With a decrease in rig counts/new drilling in 2019 (see today’s companion story), it was inevitable we would see layoffs in the Marcellus/Utica industry in 2019. The Pittsburgh region alone saw over 400 layoffs from three companies: EQT, Range and CNX. But that wasn’t the whole story.
Read More “Marcellus/Utica Employment 2019 – Some Losses, Some Gains”
The launch of Marcellus Drilling News as a full-time venture for founder/editor Jim Willis would not have been possible without Jim working a part-time gig (in marketing) for Natural Gas Intelligence (NGI). The fantastic folks at NGI, specifically Dexter and Alex Steis (publisher and editor-in-chief, respectively) provided Jim with meaningful, long-term support for six years (from 2012-2017). Jim is eternally grateful they allowed him to continue publishing MDN while working (remotely) for NGI. The head of NGI since its founding has been Dexter and Alex’s mom, Ellen Beswick Steis, a true trailblazer who founded the company in 1983. Ellen passed on Christmas Eve at the age of 79 following an illness.
Read More “Remembering NGI Founder Ellen Beswick Steis”
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Tone-deaf Democrats risk handing western Pennsylvania to Trump; Falling NY population is part of Cuomo’s plan; Range Resources director to resign; NATIONAL: US oil, gas rig count down by 4 to 836, lowest since early 2017; Natural-gas slide continues to start 2020; The Top 10 RBN energy prognostications for 2020 – Year of the Rat; Hamm, McClendon — and other names behind a fracking great decade for american oil and gas; INTERNATIONAL: As demand increases, Canada’s most populated province expanding natgas infrastructure; Best decade yet: humanity grew richer and more sustainable in the 2010s.
Read More “Shale Energy Stories of Interest: Fri, Jan 3, 2020”
The State of Kentucky is spending $7.4 million ($5.9 million coming from the U.S. Dept. of Energy) to study the oil and gas potential of the Rogersville Shale (and other formations) located in eastern Kentucky. Which is big news for us in light of previous failed attempts to drill in the Rogersville.
Read More “Kentucky Launches New Study of Rogersville Shale Potential”
The Williams Transco “Gateway Expansion Project,” an $85 million project which flows an extra 65,000 dekatherms per day (65 million cubic feet) of natural gas to a couple of utility companies in New Jersey, has just gone online–11 months early!
Read More “Williams Transco NE Gateway Expansion Project Goes Online Early”
The companies behind PennEast Pipeline, a $1.2 billion new greenfield pipeline project from Luzerne County, PA to Mercer County, NJ, have not given up on the long-delayed project. As we told you in November, PennEast filed will file an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court (on Feb. 3) to overcome a lower court ruling that prevents PennEast from using eminent domain in New Jersey for some of the route (see PennEast Pipe to Appeal Bungled Fed Court Decision to US Supremes). Apparently the builders believe they have at least something of a chance to get the Supremes to review the case because PennEast has just asked FERC to extend the deadline to build.
Read More “PennEast Pipe Still Hopeful, Asks FERC for 2-Year Extension”
The Ohio Supreme Court, on Christmas Eve, threw a lifeline to an effort to overturn an Ohio law that provides corporate welfare in the form of $1 billion of ratepayer (taxpayer) money to FirstEnergy (which recently changed its name to Harbor Energy). The Ohio law provides the funds to FirstEnergy so they can keep two economically failing nuclear power plants up and running, giving the plants an unfair advantage over gas-fired plants that don’t receive corporate welfare.
Read More “OH Supreme Court Keeps Door Open to Reverse $1B Nuke Bailout”
Last June Philadelphia City Council voted to approve a $60 million Marcellus LNG export facility, to be built on property owned by Philadelphia Gas Works (see Philadelphia LNG Export Plant Approved by City Council Vote). Since that time we’ve not heard anything about the project or its status. Until now.
Read More “Philly LNG Export Plant Advances, Seeks Bids for Solar Power”
One of the companies in the Marcellus industry targeted for extinction by Pennsylvania’s former Attorney General, Kathleen Kane, was Minuteman Environmental Services (see PA’s Anti-Drilling AG Charges Minuteman with Enviro Crimes). Kane filed charges against the company in 2014, charges that were later dropped, but in the meantime she forced the company into bankruptcy. Since May 2015, the owner of Minuteman has fought back (i.e. sued) to regain his good name and to ensure prosecutorial abuses like what he’s experienced never happen to anyone else. He continues to fight to this day, and the PA AG’s office continues to block his efforts to obtain justice.
