Marcellus Drilling News

Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | New York | Tompkins County

Park Foundation Exposed as Funding Faux Research Against Shale
July 22, 2014July 22, 2014

For years MDN (and others) have written about the shadowy Park Foundation, a supposedly philanthropic non-profit with offices in Ithaca, NY, as behind some of the most insidious and frankly false “research” that attempts to smear the miracle of hydraulic fracturing. A new article in the summer issue of Philanthropy magazine lays bare the collusion that exists between the Park Foundation and researchers at once-storied institutions like Cornell University. In fact, Park is the funder of many anti-shale groups, including Food & Water Watch, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, and more than 50 large and small groups. Park has woven a clever web of bought-and-paid for “researchers” and “reporters” at both big and small media outlets to plant false stories about shale gas…
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Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Range Resources Corp | Washington County | Wastewater

Range Resources to Close Wastewater Pond in Washington County, PA
July 22, 2014July 22, 2014

So-called “investigative journalist” Amanda Gillooly maintains a “bash Range Resources all the time” blog site called Marcellus Monitor, on which she is reporting that Range Resources has filed a plan with the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection to close the Yeager wastewater impoundment in Amwell Township (Washington County), PA. Gillooly laughably says the impoundment is “the subject of myriad lawsuits and a federal probe.” Apparently two lawsuits is considered a myriad these days…
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Harrison County | Lease & Royalty Payments | Ohio

MWCD Neighbor Asks District to Include Them in Future Lease Deal
July 22, 2014July 22, 2014

The Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District (MWCD) was formed in 1933 to help control flooding and promote water conservation in the Muskingum River watershed area of Ohio, an area that covers 8,000 square miles. Over the past few years the MWCD has been aggressively leasing some of it’s 54,000 acres for shale drilling, a move that is making the organization big bucks (see MWCD Reinvesting $300M of Utica Shale Revenue over Next 10 Yrs). Some of the MWCD leases are for drilling under and around reservoirs (see Antero Pays $15K/Acre, 20% Royalties for MWCD Piedmont Lake Lease). Anti-drillers have, of course, tried to spoil it (see Anti-Drillers Win Minor Victory Against Muskingum Watershed Dist), but such efforts have been largely unsuccessful in their attempt to derail shale drilling on MWCD land. What you don’t usually hear about are stories like this one…
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Butler County | Deep Well Services | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Pennsylvania | Supply Chain

PA Snubbing Company Expands by 50 Jobs in Just 3 Months
July 22, 2014July 22, 2014

Another supply chain success story: Thanks to the Marcellus and Utica Shale, the only “snubbing” company located in Pennsylvania, Deep Well Services (DWS), has hired 50 new workers since May. By the end of this month they’ll have 128 employees on the payroll–almost all of them in PA, WV and OH. That’s more than 100 jobs added since 2012–thanks to shale drilling. Oh! What’s “snubbing” you ask?…
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Energy Companies | Gastar Exploration | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Reserves (Proved and Unproved) | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Gastar Proved Reserves Up 43% – 3/4 of it in the Marcellus
July 22, 2014July 22, 2014

Gastar Exploration, a major driller in the Marcellus/Utica, posted a mid-year update on their proved (and unproved) reserves yesterday. When you lump all hydrocarbons together–natural gas, oil and condensate and natural gas liquids (NGLs)–Gastar’s estimated proved reserves totaled 78.0 million barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) as of June 30th. That’s up an eye-popping 43% over the same time last year. Where is all that gas coming from? Three-fourths of it is in the Marcellus/Utica, and one-fourth is in the Mississippi Lime/Woodford Shale in Oklahoma…
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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | Supply Chain | West Virginia

Primoris Wins Another Round of Pipeline Work in PA/WV Marcellus
July 22, 2014July 22, 2014

A very short and light-on-specifics press release from Primoris Services Corporation says the pipeline building company, based in Dallas, TX, has just secured $80 million worth of contracts to build pipelines for “three major midstream operators” in the PA and WV Marcellus region. You may recall MDN also told you about several Primoris Marcellus Shale projects in June 2013 (see Rockford/Primoris Lands $92M in Marcellus Pipeline Contracts). Here’s the announcement of the latest round of work won by Primoris:
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Energy Services | Halliburton

Halliburton Promotes Bean Counter to President – CEO in Waiting?
July 22, 2014July 22, 2014

The hated and reviled (by the left) oilfield services company Halliburton, whose CEO was once non other than that evil puppet master Dick Cheney, is promoting its executive VP and COO Jeff Miller, a CPA, to become president on August 1st. Miller will work closely with Dave Lesar, Halliburton’s chairman and CEO. Lest you get the wrong impression, our opening sentence was sarcasm for humorous effect. We love Halliburton! Although we’re not sure if appointing a bean counter to the top position is necessarily the best move…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Crude Oil | Decline/Depletion Rates | Industrywide Issues

Peak Oil/Gas Site Roots for Frack Bans – Gets It Totally Wrong
July 22, 2014July 22, 2014

What happens when your theory is totally debunked as so much horse feathers? As in, the so-called “peak oil” and lately, “peak natural gas” theory? If you’re a website dedicated to propping up your discredited theories, like Oilprice.com, you just double down and keep publishing more “peak” articles–even in the face of overwhelming evidence that you’re wrong. The latest “peak” Oilprice article is a real laugher that says you ought to move away from investing in shale drilling companies cause one or two towns around the country (like Denton, TX) may ban fracking. The article attempts to turn that into a “trend” and, well, if you’re really really really smart and if you can read the stitches on a fastball, the ban fracking fastball is coming–fast…
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Commodity Price | Industrywide Issues | Weather

Marcellus/Utica 3-Month Weather Forecast: Cool, Warm, Warm
July 22, 2014July 22, 2014

Because the weather has a great deal to do with the price of natural gas, and the price of natural gas has a great deal to do with whether or not drillers are willing to drill for it, MDN brought you the Weather Services International long range forecast one month ago (see Global Warming, Global Cooling & Natgas Prices). WSI is back with an updated long range (next three months) forecast. What does it show?…
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Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Tue, Jul 22, 2014
July 22, 2014July 22, 2014

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