Marcellus Drilling News

Chester County | Energy Services | Energy Transfer Partners | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Sunoco Logistics

Sunoco Appeals PA DEP Shut Down of ME2 Construction in Chester
August 25, 2020August 25, 2020

While drilling in Chester County in the Marsh Creek State Park two weeks ago, Energy Transfer’s Mariner East 2X pipeline experienced an “inadvertent return”–nontoxic drilling mud coming up out of the ground where it’s not supposed to (see Mariner East 2X Construction Causes Another Drilling Mud Spill). In this case, the mud came up in a small section of the 535-acre Marsh Creek Lake. A few days later the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) indefinitely suspended all drilling in that area (see PA DEP Suspends ME2 Pipe Drilling at Marsh Creek State Park). Energy Transfer is appealing the DEP’s suspension saying if they can’t restart soon, the hole already drilled will fill in and ultimately lead to even more environmental impacts than a little spilled mud.
Read More “Sunoco Appeals PA DEP Shut Down of ME2 Construction in Chester”
Energy Services | Eureka Resources | Industrywide Issues | Wastewater

Eureka Resources Awarded Patent for O&G Wastewater Work in Marc.
August 25, 2020August 25, 2020

Eureka Resources, which operates three frack wastewater treatment facilities in the Marcellus Shale, is doing some really cool stuff. Last October the company began extracting lithium from Marcellus wastewater at one of its plants in Bradford County, PA (see Marcellus Wastewater Plant in PA Extracts 1st Batch of Lithium). Yesterday the company announced it has received its third patent for the process it uses to recycle wastewater. The company also said it plans on expanding its technology and wastewater recycling operations to other shale plays.
Read More “Eureka Resources Awarded Patent for O&G Wastewater Work in Marc.”
Electrical Generation | Energy Services | FirstEnergy | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Statewide OH

Big Ad Campaign Starts in Ohio to Repeal HB 6 Nuke Bailout Law
August 25, 2020August 25, 2020

FirstEnergy Solutions (now called Energy Harbor) allegedly paid $60 million in bribes to (now former) Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and four of his associates to gain their assistance in passing the hugely unpopular House Bill 6 (see FirstEnergy Involved in Bribery Scheme to Pass $1B Nuke Bailout Law). HB 6, which became law, gives Energy Harbor $150 million per year for seven years ($1.1 billion) in ratepayer funds to prop up the company’s uneconomic nuclear power plants (disadvantaging other energy sources, like gas-fired power plants). A new ad campaign intends to hold Ohio legislators’ feet to the fire in an effort to completely repeal HB 6.
Read More “Big Ad Campaign Starts in Ohio to Repeal HB 6 Nuke Bailout Law”
Best of the Rest

Shale Energy Stories of Interest: Tue, Aug 25, 2020
August 25, 2020August 25, 2020

MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Sen. Yaw among state, national leaders pledging to keep country dominant natural gas producer; Health care providers request governor, DOH to ‘better protect Pennsylvanians from the health effects of shale gas development’; NATIONAL: Storm-related production decline boosts natural gas futures; Lower 48 E&P universe forecast to shrink, ‘starved for capital’ as liquidity dries up; Summit Midstream Partners appoints James Johnston EVP, General Counsel & Chief Compliance Officer; U.S. LNG as swing supply amid shifting global market balance; Adapt or die: oilfield services sector seeks ways to weather difficult market.
Read More “Shale Energy Stories of Interest: Tue, Aug 25, 2020”
Berks County | Blair County | Cambria County | Cumberland County | Delaware County (PA) | Energy Services | Energy Transfer Partners | Industrywide Issues | Lebanon County | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Sunoco Logistics | Washington County | Westmoreland County

PA Fines Sunoco $355,636 for Old Mariner East 2 Pipe Violations
August 24, 2020August 24, 2020

Credit: Scott Blanchard / StateImpact Pennsylvania (click for larger version)