Read More “Minuteman’s 5-Year Battle for Justice Against Former PA AG”
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: CEO of top U.S. power market is under fire even before he starts; Appalachian gas valuations: the bad, the ugly, (and the good); OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Natural gas development not responsible for Pavillion’s water issues; Cameron LNG kicks off production from Train 2; Burn, pay, or shut it down: three evils for Permian drillers; NATIONAL: Biden, Sanders and Warren present the oil and gas industry with a stark choice in 2020; INTERNATIONAL: European import terminals plan expansions as U.S. LNG volumes grow; The top energy stories of 2019.
Read More “Shale Energy Stories of Interest: Thu, Jan 2, 2020”
We wish you a Merry Christmas..and a Happy New Year! MDN will take off (i.e. no new stories posted) between Dec. 24 and New Year’s Day in observance of the holiday season. Don’t worry, we’ll still keep an eye on the news and if anything earth-shattering happens, we’ll post about it. However, our intent is to take a break from writing for an entire week. We will see you again on Thursday, January 2nd.
A brief note to thank you, our loyal readers, from the bottom of our heart. Thank you for subscribing and resubscribing year after year. We take our responsibility seriously to bring you the news–in context–throughout the year. We look forward to 2020 with eager anticipation for what it will bring in the Marcellus/Utica.
Enjoy this Christmas carol (and our wish to you) from the inimitable Celtic Women:
The Battle Run Compressor Station, owned and operated by Williams and located in Valley Grove (Ohio County), West Virginia, exploded and caught fire Saturday night. Fortunately no one was injured and the fire was extinguished within a half hour. Williams has “isolated” the flow of gas to the facility while the incident is investigated.
Read More “Williams WV Compressor Station Explodes, Catches Fire”
Columbia Gas of Ohio (NiSource) recently announced a new $135 million pipeline project to bring new supplies of Utica-sourced natural gas to homes and businesses located north and west of Columbus, in central Ohio. The project, called the Northern Loop Project, will file for regulatory approval with the Ohio Power Siting Board and hopes the OPSB will approve the project in 2020, with construction set to happen in 2022.
Read More “Columbia Gas Plans New NatGas Pipeline in Central Ohio”
Eastern Shore Natural Gas Company (ESNG), a subsidiary company of Chesapeake Utilities Corporation, filed a request with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in Sept. 2018 to build 19+ miles of new pipeline and new meter and delivery stations in Kent and Sussex counties in Delaware, and Wicomico and Somerset counties in Maryland, to carry more PA Marcellus natural gas to locations in Delaware and Maryland. Last Thursday FERC granted final approval for the project.
1/7/20 UPDATE: Chesapeake finally issued a press release on Jan. 7 to tout FERC’s final approval. We’ve included the release below.
Read More “FERC Approves Del-Mar Energy Pathway Pipe Project”
Among a flurry of new approvals, last Thursday the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) gave final approval to Tennessee Gas Pipeline’s “261 Upgrade” project–a project to build approximately 2.1 miles of 12-inch diameter pipeline loop and replace two older, less efficient compressor units with a single new and more efficient compressor unit at the location of Compressor Station 261 in Agawam, Massachusetts.
Read More “FERC Approves Tennessee Gas Pipe Expansion to Springfield, Mass.”
Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission Law Judge Elizabeth Barnes has tried to stop or block or otherwise do damage to the Mariner East pipeline projects for years. Most (all?) of her actions against the project have, in the past, been reversed by a vote of PUC Commissioners (see PA PUC Overrules Lib Judge – Mariner East 1 Returns to Service and PA PUC Allows ME2 Pipeline Work to Restart Near Philly). Will PUC members also overturn Barnes’ latest overreach in fining the Mariner East 1 pipeline $1,000, to be given to a nearby homeowner who doesn’t feel “safe” living 1,000 feet from a pipeline that’s been there all of his life?
Read More “PA Judge Fines Mariner East Pipe $1K for Scaring Homeowner”