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Rex Energy Sells 4,100 Acres, 14 Utica Wells in OH to Antero Resources

Rex Energy announced yesterday the company has cut a deal with Antero Resources to sell all of Rex’s “Warrior South Area” assets to Antero. Which may should like a big deal, but really isn’t. The assets sold include 4,100 net acres in perhaps the hottest part of the Ohio Utica Shale: Guernsey, Noble and Belmont counties. It also includes 14 Utica Shale wells. However, the wells are only producing 9 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) collectively. The sale price is $30 million–or $7,317 per acre. Rex says the acreage and wells are in a “non-core” area for the company. Rex, a driller focused mainly on the Marcellus/Utica (headquartered in State College, PA), has had its share of financial challenges. In December the company was warned by the New York Stock Exchange that the per share price is too low and the stock is in danger of being delisted (see Rex Energy Stock Threatened with De-Listing by Nasdaq). This sale is the latest in a string of sales meant to improve the company’s financial health…
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Planned OH Utica-Powered Electric Plant Goes from 1,100 to 1,650 MW

In April 2016 MDN told you about the Guernsey Power Station–a new Utica/Marcellus natural gas-fired electric generating plant proposed for Guernsey County, OH (see New Utica-Powered Electric Plant Proposed for Guernsey County, OH). Apex Power Group at that time said they want to build a large 1,100 megawatt plant in Valley Township–producing enough electricity to power 1 million homes. The plant will generate 500 jobs during construction, and 25 full-time jobs to operate the plant when it’s completed. Apex says construction is targeted to begin in 2018 and will go online in 2020. The good news is that Apex and joint venture partner Caithness Energy have now filed a pre-application for the project–and the application shows they no longer want to build an 1,100 megawatt plant, they now want to build a whopping 1,650 megawatt plant! That’s the biggest natgas-fired electric plant we’ve heard of so far–anywhere. The previous title-holder was Dominion’s 1,600 megawatt plant currently under construction in Greensville County, VA (see Dominion Begins Building Virginia’s Biggest NatGas Power Station). Here’s more about the Guernsey Power Station…
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PDC Releases 2017 Plans – Drilling Just 2 Utica Wells in 2H17

PDC Energy logoPDC Energy, a driller in the Wattenberg Field in Colorado and the Utica in Ohio, paused their Utica drilling program in 2015 (see PDC Energy Pushes Pause Button on OH Utica Drilling for 2015). Last December the company announced they would restart Utica drilling in 2016 with plans to drill five wells (see PDC Energy to Restart OH Drilling in 2016, Drilling 5 Utica Wells). Indeed they did reactivate their program, in a much-scaled-back fashion, this past year. One of the Utica wells PDC drilled, the “Neff” well, came online earlier than expected and began producing in 2Q16 (see PDC Energy 2Q16: Utica Program Active Again, Neff Well Online). However, another shale play has turned the head of PDC–the Delaware Basin in Texas. PDC released their plans for 2017 yesterday. There is a brief mention about the Utica–they plan to drill two more wells in the second half of 2017 and spend just $18 million to do it. Both wells will be drilled in Guernsey County, OH. Here’s a preview of what’s ahead for PDC in 2017…
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Ohio Startup Plans to Convert Utica Drill Cuttings into Clean Fill

energreen360enerGREEN360, a young Ohio company that cleans up material heading to landfills so it can get re-used instead, has a plan to clean drill cuttings from Utica drilling to reuse those cuttings as clean fill on brownfield sites. The company has its sights set on an industrial park south of Cambridge, OH as its first location to dump the treated drill cuttings. Everyone wins in this instance–less material filling up local landfills, fill needed at the industrial park, the cuttings get treated before being used (minimizing any potential exposure risks). The only ones who lose are radical environmentalists, who will try their best to demagogue this plan, painting it as unsafe and harmful to locals who live and work in the area. The only problem for enerGREEN360 is that the Guernsey County Board of Supervisors is unanimously opposed to the plan (see Guernsey County, OH Opposes Facility to Treat/Store Drill Cuttings)…
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When Will More Oil Drilling Return to Eastern OH?

not if but whenDavid Hill is a geologist and a driller located in Ohio (David R. Hill Inc.). At a recent Coffee and Commerce meeting sponsored by the Cambridge Area Chamber of Commerce, Hill offered his insights into when oil drilling may return to Guernsey County and eastern Ohio. As MDN recently reported, much of the focus on drilling in the Utica has lately turned to dry gas, or methane only (see Why Utica Drillers are Moving from Wet Gas to Dry Gas). Oil drilling, which was the original focus of the Utica and why Aubrey McClendon was so excited with his discovery of the Utica, has never developed to the extent hoped for–largely because of low pressure to force the oil out of the ground. There is oil drilling and production in the Utica to be sure, but not nearly as much oil drilling as there is drilling for dry gas and NGLs (wet gas). Hill and others are working on new technologies to unlock the abundant oil supplies in the Utica. So when will oil drilling return to Guernsey and other locations? According to Hill, when oil prices hit $70-$80/barrel. He may be waiting a long time…
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Guernsey County, OH Opposes Facility to Treat/Store Drill Cuttings

