Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Wed, Feb 6, 2013

The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading:

New York

Geology report: Hydrofracking unlikely in town of Van Buren
The Post-Standard
Town of Van Buren, NY – It is highly unlikely that hydrofracking will ever take place in the town of Van Buren , according to an engineering firm.

Ohio

Gulfport Energy Corporation (GPOR) Develops Southern Half of Utica Shale
The Wall Street Transcript
Gulfport Energy Corporation (GPOR) has core acreage in the southern part of the Utica shale, one of the U.S. unconventional resources which has evolved, and the company is becoming the core Utica proxy for the market at this point, says Cameron Horwitz.

Pennsylvania

Property Owners to Get Details Of Pipeline at Special Meeting
Town Topics
The owners of 15 tracts that would be affected by the laying of a natural gas pipeline through a 1.5-mile section of Princeton have been invited to attend a meeting on February 28 at the Municipal Building.

Open Letter: Why Did an Energy In Depth Staffer Post a Blog for a Cecil Resident?
Patch.com
Dear Energy In Depth , I’ll just put my cards out on the table here: I don’t know what kind of unit you’re running over there.
[MDN Note: Best case yet we’ve seen of a so-called impartial journalist launching an unprovoked attack against the shale industry.]

Natural Gas Scare Tactics Come to Washington County
Energy in Depth – NMI
The Observer-Reporter recently ran an article which attempted to scare people about the process of natural gas development.  The author, an associate professor in the biology department at Washington & Jefferson College has no background in natural gas development yet seems to have all the “facts.”

National

Chesapeake Estimates 2013 Funding Gap at About $3.5 Billion
Bloomberg
Chesapeake Energy Corp., the U.S. natural gas producer that asked its chief executive officer to resign last week, estimated its spending commitments will exceed cash flow by about $3.5 billion this year.

Duke Reactor Shutdown Plan Shows Shale’s Sway Over Power
Bloomberg
Duke Energy’s decision to dismantle a Florida nuclear power plant rather than undertake the costliest- ever U.S. atomic repair shows how rapidly cheap natural gas is remaking the U.S. power industry, hastening a shift from traditional fuels such as coal and uranium.