PA DEP Says 2010 EQT Spill Polluted Water Spring, EQT Appeals
The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) seems to have a grudge against EQT. Last October the DEP levied a $4.5 million fine against EQT over a leaky wastewater impoundment in Tioga County, PA (see PA DEP Levies Biggest Fine Ever, $4.5M Against EQT). At the time it was the biggest-ever fine by the DEP, since surpassed by an even bigger fine against Marcellus driller Range Resources. Right after the DEP levied its fine, the now-indicted-on-felony charges Attorney General, Kathleen Kane, issued an arrest warrant against EQT for the same thing (see PA Attorney Gen. Kane Abuses Office Again, Arrest Warrant for EQT). These days Kane is doing all she can to stay out of jail herself. In September, the DEP issued a new order/finding that says EQT spilled drilling fluid on the ground at a drill site that seeped into a local fresh water spring, polluting it to the point it’s no longer usable. Thing is, the accidental spill happened in 2010–more than five years ago! How and why in the world did it take five years to investigate something like that? EQT is pushing back. Earlier this week they filed an appeal…
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The Washington County (PA) Firemen’s Association recently opened a new $500,000 gas well training center at the fire academy located at 895 Western Ave in Houston, PA. The project, which took more than a year to plan and complete, was completely funded by some of the biggest and best drillers in the Marcellus/Utica, including Range Resources, Rice Energy, CONSOL Energy, EQT, American Well Service and others. It will be used to train first responders not only in Washington County, but also from other parts of Pennsylvania along with West Virginia and Ohio. According to Pennsylvania Fire Commissioner Tim Solobay, “There’s nothing like it outside of Texas”…
Is Marcellus drilling about to come to a suburb of Pittsburgh? It appears the answer to that is a resounding, “Yes!” EQT, according to a landman that works for the company, plans to put a mega drill pad with up to 14 wells on an abandoned golf course in the eastern burbs of Allegheny County. EQT has approached neighbors surrounding the property, attempting to sign them to leases. Predictably, some of the neighbors are for it, and some are against it…
The McKeesport City Council (Allengheny County, near Pittsburgh) voted Wednesday evening to lease 133.257 acres of Renziehausen Park for drilling under (not on) for Marcellus Shale gas by EQT. The city will receive a $3,000 per acre signing bonus–$400,000 total. No word on what kind of royalty rate they agreed to. The city has been grappling with whether or not to lease the park for more than a year. The vote was 6-1. In typical fashion, one anti-drilling resident attending the meeting wouldn’t shut up and had to be escorted out of the meeting by a police officer. Two other loud mouth anti-drillers continued to spit and sputter and comment from the audience, speaking out of turn (but they weren’t thrown out). Here’s how it went down…
The writers at NGI–Natural Gas Intelligence–continue to pump out hit article after hit article. (Full disclosure: MDN editor Jim Willis works part time for NGI on the marketing side. But hopefully by now you know that Jim doesn’t offer false praise for friend or foe. He always calls ’em like he sees ’em.) The latest article we’re excited about is one about a potential shift among Marcellus drillers in southwestern PA and WV–a shift away from Marcellus drilling, potentially replacing it with Utica drilling. Yes, you read that right. No, not all Marcellus drilling will suddenly stop–but in a continuing low-cost gas environment where every dollar counts, drillers are rethinking their strategies and where they will spend precious capital dollars. The recent blockbuster Utica well drilled by EQT in southwestern PA is catching everyone’s attention (see 
The Supreme Court of Kentucky has just ruled, in a pair of cases, that producers (i.e. drillers) CAN deduct post-production costs before calculating royalties to landowners. Once case involves landowners suing Magnum Hunter, the other involves landowners suing EQT, claiming (much like what has happened in Pennsylvania) that post-production costs mean they are getting less than one-eighth or 12.5% of the fair value of the gas as a royalty payment. The Supreme Court of Kentucky ruled the language in the leases is unambiguous as is the law–and that the lease allows for post-production expenses to be deducted. Here’s a summary from the legal beagles at Vorys…
A slide we spotted in a Gastar presentation got us to thinking: What are the top 10 Utica Shale wells? Who drilled them? And how much was their initial production (IP) rates? So we went searching and came up with the handy list below. This list is current as of August 2015. A few caveats: First, some of the wells in the list produced not only methane (“dry gas”) but also oil, condensate and natural gas liquids–i.e. other hydrocarbons. However, the numbers in the list below are for the methane/dry gas only portion of what the well flowed during an initial period of time (typically the first 24 hours). So keep that in mind. These are not necessary dry gas only wells, but the numbers are for the dry gas portion coming from the well. Second, we scoured the MDN archives and other sources to compile the list. If you believe we’ve overlooked a well–let us know! We would be happy to correct the list. As it is, we believe it to be accurate. It tells a pretty incredible story. Below the Top 10 list is another list–of MDN stories covering the details for the wells in the Top 10 list…
One week ago MDN brought you the news of EQT’s monster Utica Shale well drilled in Greene County, PA–the single highest producing on-shore shale well on the planet with initial production (IP) of 72.9 million cubic feet of natural gas per day (see 
We have plenty of EQT news today, but none of it is (for us) as big as this: EQT finished fracking their very first Utica Shale well in Greene County, PA last week, a well that they call “the most technically challenging well” they’ve ever drilled. But man oh man was it worth it! The EQT Utica well is gargantuan. It is the new reigning #1 champ for any on-shore shale well anywhere in the world that we’re aware of when it comes to production. The EQT Utica well produced a truly astonishing initial production (IP) of 72.9 million cubic feet of natural gas per day (MMcf/d). The previous record-holder was a Range Resources Utica well in Washington County, PA at 59 MMcf/d (see 
Surprisingly, a very perceptive article in the Harrisburg Patriot-News asks the question, Why hasn’t there been a peep on the part of anti-drillers over the nomination of EQT’s Andrew Place to become a member of the board for the state’s Public Utility Commission (PUC)? Indeed, it’s a great question. EQT is a major Marcellus Shale driller based in Pittsburgh. The PUC is charged with collecting impact fees from shale drillers. The author of the article says imagine this headline, if it were 2014: “Corbett administration taps shale industry exec for key regulatory post.” Mainstream (Democrat) media would have a field day! We would have been treated to nonstop exposés on how Tom Corbett is in the back pocket of the drilling industry…political payoff…political patronage…backroom dealing…conflict of interest…et cetera ad nauseam. A year later it’s a Democrat governor doing the appointing, so the obedient Democrat media hasn’t breathed a word questioning the appointment. We’ve seen wingnut groups disagree with Wolf when it comes to drilling–they’d rather have no drilling than tax it, given the option. So why are these same “environmental” groups, like PennFuture which is opposed to the drilling industry and anyone/anything connected to it, apparently OK with the nomination of Andrew Place?…