WASHINGTON, Pa.—A strong pipeline of information flowed as the Appalachian Basin GPA Midstream Association (ABGPA) welcomed nearly 200 attendees and vendors to its 2nd Annual Appalachian Regional Conference.

Wood Pipeline Services’ Gary Phillips, who serves as chapter president of the five-year-old ABGPA, has said that "this conference is very important because it helps to reinforce our mission of supporting, connecting, and educating the Appalachian Basin’s midstream industry, as well as raise funds for our scholarship program, which is in its third year."

The opening speaker panel, moderated by Timothy Bittle, manager of state government affairs for Marathon Petroleum Corp., included three Appalachian-based association presidents—Dan Weaver, PIOGA; Charlie Burd, IOGAWV; and Matt Hammond, OOGA. The trio representing Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, discussed the challenges and opportunities facing oil and gas development in the tri-state region.

One of the biggest legislative challenges discussed was the controversial "severance tax," imposed on the removal of natural resources when extracted from oil, natural gas and coal. In Pennsylvania, Governor Tom Wolf is lobbying for the severance tax to be utilized to increase the salaries and benefits for Pennsylvania educators as well as to aid with the state's deficit. However, energy companies are already being taxed with the impact fees. According to PA PUC, “since 2012, revenues from Pennsylvania natural gas impact fees have generated nearly $1.5 billion directly benefitting all 67 counties." Dan Weaver, President of PIOGA said that "PA has a deficit of $2 billion and energy companies are becoming big targets."

Later in the conference, Greg Kozera of Shale Cresent USA introduced his reasoning behind why Ohio is a perfect hub for a new petrochemical plant. Through mapping slides of the Appalachian region, he pointed out that Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia are key players in the shale industry and referred to their geographic placement as a cresent shape.

According to Kozera, there are three major changes that have occurred in the natural gas industry that back up his research of Ohio as a profitable location for producing petrochemicals.

The first major change is record high production of U.S. natural gas followed by a second major change which is growth. The Appalachian region has surpassed Texas in natural gas production for billions of cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) Kozera said. He showed his findings that in December 2017, the cresent area produced 831 Bcf/d whereas Texas produced 703 Bcf/d of natural gas.

The third change is that the shale crescent area is now the most profitable location in the world to build a new petrochemical plant. This specific location is a "win, win" because the location is close to specific markets and strong logistics for transportation. Kozera put it..."if we had to go head to head with the world...we would win."

The most dynamic slide that he showed was how much of an economic advantage for a petrochemical plant in the area. Kozera specifically indicated that "The shale crescent USA has a pre-tax cash flow advantage of $3.6 billion for a nearly $3 billion investment in an ethylene/polyethylene plant."

Two technical workshops that had attendees aroused were the "PRCC USDOT MARAD Research Demonstration Emissions Reduction Diesel Towboat to Natural Gas Conversion Project" presented by Dr. Luticia Clipper of Clipper Enterprises and David Marks from Dominion Energy who presented "Gas-to-Liquids, Advanced Proven Technology."

Clipper explained the "step by step" process of her project, progression to mentoring service personnel after the conversion of the towboat to NG. She stood strong in her conviction that CNG is a clean energy and a powerful octane rating of -130, mostly methane and only one carbon and also reduces particulate matter by 95%. She highlighted that Peoples Natural Gas conducted a concept study in 2012 to take the Pioneer tugboat and investigate a natural gas engine availability and adaption. The study concluded that "LNG is the only form of natural gas storage that makes sense for towboats."

She highlighted several partnerships for the retrofit of the tugboat which included Pittsburgh Region of Clean Cities, ORING and InsightFuel. The First Inland Waterways Project is funded by U.S. DOT Maritime Administration which will include a "two year project of a retrofit of a towboat, LNG fueled, and will provide collection of performance and exhaust emissions information." Clipper outlined that "two of the major goals will include to demonstrate operation of natural gas fueled engines on an inland waterway towboat and river side fueling (bunkering)."

David Marks has been very busy making his rounds as the spokesperson for Dominion Energy. With its latest Cove Point project, he has been frequently updating current stats on international exporting of LNG. However, Marks put the Cove Point project discussion on the shelf while he focused his speech on GTL (gas-to-liquids).

His dialog started with GTL was developed in Germany in 1925 and there are many GTL specialty products that are made from carbon. His international section included that "more than 35% of South Africa's diesel and 40% of Brazil's diesel is currently produced through the GTL process."

Marks applauded the advantages of GTL for the Appalachian region because of varied transportation markets (i.e. rail and barge), pipeline infrastructures, and excellent natural gas production.

ABGPA members listened closely as he described "potential product mix options of a modular plant offtake." According to Dave Marks, "with global sulfur mandates by the IMO (International Maritime Organization), GTL fuel which is zero-sulfur is now in high demand by distributors for blending."

Marks concluded his talk with key points to ponder on GTL plants, the Appalachian region can profit by supplying "zero-sulfur diesel" and GTL Modular Plants win over traditional plants because of low operational costs and capital for "a 250 bpd modular plant can cost less than $95 million versus a traditional plant that can exceed $1 billion."

The conference ended with a panel of shale play stakeholder experts who have been around the shale block more than once. Brittany Ramos of Orion Strategies moderated the panel which included George Stark, Cabot Oil and Gas; Rob Boulware, Seneca Resources; and Mike Atchie,Williams. The discussion revolved around "sharing good stories and why our voices are so important."

Stark passionately expressed his mission to educate high school students and urged the attendees to please share their energy stories with others. He is a strong believer of "hands on" opportunities for students to investigate different types of equipment within the energy industry for authentic learning experiences. Cabot Oil and Gas has a strong partnership with Lackawanna College to provide educational guidance to their petroleum and natural gas students.

Boulware focused on advocacy for communities and individuals. He put a bright perspective on putting himself in the shoes of a community member. Boulware shared that in order to change assumptions you have to provide more educational tools for understanding.

He stressed the importance of each and every voice of the community and when you go county level...you sometimes lose the local voices. For big issues a public meeting is called but one-on-one voices are just as important.

Atchie explained Williams’ STEM initiative and working with communities through community giving programs.