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    Sunoco Seeks to Use Alternate Pipe Near Philly to Get ME2 Flowing

    Years ago when Sunoco Logistics Partners (aka Energy Transfer Partners) originally proposed and planned the Mariner East 2 twin pipelines from the edge of eastern Ohio through the entire length of Pennsylvania to the Marcus Hook refinery near Philadelphia, the completion date promised was the end of 2016. Little could Sunoco foresee the multiple lawsuits, regulatory hearings and illegal protest actions that would conspire to throw the project off schedule for more than a year and half. When pipeline companies plan such multi-billion dollar projects, they first get customers (drillers) to sign on the dotted line, guaranteeing there will be enough product (and revenue) to make the project worthwhile. Drillers *did* sign on the dotted line, and they’re still waiting. Waiting and now pressuring Sunoco to get the darned thing up and running. The pipeline itself is 98% complete–in the ground and connected. But an all-important 2% is still not complete, most of it in the Philly suburbs–Delaware and Chester counties. Sunoco continues to have problems with underground horizontal directional drilling and with ongoing litigation by towns in the Philly area. What to do, with customers breathing down your back? Sunoco has come up with an ingenious solution that is sure to send the crazies into orbit. Sunoco is asking the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) for permission to use part of an existing 12-inch pipeline in that area that previously carried refined petroleum products (things like gasoline, heating oil, and jet fuel), repurposing the pipeline to carry NGLs (ethane, propane, butane, etc.). This is only a short-term fix until the last bits of the full ME2 is up and running…
    Read More “Sunoco Seeks to Use Alternate Pipe Near Philly to Get ME2 Flowing”

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    2 Lancaster Radicals Arrested Stopping Atlantic Sunrise Pipe Work

    The married couple who started Lancaster Against Pipelines (LAP), Mark and Malinda Clatterbuck, are far-left radicals who pretend to be mom and pop, salt-of-the-earth, neighbor-next-door, aw-shucks common folks who would never engage in “violent” protests. Mark Clatterbuck admits to traveling to North Dakota to participate in the mass action against the Dakota Access Pipeline–a “protest” that turned quite violent and destroyed millions of dollars of property. No, we’re not saying nor implying that Clatterbuck himself engaged in illegal actions while there. We are saying the Clatterbucks’ sympathies lie with protest movements that sometimes result in such actions. The Clatterbucks made some big boasts–that some 1,000 people had pledged to protest and get themselves arrested to stop Atlantic Sunrise, a $3 billion, 198-mile pipeline project running through 10 Pennsylvania counties to connect Marcellus Shale natural gas from northeastern PA with the Williams’ Transco pipeline in southern Lancaster County. Something under 50 people have actually been arrested for illegal actions in trying to stop construction. As the Atlantic Sunrise project nears completion in all locations, including Lancaster County, apparently LAP is feeling neglected. Nobody talks about them anymore. They didn’t/couldn’t stop the pipeline, as they had boasted they would. So in an attempt to grab one more headline, Mark and another LAP protester, Elliot Martin, connected themselves together at a pipeline construction site using a “sleeping dragon”…
    Read More “2 Lancaster Radicals Arrested Stopping Atlantic Sunrise Pipe Work”

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    Blue Wolf Goes Hunting – Extreme Plastics Merging with Mustang

    Extreme Plastics Plus (EPP) has been manufacturing and installing well pad liners since 2007. Pad liners protect the ground from accidental spills of frack wastewater and chemicals used during the drilling process. Located in Fairmont, WV, EPP’s customers are in the Marcellus and Utica Shale region. In order to expand, EPP raised an undisclosed amount of investment money from Hastings Equity Partners in 2013 (see WV Well Pad Liner Company Gets Shot of Investment Money to Grow). However, a few years later the market turned down and EPP fell on hard times, eventually filing for bankruptcy (see WV Oilfield Services Co. Extreme Plastics Files for Bankruptcy). In late 2016, MDN told you that Blue Wolf Capital Partners was on the hunt for bargains and had offered a “stalking horse” bid to purchase EPP out of bankruptcy. Blue Wolf landed its prey, buying the company’s assets out of bankruptcy in December 2016 (see Blue Wolf Stalks and Rescues Extreme Plastics from Bankruptcy). According to Blue Wolf, EPP would exit bankruptcy with a debt-free balance sheet and in the pole position for an eventual oil and gas market recovery. Blue Wolf has gone hunting again and this time found Mustang Energy Services, another pad liner company. Blue Wolf announced earlier this week it has orchestrated a merger between EPP and Mustang. The combined companies (no word yet on which name, if either, they will use), have customers in eight states and counting. Here’s what happens when Blue Wolf goes hunting…
    Read More “Blue Wolf Goes Hunting – Extreme Plastics Merging with Mustang”

