County

Florida Gas Transmission Co. LLC (FGT) plans to expand its system with pipeline looping and other facilities to serve Florida Public Utilities Co. (FPU) and chemicals company Ascend Performance Materials Inc. with additional capacity of 68,500 MMBtu/d.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) office in Colorado on Wednesday released an environmental assessment (EA) on its previously announced plans to offer in May up to 100,000 acres for oil and natural gas exploration spread over five counties in the northwestern corner of the state (see Shale Daily,Aug. 10).

FERC has granted Equitrans LP permission to bring online the Ohio Valley Connector (OVC) pipeline. It traverses West Virginia and ends in Ohio, and it will transport natural gas produced in the Appalachian Basin to market.

Roughly 700 people attended a town hall meeting on Wednesday in Bradford County, PA, where they were encouraged to contact state lawmakers and show their support for legislation that would help ensure minimum royalties for landowners with oil and gas leases. The county is one of the state’s top producers. The Bradford County Commissioners organized the meeting after voting to spend $15,000 for a public relations campaign to tell how landowners in the area are being cheated out of royalty payments (see Shale Daily,Sept. 9). Wilmot Township, which is also in Bradford County, passed a resolution this month to limit natural gas production over the post-production deductions that are reportedly lowering royalty checks there (see Shale Daily,Sept. 7). Lawmakers have tried but failed for years to pass legislation that would clarify the state’s Guaranteed Minimum Royalty Act of 1979, which sets forth the minimum payment to landowners. The statute does not address post-production costs and how they should be factored into royalty payments. The latest legislation, HB 1391, remains stuck in committee (see Shale Daily,June 26, 2015).

Commissioners in one of Pennsylvania’s leading shale gas producing counties have voted to spend $15,000 for a public relations campaign that would tell how landowners are being cheated out of royalty payments.

Statoil ASA has filed a lawsuit against Marshall County, WV, to recover about $350,000 it overpaid for property taxes last year.

The Pennsylvania Game Commission has agreed to license a 50-foot wide right-of-way in Lebanon County, PA, to Transcontinental Gas Pipeline Co. (Transco) for its Atlantic Sunrise project. In exchange, Transco will convey to the commission 117 acres near game lands in Monroe County, PA, and another 120 acres in Lackawanna County, PA. The company would still be required to pay the agency’s habitat, surface and timber damages, as well as its standard annual license fee for as long as it remains active. The license authorizes 1,320 linear feet of 42-inch diameter natural gas pipeline within the right-of-way that would occupy 1.52 acres. Transco would also use and reclaim an additional 1.32 acres of game lands outside of the easement. The Atlantic Sunrise project would help move natural gas from Northeast Pennsylvania to markets in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast by expanding the Transco system to add 1.7 million Dth/d of capacity.

The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) has suspended trading of Atlas Resource Partners LP’s (ARP) common and preferred units. NYSE informed the company last week that it would begin proceedings to delist the company’s units. ARP is now listed on the over-the-counter market. Its common units were trading around 13 cents each on Thursday. The delisting is one part of the company’s financial woes. It has delayed a payment on its borrowing base and exercised its 30-day grace period to pay interest on its senior notes. ARP’s general partner, Atlas Energy Group LLC, was also delisted in March and is currently trading over-the-counter (see Shale Daily,March 21). ARP has producing wells and reserves in 17 states, which include assets in the Barnett, Eagle Ford, Marcellus and Utica shales.

Privately owned EdgeMarc Energy Holdings LLC is coping with the commodities downturn no differently than its larger, publicly traded peers operating in Appalachia, aiming to keep its leverage low and leaning on its dry natural gas assets in Ohio’s Utica Shale to keep moving forward.