Dominion Resources

Dominion Resources Lays Strategy For Fracking Advantages 

From the Article by Peter Bacque, Richmond Times Dispatch, March 11, 2013

Dominion Resources Inc. will transfer about 100 employees of its interstate gas transmission subsidiary in West Virginia and Pennsylvania to its Richmond headquarters. Most of the moves will take place before September, said Dominion Transmission Inc. spokesman Chuck Penn, with some pipeline company employees remaining in place through year’s end.

 “It is not a cost-cutting or job-reduction initiative,” said Penn, “but an essential reorganization to remain competitive in an extremely competitive environment.” No jobs will be lost, he said: “It is our hope that all of the affected employees will be willing to relocate for the same positions in Richmond.“

Dominion Transmission primarily provides gas processing, transportation and storage services, with links to other major pipelines and to markets in the energy-hungry Mid-Atlantic, Northeast and Midwest regions. Dominion Resources bought the company, then called Consolidated Natural Gas, in 2000.

The transmission company operates 7,800 miles of pipeline in six states — Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York — which overlie the Marcellus shale gas region. The combination of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing has opened huge volumes of shale gas that previously were uneconomical to produce.

Dominion Resources, one of the nation’s largest energy companies, has more than 15,000 employees. It is the parent company of Dominion Virginia Power, Virginia’s largest electric utility with 2.3 million customers.

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Dominion and Caiman Energy II Form Blue Racer Midstream:

$1.5 Billion Joint Venture for Utica Shale Gas Processing and Transmission

From the Press Release of Dominion Resources, December 20, 2012

Two experienced midstream companies, Dominion and Caiman Energy II, are forming a $1.5 billion joint venture to provide midstream services to natural gas producers operating in the Utica shale in Ohio and portions of Pennsylvania. The companies expect to close on the joint venture by the end of the year.

The joint venture named Blue Racer Midstream will be an equal partnership between Dominion and Caiman, with Dominion contributing midstream assets and Caiman contributing private equity capital. Midstream services offered will include gathering, processing, fractionation, and natural gas liquids transportation and marketing.

“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. “Because the portion of the Utica shale targeted today produces a rich gas stream, gathering and processing capacity must be developed so that the natural gas and valuable natural gas liquids can be separated and sold. Caiman Energy brings to the joint venture a proven track record in developing one-stop midstream shopping for producers.

 “With our experience in developing midstream businesses and our $800 million in equity commitments for the joint venture, we can quickly leverage Dominion’s assets, expertise and relationships to meet producers’ needs as they fully develop their natural gas acreage.”

Dominion facilities to be contributed to the joint venture include both gathering and processing assets. Dominion East Ohio’s existing rich gas gathering network will be contributed, along with other portions of its gathering system as more lines are converted to rich gas gathering operations. With investment, the joint venture’s gathering pipeline system could be expanded to transport at least 2 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day.

Also included are Dominion’s Natrium Extraction Plant and related facilities, currently under construction in Marshall County, W. Va., and a Dominion Transmission pipeline connecting Natrium to the Dominion East Ohio gathering system.

Natrium is expected to process 200 million cubic feet of natural gas a day and fractionate 36,000 barrels of liquids, and can be expanded to serve market needs. Natrium is designed to separate the natural gas liquids into industrial-quality propane, butane, ethane and other products. The products will be able to reach multiple markets through a variety of delivery options, including truck, railroad, pipeline and barge facilities.

WV-DEP Building

Public comment is invited until April 9^th on a proposed general stormwater permit for oil and gas activities associated with exploration, production, processing or treatment operations or transmission facilities that disturb one acre of land area or more.  While this does not apply to drilling pads, it does cover pipelines where substantial acreage can be involved, as recently reported.

This draft permit is based on the state’s existing construction stormwater permit but without any reference to the federal law that authorizes that, according to Scott Mandirola, Director of the DEP Division of Water and Waste Management. The authority for this is the state’s Water Pollution Control Act.

A public hearing is set for 6 p.m. on April 9, 2012, at the DEP’s Coopers Rock Training Room in its Charleston offices. Oral and written comments will be taken at that time.

Comments may be mailed to the Department of Environmental Protection, Attention: Tonya Ombler, 601 57th Street, SE, Charleston, WV 25304, or e-mailed to Tonya.K.Ombler@wv.gov. Correspondence should include the name, address and telephone number of the writer and a concise statement of the nature of the issues being raised.