4 Marcellus Wells Approved in S Buffalo Twp – Concerns Discussed
In 2012 Pennsylvania under then Gov. Tom Corbett passed the Act 13 law, a major revision to PA’s oil and gas laws. Part of Act 13 would have established a uniform set of zoning ordinances, replacing and superseding any such local ordinances. But then seven selfish towns got together and sued to the state to retain the right of imposing their own zoning ordinances for some oil and gas development. The lawsuit was a years-long process with the case ending up at the PA Supreme Court–where the seven selfish towns won the right to impose their own ordinances on o&g development–up to a point (see PA Supreme Court Rules Against State/Drillers in Act 13 Case). Nowadays, PA towns have their own ordinances to deal with issues like truck traffic, noise, lights, setbacks and more. Fine. It is what it is and instead of a consistent set of rules, drillers are faced with a crazy quilt of differing rules across different townships. Snyder Brothers, which has already drilled several Marcellus Shale wells in South Buffalo Township (Armstrong County), wants to drill four more Marcellus wells in the town–next door to their previously drilled wells. So they applied for “conditional use” permits from the town to drill them. Town supervisors granted the permits, but not before conducting a public hearing where residents sounded off about the project. What is interesting about the hearing is that none of the residents opposed the new wells–but they did have some tough questions for Snyder Bros. about lights and noise and water wells. Good questions. Honest questions. Tough questions. And Snyder Bros. answered those questions and made promises/assurances to local residents. This is how a free, open and democratic society works. This is how adults behave. Give and take, back and forth, in a spirit of “let’s do it right the first time so we don’t have problems.” Hats off to the residents and supervisors of South Buffalo Twp, and to Snyder Brothers, for showing the rest of PA (looking at you Peters Twp) how it’s done…
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Did you know that the second largest U.S. natural gas exploration and production (E&P) company as measured by how much natural gas it produces is Southwestern Energy? Chesapeake Energy is #1, and Southwestern is #2. Who woulda thunk? And did you know that just five years ago Southwestern’s name was synonymous not with the Marcellus/Utica where they operate today, but with the Fayetteville Shale play in Arkansas? Over the past five years Southwestern has refocused its drilling efforts here in the Marcellus/Utica. Like most drillers across the country, 2016 was a rocky year for Southwestern. They idled their rigs during the first part of the year and ended up losing money (see 
“You never let a serious crisis go to waste.” That sentiment was famously mouthed by Rahm Emaneul, first chief of staff during Barack Hussein Obama’s reign of terror, later (and still) the highly unpopular mayor of Chicago. That philosophy also applies to other leftists, like anti-driller Ray Kemble, who lives in Dimock Township, PA. Kemble has been trying to shake down Cabot Oil & Gas for big bucks for years. Kemble, whose property has multiple junk cars on it, claims after Cabot began drilling (in 2008) his water well began producing black water. He blamed Cabot–even though junkyards are notorious for leaking nasty chemicals. Years ago Kemble, who has been seen at just about every anti-fracking rally from here to Timbuktu carrying a little brown jug of supposedly tainted well water, settled with Cabot. But a couple of Kemble’s neighbors did not settle. They sued and, in a sham trial, won a jury award of $4.2 million (see 
It seems the controversy in Pennsylvania over the Snyder Brothers’ strippers isn’t going to end any time soon. No, not those kinds of strippers, silly! We’re talking about stripper wells, which are defined in PA as wells that produce less than 90 thousand cubic feet (Mcf) for a one month period. Stripper wells are vertical wells that don’t produce nearly as much gas as horizontal shale wells. In 2012 PA passed the Act 13 law that includes a fee on wells targeting shale layers, including the Marcellus. And here’s where it gets a little complicated. Snyder Brothers drills mostly conventional (vertical only) wells. In 2011-2012 they drilled 45 vertical-only wells, but targeting the Marcellus (all of them fracked). Initially those wells produced more than 90 Mcf/month, but by December of the year they were drilled, they produced less than 90 Mcf. The way the 2012 Act 13 law is written, if a well produces less than 90 Mcf/month for “any” month it is considered a stripper well and exempt from paying the impact fee. The state’s Public Utility Commission (PUC) assessed the fee anyway because for 11 months the wells produced more than 90 Mcf. The argument back and forth is whether the intent was “any single month” or not as the trigger to exempt a well from paying the fee. Snyder Brothers went to court and in March, they won, exempting those wells from impact fees (see 
Last June MDN shared with you the news that Munroe Falls (Summit County), OH had filed yet another frivolous lawsuit against Beck Energy to prevent drilling–after already losing a similar case before the Ohio Supreme Court (see 
Ultra Petroleum, based in Houston, TX, is an independent exploration and production (E&P) company mainly focused on drilling in the Green River Basin of Wyoming. Ultra also drills for oil in the Uinta Basin/Three Rivers area in Utah. In addition, Ultra maintains a position in the Pennsylvania Marcellus shale with leases on 184,000 gross (91,000 net) acres–no small amount. They aren’t currently drilling on their Marcellus acreage, but it’s a good bet they will at some point. One year ago, in April 2016, Ultra filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy (see 
MDN spotted an announcement issue by the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) stating they’ve assessed a $185,000 fine on the Constellation Pipeline and its builder EM Energy (i.e. EdgeMarc) for a series of violations when building the pipeline in 2014-2015. That sent us digging. We don’t recall a Constellation Pipeline (and we’ve been writing MDN since 2009). What is the pipeline? Where, in PA, is it located? What is its purpose? We think we found most of the answers…
