The latest numbers from the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) shows that Utica Shale permits have risen to a total of 627, out of which 310 of them have been (or are being) drilled.
Here’s a summary of the latest numbers, along with a table showing all of the permits issued as of April 27, listing the county, town, driller and well name:
Read More “OH Utica Permits Now 627 – See Who & Where”
A blogger on the Seeking Alpha website delivers a bit more information about the announcement earlier this week that Chesapeake is selling their leases for 163,000 acres in NE PA to Southwestern Energy for what MDN called the “fire sale” price of $574 per acre (see Southwestern Energy Buys 162K PA Marcellus Acres from Chesapeake).
According to Seeking Alpha, Chesapeake paid an average of $610 per acre to lease that acreage between 2006-2009, so they actually lost money on the deal…
Read More “More on Chesapeake’s Fire Sale of PA Acreage to Southwestern”
On Monday, the head of the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources, James Zehringer, asked Ohio Senators to restore a number of non-budget-related oil and gas provisions to the budget bill scrapped by the House in the version they passed. The provisions could be brought back if the Senate includes them and the final version is agreed to in committee.
The provisions Zehringer wants added back?…
Read More “ODNR Wants Fracking Regs Added Back to Kasich Budget Bill”
In December, MDN told you the name of a newly formed joint venture between drilling company Hilcorp and midstream company NiSource would be Hickory Bend. The new joint venture will build a wet gas (natural gas liquids) pipeline and processing plant somewhere in the Youngstown, OH area (see Mahoning Utica Pipeline/Processing Plant “Moving Forward”). At the time, no plans had been announced about where the pipeline or cryogenic gas processing plant will be located.
Although the jv is still mum on a pipeline route (they’re acquiring lease rights to build it), we do know where the processing plant will be built…
Read More “Location ID’d for Mahoning County, OH Cryo Processing Plant”
The Commonwealth Pipeline, a joint venture between Inergy, UGI and WGL Holdings, was suspended indefinitely just a few weeks ago (see PA’s Commonwealth Pipeline Project Suspended – Indefinitely). However, officials from Berks County, PA, in the southeastern part of the state and a county through which the Commonwealth Pipeline was slated to pass through, don’t buy it. They believe the project will come back to life and pass through their county, eventually…
Read More “Berks County Officials Think Commonwealth Pipeline Will Rise Again”
Although no Utica Shale permits have been issued for drilling in southeastern Ohio Athens County so far, the potential does exist (see Athens County, OH Upgraded to “Good” on ODNR Utica Map). Along with drilling comes wastewater. Many drillers recycle it, but some dispose of it via deep injection wells throughout Ohio. Athens County commissioners have voted to support a ban on all fracking wastewater disposal by injection wells.
Are the Athens commissioners trying to send a message to the drilling industry to stay away?…
Read More “Athens Politicians Support Injection Well Ban for Frack Wastewater”
Yesterday, Apr. 30, was to be the final day for the general public to “submit data and scientific literature” to the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to assist the EPA with their multi-year study of fracking. However, the EPA posted a notice in yesterday’s Federal Register (see it embedded below) extending the deadline to Nov. 15. A final report from the EPA is due in 2014–no word if this extension will prompt a slippage in that date too.
Why the change in deadline?…
Read More “EPA Extends Deadline for Public Input on Fracking”
A highly misleading brochure full of half-truths and outright lies is being mailed to 84,000 households in the Southern Tier area of New York State by a small group called Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy, in an attempt to scare residents and apply pressure to Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The Southern Tier area includes counties like Broome, Chenango, Chemung, Tioga and Steuben that are most likely to see fracking if and when Cuomo ever gets off his rear-end.
Here, boys and girls, is a glittering example of anti-fracking, anti-capitalist propaganda:
Read More “NY Anti-Fracking Group Ramps up the Propaganda Machine”
How much money was spent, and how many shale oil and gas wells were drilled in the U.S. in 2011 (the latest year with full statistics)? The American Petroleum Institute, the industry’s largest trade association, knows. And the numbers may surprise you…
Read More “No. of US Shale Wells Up 44% in 2011, Drilling Money Up 88%”
An Ohio company close to the Pennsylvania border has been accused of illegally accepting and disposing of (burying) drilling wastewater and drill cuttings. Since the landfill where the material is buried sits close to the Mahoning River, there is a concern that some nasty substances may have or are leaking into the river.
An alphabet soup of OH state and federal government agencies served Soil Remediation Inc. in Lowellville (Mahoning County), OH with a search warrant early last week…
Read More “Alleged New Case of Illegal Shale Waste Dumping in OH”
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading:
Read More “Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Wed, May 1, 2013”