Motorists on Route 513 and Sidney Road, near Clinton and Route 78, are flanked by the project, which will add 6.64 miles — the Stanton Loop — to the Northeast Supply link. New, 42-inch pipes are being installed alongside existing pipe.

In this area Williams Co. has completed pre-construction surveys, cleared and graded land, trenched — moving topsoil to separate mounds in agricultural areas — strung pipe near the trench, and started connecting the sections on the Franklin Township side of Route 513.

According to the company, once pipe sections are welded together they are “placed on temporary supports along the edge of the trench. All welds are then visually and radiographically inspected. Line pipe, normally mill-coated or yard-coated prior to stringing, requires a coating at the welded joints. Prior to the final inspection, the entire pipeline coating is electronically inspected to locate and repair any coating faults or voids” before the pipe is placed in the trench and backfilling begins.

That is followed by testing the pipeline and restoration of the work area.

The pipeline is intended to supply the New York-area market with natural gas from the Marcellus Shale, primarily in Pennsylvania

Construction of the Stanton Loop is expected to be completed in summer.

SOURCE: http://www.nj.com/hunterdon-county-democrat/index.ssf/2013/04/pipeline_connections_start_on.html

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“Act 13 is a law that has helped bring Pennsylvania forward both economically and environmentally,” Corbett said. “In addition to enacting some of the most rigorous environmental standards in the nation, we’ve brought in more than $400 million for our communities directly impacted by unconventional drilling, along with other environmental efforts across the state.”

“As this industry grows, benefitting all Pennsylvanians with thousands of new jobs, lower energy prices, and increased energy independence, Act 13 has played a key part in our role making sure that it grows safely and responsibly,” Corbett said.

Collections for 2012 were due to the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) by April 1.

Nearly $198 million is expected to come into the state from the 2012 collections. This is in addition to the $204 million collected during the first round of collections. The 2012 amounts were released yesterday.

The collections this year are slightly lower than last year due mainly to the lower price of natural gas.

Information on the amount of money expected for 2012, as well as the amount of money collected to date, can be found on the Act 13 page on the PUC’s website, www.puc.pa.gov.

SOURCE: http://gantdaily.com/2013/04/05/corbett-impact-fee-proceeds-above-400m-198m-collected-for-2012/

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One of MATCOR’s key clients Texas Eastern Transmission LP, is seeking federal approval of a $5.3-million expansion of its pipeline and compressor station system to distribute Marcellus shale gas produced locally by Chevron and EQT.

A subsidiary of Spectra Energy Transmission, of Houston, Texas, Texas Eastern wants to gain Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approval in November this year

A subsidiary of Spectra Energy Transmission, of Houston, Texas, Texas Eastern wants to gain Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approval in November this year and put the new pipelines into service by November 2014, according to a pre-application filing recently submitted to FERC.

The project involves installing a total of 33.6 miles of new pipeline in five counties in the state; upgrading four compressor stations in the state and other work at 41 company facilities between Pennsylvania and Mississippi.  MATCOR has the ability to provide its SPL Mixed Metal Oxide Linear Anode to cathodically protect this pipeline expansion.

“Texas Eastern’s (pipeline) runs from the Gulf of Mexico to Lambertville, N.J. This is an expansion of that system,” said Spectra spokeswoman Marylee Hanley.

Texas Eastern has agreements with Chevron and EQT to charge them for the work, which would provide both producers with the capacity to transport 300,000 additional Btu/d.

These two shippers are major producers in the Marcellus shale play need the project to ensure that pipeline capacity exists to transport their gas to markets as the production comes on line. The shippers have agreed to pay negotiated rates for the pipeline service, according to Texas Eastern’s FERC filing.

“We are an open access pipeline, which means we are required to provide service to our customers,” Hanley said.

The new pipelines would be installed adjacent to existing pipelines in existing rights of way, and all the compressor station work would be done on the stations’ existing property, she said.

Specifically, the project would transport 300,000 Btu/d of gas from western Pennsylvania to the eastern end of the system in Lambertville, N.J., and Staten Island, N.Y.; 50,000 Btu/d from western Pennsylvania to the Lebanon, Ohio, hub and 250,000 Btu/d of of gas from western Pennsylvania to markets in Mississippi and Louisiana.

