Gastar Exploration released first quarter operating results and financials yesterday. Among the news for Gastar: although they had a net loss of $6.3 million for the first quarter, their production of natural gas, oil and natural gas liquids was up 32 percent from the first quarter of last year. Why the huge increase in production?
One of the possible locations for a new ethane cracker plant in West Virginia is a 1400-acre parcel of land owned by Bayer Corp. located on the border of Marshall and Wetzel counties. Ahead of an announcement on a cracker plant, Bayer has decided to move forward with leasing the New Martinsville plant for shale [...]
Gastar Exploration gives the following operational update on their drilling activities in the Marcellus Shale in Marshall and Preston counties in West Virginia, and Butler County in Pennsylvania. Most of Gastar’s Marcellus activity is concentrated in Marshall County, WV, where they plan to complete 24 horizontal wells by the end of 2012. From the Gastar [...]
Magnum Hunter Resources and Stone Energy yesterday announced a joint venture combining their leased Marcellus acreage in Wetzel County, WV, some 1,925 acres, with the stated objective of drilling 19 new horizontal Marcellus Shale wells in the next two years. From the press release:
One of the criticisms of the Marcellus shale gas drilling industry is that although it brings with it an economic boom, including many jobs, sometimes those jobs are taken by out-of-state workers and not local workers. Drillers will say there are not enough skilled local workers to fill the positions. Labor leaders and local economic [...]
When drilling is concentrated in one area, some problems are bound to crop up.
Just last week, MDN wrote about New Martinsville, WV enacting a Marcellus drilling ban (see MDN story). Because of the ban, the West Virginia Independent Oil & Gas Association hinted that their members would boycott New Martinsville businesses in retaliation—unless the ban is lifted. Looks like that threat worked:
Here and there, some city municipalities in West Virginia—like Morgantown—have banned hydraulic fracturing and Marcellus shale gas drilling inside, and even outside of their borders. The latest WV city to do so is New Martinsville (Wetzel County). The West Virginia Independent Oil & Gas Association has had enough and is threatening to stop supporting local [...]
A local union in West Virginia is set to protest natural gas transmission facilities owned by Dominion over the issue of jobs and out-of-state workers being brought in to build new pipelines in the Wetzel County.
Some interesting comments made by Magnum Hunter CEO Gary Evans at the recent Marcellus Midstream Conference in Pittsburgh at their projected activity in 2011 and conventional vs. unconventional shale gas plays:
A critical component in the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) plan to study hydraulic fracturing is where they will conduct case studies. Starting on page 42 of the draft proposal, we find out. There were 48 proposed locations suggested to the EPA, from which they will select between five and eight locations. We know five [...]
An article in today’s West Virginia paper The Intelligencer / Wheeling News-Register attempts to denigrate Marcellus gas drilling in the state by focusing on some of the problems. One of those problems, according to the article, is that 13 illegal aliens (undocumented workers) that have been caught working for drilling contractors in the state “in [...]
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