Archive for 'Statewide WV'

WV Road Improvements Paid for by Shale Gas Drillers

Pennsylvania’s rural roads are seeing upgrades because of gas drilling activity. When drilling comes to a municipality or county, and with it an increase in truck traffic, drillers step up to the plate and repair the roads that they use. Most of the time roads are left in better shape than before drilling began. West [...]

WV Officials Say Rail Access Key in Attracting Cracker Plant

According to West Virginia officials, one of the keys to attracting an ethane cracker plant to the state is the humble railroad. In locations where there is only a single railroad line, costs are higher, so officials are discussing ways of introducing more rail competition at potential locations in the state should one of those [...]

Lawsuit on the Horizon for WV’s New Marcellus Law?

Please see an important update at the end of this article. West Virginia’s new Marcellus drilling law is not yet a week old (see this MDN story for a summary of what’s in the new law), and already some who are unhappy with the law are talking lawsuit. The Charleston, WV Rotary Club hosted a [...]

WV Has New Marcellus Drilling Law in Record Time

A new Marcellus drilling law (highlights of the law listed below) passed in a special session of the West Virginia legislature and has been signed by Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin into law. Yesterday, the WV House of Delegates voted 92-5 and the Senate voted 33-0 to pass the measure, known as the “Horizontal Well Act,” [...]

Shell, One Other Company Close to Cracker Plant Announcement

According to officials in West Virginia, who are super-serious about attracting at least one ethane cracker plant to their state, Shell and one other company will announce site selections for their plants in January of 2012. West Virginia fully intends that at least one of those two plants will be inside their borders, and they [...]

Is Chesapeake’s Ethane Pipeline Deal a Negotiating Tactic?

Last week, MDN reported that officials in West Virginia were angry with Chesapeake Energy over their decision to sign a contract to ship ethane out of the Marcellus region for processing in the Gulf Coast (see this MDN story). Specifically, state Commerce Secretary Keith Burdette said the deal may jeopardize the state’s chances of attracting [...]

WV Officials Angry with Chesapeake Over Ethane Pipeline Deal

State officials in West Virginia are angry with Chesapeake Energy over the announcement that Chesapeake has signed a deal to ship ethane out of the Marcellus region via pipeline to the Gulf Coast for processing. A quick petrochemical lesson: Some of what comes out of the ground when drilling for natural gas is the chemical [...]

WV Official: No Cases of Water Contamination from Fracking

The top oil and gas regulator in West Virginia said at a conference on Wednesday that he has not seen any confirmed cases of groundwater contamination from fracking in West Virginia.

US Sen. Joe Manchin (D) Supports Drilling, Criticizes Obama

It seems lately that it’s a rare Democrat who goes on the record to support shale gas drilling, so when it happens, MDN is happy to mention it. U.S. Senator Joe Manchin from West Virginia, former governor of that state who won a special election to fill the seat of Robert Byrd, said the following [...]

WVU Prof: Methane in Water Supplies is Not from Fracking

Dr. Shikha Sharma, an assistant professor at West Virginia University and the lead researcher of a new WVU study looking at the source of methane found in water supplies (see this MDN story), says those who think that hydraulic fracturing is the cause of methane found in their water supply may be wrong. And she [...]

Magnum Hunter & MarkWest Do Deal to Process WV Shale Gas

Pipeline company Magnum Hunter Resources has signed a deal with natural gas processor MarkWest Liberty to deliver and process “liquids-rich” Marcellus Shale gas from northwest West Virginia. As part of the deal, a Magnum Hunter subsidiary (Eureka Hunter) is selling an under-construction gas processing plant to MarkWest. What it all means is that Magnum Hunter [...]

New WVU Study Looks at Methane in Water Supplies

A new research study is on the way in West Virginia that tackles the question of “Is there methane in the water supply? And if so, how did it get there?” One of the charges often leveled at shale gas drilling is that it causes a migration of methane (natural gas) into water supplies. Perhaps [...]

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