Energy Stories of Interest: Tue, Mar 19, 2019
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: PA House Environmental Committee meeting on DRBC March 20; Homeowners take fight against Atlantic Sunrise to U.S. Supreme Court; Natural gas-fired power outpaces coal for first time in PJM; Utilities, fossil fuel could win big from Ohio bill to reduce regulations; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Oregon House approves 10-year ban on ‘fracking’ for oil, natural gas exploration; Drilling company operating in Tyler completes $19 million natural gas drilling rig; Environmental groups push for ‘fracking transparency’ in Illinois; NATIONAL: The U.S. Gulf Coast became a net exporter of crude oil in late 2018; Tallgrass Energy promotes Bill Moler to president and COO; The frac sand revolution; Wastewater – private equity’s new black gold in U.S. shale; INTERNATIONAL: The Trump Administration can’t have it all when it comes to oil; All the world a stage: Rising U.S. oil clout on show in Houston; OPEC defers decision on oil production cuts to June.
Read More “Energy Stories of Interest: Tue, Mar 19, 2019”
On Friday MDN told you that Consolidated Edison’s deadline to apply to be added as a natural gas customer in Westchester County had arrived (see 
Last May, Liberty Utilities, located and operating in New Hampshire, announced a new pipeline project called Granite Bridge–27 miles of new natural gas pipeline to be buried along Route 101 from Stratham to Manchester, along with an LNG storage facility located midway along the pipeline (see 
CERAWeek (by IHS Markit) is held each year in Houston, Texas. There is no doubt it is the world’s premier energy event. Last week U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo addressed attendees, as did Secretary of Energy Rick Perry and the Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commissioner Neil Chatterjee. Movers and shakers. Everyone from Saudi Arabian oil sheikhs to wildcatting frackers from America’s shale plays were there.
Marcellus Drilling News is happy to partner with the Oil & Gas Awards. Last week the 
In the same way America’s “unnecessary” and audacious effort to put a man on the moon in the 1960s produced the unintended consequence of discovering new materials and inventions that have fundamentally changed our society (practical applications, like computers), so too has the “unnecessary” practice of hydraulic fracturing led to new discoveries and information about how the human body works–enlightening scientists, ultimately improving human health.
The latest edition of the MDN Weekly Digest is now ready. The digest is the meat and “essence” of each story for all posts appearing on the MDN website during the past week, collected in a single PDF document capable of being downloaded and printed. The Weekly Digest is available to paying subscribers only as part of your 
Equitrans Midstream, which used to be called EQT Midstream, yesterday announced they have cut their first big deal since separating from EQT last year. Equitrans is buying a 60% stake in Eureka Midstream, a 190-mile pipeline system in Ohio and West Virginia serving both the Marcellus and Utica, and a 100% stake in the tiny 15-mile Hornet Midstream, a gathering system in WV that connects to Eureka.
Witch hunts take a loooong time when it’s the U.S. government doing the hunting. We told you back in 2015 that the U.S. Dept. of Labor was unfairly targeting the Marcellus industry, looking at every time slip, to see if they could bag companies violating federal overtime regulations–not paying their workers overtime (see 
Some Pennsylvania landowners have recently been approached by the companies they’re leased with, asking landowners to sign amended leases to allow cross-unit drilling. We personally know of one case in which a driller requested such an amendment in northeast PA. So it is with great interest we notice a new bill has been introduced in the PA House, specifically to allow cross-unit shale drilling.
Today is the last day for customers who want to apply to be added to Consolidated Edison’s natural gas delivery system in Westchester County, NY to apply. There’s no guarantee if they do apply they’ll be accepted, but after today new applications to get gas service will automatically go on a waiting list. That is, the moratorium on new customers in Westchester essentially begins NOW, today–thanks to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s policies in prohibiting new natural gas pipelines.
In February MDN told you about an important decision by the DC Circuit Court of Appeals that has the potential to override New York State and allow both the Constitution Pipeline and Northern Access Pipeline projects to get built (see 
Here’s a mind-blower: Royal Dutch Shell is the world’s second largest oil producer (by market value). Yet a Shell official recently said his company wants to be “the largest electricity power company in the world in the early 2030s.” Within 15 years Shell wants to be THE world’s #1 electricity producer! And they plan to do it by using natural gas as the fuel to create all that electricity.