Court Cancels Permits for Mountain Valley Pipe on Fed Land
The Sierra Club and two other far-out, radical “environmental” groups have scored a minor victory in convincing the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit to overturn permits issued by the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) that allows EQT Midstream’s Mountain Valley Pipeline to cross 3.5 miles of Jefferson National Forest in West Virginia and Virginia. The court says USFS and BLM didn’t come to the right conclusion about sedimentation and erosion impacts of MVP. The judges (who don’t know a thing about these issues) say USFS and BLM’s contention that impacts can be adequately mitigated is in error. Ever notice how some judges love to tell other people how to do their jobs? In practical terms, the decision is merely an irritation–affecting maybe 1% of the overall project. But the broader implications are troubling. The Clubbers and their friends have a similar case against MVP at the same court (Fourth Circuit) that asks the court to block construction of MVP throughout Virginia on the theory that a stream crossing permit issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is faulty (see Army Corps Engrs Reinstates MVP Permits for 4 WV River Crossings). Will the Fourth Circuit judges now tell the Army Corps how to do their job too? That’s the strategy outlined in the Sierra Club’s arrogant, boastful press release following the decision stopping construction of MVP in Jefferson National Forest…
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One of our favorite Marcellus drillers, Cabot Oil & Gas, issued their second quarter 2018 update on Friday. Some of the highlights include: net income doubling, from $21.5 million to $42.4 million year over year; drilled 24 and completed 23 wells (down just a tad y/y, from 27 drilled and 26 completed in 2Q17); and Marcellus production was 1.89 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d), a new all-time high, up 4% from first quarter 2018. Cabot’s CEO Dan Dinges talked about the company ending its dalliance with the Permian Basin, shutting down “exploratory area #1” in 2Q18, but continuing work on “exploratory area #2”–which is in central Ohio. He said more details on Ohio exploration will be forthcoming in the Q3 update. As we looked through the official update, the PowerPoint slide deck and a transcript of the conference call (all below), we found a few more items that caught our interest. (1) Cabot says they have another 35 years worth of drilling to do in the Marcellus, with the current leases they have in place. (2) The “break even” price at which they begin to make money has now gone all the way down to just under one dollar per Mcf. (3) The company’s plans still count on the Constitution Pipeline getting built. (4) Train 1 of the Lackawanna Energy Center (gas-fired electric plant near Scranton) is up and running and burning 70 Mmcf/d of Cabot’s Marcellus gas, train 2 will be online by October 1st, and train 3 by December 1st. Here’s the good news from Cabot…
Bureaucrats deeply embedded in the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) are engaged in denying private property owners with property in the Ohio Wayne National Forest (WNF) their property rights. That’s the very serious (and true) charge being levied by members of the National Association of Royalty Owners (NARO). After “seven years of inaction,” property owners in WNF have taken their case to Washington, D.C.–to elected representatives from Ohio, along with federal agencies–in hopes of getting Utica drilling under way in WNF. After 10 long years, the BLM finally auctioned 719 acres in WNF in December 2016 (see 
Every Friday afternoon from 4 to 5:30 pm, a single protesters (typically just one person) stand on a corner in Annville (Lebanon County), PA holding a sign to protest pipelines and fossil fuel energy. The selected protester, from a group calling itself Lebanon Pipeline Awareness, stands on a corner wearing clothes and sneakers made from plastics–i.e. fossil fuels. Sporting a sign made from materials that include fossil fuels. The protester was transported to that location using vehicles made from fossil fuels (loaded with plastic) and powered by fossil fuels (gasoline). The protester comes from a home or apartment heated and cooled with fossil fuels. The anti group alerted the media to come take a look at the “protest” by using computers made from and powered by fossil fuels. The protester drinks water from a plastic bottle–made from fossil fuels–as he/she stands there holding a fossil-fuel-made sign. And yet, these people are there to protest fossil fuels! Does anyone else see how utterly pathetic this is? How dishonest? How truly nutty?…
The “best of the rest”–stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading: MDS raises $31.5M, opens Pittsburgh branch office; Polymer Alliance Zone adds 2 more WV counties; VA Dems ask gov to block pipelines; MVP protester sentenced to jail; natgas boom pays off for Doddridge, WV schools; how BP found shale profits with “crystal ball”; the U.S. is still global natgas king; when will fractivists apologize?; the next round of U.S. LNG export terminals; is digitization living up to hype for oil & gas?; Trump says Europe to buy boatloads of LNG; and more!