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    Rolling Blackouts/Brownouts Coming to Upstate NY? Maybe

    In May, MDN brought you a story of how New England was “this close” to rolling blackouts due to an extreme shortage of electricity during a cold snap (see When Neighbors Go Bad: NY Forcing New England into Blackouts). New York is blocking natural gas pipelines that are critically needed to flow gas to New England gas-fired electric plants. New England has a bunch of old 1960s oil-burning plants. It was reactivating those old plants and burning 2 million barrels of oil over a two-week period (belching out all sorts of pollution), that kept the lights on in New England this past winter. But what’s this? New York itself is now in a pickle. National Grid, a local electric utility operating in much of Upstate, is warning customers to “reduce unnecessary electricity usage for the remainder of the week.” Why? The company says that although, “Electricity supply to the area is adequate…heavy demand and high temperatures could potentially challenge regional networks.” Translation: Use less electricity or you may face a rolling blackout/brownout. They don’t use those words, but we do. It sure looks to us like NY (via Andrew Cuomo) is beginning to reap what it’s sown. Stop new pipelines, block new gas-fired electric plant projects, and this is what you get when the temps turn really hot, or really cold…
    Read More “Rolling Blackouts/Brownouts Coming to Upstate NY? Maybe”

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    Shale Support Buys 2 Frac Sand Mines in La. to Help Service M-U

    Last September MDN told you that Shale Support Holdings, “a leading provider of frac sand and logistical solutions to the oil and gas proppant market” (headquartered in Texas, with an operations center in Mississippi), was stepping up its presence in the Marcellus/Utica region with a partnership with Tidewater Logistics (see Shale Support Holdings Expands M-U Frac Sand Business via Partnership). The partnership increases Shale Support’s operations in Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Because Shale Support can ship sand direct from Mississippi, which is much closer than most other alternatives, the price for frac sand is cheaper for customers. Shale Support announced another important deal in May, to become the exclusive supplier for a major regional frac sand facility in Wysox (Bradford County), PA (see Shale Support Exclusive Frac Sand Supplier for NEPA Facility). Two weeks ago, in June, Shale Support made yet another announcement–they’ve just closed on a deal to buy two natural sand mines in Louisiana. The mines add another 2 million tons per year of frac sand (now totaling 5 million tons) that Shale Support will provide to plays like the Haynesville, Austin Chalk, Eagle Ford and (yes), to the Marcellus/Utica…
    Read More “Shale Support Buys 2 Frac Sand Mines in La. to Help Service M-U”

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    EPA Advances Effort to Overturn Obama Waters of the U.S. Rule

    In May 2015, the Obama rogue Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) along with the Obama U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) released a finalized rule clarifying what “Waters of the United States” (WOTUS) means vis a vis what can be regulated under the federal Clean Water Act (see EPA Power Grab: Redefines Waters of the U.S. to Include Everything). Essentially the rule change redefined everything down to mud puddles (no, we’re not exaggerating) as being subject to the Clean Water Act. It was yet another attempt to bring oil and gas regulation under the purview of the federal government, a violation of the U.S. Constitution. We won’t recount the history of lawsuits and counter lawsuits that have ensued. We’ll only tell you that in January the U.S. Supreme Court entered the fray by determining which courts can hear lawsuits regarding WOTUS (see U.S. Supreme Court Changes Jurisdiction for WOTUS Challenges). At the end of January, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt issued an order to suspend/delay the Obama version of WOTUS until a new version is ready, in two years (see EPA Director Scott Pruitt Suspends Obama WOTUS Rule). Pruitt’s action has (so far) held, much to the consternation of radical environmentalists. Pruitt has just architected another masterstroke, issuing a “Supplemental Notice of Proposed Rulemaking” for WOTUS. The notice does two things: It states unequivocally that the EPA and Army Corps want to completely overturn the 2015 Obama WOTUS rule; and it inoculates the process of overturning WOTUS so that future lawsuits can’t bring it back from the dead…
    Read More “EPA Advances Effort to Overturn Obama Waters of the U.S. Rule”

