American Oil and Gas Reporter - February 2017 - 91

of the wide variety of forested areas it
uses to find food and raise its young, as
well as the bat's flexibility in meeting
those needs (AOGR, June 2016, pg. 18).
A full endangered classification and
critical habitat designation could devastate
pipeline construction in Ohio, Breon predicts, because companies would be able
to clear trees only from November until
March. "Any attempt to establish the ability
to clear trees outside that window with a
full endangered classification of the longeared bat won't work. Mist netting studies
in Ohio always capture a long-eared bat;
we have millions of them," he reflects.
Breon says the Midstream Committee
also is working with companies required
to respond to the U.S. EPA's information
collection request regarding a national
emissions standard for methane, which
he describes as "not nearly as simple as
(EPA) outlined it."
"We would like to limit any additional
rule making from that because, obviously,
that would be an additional cost (midstream companies) would pass back to
producers," he says.
Transmission Capacity
Assessing the status of Ohio's midstream infrastructure, Downey concludes

that natural gas processing and fractionation "is sufficient, but take-away capacity
still is lacking." He says he believes the
growing number of protests against
pipeline construction has slowed the approval process at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
Nevertheless, "Some good projects
came on line in 2016," he allows, pointing
to Texas Eastern Transmission's Ohio
Pipeline Energy Network (OPEN) project,
which can move 550 million cubic feet a
day to the Gulf Coast. In addition, he
says, the final segment of the Rockies
Express Pipeline reversal went into service
in November, and has the capacity to
carry 1.8 billion-2.0 billion cubic feet a
day out of the Appalachian Basin.
Another significant development,
Downey goes on, has been Columbia
Gas Transmission's reversal of its Columbia Gulf system. "That used to bring
close to 2.5 Bcf/d from the Southwest to
Appalachia," he reflects. "Now it is going
the other direction. That has been helpful."
Slower coming, however, are Energy
Transfer Partners' Rover Pipeline and the
NEXUS Gas Transmission system being
developed by Spectra Energy and Detroit
Edison, both of which Downey says have

been delayed at FERC. Rover is being
planned to move 3.0 Bcf/d from origination
points in Southeast Ohio, Southwest Pennsylvania and western West Virginia to
Western and Canadian markets, while
NEXUS will carry 1.5 Bcf/d from northeastern Ohio to Detroit.
Breon says midstream companies are
keeping a close eye on Rover and NEXUS.
"We need those projects in service to get
additional production to markets," he calculates.
Breon also mentions Sunoco Logistics'
Mariner East II NGL pipeline project,
which will carry propane and butane for
Ohio processing plants to the Marcus
Hook terminal in Philadelphia, as "particularly important for producers to be
able to access international markets and
create new markets for the abundance of
gas liquids from fractionation facilities
in the Utica and Marcellus."
End-Use Markets
As significant as additional take-away
capacity is, OOGA President Jim Aslanides
reminds that developing local markets is
equally important. "Ohio has been diminishing as an industrial state," he remarks.
SEE UTICA PAGE 98

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American Oil and Gas Reporter - February 2017

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