In addition to providing access to markets for the producers, the project would promote commodity price competition and reduce price volatility by introducing new supply sources from the Appalachian production area, particularly the prolific Marcellus shale, to these market areas, Texas Eastern said. The project would also provide gas to developing markets in the Gulf Coast Region and improve the company’s transportation security, flexibility and reliability, according to the filing

SOURCE: http://www.elp.com/news/2013/03/10/texas-eastern-transmission-planning-pipeline-extension.html

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“As I’ve often said, Chester County is already pipeline-central, and their numbers are going to increase, not decrease, in the years ahead”

“As I’ve often said, Chester County is already pipeline-central, and their numbers are going to increase, not decrease, in the years ahead,” said State Senator Andy Dinniman, D-19th of West Whiteland. “I am not against natural gas. I am for protecting our communities, our property values and our natural resources like the Brandywine Creek against harm from companies simply looking to get their product to ports in Philadelphia, Wilmington or Baltimore – or anywhere else – as quickly as possible.”

Columbia Gas Transmission is planning to install 8.8 miles of natural gas pipeline that will travel from the Eagle Compression Station and into West Bradford.

State Senator Andy Dinniman on Friday said that the natural gas pipeline proposed for Chester County by Columbia Gas Transmission is only the latest and will certainly be followed by others as the natural gas industry moves more and more Marcellus Shale natural gas to market.

Dinniman said this is why he took the lead last year in demanding the strictest state oversight of Williams Gas Pipeline’s 7-mile pipeline replacement project, and why he is introducing a three-bill package aimed at increasing the public’s ability to stay informed about pipeline projects and at protecting people’s homes, communities, and taxpayer-funded farmland from being harmed by pipeline projects.

According to Chevalier Mayes, communications manager for NiSource Gas Transmission & Storage, the pipeline, 26 inches in diameter, will affect 180 landowners in the pipeline’s right-of-way once construction for the project begins, which is anticipated to begin in April 2015. The pipeline is expected to be operational in September of that year, and would lie adjacent to an existing pipeline which is also owned by NiSource, parent company of Columbia Gas.

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LS Power Development LLC received North Beaver supervisors’ approval this week to build a 900-megawatt plant along the Mahoning River at the site of a former American Cyanamid Co. explosives manufacturing plant. Construction could begin early next year.

The New Jersey-based company needs state and federal permits, and the state Department of Environmental Protection is reviewing several requests, project manager Casey Carroll said on Wednesday.

“We’re trying to respond to the large number of proposed retirements — some 3,000 megawatts” of power generation capacity in northwest Pennsylvania and northeast Ohio, he said, addressing how the company chose the location. One megawatt can power about 800 homes.

The proposed Hickory Run Energy Station also needs access to high-voltage lines, interstate natural gas pipelines and a water supply source.

LS Power’s project is moving forward as electric generation companies are closing less efficient coal-fired plants or converting them to run on cheaper natural gas before tougher federal air pollution standards take effect in 2015.

FirstEnergy Corp. of Akron, American Electric Power of Columbus and GenOn Energy Inc., which NRG Energy of Princeton, N.J., acquired for $1.7 billion in December, along with other operators announced closings of dozens of plants last year.

Natural gas plants account for 95 percent of generation planned in grid operator PJM Interconnection LLC’s territory covering 13 states and the District of Columbia, spokeswoman Paula DuPont-Kidd said. Wind used to be the fastest-growing sector, she said.

Pending deactivations of coal-fired plants add up to more than 16,000 megawatts of generating capacity, PJM documents show.

Carroll said LS Power, with offices in East Brunswick, N.J., and St. Louis, has a contract to buy the Hickory Run site off Route 551, about 45 miles northwest of Pittsburgh.

Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co. owns and operates the gas lines that would supply the plant, and has a system that runs from the Gulf Coast to the Northeast.

Carroll said 500 workers would be needed to build the plant, with an estimated payroll of $100 million. The completed power station will employ 25.

LS Power owns or is developing power plants that run on natural gas, coal or renewables such as wind and solar, and is building high-voltage transmission lines, its website said. In Pennsylvania, the company has a natural gas-fired plant under development in Berks County.

