Bethany College, located in Bethany, WV (Brooke County), has just signed a lease agreement with Chesapeake Energy to allow drilling for Marcellus Shale gas on property owned by the college.
Read More “WV College Signs Lease with Chesapeake Energy to Allow Marcellus Shale Drilling”
An editorial in the Charleston (WV) Daily Mail takes the city of Morgantown, WV to task for banning hydraulic fracturing both in and outside of its borders as “nonsense” that should be overturned by a court. The interesting part of the editorial (for MDN) is the opening statement which is a good indicator of the enormous potential of the Marcellus Shale—even larger than most people had dared hope:
Read More “New Numbers Indicate the Enormous Potential of the Marcellus Shale”
When the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) recently told Marcellus Shale drillers in the state to stop hauling wastewater from fracking to municipal sewage treatment plants that are not equipped to fully treat the wastewater by May 19 (see MDN story here), they all committed to comply and indeed did comply. But the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) jumped in and demanded detailed plans from six drillers as to just how they planned on treating and disposing of the wastewater once the they stopped using the municipal plants.
The EPA’s deadline for the six drillers to file plans was Wednesday, May 25. Five of the six complied by the deadline:
Read More “PA Drillers Comply with Federal EPA’s Request for Information on Wastewater Disposal”
In a press release issued yesterday, Chesapeake Energy announced it is working on 14 different roadway repair projects in Bradford and Sullivan Counties in Northeastern Pennsylvania due to be completed this summer.
Read More “Chesapeake Energy Repairing 14 Roadways in Northeastern PA This Summer”
The first application for a drilling permit has been received in Columbiana County, Ohio, and it’s an application to drill in the Utica Shale with the hope of someday striking oil. This is likely the first of many applications to come, according to Ohio officials.
Chesapeake Energy has been slapped with the largest fine given to date by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) for methane migration and for a fire at a well.
Read More “Chesapeake Energy Fined $1.1 Million for Methane Migration and Tank Fire in PA”
City council members from Wellsburg, West Virginia, located in the panhandle area of the state (in Brooke County), on Tuesday voted to ban natural gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing both inside the city limits and outside city limits within a mile.
In an interesting (some would say hypocritical) twist on New York State’s moratorium against drilling in the Marcellus Shale because of environmental concerns, it seems the state’s comptroller has no problem investing some of the state’s huge $140 billion pension fund in shale gas drilling operations, to the tune of $1 billion:
A number of landowners in New York’s Southern Tier region (Broome and Tioga Counties) signed leases with gas companies in 2000 for peanuts, $3 per acre, long before shale gas drilling was discovered and used. The technologies of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling have been around for decades, but it wasn’t until 2006 that the two were combined to tap shale gas.
Read More “NY Landowners Sue Chesapeake & Statoilhydro Over Force Majeure Lease Extension”
Maryland’s Attorney General, Douglas F. Gansler, has filed an “intent to sue” on Chesapeake Energy because of the accidental spill of fracking fluid in April in Leroy Township, PA (read MDN’s story about the spill here). Mr. Gansler’s rationale for his litigiousness is that the fluid reached a small stream that feeds the Towanda Creek, and the Towanda Creek in turn empties into the Susquehanna River, and the Susquehanna River empties into the Chesapeake Bay. Therefore, according to Gansler, several federal statutes have been violated, including the Clean Water Act. Also, the City of Baltimore uses the Susquehanna as a backup source of water “in times of drought.”
Read More “Maryland AG Sues Chesapeake Energy Over Spill in Pennsylvania”
Chesapeake Energy has successfully replaced a wellhead that was defective and had caused a blowout with fracking fluid escaping from a well in Leroy Township near Canton in Bradford County, PA last week. Over a two day period, fracking fluid ran over neighboring land and some of it into a nearby stream that empties into the Towanda Creek. (Read MDN’s original article on the blowout here.)
The PA State Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is investigating the blowout and the potential environmental damage it may have caused. But that’s not good enough for the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA is now throwing its weight around. In a letter to Chesapeake citing the Clean Water Act and various other federal statutes, the EPA is demanding that Chesapeake provide a list of details to the EPA about the incident by May 9.
Chesapeake Energy experienced a blowout at a well being drilled near Canton in Bradford County, PA on Tuesday at 11:45 pm. A blowout occurs when the pressure systems fail and results (in this case) in drilling fracking fluids escaping in an uncontrolled manner. For a time the fluids from the Canton well spread over farm land and into a small stream that empties into the Towanda Creek.
Initially seven families were evacuated from the immediate area. Six of the families have now returned to their homes, but one family will need to stay relocated until the well is 100 percent under control. Crews have significantly decreased the amount of fracking fluid coming from the bore hole, but they have not yet fully stopped it.
An in-depth article that takes a look at fines for Marcellus Shale drillers in PA finds the following:
Read More “Most-Fined Marcellus Shale Drillers in PA”
Chesapeake Appalachia’s trucks have been banned from four Pennsylvania state routes in Bradford and Sullivan Counties until they fix the roads they’ve damaged.
Read More “Chesapeake Trucks Temporarily Banned on Four State Roads in Northeast PA”
Chesapeake Energy, one of the largest gas drilling companies in the world, is leasing a lot of property in Beaver County, PA. Beaver County is located along Pennsylvania’s western border with Ohio and West Virginia.
Read More “Chesapeake Energy Leases More Than 1,000 Parcels in Beaver County, PA Since Jan 1”
An article on the Forbes website covers a recent energy conference held by Yale alumni. The focus of the article is on how America’s shale gas has turned around chemical companies. But MDN found this interesting paragraph talking about the Utica Shale:
Read More “Chesapeake Energy Paying $2,500 per Acre to Lease Utica Shale”