1.8 Bcf/d of Marcellus/Utica Gas Heads West on REX Starting Aug 1). Two more pipeline projects, due to be fully online in September, will also help: Spectra Energy’s Uniontown to Gas City (U2GC) Project Sunoco Logistics’ Mariner East 1 NGL pipeline from western PA to the Marcus Hook refinery near Philadelphia (see 2 Pipelines Will Raise Gas Sale Price by $1 for Range Resources). More on how pipelines are directly tied to the price of gas and the future of drilling…
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    MarkWest Sued for “Wrongful Death” in Washington, PA Car Crash

    On Saturday, Jan. 3, 2015, a MarkWest Energy truck driven by a MarkWest worker, according to court documents, failed to stop at a stop sign at the intersection of Route 136 and Brownlee Road in Washington County, PA. That failure had tragic consequences. The Chevy Silerado truck hit a tiny Ford Fiesta car and a passenger in the car, Donna Simboli, 58, was killed. A lawsuit has just been filed in Washington County on behalf of Simboli’s two children (no ages given) against MarkWest for “wrongful death”…
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