Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Fri, Jun 21, 2013

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

New York

Monroe County Democrats seek ban on fracking
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
Democrats in the Monroe County Legislature want to institute a ban on fracking on county land. In May, the state appellate division upheld local bans on fracking, a controversial method of extracting natural gas. Brighton, Rush, Perinton, Mendon, Penfield and Rochester have such bans. In addition, 13 counties have bans on fracking on county land, similar to what local Democrats are proposing. County land would include the wastewater treatment plant and the landfill.

Empire Energy Doings – Women Speak Up for Jobs
Natural Gas Now
The Empire Energy Forum came to Binghamton again last week to continue to educate the public about natural gas development. Attendees filled the room in the Holiday Inn and listened to a group of speakers discuss their professional opinions about natural gas development and what it would mean for New York State and, more specifically, the Southern Tier.

Ohio

Labor group, county at odds over wages paid in road use agreements
Marietta Times
A state labor group has expressed concern that Washington County officials are not including prevailing wage measures in road-use agreements with oil and gas companies, but local officials say they are following the opinion of the Ohio Supreme Court. As more oil and gas companies move into eastern and southeastern Ohio to drill for fossil fuels trapped in the Marcellus Shale, concerns continue to be raised about maintaining county and township roads as the heavy equipment moves over them, potentially causing damage.

Kalmbach Feeds plans Ohio’s first rural CNG refueling station
Akron Beacon Journal
Kalmbach Feeds, Inc., has contracted with TruStar Energy to build a public Compressed Natural Gas [CNG] fast-fill station near its Wyandot County manufacturing plants and distribution center. Kalmbach Feeds is a leading innovator in the animal feed industry, producing and distributing nutritional products throughout the eastern half of the United States. The station is part of a new venture, Kalmbach Clean Fuels, LLC, and will support Kalmbach’s new CNG-powered feed distribution trucks. Strategically located near the intersection of US 30 and US 23, the new station will allow other CNG fleets and individual vehicle owners to take advantage of the benefits of the clean-burning, domestically produced fuel.

Bricker & Eckler attorneys develop a chart of key considerations for landowners negotiating a right of way agreement
ShaleOhio
It’s no secret that the evolution of Ohio’s shale boom is moving beyond the rush to lease oil and gas mineral rights and into the midstream and downstream phases that involve the storage, transportation and processing of oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids. As part of this phase of development, the negotiation of pipeline easements and pipeline right of ways are taking center stage. Chris Montgomery and Matt Warnock, oil and gas attorneys at Bricker & Eckler LLP, recently developed a chart highlighting key issues that landowners should consider when negotiating a pipeline right of way agreement. These negotiations can be complicated, and must be carefully crafted to include important landowner protections and reasonable financial terms. For more information, read the chart and this recent bulletin from Bricker & Eckler’s Shale Task Force.

Gulf Interstate wins midstream contracts
Upstream
Project management specialist Gulf Interstate Engineering has won a pair of new contracts for midstream projects in Ohio and Texas. Gulf will provide engineering and design work for Houston-based Marathon Petroleum’s condensate gathering pipeline project in the Utica shale play. Gulf said it is developing the conceptual engineering design for the 40-to-45 mile condensate trunkline system and the associated metre stations and pump stations in Ohio.

Pipelines are beginning to line Ohio’s landscape
Farm and Dairy
Pipelines, pipelines, pipelines. Go almost to any public event or place in eastern Ohio and you can hear the whispers about who is getting a pipeline placed through their property or where plans call for pipelines in the future.
Shale gas production and exploration has surged in the last few years, as energy companies drill wells in the Utica and Marcellus shale formations. Natural gas is transported from the site of production to a refinery, and also to its end destination of consumption, by pipeline. One thing is for sure, the plans supplied to the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio from the pipeline, show a maze forming in eastern Ohio.

Pennsylvania

Hopewell resident questions use of gas drilling royalties
Washington Observer-Reporter
A Hopewell Township resident asked the Washington County commissioners Thursday to use gas well royalties from Marcellus Shale drilling at Cross Creek County Park to lower the property taxes of Avella Area School District residents and questioned why they have not developed the park to attract out-of-state visitors.