  • Energy Stories of Interest: Thu, Jul 5, 2018

    The “best of the rest”–stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading: Hilcorp gets 3 Utica permits for Columbiana County, first new permits there this year; de Blasio should be prepared for climate lawsuit to be tossed; administrative law judge in Minnesota recommends against building natgas-fired plant; folks are waking up to what it means that Powelson is leaving FERC–and it ain’t pretty; fossil fuels still dominate U.S. energy consumption, although renewables gain some ground; preserve farmland with fracking; University of Arizona about to be outed for climate fraud; a new oil “cartel” threatens OPEC; and more!
    Read More “Energy Stories of Interest: Thu, Jul 5, 2018”

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    PennFuture Tries to Bully Pittsburgh Airport re Gas Royalties

    As is so often the case, radical Big Green groups, like PennFuture, attempt to intimidate (i.e. bully) by using threats of legal action, those who dare to use and (gasp) enjoy the monetary benefits of shale drilling. In early 2013 the Pittsburgh International Airport and Allegheny County, PA signed a deal with CONSOL Energy (now CNX Resources) to lease 9,000 acres surrounding the airport for natural gas drilling (see $50M Check in the Mail: Pittsburgh Airport Lease a Done Deal). The airport received a $50 million signing bonus and the promise of 18% royalties on anything produced and sold. The first wells began to flow natural gas for the first time exactly two years ago, in July 2016 (see CONSOL’s First Pittsburgh Airport Wells Begin to Flow NatGas). So far, for 2016 and 2017, the airport has received a grand total of just over $16 million in royalty payments and another $857,000 from other fees. Yikes! The airport uses the revenue “to reduce airline rates and charges and for capital expenditures…at the Airport.” So along comes the Big Green bullies from PennFuture, threatening to sue the airport if it doesn’t use the money for what PennFuture wants it used for. Yeah, the money does not belong to PennFuture, but that doesn’t stop this rogue “nonprofit” from throwing its weight around and making demands. PennFuture is telling the airport the money MUST be used to “further the interests of citizens under the environmental rights amendment.” Whatever that means. PennFuture told the airport, in a nasty letter, that the airport is in violation of Article I, Section 27 of the Pennsylvania Constitution. Our advice to the airport: Tell PennFuture to take a hike in the vast PA outdoors…
    Read More “PennFuture Tries to Bully Pittsburgh Airport re Gas Royalties”

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    Exploded Leach XPress Pipe Won’t be Online Until Mid-July

    Leach XPress Pipeline explosion/fire on June 7

    TransCanada’s Leach XPress project–some 160 miles of new natural gas pipeline and compression facilities in southeastern Ohio and West Virginia’s northern panhandle which flows 1.5 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of gas all the way to Leach, Kentucky (hence the name)–went online January 1st. A section of the pipeline exploded and burst into flames on June 7 (see Leach Xpress Pipeline Explodes in Marshall County, WV). Still no word on what caused the explosion, although the investigation seems to be centered on a welded seam. TransCanada (and their Columbia Gas Transmission subsidiary) is working hard to get the pipeline back online. The company told shippers in mid-June they expected to have the full 1.5 Bcf/d pipeline back online “early in July” (see TransCanada Says Exploded Leach XPress Pipe Back Online in July). That’s not going to happen since it’s now early July. Last Friday, Columbia pushed back the date to “mid-July,” due to challenges in getting everything remediated and fixed because of heavy rain in the area. Meanwhile, the drillers using Leach continue to find other ways to get their gas to market…
    Read More “Exploded Leach XPress Pipe Won’t be Online Until Mid-July”

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    PA DEP Grants Williams NE Supply Enhancement Pipe Key Permit

