JKLM Energy Accident Contaminates 5 PA Water Wells with Soap
In February MDN told you about a deal signed by a hospital in Potter County, PA to lease 742.9 acres of hospital-owned land to JKLM Energy to drill Utica Shale wells (see Potter County, PA Hospital Leases Land to JKLM for Utica Drilling). Since that time, drilling under the property (and presumably under surrounding properties) has taken place. And, unfortunately, there was an accident. JKLM discovered that 55 gallons of soap (yes, soap) used to free a broken drill bit around 570 feet down the bore hole on Sept. 18 leaked into the water aquifer and migrated to five local water wells. No one is in danger. The soap is already heavily diluted and will soon disappear. There is no lasting damage. But the way the Harrisburg Patriot-News is covering it, you would think a chemical tanker had overturned irreparably polluting an entire town’s water supply. The way JKLM has responded has been exemplary, testing everything in sight, communicating with landowners and the hospital, issuing press releases with full details on a daily basis…
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Very interesting development with Halliburton. As we previously reported, Halliburton is forcing Baker Hughes to the alter in a shotgun wedding/takeover (see
In February 2013 MDN brought you news about plans from Appalachian Resins (AR) to build a polyethelene (PE) manufacturing plant complete with a “baby” ethane cracker. The original plan was to build it in the Wheeling, WV area. However, a year later the location shifted across the border to Monroe County, OH. As late as April of this year AR was still committed to the project (see 
An update on a royalty lawsuit we first reported in July. Two Butler County, PA landowners with a combined 245.7 acres of land leased to (and drilled by) XTO Energy have sued XTO claiming the company is breaking the lease agreement by paying royalties below 1/8 of what XTO receives in revenue for the gas (see
Analysts with global investment firm Jeffries are out with a forecast for natural gas production next year, in 2016. Jeffries says while natural gas production in the Marcellus/Utica will slow next year, they are the only two plays in the entire country that Jeffries says will still grow in production year over year. However, overall the U.S. will produce slightly less gas in 2016 than we will have in 2015–with production estimated to decline by 0.8% (less than a single percentage point)…
CoBank, a national cooperative bank serving vital industries across rural America, has just published a study titled “U.S. Natural Gas Outlook through 2020: Demand Is the New Captain of the Ship” in which they predict the United States will become a net exporter of natural gas in 2017. While we don’t have a copy of the full report, we do have a summary below listing the key points in the report, along with a video…
One New England town shows how to “do it right” when it comes to dealing with a big pipeline company like Kinder Morgan. As we’ve covered (endlessly), Kinder’s Northeast Energy Direct (NED) project will expand the mighty Tennessee Gas Pipeline to run across parts of Massachusetts and New Hampshire before terminating near Boston. Anti-fossil fuel nutters demand the project be canceled–sentencing New Englanders to obscenely high gas and electric rates forever. One town–Amherst, NH–had concerns about the route and worked with Kinder Morgan to get the pipeline shifted to a route that works for them. This is how adults behave…
The Obama Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will be in Pittsburgh tomorrow to conduct a hearing into how they can illegally regulate oil and gas drilling through the back door of so-called “fugitive” methane emissions, which they claim are insanely high in shale plays like the Marcellus/Utica (
The Christ-less editorial board of the Scranton Times-Tribune has all of a sudden gotten the Catholic religion. The anti-drilling Dems who run the Times-Tribune are normally religion-free–but since Pope Francis visited Philly and mouthed words that he believes in the myth of man-made global warming, Pope Francis (regardless of his stance on issues like abortion) is the new patron saint of the Times-Tribune. They go so far in their latest editorial as to link Pope Francis and another Democrat saint–John Quigley, the PennFuture Secretary of the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection…
We don’t like bashing Pope Francis–honest. We have a very healthy respect for the Catholic Church. But Pope Francis is a Marxist–and he’s pedaling Marxist dogma instead of Christian dogma and he needs to be called out for it. During the Pope’s visit to the U.S. this past week, mainstream liberal media went wall to wall with the visit–euphoric over his pronouncements on the environment and his belief in the fairy tale of man-made global warming. Pope Francis is a big hit with godless atheists in this country–which should tell you something. We spotted a refutation of the Pope’s misguided philosophies when it comes to dumping fossil fuels, offered by the bright minds at The Heartland Institute. We found their comments to be spot on and the best possible refutation and correction of the errors delivered by il Papa during his U.S. visit…
Below are upcoming events for the next three months (90 days). To see the full list of future events, visit this page:
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: Is fracking really banned in NY?; Murrysville stalled fracking ordinance; methane emanating from Clean Air Council; PA counties benefit from gas grant; shale gas revolution isn’t over yet; S&P cuts HH price outlook; and more!