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Range Resources 3Q12: 24 New Wells in ‘Super-Rich’ Marcellus

super richRange Resources posted its financial and operating update for the third quarter of 2012 yesterday. MDN has pulled out the operational report for the Marcellus Shale and includes it below. Of particular interest in the Range update are two items: 1) Range’s continued focus on what they call their “super-rich” area of the Marcellus—an area they define as having wet gas present with 1,350 Btus or higher; 2) Range had a “significant step-out well” in the super-rich area that tested at 1,044 barrels per day of natural gas liquids.

MDN has also included (below) a copy of a map Range published as part of a presentation earlier this year outlining where the super-rich area for them is located.

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Magnum Hunter Buys Virco for $106.7M with 51,500 Net Acres

Magnum Hunter announced this morning they’ve purchased 100% of privately-held Viking International Resources, Inc. (“Virco”) for $106.7 million using a stock swap and cash. The deal means Magnum Hunter will get an additional 51,500 net acres in the Marcellus and Utica Shale in West Virginia and Ohio, pushing their total acreage to something just over 166,000 acres throughout the Appalachian region. Management already has it’s eye on the new acreage and has identified 74 new drilling locations in the Marcellus and 31 new locations in the Utica Shale.

Details on the transaction and what it means:

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Dominion $500M NGL Processing Plant in WV to Open in December

Some 903 workers are hard at work in Natrium, WV building Dominion Resources’ new processing plant. Dominion announced they would build a $500 million natural gas liquids processing plant in August 2011 (see this MDN story). Dominion says they are on track to open the facility in December of this year.

Once the plant is done it will process an incoming 200 million cubic feet per day of Marcellus and Utica Shale “wet gas” and separate it into ethane, pentane, butane, propane and other compounds for resale. But the plant is not without controversy. The local trade union is not happy that the contractor building the new plant is only using one-third local workers for the project:

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CONSOL 3Q12 Update: $11M Loss, Spent $438M on New Projects

CONSOL Energy released third quarter results today and it’s not pretty for the energy giant (a loss of $11 million) because of their historical dependence on coal as their main source of revenue. CONSOL continues to diversify, namely by expanding into shale gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale. But coals gradual decline is having an impact on the company.

Although these quarterly earnings reports tend to cause glazing over of the eyes, every now and again you pick up a juicy tidbit, like MDN did with this report. Among the language is a brief reference to how much it costs CONSOL to produce natural gas per thousand cubic feet. How much is it costing CONSOL?

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GreenHunter Buys 2 More Wastewater Injection Wells

GreenHunter Energy, a company specializing in treatment and disposal of fracking wastewater, continues to add new wastewater injection wells to its portfolio. Just today they announced they’ve purchased two more injection wells, one in Washington County, OH and the other in Ritchie County, WV. In February of this year, GreenHunter purchased three injection wells, one of which was also in Washington County, OH (see this MDN story).

Here’s the details about the two newest injection wells for GreenHunter:

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Fact and Fiction About Fracking in OH County Park

An article in the Salem (OH) News points out the false impressions sometimes held by those who oppose or have concerns about fracking. The example they highlight comes from area residents who had concerns about a county park in Mahoning County, OH, not far from Youngstown. The park is called Mill Creek MetroParks—a 4,400-acre park with spectacular views and walking trails, a championship golf course, a working farm and much more.

Residents were concerned about leasing land from the park for Utica Shale oil and gas drilling. Concerns center on contamination of water supplies in the park, land being disturbed with heavy equipment use, truck traffic and the like. Concerned residents learned at a recent seminar held at the park that drilling already happens from neighboring property and there’s been 40+ wells drilled (or being drilled) under the park to date.

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Platts Reports REX Pipeline Volume Down 33% This Month

Platts news service calls attention to the Rockies Express Pipeline (REX) and how it’s been impacted by the huge quantities of natural gas being produced in the mighty Marcellus Shale. Flows in the REX pipeline have dropped 33% in October alone due to abundant supplies of Marcellus Shale gas. But the Marcellus is not the only reason why the gas is staying West:

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