More MarkWest Construction Under Way in Doddridge County, WV
MarkWest Energy’s Sherwood Complex in Doddridge County, WV has been in operation since 2012. Since that time, MarkWest has built and currently operates nine processing plants at the complex, capable of separating methane from NGLs. The plant continues to grow. MarkWest is currently building another two processing plants at the Sherwood Complex, to be done and in operation this year. And if that isn’t enough, MarkWest says there is potential to build another six (!) processing plants at Sherwood. As we previously noted, Sherwood is right now the fourth largest gas processing plant in the U.S., and by the end of this year, it will be number one (see MarkWest Building 6 New Processing Plants, 3 Fractionators in 2018). One of the primary reasons for the rapid expansion at Sherwood is Antero Resources, which uses the Sherwood operation to service its vast WV drilling program. Needless to say, the ever-expanding Sherwood facility is a huge blessing, economically, to Doddridge County. Here’s a deep dive into future plans for Sherwood, and how the plant benefits the local community…
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Is a march considered “peaceful” if it includes using a bullhorn to disturb the neighbors as you march? We don’t know the answer–just asking. “About 40” (meaning 20-30) protesters “peacefully marched” down State Street in Media, PA (Delaware County, near Philadelphia) last Saturday. The protest was billed as an “Interfaith Prayer Walk for Pipeline Safety,” organized by the so-called Faith Alliance for Public Safety. Of course the protesters weren’t walking to encourage pipeline safety at all. They were walking to block or shut down pipelines. They probably crossed a hundred or more buried pipelines on their way to the protest–but that little fact doesn’t appear to bother them. The protesters claim there are “moral issues” at stake with pipelines like Mariner East 2–which was the particular ire of the protesters. We wonder, are there “moral issues” with other inanimate objects–like sticks and stones? Just asking. The so-called prayers that were offered weren’t offered to God the Father, but to Mother Earth: “Love the Mother Earth. Put fire into the prayer.” Whatever that nonsense means. Supposed Christians, Jews and Muslims were among the protesters. A real ecumenical gathering. Although they all worship different gods, they were all united in one respect: An irrational hatred of fossil fuels and the companies that extract and transport them…
Two Canadian provinces that share a border, Alberta and British Columbia (BC), are in the midst of a heated argument/conflict/civil war(?)–over a pipeline. We’ve not covered the conflict, until now. The short version is this: Alberta has a rich deposit of oil in what are called oil sands. In order to get more of the bountiful supply of oil to new markets, in Asia, Alberta needs a new pipeline. Kinder Morgan operates the Trans Mountain Pipeline system and previously proposed expanding Trans Mountain–from Alberta through British Columbia to the shore where the oil can be loaded on tankers and sailed to other continents. BC has blocked the new pipeline, and so now Alberta has passed a law that allows them to stop existing oil and gas flows into BC. If that happens, it will bring BC to its metaphorical knees from lack of energy sources. Yes, it’s getting nasty. The Canadian federal government is also involved, attempting to pressure BC to allow the pipeline. What does that have to do with the Marcellus/Utica? If we were to say “Constitution” or “Northern Access”–perhaps the light bulb will go off. You see, we have a parallel situation here in the states. New York State is blocking gas pipelines critical to PA (as supplier) and to the New England states (as demand centers). At some point, it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that PA will begin to turn off existing natgas flows into NY–and then what will we do? We New Yorkers would be royally screwed. Gov. Cuomo pay attention to our neighbors to the north. What’s happening up there is coming in your direction, if you don’t change course…
The “best of the rest”–stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading: Can solar power the future of the Marcellus?; drilling new injection well in Brookfield, OH begins this week; “huge influx” of workers coming to Upshur, WV to work on Atlantic Coast Pipe; Lewis County, WV sees increase in biz thx to shale; NYC Housing Authority pleads for new natgas pipelines; U.S. still #1 producer of petroleum & natgas; oil price hits new modern high; solar advocates openly cheer crony capitalism; Cuadrilla files injuction against trespassing gits at UK shale site; and more!
