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Bradford Landowners Release Powerful Video: PA Royalty Ripoff

civil-warA little over a month ago, Bradford County, PA commissioners voted to hire a public relations firm to create a video to force the issue of passing House Bill (HB) 1391, a bill ensuring PA’s landowners will receive a 12.5% royalty check regardless of post-production costs (see Bradford Votes to Hire PR Firm, Targets PA Lawmakers re Royalties). The video is out and it is powerful–watch it below. The video leaves little doubt that Chesapeake Energy has dealt in bad faith with landowners in Bradford County. The local animal care shelter signed a lease with Chesapeake, and instead of getting royalty checks, they’ve gotten a bill from Chesapeake stating the shelter OWES Chesapeake $30,000! What landowner, in their right mind, will EVER sign a lease with Chesapeake again if others sign and end up owing the company money? It’s nuts–and everyone knows it. The purpose of the video is to push passage of House Bill (HB) 1391 which would guarantee landowners receive what they were promised–12.5% royalties from the gas sold. However, the drilling industry continues to push legislators to defeat the bill. Their argument is that the entire industry of already-signed contracts should not be abandoned over the actions of one bad actor. Last Friday the American Petroleum Institute sent a letter to PA legislators (copy below) outlining their reasons. The royalty civil war continues…
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Shell Ethane Cracker Application: Construction May Start in 2016!

Artist's rendering of Shell Monaca Ethane Complex
Artist’s rendering of Shell Monaca Ethane Complex

The Beaver County Times has located a copy of Shell’s land development application, filed with Potter Township and the Beaver County’s planning commissions. It reveals many of the details about the plant and how it will get built. Perhaps the biggest news coming from Shell’s application is news that Shell plans to begin construction on the actual ethane cracker plant by the end of this year! That is good news indeed. All along, Shell has maintained they won’t begin construction of the actual plant until 2017. Here’s a few more goodies revealed in the application…
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Report: How Can Your Business Benefit from Shell’s PA Cracker?

piece-of-the-pieQuestion: How can your business take advantage of the development of a petrochemical industry in your backyard? That was the question and premise behind a new white paper/report from the Ben Franklin Shale Gas Innovation and Commercialization Center. The white paper, titled “Shell Petrochemical Complex (“Cracker”) Project Overview – The First Step in Establishing a Regional Petrochemical Sector” (full copy below) provides an excellent overview of the coming ethane cracker in Beaver County, PA–with details for how and who can benefit from it. The paper is mainly aimed at manufacturers that will be able to leverage the output from the plant–but there’s plenty of other great information in this paper to inspire and get your creative business juices flowing. Take time to download and read it. The future of your business may depend on it!…
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Federal Judge Says MA AG Acted in “Bad Faith” re Exxon Witch Hunt

bad-faithThe table has been turned on Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey and her corrupt co-conspirator, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. A U.S. District Court Judge in Texas has granted Exxon the right to examine “internal phone records, other communications and depositions” related to Healey’s involvement in attempting to persecute Exxon Mobil for daring to say man-made global warming may not be all it’s cracked up to be. Perhaps the judge will also extend his order to NY AG Eric Schnedierman too? That would be terrific. At a minimum, when Exxon goes fishing, no doubt communications (i.e. corrupt collusion) between Healey and Schneiderman will be found and exposed to the light of day for all to see. In our wildest dreams both AGs will be forced to resign–an appropriate action considering their rabidly radical views against, and attempts to criminalize, fossil fuels. Here’s the low down on what the judge said and did…
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Columbiana, OH School OK with Land Annex to Help a Fracker

it-dont-matter-to-meIn May MDN brought you the story that Columbiana, OH was contemplating aiding and abetting a fracking company in its quest to expand (see Columbiana, OH Annexes Extra Land to Help a Fracker). Buckeye Transfer–a company that stores water, sand, chemicals and other materials used in (gasp) fracking of Utica Shale wells–would like to expand its operations on the outskirts of Columbiana. Buckeye has its own water and sewer but can’t expand them due to the age of the infrastructure–so they want to tie into municipal water and sewer. In order to do that, the ~94-acre site would need to be annexed and become part of the city. Columbiana said they were willing to do it. Now, the Columbiana City School District has signed on to the plan as well. Can you image that? With all of the bleating and blatting by radical parents in places like Mars, PA and Athens, OH, here’s a school district willing to help out a fracker?…
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Pieridae Energy Signs Labor Contract to Build Goldboro LNG

youre-hiredAs we pointed out last week, the Canadian Goldboro LNG export plant continues to see activity, with an expected commitment coming in the next couple of months (see Pieridae Energy to Make FID on Goldboro LNG Project Next 2 Mos). We have yet another sign that the project is heading toward a final investment (FID) decision of “yes.” Our latest evidence? Pieridae Energy, the company building the project, has just signed a tentative labor agreement with unions in the region to provide the labor needed to build the plant…
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PA Senate Race – Proxy for Big Green vs Big Oil

toomey-mcgintyWhen it comes to voting for a U.S. Senator in this year’s Pennsylvania race, there really is only one choice if you value the Marcellus industry: Hold your nose and vote for Pat Toomey. Toomey is a consummate Washington sleazebag insider. He represents everything we hate about Washington and the establishment politicians that infest it. However, his opponent, Katie McGinty, is a radical anti-drilling environmentalist. She is someone committed to eliminating the use of fossil fuels, and a disciple of blithering idiot Al Gore. Big Green groups have spent a collective $3.6 million, so far, to elect McGinty. That tells you everything you need to know. On the other hand, the Koch Brothers (i.e. “Big Oil”) have spent $7.2 million to re-elect Toomey. The Koch’s have earned their way onto our permanent feces list with their active opposition to The Donald. So we have no love for the Kochs, or for “bought” politicians like Toomey. However, these are the cards we’re dealt and the hand we must play. What is interesting to us is that the media is framing the race between McGinty and Toomey as Big Green vs Big Oil. Fine. We’ll bite. Here’s how the match shaping up…
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Mammoth IPO Not So Mammoth After All – Priced at Low End

mammothlogoTwo weeks ago MDN brought you news that oilfield services company Mammoth Energy Services, headquartered in Oklahoma City, OK, with operations in both the Utica Shale and Permian Basin, was floating a new initial public offering (see Utica Oilfield Services Co. Mammoth Energy Floats ~$150M IPO). The IPO, relatively small by most measures (hoping to raise ~$150 million) was closely watched because it’s one of the few new IPOs in the oil and gas sector this year. The IPO is done and the stock has begun to trade. How did they do? Mammoth targeted $15-$18 per share. They settled for the low-end $15/share. And after the trading began, the stock sank…
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Bernstein Research Says Longer Laterals Not Necessarily Nirvana

counterintuitiveOver the past six months or so MDN has repeatedly read about drillers in the Marcellus/Utica drilling longer laterals (the horizontal part of the well) and using way more sand to keep the cracks propped open longer. And between longer laterals and more sand, drillers in the northeast are getting higher output from their wells. So it was with some interest (and skepticism) that we read about new research that says longer laterals don’t lead to greater production totals. The research is from a respected source: Bernstein Research. However, the data used was only from the Barnett Shale–so it’s not clear to us how relevant the findings are for northeast drillers. Here’s what the research says…
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Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Mon, Oct 17, 2016

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: Tokyo Gas buys stake in NY gas-fired electric plant; minor delay in Atlantic Sunrise pipeline; weekly natgas rig counts returns “with a vengeance”; global warming be damned; warming alarmists disappointed Hurrican Matthew didn’t do more damage; and more!
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