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EnerVest Likes Clinton Sandstone “Utica-lite” Oil Wells in OH

like buttonOnce upon a time the Clinton Sandstone layer was the most drilled rock layer in Ohio. Then the Utica/Point Pleasant came along and it seemed as if everybody forgot about the Clinton. Previously the Clinton was drilled vertically, or conventional-only. But what if you drilled the Clinton horizontally, like you do in the Utica? You might get a “Utica-lite” well, as we commented a year ago (see Ohio Clinton Sandstone Horiz Wells on the Increase – Utica-Lite?). Last year MDN told you that EnverVest, among others, was experimenting with horizontal drilling in the Clinton Sandstone. According to drillers who are experimenting in the Clinton, drilling a horizontal Clinton well is anywhere from 3-10 times more expensive than a conventional well, but it produces anywhere from 7 to 20 times more oil, which is typically what they’re drilling for in the Clinton. EnerVest has drilled seven horizontal Clinton wells and is extracting 1,100 barrels of oil per day from those seven wells. Here’s more details shared by EnevVest at a recent OOGA meeting about their Clinton Sandstone efforts…
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Radical Democrats Invoke God + Sham Science to Bash PA NatGas

Just about nothing makes us more angry than when self-righteous “religious” leaders prance in front of cameras to denounce extracting and burning fossil fuels, like natural gas, as immoral or unethical. They are the height of hypocrisy–because they left them homes and churches heated with natural gas, wearing clothes made from fibers that come from petrochemicals (oil and natural gas), driving vehicles powered by fossil fuels, speaking into microphones with plastics in them and standing at a podium made from a material derived from petrochemicals–to denounce it all. Yet they use it every single day themselves. They claim to have God on their side. Repugnant. The Rev. Dr. Leah Schade (United in Christ Lutheran Church in Lewisburg, PA) and a group of 50 or so other hypocrites recently held an interfaith rally in Harrisburg to call on Gov. Tom Wolf to stop all drilling for gas and oil in the state–because it’s “immoral.” Too bad Rev. Shade lost her way and quit worshiping God and instead now worships nature. Her twisted philosophy is what happens when you quit worshiping the Creator and instead worship the creation…
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OH Antis Circulate Petitions for Bans Already Tossed by Courts

The Pennsylvania-based Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) is a radical environmental group backed with Big Green money that exists to fleece local towns into adopting bans on fracking and pipelines. Last year we carried an expose of the group (see PA’s CELDF Unmasked as Troublemakers in Ohio Utica Shale). Much of their community agitating work is done in Ohio. Time after time their so-called “community bill of rights” initiatives are shot down by Ohio courts. The latest instance (and there have been many) was earlier this month when the U.S. 8th District Court of Appeals overturned the CELDF-created bill of rights law passed in the Cleveland suburb of Broadview Heights (see Mad Moms Hopping Mad Over Court Decision re Broadview Heights, OH). You would think towns would learn that a) these initiatives invariably are challenged and thrown out by the courts, and b) if the initiatives interfere with a local business that sues the town, the CELDF is nowhere to be found (see Anti Group CELDF Won’t Help Grant Twp Pay $1M Judgement). But there’s plenty of insane people–like those circulating petitions in Medina and Portage counties to get a CELDF-backed bill of rights initiative on the local ballot. The very same initiative already shot down by Ohio courts in other locations…
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Massive Power Grab Proposed by Obama DOT: Regulate Gathering Lines