Yesterday we brought you the sad (and angering) news that once again Gov. Andrew Cuomo has caved to political pressure from environmental Nazis and instructed the now-corrupted Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to deny stream crossing permits for National Fuel Gas Company’s Northern Access Pipeline project (see 
Two weeks ago MDN brought you the news that not only has the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) issued final permits for two new injection wells in the state, they also sued the two townships where those permits were granted because the towns had adopted home rule laws that are illegal, in contravention to state law that give power to permit and control injection wells to the DEP only–not to local municipalities (see 
The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) announced yesterday that it would require water quality certifications under Section 401 of the federal Clean Water Act for each segment of both the Atlantic Coast Pipeline project (Dominion) and the Mountain Valley Pipeline project (EQT & NextEra Energy). Apparently the DEQ considered using the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Nationwide Permit 12 process–a less rigorous review (saves about half a forest of trees in paper). But in the end, the DEQ said they were caving to political pressure from anti groups (our words), and instead put Atlantic Coast and Mountain Valley on notice to get ready for a detailed exam. It will be painful. However, it’s not anything either company isn’t already used to/hasn’t done before. We wouldn’t say “it’s no big deal,” but neither is this a show stopper. The more relevant question: Is the DEQ ready to review the blizzard of paperwork that will come at them, IN A TIMELY MANNER? The real question is whether or not the DEQ is equipped to conduct the extensive review they’ve now demanded, and what happens if they can’t?…
Pardon me, but may I ask, How long is your lateral? We don’t mean to ask such a personal question, but in this case, size matters. You see, the longer the lateral, the more return on investment (ROI) you get–according to top officials from Eclipse Resources. Eclipse Resources, a Marcellus/Utica pure play driller headquartered in State College, PA that drills mostly in Ohio, fielded top officials at two different events this week to talk about the company’s drilling program–and their impressively long laterals. MDN editor Jim Willis heard Eclipse CEO Benjamin W. Hulburt at the Oil & Gas Investment Symposia (OGIS) in New York on Tuesday. On Wednesday, Eclipse’s vice president of drilling, Oleg Tolmachev, appeared at the Utica Upstream conference at Walsh University in North Canton. They both hit on a theme that struck a chord with us–namely, that by drilling longer lateral Utica wells, the company is drastically lowering the cost per foot of drilling–and by doing so, they raise the ROI, making their shale wells more profitable than their competitors’…
It’s hard to keep track of all the Marcellus and Utica Shale-fired electric plants being planned, built and going online. We recently highlighted a list of 11 such projects getting built in Ohio (see 
Carbon Natural Gas Company, an independent oil and gas exploration and production company, owns, operates and develops oil and gas properties in the Appalachian, Illinois and Ventura Basin areas of the U.S. Most of the wells they own and operate are conventional. However, the company is dipping its toe into unconventional shale as well. Yesterday Carbon issued a press release to announce they have formed a subsidiary called Carbon Appalachian Company, with backing from two unnamed institutional investors. The new venture has access to a whopping $100 million to get them going, with $20 million of that going to the purchase of “natural gas producing properties and related facilities” located in Tennessee. Currently the existing wells just purchased by Carbon in TN produce a measly 3.6 million cubic feet per day (Mcf/d) of mostly natural gas. You paid $20M for that?! Aaahh, there’s more to the story. The acreage that comes with the wells is located in the Chattanooga Shale–a shale layer much shallower than the Marcellus or Utica. Carbon plans to drill horizontal wells in the Chattanooga. Which got us to thinking: How active is the Chattanooga? Who else is drilling there? Is there shale drilling in TN? We found some answers…
The Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) is a $3.5 billion, 301-mile pipeline that will run from Wetzel County, WV to the Transco Pipeline in Pittsylvania County, VA. The project, which filed an official application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in October 2015, is being built by EQT, NextEra Energy and several other partners. The project has faced stiff opposition from landowners in both West Virginia and Virginia. Although the project is not yet fully approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the project did get a favorable Draft Environmental Impact Statement from FERC last September (see 
This is a story we have not previously covered on MDN. It goes back to 2010 and involves two of the biggest Marcellus/Utica drillers–although in this case the issue is not related to the Marcellus/Utica. Landowners in southwestern Virginia previously sued both EQT and CONSOL Energy’s CNX subsidiary over charges that EQT and CNX shorted landowners out of royalties owed to them, claiming post-production expenses, deductions for severance taxes, etc. that should not have been taken. The wells drilled were conventional wells–some 3,347 EQT wells and 4,261 CNX wells. The vertical wells targeted methane extraction from coal seams–not horizontal wells through shale, which is far more common today. Some lawsuits were green lighted as class action cases in 2013, with a potential for “thousands of landowners” to participate in sharing $30 million in payouts. Last week a federal judge certified three of the five class action lawsuits, allowing them to move forward…
Antero Resources is one of the biggest drillers in the Marcellus/Utica. Antero can’t seem to buy enough Marcellus acreage, mostly in West Virginia. Last year the company snapped up close to 80,000 Marcellus acres, mostly in WV (see