| | | | | |

Drilling Slowdown Creates Domino Effect in Susquehanna County, PA

Low natural gas prices and lack of pipelines is affecting more than just the drillers in Susquehanna County, PA–it’s also affecting landowners, gas workers, and the businesses that depend on all of the above. Drillers in northeastern PA (as well as elsewhere) are laying down their drilling rigs. Fewer rigs means fewer new wells being drilled, meaning no royalties for those landowners. And it means fewer jobs for workers, and less business for companies that provide goods and services to drillers, the people who work for them, and landowners with less disposable income. A TV station in NEPA shines a light on the situation in Susquehanna County…
Continue reading

| | |

PA Anti-Driller Scroggins Indicted with Felony Counts for Illegal Taping

A little-known (outside of northeast Pennsylvania) anti-driller, Vera Scroggins, was fined $1,000 last month in Susquehanna County court and the judge told her she’s going to jail if she doesn’t pay it (see PA Anti-Driller Fined $1K for Trespassing on Cabot O&G Site, Jail?). This month she was permanently banned from trespassing on Cabot Oil & Gas property in the county (see PA Fracktivist Permanently Banned from Cabot Property). It seems Vera’s legal problems are not over yet. She’s just been indicted on several felony counts for allegedly secretly videotaping and recording a conversation with a lawyer that happened two years ago, without permission…
Continue reading

| | | | | |

PA Fracktivist Permanently Banned from Cabot Property

A little-known (outside of northeast Pennsylvania) anti-driller, Vera Scroggins, has been permanently banned from trespassing on Cabot Oil & Gas well sites according to a recent court order. Vera had previously agreed to the restrictions that don’t allow her to get near Cabot’s many sites in Susquehanna County, PA. Then she got the trespassing itch again and re-offended, according to court records, in January 2015 (see PA Anti-Driller Fined $1K for Trespassing on Cabot O&G Site, Jail?). Until now it had been a temporary injunction. Now it’s a permanent injunction, something Vera says she’s going to continue fighting…
Continue reading

| | |

Mystery Buyer to Pay WPX Energy $200M for NE Marcellus Assets

mysteryWPX Energy announced yesterday that they’ve sold more of (the rest of?) their northeast Marcellus Shale assets. This time it’s not leases and wells, but instead “various long-term natural gas purchase and sales agreements, along with 135 million Btu per day of firm transportation capacity on Transco’s Northeast Supply Link project.” That is, WPX was on the hook to either buy or sell natural gas along pipelines at certain locations in the northeast region, and those deals to buy and sell gas were sold, along with WPX’s contract to flow up to 135 million Btus (which equates to just 135 thousand cubic feet, or 135 Mcf) of natural gas on Transco’s Northeast Supply Link pipeline system. The combined sale was to an unnamed buyer for approximately $200 million. MDN has a guess about who the mystery buyer is…
Continue reading

| | | | |

Cabot Continues to Lower Cost/Mcf, Plans for Constitution in 2016

Last Friday the Cabot Oil & Gas management team held an analyst call to discuss first quarter 2015 results–and look forward to the rest of 2015. There is a lot of good stuff to read in the transcript from the call. We can’t include it all (much as we would like to). Two things really stood out to us as we scanned through the prepared remarks by Cabot personnel and in the question and answers that followed. (1) Cabot’s direct cost to drill and extra natural gas (and oil) continues to drop thanks to their diligence. That cost is now $1.22 per thousand cubic feet equivalent. That number does not (we assume) include the cost to transport and process the natural gas. What it means is that even at somewhere around $1.75-$2.00 per Mcf (our estimate), Cabot is at break even and starts to make money. (2) The Constitution Pipeline is still on track and Cabot predicts it will be operational in mid-2016. Cabot CEO Dan Dinges had some interesting things to say about the Constitution and whether or not they intend to send current production through it–or bring online new production to help fill the Constitution…
Continue reading

| | | | | |

PA Anti-Driller Fined $1K for Trespassing on Cabot O&G Site, Jail?

