Antero Resources | Doddridge County | Energy Companies | Harrison County | Industrywide Issues | Regulation | Tyler County | West Virginia
Antero to Pay $11M in Fines/Restoration for Clean Water Violations
This has to be a record-high amount for a fine plus remediation work, at least in the Marcellus/Utica. Antero Resources has cut a deal with three government entities–the U.S. Dept. of Justice, federal Environmental Protection Agency, and West Virginia Dept. of Environmental Protection–to pay a $3.15 million fine and spend another $8 million to mitigate and restore 32 sites in West Virginia.
NOTE: MDN posted an important followup to this story after speaking with Antero, providing more context and background, here: The Real Story of Antero’s $11M Clean Water Act Violations.
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CNX Resources say they think they know why a Utica well they were fracking in Westmoreland County, PA suddenly lost pressure as they were fracking it–with gas escaping into nearby conventional wells.
The Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) is doing a happy dance that they’ve shaken down XTO Energy $425,000 to settle a violation by XTO for drilling a shale well in Belmont County a year ago that exploded and caught fire.
Last August Eclipse Resources announced it had sold itself to Blue Ridge Mountain Resources, the renamed remnant of Magnum Hunter Resources (see 
EQT CEO Rob McNally and board chairman Jim Rohr are in a pitched battle to maintain their control of the company. They dismiss a plan by Toby and Derek Rice to enhance EQT’s production at a lower cost as something that worked for small potatoes Rice Energy, but couldn’t work for a big, important company like EQT. The Rice boys shoot back that EQT is bloated and lumbering and needs a good house-cleaning. So what is the essence of the Rice plan to get EQT back on track? What’s the Rice boys’ secret sauce?
Three families who live near a former drill site and frack wastewater impoundment at the Yeager Marcellus Shale site in Washington County, PA sued Range Resources in May 2012 claiming the air they breathe and the water they drink had been contaminated by Range’s operations at the site (see 
Let the fight begin. Yesterday the Rice brothers, Toby and Derek, held a conference call with EQT investors to lay out their detailed proposal for how EQT should be run. The Rice plan includes giving the boot to current EQT CEO Rob McNally and much of top management, and installing Toby as CEO, bringing along 15 Rice alumni to kick-start EQT’s “moribund performance” (our interpretation of what Toby said).
Landowners in Ohio who didn’t like being force pooled with their neighbors have, since 2015, tried to get the courts to declare that forced pooling is illegal. They’ve struck out in every court where they’ve tried that argument, including (now) the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
Southwestern Energy released its 2019 predictions (guidance) yesterday. In line with other 2019 guidance numbers issued from other Marcellus/Utica drillers, Southwestern says they will spend less money and drill fewer new wells.
CNX was fracking their Shaw 1G Utica well in Washington Township on Saturday, Jan. 26, when they detected “a strong drop in pressure” and stopped fracking (see 
A startling revelation came from yesterday’s court hearing in the tiny village of Montrose, PA. Some of the landowners from Dimock, PA who have traveled around the country claiming their water had been contaminated by Cabot Oil & Gas (remember the fraud “documentary” called Gasland?) were actually paid up to $5,000 *per month* by green groups to spread their lies.
When people communicate, that’s a good thing. When a shale well “communicates” with nearby conventional wells, that’s a bad thing. And that’s what happened with a CNX Resources Utica well being fracked in Westmoreland County last week.
Last week National Fuel Gas Company (NFG), headquartered in Western New York State (operates drilling subsidiary Seneca Resources and pipeline subsidiary Empire Pipeline), issued its first quarter 2019–everyone else’s fourth quarter 2018–update. Via Seneca Resources, NFG drills wells in northcentral and northwestern PA. Via Empire Pipeline, they build and maintain hundreds of miles of pipelines.
The Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry (PA Chamber) recently filed a brief in Commonwealth Court opposing THE Delaware Riverkeeper in a case that still has us angry and baffled. The case brought by Riverkeeper is clear across the state, hundreds of miles from the Delaware River Basin where Riverkeeper supposedly operates, and attempts to force a local municipality to adopt zoning ordinances it doesn’t want to adopt. And it involves Martians.
In November the Pennsylvania Supreme Court agreed to hear a case, Briggs v. Southwestern Energy, that is hands-down the most important court case to ever happen regarding the Marcellus Shale in PA. And no, we’re not exaggerating. A blizzard of briefs by Southwestern and those supporting Southwestern were filed earlier this week.