Other Voices at Shale Insight: Utica, Pipelines, Public Health
EPA Chief Andrew Wheeler wasn’t the only speaker at yesterday’s Shale Insight event in Pittsburgh (see EPA Head Andrew Wheeler Addresses Shale Insight re “New EPA”). There were a number of other sessions addressing issues from the technical to the philosophical. A speaker from XTO Energy said the Utica Shale is only just getting started and the potential of the Utica “enormous.” A panel spoke to the critical nature of pipelines and addressed the issue of how we can better “tell our story” to the public with respect to pipelines. And another panel discussed whether and how natural gas development is affecting public health. Here’s a few select reports.
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Investors are a critical part of the shale picture. Without big investors putting big money into shares of stock, and without private investors financing drilling programs, E&Ps (exploration and production) companies would cease to exist. Which is the aim of the divestment movement we sometimes talk about. However, the focus of this post is that the way investors size up and decide whether (and how much) to invest in an E&P is changing. The ratios and numbers investors track to help them make investment decisions is shifting.
What’s the best, most efficient way to produce electricity? The winner, hands down, is natural gas. That’s according to a recent report from the Manhattan Institute titled “The Real Fuel of the Future: Natural Gas” (full copy below). The report indicates that dollar-for-dollar, investment in natural gas generates 16 times the amount of power as solar panels, and eight times the amount of windmills. Tell us again how superior wind and solar are!
The “best of the rest”–stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading: Cuomo has utterly failed the people of upstate New York; Montgomery County, Va. supervisors approve permit for MVP gate station; Political shift seen unlikely in Appalachia as midterms near; WVU research on display at Shale Insight; $1B power plant investment energizes community; Rehoboth selectmen approve natural gas pipeline moratorium; How natural gas prices could double in 2019; Gas storage inventories are near historic lows. What if this winter turns frigid?; ExxonKnew crackdown by Massachusetts and New York AGs threatens free speech; ‘Frack Master’ agrees to 12-year prison term, surrendering $23.8M for oil, gas fraud; Fracking in Lancashire halted by earth tremor; Schlumberger and Halliburton warm on global market, cooler on US shale; Saudi Arabia proves that oil is power.
Dominion’s 600-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) from West Virginia to North Carolina has had its share of setbacks. But these days, it appears the project is building momentum and government/regulatory decisions are breaking in ACP’s favor. The project is on track to finish by the end of 2019, so says Dominion. The latest win for ACP came yesterday when the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) granted permission for ACP to begin construction pretty much in all locations in West Virginia. The only prohibitions are small areas in National Park Service land and a few locations where there may be Indiana bats.
Aqua America, the nation’s second largest water/wastewater utility company headquartered near Philadelphia, announced it is buying Peoples Gas, the nation’s fifth largest natural gas utility company headquartered in Pittsburgh, for $4.275 billion. This story interests us because the buyer, Aqua America, provides services to Marcellus/Utica shale drillers, and because Peoples Gas is a buyer of Marcellus/Utica gas. The combined company will both serve the shale industry as part of the supply chain, and buy the output of the shale industry as a customer. How cool is that? What made Aqua interested in Peoples? It has to do with old pipes in the ground. And similar natures.
Although President Trump is having good success in draining much of the D.C. swamp, there are still stagnant pools here and there. One of them is the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA). Two years ago PHMSA was caught directly funding anti-pipeline activists with 
If we were ask you, “What is corporate social responsibility (CSR)–what does it mean?” How would you define it? We have to admit that when we first began to see CSR mentioned a few years ago, we were a bit confused by what it meant, largely because everyone defines it their own way. Here’s a real basic definition (the MDN definition) for CSR: Giving back. Giving back to a local community or to a larger sector of society with time, money and volunteers. Think of it as the “heart” of a company. Companies make money. It is increasingly expected those companies should be “good corporate citizens” and help out the people and areas where they make their money. Why do we mention it? Because companies in the shale industry are big into CSR. For example, Chevron (Pittsburgh) is funding a new Center for Corporate Social Responsibility at Waynesburg University with a $250,000 gift.
Although EQT Midstream’s 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline project has experienced a number of legal and regulatory setbacks and is currently blocked from constructing pipeline across/under/near any river, stream, or wetland in all of West Virginia and all of Virginia, there are still places where MVP can build (see 
There’s a series of private events held each fall, sponsored by investment banks and investment firms, that won’t allow media to attend. Supposedly the events allow companies to speak off the record (to investors and analysts) about things they’d rather not have on the public record. We think its a farce…since it keeps us out of those meetings! Inevitably, if there’s big news, it leaks out. And such is the case with news from a recent event hosted by Height Capital Markets in Washington, D.C. At the Height event, Energy Transfer (i.e. Sunoco Logistics Partners) told analysts that the Mariner East 2 (ME2) pipeline project “will be in service as soon as it is mechanically complete, which is expected to be in the next few weeks.”
Less than two weeks ago NEXUS Pipeline, a $2.6 billion, 255-mile interstate pipeline that runs from Ohio into Michigan, received permission from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to begin operation (see