Rover Pipeline Continuing Despite Disruptions in OH & WV

by Duane Nichols on August 14, 2017

Example of Drilling Mud Spill for Pipeline

Energy Transfer executives see Rover Pipeline in “home stretch”

From an Article by Joe Fisher and Maya Weber, Platts News Service, August 9, 2017

Houston — Energy Transfer Partners’ beleaguered Rover Pipeline natural gas project is expected to be in service by the end of November or early December, with full commercial service in January, company executives said Wednesday.

>>> Phase 1A of Rover — from Cadiz to Defiance, Ohio — is nearly done, with completion expected by the company in the coming days, executives said during a second-quarter earnings conference call. When finished, Rover will seek US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission permission to place those facilities into service.

>>> Phase 1B is awaiting FERC approval for one directional drill. With that approval in hand, the drill should be completed in about 40 days, and in-service authorization will be sought immediately after that, executives said.

>>> Rover Phase 2 is held up at FERC as well.

“Assuming quick resolution by FERC regarding Phase 2, we expect to be in service by the end of November or early December with full commercial service in January,” Energy Transfer CFO Tom Long said.

Rover has faced regulatory setbacks after drilling releases into Ohio wetlands and demolition of a farmhouse that had been eligible for listing on a national historic registry. FERC initiated investigations related to both matters and ordered a stop to some directional drilling. The Ohio EPA has also proposed fines related to environmental mishaps and ordered remediation. And West Virginia regulators last month halted some operations in light of erosion and runoff problems.

Any signoff to bring parts of the project into service will require first satisfying FERC. The agency on July 12 gave Rover a substantial list of environmental restoration work it would require before allowing Mainline A of the project to enter service.

In addition, FERC has said that prior to authorizing future HDDs, commission staff “anticipates the development of a set of protocols to prevent future drilling and mud contamination.”

Cleanups to ‘resolve themselves pretty quickly’

Matt Ramsey, Energy Transfer’s chief operating officer, said Rover has been working with Ohio EPA and fully complying with its order for a cleanup project at the Tuscarawas River where an inadvertent release of drilling mud occurred. Cleanup is expected to be completed by mid-August, he said.

“Those issues are going to resolve themselves pretty quickly,” Ramsey said.

The drilling mud discharge contained diesel fuel of an unknown origin.

Energy Transfer maintains it does not know where the diesel could have come from. ETP executives do not expect FERC’s investigation into the matter to hold up bringing Rover into service, they said Wednesday.

In one positive development for the Rover project Wednesday, West Virginia’s Department of Environmental Protection lifted a cease and desist order it had issued in mid-July halting work on two supply laterals and a compressor station in Doddridge and Tyler counties. An inspection Wednesday determined that violations had been corrected, the DEP said. The agency had previously flagged failures to maintain erosion control devices needed to keep sediment out of waterways.

Energy Transfer recently announced the sale of a large stake in Rover to private equity firm Blackstone for $1.57 billion. Closing of the deal is not dependent upon the full in-service of Rover, executives said. Closing with Blackstone is expected in October.

Construction of the Rover-related Revolution project is expected to be completed during the fourth quarter, executives said Wednesday. The Revolution Pipeline originates in Butler County, Pennsylvania, and will extend to ETP’s Revolution Plant, a new cryogenic gas processing plant in Western Pennsylvania.

Mariner 2 Drill Approvals

Energy Transfer’s Mariner East 2 NGL pipeline project also has been bedeviled by regulatory and/or environmental issues. According to Long on Wednesday, about 80% of the pipeline has been strung and more than 70% has been welded. More than half of the pipeline has been lowered into its trench and backfilled.

Long said Wednesday that a halt on horizontal directional drilling in Pennsylvania instituted in July had been partially resolved.

“Over the last several days, the [Pennsylvania Environmental] Hearing Board has authorized ME2 to proceed with 16 drill locations,” he said. “We are working for approval to complete the remaining drills,” he said of the 39 drill sites where works remains stopped.

Mariner East 2 is expected to be in service during the fourth quarter, according to Energy Transfer.

The company has been in talks with potential partners that would provide capital for Mariner East 2 through a joint venture. Mackie McCrea, ETP’s chief commercial officer, said the company prefers a partner in the project that would bring long-term demand charges or long-term purchases.

Energy Transfer has been working on extending and restructuring “the vast majority” of agreements related to Mariner East 2. Rover is key to Mariner East 2 as well as the Revolution project, executives said.

