A new study conducted on Marcellus Shale wells in Pennsylvania and published in the Journal of Industrial Ecology concludes shale wells’ “energy return on investment” (or EROI)–the total amount of energy it takes to produce the energy that will be delivered to end users–is similar to that of coal. Meaning: it takes about the same amount [...]
With new wet gas pipelines being built from the Marcellus/Utica to the Gulf Coast, and with new cracker plants being built along the Gulf Coast, will any ethane cracker plants ever get built in the Marcellus/Utica? It’s a serious question that more and more people are asking. Aside from West Virginia Secretary of Commerce Keith Burdette’s [...]
It’s official. Since last year we’ve known about and have reported on plans by Williams and Cabot Oil & Gas to build a new Marcellus Shale pipeline from Susquehanna County, PA to Schoharie County, NY–called the Constitution Pipeline (see New Marcellus Constitution Pipeline Announces “Final” Route). On Friday, Williams filed the official application for the new [...]
A Limerick update: There once was a man from… er no, that’s not it! This Limerick update is about a pair of nuclear reactors used for generating electricity–in Limerick, PA. Apparently Marcellus Shale gas is so plentiful and cheap, it’s not worth the nuclear plant’s operator, Exelon Nuclear, to ramp up the two reactors to [...]
Three cheers for former PA Sec. of the Department of Environmental Protection Michael Krancer who, talking on a recent radio program, said the Obama administration’s desire (and plan) to regulate fracking at the federal level is unnecessary and the “feds should back off.” He said the individual states already do a great job and the [...]
According to a speech delivered by PA Gov. Tom Corbett at the Franklin Institute on Friday, foreign businesses in both South America and Germany are very interested in cheap, abundant, clean natural gas being produced by the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania. Of primary interest to them: Where’s PA headed with its shale gas program? Of [...]
This is the second year that Pennsylvania, under its new Act 13 law, has collected and will disperse an impact fee. In 2012 (based on 2011 drilling activity), the state collected and dispersed $204 million (see List of PA Impact Fee Disbursements by County/Town). This year, in 2013, the state has collected and will soon disperse [...]
An interesting article in yesterday’s Wheeling News-Register (below) takes a look at rig counts in the Marcellus/Utica region, noting the big increase in rigs drilling in Ohio while the number of rigs in West Virginia has remained the same or gone down slightly, and the number of rigs in Pennsylvania has decreased rather dramatically. The [...]
Canadian company Enerflex is shutting down a natural gas compression and processing plant in Casper, WY and laying off dozens of workers. Why? No business. They say it’s no longer economical to get natural gas from coal-bed methane (CBM) in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin when it’s so darned cheap to get natural gas from places like the Marcellus [...]
A brief post on the RealClearEnergy website presents what at first glance seems glaringly obvious to us: Most of the Marcellus Shale is underlain by the Utica Shale. But on second thought, perhaps it’s not so obvious to many people. MDN has remind ourselves that new readers are accessing this site all the time–sometimes learning [...]
The innocent-sounding Public Accountability Initiative (PAI), whose stated mission is “investigating power and corruption at the heights of business and government,” delights in “outing” connections between individuals and/or organizations and what they consider the dirty, nasty fossil fuel industry. Yet PAI refuses to admit that they themselves are funded (and corrupted) by George Soros, convicted [...]
A new report analyzing the rapid rise and impact of Marcellus Shale royalties in Pennsylvania was recently released by the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy. Among the startling facts in the “policy brief” are: The Institute estimates that $731 million in Marcellus Shale royalties were paid to Pennsylvanians in 2012. In rural northeastern Susquehanna County, PA, [...]
Pipeliner company Rockford Corporation, a subsidiary of Primoris Services Corporation, announced last week they’ve landed five projects in the PA and WV Marcellus Shale to construct new pipelines–some of them wet gas, some dry gas–work totaling $91.9 million. The Primoris press release details the specs for each project, including where they will be built:
In yet another case of “be careful how you word your lease,” the Valley Rod & Gun Club (in Pennsylvania) leased land to Chesapeake Energy for drilling. The two disagreed over where the drill pad should be located and Chesapeake moved forward with a site they wanted against the wishes of the landowner. The landowner [...]
An important question for PA landowners whose leases are set to expire soon: When, exactly, does the law consider a driller has begun drilling? Sometimes drillers will do the bare miniumum to prepare a site without doing any actual drilling and declare they’ve met their lease obligation, and those very basic actions reset the clock, [...]
Yesterday the Associated Press published a story about the somewhat schizophrenic nature of the Heinz Endowments in funding both anti- and pro-drilling organizations. One person quoted in the story said Heinz is “hedging their bets”–like companies do in giving money to opponents in a political race–to curry favor with whichever one wins. Apparently Heinz, traditionally [...]
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