On the Jewell Ridge Lateral

Nibbling at the edges of the energy business, as I do, it is interesting to learn about such things as the transportation systems for coal and gas. One developing story of interest to me is the construction of a new natural gas pipeline from the coalfields along the Tazewell/Buchanan County border and the interstate gas line and the gas storage facilities in Smyth County.

In East Tennessee Natural Gas, LLC v. 1.28 Acres, dealing with a series of condemnation cases, Magistrate Judge Sargent describes some of the background of the project:

"The Jewell Ridge Lateral, once constructed, will connect CNX Gas Company, LLC’s, ('CNX Gas'), existing Cardinal States Gathering System in Tazewell County to ETNG’s existing pipeline system in Smyth County. The Certificate also authorizes the installation of two 'taps,' which would allow the communities of Richlands and Cedar Bluff to access a supply of natural gas in the future. The capacity of the Jewell Ridge Lateral will be 235,000 Dths, ('dekatherms'), per day or 235 million cubic feet of natural gas per day. . . .

According to Clinton Montgomery 'Monty' Collins, ETNG’s Project Manager for the Jewell Ridge Lateral project, the Certificate the FERC granted requires that the pipeline be constructed and in service within one year from February 8, 2006, the date on which the Certificate was issued. Collins testified that the pipeline would be constructed in sequence starting with the northern end of the pipeline at Jewell Ridge and traveling south to Smyth County. Collins described the process as a 'moving assembly line.' According to Collins, the route of the pipeline takes it across the land of approximately 79 different landowners, including four major mountains, Paint Lick Mountain, Brushy Mountain, Walker Mountain and Clinch Mountain and seven waterbodies. . . .

Claude D. Morgan, Vice President of Operations for CNX Gas, testified that CNX Gas has signed a contract with ETNG to move natural gas from its Cardinal States Gathering System in Tazewell County through the Jewell Ridge Lateral to the existing ETNG pipeline in Smyth County. Morgan stated that CNX Gas currently uses the Columbia Transmission System, specifically the KA20 pipeline, to move its natural gas to market from this area. According to Morgan, the Jewell Ridge Lateral is needed because the Columbia Transmission System is limited in the amount of gas it can transport, especially during the summer months. The KA20 pipeline is an interstate pipeline that serves mainly eastern Virginia and has no storage facilities on the pipeline. Thus, Morgan testified, the pipeline’s capacity at any one time is limited to the demand for natural gas in the market area that it serves.

Morgan stated that CNX Gas’s Cardinal States gas field produces 165 dekatherms or 165 million cubic feet of natural gas a day. The current capacity on the KA20 pipeline during the summer months is 135 million cubic feet a day. Morgan stated that currently left CNX Gas with 30 million cubic feet of gas a day that it does not have the pipeline capacity to move during the summer months. He stated that the estimated daily loss of revenue to CNX Gas as a result of the inability to move this gas is $225,000.00 to $240,000.00 a day, with resulting lost severance tax revenues of approximately $6,000.00 a day. Morgan testified that during the summer months of 2005, CNX Gas lost the ability to market more that 1.1 billion cubic feet in natural gas from this gas field because it had no way to transport the gas to market. Some of this gas is coalbed methane, which is released as a byproduct of mining activity, and it cannot be shut in. Thus, if there is not enough capacity on the pipeline to move that gas on any given day, Morgan stated, it simply is released into the atmosphere and lost. One of the advantages of moving gas on the ETNG system would be that the ETNG system has storage capabilities, according to Morgan.

Morgan testified that, since Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast last fall, there had been a shortage of natural gas available for use. In fact, Morgan stated that, had the United States not experienced a mild winter this year, the country would have found itself in 'dire straits' due to the current shortage of natural gas. . . .

Burton Perry, Senior Manager of Mining and Coal Resources for Pocahontas Land Corporation, a subsidiary of Norfolk Southern, testified that his company owned the mineral rights to a number of coal seams running under the property identified in case no. 1:06cv00036, ('the Pocahontas Land case.') Perry testified that there were current permits allowing mining on this property and that White Wolf Energy, Inc., ('White Wolf'), intended to open an underground mine on this property soon. Vaughn Miller, Manager of Land for the International Coal Group, a company affiliated with White Wolf, also testified that White Wolf owns a lease on all the coal seams owned by Southern Region Industrial Realty, Inc., ('Southern'). Miller further testified that White Wolf intended to open a major underground mine on this property to mine the War Creek coal seam in the next two years.

Perry testified that the only way to prevent surface subsidence from underground mining of coal was to extract only 50 percent of the coal and to leave the other 50 percent in place. If that were required in the mining of the coal reserves located under the proposed route of the Jewell Ridge Lateral across this property, Perry stated it would require leaving in place approximately one-half million tons of marketable coal. Perry also testified that there were extensive old mine works in various coal seams under the property."

In the end, Magistrate Judge Sargent recommended in favor of granting immediate possession to East Tennessee.