Last week the Obama Dept. of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) released a breathtaking expansion of federal power over the individual states. It is yet another in a long line of power grabs by the federal government under the reign of Our Dear Leader. The PHMSA is charged with overseeing the safety of the nation’s interstate pipelines. Until now, local gathering pipelines–the small lines that run to individual oil and gas wells–has been properly regulated by the individual states in which they reside. In some cases states, like Pennsylvania, don’t regulate gathering lines–a situation the state is attempting to rectify (see NEPA State Senator Introduces Bill to Regulate Rural Pipelines). Regardless–it’s not the proper role of the federal government to usurp a state’s rights to regulate the oil and gas industry, which is what this latest move attempts to do. Last week the PHMSA released a draft of new regulations (i.e. unlegislated laws) to regulate natural gas pipelines–both interstate and local, gathering lines (full copy of the 549-page draft in included below). According to the legal beagles at top oil and gas firm Babst Calland, “PHMSA is proposing to change the definition of an onshore gas gathering line, to partially repeal the longstanding exemption for rural gathering lines, and to extend the federal reporting requirements to all gas gathering lines (whether regulated or not).” Our opinion: whether they say they are regulating gathering lines or not, by requiring reporting, the PHMSA is defacto regulating those lines…
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Single Investor Buys ~$56M of Rice Energy Stock in 1Q16

Investors constantly sink money into, and pull money out of, oil and gas companies. Managers of those companies also buy and sell stock in their own companies. From time to time we highlight such cases–but lately, we only highlight it if it’s a really big investment. This is one of those really big investments. Billionaire Steven Cohen, founder of Point72 Asset Management, has snapped up 5.6 million shares of Rice Energy during the first almost three months of this year–so far. Rice’s stock currently trades at $12.69 per share. Over the past three months the price per share has varied from a low of $8.48/share to a high of $13.08/share. Let’s pick a number and say Cohen paid an average of $10 per share for his 5.6 million shares. That means he ponied up something on the order of $56 million–a sizable chunk of ownership in the company…
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Dominion Files Application to Move Marcellus Gas to Charleston, SC

According to their own documents and timelines, Dominion Carolina Gas Transmission is behind a few months, but they finally just filed an official application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for a 55-mile pipeline project called the Transco to Charleston Project. As the name implies, it will be a short pipeline to connect the Transco pipeline, which is in the process of reversing flows to bring Marcellus and Utica Shale gas south, to send that gas to the Charleston, SC area. The projected in-service date is November 2017…
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2 NEPA Members of Pipeline Task Force Want to Know, What’s Next?

In May 2015 Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf and his underling Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) Secretary John Quigley created a “Task Force on Pipeline Infrastructure Development” (see Disaster on the Horizon: PA Gov Wolf Creates Pipeline Task Force). The stated purpose of the group was “to identify best practices for pipeline siting, permitting and safety.” We won’t recount all of the twists and turns–of how the Task Force was packed with government employees beholden to Wolf, etc. Along the way antis tried to protest and derail the meetings held by the Task Force (see PA DEP Sec. Quigley Calls Pipeline Protesters “Badly Misinformed”). The final meeting was held and the final report was released all 658 pages of it with 184 recommendations (see PA Pipeline Task Force Report: 658 Pages, 184 “Recommendations”). Two members of the task force from northeast PA are now asking the question, “What happens next?” We have the answer: NOTHING…
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Consulting Firm IHS Merges with UK Firm to Avoid High US Taxes

When a US company like IHS, one of the biggest and best data analytics and consulting firms in the oil and gas (among other) spaces merges itself with a foreign company–in this case a UK company–to avoid paying higher taxes in the US, you know something is wrong. Yesterday IHS announced they will merge with the UK-based Markit, another data analytics firm. We love the Brits and we’re sure Markit is a fine company–but it distresses us to see companies moving offshore because of Obama’s tax policies. But there you have it–that’s just what has happened. It’s called an “inversion deal”–where a U.S. company combines with a foreign company and moves operations overseas to avoid higher tax liabilities in the U.S. The $13 billion deal involves no cash–only swapping ownership in each other’s stock. The combined company will have revenues of $3.3 billion…
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Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Tue, Mar 22, 2016

The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: Southwestern Energy’s outlook for 2016; PA’s rig count stablizes; what the media got wrong about Dimock verdict; MA AG fights pipeline in CT; Duke Energy turning pig poop into electricity; US rig count hits all-time low; more on DUCs; Schlumberger says E&Ps hammering companies like his; US energy workers’ ride to the bottom; and more!
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