Rover Pipeline Drilling Stopped by FERC; May Delay Project Completion

From Reuters:

Ohio environmental regulators again asked federal energy regulators to order Energy Transfer Partners to cease drilling operations on the Rover natural gas pipeline project under the Tuscarawas River over concern about the potential for a spill. 

Rover has reported a loss of approximately 200,000 gallons of drilling fluids from the hole ETP is drilling under the Tuscarawas River in Stark County, Ohio, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency said in a filing with the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which was made available on Wednesday.

The Ohio EPA said Rover has ceased operations at the site and is seeking approval from FERC on a plan submitted on Jan. 22 to continue horizontal drilling.

Another article from Reuters notes that analysts feel this decision by the FERC will likely cause the Rover pipeline to miss its targeted completion date of March 2018:

“At this point, we don’t think it will be done at the end of the first quarter,” said Matt Lewis, director of financial analysis at energy research firm East Daley Capital in Centennial, Colorado. 

“I don’t see this as a huge delay. I figure they will find a way to solve this issue,” Lewis said, noting ETP would likely complete the project in the second or possibly the third quarter.

Once finished, the $4.2 billion Rover will carry up to 3.25 bcfd from the Marcellus and Utica shale fields in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia to the U.S. Midwest and Ontario in Canada.

An article from RBN Energy looked at the impact the Rover pipeline is already having:

In terms of deliveries, Rover will have the ability to deliver as much as 3.25 Bcf/d of natural gas to markets in the Midwest; Dawn, ON; the Northeast and the Gulf Coast via interconnects with TransCanada’s sprawling Columbia Gas Transmission system (CGT; orange network in the map), Rockies Express’s (REX) Seneca Lateral in Noble County, OH (REX Seneca; gray line extending south from REX’s east-west mainline), ETP’s Panhandle Eastern Pipeline (PEPL; green system on the map), TransCanada’s ANR Pipeline (purple system on the map), Consumers Energy Co. — one of the major public utility companies in Michigan — and Vector Pipeline (solid blue line). 

As we mentioned above, the first phase of in-service — Phase 1A — came online in September 2017, including Mainline A (solid red line in the map); two of the six supply laterals — the Cadiz Lateral, a short 3.5-mile, 30-inch-diameter line in Harrison County, OH, and Supply Connector Line A, an 18.6-mile stretch of 42-inch-diameter pipe from the Cadiz Lateral tie-in in Harrison County north to the interconnect with Mainline A in Carroll County, OH (yellow and black dashed line in the map above); two receipt meters — the 950-MMcf/d connection to ETP and Traverse Midstream Partners’ Ohio River System (ORS; a.k.a. Cadiz A), and the 300-MMcf/d meter connection to MarkWest Energy Partners’ Cadiz processing plant (Cadiz B) — both located in Harrison County, OH (aqua dots on the map); as well as two delivery meters, including a 1.7-Bcf/d interconnect with ANR and a 1.1-Bcf/d interconnect with PEPL, both located in Defiance County, OH (green dots on the map). These facilities allowed as much as about 700 MMcf/d to flow west from Ohio. A little more than a month into Phase 1A service, in early October 2017, ETP also was approved to start up three additional units at its Mainline Compressor Station 1, which bumped capacity on the line to 1.2 Bcf/d. 

In Phase 1B, which received federal approval on December 15, 2017, Rover has added three new supply laterals and their respective compressor and meter stations. Specifically, Rover completed the following new facilities:

• The 3.7-mile, 24-inch-diameter Berne Lateral in Noble County, OH, and the associated Berne receipt point in Monroe County, OH;

• The 25.6-mile, 42-inch-diameter Seneca Lateral in Noble and Monroe counties, including the four-unit Seneca compressor station, a Rover receipt point in Noble County and a delivery interconnect with REX –– the other major westbound pipe out of Ohio — also in Noble County. This lateral also includes the Madison and Gulfport receipt points in Monroe County, and the bi-directional Clarington receipt point;

• The 32.6-mile, 42-inch-diameter Clarington Lateral in Monroe and Harrison counties, OH, including a two-unit compressor station and a receipt point in Monroe County;

• All four units of the Cadiz compressor station.

View that whole article, including the associated maps, by clicking here. 

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