The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) announced in today’s Federal Register that a Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) meeting will be held on August 8 to 9, 2013, in Arlington, Virginia. The TAC is composed of two committees, the Gas Pipeline Advisory Committee (GPAC), also known as the Technical Pipeline Safety Standards Committee, and the Liquid Pipeline Advisory Committee (LPAC), also known as the Technical Hazardous Liquid Pipeline Safety Standards Committee. The GPAC and LPAC advise PHMSA on the technical feasibility, practicability, and cost-effectiveness of proposed safety standards for gas and hazardous liquid pipelines. According to the announcement, PHMSA plans to release a detailed agenda for the meeting on its website in the near future.
As indicated in a recent press release, NiSource Midstream Services has initiated service on the Big Pine Gathering System in Southwestern Pennsylvania. The system, which spans 57 miles in total length, will transport natural gas from Marcellus Shale production to three different transmission lines.
A federal district judge recently rejected a request by the New Jersey Sand Hill Band of Lenape and Cherokee Indians for an injunction to stop Kinder Morgan Inc.’s construction of a portion of the Northeast Upgrade Project, a $400 million natural gas pipeline expansion project in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The tribe sought an injunction and temporary restraining order on the basis that the pipeline would destroy and desecrate sacred land in violation of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act and the 1778 Treaty of Fort Pitt between the Federal Government and Lenape tribe. Earlier this year, a Pennsylvania county judge granted an injunction to prevent protestors from interfering with the project.
On June 13, 2013, Constitution Pipeline Company, LLC filed an application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to construct a 122-mile interstate transmission line from Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, to Schoharie County, New York. The line, if approved, would transport approximately 650,000 dekatherms per day of natural gas, enough to supply 3 million homes. Reuters reports that the project is expected to cost $683M.
Columbia Gas of Pennsylvania recently filed a lawsuit against the Borough of State College and Borough Manager Tom Fountaine after the borough refused to issue a right-of-way permit that would have extended a natural gas pipeline. Plans to convert Penn State’s West Campus steam plant from coal to natural gas require the extension. Statecollege.com and The Centre Daily Times report that council members passed a resolution instructing Mr. Fountaine not to approve the permit in April. The pipeline would run under several borough streets, including Bellaire Avenue, University Drive, Prospect Avenue and South Burrowes Street. Penn State and Columbia are reportedly working together to re-evaluate alternatives that would re-route the pipeline, which could take several weeks.
MarkWest Energy is slated to sell some of its natural gas facilities in Doddridge County, West Virginia to Summit Midstream Partners in the coming days. According to Platts McGraw Hill Financial, the $210 million transaction is anticipated to close this month and will include approximately 40 miles of high-pressure gathering pipelines, designated right-of-ways associated with the gathering lines and two compressor stations. These WV pipeline and compressor station systems are currently serving an affiliate of Antero Resources based upon a long-term, fee for service contract.
According to recent reports, the Inspector General (IG) has informed officials at the United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) that an investigation will be conducted in connection with the agency’s efforts to reduce methane emissions from natural gas distribution lines. The IG investigation, coming on the heels of a recent report criticizing U.S. EPA’s methods for determining natural gas sector emissions, could help to clarify the extent of the agency’s authority to regulate methane emissions from distribution lines.
The Pittsburgh Presbytery recently ended a yearlong moratorium on shale gas leasing and development on church property, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports. Despite the recommendation of a special Presbytery shale gas task force, which favored extending the ban for another year, 230 voting members decided against renewing the year-old ban on shale gas development.
The Presbytery also approved allowing negotiation of a lease with Shell Oil and Gas Co. for a 32-inch gas pipeline across the Crestfield Camp & Conference Center, a 226-acre property near Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania. The proposed pipeline would be located on a corner of the property away from Slippery Rock Creek, camp buildings and activity areas.
According to recent press reports, Millennium Pipeline Company, L.L.C., plans to submit an application to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to build a new 60-mile natural gas pipeline in New York to transport gas from the Marcellus Shale. The new pipeline, which would be known as the Upstate Pipeline, would connect with an existing gas transmission line near Cortland, New York, and terminate at another existing gas transmission line near Syracuse, New York.
