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    Rover “Frustrated” with FERC Order to Stop Drilling at Tuscarawas

    In a strongly worded letter dated Sunday, Rover Pipeline tells the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) they are “frustrated by the inaccurate central premise underlying the letter received from” FERC shutting down drilling at the Tuscarawas River location. On Jan. 24 FERC sent a letter to Rover stopping drilling at Tuscarawas, which had only restarted in December (see FERC Stops Rover Drilling Near River After 200K Gal Mud Disappears). In April 2017, some 2 million gallons of drilling mud went down the hole near the Tuscarawas River and popped back out where it should not have, harming a wetland by smothering aquatic life (see Rover Pipeline Accident Spills ~2M Gal. Drilling Mud in OH Swamp). That 2 million gallon “spill” in April triggered a shutdown of all HDD work in Ohio. It was only last December that Rover was allowed, by FERC, to resume more HDD work at the Tuscarawas site (see FERC Gives Rover OK to Resume All HDD Work, Incl. Tuscarawas River). After “losing” another 200K gallons down the hole, FERC shut it down a second time, on the 24th. So why is Rover frustrated? Because (a) losing some drilling mud was predicted and expected, and (b) NONE of the 200K gallons of mud lost has come back to the surface. There is no “inadvertent return,” as it’s called. Rover says 200K gallons staying down the hole, in the ground and not coming back out, is no big deal. That’s why they’re frustrated…
    Read More “Rover “Frustrated” with FERC Order to Stop Drilling at Tuscarawas”

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    Part of TGP’s Broad Run Pipe Expansion Starts Up in Kentucky

    In December 2016 MDN brought you news about Kinder Morgan’s “Broad Run Expansion Project” that will expand transportation capacity of natural gas on the existing Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) system. Antis tried to stop the project, but the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission rejected their pleas (see FERC Denies Anti Request to Stop KM’s Broad Run Expansion Project). The Broad Run Expansion includes construction of two new compressor stations in Kanawha County, WV, one new compressor station in Davidson County, TN, and one new compressor station in Madison County, KY. TGP is also increasing compression capacity by modifying two of its existing compressor stations in Powell and Boyd counties in KY by replacing existing capacity with new, higher-rated horsepower compression units. The project will provide an extra 200,000 dekatherms per day (Dth/d) of transportation capacity along the same path as the Broad Run Flexibility project, which was placed in service on Nov. 1, 2015. All of the additional gas will come from Antero Resources and their Marcellus/Utica program. Kinder/TGP has been busy working on the $406 million project and the pieces are now coming together. On Monday, FERC sent a letter to KM/TGP telling them the brand new compressor station in Madison County, KY can begin operations. KM plans to have the entire project up and running by June 1st of this year…
    Read More “Part of TGP’s Broad Run Pipe Expansion Starts Up in Kentucky”

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    Antero Res. Tells Stockholders: We’re Working on Low Share Price

    Antero’s stock price performance last 12 months – click for larger version

    We spotted a press release from Antero Resources which says, in essence, “We’re working on it.” What are they working on? Antero’s leadership is working on a way to boost the stock price. The press release begins this way: “Antero Resources announced today that the Company and its Board of Directors are working with its financial and legal advisors to evaluate various potential measures to address the discount in trading value of Antero’s stock relative to some of the premier U.S. large capitalization upstream independents that have a similar profile in terms of leverage, capital efficiency, production growth and free cash flow generation.” Translation: We know our stock price isn’t has high as other companies in our league. We’re working on ways to fix it.” What might those ways be? They don’t say. It has been our observation that companies with a perceived “discount in trading value” are often targets of corporate raiders, aka “activist investors,” who buy up 6-7% of a company’s outstanding shares and proceed to bully the company into laying off people and selling assets in an effort to make the stock price pop. We suspect Antero is positioning itself to fend off such an effort. You know, “He who gets there with the bad news first, wins” kind of thing. Antero is admitting there’s a problem and that they’re working on it (and they don’t need the help of someone like Carl Ichan, thank you very much)…
    Read More “Antero Res. Tells Stockholders: We’re Working on Low Share Price”

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    Dominion Energy Gives Update on ACP, Greensville Plant & SCANA

