Marcellus Drilling News

Iconic Environmentalist James Lovelock Loves Fracking

June 19, 2012June 18, 2012

I love it. One of the biggest environmentalist gurus of the past 40 years has been British scientist (formerly with NASA) James Lovelock. It seems Dr. Lovelock has had a change of heart. He’s in favor of fracking and says Britain should be “going mad on it.” He also says the modern green movement has turned into a religion and its theories are “meaningless drivel.”

From a story in the UK Daily Mail:

Air Quality | Devon Energy | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

EPA Air Pollution Rules Targeted at Senate Hearing Today

June 19, 2012June 18, 2012

Today, Devon Energy Corp.’s environmental manager Darren Smith will testify before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee in Washington, D.C. about the Environmental Protection Agency’s badly overestimated data on the amount of so-called fugitive emissions that escape from a natural gas well when it’s drilled (a copy of his full testimony is embedded below).

Industrywide Issues | Regulation | Statewide WV | West Virginia

EPA’s Aggressive Actions Against Marcellus Drillers

June 19, 2012June 18, 2012

An attorney writing on the JD Supra legal website says it’s not just the imagination of oil and gas drillers in the Marcellus Shale region—the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) really is out to get them. He proceeds to use statistics to show the rapid escalation in citations coming from the EPA since 2010.

Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Wall Street Big Money Targets Companies that Frack

June 19, 2012June 18, 2012

Three activist investor groups, all of them anti-drilling, are trying to use the influence of that money to shut down oil and gas drilling. If you have money invested with the members of any of these groups, you should consider removing your money and investing it elsewhere.

The groups are: The North American Investor Network on Climate Risk, the European Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change, and the Australia/New Zealand Investor Group on Climate Change. Collectively they represent over 200 members with total assets under management of $20 trillion.

Their target for now? The discredited concept that oil and gas drilling which uses hydraulic fracturing (just about all oil and gas drilling) leads to an increase in methane in the atmosphere—so called “fugitive emissions.”

Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | PVR Midstream | PVR Partners

PVR Sells Pipeline in East Texas, Concentrating on Marcellus

June 19, 2012June 18, 2012

Penn Virginia Resource Partners (PVR), a midstream company, yesterday announced it’s selling off a small natural gas gathering system and processing plant in east Texas to DCP Midstream Partners for $63 million. The reason? To concentrate more on the Marcellus Shale region (and to focus more on PVR’s other area of focus—the panhandle of Texas and Oklahoma).

From the PVR press release:

Commonwealth Pipeline Open Season Exceeds Expectations

June 19, 2012June 18, 2012

Inergy Midstream, UGI Energy and Capitol Energy Ventures are partnering to build a new 200-mile natural gas pipeline from Lycoming County, PA all the way to Rockville, MD (see this MDN story). Called the Commonwealth Pipeline, the new $1 billion pipeline will connect with several major interstate pipelines along its route.

Yesterday, Inergy et al reported that their non-binding open season to sign up customers to use the pipeline went better than expected. From the Inergy press release:

Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Tue, Jun 19, 2012

June 19, 2012June 18, 2012

The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading: