Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Fri, Mar 1, 2013

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

New York

Cuomo’s Lost Credibility Triggers Seismic Shift Within Upstate Landowner Leadership
NY Shale Gas Now!/Andy Leahy
An announcement posted late last night by leaders of the top pro-drilling coalition of Upstate New York landowners represents a seismic shift that’s been a surprisingly slow, five years in the making. Here are the words that make it so…

Small Town USA embodies big time fracking issues in NY
Shale Gas Review
The Town of Sanford, N.Y., population 2,400, sits in the Delaware River watershed in the foothills of the western Catskill region. If you want to get a close up look at the moral and legal complexity of the shale gas debate, Sanford and neighboring towns…

New York fracking deadline to come and go
Ithaca Journal
High-volume fracking has been on hold since July 2008, when the state first launched an environmental review of the technique used to unlock gas from shale formations, such as the Marcellus Shale in the Southern Tier.

Keystone XL and New York Fracking Delays – ‘Mass Hysteria!’
Forbes.com
You really have to give the anti-development movement credit: It has been extremely effective in sowing indecision, uncertainty, and media-fed hype about some of the most benign, safe, and effectively-regulated industrial processes and projects this country has ever seen.

Pennsylvania

Range asking judge to recuse himself from Robinson suit
O-R Online
Range Resources is asking a Washington County judge to recuse himself from hearing a lawsuit involving the gas drilling company because the judge’s wife was involved in a group that attempted to ban drilling in Peters Township.

Company Continues to Move Forward with Johnstown Wastewater Treatment Project
ShaleEnergyLawBlog
WJAC-TV reports that Aspen Fluid Logistics plans to continue its development of a wastewater treatment pilot system in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, despite weather and permitting challenges.

Economic development booming in Washington County
O-R Online
Energy is frequently regarded as the main source of the county’s recent prosperity, thanks largely to development in Marcellus Shale. “Washington County has earned the moniker ‘The Energy Capital of the East,’” said chamber President Jeff Kotula.

High school team part of Penn State Marcellus Shale water monitoring research
Penn State News
A group of State College Area High School students is joining the ranks of scientists and volunteers who are monitoring waterways where natural gas drilling is taking place in an effort to track any changes in water quality.

Idea for Philadelphia LNG Export Terminal Floated at Council Hearing
StateImpact Pennsylvania
With low domestic natural gas prices, and a glut of gas supplies due in large part to Marcellus Shale production, the industry has been pushing the Department of Energy to approve new export terminals to sell their product at higher prices overseas.

Cautious optimism seen in Marcellus Shale industry
The Tribune-Democrat
The oil and gas industry should be applauded for developing the technology that makes it possible to extract natural gas that is trapped in the Marcellus Shale. However, as with most industrial procedures, there are unwelcomed outcomes…

Marcellus production drives Range
Businessweek
Staking out a lead position in Western Pennsylvania has led to record production for Range Resources Corp., which reported a profit of $53 million in the last three months of 2012.

Range’s Utica disappointment doesn’t faze execs
Business Journal
Having fathered the Marcellus, Range Resources Corp. is sitting back, letting other operators pioneer other shales, and peeking at their notes.

National

Wilmoth: Foreign partnerships benefit domestic energy companies
NewsOK.com
As oil and natural gas producers throughout the United States continue to perfect drilling techniques in shale and other tight rocks, government-owned oil companies from China and other parts of the world are buying larger stakes in the American plays to gain better knowledge or the process.

MarkWest Energy Partners, L.P. Management Discusses Q4 2012 Results
Seeking Alpha
We continue to build on our leading position in the Marcellus Shale by investing almost $2 billion on strategic growth projects. In addition, with our partner EMG, we have extended our footprint in the rapidly developing Utica Shale.

America’s cheap gas: Bonanza or bane
The Economist
The glut of natural gas has a less likely set of victims, too. Instead of banking handsome profits, many of the oil and gas firms that drill for shale gas are suffering from the boom.

Fracking: Drilling Past The Myths
RedState
It’s probably safe to say that most Americans are unaware of what the term “fracking” means.

Why America Should Export LNG
Motley Fool
There has been vocal opposition to American businesses’ plans to export liquefied natural gas, or LNG. No one has been louder than the Dow Chemical’s CEO Andrew Liveris.

Odd Couple: Will Dow Chemical and Ed Markey’s Opposition to Natural Gas Exports Cripple America’s Energy Advantage?
Forbes
Is Senate hopeful Rep. Ed Markey (D-Ma) abandoning key support for greenhouse gas reductions as political payback to Dow? Is he anti-shale gas regardless of its economic and environmental benefits?

Gas Boom Projected to Grow for Decades
Wall Street Journal
U.S. natural-gas production will accelerate over the next three decades, new research indicates, providing the strongest evidence yet that the energy boom remaking America will last for a generation.

China suspected in US natural gas pipeline cyberattack
Alaska Dispatch
Cyberspies linked to China’s military targeted nearly two dozen US natural gas pipeline operators over a recent six-month period, stealing information that could be used to sabotage US gas pipelines, according to a restricted US government report and a source familiar with the government investigation.