    Dominion Energy, a huge company with fingers in many pies (gas and electric utility, electric generator, nuke plant owner, pipeline company, LNG exporter) issued its fourth quarter and full year 2017 update on Monday. Dominion’s top brass also held an earnings call with analysts. We reported yesterday that on the earnings call, Dominion CEO Tom Farrell said the Cove Point LNG export plant on the shore of Maryland will begin shipping LNG “in early March” (see Dominion CEO Says Cove Point LNG Operational in “Early March”). Farrell said getting the facility ready is “an enormously complicated process” and safety is front and center. While the Cove Point news was tops in importance for us, Dominion is working on other critically important projects for the Marcellus/Utica. Dominion is the company building the $5 billion Atlantic Coast Pipeline, a huge 1,588-megawatt gas-fired electric plant in Greensville County, VA, and they are in the process of (hopefully) buying South Carolina-based SCANA Corporation–the main electric and gas company for much of South Carolina. What about an update on all these other important projects? We have it for you below…
    Read More “Dominion Energy Gives Update on ACP, Greensville Plant & SCANA”

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    PA Senate Ctte Sends “Study Slow DEP” Resolution for Full Vote

    You have to understand something about politicians–a lesson we learned long ago when working in Washington, D.C. If a politician floats a plan to “study” something, that really means “we’re not going to do a single thing about it.” Over the past couple of years the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) has gotten slower and slower in issuing permits for shale drilling–for simple things, like erosion permits a driller needs to push dirt around to create a well pad. The DEP has a policy of issuing erosion and sedimentation permits 14 days from the date of application. These types of permits are common and necessary when building roads, well pads, etc. As of last summer it was taking the DEP 250 days to issue those permits (see More Pushback on PA Senate Plan to Fix Slow DEP Permit Reviews). The drilling industry has been loudly pushing for a change. The DEP says it has fewer people on staff and that’s the reason for the slowdown. The thing is, the number of requests for permits has gone down too–so that particular argument doesn’t hold a lot of water. PA House Republicans have introduced a number of bills to “fix” the DEP, not least of which is a bill introduced that allows certified third parties to assist the DEP in reviewing permit applications (see Bill Introduced to Fix PA DEP’s Extreme Delays Issuing Permits). The House bill got Gov. Wolf’s attention. Last week he introduced his own plan to fix the DEP–by hiring more people and hiking fees on the drilling industry to pay for it (see PA Gov Wolf Floats Plan to Fix DEP Slow Drilling Permits: Hike Fees). Not to be outdone, the PA Senate now wants to weigh in. Last fall a Democrat Senator from Wilkes-Barre, John Yudichak, floated a “let’s study the problem” resolution (see PA Dem Senator Calls for “Study” to Address DEP Permit Delays). That resolution was just reported out of the Senate Energy Committee (of which Yudichak is the Minority Chair). Yep, both the swamp-dwelling Republicans and Democrats on the committee voted to “study” the DEP slowness problem, meaning they plan to do NOTHING about it…
    Read More “PA Senate Ctte Sends “Study Slow DEP” Resolution for Full Vote”

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    Marcellus Industry AWOL at Philadelphia DRBC Frack Ban Hearings

    Last week the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) held two public hearings in Philadelphia about its proposed plan to ban fracking in the Delaware River Basin (see Low Turnout for Philly DRBC Frack Ban Hearing, Antis Dominate). As we pointed out in our post, you would think a city with 1.5 million residents would turn out more than 120 people on a topic that is sold as “threat to everyone’s drinking water.” But no. Just a relative handful. However, the handful was almost exclusively in favor of the ban. One of two speaker who spoke against the ban was Dan Markind, an attorney in Philly. We’ve highlighted Dan’s comments here on MDN a few times over the years. Smart guy. We don’t always agree with his take, but we do this time. Dan circulated his thoughts after the DRBC hearing. His words are humbling. Dan makes the point that although many who spoke in favor of the frack ban have made up their minds and won’t change, some in the audience were open to being persuaded otherwise. Problem is, nobody from “our side” was there! One rep from the API spoke and left. And that’s it, beside Dan. We fielded nobody to present our side of the argument. As hard as it is to attend these types of events, attend we must. Here’s Dan’s take–that we missed a big opportunity by being AWOL at the DRBC hearings in Philly…
    Read More “Marcellus Industry AWOL at Philadelphia DRBC Frack Ban Hearings”

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    NYT, Boston Globe Delve into Russian Gas Coming to America

