Accidents | Berks County | Energy Services | Energy Transfer Partners | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Sunoco Logistics
PA PUC Fines Mariner East 1 $200K, Orders “Remaining Life” Study
In April 2017 (almost three years ago) the Mariner East 1 pipeline sprung a small leak and spilled 20 barrels (~840 gallons) of ethane and propane in Berks County, near Philadelphia. Sunoco Logistics Partners, builder and maintainer of the pipeline, shut it down and fixed it over the next several days. Yesterday the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission announced a “settlement” with Sunoco, to fine the company $200,000. Sunoco, as part of the settlement, must also conduct a “remaining life” study of the pipeline. After all, it is almost 90 years old.
Read More “PA PUC Fines Mariner East 1 $200K, Orders “Remaining Life” Study”
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Williams seeks to raise $5 billion by selling stake in pipelines – sources; NATIONAL: Top Republican rejects climate denialism, urges expansion of nuclear power and natural gas; ‘Stop the money’ anti-energy project will strap the poor for cash; Michael Bloomberg’s climate money may have gotten his presidential campaign into IRS hot water; Plastic bags help the environment; INTERNATIONAL: RIL’s shale gas dream hangs in balance as gas price falls; Heathrow third runway rejected over incompatibility with Paris climate agreement.
One of our favorite publications to read is the Pittsburgh Business Times. The PBT recently researched and published a list of the “
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, a leftist Democrat who wants to succeed Tom Wolf as governor, likes to investigate accidents related to the shale industry to see if he can turn them into crimes (
Yesterday the Pennsylvania Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) released their latest quarterly Natural Gas Production Report for October through December 2019 (full copy below). It shows natgas production in PA rose 7.6% compared to the same period last year–to yet another new all-time high of 1,774.5 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of natural gas. Put another way, that’s nearly 1.8 TRILLION cubic feet of gas produced over a three-month period. There has now been an unbroken chain of quarter-over-quarter increases in horizontal shale gas production in PA for 14 consecutive quarters (3.5 years running).
Nick DeIuliis, CEO of CNX Resources, has about had it up to “here” with the haters. At a recent speech to the Pittsburgh Rotary Club and the Pittsburgh Business Exchange, DeIuliis unloaded on extremists (whom he called “haters”) targeting the shale and petrochemical industries. He made a strong case for fossil fuel energy. He’s also not a fan of the “carbon-shaming mob mentality” of some leftist fund managers who are pressuring investment firms to divest from fossil fuel companies. Way to go Nick!
It was April 2015 when PTT Global Chemical, a huge petrochemical company based in Thailand, first announced they would consider building an ethane cracker plant in Ohio (see 
Ascent Resources, originally founded as American Energy Partners by gas legend Aubrey McClendon, is a privately-held company that focuses 100% on the Ohio Utica Shale. The company recently issued its full-year 2019 update with a look at what it plans for 2020. Ascent is Ohio’s largest natural gas producer, and 2019 was a VERY good year for the company’s production. Average daily production zoomed up 45% from 2018, to 1.97 billion cubic feet equivalent per day (Bcfe/d). Of that number, some 1.8 Bcf/d was natural gas, and oil production was 13,000 barrels/d. Most importantly, Ascent made a profit of $466 million in 2019, compared to losing $4 million in 2018. Way to go!
The value of a company’s stock price is important, for a variety of reasons. The stock price reflects investor confidence in whether the company can earn its keep and grow profits in the future. A higher stock price wards off takeovers. Upper management gets a raise. And the company can borrow money when it needs to at reasonable interest rates. All sorts of reasons why the stock price is important. Unfortunately for top drillers in the Marcellus/Utica, their stock prices have tanked. As a group, and individually, the stock price is either near or even at the lowest it’s *ever been.* Let that sink in.
Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection Secretary Patrick McDonnell gave an embarrassing performance on Monday before the House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee (ERE). He was there to answer questions about his agency’s annual budget request. As the discussion turned to Gov. Tom Wolf’s attempt to force PA to join the so-called Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), McDonnell equivocated and danced around questions about this tragedy-in-the-making. We understand…he has to support his boss. Like we said, embarrassing.
Last week MDN told you about a U.S.-based compressor station facility that had to shut down operations for two days after sustaining a cyber attack that prevented personnel from receiving crucial real-time operational data from control and communication equipment (see 
It doesn’t happen often, so when it does, it’s worth noting. Both business (Chamber of Commerce) groups from Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, along with labor union groups from both cities, have reached across the aisle to work together in an effort to try and convince Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf to sign House Bill (HB) 1100–a bill that would attract new petrochemical investment (and jobs) to the state. Inexplicably Wolf has pledged to veto the bill when it hits his desk (see 
We can’t tell you how many stories and headlines we’ve seen over the past few weeks that proclaim the coronavirus is killing the oil and natural gas markets (not to mention the stock market). The theory goes that China is scaling back the production of consumer crap that Americans buy because Chinese workers are dropping like flies. Less production equals less need to import oil and gas, resulting in, what? A worldwide economic recession? Depression? End of Days? Run for the hills! U.S. LNG exports are frequently mentioned as being negatively impacted by the coronavirus. Except…they aren’t. Here’s a contrarian view.