Pa’s proposed ethane cracker in ‘race’ for NGL supplies
Platts Gas Business Briefing (requires paid or free trial subscription)
In less than two weeks, the option on land in southwestern Pennsylvania where Shell proposes a $4bn ethane cracker expires, with the company tight-lipped on whether it will renew the option and continue evaluating the site. But Shell’s Beaver County plant, which could take five years to build, is facing growing competition from other natural gas liquids projects in the Appalachian Basin — creating questions about whether the facility would be viable even if Shell were to move forward.

Energy industry drives Pittsburgh office market
Pittsburgh Business Times
Pittsburgh ranks with Houston, Dallas and Denver as the four American cities whose energy sectors are disproportionately helping to lead the recovery of the office market nationwide, according to a new Energy Outlook report by Jones Lang LaSalle. The report notes that the four cities have seen 22.3 percent of the absorption of office space nationwide while only representing 12.6 percent nationwide.

Environmental groups call for water pollution disclosure
Scranton Times-Tribune
Citing findings in a recent series of Times-Tribune investigative reports, a coalition of environmental groups called on Gov. Tom Corbett on Tuesday to speak publicly about the extent of water contamination from natural gas development in Pennsylvania. They also called on the governor to nominate an independent-minded individual to fill a two-months-old vacancy in the job of secretary of the state Department of Environmental Protection.

Federal Judge Allows Northeast Upgrade to Proceed
ShaleEnergyLawBlog
A federal district judge recently rejected a request by the New Jersey Sand Hill Band of Lenape and Cherokee Indians for an injunction to stop Kinder Morgan Inc.’s construction of a portion of the Northeast Upgrade Project, a $400 million natural gas pipeline expansion project in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The tribe sought an injunction and temporary restraining order on the basis that the pipeline would destroy and desecrate sacred land in violation of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act and the 1778 Treaty of Fort Pitt between the Federal Government and Lenape tribe. Earlier this year, a Pennsylvania county judge granted an injunction to prevent protestors from interfering with the project.

Chevron to drill gas well in Somerset County
Johnstown Tribune-Democrat
Work could be underway this fall to put a Marcellus Shale well in Somerset County. It’s the second well that energy giant Chevron is planning in the region. The other is a Jackson Township project announced in April. Chevron officials say they hope to drill one well this fall in Conemaugh Township. The yield would help them gauge whether additional drilling should occur in that area.

Judge to consider making public confidential document from 2011 Marcellus drilling settlement
Washington Observer-Reporter
A Washington County judge today agreed to consider a request to make public a confidential 2011 Marcellus Shale gas damage settlement document missing from court records she ordered unsealed in March. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Washington Observer-Reporter asked President Judge Debbie O’Dell Seneca to rule on their motion to complete the court record in the Hallowich family damage case against Range Resources Inc., MarkWest Energy Partners and Williams Gas/Laurel Mountain Midstream.

National

Fracking waste ban in N.J. pushed by lobbyists as Legislature considers bill
NJ Star-Ledger
Other states make it, but the Garden State may not want to take it. Some 160 farmers, businesses and environmental groups are lobbying the state Legislature to close New Jersey’s borders to fracking waste. A proposed bipartisan ban on the toxic waste could be up for a vote in the coming days, onlookers say.

Push in Washington, D.C., continues for LNG exports
Akron Beacon Journal
In light of today’s joint hearing held by the House Subcommittee on Energy and Power and the Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade, entitled, “U.S. Energy Abundance: Manufacturing and America’s Energy Advantage,” it’s worth emphasizing that the American manufacturing sector will be bolstered by increased exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG).

Blockbuster Power Plant Month: Huge Amount Of New Generation Capacity Added In May & 72% Is Natural Gas
John Hanger’s Facts of The Day
America typically adds 15,000 to 20,000 megawatts of new generation every year or about 1,500 megawatts on average per month. Though America has added as much as 70,000 megawatts of new generation in a single year, any year in which more than 30,000 megawatts is added is unusual. During May, America added 3,488 megawatts of new generation capacity added across America, making it a blockbuster month. Gas-fired generation accounted for 72% or 2,529 megawatts of that massive total.

International

Exxon Seeks 25-Year License to Export LNG in Western Canada
Bloomberg
Exxon Mobil Corp., the world’s largest energy company by market value, asked Canada for permission to export 30 million metric tons of liquefied natural gas annually from British Columbia. Exxon is assessing potential construction sites for an LNG plant that would include six processing units in the Kitimat and Prince Rupert areas, the Irving, Texas-based company said in an export-license application filed with Canada’s National Energy Board yesterday. Exports would begin in the 2021 to 2023 time frame, according to the filing.