    The more we read about and dig into the story of Russian gas coming to Boston, the angrier we get. Just yesterday we told you that a rumored second shipment of Russian gas may be heading to Boston (see 2nd LNG Tanker with Russian Gas Coming to Boston?!). We have more details about the story. According to a New York Times article, in 2014 then-President Obama slapped sanctions on the “financiers and producers of Russian oil and natural gas, not the output.” Russia, at that time and since, has tried to “destabilize eastern Ukraine” with an ongoing occupation of Crimea. Sanctions against the financial services and energy sectors followed. Vladimir Putin (one of his cronies) was building an LNG export plant in the Arctic–Yamal LNG. The sanctions were aimed at stopping the plant from getting built–but it got built anyway with the help of Chinese banks. Yamal’s very first shipment of LNG recently left the facility and (as we previously outlined) was offloaded for a couple of days in the UK (see Confirmed: LNG Coming to Boston on Jan 22 is Illegal Russian Gas). What we still don’t understand is this: How can you impose sanctions on the financers and producers, but not on the outcome, the production (gas) itself? That seems crazy. We still think the gas is illegal–but nobody in D.C. (wake up Trump Administration!) is doing anything to stop it. Regardless of whether or not the shipments are illegal, even the far-left libs at the Boston Globe think this is nuts. It is humiliating (and an outrage) that sanctioned Russian gas–the VERY FIRST SHIPLOAD–is now being unloaded in Boston Harbor…
    Read More “NYT, Boston Globe Delve into Russian Gas Coming to America”

  • Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Wed, Jan 31, 2018

    The “best of the rest”–stories that caught MDN’s eye over the break that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: Westmoreland transit growing fleet of natgas buses; Warren County discusses distribution of Act 13 funds; Washington State looks to ban fracking for 10 years; FERC faces complications with new Trump tax cut; why is shale still not profitable; Sierra Club finally drops opposition to Sabine Pass LNG exports; fracked horizontal wells vast majority of new wells drilled; battling weather models; Canadian battle for U.S. gas markets; and more!
    Read More “Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Wed, Jan 31, 2018”

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    2nd LNG Tanker with Russian Gas Coming to Boston?!

    Gaseyls tanker (now docked in Boston Harbor)

    A shipment of arguably illegal Russian natural gas (LNG) arrived in Boston Harbor on Sunday and will soon be offloaded, according to Russian news service Sputnik International. The U.S. slapped the Russian Yamal LNG plant, located in the Arctic, with sanctions following Russia’s moves against the Ukraine several years ago. Those sanctions make it illegal to receive gas produced from that plant. So shippers “whitewashed” the gas by unloading it in the UK, and a few days later, reloading it on a different ship–the Gaselys. The Gaselys is now docked and undergoing inspection and will then offload the gas for use in New England. It is an outrage that for a couple of reasons: (1) because New England is blocking pipelines from the Marcellus that would carry domestically produced gas that is cheaper, and (2) the Jones Act prevents our ships from the Gulf Coast and other locations from carting our own LNG to Boston. So, using a slight-of-hand to hide the origin of the gas, illegal Russian gas has now arrived and will be used in New England to heat homes–while they watch the Superbowl. Plenty of irony, wouldn’t you say? But the outrage doesn’t end there. A second shipment of Russian gas is rumored to be on its way to Boston. HELLO–IS ANYBODY AWAKE IN D.C.? How can this continue? Here’s an update on the first shipment now arrived, and a second shipment that quite possibly is now on its way…
    Read More “2nd LNG Tanker with Russian Gas Coming to Boston?!”

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    NTE Energy Plans to Build 550 MW Gas-Fired Elec Plant in CT

    Artist rendering of Killingly Energy Center – click for larger version

    In April 2016, MDN told you NTE Energy, headquartered in St. Augustine, Florida, plans to build several new natural gas-fired electric generating plants, one of them in Connecticut (see NTE Energy Developing 3 NatGas-Fired Electric Plants in CT/NC/OH). Since that time NTE has been busy with all of three projects. The Connecticut project is called Killingly Energy Center, a 550-megawatt plant that will be located near Killingly, CT. NTE has secured a site for the plant, filed a request to connect to the power grid, filed for an air permit and filed with the siting council. NTE expects to get all of the various permits they need sometime by the second quarter of this year (May-June time frame). When they do get the necessary permits for Killingly, construction will begin (in 2Q of this year). No doubt Marcellus gas will feed the plant, which will go online in 2021 (it takes a few years to build these things). NTE will spend $500 million on the project and employ 250-350 people to build it. But what about the location? You know how allergic New Englanders are to any new natural gas-related infrastructure! NTE is also building a plant in Ohio. The mayor of the city where the Ohio plant is getting built (Middletown, OH) is giving his “full-throated support” of NTE and is telling Killingly they don’t have anything to worry about. NTE does what they say they’ll do, and they do it right. So far Killingly appears to be playing ball. Killingly Town Council approved agreements with NTE earlier this month. When the plant gets built, Killingly will see $90 million in tax revenue over the next 20 years. Who wouldn’t sign on the dotted line for 90 million bucks?! Below is news about the project along with a recent PowerPoint presentation loaded with information about the Killingly Energy Center…
    Read More “NTE Energy Plans to Build 550 MW Gas-Fired Elec Plant in CT”