In early 2018 Sunoco Logistics Partners (aka Energy Transfer) agreed to pay a massive (historically high) $12.6 million fine to the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) for “permit violations related to the construction of the Mariner East 2 pipeline project” (see Sunoco LP Pays PA DEP $12.6M to Resume ME2 Pipeline Construction). It wasn’t the only fine the ME projects have incurred. Last Thursday Sunoco agreed to pay *another* $355,636 for a series of “inadvertent returns” (i.e. drilling mud spills) that happened more than a year ago, between August 2018 and April 2019.
Read More “PA Fines Sunoco $355,636 for Old Mariner East 2 Pipe Violations”
CNX Resources | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Westmoreland County

CNX Agrees to $175K Fine for Faulty Utica Well in SWPA
August 24, 2020August 24, 2020

CNX was fracking their Shaw 1G Utica well in Washington Township (Westmoreland County) in early 2019 when they detected “a strong drop in pressure” and stopped fracking (see CNX Hits Major Problem Fracking Utica Well Near SWPA Reservoir). Turns out the well was “communicating” (i.e. losing gas to) several nearby conventional wells. The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) finally assessed a fine for that episode late last week: $175,000.
Read More “CNX Agrees to $175K Fine for Faulty Utica Well in SWPA”
Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide PA

PA Marcellus Gas Production Declines in 2Q, News Not All Bad
August 24, 2020August 24, 2020

Last Thursday Pennsylvania’s Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) released its latest quarterly Natural Gas Production Report–for April through June 2020 (full copy below). The report shows natgas production in PA rose 2.8% compared to the same period last year. However, overall production fell 2.8% compared to 1Q20–the second quarter in a row production has fallen quarter-over-quarter.
Read More “PA Marcellus Gas Production Declines in 2Q, News Not All Bad”
Energy Services | Energy Transfer Partners | Industrywide Issues | NEXUS Pipeline | Ohio | Pipelines | Stark County | Taxation

NEXUS, Rover Pipes Lose Court Case to Lower Ohio Tax Bill
August 24, 2020August 24, 2020

Last December both Rover Pipeline and NEXUS Pipeline, two large Utica-gas pipelines traversing Ohio, appealed their property tax valuations to the Ohio Dept. of Taxation, looking to trim their tax bills in Stark County by up to 50% (see NEXUS and Rover Pipes Ask Stark County, OH for BIG Tax Cut). In July, Ohio’s Tax Commissioner denied the two pipelines’ request. Rover and NEXUS together are projected to be on the hook for $20 million in taxes in Stark County–just for last year!
Read More “NEXUS, Rover Pipes Lose Court Case to Lower Ohio Tax Bill”
Accidents | Chester County | Energy Services | Energy Transfer Partners | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Sunoco Logistics

Putting Recent ME2 Marsh Creek Lake Mud Spill in Perspective
August 24, 2020August 24, 2020

Two weeks ago while drilling in Chester County in Marsh Creek State Park, Energy Transfer’s Mariner East (ME) 2X pipeline experienced an “inadvertent return”–nontoxic drilling mud coming up out of the ground where it’s not supposed to (see Mariner East 2X Construction Causes Another Drilling Mud Spill). In this case the mud came up in a small section of the 535-acre Marsh Creek Lake. Hostile Democrat politicians in Chester County immediately jumped on the leak (which didn’t kill a single fish) to demand the state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) revoke the pipeline’s permits to build in the county–forever. A former politician from Chester County offers a different view of this latest episode and the partisan calls to stop ME2.
Read More “Putting Recent ME2 Marsh Creek Lake Mud Spill in Perspective”
Electrical Generation | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

Sen. Gene Yaw Makes Strong Case Against PA Carbon Tax
August 24, 2020August 24, 2020

PA Sen. Gene Yaw

We spotted an article that is one of the most salient, relevant, eloquent, and best-reasoned defenses of fossil fuels and using natural gas for power generation we’ve ever read. And it was authored by none other than Pennsylvania State Sen. Gene Yaw! Yaw, from Williamsport, is chairman of the PA Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee. He is dead set against Gov. Wolf’s ill-conceived plan to force the state to join the so-called Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI)–a carbon tax on coal and gas-fired power generation that will do nothing to save the planet and everything to kill off what remains of the Marcellus Shale industry in the state.
Read More “Sen. Gene Yaw Makes Strong Case Against PA Carbon Tax”
Best of the Rest

Shale Energy Stories of Interest: Mon, Aug 24, 2020
August 24, 2020August 24, 2020

MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Shale gas impact fee receipts down; future take a wild card; Natural gas prices are on fire, but producers are holding back; Local activists will paddle in protest of proposed Kearny natural gas plant; ExxonMobil Petrochemicals moving into PA?; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Lack of natural gas infrastructure hurts NC; The blithering idiocy of California’s energy policies; NATIONAL: Federal data show the high cost of electrifying homes; US weekly LNG exports rise to 11 cargoes; Flex LNG expects U.S. cargo cancellations to decrease in September; Natural Gas is the bridge to climate change nirvana; An effective ESG strategy strengthens the competitiveness of US liquefied natural gas; Natural gas price fundamental daily forecast – focus shifts to potential production disruption.
Read More “Shale Energy Stories of Interest: Mon, Aug 24, 2020”
About MDN

MDN Off Today, Friday, Aug. 21
August 21, 2020August 21, 2020

MDN is taking today off. For a couple of reasons. One is a vacation day. The other is that we recently (overnight) updated the site to the latest version of WordPress, the software we use to run the site. Unfortunately, the update has broken an important feature on MDN–the ability to embed PDF documents. You will notice that PDFs are currently not embedding but linking to files instead. We are working with our web team on a fix. We will let you know when it’s fixed. This issue is now fixed. – Jim Willis
Energy Companies | EQT Corp | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Trucking

Trucking Company Sues EQT for Racial Bias, Canceled $66M Contract
August 20, 2020August 20, 2020

Pittsburgh-based IntegrServ, a trucking company partly owned by former Pittsburgh Steeler Jerome Bettis, filed a federal lawsuit yesterday against EQT claiming discrimination against the company as a minority-owned company after it canceled a contract worth some $66 million last year. This is an involved story and of course, there are always two sides to every story (and two sides to every lawsuit).
Read More “Trucking Company Sues EQT for Racial Bias, Canceled $66M Contract”
Antero Resources | Doddridge County | Energy Companies | Jay-Bee Oil & Gas | Lease & Royalty Payments | West Virginia

Peregrine Buys Royalty Rights from Doddridge County, WV Landowners
August 20, 2020August 20, 2020

Peregrine Energy Partners, headquartered in Dallas, Texas, continues a program to buy royalty rights in the Marcellus/Utica. Peregrine announced yesterday the company has cut a deal to buy “producing royalties in Doddridge County, West Virginia from several private sellers.” The private sellers are landowners/rights owners with wells drilled by Antero Resources and Jay-Bee Oil & Gas. No details on how much the deal was for.
Read More “Peregrine Buys Royalty Rights from Doddridge County, WV Landowners”
Electrical Generation | Energy Services | FirstEnergy | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Ohio | Statewide OH

Ohio AG Asks Court to Stop Payments to FirstEnergy Nuke Plants
August 20, 2020August 20, 2020

FirstEnergy Solutions (now called Energy Harbor) allegedly paid $60 million in bribes to (now former) Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and four of his associates to gain their assistance in passing the hugely unpopular House Bill 6 (see FirstEnergy Involved in Bribery Scheme to Pass $1B Nuke Bailout Law). HB 6, which became law, gives Energy Harbor $1.1 billion in ratepayer funds over seven years to prop up the company’s uneconomic nuclear power plants (disadvantaging other energy sources, like gas-fired power plants). Ohio’s Attorney General is asking a bankruptcy court to stop those annual $150 million payments.
Read More “Ohio AG Asks Court to Stop Payments to FirstEnergy Nuke Plants”
Industrywide Issues | Research | Statewide WV | West Virginia

WVU Researchers Get $1.5M Grant to Develop Fugitive Methane Tech
August 20, 2020August 20, 2020

Researchers at West Virginia University have won a $1.5 million grant from the U.S. Dept. of Energy to develop technology that will cut down (eliminate) methane from leaking at natural gas production sites–like wells and pipelines. The researchers are developing a “methane mitigator system” to trap what is sometimes called “fugitive methane.” But don’t expect successful outcomes from this research to appease environmental nutjobs. They’ll still hate methane anyway, even if every last molecule is trapped.
Read More “WVU Researchers Get $1.5M Grant to Develop Fugitive Methane Tech”