|

Magnum Hunter Stock Avg Falls Below $1, Receives NYSE Warning

trouble ahead signMagnum Hunter Resources has become the third Marcellus/Utica drillers (out of eight) on David Fessler’s “Oil Company Death List” (see 19 Oil/Gas Companies on “Death List” – 8 are in Marcellus/Utica) to receive a notice from the New York Stock Exchange that the company’s stock is in danger of being de-listed because the average price per share has fallen below $1.00 over a consecutive 30-day period…
Continue reading

| | | | | | | |

Williams/Chesapeake Ohio Utica Deal Adds 50K Acres & 20 Years

handshakeMidstream giant Williams and drilling giant Chesapeake Energy are cuddling a little bit closer in the Ohio Utica Shale. Williams announced today they have signed an agreement with Chesapeake to run gathering pipelines in a new area of the dry gas Utica for Chesapeake in return for signing a contract that binds Chessy to using Williams until 2035. Williams was already gathering natural gas for Chessy on 140,000 acres of Utica Shale land in Ohio. This agreement extends the time on that 140,000 acres by adding another 20 years, and adds another 50,000 acres to the mix…
Continue reading

| | |

August US Rig Counts Go Up Again, but Marcellus Continues to Drop

good news bad newsOilfield service giant Baker Hughes released their venerable monthly rotary rig count report today for August 2015. The numbers worldwide improved–the international rig count for August was 1,137, up 19 from the 1,118 counted in July. Looking specifically at the U.S., onshore (mostly shale) rig counts climbed from 835 in July to 849 in August, up 14. It does indeed seem as if we’ve turned a corner. This is the second month in a row that U.S. land-based rigs increased month over month (see Baker Hughes July Rig Counts – U.S. May have Bottomed, but Not NE). However, the rig count in the Marcellus/Utica did not improve. It got worse…
Continue reading

| | | | | |

Whatever Happened to Aither Chemical, WV’s “Small” Cracker Plant?

what happenedMore than 3 1/2 years ago (in January 2012) MDN told you about a plan in West Virginia to use a process patented by Union Carbide in the 1970s to build an ethane cracker plant on the cheap–much less than the typical “world scale” crackers announced by Shell, Odebrecht and others since that time (see Another New Entrant in the Ethane Cracker Plant Sweepstakes). The company created to build the WV “cheaper” cracker plant was called Aither Chemical, a creating of a non-profit funded, in part, by the State of WV. What ever happened to that project?…
Continue reading

| | | |

Reversed REX Pipeline from Marcellus/Utica to Midwest Will Expand

REXz3-3
Click map for larger version

On August 1, the Rockies Express Pipeline reversed its direction on a portion of the pipeline called Zone 3 and began flowing 1.8 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of Marcellus and Utica Shale gas to the Midwest (see 1.8 Bcf/d of Marcellus/Utica Gas Heads West on REX Starting Aug 1). REX Zone 3 stretches from Clarington, OH to Mexico, MO (see the map). Further good news. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has granted a favorable Environmental Assessment (EA) for REX to beef up capacity along Zone 3 by expanding two existing compressor stations and building three new compressor stations along the Zone 3 section. We also know who got the contract to build it…
Continue reading

| | | | | | |

300 Acres Next to FirstEnergy Site Part of Belmont Cracker Plan

nextdoor neighborA few more details about the proposed site for an ethane cracker plant in Belmont County (see It’s Official: Belmont County Chosen as POSSIBLE Cracker Plant Site). The proposed site is the existing 130-acre R.E. Burger Plant, a coal-fired electric generating plant owned and operated by Ohio utility company FirstEnergy (see FirstEnergy Says Talk of Selling Land for OH Cracker “Premature”). However, we now know that the $5.7 billion chemical complex, to be built by Thailand-based PTT Global Chemical, will require far more than 130 acres. The new ethane cracker facility will require something like 450-500 acres. So where will the other land surrounding the R.E. Burger Plant come from? The nextdoor neighbor…
Continue reading

| | |

PA “Independent” Fiscal Office Dem Tool in Severance Tax Debate

we fight dirtyPennsylvania’s Democrats continue to fight dirty in the budget battle–in their losing effort to pile big taxes on a single industry, the Marcellus Shale industry. The latest in the dirty war they’re waging: the extremely partisan Democrat-controlled so-called Independent Fiscal Office (yes, a PA state government office funded by taxpayers) has issued a report to sycophantic media outlets (but not the general public via its website) to forecast a decrease in Marcellus Shale impact fee revenue for 2015…
Continue reading

| |

EV Energy Partners Buys $259M in Wells/Leases from Parent EnerVest

mothershipEV Energy Partners (EVEP), an upstream master limited partnership (MLP) created by EnerVest, announced they will purchase oil and natural gas properties from the mothership EnerVest in four different locations, one of them being Appalachia (i.e. Marcellus/Utica). EVEP will pay the parent company $259 million for properties in Appalachian Basin, San Juan Basin, Michigan and Austin Chalk with cumulative estimated proved reserves of 302 billion cubic feet equivalent (Bcfe)…
Continue reading

| | | | | | |

US Steel Tests New Pipe Connector in Range Resources Marcellus Well

263866
US Steel pipe project at Range Resources well

For more than a year MDN has told you about a brewing controversy–South Korea and other countries “dumping” steel pipes on the U.S. market–selling pipes for below cost to corner the market and force out competitors. Concerns about dumping caught the attention of Congress who pressured the Obama Administration and in July 2014 the Dept. of Commerce slapped new/high tariffs on steel pipes from South Korea and eight other countries (see Commerce Dept Slaps Foreign Countries for Steel Pipe Dumping). One of the problems drillers face is that some of the steel pipes and connectors they use are specialized, and only available from foreign producers. U.S. Steel, headquartered in Pittsburgh, is working to address that. They’ve just completed a successful test of a new pipe connector in a Marcellus well drilled by Range Resources in Washington County, PA…
Continue reading