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    Dominion Files FERC Request to Expand Pipeline from PA to OH

    On Wednesday, Dominion Energy filed a request with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to expand capacity along the existing Dominion Energy Transmission Inc. (DETI) pipeline from Pennsylvania to Ohio. Why? To flow more gas that will be used to generate electricity for the Midwest market. The project, called the Sweden Valley Project, is projected to cost $48 million and add another 120 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) of PA Marcellus Shale gas to the existing flow along DETI. Dominion says all 120 MMcf/d are already contracted and spoken for–by an unnamed customer. Notice the headline says “expand” and not “extend.” This project would build a tiny three miles of new pipeline, with the new pipeline lying next to existing pipeline (in Greene County, PA). The only greenfield construction is building a 1.75-mile pipeline to connect with the Tennessee Gas Pipeline in Tuscarawas County, OH. The other main part of the project is updating three units a compressor station in Licking County, OH. In the constellation of pipeline projects that disturb earth and disrupt landowners, this one is pretty minor–yet it will deliver big results by flowing an extra 120 MMcf/d of gas west to a new market…
    Read More “Dominion Files FERC Request to Expand Pipeline from PA to OH”

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    Monroeville Pushes Ban on NatGas Activity, Incl. Drilling & Plants

    The dunderhead leaders of Monroeville, PA (Allegheny County, suburb of Pittsburgh) are at it again, acting hostile toward the shale industry, attempting to stymie any kind of shale activity within its borders. In September, Monroeville Council voted to enact a super-restrictive seismic testing ordinance (see Monroeville, PA Passes Restrictive Seismic Testing Ordinance). The ordinance is meant to hassle Huntley & Huntley (H&H), which wants to conduct seismic testing in two rural areas of the municipality. In October, the contractor hired to do the seismic work for H&H, Geokinetics, took Monroeville Council to court over their punitive seismic ordinance. Both sides compromised and in November settled the case (see Monroeville Council Approves Seismic Testing Court Settlement). In October, Monroeville Council passed a temporary ban on oil and gas well drilling everywhere except for those areas marked M-2 industrial zoning–a big change (see Monroeville, PA Hostile to Shale, Bans Drilling in Most Places). Previously drilling permits were “conditional use,” meaning each permit was evaluated on its own merits, regardless of which zoning district it was located in. By limiting drilling to M-2, the Council effectively banned drilling in the municipality. They passed the temporary ban until they could pass a new zoning ordinance that would set the frack ban policy in concrete. That day is now here. Monroeville Council has just advertised a new zoning ordinance to FURTHER RESTRICT any kind of oil and gas activity–not just drilling, but pipelines, compressor plants, etc.–to a 150-acre parcel located next to the city dump. That’s 150 acres out of 12,620 acres that make up Monroeville (1%). In other words, this is a complete and total ban on the shale industry in Monroeville–the Pittsburgh suburb that’s officially “closed for business”…
    Read More “Monroeville Pushes Ban on NatGas Activity, Incl. Drilling & Plants”

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    Another 3 Bcf/d of Pipeline Takeaway Coming to M-U by March 31

    In the fourth quarter of 2017 (Oct-Dec), 2.3 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of new/extra pipeline capacity was added in the Marcellus/Utica region, to carry our gas to markets outside the region. Even though production in the Marcellus/Utica has continued to climb every single month, that 2.3 Bcf/d of extra “takeaway” capacity had an immediate effect–prices for our gas began to rise. Here’s a bit of exciting news: By the end of the first quarter this year (that is, by Mar. 31st), another 3 Bcf/d of pipeline takeaway capacity will be online. We expect this new takeaway, combined with last quarter’s increase in takeaway, will continue to drive prices for our gas higher…
    Read More “Another 3 Bcf/d of Pipeline Takeaway Coming to M-U by March 31”

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    PA Court Rejects Request to Block Royalties Funding DCNR Operations