SOURCE: http://triblive.com/news/adminpage/3435126-74/power-gas-plant#axzz2KFdbNDtK

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Shawn Georgetti of Avella, Pa., has bought bigger, faster, more-efficient farm equipment, thanks to royalties he receives for natural gas drilling. The drilling has not caused any problems with farming, he says.

Private landowners are reaping billions of dollars in royalties each year from the boom in natural gas drilling, transforming lives and livelihoods even as the windfall provides only a modest boost to the broader economy.

In Pennsylvania alone, royalty payments could top $1.2 billion for 2012, according to an Associated Press analysis that looked at state tax information, production records, and estimates from the National Association of Royalty Owners.

For some landowners, the unexpected royalties have made a big difference.

“We used to have to put stuff on credit cards. It was basically living from paycheck to paycheck,” said Shawn Georgetti, who runs a family dairy farm in Avella, about 30 miles southwest of Pittsburgh.

Natural gas production has boomed in many states over the past few years, as advances in drilling opened up vast reserves buried in deep shale rock, such as the Marcellus formation in Pennsylvania and the Barnett in Texas.

Nationwide, the royalty owners association estimates, natural gas royalties totaled $21 billion in 2010, the most recent year for which it has conducted a full analysis. Texas paid the most in gas royalties that year, about $6.7 billion, followed by Wyoming at $2 billion and Alaska at $1.9 billion.

Exact estimates of natural gas royalty payments aren’t possible because contracts and wholesale prices of gas vary, and specific tax information is private. But some states release estimates of the total revenue collected for all royalties, and feedback on thousands of contracts has led the royalty owners association to conclude that the average royalty is 18.75 percent of gas production.

“Our fastest-growing state chapter is our Pennsylvania chapter, and we just formed a North Dakota chapter,” said Jerry Simmons, the director of the association, which was founded in 1980 and is based in Oklahoma. “We’ve seen a lot of new people, and new questions.”

Simmons said he hasn’t heard of anyone getting less than 12.5 percent, and that’s also the minimum rate set by law in Pennsylvania.

By comparison, a 10 percent to 25 percent range is similar to what a top recording artist might get in royalties from CD sales, while a novelist normally gets a 12.5 percent to 15 percent royalty on hardcover book sales.

Before Range Resources drilled a well on the family property in 2012, Georgetti said, he was stuck using 30-year-old equipment, with no way to upgrade without going seriously into debt.

“You don’t have that problem anymore. It’s a lot more fun to farm,” Georgetti said.

SOURCE: http://www.philly.com/philly/business/20130129_Natural-gas_royalties_could_top__1_2_billion_in_Pa_.html

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In a joint statement issued Thursday, Dominion and Caiman Energy II, LLC said they would sign a $1.5 billion joint venture by the end of the month.

Blue Racer Midstream LLC will be an equal partnership between Dominion and Caiman, with Dominion contributing existing equipment and facilities valued at about $800 million and Caiman contributing the additional funding over time, the companies said.

The development is expected to help the state’s gas and oil industry grow more smoothly because it will provide the necessary pipeline capacity and processing plants immediately to market the gas as it flows from the new wells.

The absence of gas processing plants and pipelines to newly drilled remote wells has hampered Ohio shale gas development, say analysts, creating a kind of chicken and egg situation because such expensive projects could not be built without the certainty that the wells would be drilled.

Dominion will also contribute a processing plant now under construction in Natrium, W. Va., just across the Ohio River, as well as a large diameter pipeline already connecting the plant to Dominion East Ohio’s gathering pipeline system. The plant is being built next to an older but similar facility.

Earlier this year, East Ohio converted part of its major north-south pipeline system in Ohio to move gas from Ohio Utica shale fields to the Natrium processing plant. The lines were built decades ago to move gas from West Virginia and southern Ohio to the heavy industries in Northeast Ohio, industries that have either shrunk or disappeared.

Blue Racer Midstream’s initial plan is to convert more of East Ohio’s major pipelines to “wet gathering lines” and feed the unprocessed gas from thousands of wells the industry anticipates will be drilled in the Utica shale to the Natrium plant.

