Marcellus Drilling News

Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Greene County (PA) | Pennsylvania | Rice Energy

Chesapeake Sells 22K Acres in Greene County, PA to Rice Energy
July 8, 2014July 8, 2014

Chesapeake Energy continues to sell off assets in an attempt to boost its stock price and make corporate raider Carl Icahn even richer. The latest fire sale: Rice Energy announced yesterday they’ve picked up 22,000 acres and 12 Marcellus Shale wells from Chessy located in Greene County, PA for $336 million. According to Rice’s President & COO Toby Rice, the acreage is a “high quality” shale asset located in an area they’ve been developing since 2009…
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Earthquakes | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA DEP Considers New Rules to Prevent Earthquakes from Fracking
July 8, 2014July 8, 2014

The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) has launched a “massive data mining project” to consider drafting new rules around induced seismicity–or the possibility that in rare circumstances fracking itself may cause low-level earthquakes. What seems to have caught the attention of the DEP is the assumption by their counterparts in Ohio, the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR), that a series of low-level earthquakes near the OH/PA border were in fact due to fracking operations being conducted by Hilcorp (see ODNR Says Youngstown Earthquakes “Probably” Caused by Fracking)…
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Accidents | Chevron | Energy Companies | Greene County (PA) | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania

Parents of Worker Killed in Chevron Greene Co Fire Sue
July 8, 2014July 8, 2014

In February of this year there was an explosion and fire at Chevron’s Lanco 7H well pad in a remote area northwest of Bobtown in Greene County, PA (see Explosion & Fire at Chevron Well in SWPA – 1 Person Missing). Sadly, the fire killed Ian McKee, 27, a Cameron International contractor working at the Chevron well site (see Remains of Chevron Contractor Found at Greene County Well Site). Ian’s parents recently filed paperwork suing Chevron…
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Industrywide Issues | Pipelines

2014 Pipeline Roundup: Most Important Northeast Pipeline Projects
July 8, 2014July 8, 2014

Pipeline infrastructure is critical to the development of any shale play, but in particular for the Marcellus and Utica Shale region. We are blessed with some of (we would say THE) best shale gas resources in the country. As more drilling takes place, you need a way to get all of that gas to market. “Markets” include local, New England, the East Coast, the South, the Midwest, the Southwest and even exports to Canada and (via LNG) Japan and India and perhaps even Europe. MDN has long chronicled pipeline projects in the northeast. However, Dave Messersmith, Penn State Extension Educator part of the Penn State Marcellus Education Team, recently penned an excellent roundup of some of the most important pipeline projects for the northeast–pipelines that either are in the works now, or announced…
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Belmont County | Butler County | Carroll County | Energy Companies | Guernsey County | Noble County | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Rex Energy

Rex Energy Begins Selling Ethane; New Wells Go Online in June
July 8, 2014July 8, 2014

Rex Energy, the “little driller that could” and indeed “is” doing a marvelous job in the Marcellus Shale, issued an important update yesterday. Rex reports they began ethane sales on June 11–which was a little bit delayed from what they had expected. But better late than never. Rex projects selling 2,000-3,000 barrels per day of ethane until mid-July at which point more sources will come online. Once all cylinders are firing, the company expects to sell 5,000 barrels of ethane per day. In addition to the good ethane news, Rex recently brought a number of new Marcellus Shale wells online and expects to keep up a brisk pace this year…
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Energy Services | GreenHunter Resources | Industrywide Issues | Meigs County | Ohio | Regulation | Wastewater

GreenHunter Seeks Approval for Barge Facility in Meigs County, OH
July 8, 2014July 8, 2014

Over the past few years GreenHunter Water, a subsidiary of Magnum Hunter Resources, has purchased seven barge facilities along the Ohio River with the stated intent to transport frack wastewater from up the river in places in Pennsylvania and West Virginia and even Ohio, to further down the river in Ohio–where it would be offloaded and disposed by injection well. We wrote in May 2013 of the long road to receiving federal approval for such a plan (see The Long (Federal) Road to Approve GreenHunter’s Barge Terminals). Then in October it seemed like an approval from the U.S. Coast Guard was imminent (see Coast Guard Green Lights Barge Transport of Frack Wastewater). Here we are in July 2014–and still no Coast Guard approval in sight, which is disappointing…
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Electrical Generation | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Spectra Energy

Spectra Energy to the Rescue! New England Pipeline Expansion
July 8, 2014July 8, 2014

Seems that Kinder Morgan and their planned expansion of the Tennessee Gas Pipeline across Massachusetts isn’t the only company to respond to the plea from New England’s governors to get more natural gas coming to the region (see Blue State Blues: 6 New England States Want New Natgas Pipeline). Spectra Energy has responded to the call to get more gas going to New England. Last week Spectra announced plans to expand the Algonquin and Maritimes pipeline systems adding an additional 1 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day by 2017, much of it slated for New England’s electric generating plants…
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Energy Services | Enterprise Products Partners | Industrywide Issues | MarkWest Energy | Pipelines | Sunoco Logistics | Williams

Envelope Please: 4 of 5 Top Midstream Companies in Marcellus/Utica
July 8, 2014July 8, 2014

Who’s the “best of the best” when it comes to the midstream sector–for the entire country? It probably won’t surprise you to learn that the #1 midstream company in the Marcellus, by size of operations in the Marcellus, claimed the top spot in EnergyPoint Research’s 2014 Oil & Gas Midstream Services Customer Satisfaction Survey. That company is, of course, MarkWest Energy. What may surprise you is that Sunoco Logistics, currently under an intense smear campaign by anti-drillers who want to prevent the Mariner East natural gas liquids pipeline from beginning operation, came in at #2. Two other companies with major operations in the northeast are also in the top 5…
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Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Supply Chain

Shale Gas Adding 150K New Supply Chain Jobs by 2020
July 8, 2014July 8, 2014

The Energy Equipment and Infrastructure Alliance (EEIA), a trade association representing the companies and people that provide contractor services, equipment, materials and labor to shale oil and gas exploration and production, infrastructure, transportation and processing, says a new report shows that shale gas production through 2020 will create an additional 150,000 new supply chain jobs in the U.S. The EEIA also says if the U.S. government gets its act together and approves more LNG export facilities, that would create another 10-20,000 additional jobs…
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Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Tue, Jul 8, 2014
July 8, 2014July 8, 2014

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: Tue, Jul 8, 2014”