Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Thu, Jul 25, 2013

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

Ohio

Ohio State Researchers Want Their Own Shale Well
NGI’s Shale Daily
Researchers at Ohio State University (OSU) want to set up a functioning oil and gas well at the school’s Eastern Agricultural Station in Noble County, OH, to study the environmental effects of hydraulic fracturing (fracking). Jeff Daniels, who directs OSU’s Subsurface Energy Resource Center (SERC), told NGI’s Shale Daily that the school wants to gather baseline information on various aspects of shale development, and to study fracking’s effects on air and water quality, land and wildlife. “It’s an opportunity — and, we feel, a responsibility — to conduct this kind of research, while at the same time work with the industry to develop different processes and procedures,” Daniels said Wednesday. “We want to expose our students to this technology and at the same time do some public outreach.”

‘Don’t Frack Ohio 2’ Rally Monday in Warren
Youngstown Business Journal
The “Don’t Frack Ohio 2” rally is set for Monday in Courthouse Square, organizers say. Information tables will be set up by 11:30 a.m. and the speakers will begin their remarks at 1:30 p.m. Organizers describe the rally as a response to what they see as growing concerns that the oil and gas industry has targeted Ohio for disposal of wastewater from hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as fracking. They are calling on the state Legislature and Gov. John Kasich to ban underground injection of toxic and “potentially radioactive” waste.

Pennsylvania

Brazilian Group Seeks Pa. Expertise on Shale Gas
Ashland Times-Gazette
With the discovery of shale gas reserves in Brazil and plans to auction drilling rights there, a delegation is visiting Pennsylvania to see how its drilling boom has turned the state into one of the leading natural gas producers in the U.S. The group of Brazilian business and energy industry professionals hopes to learn from the state’s experience and to explore the possibility of exports to Brazil during meetings this week. Celia Feldpausch, executive director of Brazil Industries Coalition, said Wednesday the national oil company plans to hold auctions for drilling rights later this year, but shale gas drilling is a new issue for Brazil and “we want to make sure to protect the environment.”

National

The architecture of abundance: Building energy infrastructure
Reuters
Today, technological innovations like horizontal drilling, better seismic imaging and hydraulic fracturing have done what new laws and regulations never could. We now produce massive amounts of North American energy that will lower prices for consumers, create a domestic manufacturing renaissance and even influence geopolitical alignments. Policymakers in the 1970s and ‘80s never envisioned “tight oil” or “shale gas.” Colossal energy reserves in places like Bakken in North Dakota, the Niobrara in Colorado, the Eagle-Ford in Texas, the Marcellus in Pennsylvania and the Utica in Ohio were unthinkable 10 years ago. Conventional wisdom insisted we were running out of oil and natural gas.

Four face felony charges after Michigan pipeline protest
AP/Akron Beacon Journal
Four people are facing felony charges following arrests at a protest seeking to block a Michigan oil pipeline project. The Lansing State Journal reports the four are charged with resisting and obstructing police, punishable by up to two years in prison. Each also faces a misdemeanor trespassing charge. A hearing in the case is Aug. 1.

How An Enron Cast-Off Became One Of America’s Great Oil Companies
Forbes
When it comes to energy’s fracking revolution, few men have contributed more–or played the trend as profitably–as Mark Papa, the 66-year-old chairman of EOG Resources. So when he lays a chart out on a conference table in his skyscraper aerie in Houston, it’s surprising to hear him say that the Great American Oil Boom, which he helped create, is “not going to be as massive as people think.” “The chances of the U.S. being independent in oil are very slim,” he says.

Natural Gas: Pipeline To Prosperity…Bridge Fuel To Nowhere
Forbes
During the June 25 Georgetown “Climate Action Plan” speech announcing his administration’s full-throttle regulatory assault on coal, President Obama acknowledged that America can look to natural gas as a cleaner “transition” fuel leading to a non-carbon energy future. He said: “Now even as we’re producing more domestic oil, we’re also burning more clean-burning natural gas than any country on Earth. And again, sometimes there are disputes about natural gas, but we should strengthen our position as the top natural gas producer because in the medium-term at least, it can provide not only safe cheap power, but it can only help reduce our carbon emissions.”