Some even sadder news to share about Rex Energy. On Friday we told you that Rex had filed for Chapter 11 “voluntary” bankruptcy protection (see 
Good news! The four Rice brothers, all of whom formerly worked in the family business, Rice Energy, have launched a new venture. You will recall last November EQT consummated a deal to buy and merge in Rice Energy, paying $8.2 billion to do so (see 
Last week MDN told you about the ongoing vendetta by a few anti parents in the Mars School District (half hour from Pittsburgh, in Butler County) and their Big Green accomplices. They suffered a major court defeat (see 
Let’s be right up front about how we feel about the innocent-sounding Trout Unlimited (TU). Four years ago the organization was outed as a radical, far-left environmentalist group–hellbent on opposing fossil fuels (see 
The Marcellus/Utica region needs pipelines and we need them bad. That was one of the themes MDN editor Jim Willis heard at last week’s Upstream PA event, held in State College, PA. Marcellus Shale Coalition President Dave Spigelmyer, one of the presenters, showed a slide stating there are 24 Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) active pipeline infrastructure projects in PA-OH-WV. In PA alone, pipeline projects worth $12.9 billion are either planned or under construction! Jim was one of the presenters too (great to see many MDN subscribers at the event). He presented “7 Trends/Issues that will Impact PA Drilling” in the next year or two. Jim’s #2 most important trend/issue? The pipeline wars. The efforts under way to limit and stop new pipeline projects. So it was with great interest we spotted a post by our favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration, providing an update on northeast pipelines. According to the experts at EIA, if all planned and under construction pipelines in our region go online this year (as committed), we will have 23 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of “takeaway” pipeline capacity flowing out of our region. That’s up from 16.7 Bcf/d of takeaway capacity at the end of 2017–a 6.3 Bcf/d increase (up 38%), a much-needed increase to get our gas to new markets…
Events related (or of interest) to the Marcellus and Utica Shale, primarily pro-drilling events. To have your event included (or if you are aware of a worthy event you believe should be on this page), please send the details and/or a link to have it included to the calendar@marcellusdrilling.com email address.
Disgusting and frustrating. That’s our reaction to a decision by the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals that invalidates (vacates) a permit issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that allows Dominion Energy’s Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) to accidentally kill a few bats and bumble bees (classified as endangered) as it builds the massive $6.5 billion, 600-mile project from West Virginia to North Carolina. The Sierra Club, Defenders of Wildlife and Virginia Wilderness Committee (all radical left organizations) previously sued in federal court asking the court to stop work on ACP until the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission makes a decision on whether or not to “rehear” their decision to approve the project in the first place. In March, the court declined to stop work on ACP (see 
It was a big week for Sierra Clubbers. The radical environmental organization (that irrationally hates all fossil fuels, even fossil fuels they used to love, like natural gas) previously filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of Appeals for D.C. asking the court to consider whether or not the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) should have issued an approval for Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). MVP is a $3.5 billion, 301-mile pipeline that will run from Wetzel County, WV to the Transco Pipeline in Pittsylvania County, VA–to move Marcellus/Utica gas south. No, the court did not rule FERC was out of order in its decision. Not yet, anyway. This gets in the weeds just a bit, so bear with us. The first step in the process of challenging a pipeline is to ask FERC to rehear their decision. If FERC refuses to rehear (reconsider) the decision, then whoever asked for the rehearing is free to file a lawsuit in the court system to challenge FERC’s decision to approve a project. FERC has 30 days to make a rehearing decision–unless they pull out the “tolling order” card and play it. A tolling order allows FERC more time to decide on rehearing–months, even a year. FERC played the tolling order card here and told the court, “We haven’t decided on rehearing yet, so you need to toss out the radical Sierra Club lawsuit challenging our decision to approve MVP” (MDN condensed version). This week the court said a very loud “NO” to FERC’s request. The court further told FERC to get off its duff and make the rehearing decision within 30 days. In the meantime, the Sierra Club of course wants MVP construction “paused indefinitely” while they continue to tie it up in legal knots. Don’t look for that to happen…
It appears a decision by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) earlier this year that strips away the main advantages of the tax-advantaged master limited partnerships (MLP) structure is causing the MLP to go the way of the dodo bird. Because of the Trump tax cut, in March FERC reversed a previous policy and will no longer allowed MLP interstate oil and gas pipelines to include an income tax allowance in their cost-of-service rates (see