    Last June, radical anti-drillers from the Pennsylvania Environmental Defense Foundation (PEDF) won a case at the PA Supreme Court by the skin of their teeth (see PA Supreme Court Hands Antis Partial Victory re State Land Drilling). The case dealt with the narrow issue of how PA can spend revenue raised from allowing drilling for oil and gas under state-owned land. A divided court ruled that money from royalties (not lease signing bonuses) must be used only for “environmental” purposes. The Supremes sent the case back down to the lower Commonwealth Court to settle some of the still-unsettled issues. PEDF tried to fleece Commonwealth Court into disallowing lease bonus payments and royalties from being used to pay the operating expenses of the PA Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR). You read that right. The antis wanted to gut the funding that pays the people in the department to do their jobs! PEDF wanted lease and royalty money to be used exclusively for Big Green causes. Earlier this week Commonwealth Court told PEDF no, they will not address the issue of funding the salaries and operating expenses of DCNR. The only decision they will make, per their instructions from the lofty Supremes, is whether or not lease bonus payments must also be used for the same things royalty payments are used for–whatever those “same things” happen to be (operating expenses or not). In other words, if PEDF wants to gut DCNR, they will have to go back to the Supremes to do it…
    Read More “PA Court Rejects Request to Block Royalties Funding DCNR Operations”

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    OH Towns Duped by CELDF Nervous Following PA Court Ruling

    Svengali

    Earlier this week MDN told you that Tom Linzey, the anarchist attorney who founded and runs the radical Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF), has been sanctioned by Federal Judge Susan Paradise Baxter and ordered to pay $52,000 to Pennsylvania General Energy (PGE) for his “bad faith” in continuing to press legal arguments on behalf of Grant Township, in Indiana County, PA (see Attorney for Anti Group CELDF Fined $52K for “Bad Faith”). Not only that, Judge Baxter also referred the matter to the Disciplinary Board of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court with a request they review Linzey’s actions with an eye to imposing more punishments against him. Linzey is red hot with rage following the sanctions imposed on him–claiming he’ll sue everyone and everything to clear his good name. Thing is, Grant Township isn’t the only town Linzey has duped using his Svengali routine. There are others, in both PA and OH. Athens, OH is one of them. The so-called “Community Bill of Rights” adopted by Athens in 2014 is almost word for word the same exact language thrown out by Judge Baxter in PA. Which is giving folks around Athens pause. It’s making them nervous about what will happen if they get sued, as you can detect in the following story…
    Read More “OH Towns Duped by CELDF Nervous Following PA Court Ruling”

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    Ultra-Lib Boston Globe Now Admits New England Needs New Pipes

    In the end, even the ultra-liberal editors of the Boston Globe couldn’t ignore and deny reality–the reality that their own favorite sons and daughters are to blame for sky high energy prices and dirtier air, because they’ve fought against new natural gas pipelines. We’ve been blowing the horn that New England is getting hosed on energy prices, paying the highest average prices in the world for natural gas, because of their stubborn refusal to allow new Marcellus gas pipelines into the region (see New England’s Lack of Pipelines = Most Expensive Gas in the WORLD). And now, even the ultra libs are admitting it. Here’s what the Boston Globe says “went wrong” and why the region is experiencing more air pollution this winter…
    Read More “Ultra-Lib Boston Globe Now Admits New England Needs New Pipes”

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    U.S. Becomes Net NatGas Exporter – First Time in 60 Years

    We consider this REALLY BIG news–and yet we’ve only seen it mentioned in a single mainstream news story. For the first time since 1957, in 2017 the United States exported more natural gas to other countries (Canada, Mexico, and internationally) than it imported (from Canada, Mexico and other countries). That is, in 2017 the U.S. became a “net exporter” of natural gas–the first time in 60 years! The reason is, of course, because of shale. And because the Marcellus/Utica produces over 40% of all the shale gas produced in the U.S., you can justifiably say we just became a net exporter, thanks to the Marcellus/Utica. So pop a cork on the champagne bottle. It’s Friday. Let’s celebrate!…
    Read More “U.S. Becomes Net NatGas Exporter – First Time in 60 Years”

  • Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Fri, Jan 12, 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: Chemical leak at Derry gas well spreads odor for miles; seminar in Belmont County gives info on o&g royalties; Trumbull County hoping for CNG filling station; de Blasio’s bogus war on fossil fuels; Upstate NY shrinks as Andy cuts off pipeline lifelines; cold snap leads to biggest U.S. natgas draw ever; forecasters missed East Coast deep freeze; oil heading for $80?; Nova Scotia shale gas deposits “to large” to ignore; and more!
    Read More “Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Fri, Jan 12, 2018”

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    Uh-Oh: Cove Point LNG Exports Possibly Delayed Until April

