Marcellus Drilling News

Bradford County | Electrical Generation | Energy Services | IMG Midstream | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County | Wyoming County (PA)

Details on IMG’s “Tiny” Marcellus-Powered Electric Plants in NEPA
November 4, 2014November 4, 2014

In August MDN told you about a string of seven small electrical generation plants to be built in northeastern Pennsylvania by IMG Midstream (see 7 Small Marcellus-Powered Electric Plants Coming to NEPA). Last Friday IMG presented details of their plans to the Northern Tier Regional Planning and Development Commission in Wellsboro, PA. Plans call for the small, 20-megawatt plants to built in Susquehanna County (2 plants), Bradford County (3 plants), and Wyoming County (2 plants). Two additional plants are now planned for southwestern PA, bringing the grand total to nine plants for IMG…
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Carroll County | Electrical Generation | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Utica Shale

Carroll County, OH to Get 2 New Utica-Powered Electric Plants
November 4, 2014November 4, 2014

Two different companies are planning to build electric generation plants that use Utica Shale as their source fuel in Carroll County, OH. Advanced Power Services will build a 700-megawatt plant and Terra-Gen Power plans a 600-megawatt plant. Together, both plants will inject $1.7 billion into the local economy when they are constructed…
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Carroll County | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Processing Plants | Utica East Ohio Midstream | Utica Shale

UEO Midstream Processing Plant in Carroll County Online Soon
November 4, 2014November 4, 2014

The Utica East Ohio Midstream natural gas processing plant in Leesville (Carroll County), OH, will be, according to county officials, operational within the next couple of weeks. When it comes online, the plant will process 200 million cubic feet per day of Utica Shale natural gas…
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Energy Services | FTS International | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | M&A

FTS International Buys J-W Wireline for Undisclosed Amount
November 4, 2014November 4, 2014

FTS International, one of the largest well completion service companies in North America and a big player in the Marcellus/Utica, is buying J-W Wireline Company, one of the largest independent cased-hole wireline companies in North America. J-W also is a player in the Marcellus/Utica. J-W specializes in deep high-pressure perforating, multiple-zone completions, comprehensive cased-hole logging and pipe recovery. That is, they make fracking possible. Here’s the announcement from FTS that one great company is buying another (for an undisclosed amount)…
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Accidents | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Lycoming County | Pennsylvania | XTO

Minor Setback for XTO in PA AG’s Criminal Case for 2010 Spill
November 4, 2014November 4, 2014

Arriving with the promise to hassle the Marcellus drilling industry when she took office in January 2013, Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane kept her promise. After assuming office, she promptly looked for old cases she could reopen in order to make a name for herself. She found one in a two year-old case of an accidental spill of frack wastewater by XTO Energy (part of ExxonMobil). She proceeded to abuse the power of her office by bringing criminal charges against XTO for that two year-old (now four year-old) case (see PA AG Abuses Her Authority, Files Criminal Charges Against XTO). There is a new development in the case. XTO requested the case be dismissed because it was previously investigated “jointly” by both state and federal investigators. The judge presiding over the case has found that there was no “jointly” in the investigation and eventual settlement…
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Energy Services | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | UIL Holdings

Phila. Energy Solutions Tells Mayor & City Council: Start Talking
November 4, 2014November 4, 2014

Philadelphia Energy Solutions (PES) is the joint venture between The Carlyle Group and Sunoco (now part of Energy Transfer Partners) that owns and operates the Point Breeze and Girard Point oil refineries in Philadelphia–the largest such refining complex on the Eastern Seaboard. PES CEO, Philip Rinaldi, has weighed in on the corrupt Philadelphia City Council’s scuttling of the purchase of Philadelphia Gas Works (see Philly City Council Kills the Phila. Gas Works $1.86B Deal). We suppose it’s understandable, but Rinaldi says precisely nothing in his comments beyond Mayor Michael Nutter is a great guy, but so too is City Council President Darrell Clarke, head of the cabal that scuttled the deal. As head of the Greater Philadelphia Energy Action Team which is attempting to position Philly has an “energy hub,” Rinaldi’s comments are of the tone “Why Can’t We Be Friends” (cue music). He hopes that Nutter and Clarke can start talking to one another again to get this deal done…
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Energy Services | Seventy Seven Energy

Seventy Seven 3Q14: Numbers Head in Right Direction
November 4, 2014November 4, 2014

Seventy Seven Energy, with major operations in the northeast, is the old Chesapeake Oilfield Operating division of Chesapeake–spun off into its own company on July 1, 2014 (see Long Labor & Delivery: Seventy Seven Energy Born Yesterday). Right out of the chute Seventy Seven’s beginning was a little rocky (see Seventy Seven Energy’s 1st Quarterly Update: Revenue Down 6%). However, we now have their second quarterly update–for third quarter 2014–and it seems Seventy Seven has found its sea legs. The numbers are now heading in the right direction for Seventy Seven…
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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | New York | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide NY | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

IPAA Fracking Update: Legislation, Regulation, Litigation
November 4, 2014November 4, 2014

What’s the latest legislative, regulatory and litigation developments with respect to hydraulic fracturing in the Marcellus and Utica region? Thanks to the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) and their partnership with PIRA Energy Group, a consulting firm that specializes in U.S. and international energy markets research and intelligence, we have an update. Recently the IPAA sent around the quarterly Fracking Policy Monitor. In this latest issue of the Monitor (full copy embedded below) we have news from PA, OH and WV, where drilling happens now, and even news from NY, where drilling doesn’t happen now (thanks to being blocked by Gov. Andrew Cuomo)…
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Beaver County | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Odebrecht | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | Shell

MDN’s “Juvenile” Needling of Shell over Slow Cracker Pace
November 4, 2014November 4, 2014

An MDN reader wrote editor Jim Willis yesterday to take issue with our observation that “it’s about time” Shell did something to advance their ethane cracker project in Beaver County, PA (see Shell to Hold Info Session on Monaca Ethane Cracker Next Week). In a not-so-subtle way, the reader essentially told us to get our heads out of our…frac sand…and take note that Shell has been very active over the past year or so with advancing their project, contrary to our “juvenile” remarks suggesting otherwise. In particular, the old Horsehead Holding Corp. zinc smelter at the site was shut down this past May. The buildings were knocked down and are now almost completely removed from the site. Our not-so-subtle source also pointed us to Jeff Burd’s excellent blog site called Building Pittsburgh. Jeff refers to Shell and their cracker project as being like a duck…
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Chevron | Commodity Price | Energy Companies | Energy Services | EnLink Midstream | Industrywide Issues

EnLink Takes Ownership of Henry Hub from Chevron
November 4, 2014November 4, 2014

Technically this is not a Marcellus or Utica story–but it does has implications for the Marcellus/Utica region. If you’re around the natural gas marketplace in the United States for any amount of time, you will soon run into this strange-sounding price point called “the Henry Hub.” The HH is a market point where natural gas is bought and sold in southern Louisiana. Once upon a time, because of the pipelines running through the Gulf Coast (many of them from off-shore), some 20% of all natural gas flowed through the HH, making it the “benchmark” or best average price for natural gas–used for futures contracts and by NYMEX in commodity trading. All natural gas prices quoted at other sales locations use the HH as its benchmark or “basis” and compare themselves with the HH price. It’s been that way for two decades. The new news is that EnLink Midstream (the former Crosstex Energy and Devon Energy midstream units merged together) has just taken ownership of the pipeline system that includes the HH…
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Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Tue, Nov 4, 2014
November 4, 2014November 4, 2014

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