Marcellus Drilling News

CNG/LNG | Dominion Energy | Energy Services | Exporting | Industrywide Issues | Maryland | Regulation | Statewide MD

Dominion Gets Final Fed Approval to Build Cove Point LNG Plant
September 30, 2014September 30, 2014

Blow the horns…cheer and clap and celebrate. Let’s all do a happy dance! Yesterday the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a final approval to Dominion for their liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility in Cove Point, Maryland. And that’s following anti-drillers behaving badly at a recent FERC meeting (see 20 People Crash FERC Meeting, Complain about Cove Point LNG). Looks like the antics of people taking over a FERC meeting didn’t impress the commissioners. Following the FERC announcement Dominion issued their own announcement (both announcements are below) to say as soon as they review FERC’s final “order” on the plant they will seek a “Notice to Proceed” from FERC and then (very soon) construction will begin…
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Pipelines | Spectra Energy

Spectra Energy Asks Maine PUC to Support Its Pipeline Project
September 30, 2014September 30, 2014

Two weeks ago MDN told you about Kinder Morgan’s “historic” proposal filed with the Maine Public Utilities Commission offering the State of Maine a long-term contract for natural gas pipeline capacity with the goal of lowering overall energy costs for Maine consumers (see Kinder Morgan Sweet Talks Maine to Support Mass. Pipeline). The catch is that Maine will assess a fee on all of their electric customers to raise the money they would pay to Kinder for Kinder to help build their proposed extension of the Tennessee Gas Pipeline across Massachusetts to deliver cheap, abundant Marcellus Shale gas to New England. Not to be outdone, Spectra Energy yesterday sent their proposal to Maine, to try and get Maine to support their project instead of Kinder’s…
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American Energy Partners | Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies

High Level Defection from Chesapeake Energy to McClendon’s AEP
September 30, 2014September 30, 2014

Somehow John Reinhart, lately Senior Vice President for Operations and Technical Services at Chesapeake Energy in charge of 1,400 people, survived the mass firings by corporate raider Carl Icahn and his toady Doug Lawler, the nominal CEO of Chesapeake (see Chesapeake’s CEO Celebrates Axing 1,200 People Making Carl More $). So it must have really hurt when Reinhart defected, as was announced yesterday, to go to work as Chief Operating Officer of Utica/Marcellus for his old boss Aubrey McClendon over at Chesapeake II–known as American Energy Partners (AEP). Like a phoenix rising rising from the ashes…
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Energy Services | Ethane | Harrison County | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | NGLs | NOVA Chemicals | Ohio | Pipelines | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Canadian NOVA Chemicals to Ship Utica Ethane via UTOPIA
September 30, 2014September 30, 2014

In December, midstream company Kinder Morgan announced they would build a 210-mile, 10-inch natural gas liquids (NGL) pipeline that will carry Utica ethane and propane from Harrison County, OH, to Riga, MI. From Riga, the NGLs will hitch a ride via the KM Cochin Pipeline east to Windsor, Ontario, Canada (see UTOPIA is Coming! The UTOPIA Pipeline, that is…). Earlier this month MDN told you that UTOPIA launched an open season to sign up customers for the pipeline (see UTOPIA Open Season Begins Today – OH to MI NGL Pipeline). Not surprisingly, Kinder has just announced that NOVA Chemicals, owner of the Corunna ethane cracker plant in Ontario, has signed up as one of Kinder’s main customers for UTOPIA. We did, however, notice a few interesting things about this latest announcement…
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Blue Ridge Mtn Res/Magnum Hunter | Deep Well Services | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Tyler County | Utica Shale | West Virginia

PA Snubbing Company Helped Drill Utica’s #1 Well
September 30, 2014September 30, 2014

Last week MDN told you about the new reigning champion for most-productive Utica well ever, a well drilled in West Virginia by Magnum Hunter Resources (see Magnum Hunter Takes the Prize: Top Producing Utica Well). Two and a half weeks ago MDN told you about Deep Well Services (DWS), a “snubbing” company based in Pennsylvania (see PA “Snubbing” Company DWS Experiences Rapid Expansion). It seems there’s a connection between the two stories. DWS issued a press release yesterday to point out they were involved with working on the Magnum Hunter champion Utica well…
Read More “PA Snubbing Company Helped Drill Utica’s #1 Well”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | New York | Statewide NY

NY Anti-Drillers Offer Cuomo a Tour of PA Fracking
September 30, 2014September 30, 2014

This one is really funny. The bizarre people who run New Yorkers Against Fracking, namely Sandra Steingraber, who gets paid by Ithaca College to travel around trash talking fracking, and a few others from virulent anti-fossil fuel groups, have dogged New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo everywhere he goes for the past two years. They pester him so much that when one of their nutty number isn’t at one of his public events, Cuomo’s daughter wonders if the stars are out of alignment (see NY Gov Cuomo Comments on Fracking, Hounding by Protesters). Those same ever-present protesters recently sent a letter to Cuomo offering to take him on a tour of Pennsylvania’s gas drilling areas. Are they just temporarily nuts? Or permanently insane? Do they really think he would ever, in this life, accept such an offer?…
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Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Lease & Royalty Payments | Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

MWCD Cuts Watershed Fee 50% Thanks to Utica Shale Revenue
September 30, 2014September 30, 2014

Here’s a good news story for millions of Ohio residents who are fortunate enough to live in the Muskingum Watershed. After some initial timidity, the board members of the Mukingum Watershed Conservancy District (MWCD), charged with managing 8,000 square miles of rivers, reservoirs and creeks that drain into the Muskingum River (covering 20% of the state), decided in 2012 to lease MWCD-owned land for Utica Shale drilling. Since that time they’ve received more than $175 million in signing bonuses. With royalties that eventually will come in, it’s not inconceivable that the MWCD will rake in over $1 billion in revenue from Utica lease activity. They’ve already committed to reinvesting $300 million over the next 10 years (see MWCD Reinvesting $300M of Utica Shale Revenue over Next 10 Yrs). The further good news for residents in the Watershed is that the fees they pay to the MWCD will go down–by 50%–starting next year. Thanks to the Utica Shale…
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Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Wastewater

GAO Issues Report on Class II Injection Well Fluid Info Collection
September 30, 2014September 30, 2014

Several anti-drilling U.S. senators and congressman requested that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) conduct research and issue a report to describe what information the federal EPA and the individual states collect from class II injection well operators on the characteristics of injected fluids. That is, the Dems wanted the GAO to write a book report on just how nasty and vile the chemicals are from oil and gas drilling that get injected deep into the earth, never to return, and how those nasty chemicals may one day pollute all of our drinking water supplies. The Democrat staffers at the GAO were only too happy to comply. Both Pennsylvania and Ohio’s programs are part of the “study”…
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Electrical Generation | Industrywide Issues | Research

Natgas Used for Heating Homes Up in Northeast, Down Elsewhere
September 30, 2014September 30, 2014

An article published last week by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) in their always-excellent Today in Energy online publication compares how different parts of the U.S. heat their homes. Three of the four regions in the U.S., including the northeast, primarily use natural gas as their primary heating fuel. However, only the northeast is seeing an increase in natgas use for home heating. All of the other areas of the country are seeing a decline in natgas use. Instead, they’re using more electricity. And how, you may ask, is electricity being produced? Yep–natgas and coal, primarily…
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Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Tue, Sep 30, 2014
September 30, 2014September 30, 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, Sep 30, 2014”