    We’ve been waiting, with bated breath, for an announcement from Dominion Energy that their $4 billion LNG export terminal is finally (finally!) up and running and shipping out condensed Marcellus/Utica Shale gas as LNG, heading to Japan and India. In April of last year, Dominion said the plant would be up and running, shipping LNG to India beginning this month (see Dominion Cove Point to Begin LNG Exports to India in Jan 2018). Dominion began priming the pump with an initial load of feed gas in early December (see Dominion Cove Point LNG Export – Dress Rehearsal Begins). But by the end of the month, Dominion signaled a full startup at the facility may be delayed, until an unspecified “early next year” (see Dominion Signals Delay in Cove Point Start-up; Contract Related?). In a blockbuster story, NGI’s Daily Gas Price Index is reporting (based on a super secret source who talked to Bloomberg) that commercial startup of the Cove Point facility will now not happen until (gasp), April of this year. Why the delay? NGI spoke to their own experts who have a plausible theory…
    Read More “Uh-Oh: Cove Point LNG Exports Possibly Delayed Until April”

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    Utica Gas-Fired Electric Plant in Carroll County, OH Starts Operation

    Carroll County Energy plant, artists rendering (click for larger version)

    In July 2013 MDN told you about Advanced Power Services’ plan to build an $800 million, 700-megawatt Utica Shale gas-fired electric generating plant in Carroll County, OH–a project called Carroll County Energy (see New NatGas Powered Electric Plant Coming to Carroll County, OH). The plant broke ground two years later, in July 2015 (see $800M Utica Gas-Fired Electric Plant Breaks Ground in Carroll Cnty). Now 4.5 years since the initial announcement, Advanced Power has just announced the plant is up and running and providing electricity for the PJM power grid. Actually, the $899 million plant has been up and running since December, but Advanced didn’t publicize it, for whatever reason, until yesterday. Here’s the big announcement…
    Read More “Utica Gas-Fired Electric Plant in Carroll County, OH Starts Operation”

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    Pittsburgh Presbyterians Call for Stop to Shell Cracker Construction

    It’s always a shame–in fact it grieves us–to see once-great Christian denominations succumb to a worldly rather than spiritual purpose and mission. It’s sad to see the modern day version of a golden calf erected in place of God. It’s happened again–this time with the Presbyterian denomination in Pittsburgh. An “umbrella group for 140 Presbyterian churches” in Allegheny County are calling on Shell to stop construction of their $6 billion ethane cracker plant project about 25 miles from Pittsburgh. That’s right–just stop now, throwing thousands of people out of work (not very Christ-like) and throwing away the $1 billion+ Shell has already spent on the fully vetted, fully permitted, fully discussed (for years) project. Why do the Presbyterians want work on the cracker plant stopped? Because the plant will produce “plastic products that have been linked to the death of animals and the diminishment of fragile natural habitats.” Yep. The Presbyterians are now anti-plastic. The very keyboard they typed up their tripe on is, of course, plastic. As was the computer and monitor they used, the chair they sat in, the clothes on their bodies and sneakers on their feet–all come from the plastics the Shell cracker plant will produce. Just for icing on the global warming cake, the Presbyterians are also demanding their denomination divest any of their considerable investments from companies remotely related to the fossil fuel industry. It seems that the golden calf of global warming has now replaced God in the Pittsburgh Presbyterian denomination. And yes, we do grieve over that…
    Read More “Pittsburgh Presbyterians Call for Stop to Shell Cracker Construction”

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    5 Radical Green Groups Sue to Stop Mountain Valley Pipeline

    Here we go again. A group of five, radicalized Big Green groups, led (by the nose) by the odious Sierra Club, filed a motion and a new lawsuit in federal court on Monday attempting to prevent construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP)–a $3.5 billion, 301-mile pipeline that will run from Wetzel County, WV to the Transco Pipeline in Pittsylvania County, VA. The pipeline is being built by EQT, NextEra Energy and several other partners. The Sierra Club along with Appalachian Voices, the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, West Virginia Rivers Coalition, and Wild Virginia, want a halt to MVP construction work until their lawsuit to reverse the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s decision to approve the project is heard by the same court. We doubt the court will grant their request–but one never knows. The case (and motion) were filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Below is the Sierra Club’s smug, self-serving announcement about the lawsuit and motion, followed by copies of the lawsuit and motion…
    Read More “5 Radical Green Groups Sue to Stop Mountain Valley Pipeline”

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    Old Hippies Turn Out at WV DEP Hearing to Oppose Mountaineer Pipe