The plant will clean up raw or rich gas from the wells, removing oils and then separating the more valuable industrial gases — butane, propane, and ethane — from the methane that will become heating or natural gas.

The various gases and oils can then be shipped from the plant to multiple markets, said the companies, either by truck, railroad, pipeline or barge facilities.

“The Utica shale has enormous potential to provide jobs and revenues for the local Ohio economy,” said Thomas F. Farrell II, Dominion’s chairman, president and chief executive officer, in a prepared statement.

Jack Lafield, Caiman’s chairman and chief executive officer, said Dominion “brings well-positioned assets and experienced operations for gathering, processing, fractionating and delivering natural gas and liquids produced from the Utica shale field.”

Three other similar projects are also under way.

Earlier this month, a partnership of companies led by M3 Midstream, LLC, of Houston, announced its $1 billion gas processing plant under constructionin Columbiana County is on schedule to open in May 2013. Chesapeake Energy had been part of the group but sold its share.

In early November, two Denver companies, MarkWest Energy Partners, a gas transportation and processing company, and Antero Resources, a gas producer, partnered with a Texas investment company, the Energy and Minerals Group, to build processing plants and pipelines in Nobel County. State officials estimated the initial investment at $500 million.

In July, NiSource, Inc., parent company of Columbia Gas of Ohio, announced a joint venture with Texas exploration and production company Hilcorp Energy Co. to build about 50 miles of pipeline and a gas processing plant in the state. NiSource estimated the initial cost at about $300 million. In this latest announced project, Dominion intends to contribute its existing gas gathering pipeline system with an eye toward expanding its capacity to move at least 2 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day.

SOURCE: http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2012/12/dominion_resources_plans_15_bi.html

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Surveyors have started several months of work in Gloucester County as part of a planned major pipeline expansion project to carry gas from northern Pennsylvania to the country’s Northeast and Mid-Atlantic markets.

Dubbed the East Side Expansion project, it is expected to cost $210 million and it had not yet received approval of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Most of the work would be on right-of-way owned by Columbia Gas Transmission L.L.C., a subsidiary of Houston’s NiSource Gas Transmission & Storage, said Chevalier Mayes, a NiSource spokeswoman.

Construction would begin in early 2015 and end in the fall of that year, the company said.

In Gloucester County, Woolwich Township Administrator Jane DiBella said the pipeline would run along the Columbia Gas right-of-way parallel to Center Square Road, which extends from Logan Township into Swedesboro.

The Gloucester County leg is just a small segment of a project covering four states. The main line is to run from Milford, in Pennsylvania’s Pike County, to Loudoun County, Va.

The Gloucester branch would connect to the main north-south pipeline in Chester County and cross the Delaware River to bring gas to Columbia Gas’ existing redistribution facility in West Deptford, according to a map accompanying a solicitation of bids for the pipeline project.

 A planned Nov. 5 presentation by Columbia Gas officials to the Woolwich Township Committee was canceled because the company was involved in recovery operations related to Hurricane Sandy, DiBella said. The public session is expected to be rescheduled.

SOURCE: http://articles.philly.com/2012-11-17/news/35157753_1_pipeline-columbia-gas-transmission-llc-marcellus-shale

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Thomas E. Skains, Piedmont’s Chairman, President, and CEO commented on the Company’s involvement, “Piedmont’s equity participation in the Constitution Pipeline project aligns very well with our strategic focus on expanding our investments in complementary energy-related businesses as a means of enhancing shareholder value.”  Skains continued, “We are excited about making an investment in strategic pipeline infrastructure in the Marcellus supply basin that will transport clean, low cost natural gas supplies to premium East Coast markets and provide substantial benefits for both natural gas producers and consumers.  We are equally excited to be joining such strong joint venture partners as Williams Partners and Cabot Oil and Gas, as both are outstanding companies and widely respected in our industry.”

