Shale driller Huntley & Huntley, headquartered in Monroeville (Allegheny County), PA drilled at least one well last year in the Pittsburgh suburb of Plum (also in Allegheny County). According to a landowner living nearby, H&H’s drilling and fracking of the Midas 8M well led to their water well becoming fouled. H&H disputes the claim.
Read More “H&H Fracked Well in SWPA Accused of Fouling Nearby Water Well”
Although it’s still talk, the talk is now white hot and all indications are that President Trump will soon issue an Executive Order (EO) that declares important pipeline projects–like Williams’ Constitution and Northeast Supply Enhancement projects–are critical for national security, and that states like New York trying to block those projects just because they’re fossil fuel projects will not stand.
IMPORTANT UPDATE 4/4/19: White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow has confirmed a Trump EO is about to be issued on pipelines. See article below.
Read More “Trump Exec Order Coming to Overrule NY on Blocked Pipelines”
Energy Transfer issued an exciting announcement yesterday to say they are expanding their presence in China “to meet growing demand for ethane and liquid natural gas products” by opening an ET office in Beijing. It will be ET’s first non-U.S. office–can you believe that?! Although ET doesn’t mention the Marcellus/Utica in the announcement, we think there’s a connection.
Read More “Energy Transfer Opens Office in China to Push LNG, Ethane”
Pennsylvania towns that pass sketchy local ordinances that skirt state laws are on notice: It’s going to cost you. Big. For the past several years we’ve reported on the case of Grant Township, PA that passed an ordinance cooked up by the radical Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) to try and block a state-approved injection well. The ordinance was tossed by a judge, and now the town will have to pay $102,000 in legal fees incurred by the operator.
Read More “Judge Orders Grant Twp to Pay PGE $102K in Legal Fees”
Here’s one we consider a conundrum. In Jan. 2018 MDN told you that the Borough of Jessup (Lackawanna County), PA was supposed to rule, quickly, on a request by Invenergy to allow a new power plant it was building at the time to, when fully built and operating, discharge up to 56,600 gallons of “wastewater” (heated water) per day in the borough’s sewage system (see New Town Board Tries to Stop Nearly-Done Gas-Fired Plant in Jessup). The plant has been operating since early this year, but the borough just voted to approve the sewage wasterwater plan…yesterday.
Read More “Jessup Votes to Allow Power Plant Water in Local Sewage System”
What will Jeff Tittel of the odious New Jersey Sierra Club say now? Tittel and his ilk have for years litigated to block a natural gas pipeline that would flow Marcellus gas from PA into New Jersey, a pipeline that would cross through 10 miles of scrub pines colloquially known as the Pinelands–a “protected” area in NJ. Tittel objected to cutting down a few hundred scrub pine trees to make way for the pipeline. And just like that, Mother Nature came along last weekend and torched 10,000 acres of those same scrub pines via a forest fire. Maybe Mom Nature is clearing the trees for the pipeline?!
Read More “Mom Nature Torches 10K Ac. of NJ Scrub Pines, Makes Way for Pipe?”
The Federal EPA has just launched the “New Owner Clean Air Act Audit Program” which allows drillers who purchased wells and drilling operations from other drillers to perform a self-audit of their new purchases for violations of the Clean Air Act–looking for fugitive methane and VOCs (volatile organic compounds).
Read More “EPA Now Allows E&Ps to Self-Report Clean Air Act Violations”
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: New Jersey’s renewable mandates will send electric bills to the moon; NATIONAL: Energy-related carbon dioxide emission profiles differ dramatically from state to state; Surging E&P profits, lower costs belie negative sentiment; INTERNATIONAL: KBR to conduct open book EPC estimate for Goldboro LNG; Saudi Aramco is world’s most profitable company, beating Apple by far; Saudi Aramco’s breakeven oil price is higher than expected; Natural gas is the ‘destination fuel of the future’, says Qatar Petroleum CEO.
Read More “Energy Stories of Interest: Tue, Apr 2, 2019”
Investment firm BlackGold Capital Management announced late last week it has purchased Overriding Royalty Interests (ORRI) in the Utica shale of Ohio from an unnamed seller. We have a guess as to who did the selling.
Read More “BlackGold Finds Blue Gold in Ohio Utica Royalty Investment”
In December, the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) released a draft of onerous new regulations that focus on reducing volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions and so-called fugitive methane (see Pa. DEP Jumps the Gun with Proposed New Emissions Regs). The new regs will force drillers and pipeline companies to spend big bucks to produce a teeny tiny improvement in emissions. The DEP is back with yet another revision of their onerous new regs, hoping this time they can ram them through and make them law.
Read More “PA DEP Releases Onerous New Air Regulations, Again”
On Friday, Arrow Material Services (based in Sewickley, PA) filed a lawsuit against Superior Silica Sands, also known as Emerge Energy Services (based in Fort Worth, TX) in Allegheny County Court for $24.9 million alleging breach of contract in providing frac sand.
Read More “Frac Sand Flap – Pittsburgh Logistics Co. Sues Texas Sand Co.”
What happened? Just a few weeks ago MDN told you that the West Virginia legislature had passed a bill with bipartisan support (and support from both the drilling industry and surface owners) that would redirect monies from low-producing oil and gas wells to fund a program to plug old abandoned wells (see WV Legislative Session Closes w/Several Pro-Drilling Bills Passed). WV Gov. Jim Justice vetoed the bill last week.
Read More “WV Governor Inexplicably Vetoes Bill to Plug Abandoned Wells”
The radical group Citizens for a Healthy Jessup is floating a plan to try and prevent any new Marcellus gas-fired electric plants from getting built in the Keystone State. Aided and abetted by a corrupt local newspaper, the group tries to pass itself off as a collection of local concerned citizens. It’s nothing of the sort.
Read More “PA Anti Group Seeks to Block New NatGas Elec Plants with New Law”
Ohio Congressman Bill Johnson is “urging patience” with PTT Global Chemical and their long-overdue final investment decision (FID) to move forwarding with building what is now being called a $7-$10 billion ethane cracker complex in Dilles Bottom (Belmont County), OH.
Read More “Ohio Congressman Johnson Says PTT Cracker Still On Track”
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: PA Senate bill would impose 2 year moratorium on hazardous liquids pipeline approvals; PA EQB to consider petition to create cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; EQT Foundation announces scholarships for Greene, Washington students; Cabot gives back to Susquehanna County first responders; NATIONAL: Amid the furor of the Green New Deal, don’t overlook the shale revolution; INTERNATIONAL: Natural gas prices crash as market suffers ‘winter hangover’.
Read More “Energy Stories of Interest: Mon, Apr 1, 2019”
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 monthly or annual subscription to MDN.
Read More “MDN Weekly Digest – Mar 30, 2019”