    In April 2017, MDN brought you the news that Columbia Pipeline (now owned by TransCanada) had filed an application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to build a 3.5 mile, 8-inch pipeline that will carry natural gas from Pennsylvania to connect the Mountaineer Gas system in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia with the Columbia Gas Pipeline in Pennsylvania (see New 3.5 Mile Pipeline Project to Drill Under the Potomac River). That small section of pipeline is hotly opposed and part of the larger Eastern Panhandle Expansion project–a project to deliver natural gas via local distribution channels (local utility Mountaineer Gas) to a new industrial facility in Berkeley County, WV, and to provide gas to other local businesses and residents in the Tri-State area. There are three phases to the Eastern Panhandle Expansion project: Phase One runs a 22.5-mile, 10-inch-diameter steel pipeline from Morgan County to Martinsburg; Phase Two includes a loop to Charles Town; and Phase Three will build a four mile segment of pipeline into Martinsburg. The WV Dept. of Environmental Protection held a hearing on Phase One on Tuesday, at the Berkeley Springs High School. All of the people who spoke at the hearing, some 33 of the 80 people present, spoke against the project. If you look at a picture of the crowd, you’d swear you were at a ZZ Top look-alike convention. That is, a bunch of old hippies. Here’s a report on the Tuesday hearing…
    Read More “Old Hippies Turn Out at WV DEP Hearing to Oppose Mountaineer Pipe”

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    Patterson-UTI Issues Half Billion $ of New Debt to Pay Off Old Debt

    Each month MDN tracks how many rigs oilfield services company Patterson-UTI Energy reports operating–as a proxy for rig count health in general and rig count health in the Marcellus/Utica in particular (see our Patterson stories here). Patterson operates many rigs in the Marcellus/Utica region, hence our interest in the company and what it does. Yesterday Patterson announced it wants to get $525 million (over half a billion dollars) for newly floated IOUs, called “notes” in the financial world. This is nothing new–for Patterson or most other publicly-traded companies in the oil and gas industry. We always marvel at how big finance works. The stated reason for floating over a half billion in new notes is…to pay off older notes. That is, they are floating new debt to pay off old debt, plus a little extra change “for general corporate purposes.” The new notes will be “guaranteed on a senior unsecured basis.” How does that work? Doesn’t “unsecured” mean “nothing backing it up”? How do you guarantee something with nothing? We’re not picking on Patterson–well, maybe just a little. We’re pointing out our own lack of understanding in how companies can continuously issue new debt for old debt. Won’t the piper need to be paid some day? Apparently today is not that day! Here’s the latest new-debt-for-old debt announcement…
    Read More “Patterson-UTI Issues Half Billion $ of New Debt to Pay Off Old Debt”

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    EIA Says 2018 Biggest NatGas Production Yr Ever, Thx to M-U Pipes

    Our favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration, issued its latest Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) on Tuesday (full copy below). Most of the headlines in the media have been about EIA’s prediction that U.S. oil output will hit its highest level EVER in 2018. As in ever, in all of history. The simple reason for the record output is, of course, shale oil output–most of it coming from the once-sleepy Permian Basin in Texas. Something overlooked in yesterday’s report is that 2018 and 2019 will see the most U.S. natural gas output, EVER. EIA says that in 2018 the U.S. will average an additional 6.9 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of natgas production. That is “like the U.S. adding the entire output of Turkmenistan — one of the world’s largest gas exporters — in the space of just one year.” Astonishing! There are two reasons why natgas production will see an historic increase this year: (1) associated gas–the more you drill for oil in the Permian and Bakken, the more natgas molecules come out of the ground along with the oil; and (2) the main reason…new pipelines in the Marcellus/Utica. “Pipelines able to carry roughly 7 billion cubic feet of gas a day away from the prolific Appalachian region are due to start up this year, allowing production that’s been bottled up in the East to flood out.” Thank you Marcellus/Utica for lifting the entire country to new heights!…
    Read More “EIA Says 2018 Biggest NatGas Production Yr Ever, Thx to M-U Pipes”

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    Nine Energy Service Launches $160M IPO

    Nine Energy Service, an oilfield services company that competes with companies like Halliburton and Baker Hughes, operates in a number of shale basins, including the Marcellus/Utica. Nine was formed in 2014 by the combination of four existing oilfield services companies–Northern States Completions, Tripoint LLC, CDK Perforating and Integrated Production Services Canada. All four were portfolio companies of SCF Partners–a private equity firm investing in the oil and gas industry. The new company was named Nine Energy Service and is headquartered in Houston, TX. Why the unusual name of “Nine”? It’s aspirational. On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being perfect, they aspire to be a 9, which is about as good as you can get. Hence the name, which is kind of cool. Nine announced yesterday it plans to go public with an initial public offering of 7 million shares. The company hopes to raise ~$160 million with the IPO…
    Read More “Nine Energy Service Launches $160M IPO”