The company is looking forward to a stronger balance sheet as these and other projects come online and begin generating revenue, and leverage comes down, executives said. Once earnings catch up with three years’ worth of project funding, its equity overhang will go away and there will be a “totally different balance sheet,” Long said.

During the second quarter, Energy Transfer Partners net income was $292 million, and adjusted EBITDA was $1.6 billion. Adjusted EBITDA increased $229 million compared to the year-ago quarter, “reflecting significantly higher results from the midstream and crude oil transportation and services segments,” the company said.

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Goldman Sachs August 19, 2017 at 9:55 am

Goldman’s Losing Bet on Gas of $100 Million Said to Hurt Second-Quarter

By Jack Farchy, Dakin Campbell, and Javier Blas, Bloomberg News Service, August 18, 2017

>>> Loss was more than $100 million, Wall Street Journal reports

>>> Commodities unit posted worst quarter since firm went public

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lost money trading natural gas in the second quarter, one reason its commodities business posted the worst financial results since the firm went public in 1999.

The loss resulted from failing to properly hedge bets on the direction of gas prices, and was one of several areas in which the business suffered, a person familiar with the matter said, asking not to be identified discussing non-public information.

Goldman Sachs lost more than $100 million on a wager that gas prices in Ohio and Pennsylvania would rise, the Wall Street Journal reported earlier Friday. Instead, prices fell sharply in May and June.

Chief Financial Officer Marty Chavez said last month that the poor performance in commodities resulted from the “market backdrop” and lower client activity. He said the firm “didn’t navigate the market as well as we aspired to or as well as we have in the past.”

Goldman Sachs, for decades the leading commodities trader on Wall Street, has been reviewing the business after declining volatility and increased regulatory scrutiny hurt profit. Its commitment to the division in recent years set it apart from competitors Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Barclays Plc and Deutsche Bank AG, which cut back or exited commodities trading.

Natural Gas Now Coming from Drilling & Fracking

The gas market has been whipsawed by developments with the $4.2 billion Rover pipeline, one of the biggest lines set for the U.S.’s most prolific shale producing region in Appalachia. Once fully operational, Rover will be able to transport 3.25 billion cubic feet a day, or 13 percent of current Appalachian gas production.

The Marcellus Shale, primarily in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, has been the powerhouse behind the shale-gas revolution of the past decade. Gas volume quickly outpaced pipeline capacity, which has been hindered by public backlash over safety and environmental concerns. Transport bottlenecks have turned Appalachia into one of the most volatile gas trades.

Prices at the Dominion South Point hub, a proxy for the region’s gas production, dropped to a record low of 29 cents per million British thermal units on Sept. 30, or $2.55 less than the Henry Hub in Louisiana, the delivery point for New York futures. The spread between the two is closely watched by traders. The 100-day volatility for Dominion South Point is almost three times higher than Henry Hub.

Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-18/goldman-s-losing-bet-on-gas-said-to-hurt-second-quarter-results

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Duane Nichols November 7, 2017 at 6:26 pm

Ohio Sues Pipeline Companies Over Pollution, Residential Construction

From Climate Nexus, November 06, 2017

Millions of gallons of drilling fluid leaked into Ohio wetlands during construction of the Rover Pipeline. Ohio EPA

After months of conflict, the state of Ohio officially filed suit against Energy Transfer Partners Friday for pollution caused by its Rover Pipeline.

Rover has racked more “noncompliance incidents” than any other interstate gas pipeline and leaked more than two million gallons of drilling mud into protected Ohio wetlands this spring, leading the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to order a temporary halt to construction.

The Ohio EPA claims that Energy Transfer Partners—which also owns the Dakota Access Pipeline—has refused to pay multiple fines from construction of the 713-mile pipeline and owes the state $2.3 million. Elsewhere in Ohio, the AP reported that legal resistance to an Enbridge/DTE Energy natural gas pipeline is growing, led by the city of Green’s mayor Gerard Neugebauer.

“I’m not opposing oil and gas,” Neugebauer told the AP. “What I’m saying is that you should not go through populated areas when you put in a pipeline.”

“It takes just one judge to say you can’t build this here because this is wrong,” Neugebauer added. “I hold out hope that this will come.”

Source: https://www.ecowatch.com/ohio-pipeline-lawsuit-2507089972.html/

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