Tag: natural gas

Dominion Announces Partnership to Build W.Va. Pipeline

Dominion Resources officially announced a new partnership Tuesday that will pump billions of cubic feet of natural gas a day out of West Virginia. That is if a federal regulatory commission approves the project.

The nearly $5 billion project has Dominion Resources teaming up with North Carolina’s Duke Energy and Piedmont Natural Gas as well as Atlanta-based AGL Resources to lay 550 miles of pipeline.

Starting in southern Harrison County, the proposed tract would cross through Lewis, Upshur, Randolph, and Pocahontas counties on its way to Virginia, eventually pumping more than 1.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas each day to Virginia and North Carolina, places where the demand for fuel is growing.

The Atlantic Coast Pipeline, as the project is called, is estimated to create more than 17,000 jobs according to Dominion. About 3,100 of those will be in West Virginia.

Most of them will be temporary construction jobs, but an increase in a demand means an increase in supply which could lead to more jobs on drilling sites.

Leslee McCarty with the Greenbrier Watershed Association says she’s not sure the economic good outweighs the possible environmental bad.

Her organization teamed up with the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy to detail the negative impacts in a fact sheet. It includes things like clear cutting trees through the Monongahela and George Washington National Forests, impacts to the water quality of at least half a dozen rivers and streams and decreases in the property values of nearby homes.

The announcement Tuesday means the company will begin the application process through the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission by studying the environmental, historical, cultural and other impacts. That application process takes 18 months to 2 years, according to Bob Orndorff, Dominion’s managing director for state and local affairs. Then, they’ll have to get permission from the state and municipalities as well as landowners.

Barring any regulatory delays, construction is expected to begin in the summer of 2016 and be completed in 2018. 

New Natural Gas Pipeline Planned for West Virginia, Ohio

 A company is planning a $1.75 billion project that includes laying 160 miles of natural gas pipeline in West Virginia and Ohio.

Columbia Pipeline Group announced the investment in a news release Tuesday. The proposal would help transport up to 1.5 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas.

Columbia expects to start construction in fall 2016 before putting the pipeline in service in the second half of 2017. It will support natural gas development in western Pennsylvania, northern West Virginia and eastern Ohio.

A second component will allow for more Appalachian shipments through a corridor stretching to the Gulf Coast. It primarily involves adding compression for existing pipelines.

Columbia Pipeline Group is run by Indiana-based NiSource Inc. Columbia’s companies run about 15,000 miles of interstate natural gas pipeline.

Credit Columbia Pipeline Group
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Marcellus Shale Production Hits New High

Federal energy experts say Marcellus Shale natural gas production has hit an all-time high.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration says that production from West Virginia and Pennsylvania totaled about 15 billion cubic feet per day in July. That’s more than seven times the 2010 production.

The Marcellus Shale generally lies about a mile or more underground, and is the most productive natural gas field in the U.S. At current rates the total yearly production is the energy equivalent of about 800 million barrels of oil.

The EIA says it expects Marcellus production will continue to grow.

EPA Seeks Comment on Fracking Chemicals Disclosure

  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is seeking public comment on ways to disclose information about the chemicals used in the oil and gas drilling process known as fracking.

The EPA says in a Friday release that it is also seeking input on incentives and programs that could help develop safer fracking chemicals.

The 90-day comment period is an advanced notice of proposed new rules, but is no guarantee that the regulations will become law. The EPA could also propose voluntary steps for energy companies to take. During the fracking process water, sand and chemicals are injected into such deep underground formations to free oil or gas.

The gas rich Marcellus Shale lies under large parts of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio and New York. 

New Gas Processing Facilities Slated for Construction

  

MarkWest Energy Partners says it will expand two cryogenic gas processing complexes in West Virginia.

Denver-based MarkWest says in a news release that it plans to construct two new natural gas processing plants, one at the Sherwood complex in Doddridge County and one at the Mobley complex in Wetzel County.

The Sherwood complex’s new plant will have a processing capacity of 200 million cubic feet per day. It will increase the complex’s total production capacity to more than 1 billion cubic feet.

The new plant at the Mobley complex also will have a processing capacity of 200 million cubic feet per day. It will increase the complex’s total production capacity to 920 million cubic feet.

Both plants are expected to begin operations in 2015.

MarkWest announced the expansions Tuesday. They announced the completion of long-term, fee-based agreements with Antero Resources for the development of an additional cryogenic gas processing plant at the Partnership’s Sherwood complex in Doddridge County in late 2013.

 

　

 

Energy Corporation of America Won't Pursue UIC Project In Preston Co.

Energy Corporation of America says they won’t be planning to put an underground injection well in Preston County, following months of investigation into the project by the company.

ECA was looking to turn an old natural gas well near Masontown into a Class II Underground Injection Well. That would have essentially taken water from hydraulic fracturing processes and injected it in the ground there.
“In the end, our exploration simply concluded this well is not a good candidate for conversion to a Class II injection well at this time,” said ECA spokewoman Jennifer Viewig.

The proposal was met with criticism from the Friends of Decker’s Creek watershed organization. The Friends of Deckers Creek said the proposal would have done harm to the watershed.

ECA spent nearly a year in the investigation stage.

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