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    WV Co-Tenancy, Royalty Transparency Bills Make Progress

    As predicated, a co-tenancy bill has been introduced in this year’s 60-day session of the West Virginia legislature (see Co-Tenancy Front and Center for WV Legislature as Session Nears). What is co-tenancy? It is legislation that will give a majority of rights owners of a property the authority to sign a lease on behalf of all the rights owners. It corrects a situation in which multiple rights owners are listed for a property–sometimes 200 or more rights owners for a single piece of property! It is often difficult, if not impossible, to track them all down and get them to sign on the dotted line. Co-tenancy corrects that situation, opening up more Marcellus and Utica acreage that can be drilled. Last Thursday a co-tenancy bill was introduced in the House Energy Committee–House Bill (HB) 4268–which should see an initial vote this week. Various groups are lobbying for and against the bill. The WV Surface Owners Rights Organization is pushing for two amendments, without which they won’t support the bill. Although co-tenancy is a major emphasis for Marcellus/Utica drillers, a different bill is a major emphasis for landowners–a bill to provide greater transparency of royalty statements (more information provided on statements). House Bill (HB) 4270 already passed in a vote by the House Energy Committee last week. It still has to pass muster with the House Judiciary Committee, but the bill seems to be off to a fast start. Here’s a rundown on these two important bills, with copies of the bills as introduced, with background on the backroom wheeling and dealing over the co-tenancy bill…
    Read More “WV Co-Tenancy, Royalty Transparency Bills Make Progress”

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    WV Farm Bureau Urges Legislature to Tread Carefully re Co-Tenancy

    In another MDN post today, we do a deep dive into West Virginia House Bill (HB) 4268, the “Co-tenancy Modernization and Majority Protection Act” (see WV Co-Tenancy, Royalty Transparency Bills Make Progress). One of the organizations closely watching the progress of that bill is the WV Farm Bureau, which lobbies for the best interests of mineral owners, farmers and rural residents. What does the Farm Bureau think of the bill so far? Last week, on the very day HB 4268 was introduced, Farm Bureau director of Governmental Affairs, Dwayne O’Dell, penned an editorial in which he lends tepid support for the bill, IF there are protections built in for landowners. O’Dell begins his editorial by stating he’s worried that WV legislators are, “allowing oil and gas developers to take private property rights unfettered.” That is, they are literally “giving away the farm.” O’Dell is favor of “providing oil and gas companies with a reasonable platform to succeed.” But not at the expense of his members. Here’s a big, fat caution flag being waved by the WV Farm Bureau with respect to the co-tenancy bill, along with a call for the legislature to revisit the issue of “at the well head” pricing…
    Read More “WV Farm Bureau Urges Legislature to Tread Carefully re Co-Tenancy”

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    Seneca Indians Fighting Proposed Potter County Wastewater Facility

    Earlier this month MDN told you about a new shale wastewater treatment facility planned for Coudersport, in Potter County, PA (see Shale Wastewater Treatment Plant Planned for Potter County, PA). Epiphany Water Solutions, via a subsidiary company called Epiphany Allegheny, filed for a permit with the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) to build a centralized water treatment facility in Coudersport back in July 2017. The DEP held a public hearing in Coudersport two weeks ago to gain local resident’s input on the facility. One of the groups objecting to the plant–a plant which produces water clean enough to drink–is the Seneca Nation (local Indian tribe). The Senecas, which live 65 miles down the Allegheny River from the proposed site, are making all sorts of wild accusations. Things like this plant will “permit poisonous contaminants” to flow down river to where the Senecas live. The Senecas, according to Epiphany, have been given “inaccurate information.” Epiphany vigorously denies the wild claims made by the Indians. What’s really kind of funny (for us) is that Epiphany and the Seneca Nation are really both on the same “green” side. As we explained in our previous article, Epiphany started life as a company with a mission to pioneer the use of solar technology to desalinate water so people in poor countries have safe drinking water. Laudable goal. However, Epiphany found they actually need to turn a profit and pay bills first. They found that their technology works equally well for the oil and gas industry. The very same technology used to desalinate/decontaminate dirty ocean water and make it drinkable can (and does) desalinate/decontaminate brine (salty water coming out of the ground long after drilling is over and done). Same tech! There is no “poisonous contaminates” in the cleaned-up water from Epiphany–but try telling that to the Senecas…
    Read More “Seneca Indians Fighting Proposed Potter County Wastewater Facility”

