Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Wed, Jan 25, 2012

The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading:

Northwest Savings Bank launches shale website
Business Journal
Northwest Savings Bank has launched a new site to help navigate the Marcellus and Utica shale plays, the Warren-based company said Tuesday.

3 Industries Thriving From Record-Low Natural Gas Prices
Seeking Alpha
Since hitting a high of $15.37 in December 2005, the price of natural gas has plunged to its lowest level in over a decade to $2.30. That’s an 85% drop.

Shale Gas Boom Pushes U.S. Coal Overseas
Bloomberg
Daiichi Chuo Kisen Kaisha , a Tokyo- based shipping line, is targeting a boom in coal exports from the U.S. as the development of shale gas reserves in the world’s biggest economy frees up the fuel for sales overseas.

Cabot Production Growth Seen Cut as Gas Hits 10-Year-Low: Energy
The Washington Post
Cabot Oil & Gas Corp., the best performer in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index last year, may curtail drilling to cope with natural-gas prices that slumped to a 10-year low because of a supply glut it helped create.

Letter: ‘Home rule’ makes no sense for drilling
Ithaca Journal
State Sen. Jim Seward is sponsoring a "home rule" bill that allows municipalities to ban energy development within their boundaries. While "home rule" carries emotional overtones of a redcoats- versus-patriots confrontation, it isn’t quite like that.

Don’t Frack Me Up: Correcting Misinformation On Hydraulic Fracturing
Forbes.com
To many walking the planet, fracking has a seriously bad reputation. Thanks to hyperbole and misinformation, fracking opponents have convinced a lot of people that the operators who drill and then hydraulically fracture underground rock layers thumb their noses at and even hate the environment.

Kanawha County Company’s Cracker Plans
West Virginia Metro
The CEO of Aither Chemicals says, once his company has the money it needs from investors, construction will begin on a planned ethane cracker plant in West Virginia.

Chesapeake to triple Ohio rigs by 2014
Business Journal
The Oklahoma-based company currently operates eight rigs in Ohio, the newspaper reports, but a spokesman said Chesapeake plans to have 20 rigs operational at the end of 2012 and 30 rigs running by 2014.