Marcellus Drilling News

Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pipelines | Processing Plants | Statewide OH

So Who’s Building All Those OH Pipelines Anyway?
July 17, 2013July 17, 2013

An MDN subscriber recently emailed us to ask for more details about that map showing, by region, the number of new natural gas gathering and transmission pipelines that will be built (see The Surprising Number of New NatGas Pipelines Coming in OH). The map we showed (embedded below) indicates that Ohio is in the midst of a major pipeline build-out with an astonishing 100+ new pipelines either currently under construction, or soon will be. The question from our reader: Who’s building all those pipelines?

We went looking and found an excellent article in Farm and Dairy that gives us the answer…
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Antero Resources | Energy Companies

Antero Resources Expands Credit Line by $250M for More Drilling
July 17, 2013July 17, 2013

Antero Resources is a major Marcellus and Utica Shale driller, headquartered in Denver, CO. Last Friday, Antero announced they’ve upped their credit line with a banking syndicate by an additional $250 million (their full credit line is now $1.45 billion). They hint that they may expand their line of credit to the “full $1.75 billion borrowing base” in the future.

Here’s the announcement that Antero now has more cash to help with drilling in the Marcellus/Utica:
Read More “Antero Resources Expands Credit Line by $250M for More Drilling”
Energy Companies | Energy Services | EQT Corp | Equitrans/EQT Midstream | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines

EQT Sells Sunrise Pipeline Operation to Itself for $540M
July 17, 2013July 17, 2013

EQT, a major driller in the Marcellus and Utica Shale, as well as a midstream (pipeline) operator, just announced they will sell a major natural gas pipeline they own–the Sunrise Pipeline–for $540 million to…itself. Er, at least to the EQT Midstream Partners, a new/separate Master Limmited Partner (MLP) company started by EQT to focus on the midstream sector. The ownership of the pipeline will change on paper (for accounting and investor purposes), but practically speaking, nothing else will change.

The EQT announcement:
Read More “EQT Sells Sunrise Pipeline Operation to Itself for $540M”
Columbia Pipeline Group | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Hilcorp Energy | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | NiSource | Ohio | Pipelines | Processing Plants | Statewide OH

OH Hickory Bend Pipeline/Plant Makes Excellent Progress
July 17, 2013July 17, 2013

An update on the Pennant Midstream “Hickory Bend” pipeline and cryogenic processing plant being built in eastern Ohio. The local labor union boss says excellent progress is being made as the project now enters its second phase, in spite of distractions from anti-drillers (see Slight Delay for Hickory Bend Processing Plant, Permit Appealed)…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

New PennEnvironment “Report”: Soak Drillers for More Bond Money
July 17, 2013July 17, 2013

More huffing and puffing from the anti-drilling group PennEnvironment. Yesterday they released a new so-called report called “Who Pays the Costs of Fracking?” (full copy embedded below). PennEnvironment, using paid interns from an anti-fossil fuel think tank called The Frontier Group to write this drivel, attempt to make the case that drillers don’t pay enough bond money up front for future, possible, maybe, someday problems that might arise–potentially. So make ’em pay now, up front.

Of course their chief recommendation–require obscenely high up-front bonds from drillers–is nothing more than a back-door way of making it more expensive to drill, leading to less drilling. But that’s what these types of organizations do–sit around and dream up ways to slow the use of those evil, nasty fossil fuels…
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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Maryland | Regulation | Statewide MD

Maryland Public Comment Session #2 on Drilling Best Practices
July 17, 2013July 17, 2013

For years, MDN has poked fun at the State of Maryland and has said, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, that Maryland is the only state more dysfunctional than New York on the topic of hydraulic fracturing and shale drilling. Now? We’d say Maryland and New York are neck-in-neck in the race to screw up the biggest economic and jobs miracle in generations. But we’d still give Maryland a slight edge as being “most dysfunctional.” That dysfunction was on full display at yesterday’s second public meeting held by the Maryland Dept. of the Environment to receive comments on a draft best practices for shale drilling document–a document recently released by the governor’s Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission (see Maryland Releases Draft “Best Practices” in Shale Drilling Report for a copy).

The Baltimore Sun was on hand for yesterday’s second public meeting–held in Baltimore–and filed this report:
Read More “Maryland Public Comment Session #2 on Drilling Best Practices”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

New API Ad Addresses Public Concerns about Fracking
July 17, 2013July 17, 2013

The American Petroleum Institute, the preeminent trade association for America’s oil and gas companies, has just launched a new advertising campaign to address public concerns (and correct media misstatements) about fracking. The ad will be run on TV and radio spots, as well as in print and online. It’s a great video ad (watch it below).

Here’s the announcement from API on the new ad campaign:
Read More “New API Ad Addresses Public Concerns about Fracking”
Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale | Washington County (OH)

OH Students Get High-Paying Jobs in OH Utica Shale Industry
July 17, 2013July 17, 2013

A group of Ohio schoolteachers went on a field trip recently, touring drilling sites in eastern Ohio–Washington County, to be specific. A reporter tagged along to get their impressions and produced an interesting article. As part of that article, the reporter spoke to several educators about job opportunities in the Ohio oil (and gas) field patch. We’ve brought you such stories before, but it bears repeating that (in this case) Ohio students graduating from Marietta College’s petroleum engineering and geology department are actively, aggressively recruited and many get jobs right out of college with starting salaries of over $100,000 per year!

In addition, there’s plenty of high-paying jobs for those without a degree who have skills–like welding, truck driving and diesel mechanic. You can see how the Ohio Utica Shale is radically improving the jobs situation in Ohio:
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Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Wed, Jul 17, 2013
July 17, 2013July 17, 2013

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, Jul 17, 2013”