Marcellus Drilling News

Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

CA Anti-Driller Tom Steyer Purchasing Tom Wolf PA Governorship
May 23, 2014May 23, 2014

Looks like newly-minted Pennsylvania Democrat candidate for governor, Tom Wolf (who is a multi-millionaire), has signed up to be the political b*tch for Tom Steyer from California (a multi-billionaire). How else would you describe it when Steyer has pledged $100 million to fund three gubernatorial and four Senate races (all Democrats)–one of which is the governor’s race in PA? That’s $14.3 million for Wolf if the $100 million pot of Steyer’s gold is split evenly. If Wolf wins, he’ll be owned lock, stock and by the short hairs by Steyer–in office to do Steyer’s bidding. The reason Steyer is willing to buy Wolf an election in PA? Steyer hates fossil fuels. Surprised?…
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Clearfield County | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Wastewater

EPA Issues “Final” Permit for PA Injection Well, Then Rescinds It
May 23, 2014May 23, 2014

Looks like the word “final” doesn’t really mean “final”–at least for the federal Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA issued a “final permit” to Windfall Oil and Gas to drill a wastewater injection well near Dubois (Clearfield County), PA in February (see New Wastewater Injection Well Approved in Clearfield County, PA). The EPA’s exact language when issuing the permit after 18 months of evaluation: “Based on all of the public comments received, EPA is issuing a final permit to Windfall Oil and Gas.” The “final” permit allows Windfall to operate the well until 2019 (see a copy of the permit below). But then anti-drillers got involved and pressured the EPA. So the EPA has just taken the “unusual step” of withdrawing it’s “final” approval for the injection well. What’s it called when someone changes his or her mind on a whim? Oh yeah, flaky…
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Industrywide Issues | Landfills | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide PA

PIOGA Issues “Plea” to Drillers for Drill Cutting Samples for Study
May 23, 2014May 23, 2014

The Pennsylvania Independent Oil & Gas Association (PIOGA) is putting out “a plea” for drillers in PA to lend a hand. PIOGA wants to prove to the state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) that drill cuttings are not radioactive and not “laced” with dangerous chemicals. Why do they want to prove it? So that drill cuttings (leftover rock and dirt when the borehole is drilled) can be recycled and used as fill on drilling sites, and as fill for construction sites in general. Problem is, the drillers are not cooperating…
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Belmont County | Industrywide Issues | Landfills | Ohio | Statewide OH

ODNR Allows Drill Cuttings to be Used for Construction, Roads
May 23, 2014May 23, 2014

An interesting juxtaposition for MDN. We reported in a story today that PIOGA has put out a plea for drill cutting samples so they can perform a study that will prove to the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) that drill cuttings are not radioactive or laced with chemicals and that it’s safe to recycle them for use in things like fill for construction sites–and even road work. Recycling is good! The juxtaposition is Ohio, where the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) already allows the use of drill cuttings for such purposes–with a permit of course…
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American Energy Partners | Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Utica Shale

Aubrey McClendon Raises Huge $8.7B for Shale Drilling…So Far
May 23, 2014May 23, 2014

Aubrey McClendon certainly has not let getting fired from the company he co-founded, Chesapeake Energy, slow him down. Aubrey has now raised an eye-popping $8.7 billion in capital to fund oil and gas drilling–much of it in the Utica Shale. Nearly half of that, around $4 billion, is coming in deals aimed at the Permian Basin (in Texas) and the Marcellus Shale. Those deals, according to an interview granted by McClendon last week at a conference in Houston, are still not “announced” nor “detailed”. He plans to announce the deals by the end of summer…
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Industrywide Issues | Research | Soil

Earth to Mars: We’re Coming to Frack You!
May 23, 2014May 23, 2014

No, this is not a spoof nor a joke. A petroleum engineer and professor at the Colorado School of Mines, Alfred William Eustes III, will address a meeting of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) in Aberdeen, United Kingdom on May 28th. The topic of his discussion? How oil and gas drilling techniques developed here on earth may help us discover whether or not there currently is or previously has been life under the surface on Mars…
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Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Fri, May 23, 2014
May 23, 2014May 23, 2014

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