Rover Gets Relief for Delayed HDDs - Positive News for NEXUS
Earlier today, FERC granted Energy Transfer Partners' (ETP) Rover Pipeline some relief regarding use of a tool that was slowing Rover's horizontal directional drilling (HDD). Rover resumed drilling its HDDs soon after FERC approved Rover's first revised plans on September 18. However, one condition contained in many of the HDD plans required use of a tool for monitoring the pressure in the drill hole. On Monday, Rover updated FERC on the use of this tool and requested that FERC no longer require its use. According to Rover's request, the use of the tool had resulted in 18.2% to 74.5% downtime per week per HDD.
Today, FERC approved discontinuing use of the tool as requested by Rover. While this may reduce the time needed for Rover's drills, it isn't clear that it will allow Rover to maintain its projected in-service date. This decision is also likely positive news for Enbridge's NEXUS pipeline project, because an environmental condition in the NEXUS certificate also required use of this same tool for its HDDs. We expect NEXUS to ask FERC Staff for relief from that condition in a manner consistent with Rover.
The revision to this environmental condition is good news for Rover because its most recent HDD report indicated that, as of October 21, the Captina Creek HDD, which must be completed to put Phase 1B into service, was running 32% behind schedule. Rover had said Phase 1B would be in service 40 days after it got permission to begin the Captina Creek HDD, or October 28. Each HDD requires the completion of a pilot hole, which sets the path for the drill, and then multiple additional drilling passes, called reams, that make the hole large enough to allow the pipeline to be pulled through the drill path. Given the size of the Rover pipeline, each HDD will likely include at least 3 such passes following the pilot hole. The Rover HDD reports indicate that Captina Creek's first pass was scheduled to be completed in 4 days, but actually took 12 days, and there is no indication that the HDD was completed within the projected 40-day timeframe.
The construction of the Rover pipeline is dependent on the completion of 27 HDDs, 13 of which have been initiated. However, as of Rover's most recent report, through October 21, none of those drills are complete. In addition, 14 of the drills had not even been started as of October 21. While FERC's decision to no longer require the use of the tool should improve the speed with which the drills can be completed, it remains unlikely that Rover will be able to complete all of the remaining drills by early December, the date given on ETP's most recent quarterly earnings call for the in-service date for the entire project.
Status of Rover HDD Sites