Guernsey County, OH
Guernsey County, OH

EnerGreen 360 wants to build a facility in Guernsey County, OH to treat and re-use drill cuttings (leftover rock and dirt from shale drilling). The plan is to clean up the cuttings and use the leftover leftovers (rock and dirt) to backfill part of a business center were the facility would be located–near Cambridge, OH. But County Commissioners are unanimously against the plan, saying that although Guernsey sees a lot of Utica drilling, producing lots of drill cuttings, the county already absorbs “more than our share of frack-related waste.” The commissioners cite multiple injection wells in the county as being evidence of shouldering more than their fair share of the burden. So apparently the commissioners want some other county to take Guernsey’s drill cuttings instead, since Guernsey takes other counties’ shale wastewater. Fair? Not fair? You decide…
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Halliburton Fracked Eclipse’s 3.5 Mile ‘Purple Hayes’ Utica Well

failure is an orphanThere’s an old saying that goes like this: “Success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan.” Not long ago MDN reported that Eclipse Resources had drilled what is believed to be the longest horizontal well (on land) in the world–the 3.5 mile “Purple Hayes” Utica Shale well (see Eclipse Res. 1Q16: Drills Longest Shale Well Ever! “Purple Hayes”). It wasn’t but a day or two and one of the companies that worked on the well to help drill it, Nine Energy, popped up to say they had a hand in that recording-breaking well (see Nine Energy Completed World’s Longest Shale Well – in the Utica). Last week MDN told you that “snubbing” company Deep Well Services, from Pennsylvania, also helped with drilling the well (see PA Firm Helped Drill ‘Purple Hayes’ – World’s Longest Shale Well). Drilling any well is truly a team effort with many companies involved. Yesterday yet another company stepped up to claim they played a major role in drilling the Purple Hayes–Halliburton…
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PA Firm Helped Drill ‘Purple Hayes’ – World’s Longest Shale Well

Deep Well ServicesEarlier this month MDN told you about the “Purple Hayes”–a Utica Shale well drilled by Eclipse Resources in Guernsey County, OH that is thought to be the longest shale well every drilled, at 3.5 miles (see Eclipse Res. 1Q16: Drills Longest Shale Well Ever! “Purple Hayes”). The well was drilled in just 18 days and included 124 frac stages–truly astonishing! Not long after Eclipse announced the completion of Purple Hayes, Nine Energy stepped up to say they helped drill the well (see Nine Energy Completed World’s Longest Shale Well – in the Utica). Another company has just stepped up to say they also had a hand in drilling and completing the well–Deep Well Services (DWS). We’ve told you about DWS in the past, a Pennsylvania-based “snubbing” company (see PA “Snubbing” Company DWS Experiences Rapid Expansion). What’s a snubber and what role did it play in completing the Purple Hayes?…
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Nine Energy Completed World’s Longest Shale Well – in the Utica

Nine Energy logoEarlier this month MDN brought you the exciting news that Eclipse Resources, a smaller Marcellus/Utica pure play driller headquartered in State College, PA (but drilling mostly in Ohio) has drilled the world’s longest shale well–in the Utica in Guernsey County, OH (see Eclipse Res. 1Q16: Drills Longest Shale Well Ever! “Purple Hayes”). Eclipse’s Purple Hayes well an underground lateral reaching out 18,500 feet–3.5 miles! It took 124 frac stages to complete the well–a massive number of stages. Yesterday we learned that the company doing that completion work was not Schlumberger, the world’s largest oilfield services company. Nor was it Halliburton, the world’s second largest oilfield services company. It was, instead, Nine Energy–a much smaller oilfield service company, not even in the top 10. Congrats to Nine Energy! Here’s what they had to say about their work on a truly historic shale well…
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New Utica-Powered Electric Plant Proposed for Guernsey County, OH

A new Utica (and Marcellus) natural gas-fired electric generating plant has been proposed for Guernsey County, OH. Apex Power Group is proposing to build a large 1,100 megawatt plant in Valley Township–producing enough electricity to power 1 million homes. The plant will generate 500 jobs during construction, and 25 full-time jobs to operate the plant when it’s completed. Apex says construction is targeted to begin in 2018 and will go online in 2020…
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Guernsey County, OH a Microcosm for Shale Economics in Northeast

