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ODNR Temporarily Shuts Down Injection Wells After Low-Level Quake

earthquakeOn Sunday, August 31 at 5:45 pm, there was an earthquake in the vicinity of Weathersfield (Trumbull County), OH. However, no one felt it. The only way anyone knew there was a quake was because of monitoring by the U.S. Geological Survey. The Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) is investigating whether or not two wastewater injection wells, operated by American Water Management Services (AWMS), was the cause of that low-level quake that no one felt. According to the ODNR, from an “abundance of caution” they asked AWMS to shut down operations at those two wells while they investigate, which has now been done…
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Gastar’s First Utica Well Shines – Nearly 30 Mmcf/d

Gastar Exploration is out today with an operations update for their Utica drilling program. The company reports initial production on their first-ever Utica Shale well, drilled in Marshall County, WV, is flowing at a rate of 29.4 million cubic feet of gas per day. Those numbers easily put Gastar’s first Utica well among some of the top performers. According to Gastar CEO Russell Porter, they plan to drill “one or two” more Utica wells later this year/early 2015, get the results, ans then make a decision on how aggressively they’ll roll out their full Utica drilling program. Here’s the details on Gastar’s first Utica well…
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Shell Files Permit to Build Barge Facility at Cracker Plant Site

Something just coming to light now. In February of this year, Shell applied for a permit with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to build a barge facility on the Ohio River in Beaver County, PA at the site of Shell’s proposed ethane cracker. Is this yet another sign that Shell is finally getting serious about building the multi-billion dollar cracker plant in PA?…
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GE/Accenture Launch Internet Pipeline Software, Columbia 1st Cust

GE’s Oil & Gas division has partnered with global management consulting firm Accenture to launch Intelligent Pipeline Solution, which they describe as “the first-ever Industrial Internet offering to help pipeline operators make better decisions concerning the condition of their critical machines and assets in the oil and gas pipeline industry.” Looks to us like it’s software in the cloud–software that will help companies keep track of their pipelines and equipment and help them make better/faster/safer decisions on when things need an upgrade, or an expansion. GE/Accenture, as part of announcing this new service, announced that Columbia Pipeline Group (division of Columbia Gas) is their flagship first customer–and Columbia is using it to help manage (yes) their Marcellus/Utica Shale pipeline network…
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3 Big Compressors Coming with Columbia’s OH Pipeline Project

Representatives for Columbia Gas Pipeline are making the rounds and talking with officials in various communities where the planned expansion of their pipeline will happen. Columbia, as MDN previously reported, is spending $1.75 billion on two pipeline projects that will help move Marcellus Shale gas to the Gulf Coast (see Columbia Gas: $1.75B for 2 Projects to Send Marcellus Gas to Gulf). One of those projects is called the Leach Express–starting in Marshall County, WV and ending up in Leach, KY (hence the name). Along the way three new compressor stations will need to be built, which is the focus of this story…
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JLCNY “David” Goes Up Against Park Foundation “Goliath”

MDN recently received the following fundraising letter from the 70,000-member Joint Landowners Coalition of New York (JLCNY). The JLCNY runs on a shoestring budget. Although many landowners belong to the JLCNY “umbrella” organization through local landowner groups, most of them do not contribute money to the JLCNY. The JLCNY has been on the front lines of the fight to get shale drilling authorized in New York. As they point out in the letter, it’s a real David and Goliath kind of struggle–with mom and pop landowners as David and Park Foundation-backed liberal enviro groups (and their minions) as Goliath. The happy thought we had in reading the letter below is that we know how the original David & Goliath story turns out–the one from 3,000 years ago. Let’s hope we get a repeat with the shale drilling struggle, which right now seems hopeless, in New York State…
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Shale 101: EIA Explains the Basics, Why Marcellus is So Important

Last week the U.S. Energy Information Administration, our favorite government agency, released an updated Energy in Brief article called “Shale in the United States.” Think of it (as Columbus Business First reporter Tom Knox called it), a “Shale 101” short course in what’s what in shale drilling and production. What’s the difference between shale, “tight gas” and “tight oil”? The EIA explains it. Our favorite part of this short and enlightening article are the graphs–which illustrate the out-sized importance of the Marcellus Shale and growing importance of the Utica Shale. Here’s the full EIA article:
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The Intellectual Incest of Anti-Drilling Groups

The anti-drilling world is fairly small and intellectually incestuous. Members of virulent anti-drilling groups who irrationally hate fossil fuels–groups like Damascus Citizens for Sustainability (DCS) and the Sierra Club–send emissaries from one group to the other to gripe and complain and tell each other “if only” all of us dumb bumpkins would get with the program we could have so-called alternative energy nirvana right now. They also tell each other how evil and nasty fossil fuels are and how horrible shale drilling is. Looks like it’s time for another gripefest. The DCS is sending one of their own to a local chapter of the New Jersey Sierra Club (some of the nuttiest of the nuts) to commiserate on the evils of fossil fuels…
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