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PA Gov Wolf’s High Tax Budget Goes Down to Defeat – 9 Dems Against

muggingIn the end, it was PA Gov. Tom Wolf’s own Democrat Party House members that sunk his latest high tax budget proposal. Nine Dems voted against the Wolf budget, showing bipartisan support for defeating Wolf’s high taxes, including lack of support for a high severance tax. Every single Republican, even the RINOs, voted against Wolf’s unpopular budget proposal. Trying to spin his humiliating defeat as some sort of plus, Wolf said he was “encouraged” that “so many Democrats” actually voted yes for his budget. Talk about chutzpah. Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, R-Butler, has some big cojones–he equated Wolf with a thug trying to mug somebody, taking all of their money at gunpoint. Wow! It’s about time there was some frank talk about the bully Wolf has become in ten short months–and some push-back against it. Time for Republicans to pass a budget and get a few of those Dems to go along and override a Wolf veto. Time to govern without Wolf if he refuses to do his job…
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Utica/Marcellus Condensate Now Being Exported via Ship from NJ

bon voyageDon’t look now but Utica/Marcellus condensate being produced at a MarkWest Energy processing plant in Cadiz, OH is being exported out of the country via a ship docked on the Hudson River at Perth Amboy, New Jersey–just across the river from Manhattan! The condensate is transported to NJ via railroad in specially designed rail cars. A second ship is being loaded up and will leave with Utica/Marcellus condensate from MarkWest, according to the Reuters story below. The first ship loaded with condensate left Perth Amboy one month ago heading to the Netherlands. No word yet on where the second load is heading, but sources say exporting condensate from Perth Amboy is now set up to become a routine thing, which is fantastic news for drillers in Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia that produce condensate…
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Baker Hughes Rig Counts for Sept Continue to Drop Across US & in NE

trending-down.jpgOilfield service giant Baker Hughes released their venerable monthly rotary rig count report yesterday for September 2015. After posting gains in the overall land-based U.S. rig count number for two straight months in July and August, the September numbers dropped like a rock. September U.S. active land-based rigs averaged 848, down 35 from the average of 883 in August and down 18 from July’s average of 866. Rig counts for the Marcellus/Utica also continued to drop, showing another four rigs were idled during September across the combined PA/OH/WV. It’s getting bloody out there…
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OH Judge Rules in Favor of NEXUS Survey, Ticks Off the CORNballs

cornballsOn Tuesday a Medina County, OH judge ruled that the NEXUS pipeline does have a right to enter private land to survey it for possible routes for the pipeline. The judge said Ohio laws allow private companies to survey land for eventual appropriation (including eminent domain) as long as the company can prove it is an energy or utility company. The judge said the law is quite clear on that point–plain and simple to understand. The judge’s decision didn’t sit too well with the CORNballs of CORN (Coalition to Reroute Nexus pipeline). We’ve written plenty about CORN and their effort to “reroute” the NEXUS (see our CORN stories here). Although the group states their aim is to reroute the NEXUS away from northern counties in Ohio, what they’re really trying to do is simply stop the pipeline altogether. Every legal and political maneuver they’ve tried has failed. But that doesn’t deter the CORN faithful. They’re baaaack! This time the CORNballs are taking their fight to the state legislature, hoping they can get a law passed favorable to their cause…
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Gulfport Spending $8M to Rebuild OH Roads Before They Use Them

road repairOne of the arguments sometimes trotted out by anti-drillers is that heavy trucks lumbering up and down rural roads will destroy them. And indeed, sometimes it does–when the road is old or not constructed to handle heavy truck traffic. Typically drillers will repair the roads to better-than-new condition–we’ve seen it in some PA counties. But here’s something you don’t often hear: Gulfport Energy is about to spend $8 million on road repairs to roads BEFORE they use them, not after. The repairs will be done over the next six weeks in Belmont County, OH, and it delights Belmont County Commission members. Somebody else footing the bill for rebuilt roads will put a smile on any county commissioner’s face…
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Carrizo O&G CEO Chip Johnson Continues to Sell His Company Stock

dribs and drabsCarrizo Oil & Gas CEO S.P. “Chip” Johnson continues to sell off his personal shares of the company’s stock that he leads. On June 1, Johnson sold 24,661 shares of company stock for $1.2 million (see 4 Top Carrizo O&G Officers, Incl CEO, Sell 50K Shares of Company Stock). A few days later, on June 5, he sold another 6,000 shares for $309,000 (see Carrizo CEO Chip Johnson Sells Another 6K Shares of Stock). The again on September 8, Johnson sold another 6,000 shares netting him $217,000 (see Carrizo Oil & Gas “Insiders” Continue to Sell Company Stock). On October 5, Johnson sold yet another tranche of 6,000 shares, this time for $227,040. Even though he’s now sold off 42,661 shares since the beginning of June, Johnson still owns 607,843 shares worth an estimated $23 million…
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Calif. Microturbine Company Lands More Marcellus/Utica Customers

new customersCalifornia company Capstone Turbine Corporation, on the left coast, continues to land new sales in the Marcellus/Utica region. We first told you about Capstone selling their microturbine energy systems in 2014 (see Marcellus Midstreamers Turn to Calif. Company for Compressor Power). And then again in May of this year (see CA Co Gets Compressor Turbine Orders for Shale Gas in NY). Capstone has just announced that despite the slowdown in drilling, they’re still attracting new customers in the Marcellus/Utica…
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ET Rover Buys Largest-Ever Order of Cat® Gas Compression Engines

detailsIn September MDN told you that the 711-mile ET Rover Pipeline, costing an estimated $3.7 billion to build, had awarded a contract to an Ohio company to build 39 compressor stations (see Rover Pipeline Awards OH Company $34M to build 39 Compressor Stns). The announcement makes a quick mention that “Rover Pipeline purchased a combination of Caterpillar natural gas engines and Ariel compressors.” We now have the details on the Cat engines being purchased, which according to Cat is “the company’s largest ever single-project order”…
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Captain Mercaptan to the Rescue! Super Hero Named After Foul Odor

Captain-Mercaptain
Captain Mercaptain

Captain Mercaptan to the rescue! This story is hilarious on many levels. We’re not making fun, well, maybe just a little. Do you know what mercaptan is? Natural gas (methane) as it comes out of the ground is colorless and oderless. If you breathe too much of it, you’ll die (suffocate) because it will cut out the oxygen you’re breathing. So natural gas utility companies, like Baltimore Gas & Electric (BGE), add a chemical called mercaptan to the gas that gives it that foul, disgusting, rotten eggs smell. Ask someone who lives close to a compressor station where mercaptan is present (and leaking) and they’ll tell you just how hideous the smell can get. So BGE teamed up with Marvel Comics, of Avengers fame, to introduce a new comic book hero: Captain Mercaptan (Mercaptan Mercaptain…echo for effect). Captain Mercaptan teaches little crumb crunchers to skedaddle when they smell him. Call 911. Tell an adult. Get out of the room. A life sized Captain Mercaptan (sans the smell) visited the fifth grade class at Hampden Elementary-Middle School in Baltimore yesterday…
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Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Thu, Oct 8, 2015

best of the restThe “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: 50 Bcf of natgas in 3 years; Marcellus/Utica could unleash up to 10 Bcf/d; millennials prep for o&g jobs; out-of-staters behind Youngstown frack ban measure; PA Supreme Court hears 2 natgas cases; Incredibly [Stupid] Hulk goes to Harrisburg to demand frack ban; hunting for natgas in north Georgia; ETE/Williams selling assets in Florida; oil prices heading higher; whatever happened to peak oil?; and more!
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