Dominion 2Q Update: The Battle to Build Atlantic Coast Pipe
Dominion Energy, a huge company with its fingers in many energy pies (pipelines, LNG exports, power generation, utility company) issued its second quarter update yesterday. Although the company is large and yesterday’s update spanned many different initiatives, there was no escaping the fact that much of yesterday’s conversation revolved around the company’s stalled Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) project.
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How much “due diligence” must a landowner engage in when it comes to locating a long lost mineral rights owner in Ohio? According to Ohio’s Dormant Mineral Act (ODMA), the landowner who wants to reclaim mineral rights that were severed must (a) send a certified letter to the last known address of the rights owner, and (b) if that doesn’t work, publish a notice in local newspapers to try and find the long lost rights owner. After that, the landowner can reclaim the mineral rights (an oversimplification, but you get the idea).
In March MDN reported that work has restarted, after eight years, to complete an injection well in Mahoning County, OH (see 
In March, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf traveled to an elementary school in South Philadelphia with the message that only a severance tax on Marcellus Shale production stands in the way of cleaning up lead paint problems that are poisoning the little kiddies at the school (see 
We love happy endings, and this story has one. Despite claims by anti-fossil fuelers that the Tenaska Westmoreland Generating Station in southwestern PA would spread disease and death if it got built, it’s been up and running since last December–producing power and generating money for both its builders and the community–and everyone is just fine. Cue the Pete Seeger song “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” and replace “Flowers” with “Antis”…
Yet another cockamamie “study” (i.e. propaganda) about the negatives of fracking–this one done by the University of New Hampshire claiming a few hikers and outdoor enthusiasts in Pennsylvania will have to find someplace else to hike and enthuse…because of evil Marcellus fracking. The thing that really angers us is that Pennsylvania taxpayers paid for this “study”!
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: PUCO threatens to shut down natural gas company; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: U.S. Department of Energy approves LNG exports from Gulf LNG; Bakken gas muscling out Western Canadian supply from Chicago market; NATIONAL: Rystad Energy finds employment is shifting from shale to offshore; Hurricane Barry knocked 700,000 barrels of oil per day offline and hardly anyone noticed; Bill improving natural gas pipeline safety advances in Congress; INTERNATIONAL: Google’s celeb-obsessed search for climate change answers is a hypocritical joke.
CNX Resources, formerly the CNX Gas division of CONSOL Energy, released its second quarter update yesterday. The big news is that during 2Q CNX drilled the longest new Marcellus well ever…at 19,609 feet! The company reports production jumped 10%, from 123 Bcfe last year to 135 Bcfe in 2Q19, and net income jumped 216% from $61 million last year to $193 million in 2Q19.
PTT Global Chemical continues to behave is if it’s going forward with building a $7.5 billion ethane cracker in Dilles Bottom (Belmont County), Ohio. The latest evidence? The company is actively buying up homes close to the proposed site. Over the past two months the company has snapped up six homes and is in discussions right now with others.
Equitrans, formerly known as EQT Midstream (formerly a division of EQT), released its second quarter update yesterday. Among the things we learned: The Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project is now 85% complete and will be done and online in mid-2020. EQT (the driller) remains committed to the MVP project and contrary to false rumors, EQT is not pulling out (it would cost them north of $3 billion to do so!). The project cost for MVP will be around $5 billion–a new high.
America’s natural gas and oil industry announced “a landmark partnership” in late 2017 called the Environmental Partnership, to “accelerate improvements to environmental performance in operations across the country” (see 
Lee Wasserman is director of the Rockefeller Family Fund, a New York-based charity started in 1967 by heirs of oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller. Wasserman is a man-causes-global-warming Kool Aid drinker, and he uses the considerable money available to him to “fight climate change.” For a smart guy he’s really, really dumb. In a New York Times editorial last week, Wasserman paraded his ignorance for all to see by declaring the petroleum industry’s continued search for oil and gas is “rampant corporate irrationality.”
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Unrealistic energy policies sting American consumers; CNX COO announces retirement; NY grid reliability at risk; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: California grid operator warns regulators on natural gas-fired plant retirements; Don’t let state regulators limit energy choice in California; Tesla unleashes Megapack battery to take on natural gas plants; Howell planners approve New Jersey Natural Gas training facility; NATIONAL: Flaring natural gas is the safer environmental option; Natural gas exports are giving US a key edge; Mid-decade milestone for US LNG exports; Inslee’s climate bubbles (video); INTERNATIONAL: TC Energy reaches agreement to sell Ontario natural gas-fired power plants for $2.87 billion; Surf’s Up…Second wave of LNG is here; Don’t ‘demonize’ energy firms: BP boss says climate activists should avoid polarizing society.
The last time MDN reported on Tug Hill Operating was more than two years ago, a story about Tug Hill’s XcL Midstream subsidiary working to build a new gathering pipeline system in West Virginia to flow gas that would come from Tug Hill’s THQ Appalachia drilling subsidiary (see