Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Equitrans/EQT Midstream | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines
Big Green Imports German Radicals to Fight Mountain Valley Pipe
It’s bad enough that small groups of our own citizens are stupid enough to oppose safe natural gas pipelines–because they irrationally hate fossil fuels. But when they use Big Green money to import radical activists from other countries, like Germany–that crosses a line. Appalachians Against Pipelines and several other fringe groups invited anarchists from Germany’s Ende Gelande to attend several meetings to teach our homegrown econuts how to illegally block legal projects, like Mountain Valley Pipeline.
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How many times will Pennsyvlania voters (voters in general across the U.S.) continue to fall for the same old Democrat lies? “All it takes is more money. We’re almost there. Raise XYZ taxes [like a new 4.5% “severance” tax in PA] and we’ll have it. That will cure [fill in the blank]…lead problems in schools, hunger, heck, it might even cure cancer!” That’s the line of bull being fed by PA Gov. Wolf to (really stupid and gullible) Pennsylvanians about the need for a Marcellus-killing severance tax.
You can “hear” the indignation in the Philadelphia Inquirer article. Mariner East 2 (ME2) Pipeline, which (according to antis) shouldn’t be allowed to continue their construction activities, is not only continuing said activities in Chester County, PA, ME2 is going to put a pipeline right through the middle of a (gasp) girl’s softball field! When the season is just about to begin. HOW DARE THEY?!
Here’s a story we found interesting–about landowners in western New York who had leased their land for a wind farm. The company that owns the wind farm had a dispute with a contractor helping to build it, and the contractor sued–the landowners! Sound familiar?
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 
A full-blown war is on for the future of EQT. Yesterday Toby and Derek Rice released a proposed slate of EQT board members they want elected at the next annual meeting on July 10th. They propose replacing all existing board members–except for their brother Dan. The Rice boys say it’s necessary to have a board who is “with it” (our words) and will back up Toby and Derek as they take control of the company. On the other hand, current EQT board chairman Jim Rohr and board member/CEO Rob McNally are pushing back. It’s a fight to the “death” (figuratively speaking).
Some major news coming from yesterday’s Utica Midstream conference held in North Canton, Ohio. A rep from Marathon Petroleum (which is based in Ohio) told conference attendees his company is contemplating building an underground NGL storage facility in Harrison County, OH–to store ethane, butane and propane.
Yesterday Ascent Resources, a company founded by Aubrey McClendon after he left Chesapeake Energy, issued a (very) brief recap of what happened in 2018, and a look ahead (“guidance”) at what the company expects to accomplish in 2019. The update is brief–cherry-picking highlights to share–because it can be. Ascent’s stock is not publicly traded, so they don’t have to provide full financial updates (except to their investors). Ascent is a big and important driller in the Utica, so *any* information they share is useful and of interest.
Next Wednesday the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection will hold a public hearing on plans to drill a shale well(s) on the property of U.S. Steel Corporation’s Edgar Thomson Plant in a Pittsburgh suburb. What’s so unusual about the well(s) is that U.S. Steel itself will be “the sole consumer of the natural gas extracted.” That is, U.S. Steel will use the gas to power/feed the steel plant.
In 2016 Crestwood Equity Partners formed a joint venture with New York City’s largest utility company, Consolidated Edison Inc., to operate a critical link of pipelines and storage facilities in the heart of the Utica/Marcellus, called Stagecoach Gas Services (see 
Penn Virginia, an oil and gas driller headquartered in Radnor, PA (near Philadelphia) announced last October it had found someone to buy the company–Denbury Resources (see 
Events related (or of interest) to the Marcellus, Utica and other Appalachian shales happening in the next 90 or so days. Send your calendar items (listed for free!) to: jim (at) marcellusdrilling.com.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: ODNR issues six new permits for Utica shale wells; Pennsylvania as the new natural gas giant; PA House Environmental Committee holds info meeting March 27 on debunking modern myths surrounding climate change; Gov. Wolf proposes Marcellus shale tax to clean up lead paint in schools; Higher operating pressure prompts new safety concerns over Sunoco’s Mariner East 2X pipeline; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: The Permian Strategic Partnership is now fully operational; NATIONAL: Despite closures, U.S. nuclear electricity generation in 2018 surpassed its previous peak; Climate change, or alarmism? Wyoming drilling halt ruling isn’t based on science; INTERNATIONAL: U.S. LNG onslaught proving ‘too much to handle’ for Asian markets; Canada’s natural gas crisis is going under the radar.
We’re not quite sure what to make of this. In February, EQT filed lawsuits in both Pennsylvania and federal courts against two former employees it had fired, claiming the employees, before they were fired, had systematically copied confidential information from company computers and took it with them when they left (see 
In February Pennsylvania State Sen. Lisa Baker introduced Senate Bill (SB) 305, which would make a proposed Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) frack ban officially a government “taking” under eminent domain (see