Have we entered the oil and gas apocalypse? If you’re one of some 230,000 oilfield workers out of a job in the past year, you may think so (who can blame them?). The reality is, however, that although rig counts are down (way down), permits issued are down, and in general drilling of new wells is down–drilling IS still happening. Businesses in the supply chain–those servicing the upstream and midstream sectors–are still making money. Not as much money, but we haven’t entered the apocalypse–not yet anyway. Example: Cambridge (Guernsey County), Ohio, where drilling happens less these days–but drilling still happens and local businesses like restaurants make more money than they did prior to the Marcellus/Utica fracking miracle…
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Gulfport Energy Makes $35K in Education Grants in 4 Ohio Counties

education grantsGulfport Energy recently announced they have awarded $35,000 in grants for 10 projects in four Ohio counties, including projects benefiting local citizens in Guernsey and Belmont counties (Utica Shale country). The grants in varying amounts were given to schools, labor unions and colleges–for educational programs. One of the grants, for $5,000, will be used to purchase Google Chromebooks for 150 middle school students. Google’s Chrome OS is the official operating system for MDN (we LOVE it). Nice to see Gulfport blessing local schools and organizations in the regions where they operate…
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Top 6 Utica Natgas & Top 6 Utica Oil Wells by Production in 1Q15

Top 6Yesterday the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) released their first quarter production numbers for both oil and natural gas (see our companion story today). Below are details for the top 6 natural gas producing wells, and the top 6 oil producing wells in the state. Rice Energy and Antero Resources split the top 6 natural gas wells with three apiece. Of note, Rice’s wells took the top 3 slots. Aubrey McClendon’s American Energy drilled the most top oil wells (4 of the top 6), followed by one apiece for Antero Resources and PDC Energy…
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Carrizo 1Q15: Drilled 2 Test Wells in OH Utica, Good Results

A bit of a surprise for MDN with the release of Carrizo Oil & Gas’s first quarter 2015 update today. In January Carrizo said they would not be drilling any new wells in the Utica/Marcellus in 2015 (see Carrizo Cuts Budget 35%, No Drilling Planned in Utica/Marcellus in 2015). While the company held true to its word on the Marcellus and did not drill any new wells, they did drill two new Utica wells in 1Q15. The two wells were drilled in northeast Guernsey County, OH and are being used as tests to determine the production capability in that area. Early results, according to Carrizo, are quite good (an average 200 barrels per day of oil/condensate). They do say, however, that because of low prices, they have no plans to drill any more Utica wells for the balance of this year beyond these two test wells in Guernsey…
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Marcellus/Utica Welder by Day, Prostitute by Night?

MDN told you about the outrageous comments by Sandra Steingraber (from Ithaca College) in her address to a group of “feminists” in Pittsburgh last week (see Steingraber: Only Jobs for Women in Fracking are Maid & Prostitute). The obviously sexist Steingraber said this about jobs for women in the shale industry: “The jobs for women are ‘hotel maid’ and ‘prostitute’.” So when we spotted an article about a female welding instructor at Zane State College in Cambridge, OH–and how she trains both men AND women for welding jobs in the oil and gas industry (jobs that after a year or so on the job fetch a salary of $150,000), we thought we would share it with you. And no–the female welding instructor and her students are not a prostitutes by night. The headline was just a shameless ploy to draw you in and encourage you to read the article about these gutsy women doing hard, physical work in what Steingraber calls a “man’s world”…
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EnLink OH Condensate Pipe in Trouble? Open Season Extended Again

EnLink Midstream is clearly having trouble getting enough business to justify building a new condensate pipeline in Ohio. In August 2014, EnLink announced a new 45-mile condensate pipeline that will stretch across Guernsey, Noble and Washington counties in Ohio (see EnLink Midstream Announces New Condensate Pipeline in ORV). The project, which connects to another EnLink pipeline in Washington County, is called the Ohio River Valley Pipeline, or ORV. In mid-December, EnLink launched a 30-day binding open season for shippers to sign up for capacity on the new pipeline (see EnLink Launches 1 Month Open Season for ORV Condensate Pipeline). An open season is the time when shippers sign on the dotted line and commit to paying for and using the pipeline when it’s built. If EnLink doesn’t get enough customers, they won’t build it. In January EnLink announced there were extending the open season another six weeks (see EnLink Extends Open Season for OH Condensate Pipeline by 6 Weeks). Those six weeks have come and gone, and guess what? EnLink has just announced they’re extending the open season again, another six weeks…
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