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Rumor: Gulfport Energy Suspends Some (All?) Ohio Utica Drilling

rumor-mill.jpgLast week Gulfport Energy released their third quarter 2015 financial and operations results (see today’s companion story). If you read the full update, you notice Gulfport is not taking delivery of a fifth Utica Shale drilling rig in early 2016 as previously planned–which connotes they will continue to operate the four rigs currently in operation now. But therein lies the rub. MDN received a tip last Thursday from a reader that said: “I received word last night that Gulfport Energy is going to suspend operations in Ohio until the END of 1Q 2016. This would also include their service provider company, Stingray, which just had approximately 150 layoffs already. This news should break today once they inform the employees of the ‘layoff’.” MDN has not seen nor heard anything in the news about Gulfport suspending all drilling operations. We did find mention from September that Stingray had filed a WARN notice they would be laying off 47 employees in Pennsylvania and Ohio. We’re not sure what to make of the rumor…
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Gulfport Energy 3Q15: Shuts-in 100 Mmcf/d of Production

Gulfport Energy, a major Utica Shale driller, released their third quarter 2015 update last Thursday and held an analyst conference call on Friday. Among the things we learn from their public statements: in all categories (natural gas, oil, NGLs), Gulfport’s production was up dramatically from the same quarter a year ago. However, the price the company gets for those commodities is down rather dramatically. The company experienced a major paper loss for 3Q15 due to write-downs on the value of its assets (because of low prices). Gulfport announced it will “voluntarily curtail” 100 million cubic feet equivalent per day (MMcfe/d) of production beginning November 1, 2015 through early 2016, due to low prices. Better to wait and sell it later at a higher price. They’re also going to forgo a fifth drilling rig in the Utica, planned to start up in 2016. Bummer. Here’s the 3Q15 update for Gulfport…
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2nd Rogersville Shale Test Well Coming to WV

Last year Cabot Oil & Gas drilled the very first test well into West Virginia’s Rogersville Shale (see Cabot Drills Test Well in WV Rogersville Shale, More on the Way?). We later found out the permit was to drill to a total depth of 14,000 feet (see How Deep Did Cabot O&G Drill Their Rogersville Test Well in WV?). Now a second Rogersville test well has been permited–but not to Cabot. The second Rogersville Shale well permit was made last week to Hard Rock Exploration, based in Charleston, WV. Hard Rock’s permit gives it permission to drill down to 15,000 feet into the Rogersville in…
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Youngstown Frack Ban Measure Voted Down 5th Time in a Row

Five times the anti-drilling zealots of Youngstown have garnered enough signatures from dead folks and others to get a so-called Community Bill of Rights (i.e. ban fracking) measure on the ballot for a citywide vote. FIVE TIMES. And you know what? As of last Tuesday, the ballot measure has been voted down–FIVE TIMES. In a row. And yet the crazies keep getting bringing it back. If they get a single vote more than the previous vote, they herald it as “movement” in their direction. The crazies enlisted a few quite a few more crazies this time around. The vote was a lot closer than one would like: 5,683 (48.53%) voted for it, and 6,028 (51.47%) voted against it. Following the results, the Youngstown Warren Regional Chamber of Commerce issued the following statement…
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NY AG Schneiderman Launches the Climate Witch Trials

Once a witch-hunter catches the scent of a suspected witch–better watch out! It struck us as we read about the drummed up false charges New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is alleging against ExxonMobil–charges that the company has knowingly made false statements about their own complicity and contribution to mythical climate change–just how doomed we really are to repeat history. Schneiderman’s actions reminded us of something, and then we found it: “Rebecca Nurse, a sick and elderly woman of seventy-years old, stood for examination before the court on charges of practicing witchcraft on March 24, 1692. Judge John Hathorne, assisted by Judge Jonathan Corwin, conducted the examination in the meeting house of Salem Village before a crowd of people from Salem Village. The examination of “Goody Nurse” developed into a spectacle worthy of the attendance of so many onlookers, as a number of afflicted women launched into “grevious fitts” and openly denounced Rebecca Nurse as the cause of their torment. In the end, after one of the great confrontations between an accused and the infamous Judge Hathorne, the Judges found cause to bind Rebecca Nurse over for trial after which she was executed on Gallows Hill on July 19, 1692.” (University of Virginia). We’re facing the Salem Witch Trials all over again–some 323 years later. Apparently we didn’t learn anything the first time around. MDN calls Schneiderman’s current campaign the Climate Witch Trials–the prosecution and persecution of innocent companies based on a false belief that mankind causes global warming by burning fossil fuels. Now we learn Schneiderman may be gunning for more than just ExxonMobil…
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Ohio Supreme Court Rules in Important Dormant Mineral Act Case

For several years MDN has been telling you about a thorny legal issue in Ohio, bubbling in the background–the Dormant Mineral Act (DMA). In a nutshell, there are two DMAs in Ohio–one passed in 1989 that went into effect in 1992, and another in 2006 which added certain additional procedural requirements to the 1989 version. The DMA in its various versions provides for mineral rights that had previously been separated from surface rights to transfer to the surface owner under certain conditions. The problem for both drillers and for landowners in Ohio, is in knowing which set of DMA rules to use (1989 or 2006) in determining who owns the mineral rights. There are a dozen cases sitting before the Ohio Supreme Court dealing with the DMA. Last December we gave you a run-down on four of the most important DMA cases before the Supremes (see 4 Important Dormant Mineral Act Cases with OH Supreme Court). One of those cases, Chesapeake v. Buell, was decided last week. It has big implications for both drillers and mineral rights owners…
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Dictator-in-Chief B.H. Obama Rejects Keystone XL Pipeline

Dictators do as dictators want to do. Last week the U.S. Dictator (used to be called President), Barack Hussein Obama, decided to cave to his kook left enviro-Nazi fringe and rejected granting permits to build the TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline–a pipeline that would flow oil from the tar sands of Canada all the way to the Gulf Coast for refining. It’s a huge blow to our relationship with our neighbors to the north and sets back U.S./Canadian relations by decades. It also prevents 20,000 jobs from being created. But dictators don’t care about any of those trifling details. They want what they want and you have to live with it–because you’re a serf. A dullard. You don’t know what kind of energy you should buy and use–so our Dear Leader will do it for you. No this isn’t a story about the Marcellus/Utica strictly speaking, but it is illustrative of what we are all up against–fossil fuel hysteria–the flames of which are fanned by people like Obama. Below is reaction from a number of senators, labor unions, the oil and gas industry and others to this travesty…
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Report: Fracking Reduces CO2 Emissions 13x Faster than Solar

A new report out from the conservative think tank Manhattan Institute finds that fracking–and NOT so-called renewables like solar–is the “single most effective tool” for reducing carbon dioxide emissions. The report, much to the consternation of the greenies, finds that fracking helped reduce CO2 emissions 13 times faster than solar power. Did you know that solar and wind together generated LESS electricity in the first half of 2015 than they did in the first half of 2014? Here’s the report the greens don’t want you to know about…
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Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Mon, Nov 9, 2015

The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: shale drillers struggle with low prices; Philly Fed prez says Marcellus has peaked for now; FERC says Columbia/Antero deal too cozy; Chesapeake’s Utica production drops; USPS investigating Chesapeake; skewed poll finds majority of PA residents want frack tax; working gas in storage at record levels; woe is Canada; and more!
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