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ET Allowed to Fix/Restart Revolution Pipe…After Record $30M Fine
The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) has just issued the largest single fine to any single company in its history–$30.6 million assessed on Energy Transfer for the explosion of the Revolution Pipeline–a gathering pipeline located in southwestern PA. The fine, along with new plans and assurances by ET, means the company can finally, some 17 months after the explosion, fix the damaged pipeline and return it to service.
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The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) recent settlement with Energy Transfer (ET) concerning the Revolution Pipeline explosion in southwestern PA also has significant impact on southeastern PA. How? The signed consent order in which ET pays the state $30.6 million lifts a moratorium on granting new permits to ET for *any* of its pipeline projects in PA for the past one year–including permits to complete the Mariner East (ME) projects. With the consent order comes a lifting of that permit moratorium, meaning the final bits of ME can now be completed.
MDN previously reported in mid-December the very first load of Marcellus molecules liquefied at the Elba Island, Georgia LNG export facility was loaded onto a ship and headed to Pakistan (see 
This is a slightly older story (from December), but an important story that deserves your attention. Last October Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf went completely off his rocker with a power-grab to force PA into a regional alliance to tax natural gas-fired electric plants out of existence (see 
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Houston company seeks to develop first 5G-enabled oil drilling site in Permian Basin; Administrative law judge criticizes DTE’s proposed energy plan; NATIONAL: Rick Perry rejoins Energy Transfer board of directors; Anti-energy researcher Naomi Oreskes calls for regulations on free speech; Biden says plastic bags should be phased out; Crude-to-gas ratio hits six-year high of 30X – ramifications for oil, gas and NGLs; INTERNATIONAL: EIA projects nearly 50% increase in world energy usage by 2050, led by growth in Asia; The US kills Iran’s most dangerous general – what happens now?
Last July MDN broke the news that LOLA Energy had filed a lawsuit in Greene County, PA against EQT for allegedly drilling shale wells under property EQT formerly leased, but property for which the leases had lapsed and were subsequently scooped up by LOLA Energy II (see 
In mid-November Gulfport Energy, one of the biggest drillers in the Ohio Utica Shale (210,000 acres), announced they are laying off 13% of their workforce, ending (for now) their stock share buy-back program, and “refreshing” the board with three new members (see 
Good news for oilfield services companies that offer fracking services in the Ohio Utica Shale. The Tenth District Ohio Court of Appeals recently ruled that an amendment to an existing law granting tax exempt status for oil and gas equipment not only applies to equipment purchased by frackers from now on, it also applies to equipment they’ve purchased (and paid sales tax on) going back in time too. In other words, some frackers are owed refunds on the sales tax they’ve paid in the past.
If you use the number of active rigs operating in a given shale play/state as the measure for “success,” 2019 wasn’t such a good year for the Marcellus/Utica. In January, Pennsylvania entered 2019 with 48 active rigs. In December that number was cut nearly in half, to 25 active rigs. It was a similar story for Ohio, which entered 2019 with 17 active rigs and exited with 12 rigs. West Virginia, on the other hand, entered 2019 with 15 rigs and exited the year with the same number. But at one point during the year WV had 21 active rigs. We have the monthly rig stats below for all three states.
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.