Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Wed, Nov 20, 2013

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

Ohio

Ohio Utica Operations Expand to the South
NGI’s Shale Daily
Things are different in Ohio this year. Up until this year, Carroll, Harrison and Columbiana counties were considered the sweet spot. Now? Drilling has moved south in Ohio. Harrison, Belmont, Monroe, Guernsey and Noble counties are the new “it” places to drill.

Pennsylvania

‘Protect Our Children’ group addresses well
Grove City (PA) Allied News
A veritable smorgasbord of misinformation and outright lies about shale drilling were shared at a meeting at Moraine Elementary School in Mercer County, PA on Tuesday. Anti-drillers piled it on thick because XTO wants to drill a well down the road from the school.

Shale focus sets bank fund on fast track
Pittsburgh Business Journal
Shale Community BanFund LP, a Pittsburgh hedge fund backed by private investors, is now 60% invested in small banks in the Marcellus & Utica Shale. They’re on the hunt for more to invest in.

Houston, We Have a Problem: Profs Say Philly to Become “Global Energy Hub”
Forbes
Writing for the Forbes magazine website, former PA DEP Sec. Michael Krancer says, believe it or not, Philadelphia is poised to become the U.S. “global energy hub.” Don’t count Houston out just yet, but they should be looking over their collective shoulder. A number of reasons for this change, according to Krancer. Among them: the Marcellus.

Cabot Oil & Gas focuses on getting gas to market as Dimock controversy fades
SNL Financial
At the recent DUG East conference in Pittsburgh, Cabot Oil & Gas CEO Dan Dinges said the “Dimock controversy” is now largely behind the company. He credits good communication with members of the community and an attempt to be completely transparent by reporting all of the chemicals they use for each well site via the FracFocus.org website.

West Virginia

Bluegrass pipeline slated to pass through county
Marshall County Tribune-Courier
The Bluegrass natural gas liquids pipeline, slated to run from the Marcellus all the way to the Gulf Coast, will pass through a corner of Marshall County, WV along the way. Anti-driller Tom FitzGerald, director of the Kentucky Resources Council, offers up his objections in this article.

National

Increased Northeast natural gas production reduces net inflow of supply from other areas
EIA Energy Today
Using charts and graphs and statistics, the researchers at the Energy Information Administration show that because of the rapid increase in Marcellus (and a little bit of Utica) Shale production of natural gas in the northeast, the “inflow” or sources of gas coming into the region from other areas have decreased–a lot. Most the decrease of inflows is from the southeastern U.S.