Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Fri, May 24, 2013

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

New York

Landowner Supports Natural Gas Lawsuit Against N.Y. with Bumper Stickers
Energy in Depth – Marcellus
One landowner has decided to take his support the Joint Landowners Coalition of New York (JLCNY), and especially its lawsuit against the State of New York, to the next level. Vic Furman, a guest blogger here, has created bumper stickers he is looking to sell in support of natural gas development, and he plans to donate proceeds to the JLCNY lawsuit against New York State.

Ohio

Ohio Gas Wells Produced Nearly 26.7 Million Gallons of Oil in 2012 (with video)
Ohio Gas & Oil
Eighty-seven wells extending horizontally into eastern Ohio’s underground shale formations produced nearly 26.7 million gallons of oil — nearly 636,000 barrels — and 12.8 billion cubic feet of natural gas last year, according to a report released by state officials May 16. The new production numbers are in line with earlier estimates of the potential impact of horizontal hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, into the state’s Utica shale formation and marked increases of 93 percent and 80 percent for oil and gas, respectively, from volumes reported in 2011.

2012 Utica shale production results: Infrastructure in progress; ‘best is yet come’
Farm and Dairy
As the Ohio Department of Natural Resources released its annual report of well production results May 16, many are getting the feeling that Ohio needs to be patient and build the infrastructure in order to see the true production results of some wells. There have been 660 horizontal permits issued by the ODNR for drilling the Utica shale since the boom began. As of May 11, 334 wells remained in the permitting stage, which means they haven’t been drilled, and 239 wells were listed as having been drilled but are not in production.

Big rigs and small buggies on the back roads
WKSU Public Radio
Amish buggies try to make their way amid heavy gear and heavier trucks in the oil and gas fields. The clippety-clop of Amish buggies is a common sound of spring in eastern Ohio. But now the green hills are rumbling with other conveyances: massive trucks—and often they are on the same narrow farm-country tracks as the buggies.

West Virginia

Natural gas chopper (photo)
Charleston Gazette
Jon Bolton (center) shows Todd Elston and Sadie Richardson, both of Denver, the Chesapeake CNG Chopper — the world’s first natural gas-powered chopper. Orange County Choppers built it in 2009 for Chesapeake Energy. The motorcycle and numerous other vehicles are on display at the Charleston Civic Center as part of the 2013 Appalachian Basin Natural Gas Vehicle Expo and Conference.

National

New Chesapeake CEO Lawler’s 2013 pay set at $12.6 mln
Reuters
Doug Lawler, the Anadarko Petroleum Corp executive who was named as Chesapeake Energy Corp’s new chief executive officer, will receive salary, bonus and equity awards valued at $12.6 million this year, according to a regulatory filing. Lawler, 46, is also due a signing bonus worth $14.5 million.

U.S. Racing Against Shale Gas Clock
Oilprice
MIT physicist Ernest Moniz became the new energy secretary this week after sailing through the nomination process relatively unscathed. His appointment comes at a time when U.S. energy production is creating ripple effects across the globe, threatening the position of gas leader Russia and oil giant Saudi Arabia alike. A study commissioned last year by the U.S. Energy Department found, regardless of the market scenario, exporting LNG would lead to economic gain. In what’s becoming a rare instance of bipartisan support, Senate leaders this week said they wanted to ensure the right policies were in place for more exports of LNG.

Coal Surges Back To 40% Generation Market Share & Gas Slumps To 25% In First Quarter
John Hanger’s Facts of The Day
Coal-fired generation recovered strongly in the first quarter of 2013, when it provided 40% of America’s power generation. Coal’s gain came at the expense of natural gas that saw its market share drop from 30% for all of 2012 to 25% in the first quarter of 2013. //www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=11391. If natural gas prices move this year to $5 per thousand cubic feet, as some predict, coal’s recovery will gain more steam in the months ahead.

I Can See (Them) for Miles and Miles and Miles – The Tank Cars are Coming
RBN Energy
Crude-by-rail has had a huge impact on the market for tank cars. Currently there are 53,000 tank cars on back order and more orders are coming in. That’s up from a backlog of 48,000 just a couple of months ago. The tank car manufactures are enjoying every bit of it but for the first time since the ethanol boom, they can’t keep up. In the old days it took 9 months to deliver a new car. Now, there is such a backlog that manufacturers can’t deliver a new car for 24 – 30 months.

Gas storage inventories increase 89 Bcf, surpass 2 Tcf
Gas Business Briefing (paid or free trial access required)
An 89-Bcf storage injection reported by the Energy Information Administration on Thursday shrank the deficits when compared to last year and the five-year average, though the market reacted bullishly because the build was smaller than expected. Stocks now stand at 2.053 Tcf for the week ending May 17, EIA said in its weekly report.

Natural Gas: The Fastest Growing Transportation Fuel In The U.S.
Seeking Alpha
According to the U.S. Energy Information Agency’s (“EIA”) Annual Energy Outlook 2013, natural gas is the fastest growing transportation fuel in the U.S. The EIA predicts an average annual growth rate of 11.9 percent from 2011 to 2040. Heavy duty vehicles (“HDVs”), which include long-haul trucks, tractor trailers, buses, and heavy-duty pickups and vans with a gross vehicle weight rating of 10,001 pounds or more will lead the growth in natural gas demand.

International

EU fears being left behind with global shale oil and gas revolution but also fears hydrofracking and nuclear energy
Nextbigfuture Blog
EU leaders, desperate to give economic growth a boost, are talking about targeting energy policy. They are concerned a US-led revolution in shale oil and gas development will reshape the global economy and leave Europe far behind. Motivated by a rapid-fire increase in natural gas production in the United States, business leaders and some politicians in Germany say they need to act quickly to prevent the country’s industrial core from departing for places where energy costs just a fraction of the price. They worry that the country’s ambitious environmental goals are far less meaningful if the economy withers in achieving them. The U.S. price for natural gas in 2012 was just a quarter that of Europe’s, a gap that has opened in just a few years.

German brewers worry fracking will compromise beer quality
CBC Radio-Canada
German brewers are worried that fracking, the process of extracting natural gas from underground shale deposits, will jeopardize the quality of their beer by contaminating the water supply and have asked their government to hold off on passing the fracking regulations it has been drafting for months.

South African Shale Gas Hits Rough Patch
Energy Tribune
While in April 2011 South Africa’s Department of Mineral Resources instituted an interim moratorium on hydraulic fracturing, it was lifted shortly thereafter, opening “fracking” to nationwide debate over the practice’s utility. Now, Johannesburg’s Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa has entered the debate, and its conclusions will not make for happy reading for the country’s energy concerns.