    NESE map – click for larger version

    The Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) is a Williams Transco Pipeline project meant to increase pipeline capacity and flows heading into northeastern markets (see Time to Support Transco’s Northeast Supply Enhancement Project). Transco wants to provide more Marcellus natural gas to utility giant National Grid beginning with the 2019-2020 heating season. National Grid operates in New York City, Long Island, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. There are a number of components to the project, but the key component, the heart of the project, is a new 23-mile pipeline from the shore of New Jersey into (on the bottom of) the Raritan Bay–running parallel to the existing Transco pipeline–before connecting to the Transco offshore. After an initial rejection by the New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC), Williams refiled an application for the project in May with the DEC (see Williams Refiles Application with NY DEC for Transco NESE Project). Meanwhile, there are portions of the project in Pennsylvania that have already been approved by the PA’s Dept. of Environmental Protection. In a notice published in the June 16 Pennsylvania Bulletin, the DEP issued the project a Section 401 Water Quality Certification for work being done in Lancaster and Chester counties. According to the PA Environment Digest Blog: “The Project facilities consist of approximately 10.17 miles of new 42-inch diameter natural gas pipeline in Drumore, East Drumore, and Eden Townships, Lancaster County and the addition of one 21,902 horsepower motor-driven compressor at the existing Compressor Station 200 in East Whiteland Twp., Chester County.” Too bad the dysfunctional NY DEC couldn’t be more like the mostly-functional PA DEP…
    Read More “PA DEP Grants Williams NE Supply Enhancement Pipe Key Permit”

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    Boardwalk Pipeline Parent Taking Co. Private, Dissolving MLP

    We write about Boardwalk Pipeline Partners every now and again. They don’t have a lot of pipelines in the Marcellus/Utica region–but what they do have is important. One of the pipelines operated by Boardwalk is the huge Texas Gas Transmission (TGT)–originally built from the Louisiana Gulf Coast to the upper Midwest to supply Illinois, Indiana and Ohio with natural gas. But then the Marcellus/Utica Shale happened and TGT needed to change strategies. Through a series of projects, TGT made the pipeline system bidirectional, so it could flow gas from the Marcellus/Utica to points south, going as far as the Gulf Coast. In May 2016 TGT began to flow up to 626 million cubic feet per day of Marcellus/Utica gas as far away as the Gulf Coast (see 626 Mmcf/d of Northeast Shale Gas Begins Flowing to Gulf Today). Little known fact: About half of that gas, some 300 Mmcf/d, goes to Cheniere’s Sabine Pass LNG export plant, where it’s super-cooled into LNG and shipped to other countries. Boardwalk is in a multi-year process of expanding TGT by another 384 MMcf/d of capacity. In April 2017, the company asked FERC for an extension to complete the project, until 2020 (see Texas Gas Asks FERC for Extra 2 Yrs on Northern Supply Access Proj). We bring you all of that information to point out Boardwalk’s importance to our region, and to introduce the news that the parent company that owns most of Boardwalk, Loews Corp., is in the process of “buying out” the MLP (master limited partnership) units it doesn’t already own, and then removing all MLP units (i.e. shares) from public trading. In other words, it’s going private. Why? Due to the Trump tax cut and subsequent FERC ruling that makes MLPs much less attractive as a form of organization than they once were…
    Read More “Boardwalk Pipeline Parent Taking Co. Private, Dissolving MLP”

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    New Kid on the Block Gives THE Dela. Riverkeeper Some Competition

    Sandra Meola

    Looks like THE Delaware Riverkeeper, Maya van Rossum, now has some competition. We’ve written about the radical Riverkeeper for years–an anti-fossil fuel organization hellbent to stop the use of fossil fuels by opposing fracking and pipelines anywhere and everywhere throughout the Marcellus/Utica region. Fruitcakes. Funded by the William Penn Foundation and Heinz Endowments, among other politically-active-yet-tax-exempt Big Green funders. But what’s this? There’s a relatively new organization (formed in 2012) called the Coalition for the Delaware River Watershed (CDRW). Beginning this month, Sandra Meola becomes director of the organization. By all accounts the CDRW is just as far-left as Riverkeeper, although CDRW seems to be more about raising money for particular projects rather than suing fossil fuel companies. According to the CDRW website, “The Coalition is made up of numerous organizations working throughout the four-state Delaware River Watershed to protect and restore one of America’s great river basins. Members range in size and reach from local groups on the front lines of Watershed protection, to organizations that work on regional, state, and national levels.” In looking through the Members page (the list of organizations that belong to the CDRW), we spot the usual suspects. PennFuture, Trout Unlimited, Pennsylvania Environmental Council–radical green groups all, vehemently opposed to shale energy. Noticeably absent from the CDRW Members list is THE Delaware Riverkeeper. We wonder, why is that?…
    Read More “New Kid on the Block Gives THE Dela. Riverkeeper Some Competition”

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    Canadian Goldboro LNG Inches Toward Final Investment Decision

