Category Archives: Pipelines

The Atlantic Coast Pipeline, and the Fallout

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By now everyone knows that the Atlantic Coast Pipeline is dead.

Not everyone knows that there are still issues around the pipeline, ranging from those at the corporate level that none of us will ever likely find out about, to cleanup and remediation of land where excavation was done.

Looming larger than every other issue is the question of who owns the land now that the ACP is gone? It seems like an easy question to answer at first glance. Since the company is gone and won’t be using the land, the landowner should get it back.

It’s not that simple from a legal perspective, though.

You see, all of the paperwork that the Atlantic Coast Pipeline had landowners sign was permanent. The paperwork wasn’t titled “Deed for Real Estate”, but it might as well have been. All the rights that people gave to the pipeline were given forever. The ACP still owns the rights to the land it bought.

When the Atlantic Coast Pipeline quit trying to build a pipeline it didn’t just evaporate away into the ether. The company is still around. Even if something happened to the company, such as bankruptcy or even legal dissolution, it can and will sell the land it owns to another company. Those agreements are valuable and permanent.

Is there anything that a landowner can do?

Well, the Atlantic Coast Pipeline seems to be doing the right thing in respect to landowners and making it so that that land reverts back to them. The company is reaching out to landowners to get them to sign paperwork that gives the ACP time to do remediation work on their land and in exchange they are saying that the property rights will be given back to the landowner. That won’t happen for a number of years yet, but at least it looks like there’s a chance.

I sincerely hope it happens.

It’s not outside the realm of possibility that the Atlantic Coast Pipeline could be revived, though. Some company could come along and buy the paperwork from ACP and start the construction and permitting process back up under a different name. It would be a long, hard project, bit it could happen.

So don’t get your hopes up until the deed is done.

I’m going to toot my own horn now. All of the people who came to me for help with the Atlantic Coast Pipeline were able to negotiate for a clause that said that when the pipeline was no longer in use, the pipeline right of way would revert back to the surface owner who could then remove the pipe if they wanted to. They also got specific language saying that the right of way could only be used for pipeline purposes. No converting it over to some other use, such as a power line right of way.

My clients don’t have to worry about whether they can use their property, or who is going to own it in the future. They know that once the right of way is no longer part of the pipeline, it’s theirs, outright.

The moral to this story is to go find a lawyer who knows the issues you’re facing. When you need an oil and gas attorney, a personal injury attorney just won’t do.

Atlantic Coast Pipeline Putting West Virginians in Danger?

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We’ve been supporters of building pipelines. There’s a ton of gas here in West Virginia, the gas is needed in other places, and pipelines are the safest way to transport natural gas. Sure, building power plants here and transporting electricity would be safer, but few people with the connections necessary to do that seem to be doing that. Pipeline companies have been the option. So we’ve supported that.

Of course, we’ve been negotiating great pipeline deals for the people of West Virginia. We’ve gotten much better prices and some really good terms that protect our clients from long-term use and abuse by the companies. We did so believing that the companies would do their best to install the pipelines in a safe way.

Turns out, that was not a safe assumption. Last week I got a call from a local source telling me that the Atlantic Coast Pipeline had been backfilling the trench with rocks. It’s a person that I have no reason to distrust, but it was news that was hard to believe because of the blatant disregard for safety that it displays. I’ve done some construction in my time and backfilling any pipeline trench with rocks is a no-no. Ask any plumber, landscaper, or developer if you don’t believe it.

Now today there’s news that the PHMSA (Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration) has cited the ACP for placing the pipeline in a rock-laden ditch, for abutting the pipeline with rock-laden trench walls, and for building a trench that was too narrow for easy access for inspection and work.

The problem with rocks in backfill (or too close to the pipe as part of the trench wall) is that the rocks will scratch the outer protective lining of the pipe creating a location where corrosion will begin much sooner than anticipated. Corrosion is the main culprit in pipeline failures, except for construction guys digging into the pipeline.

This kind of construction is awful. It puts people in danger. When ACP or MVP start construction on your property we highly recommend that you get time-lapse photography of the entire process and watch it. If it looks like they’ve dropped rocks in the trench send the footage to PHMSA and FERC. Post it to YouTube. Make sure that it’s documented so that you can force them to properly install the pipeline.

Pipeline Explosion in PA

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There was another catastrophic pipeline explosion, this one in Beaver County, Pennsylvania.  It happened early this morning, and the company is saying that “earth movement” caused the rupture that lead to the explosion.

The pipeline was 24 inches in diameter, and the resulting fire destroyed one house and melted vinyl siding on other houses within 100-200 yards of the fire.  It also melted a metal tower for a high tension power line, causing it to collapse and pull down other nearby towers.

The most interesting thing about this is that this pipeline was put into service just eight days ago, on September 3, 2018.  It really makes you wonder about the quality control practices of these pipeline companies.  I know the workers wouldn’t purposefully install a pipeline wrong, but people make mistakes and some of these crews just aren’t experienced with building in mountainous terrain.

Pipeline Fire in Kansas

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On June 15, 2018 a pipeline in Kansas exploded.  Kansas being flat and mostly fields makes it easier to get good photos of the fire.  Here in West Virginia we can see what is visible above the trees, sometimes only from a ridge or two back from the actual location.  This pipeline exploded in a rural area, so there are no injuries.  We haven’t been able to find any information about the size of the pipeline or how long it’s been in operation.

