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USGS Study: Pike County Water has Methane, Radon – No Drilling

who knew?In the summer of 2012, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) began a groundwater survey in Pike County, PA. Pike, located in northeastern PA, is one of the counties with the dubious distinction of being under the regulatory purview of the Delaware River Basin Commission which has, so far, refused to allow any Marcellus Shale drilling. The survey’s purpose is to provide baseline numbers prior to any Marcellus drilling activity. So, just to be clear, there has been NO drilling thus far in Pike nor anywhere near Pike. And yet, what did the USGS survey, published in July 2014 (full copy below) show? Some 80% of the water wells tested in Pike have “detectable concentrations of methane” and 10% of the wells (2 of the 20 tested) have high levels of methane. Not only that, 85% (!) of the wells tested have (gasp) really high radon levels–over the proposed safe limit of 300 picocuries per liter. One well was as high as 4,500 picocuries! But it gets worse–there’s also measurable quantities of nasty stuff like barium, strontium, and the dreaded chloride (salt). And yet, not a Marcellus Shale well in sight. Now how can that be?…
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MDN Welcomes Antero Resources to the 1 Bcf/d Club

1 Bcf/d ClubEarlier this month Antero Resources, a large and growing driller in the Marcellus and Utica Shale, provided their second quarter financial and operations update. At the time, MDN observed they are getting close to a very exclusive milestone–the 1 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas production–or the “1 Bcf/d Club”. So far only Cabot Oil & Gas, Range Resources and EQT are in the club. Earlier this week Antero issued a guidance update declaring they will hit the 1 Bcf/d level in the second half of this year. Antero has revised UP their “guidance” by another 5%–saying they expect to be at 990 – 1,010 MMcfe/d for the entire year, and well beyond the 1 Bcf/d level (1,160 MMcfe/d) during the second half of the year. So, MDN officially says to Antero: Welcome to the club! Here’s Antero’s extensive guidance update issued Tuesday:
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PA AG Kane Goes on Witch Hunt of Drilling Industry over Royalties

You can’t say we didn’t warn you. In April MDN warned you that by inviting Pennsylvania’s avowed anti-drilling Attorney General Kathleen Kane (Democrat) to investigate Chesapeake Energy for shorting landowners on royalties, an invitation extended by PA Gov. Tom Corbett and PA Sen. Gene Yaw (both Republicans), they would unleash something far worse than they expected (see PA AG Kathleen “Anti-Driller” Kane Probes Chessy Royalty Issue). We were right. Word has filtered down that Kane is expanding the scope of her investigation “throughout the energy industry” in PA. Translation: the witch hunt has begun…
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Blue Racer to Build New Wet Gas Plant in Mahoning County, OH

Listen up supply chain companies who want to get involved with a big new project coming in the Ohio Utica Shale. Blue Racer Midstream, the $1.5 billion joint venture between Caiman Energy II, LLC and Dominion formed in December of 2012, plans to build a new wet gas processing facility in Mahoning County by June 2016. The new facility, located near Petersburg in Springfield Township appears to be “back on track” according to an article in the Youngstown Business Journal
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Frack It Again – CONSOL’s Experiment in Refracking a Success

Frack and refrack? Yep. CONSOL Energy started drilling Marcellus Shale wells in 2009. In fact, they drilled half a dozen wells in Greene County at the time. Five years ago is an eternity in the shale drilling business. Knowledge and experience has expanded maybe a hundred-fold since that time. With every new well CONSOL and other drillers learn what does and what does not work. So CONSOL had an interesting idea: what would happen if we went back and refracked some of those early wells, which were not good producers? CONSOL hired Halliburton to refrack and the results were so good, they’re going to refrack another 200 wells…
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Obama Back Door Climate Plan: Use UN to Police US Global Warming

President Barack Obama intends to once again act illegally and unlawfully–in contravention to the U.S. Constitution and it’s separation of powers. Obama’s flouting of the Constitution has been breathtaking during his ignominious presidency–and it’s about to get worse. On Tuesday the New York Times reported a story that Obama and his global warming cronies are concocting a plan to sign a binding agreement, in essence a new treaty–without consent of two-thirds of the Senate as required by the Constitution–that would commit the U.S. to arbitrary and punitive emissions standards to be enforced by the United Nations. Talk about chutzpah…
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Deal to Purchase Site for Nova Scotia LNG Plant Advances Quickly

One month ago MDN brought you the news that Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (LNGL) was in the process of purchasing a 255-acre site in Nova Scotia, Canada from Anadarko Petroleum to be used as an LNG export facility (see New LNG Plant in Nova Scotia Will Use Marcellus Gas). The reason that’s news for MDN is because some of the gas that will feed the facility is slated to be Marcellus Shale gas, piped up to Nova Scotia. Today LNGL announced the purchase of what they call the Bear Head LNG site is now complete, ahead of schedule. LNGL paid a drop in the bucket–$11 million–for the site. If they move forward with building an LNG export facility, they’ll invest something like $2.2 billion…
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