    The Goldboro LNG export facility in Nova Scotia continues its march (shuffle?) toward construction. As we reported in February, Pieridae Energy (the builder) has enlisted the help of Morgan Stanley and Société Générale to help raise $10 billion to build it (see Pieridae Energy Hires Morgan Stanley, SG to Help Fund Goldboro LNG). Last May, MDN told you that Pieridae Energy had signed a labor agreement to build the Goldboro LNG export facility along the shore of Nova Scotia, Canada (see Update on Goldboro LNG – Labor Agreement Signed to Build). The U.S. Dept. of Energy approved the plant for exporting to non-free trade agreement counties in February 2016, an indication that Marcellus/Utica gas may flow to the plant (see Goldboro LNG Project Gets Final DOE Approval – Good for Marcellus). And in May, we told you the facility is lining up customers for its LNG in Europe (see Goldboro LNG in Nova Scotia Negotiating Deal to Sell LNG to Europe). It’s now time for Pieridae to decide. If they don’t begin construction on the project in the next nine months, they risk losing Nova Scotia environmental approval…
    Read More “Canadian Goldboro LNG Inches Toward Final Investment Decision”

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    BP’s 67th Statistical Review – Fossil Fuels Still Going Strong

    Oil and gas giant BP recently released its annual Statistical Review of World Energy–the 67th edition! (Full copy below.) A number of big energy companies, like Exxon Mobil, as well as government agencies, publish similar reports that characterize current and future world energy trends. However, one analyst we read says BP’s report is the best: “I have relied upon the BP World Energy report for years. It is not a report to be viewed with a partisan eye, but as merely one of the best, if not the best, energy trend device available anywhere. In comparison to government agencies like the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) the global International Energy Association (IEA) or OPEC’s own World Oil Outlook, the BP report has proven itself to be far more valuable in finding investable trends. I would never recommend any oil sector without having the statistical evidence of the BP World Energy Report behind me.” This year’s report finds that oil and natural gas consumption increased significantly in 2017. It also finds the U.S. best-positioned to meet that increasing demand, thanks to the shale miracle. Below we have some of the key highlights from the report, followed by a full copy…
    Read More “BP’s 67th Statistical Review – Fossil Fuels Still Going Strong”

  • Energy Stories of Interest: Tue, Jul 3, 2018

    The “best of the rest”–stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading: Cabot pays a visit to Loudonville Council to discuss Ohio drilling; cracker plant takes shape in Beaver, PA; with pressure from corp. raider Carl Ichan, SandRidge looks to sell; Rhode Island stupidly sues major oil companies for global warming; natgas shortages coming this winter?; US Chamber continues drumbeat against Trump tariffs; Canada competes with Gulf Coast for petchems; and more!
    Read More “Energy Stories of Interest: Tue, Jul 3, 2018”

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    Ascent Resources Spends $1.5 Billion to Buy OH Utica Acreage, Wells

    Last Thursday, Ascent Resources, a company founded by Aubrey McClendon after he left Chesapeake Energy, announced it is buying 113,400 Utica Shale acres along with 93 operating wells located in eastern Ohio for $1.5 billion. The new acreage tips Ascent over the 300,000 Utica acre line and catapults the company into one of the largest privately owned drillers (exploration and production) in the U.S. The companies doing the selling are CNX Resources and Hess (selling a joint venture they co-owned, each selling their share for $400 million each, for a total of $800 million), Utica Minerals Development (a subsidiary of First Reserve, a private equity firm headquartered in Greenwich, CT, and EMG), and a fourth, unnamed mystery seller. The CNX/Hess acreage (78,000 net acres of the 113,400 acres) is located in the wet gas window of Belmont, Guernsey, Harrison and Noble counties. We’re not sure about the location of the other acreage. The CNX/Hess jv sale marks Hess’ total exit from the Utica Shale. So how will Ascent pay for all of their new shiny new assets? After all, they only just emerged from bankruptcy in April (see Ascent Resources Marcellus Exits Chapter 11 Bankruptcy). [Correction: Ascent Resources Marcellus was the part of the Ascent business that filed for bankruptcy and is not related to Ascent Resources Utica and this new transaction.] Ascent will pay for it by issuing $965 million in new shares of equity (private stock), and borrowing $535 million under their existing line of credit…
    Read More “Ascent Resources Spends $1.5 Billion to Buy OH Utica Acreage, Wells”