Leach Xpress Pipeline Explodes

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The Leach Xpress Pipeline is 18 months old.  It’s 36 inches in diameter, runs for 160 miles, and pushes 1.5 BCF of gas at 1440 pounds per square inch of pressure.

It just exploded.

911 Emergency services received 37 calls within three minutes of 4:20 am.  The fire burned until about 6:00 am, or 8:30 am, depending on which news report you find.

The burned area is about 10 acres.

This pipeline is pretty similar to the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and the Mountain Valley Pipeline.  It’s smaller, at 36 inches instead of 42 inches, and shorter at 160 miles instead of 303 miles for the MVP and 600 miles for the ACP.  But they will both push the same amount of gas at the same pressure, and they will both run over more mountainous terrain.

This does not make me feel more comfortable to be living within 1000 feet of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline right of way.

Thankfully, this happened in a spot where there were no houses so no one was injured.

Pipeline Tree-sitter being Starved Out

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There are two people sitting in trees which are in the right of way that the Mountain Valley Pipeline has bought.  They’ve been there for a few weeks, and people have been bringing them food and water.  The county is no longer allowing people to do that.  It probably won’t be long before they run out of water.

Quite a few Virginia State legislators are protesting the county’s decision to cut off the tree-sitters’ supplies.  It will be interesting to see where this story goes.

Atlantic Coast Pipeline: Cutting Trees and Legal Action

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The Atlantic Coast Pipeline will begin cutting trees on property where it has already obtained permission from the property owner.  We still have a couple of clients who have not granted them permission, but I live in plain sight of the right of way, so I’ll personally be keeping an eye on how things develop.

One of our holdout clients has received a final offer letter from the ACP, warning that the next step will be to get their attorneys involved.

Not everyone with property affected by the pipeline will be receiving final offer letters.  The pipeline is being developed in stages, and the offer letters will go out over the course of months as the stages progress.

If you’re one of the people receiving offer letters from the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, it’s not too late to work out a favorable agreement.  Most holdouts at this point are holdouts because they just don’t want the pipeline coming across them.  Unfortunately, there’s nothing that can be done about that now, thanks to the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the eminent domain clause of the U.S. Constitution.  The best you can hope for is getting more money, better terms, and better tax treatment.  If you still want some advice about negotiating these things, give us a call.

FERC Still Not Happy with Rover Pipeline

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The Rover Pipeline would like to start horizontal directional drilling again, but the FERC isn’t allowing it.

In a letter to Rover, FERC listed several things it’s expecting Rover to do, including figure out where the diesel fuel came from in what was supposed to be only bentonite drilling mud and let its supervisors and workers talk with FERC about the incidents.

While we at Nuttall Legal sure hope that this will educate the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and the Mountain Valley Pipeline on how to go about things, we don’t expect it.  These companies only want to get pipe in the ground as fast as possible.  If cutting a few “unimportant” corners will get pipe in the ground faster, the corners will get cut.

When construction on the pipelines begins, don’t expect it to all go smoothly.

 

Drilling in West Virginia is Likely to Pick Up

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Somebody who’s a lot better with a calculator than we are did some number crunching and came up with a truly astounding result.

The new pipelines being built in the area will require 45 new drilling rigs to fill them to capacity.  We’re currently running at about 50.

Historically, the Marcellus/Utica play has hosted around 130 rigs or so at any given time, with the highest numbers being between 2010 and 2014.  Since 2014, of course, rig counts have been dropping like mad.

Since it’s becoming hard to find frack crews, it seems like it may be a little difficult to find enough drilling rig crews.  Frack crews and drilling rig crews went through the same downturn, got fired, and went a long time waiting for the call to come back to work.  A lot of them have gone to find more reliable work in other industries.

However, for West Virginia mineral and royalty owners, the important thing to think about is how this is going to affect leasing.  It seems that in the next few months there is probably going to be an increase in leasing which is going to continue for a couple years.  When that happens, prices typically go up and the terms that you can request get much better.

It looks like boom times may be coming again.

Of course, this is us looking through a crystal ball.  Don’t go betting the farm on the accuracy of this prediction.  All kinds of things affect leasing activity, from local geology to international geopolitics.  We sure like the way things look right now, though.

Pipeline Pigs: The Alyeska Pipeline

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The Alyeska Pipeline, otherwise known as the trans-Alaska pipeline, the one that runs from Alaska’s North Slope to Valdez, Alaska, has something fascinating happening.

There will be four robots crawling through parts of the pipeline this summer, inspecting those parts for corrosion.

This kind of inspection work is usually done by “pigs”.  Pigs are basically a plug which has sensors attached to it that is pushed through the pipeline.

These are not exactly pigs.  They will move under their own power, and be able to back up and go over parts of the pipe if needed.  They are specifically designed to go places that a pig can’t go.  That’s exactly what they will be doing on the Alyesaka Pipeline.

It’s important to inspect pipelines because pipelines corrode over time.  There are anti-corrosion devices attached to the pipelines, but they slow down corrosion, they don’t stop it.  The parts of the Alyeska Pipeline that are being inspected haven’t been inspected since it was built — forty years ago!  We’ll be keeping an eye on the results.

This kind of technology could be used on the pipelines that are being built here in West Virginia.  Hopefully they won’t have to wait forty years between inspections.