A little-known (outside of northeast Pennsylvania) anti-driller, Vera Scroggins, was fined $1,000 yesterday in Susquehanna County court. Vera’s biggest claim to fame is her potty mouth treatment of FrackNation filmmaker Phelim McAleer (watch it here). She is a repeat trespasser on Cabot Oil & Gas drilling sites and has been warned, repeatedly, to stay off their land–for her own safety and the safety of others. Scroggins runs so-called tours where she shows New York City celebrities and other urbanites (who don’t know the difference between a cow’s udder and a roof gutter) the gas fields of Susquehanna County, claiming drilling operations somehow harm local residents. The judge has had enough. He said at the hearing that Vera has 45 days to pay the fine for her latest violation and if she doesn’t, she’s going to jail. Vera maintains her latest violation wasn’t a violation–that the court is relying on the testimony of someone who lied under oath about seeing her trespass…
Continue reading

| | |

Cabot O&G 1Q15: Production Up, Revenue Up, Profits Down

Cabot Oil & Gas released it’s first quarter 2015 results today. Most of the numbers are impressive indeed. Marcellus natural gas production was up 43% over last year. Liquids production was up 132%. And even though they’re not getting as much money for their product, revenue was up year over year–$267.4 million in 1Q15 vs $255.4 million in 1Q14 (up 4.7%). However, even the mighty Cabot couldn’t keep all of the numbers going up. Net income–the money you keep after expenses–was down from $107 million in 1Q14 to $40.3 million in 1Q15–a 62% drop year over year. Low prices for both dry and wet gas are the culprit. Here’s today’s 1Q15 financial and operational update from one of our favorite Marcellus drillers, which includes “guidance” (their best guess) as to what will happen for the balance of 2015…
Continue reading

| | |

PA DEP Rejects PIOGA’s Call to Dump 4 Non-Voting TAB Members

week and a half ago MDN told you about the brewing showdown between the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the Pennsylvania Independent Oil & Gas Association, or PIOGA (see PIOGA Turns Up the Heat on Wolf/Quigley Over TAB/Article 78). The bone of contention is Acting DEP Secretary John Quigley’s appointment (illegal appointment according to PIOGA) of four mostly anti-drilling board members to the DEP’s Oil & Gas Technical Advisory Board (TAB). The four are non-voting members–but they gum up the real work that needs to get done by TAB in approving new drilling regulations–something called Chapters 78 and 78a. Yesterday the DEP doubled down and rejected PIOGA’s call to dismiss the four new members appointed by Quigley. Actually, all five voting members were replaced by Quigley too, in a great purge (see Why did PA DEP Acting Sec Quigley Mass Fire Gas Advisory Board?). PIOGA previously said they will consider a lawsuit to pursue the matter should Quigley continue down this road…
Continue reading

| | | |

Lackawanna College Gets New Virtual Well Control Training System

The Lackawanna College School of Petroleum & Natural Gas is one of the country’s premier petroleum technology programs. It’s located not far from the border of New York State–in New Milford (Susquehanna County), PA. Lackawanna’s program is one of perhaps half a dozen such programs in the entire country. It fills a need to train oilfield and midstream workers for highly technical, skilled positions. Like running compressor stations, or running drill rigs. The Lackawanna program is a two-year program which sits nicely between a four-year year petroleum engineering degree on one side, and the trades, like welding or being a roustabout on the other side. Last year Cabot Oil & Gas made an eye-popping $2.5 million grant to the college (see Cabot Oil & Gas Does it Again – $2.5 Million Gift to Lackawanna College). A new $150,000 grant from the State of Pennsylvania has just been announced that will bring a state-of-the-art virtual training system for well control to Lackawanna…
Continue reading

| | | | | | | | |

Kinder Morgan Hops on the Pipeline Payola Bandwagon in NEPA

Look–we’ve written about this before and we’re not going to belabor the point–about pipeline companies using payola to buy support for the pipelines they plan to build through communities. The Constitution Pipeline did it last March in New York (see Constitution Pipeline Payments to Groups – Donations or Payola?). PennEast recently did it this March in southeast Pennsylvania and New Jersey (see PennEast Payola? Buying Support One Community at a Time). Now it’s Kinder Morgan’s turn. KM handed out checks this week in Wayne, Susquehanna, Pike and Luzerne counties in northeastern PA. It’s amazing how much good press, and good will, a $10,000 donation can buy you–especially when you give it to a school…
Continue reading