Below is an audio recording (“podcast”) featuring the Top 5 stories most read over the past week on MDN. Just click on the green button to listen. Below the recording is a list of the Top 5 with links to click to read the full stories (available only for subscribers). This list is meant as a way for folks to quickly catch up on the most essential news of the week–“essential” as determined by MDN’s audience of readers. Enjoy!
In what is perhaps the second biggest thing to hit Ohio since maybe the plow (the first being the Utica Shale, borrowing a phrase from Aubrey McClendon), Chesapeake Energy announced yesterday it is selling ALL of its 933,000 Ohio acres (including 320,000 net Utica acres) and 920 operated and non-operated Ohio Utica wells to Encino Acquisition Partners for $2 billion. This is truly big news! Encino Energy is a young company, founded in 2011, headquartered in Houston, TX. Last year Encino formed a partnership with Canada Pension Plan Investment Board to form Encino Acquisition Partners. It is the Encino subsidiary that is buying Chessy’s Ohio Utica assets. The burning question is, Will Encino drill more wells? Or just sit on its new acquisition? Based on how they describe themselves, we think Encino is going to pursue an active drilling program in the Ohio Utica. According to their own boilerplate, the company’s mission is to, “focus on driving long-term investor returns by acquiring and developing high-quality assets with an established base of production and a large, low-cost development inventory across the lower 48 states of the United States.” They’ve certainly acquired a high-quality asset with an established base of production and it has a large, low-cost development inventory. All the boxes are checked in buying Chesapeake’s Utica assets. So we’ll hold Encino to their word that they will “develop” it–meaning drill new wells. Chesapeake plans to use the $2 billion to pay down some of their ginormous debt…
The main economic development agency in Otsego County, NY, known as Otsego Now, is working on a plan to build a “decompressor” in the Oneonta area to help with natural gas supplies. The proposed facility is described as “a decompression station for compressed natural gas deliveries by truck to supplement resources.” Here’s the problem. On really cold and really hot days, there’s not enough natural gas in the region, and some large users of gas (they get gas from local utility NYSEG), actually have to stop using gas and switch to oil as a backup. It’s nuts. Apparently NYSEG (New York State Electric & Gas, owned by Spainish-based Iberdrola) isn’t in the mood to upgrade a local pipeline that brings gas to the area. So to overcome lack of gas, the local econ development people are trying to chase down grants to build a decompression station, to accept CNG from a virtual pipeline (trucked in CNG), converting the compressed gas back to normal pressure so it can flow through NYSEG’s less-than-adequate pipelines in the area to large gas users that need it…
Follow the bouncing ball. Earlier this year the West Virginia legislature passed Senate Bill (SB) 360, which Gov. Jim Justice subsequently signed into law (see 
There is an ongoing legal squabble in Trumbull County, OH over a proposed second Utica gas-fired electric plant in Lordstown. Clean Energy Future (CEF) is currently building the Lordstown Energy Center, and has been since June 2016 (see 
MarkWest Energy, now part of Marathon Petroleum, is the premier midstream company in Ohio and West Virginia. Yesterday MarkWest issued its second quarter 2018 update. MarkWest reported record income of $453 million compared with $190 million in the second quarter of 2017. Put another way, MarkWest made close to half a billion dollars in profit! What about MarkWest’s operations in the Marcellus/Utica region? There was “solid growth” during the quarter. Gathered volumes averaged 2.8 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) for the quarter, a 46% increase versus 2Q17. The increase came mostly from higher Utica dry-gas volumes. Processed volumes averaged 5.2 Bcf/d, a 10% increase versus 2Q17 due in large part to bringing online the Sherwood 9 and Houston 1 plants…
Yesterday a bunch of dignitaries gathered in Lusby, Maryland to celebrate the launch of Dominion’s Cove Point LNG facility with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Yes, the facility has been up and running since April (see 
Yesterday the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) issued administrative orders requiring three oil and gas companies–Alliance Petroleum Corporation (a subsidiary of Diversified Gas & Oil), XTO Energy, and CNX Resources–to plug 1,058 abandoned oil and gas wells across Pennsylvania. Alliance has 638 wells, CNX has 327, and XTO has 93. In a quick scan of the list of wells to be plugged, we didn’t spot a single shale well. All 1,058 wells are conventional/vertical wells. So why is this news for MDN? Because all three drillers (but in particular CNX and XTO) drill shale wells, and plugging old conventional wells takes time and money–time and money that could be spent on drilling shale wells. It takes anywhere from $10,000 to $100,000 to plug an abandoned conventional oil/gas well. Most of the wells are located in the southwestern part of the state. CNX responded that in reviewing the list, some 190 of the wells in their list (out of 327) were part of a recent asset sale. Here’s the details on where, and how long these companies have, to plug old/abandoned oil and gas wells…