Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Thu, May 30, 2013

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

New York

Chemists, Business Council on same drilling page
The Legislative Gazette
The American Chemistry Council, the New York State Chemical Alliance and the Business Council of New York State hosted a policy forum to discuss the job opportunities that arise when tapping into New York’s natural gas supplies. “New York’s supply of natural gas from shale has the potential to create tens of thousands of high-paying manufacturing jobs, provide a competitive advantage for industry, and generate much needed tax revenues for New York State,” said Roger Bernstein, vice president of state affairs for ACC. “New York is well-positioned to leverage supplies of natural gas from the Marcellus Shale to revive the Empire State’s manufacturing sector, which lost almost 40 percent of its manufacturing jobs from 2000 to 2010.”

Think, Please! Natural Gas Is Nothing New!
Natural Gas Now
Natural gas use in upstate New York communities is common and long-standing, yet the state wrings its hands over allowing its citizens to produce it, even when the safety is well-documented and the economic need is apparent to all. New Yorkers need to THINK, please!

Ohio

Ohio City Keen On GreenHunter
The Intelligencer/Wheeling News-Register
Living directly across the street from GreenHunter Water’s natural gas frack water recycling plant, Dianne Longfellow said her porch gets a little dusty from the 30 or so trucks entering the New Matamoras site each day. Other than that, Longfellow said GreenHunter has been a good neighbor, while visually improving the former gasoline storage facility that had fallen into disrepair.

Utica Shale Ohio – Whose Drilling Now (May 25th update)
Utica Shale Blog
Of the twelve wells classified as “drilling” in the recent May 25th data release provided by the Ohio DNR, Gulfport Energy is seen dominating with five wells drilling. CNX Gas follows with two, and then Anadarko, Hall Drilling, HESS, PDC, and XTO each come in with one each. A map of the wells that are drilling is found here…

Chesapeake Royalties Lawsuit Remanded to Ohio District Court
NGI’s Shale Daily
A federal appeals court in Cincinnati has remanded back to a Youngstown, OH, district court a class action lawsuit against Chesapeake Energy Corp., which holds leases from predecessor operators that allegedly underpaid natural gas royalties to Ohio landowners for more than a decade. In a 23-page opinion issued Wednesday, U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Richard Allen Griffin remanded back to the U.S. District Court in Youngstown, OH and said it had erred when it dismissed a class action lawsuit two years ago in part on the grounds that Ohio’s four-year statute of limitations had expired (Lutz et al v. Chesapeake Appalachia LLC et al, Nos. 10-4538 and 11-3034).

Pennsylvania

Cabot Can Make Money Even In Depressed Natural Gas Markets
Seeking Alpha
Despite the depressed natural gas market in the United States, Cabot profits from its location in the most promising gas producing shale in the country and its close proximity to the East Coast markets where fuel demand is strong. Cabot holds 200,000 acres in what is considered a prolific gas area in northeast Pennsylvania and Matt Portillo, an analyst for Tudor Pickering, says that these are among the lowest cost dry gas fields in the United States.

We’re Being Watched: How Corporations and Law Enforcement Are Spying on Environmentalists
Common Dreams
Since the group had never engaged in any kind of illegal activity or particularly radical forms of protest, it came as a shock when GDAC members learned that their organization had been featured in intelligence bulletins compiled by a private security firm, The Institute of Terrorism Research and Response (ITRR). Equally shocking was the revelation that the Pennsylvania Department of Homeland Security had distributed those bulletins to local police chiefs, state, federal, and private intelligence agencies, and the security directors of the natural gas companies, as well as industry groups and PR firms.

On the House: Shale drilling results in upstate Pa. housing boom
Philadelphia Inquirer
We were on our way across country in 2008, planning to stop at Fallingwater, the renowned Frank Lloyd Wright design, and were looking for a place to stay the night. We ended up near the turnpike outside Uniontown, Fayette County, Pa., but finding a hotel room was difficult. Large blocks of rooms in motels and hotels had been booked by drilling-company executives and their employees, and not only did we have to search for a room, getting into even a chain restaurant for dinner wasn’t easy.

MSC Members Tout Best Practices Before U.S. Senate Panel
NorthcentralPA.com
Last week, several Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC) member company executives testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy Natural Resources. At the hearing — titled “Shale Development: Best Practices and Environmental Concerns” — officials from Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, Baker Hughes, EQT Corporation, Halliburton, Noble Energy, Inc., and XTO Energy, Inc. highlighted a broad range of industry-leading, world-class operational practices aimed at ensuring the safe production of American shale gas.

Training Series Targets Appalachia’s Oil, Gas Knowledge Gap
Rigzone
Schmaus’ company and the Pittsburgh chapter of Young Professionals in Energy (YPE Pitt) are teaming up to address the region’s oil and gas industry knowledge gap. In early June, they are launching an “Energy Industry Training Series” to expose the next generation of oil and gas professionals to industry fundamentals.

National

OPEC Is Cracking…and it’s all thanks to fracking
American Interest
Members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries are meeting Friday to discuss cutting production in response to the new US addition to the global oil market. But delegates have already hinted that the asymmetric impact of the shale revolution on OPEC’s member countries has weakened the bloc’s resolve and will mean no agreement on curbing supply.

Shale drilling is under way in Illinois, according to state records
AP/Akron Beacon Journal
Illinois records indicate that high-volume oil drilling already has begun in Illinois. Lawmakers and others are scrambling to pass a bill to establish regulations for a practice that has generated intense national debate as energy companies push into new territory.

FracFocus 2.0 to revolutionize hydraulic fracturing chemical reporting nationwide
FracFocus
FracFocus.org, the national hydraulic fracturing chemical disclosure registry, will implement major upgrades beginning June 1, 2013, that will dramatically improve the site’s functionality for state regulatory agencies, industry and public users. The enhancements to FracFocus and its system has been referred to as FracFocus 2.0. It contains several new features that will enhance the usability and informational content of the system.

LNG exports could be coming to Mississippi port
AP/Akron Beacon Journal
Big changes may be coming for Gulf LNG, the liquefied natural gas terminal that is two huge storage tanks on the horizon south of Pascagoula, Miss. The owners want to begin exporting natural gas. It would be quite the turnaround for the $1.1 billion terminal built more than two years ago to import the super-chilled gas from tankers, store it, then warm and distribute it throughout the U.S. upon demand. It was the demand that never came.

GE Uses Their Imagination For Shale Development
Energy in Depth – Ohio
When one thinks of the company General Electric (GE), they think of innovation. It seems fitting, then, that GE is increasing its role within one of the most innovative industries in the world: oil and gas. In recent months GE’s oil and gas division has been making acquisitions and announcements to show they are committed to helping drive technological innovation in the oil and gas industry for many years to come.