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Big Election Night for Republicans & Pro-Gas Candidates

voteYesterday’s election was, by all accounts, historic. It was a complete and utter repudiation of Barack H. Obama and his aggressive socialist policies–there’s no denying that. Republicans picked up governorships in most states where they ran. The one cloud was, unfortunately, Pennsylvania where California environmentalist wacko Tom Steyer’s $10 million+ purchased the governorship for the hapless Democrat Tom Wolf. One bright spot in PA (we challenge you to find this news in your local newspaper today) is that Republicans picked up MORE seats in both the PA House and Senate. Which means unless Republicans cave, there will be no severance tax to shut down Marcellus drilling in the Keystone State–at least for the next few years. Whew. In New York, Republicans (beyond all belief) held on and improved their majority in the Senate. The NY Senate is the only firewall against legislative action to permanently stop fracking in the Empire State. Whew. And what’s this, New England moves Republican???…
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End of an Ignominious Era: PA Rep Jesse White Loses

The voters in Washington County, PA finally rejected PA Rep. Jesse White, Democrat, in the first election he faced since revelations that he abused his office by using fake online IDs to criticize and impugn some of his own pro-drilling constituents (see How the Mighty Have Fallen: PA Rep White Admits Guilt, Not Sorry). In the end, White was as unrepentant and unwilling to blame himself as he has been since the beginning. Instead of taking responsibility for his actions and acknowledging it was his own stupidity that led to his fall from grace, he blamed negative ads and the media for his defeat! Talk about gall. The major media powerhouse in the Pittsburgh region, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, has been in the Jesse White tank from the beginning and offered several editorials supporting him (see PPG (Incredibly) Supports Discredited Dem Rep. Jesse White and PPG Tries to Prop Up Discredited/Shamed PA Rep Jesse White). The folks in SWPA have had enough of White’s anti-drilling tirades and sneak attacks. Bye bye Jesse…
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Dela. Riverkeeper Hopes New PA Gov Will Stop Marcellus Drilling

StateImpact Pennsylvania, an online publication populated with lefty advocates who call themselves “reporters” from Pennsylvania’s PBS stations, interviewed a variety of people from both industry and those opposed to drilling in compiling a story on what Tom Wolf’s win as the new Democrat governor of PA will mean for the drilling industry. Of particular interest to MDN are the (many) words in the article attributed to THE Delaware Riverkeeper, the arrogant Maya van Rossum. Among her (many) words is her desire/hope that Wolf will implement a moratorium on all new Marcellus Shale drilling in the state…
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MDS Energy Takes Next Big Step: Drills 1st Horizontal Wells in PA

Here’s a story we love to tell. A small, independent exploration and production (E&P) company located in the Marcellus Shale of Pennsylvania, with headquarters in Kittanning (Armstrong County), PA (near Pittsburgh), decided a few years back they would not sell out to a larger company but would instead stick around and see where the Marcellus rocket ship would take them. MDS Energy (an MDN subscriber and Databook purchaser, we’re proud to say) bought some drilling rigs and started drilling the vertical sections of horizontal wells for some of the bigger companies in the Marcellus. They also drilled their own vertical-only (conventional) wells, leaving the “big boys” to spend money figuring out the best way to drill horizontally in the Marcellus. The time is now right and MDS is taking it’s next big step: they’re starting to drill their own horizontal wells in western PA…
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Future of the Marcellus for EXCO Resources: Sell or Hold?

Energy analyst Richard Zeits, writing on the Seeking Alpha website, does a deep dive into exploration & production company EXCO Resources. Zeits is a master and, as usual, digs up some great insights. EXCO operates in East Texas/North Louisiana (the Haynesville Shale), South Texas (the Eagle Ford Shale), and in the Marcellus/Utica in the northeast. In fact, EXCO holds some 161,000 acres of leases in the Marcellus–a sizable chunk. What are they doing to monetize their Marcellus acreage? Zeits tells us the possibilities…
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Talisman Energy CEO Looking to Sell Marcellus Midstream Assets

MDN has been following, with interest, the story of Canadian company Talisman Energy–a major exploration & production company in the Marcellus Shale. As we’ve previously reported, corporate raider Carl Icahn has been pressuring the company (like he did with Chesapeake) to make changes. One prospect on the horizon was Spanish energy giant Repsol, interested in purchasing some or all of Talisman. That deal seems to have gone cold (see Talks for Repsol to Buy Some/All of Talisman Energy are “Frozen”). However, recent comments from Talisman CEO Hal Kvisle made yesterday indicate some deal-making is still going on behind the curtain–deal making that concerns the Marcellus Shale…
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GreenHunter 3Q14: More Red Ink; Wastewater Volumes Go Up

GreenHunter Resources, the midstream (pipelines & disposal wells) division of Magnum Hunter Resources, issued their third quarter update yesterday. The company continues to bleed money: They’ve lost $6.1 million year-to-date during the first 9 months of this year (vs losing $1.8 million during the same period last year). However, amidst the bad news there was some good news: four new Class II saltwater injection wells in Meigs County, OH are almost ready to go online, and total wastewater disposal volumes are up 41% over this time last year. Now if they can only stop the bleeding on the profit side of the ledger…
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Stone Energy 3Q14: 35 Marcellus Wells in 2014; 1st Utica Test Well

Stone Energy released their third quarter update on Monday. Stone is an independent oil and natural gas exploration and production company headquartered in Lafayette, LA with additional offices in New Orleans, Houston and Morgantown, WV. Stone is engaged in the acquisition, exploration, and development of properties in the Deep Water Gulf of Mexico, Appalachia (Marcellus & Utica), and the onshore and offshore Gulf Coast. So the northeast is far from the only focus for Stone. We’ve culled through yesterday’s update and have pulled out those references to the Marcellus/Utica. We found that Stone expects to drill “over” 35 wells this year in the Marcellus–and they’ve just drilled their first Utica Shale test well (which will be completed during the fourth quarter of this year)…
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The Urgent Case for Gas Pipelines in New England

Right now natural gas in Japan is costing around $18 per thousand cubic feet. All gas in Japan is imported. In New England? Gas futures trading for January 2015–the price utilities and others will pay based on contracts for January–is $19 per thousand cubic feet. New England is located just a few hundred miles from the most abundant source of natural gas on earth–the Marcellus Shale–where sometimes the price of gas goes below $2 per thousand cubic feet. What in the world is going on? Lack of pipelines to bring the gas from the Marcellus to New England. With many people on fixed incomes facing a jump of $40 per month or more in higher electricity prices (electricity in New England is largely created by natural gas-powered plants), it seems a bit silly to oppose projects like Kinder Morgan’s Northeast Energy Direct expansion of the Tennessee Gas Pipeline, no?…
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