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    Landowners Who Negotiate with Shell Ethane Pipeline Get More $

    In February 2016, MDN exclusively broke the news that Shell had begun to sign leases with landowners for a 97-mile ethane pipeline (two branches) to feed their mighty cracker plant (see Exclusive: Shell Leasing Land for 2 Pipelines to PA Cracker Plant). Since that time we’ve tracked any news we could find that reveals what Shell is paying landowners in Beaver County (and elsewhere) for the right to run the ethane pipeline (called the Falcon Ethane Pipeline) across their land. So far, we’ve seen rates as high as $75 per foot, and as low as $43 per foot. We just spotted another mention. An extensive (and well written) article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette interviews a number of landowners who have dealt with Shell, signing leases to allow the ethane pipeline across their land. The article opens with the story of a couple and their attempt to negotiate with Shell. If you play too hard to catch, Shell might route the pipeline around your land, onto your neighbor’s land instead. But sign too early, and maybe you’re leaving money on the table. It’s a fine line–causing stress and strain. In reading the article we really perked up when we read about Ed Bilik, founder of Greensburg-based Western Pennsylvania Gas Leasing Consultants. Ed was the first guy to sniff out the eventual path of the pipeline–which he did by knocking on doors to see where Shell landmen had already visited. Bilik eventually got 41 landowners to sign with him, allowing Bilik to help them with negotiations. According to Bilik, “Shell started out offering $40 per foot for the right to lay two pipelines.” Bilik would not say how much his clients eventually got from Shell, but he did say this: “We exceeded that [amount] multiple times,” meaning his clients got a whole lot more than $40/foot when they signed. Here’s a portion of this enlightening article…
    Read More “Landowners Who Negotiate with Shell Ethane Pipeline Get More $”

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    Dominion CEO Says Cove Point LNG Operational in “Early March”

    Earlier this month MDN brought you news that Dominion’s Cove Point LNG export facility along the shore of Maryland has delayed its official start-up until perhaps as late as April (see Uh-Oh: Cove Point LNG Exports Possibly Delayed Until April). An expert analyst theorized the reason for the delay is to install two flaring systems at the plant (a safety precaution). We still don’t know the exact reason for the delay, but we now have confirmation direct from the top at Dominion, from CEO Tom Farrell, that Cove Point will become operational and begin to export in “early March.” On an analyst phone call yesterday to discuss Dominion’s fourth quarter and full year 2017 results, Farrell had this to say about Cove Point…
    Read More “Dominion CEO Says Cove Point LNG Operational in “Early March””

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    OH Orphan Well Bill Wins Praise from Both Drillers & Enviros

    Pennsylvania state officials estimate there are as many as 200,000 abandoned (i.e. “orphan”) oil and gas wells in the state–the vast majority of them conventional wells drilled over 50 years ago. Most of them are not mapped or known. Some of them are hazards for shale drillers who stumble across them when drilling new wells. If you drill horizontally and clip an old/abandoned well, it becomes like an elevator pumping fluids and gas to the surface. Not good. Everyone is committed to finding and marking and capping these old wells–the question is, how do you pay for it? In PA, it’s an ongoing hot potato of who will pay (see Who Pays for Abandoned O&G Wells in PA?). Ohio has it a whole lot easier. There’s only an estimated 600 orphan wells in the Buckeye State. The issue of who will pay in Ohio is moot–the state itself pays for it (meaning Ohio taxpayers 2/4/18 correction: The funds come from the Oil and Gas Well fund which oil and gas producers pay into from the severance tax. Our thanks to OOGA for sending along that correction!). A new bill in Ohio just passed the legislature, House Bill 225, which triples the amount of money set aside to cap orphan wells. The bill also “creates a more streamlined and efficient process for identifying and plugging” orphan wells. The amazing thing about the bill is this: both Big Green groups and the drilling industry support it! When was the last time you heard of that happening?! Here’s more about HB 225, the bill everybody loves in Ohio. Who wouldn’t love a bill to help the orphans?…
    Read More “OH Orphan Well Bill Wins Praise from Both Drillers & Enviros”