Archive for 'Pennsylvania'
A representative from Chevron told Logan Township supervisors and residents at a meeting on Thursday that Chevron has no plans to drill on a Logan site for which they previously received a permit. Logan is located in Blair County, near Altoona, PA. The permit expires today and Chevron said there are no plans, at present, [...]
Gardner Denver, a 150 year-old global manufacturer of industrial compressors, blowers, pumps, loading arms and fuel systems has a new manufacturing facility to add to the 40 it already owns around the world. The new 70,000 foot facility is located at Tipton, near Altoona, PA. The new plant will manufacture and repair pumps used in [...]
An economic report released on March 30 by Penn State researchers (copy embedded below) shows that Pennsylvania counties where there is Marcellus Shale drilling do better economically—far better—than other counties. Marcellus counties bring in more sales tax revenue, a sign that businesses and business owners and the people who have jobs at those businesses are [...]
An update on the Act 13 lawsuit filed by seven Pennsylvania municipalities and the Delaware Riverkeeper Network at the end of March (see this MDN story). Act 13 is a set of new drilling rules and regulations adopted by the PA legislature and signed by Gov. Tom Corbett in February of this year. Part of [...]
Last December, the PA Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) started investigating methane in three water wells in Franklin Township (Susquehanna County), PA. Since there are several gas wells being drilled by WPX Energy a few thousand feet away, wells that were cited for improper casing, the DEP asked WPX to install methane venting systems for [...]
One of the arguments used against natural gas drilling is that it can drive down property values of nearby homes. While MDN has not seen studies to prove or disprove that argument, we did spot this story about a homeowner in western PA who has been refused refinancing of their mortgage by three different national [...]
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Observer-Reporter of Washington, PA have sued to open sealed court documents in a case involving a Pennsylvania couple who previously were outspoken critics of the natural gas drilling industry and who made claims that drilling had contaminated their water supply. Last week, anti-drillers joined their cause and filed a brief [...]
An idea that’s been floating “out there” for some time, at least in Pennsylvania, is for gas drillers to use acid mine water that flows from abandoned coal mines. It’s estimated there is some 300 million gallons per day of acid mine water—more than enough to frack every well drilled in PA each year. Last [...]
Pipeline giant MarkWest has just gobbled up another, albeit much smaller, competitor. MarkWest announced yesterday it is purchasing Keystone Midstream for $512 million. Keystone is owned by Stonehenge Energy Resources and Rex Energy with operations primarily in Butler County, PA. As part of the deal, MarkWest will gain contracts and a partnership with Rex Energy [...]
MarkWest has been in the news a lot lately, signing a raft of new agreements and even buying out a competitor. Last Friday, MarkWest announced they had signed an agreement (terms not disclosed) to expand MarkWest’s processing capacity in the Marcellus Shale to handle more Chesapeake production. The areas covered by the agreement include northern [...]
The Associated Press (AP) did an analysis of how much natural gas was produced in Pennsylvania and West Virginia during 2011 and have run some basic calculations based on an assumed average price (last year) of $3.50 per thousand BTUs (or mBtus). The results of those calculations should put to bed any claims that shale [...]
The price for drilling a Marcellus Shale gas well in Pennsylvania that “misses” and is not economically viable may have just gotten a lot steeper. It looks like the state Public Utility Commission (PUC), charged with collecting and distributing the new impact fee under Act 13, is going to levy the fee on exploratory wells [...]