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WPX Wastewater Impoundment Source of Water Contamination in W PA?

Ligonier PAThree families near a WPX Energy wastewater impoundment near Ligonier (Westmoreland County), PA say their well water has been contamined by wastewater leaking from the impoundment. The case is just coming to light (at least for MDN) although the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) has known and has investigated the “leaky impoundment” for going on two years now…
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EQT Offers Neighbors Near Finleyville Drill Pad $50K for Nuisance

ProPublica has a new story claiming that Marcellus driller (and midstream company) EQT has done something really unusual in Washington County, PA. The company, last year, was in the process of drilling 12 wells on a single pad. With all of the trucks and noise and dust, it didn’t take the neighbors long to start complaining. EQT attempted to address those concerns, meeting with neighbors and conducting air tests, etc. However, after apparently growing tired of the hassles, EQT finally just offered each household/neighbor near the pad $50,000–if those neighbors would sign a “nuisance easement” that pretty much says the neighbors absolve EQT from any damages for anything related to their drilling and pipeline operations…
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Warren Resources Buys Marcellus Acreage/Wells from Citrus Energy

The Marcellus Shale has a new driller in town. This morning, New York City-based Warren Resources announced they have acquired essentially all of the Marcellus assets owned by Colorado-based Citrus Energy for $352.5 million. Warren immediately takes title to several working Marcellus wells currently producing 82 million cubic feet of gas per day…
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3 Investment Cos Buy Fluid Delivery Solutions – Terms Not Disclosed

Three private equity companies (investment firms) announced last week they have acquired a majority interest in Fluid Delivery Solutions (FDS), an oilfield water management company that provides fresh water transfer and storage for drillers in the Marcellus, Utica and other shale plays. Terms of the buyout were not disclosed, however, FDS’ management and staff will remain in place. Essentially FDS has transferred ownership to investors with deep pockets but have kept the keys to the company…
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Marcellus Driller Vantage Energy Files for $400M IPO

Colorado-based Vantage Energy, with a major operation in the Marcellus Shale, has filed paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering (IPO) in which they hope to sell $400 million worth of stock. Vantage owns 48,000 acres in the Marcellus Shale–in Greene County, PA. They also have a sizable stake in the Barnett Shale (in Texas)…
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Opposition from Anti Drillers to ET Rover Pipeline in Michigan

Why is it reporters, when writing about proposed pipelines, and talking about the gas that flow through them, always seem to use the same pejorative phrasing. Word for word out of the reporter anti-drilling stylebook it’s usually something like “gas extracted through the controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking,” as Gannett reporter Keith Matheny writes in the Detroit Free Press when talking about the recently announced ET Rover pipeline from Energy Transfer Partners that will cross Michigan (see Big News: ETP “Rover” Marcellus/Utica Pipeline to Midwest/Canada). For their part, anti-drillers quoted in such stories always seem to use the same phraseology too…
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OH Makes $150K Grant to Union to Train Utica/Marcellus Welders

More highly skilled (and highly paid) welders will be on the way soon in the Utica and Marcellus Shale thanks to a $150,000 training grant by the State of Ohio to the Plumbers & Pipefitters Local 396. The grant, from the Governor’s Office of Appalachia, will train (or retrain) 40 union welders over the next one year. The money will put Ohioans back to work by working in the gas fields (no “foreigners” need apply). Here’s the official announcement:
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Some So-Called Churches Vote to Divest from Fossil Fuel Companies

Once again so-called church denominations, including the United Church of Christ and more recently the Unitarian Universalist Association (they’re “so-called” because they’re about as far you can get from being a church in the classic sense of that word) are divesting their considerable investments from any company they deem to promote the use of fossil fuels. No more ExxonMobil stocks in their portfolios–eventually. They won’t divest all at once because that may cost them their precious filthy lucre…
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Branding Squabble Among Sunoco Siblings over Mariner East Project

For MDN, an interesting story in the Philadelphia Inquirer tackles the tricky issue of branding and the very visible brand of Sunoco. It seems Sunoco that sells you your gasoline at filling stations across the country is often confused with Sunoco Logistics, the company that builds pipelines, like the Mariner East pipeline. Mariner East would repurpose a pipeline that crosses the state of Pennsylvania from west to southeast and would deliver natural gas liquids, including propane, to the Marcus Hook refinery near Philadelphia. Mariner East has faced still opposition (see More Pushback from PA Residents on Proposed Mariner East Pipeline). Anti-drillers are trying to tarnish the Sunoco name and that has Sunoco the filling station company concerned…
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