An affiliate of Williams Partners will construct, operate, and maintain the new 30-inch, 121-mile long transmission pipeline that is being designed with sufficient capacity to transport 650,000 dekatherms of natural gas per day (a quantity of natural gas that can serve approximately 3 million homes) from established Marcellus production areas in Susquehanna County of northern Pennsylvania.   The pipeline will connect with the Iroquois Gas Transmission and Tennessee Gas Pipeline systems in Schoharie County, New York and is already fully contracted with long-term commitments from established natural gas producers currently operating in Pennsylvania; Piedmont will not be a customer of Constitution Pipeline.  Williams Partners will maintain a 51 percent ownership share, Cabot Oil and Gas a 25 percent share, and Piedmont Natural Gas, through its wholly owned subsidiary, a 24 percent share in the pipeline venture.

“Williams Partners enjoys a long-term, mutually beneficial relationship with Piedmont as a customer on our Transco pipeline system and as a joint venture partner in existing pipeline and storage infrastructure projects in North Carolina. We are delighted to expand that relationship with Piedmont as a new partner in the Constitution Pipeline,” said Alan Armstrong, chief executive officer of Williams Partners.  “Constitution is a key component of the Susquehanna Supply Hub that Williams Partners is expanding to connect Marcellus Shale producers like Cabot and Southwestern Energy with the highest-value markets.

“The Constitution Pipeline is a great example of the kind of leadership and investment –from energy-infrastructure providers like Williams Partners, utilities like Piedmont and producers like Cabot – that we believe is key to building the foundation our nation needs to realize the full benefits of the new abundance of long-lived, clean-burning natural gas supplies in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale and elsewhere in North America.”

The Constitution Pipeline project was first announced in February 2012 by Williams Partners and Cabot Oil and Gas. Construction of the new pipeline is expected to begin in April 2014 with an in-service date of March 2015. Constitution Pipeline is currently in the pre-filing process with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the federal agency charged with the regulation of interstate pipelines.  Constitution Pipeline plans to file a formal certificate application with the FERC in the spring of 2013.  More information about the Constitution Pipeline project can be found at www.constitutionpipeline.com.

Read More: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/11/13/4981407/piedmont-natural-gas-announces.html

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Gov. Tom Corbett speaks Thursday morning at the Shale Gas Insight Conference 2012 in Philadelphia.

PHILADELPHIA — Gov. Tom Corbett on Thursday placed high hopes on the development of the Marcellus Shale to help him achieve his goals for Pennsylvania.

“I’m convinced that we’re beginning a new industrial revolution for the U.S. and especially for Pennsylvania,” he said at the Marcellus Shale Coalition’s annual Shale Gas Insight Conference in Philadelphia.

By the end of his tenure, which he hopes will be in six years, the governor envisions having accomplished three things.

“I want the state on sound financial footing,” he said. “I want the state to be able to say that every Pennsylvanian who wants a job has a job. And I want every person in this state trained and educated for the jobs of the 21^st century.”

The gas industry’s economic contribution to the state is furthering those goals, he said.

“The Marcellus boom isn’t simply about advancing business. It’s about advancing society,” Corbett said.

In fact, during recent travels to Germany and France, the governor touted the region’s cheap energy and strategic location for foreign businesses looking to locate in the U.S.

Corbett said the anti-severance tax crowd was vindicated last week when the state received its first round of impact fee payments that neared $200 million.

“We got that right,” he said. “That’s the difference between throwing together a quick fix and planning for real progress.”

A severance tax would have brought in half of that, he said. Last week, the Pennsylvania Budget & Policy Centerdisagreed.

As convention center security kept watch over the planned anti-fracking protests outside of the building, Corbett also fired some shots at those who oppose natural gas extraction.

“We are advancing even in the face or unreasoning opposition,” he said. “Opponents agree that we can land a rover on Mars, but can’t bring themselves to think that we can safely drill a mile into our own soil.”

The governor also credited shale development with saving one of the three Philadelphia refineries that were on the chopping block at this time last year.

On Sept. 19, Philadelphia Energy Solutions announced its plans to process shale gas at the former Sunoco refinery.

Corbett said he can easily see a time when all three refineries will be turning Marcellus gas into liquid fuels and chemical feedstocks.

The governor apologized to the crowd for missing last year’s conference because of flooding in southeastern Pennsylvania and thanked participants for creating jobs in the state. As he walked out to music resembling the theme from Star Wars, Corbett received a partial standing ovation.

SOURCE: http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/blog/energy/2012/09/corbett-marcellus-betters-society.html?page=all

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