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Great week for pipelining.
1.) Energy Transfer has been ordered to shut down Dakota Access Pipeline, due to COE having issued permits for the water crossings without proper review in 2017. IMO it's a problem of Energy Transfer's own creation for insisting on that problamatic route. They had alternatives, but refused to consider them, because ... it would increase cost. Now that has come back to haunt them like Sitting Bulls ghost. Talk about costs, no more revenue from transporting 600,000 BBLS/Day for awhile and I imagine that their clients are thinking of other methods of transportation and will most likely to hold Energy Txf responsible for those charges for default on their transportation contracts.
2.) Atlantic Coast Pipeline STOPPED ... again, this time ... by ITS OWN PROPONENTS!
"The developers of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline are giving up, saying on Sunday that the pending lawsuits and the rising costs are making it impossible to proceed. Dominion Energy and Duke Energy DUK pointed to a decision by a Montana federal judge that required pipeline operators to get multiple permits to cross streams instead of a single authorization that would have cut costs and limited delays. The decision is a surprise because the two companies had won a major U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June. In a 7-t0-2 decision, the justices said that they could proceed with a small portion of the line."
IMO And after all that court fighting? The propoents in other articles have also cited a changing legal picture, which after their apparent recent success in the courts, is indeed surprising. Perhaps it is code for their expectation of unfavorale political winds after November? Nothing else makes much sense, except maybe a corporate business sense error made some time ago that finally sunk their boat. A third reason just occured to me. Is it as the project's opponents have always said, that the pipeline really wasn't needed after all. One way or another, it appears that Dominion/Duke have come to agree. A shame that the only ones that made any money on this project were their lawyers, but at least this time they appeared to have done a really good job at it, so what the heck.
3.) Endbridge has been ordered to shut down Line 5 under the Mackinac Straights after a "shifting of supports" occurred on June 18th. It has been shutdown since June 25. Enbridge stated that they had PHMSA approval to restart, however they did not produce any kind evidence of any communication or any such approval by PHSA in court. IMO, it does seem doubtful that a week was enough time to have a good look at the situation, study it carefully and discuss it with PHMSA at any level of depth to justify a restart. They might have PHMSA approval, but the judge certainly didn't believe it.
EDIT
Just saw this one,
July 07, 2020
4.) Canadian company TC Energy needs the permit to continue building the long-disputed pipeline across U.S. rivers and streams. Without it, the project that has been heavily promoted by President Donald Trump faces more delay just as work on it had finally begun this year following years of courtroom battles. The U.S. Supreme Court has handed another blow to the disputed Keystone XL pipeline from Canada by keeping in place a lower court ruling that blocked a key permit for the project. However, the order Monday, July 6, 2020, also put on hold the lower court ruling as it pertains to [the blocking of] other oil and gas pipelines across the nation.
IMO Pipeline companies need to realize that permit procedures are being demanded by the courts, if not American public, and they cannot be short circuited without severely increasing the risk of never completing these projects. Fighting permit requirements is the lawyer's solution to making their paychecks and nobody else's. Did you forget that your shareholders do not make any money paying lawyer's fees, cancelation clauses, or on revenue streams that never materialize, all of which will ultimately only increase costs to rate payers. It is way past the time roll up your sleeves and attend to the business at hand. Do the proper designs, partner with the stakeholders instead of antagonizing them, or avoid them entirely, get the permits and build your pipelines. No more excuses.
“What I told you was true ... from a certain point of view.” - Obi-Wan Kenobi, "Return of the Jedi"
1.) Energy Transfer has been ordered to shut down Dakota Access Pipeline, due to COE having issued permits for the water crossings without proper review in 2017. IMO it's a problem of Energy Transfer's own creation for insisting on that problamatic route. They had alternatives, but refused to consider them, because ... it would increase cost. Now that has come back to haunt them like Sitting Bulls ghost. Talk about costs, no more revenue from transporting 600,000 BBLS/Day for awhile and I imagine that their clients are thinking of other methods of transportation and will most likely to hold Energy Txf responsible for those charges for default on their transportation contracts.
2.) Atlantic Coast Pipeline STOPPED ... again, this time ... by ITS OWN PROPONENTS!
"The developers of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline are giving up, saying on Sunday that the pending lawsuits and the rising costs are making it impossible to proceed. Dominion Energy and Duke Energy DUK pointed to a decision by a Montana federal judge that required pipeline operators to get multiple permits to cross streams instead of a single authorization that would have cut costs and limited delays. The decision is a surprise because the two companies had won a major U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June. In a 7-t0-2 decision, the justices said that they could proceed with a small portion of the line."
IMO And after all that court fighting? The propoents in other articles have also cited a changing legal picture, which after their apparent recent success in the courts, is indeed surprising. Perhaps it is code for their expectation of unfavorale political winds after November? Nothing else makes much sense, except maybe a corporate business sense error made some time ago that finally sunk their boat. A third reason just occured to me. Is it as the project's opponents have always said, that the pipeline really wasn't needed after all. One way or another, it appears that Dominion/Duke have come to agree. A shame that the only ones that made any money on this project were their lawyers, but at least this time they appeared to have done a really good job at it, so what the heck.
3.) Endbridge has been ordered to shut down Line 5 under the Mackinac Straights after a "shifting of supports" occurred on June 18th. It has been shutdown since June 25. Enbridge stated that they had PHMSA approval to restart, however they did not produce any kind evidence of any communication or any such approval by PHSA in court. IMO, it does seem doubtful that a week was enough time to have a good look at the situation, study it carefully and discuss it with PHMSA at any level of depth to justify a restart. They might have PHMSA approval, but the judge certainly didn't believe it.
EDIT
Just saw this one,
July 07, 2020
4.) Canadian company TC Energy needs the permit to continue building the long-disputed pipeline across U.S. rivers and streams. Without it, the project that has been heavily promoted by President Donald Trump faces more delay just as work on it had finally begun this year following years of courtroom battles. The U.S. Supreme Court has handed another blow to the disputed Keystone XL pipeline from Canada by keeping in place a lower court ruling that blocked a key permit for the project. However, the order Monday, July 6, 2020, also put on hold the lower court ruling as it pertains to [the blocking of] other oil and gas pipelines across the nation.
IMO Pipeline companies need to realize that permit procedures are being demanded by the courts, if not American public, and they cannot be short circuited without severely increasing the risk of never completing these projects. Fighting permit requirements is the lawyer's solution to making their paychecks and nobody else's. Did you forget that your shareholders do not make any money paying lawyer's fees, cancelation clauses, or on revenue streams that never materialize, all of which will ultimately only increase costs to rate payers. It is way past the time roll up your sleeves and attend to the business at hand. Do the proper designs, partner with the stakeholders instead of antagonizing them, or avoid them entirely, get the permits and build your pipelines. No more excuses.
“What I told you was true ... from a certain point of view.” - Obi-Wan Kenobi, "Return of the Jedi"