| | | | | |

PA DEP Issues Drought Watch in 27 Counties, Including Marcellus

Yesterday the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection issued a drought watch for 27 counties in the state, including some of the most heavily drilled Marcellus Shale well counties–including Susquehanna, Bradford and Tioga counties. A drought watch is, according to the DEP, the first and least-severe level of the state’s three drought classifications and calls for water users to voluntarily conserve 5% of the water they have been using…
Continue reading

| | | | | | |

Good News & Bad News with Constitution Pipeline in PA/NY

The good news is that the Constitution Pipeline–a pipeline that will flow Marcellus Shale gas from the enormously productive gas fields in Susquehanna County, PA up into New York, all the way to Schoharie County–is getting built. Construction starts in the next three months. The bad news is that construction will cause pain for some of the 651 landowners along its route. Of those 651 landowners, 125 had refused to sign right-of-way agreements with Williams to install the pipeline (19% of the total). The pressure of eminent domain court action forced many of them to sign–really, they had no choice. For those who didn’t sign, the courts have determined compensation (and forced them to accept it) in all but four remaining cases–all of them in New York State. Those cases are now under review and will soon be resolved. It is a done deal and there’s no stopping it. Some of the cases of landowners who opposed the pipeline, highlighted in an AP article, are due to their anti-drilling philosophy. But there is one case that we find distressing–a farmer who didn’t reject the pipeline–he just wanted it moved to a different part of his farm to prevent disrupting future plans…
Continue reading

| | | | | |

Judge Rules 7 NEPA Landowners Must Allow Constitution Pipeline

The Constitution Pipeline, a 124-mile pipeline that will flow Marcellus gas from Susquehanna County, PA to Schoharie Couty, NY where it will connect to both the Iroquois Pipeline and the Tennessee Gas Pipeline, received final Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approval in December (see FERC Issues Final Approval for Constitution Pipeline in PA/NY). Construction was originally slated to begin long before now, but better late than never. The current plan is to begin construction no later than June 1. The remaining roadblocks are permits from the New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation (which should come very soon), and permits from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Throughout this entire project most believed the major roadblocks would be in New York State, where most of the pipeline will run. Little did we know that 20 landowners in Pennsylvania (out of 130 along the route of the pipeline) objected and would not let Williams build the pipeline across their property. Williams filed condemnation (eminent domain) proceedings against all 20. In the end, 13 of the 20 settled with Williams, and the other 7 have now been forced, under court order, to allow the pipeline across their property. That decision came earlier this week from U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania…
Continue reading

| | | |

What’s Wrong with the Employment Picture in the Marcellus? Ageism.

ageismThis is not an easy story to write. It’s about employment in the Marcellus Shale industry–and about age discrimination. Until late last year, by all accounts the Marcellus Shale industry was, from a jobs perspective, going great guns. Yes, sometimes it was/is necessary to import workers from other states to handle specialized jobs. But increasingly the jobs have been going to local workers and not out-of-staters. Yesterday we received a heartfelt letter (below) from an MDN subscriber. This gentleman is a mechanical engineer with degrees from Penn State and Lafayette College. He has loads of experience in a variety of areas–engineering, contracting, even running a small business. He wants to get involved with the greatest industry on the planet–the Marcellus Shale energy industry. He can paper every room in his house with the number of resumes and job applications he’s filled out. He’s applied for everything from technician to field hand to roustabout (he’s physically fit). In the last five years that he’s been trying, he hasn’t been called for a single interview. Not one. He’s now 52 years old. We don’t like calling attention to stories like this one, but MDN doesn’t shy away from sharing the “bad news” about our beloved industry along with the overwhelming good news…
Continue reading

|

Elk Lake School LOVES Their 2 Marcellus Shale Wells & Gas Heat

I Love GasSeems like it was ages ago now that we told you (and keep telling you) about a rural school district in northeastern Pennsylvania–the Elk Lake School District–that drilled two Marcellus Shale wells on the school campus (see Rural NE PA School Nets $1.7M in Royalties from 2 Marcellus Wells). Not only is that tiny school district still raking in the royalties, they’re also heating with natural gas. Even though there’s been record cold in Susquehanna County this winter, the students and faculty are nice and toasty, thanks to Marcellus Shale gas…
Continue reading