PennEast Stops Eminent Domain Lawsuits in PA – What Does it Mean?
Some disturbing news out of Pennsylvania. You may recall that PennEast Pipeline, a 120-mile, primarily 36-inch pipeline that will cost $1 billion to build and run from Dallas, Luzerne County, in northeastern Pennsylvania, and terminate at Transco’s pipeline interconnection near Pennington, Mercer County, New Jersey, won a huge and important victory at the U.S. Supreme Court in June (see PennEast Pipeline Squeaks Out 5-4 Supreme Court Victory Over NJ). The victory allows PennEast to use eminent domain to run the pipeline across property owned or controlled by the State of New Jersey. Yet all of a sudden the company has stopped pursuing eminent domain in Pennsylvania–where supposedly they were getting ready to begin construction this year.
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Yet another lawsuit brought by one landowner against the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) asks the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia to block blasting and construction for the pipeline on his property, alleging it could “explode the headwaters of Bottom Creek.” The same landowner has been suing to block MVP since at least early 2019 by our quick check of the court records. This appears to be just one more attempt to use sketchy information to block the completion of a project that’s already 92% done and in the ground.
Yet another fine for Energy Transfer (ET), assessed by the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP). This time the DEP has fined ET $140,000 for violations that occurred in 2019 and 2020 during the construction of ET’s B15 Well Connect Pipeline construction project located in Beaver County, PA. According to the consent order and agreement (COA), “sections of the pipeline project were not temporarily stabilized, areas of the site showed accelerated erosion and sedimentation, waterbars were not installed properly or not installed in the approved locations, and erosion and sedimentation best management practices (BMP) were inoperable or ineffective.”
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: US Northeast power, gas prices rise on scorching temperatures; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Gas producer BKV Corp to buy Texas power plant for $430 million; Exxon launches U.S. shale gas sale to kick-start stalled divestitures; NATIONAL: White House urges more help from OPEC; EIA expects U.S. natural gas inventories to enter winter heating season below average; Frackers, shippers eye natural-gas leaks as climate change concerns mount.
The so-called Pennsylvania Environmental Defense Foundation (PEDF) lost a big court case in Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court last Friday, but you won’t have heard about it because no one in mainstream media is talking about it or reporting on it. We couldn’t even find a whisper about the defeat from PA Environmental Digest or StateImpact Pennsylvania. Huh. One would almost think there’s some sort of collusion going on. A wall of censorship and silence. Don’t worry, we’ll tell you about it…
You have to say one thing about environmentalist wacko zealots–they never give up. Ever. We’re talking about the Big Green money behind Appalachian Mountain Advocates, Southern Environmental Law Center, and the Natural Resources Defense Council (among 19 groups in total) which have filed a “request” (i.e. demand) with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to expand an environmental review for Equitrans Midstream’s 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project.
Summit Midstream Partners, formed in 2009 and headquartered in The Woodlands, Texas, operates natural gas, crude oil, and produced water gathering (pipeline) systems in several unconventional shale plays, including the Marcellus and Utica. Last week Summit issued its second quarter 2021 update. The company’s Utica Shale segment continued to be the star performer. Flows through the company’s pipeline system are up, although revenues were down slightly from the same period a year ago.
ECA Marcellus Trust I, traded over-the-counter on the pink sheets, canceled distributions (dividends) to investors for the first three quarters of 2020 due to the pandemic and the crash in oil and gas prices. The company restarted paying dividends in 4Q20–a grand total of 9/10ths of one penny per unit (see 
Last week only Pennsylvania issued permits to drill new shale wells. Both Ohio and West Virginia issued no new drilling permits. Summer doldrums? Some 8 of the 11 permits issued in PA were to Seneca Resources, all of them in Elk County, and 7 of the 8 were for the same well pad. The other 3 permits were issued to EQT in three different counties.
A new bill just introduced in the Pennsylvania House by State Rep. Eric Davanzo (Republican from Westmoreland County), House Bill (HB) 1763, clears up the confusion and bastardization of the term “royalty,” making it easy for everyone to know what can and cannot be deducted from royalties with respect to oil and gas leases. Davanzo got 23 of his fellow House members to co-sponsor the bill. It is a refreshingly simple bill that does not change any existing contracts. It defines the point to establish the value of gas (or oil) as that point when it is sold to an unrelated third-party purchaser. Simple!
Last Friday National Fuel Gas Company (NFG), the parent company for Seneca Resources and Empire Pipeline, issued its latest quarterly update for the quarter ending June 30 (NFG’s third fiscal quarter, everyone else’s second quarter). The exciting news from the update is that with two pipeline projects getting completed this year, Seneca Resources is ramping up its Marcellus/Utica drilling program to take advantage of selling more gas at higher prices.
Gulfport Energy, the third-largest driller in the Ohio Utica Shale (by the number of wells drilled), emerged from bankruptcy in May with a new board and new top management (see 