Sunoco Logistics has acquired a closed refinery from Sunoco, its former parent, for $60 million. Sunoco Logistics intends to redevelop the refinery, located in Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania, as a major hub for exporting natural gas liquids from the Marcellus and Utica shales. The Philadelphia Inquirer has more on the redevelopment here.
On Friday, May 10, 2013, Columbia Gas Transmission, LLC (Columbia Gas) submitted applications to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for the issuance of certificates of public convenience and necessity for a pair of natural gas pipeline projects in the Appalachian basin. The first project, the Smithfield III Expansion, would include the construction of a new compressor station in Washington County, Pennsylvania, as well as the installation of additional compressor units, new station piping, control systems, and other facilities at existing compressor stations and other sites in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. The second project, the Line 1570, would involve replacing and expanding certain existing pipeline facilities in Greene County and Washington County, Pennsylvania, as well as replacing and expanding certain facilities at an existing compressor station in Greene County, Pennsylvania. According to Columbia Gas, these two projects will allow the company to expand its gas service to customers in markets in the southwest.
DTE Energy, Spectra Energy Corp. and Enbridge Inc. are jointly developing the proposed Nexus Gas Transmission Project, a proposed 250-mile natural gas pipeline which would connect production in eastern Ohio to the existing pipeline grid in southeastern Michigan. The proposed pipeline would serve distribution companies, industrial energy consumers and natural gas-fired power generators in the Ohio, Michigan and Ontario areas. Construction would follow existing utility corridors and 50-foot wide easements already acquired by the partners. Pending market demand and the necessary permitting and approval process, the project is expected to be operating as early as November 2016. For more information, click here.
NiSource Midstream Services expects that the first oil and gas well servicing its Hickory Bend gas gathering and processing facility will be in production in the next few weeks. NiSource is also accellerating the construction of their gathering system’s cryogenic plant in southern Mahoning County. The area being developed will allow for multiple plants to be sited so that future expansion can be accomplished with very little impact. According to its COO, NiSource’s initial investment of $300 million could grow to $1 billion in the next few years.
On April 23, 2013, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) published a notice in the Federal Register requesting comments on its proposal to collect additional data on hazardous liquid pipeline accidents. Under the current regime, operators are required to provide less data when submitting an accident report for certain small volume releases (i.e., at least 5 gallons but less than 5 barrels) that do not result in additional environmental consequences, significant property damage, or personal injuries or fatalities. PHMSA estimates that approximately half of the accident reports submitted in 2011 and 2012 involved these kinds of low consequence releases. PHMSA uses the information collected from these reports to identify short- and long-term trends in the pipeline industry and for inspection planning and risk assessment, and the agency has determined that the same information should be collected for both low consequence and more significant releases. PHMSA is also proposing to revise its instructions for determining the amount of volume spilled and recovered as a result of a hazardous liquid pipeline accident. Citing concern with the data obtained since the agency revised those instructions three years ago, PHMSA is proposing to require that the reported volume spilled include all product exiting the pipeline system, and that the reported volume recovered include all product collected during the spill response. PHSMA is also proposing to incorporate its information collection for hazardous liquid pipeline leak detection systems into its recordkeeping and accident reporting information collection for hazardous liquid pipeline operators.
A fight is brewing in State College, PA over the proposed installation of a two-mile, 12-inch natural gas distribution pipeline through the borough’s Highlands neighborhood to Penn State’s West Campus steam plant. The proposal riled community activists and the Borough Council, resulting in the Borough Council passing a resolution on April 1, 2013 directing the Borough Manager to not issue a street opening permit, or any other permits related to the proposed pipeline, to the gas distribution company.
An additional complicating factor is that the Borough adopted a charter amendment in 2011 based upon a model drafted by the Community Environmental Legal defense Fund (CELDF). CELDF model based enactments contain controversial provisions, including a “bill of rights” protecting “natural communities and ecosystems” for borough citizens and a provision stripping corporations of all rights granted under the Pennsylvania and United States Constitutions. The charter amendment also prohibits the construction of new infrastructure, including pipelines, for non-sustainable energy sources and purports to override state and federal government preemption of local ordinances and prohibits corporations from challenging the validity of ordinances or the charter amendment. According to the borough’s solicitor, challenges to the permit denial and the charter amendment appear to be imminent.