Energy Companies 418 - Marcellus Drilling News

EPA Says Another 20 Dimock Wells Tested are Fine

April 9, 2012April 9, 2012

$fracking is safe - an incovenient truth$ WARNING: This post contains snide and snarky comments. Anti-drillers are encouraged to not read this post. Proceed at your own risk.

Sometimes MDN thinks the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is more of a public relations press release-generating agency rather than an agency to protect the environment. They issue a multitude of press releases—every day. But when they find that another 20 wells in Dimock, PA are fine and have not been (never were) chemically contaminated by hydraulic fracturing, not a single public press release on it. Oh it gets reported, but the EPA slips a short message to the government’s “other” PR agency, the Associated Press. And the good ole AP will warp and spin it in just the right way to please the government overlords.

Drillers, Ecologists Work Together to Protect Wildlife

April 9, 2012April 9, 2012

An interesting article in yesterday’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette explores how drilling firms and wildlife groups are working together to protect endangered species and reviving long-gone habitats for other species. It begins this way:

Judge Orders Arbitration in Chesapeake ‘Force Majeure’ Case

April 5, 2012April 5, 2012

U.S. District Judge David N. Hurd ordered that a lease dispute case between a group of landowners in Broome and Tioga counties (New York) and Chesapeake Energy will go to arbitration for about 150 of the landowners. That’s not-so-good news for those landowners who want to keep the case in federal court. But he also ruled a second case with 32 landowners can go forward in federal court because those leases did not contain an arbitration clause. That’s good news for those landowners, and may end up being good news for those in arbitration. A copy of the judge’s order is embedded below.

Energy Companies | Pennsylvania | Range Resources Corp | Washington County

Range Resources to Build Rail Trail in Washington County, PA

April 5, 2012April 5, 2012

Range Resources just gave Washington County, PA a check for $918,000 as a signing bonus which grants them the right to drill horizontally underneath the fairgrounds and health center in Arden. Range is also going to build a 3 1/2 mile rail trail in Cross Creek County Park for walkers, joggers and bikers:

eCORP & Tioga County Landowners Become Partners in Lease Deal

April 4, 2012April 4, 2012

tie the knot eCORP International and the Tioga County (NY) Landowners Group, also known as Southern Tier Energy Partners (STEP), released details of their new deal to lease 135,000 acres in Tioga County, NY with an eye to using LPG waterless fracking (press release below). It is an interesting deal—not at all typical of the usual leases between drillers and landowners. Perhaps it’s the way of the future in a low commodity gas price environment?

Here’s the low down: eCORP and STEP crafted a deal that makes landowners majority owners of shell companies that control the land. That is, the landowners will become “drillers,” or rather silent partners with the main driller, eCORP—but partners nonetheless, and they collectively will be majority partners, with eCORP a minority partner. eCORP and STEP are tying the knot and getting married—for this deal.

Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Chesapeake’s First Ohio Utica Shale Production Numbers

April 3, 2012April 3, 2012

conventional v unconventional gas drilling Chesapeake Energy has filed their first production report with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) for nine wells they drilled in the Ohio Utica Shale/Point Pleasant formations for 2011. A copy of the report is embedded below. The big news is that a single well in Harrison County—in production for just six months of 2011—produced 1.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas.

That single well was 2 percent of the state’s entire natural gas production for all of 2011. Put in perspective, Ohio has 49,000 conventional natural gas wells in production. That one well is producing an average of 300 times more natural gas than a conventionally drilled well. Behold the power of hydraulic fracturing.

Energy Companies | WPX Energy

WPX Sells Barnett Shale & Arkoma Basin Holdings

April 2, 2012April 2, 2012

WPX Energy, the spun-off exploration and production arm of Williams, announced this morning that they are selling off their holdings in the Texas Barnett Shale and Oklahamo Arkoma Basin for $306 million, and using the proceeds to grow operations in the Marcellus and Bakken Shale areas, as well as the Piceance Basin.

CNX Resources | Columbiana County | CONSOL Energy | Energy Companies | Ohio

CONSOL/CNX Opening New Branch in Columbiana County, OH

April 2, 2012April 2, 2012

CONSOL Energy’s CNX Gas subsidiary has just leased 10,000 square feet at an industrial park in Columbiana County, Ohio. The new branch office will handle all of CNX’s Utica Shale efforts in Ohio, a signal that CNX has big plans for the Utica.

Dryden & Middlefield NY Drilling Bans Officially Appealed

March 30, 2012March 30, 2012

scales of justice An update on the two New York lawsuits recently decided in lower courts that upheld local municipal bans on hydraulic fracturing and gas drilling:

Energy Companies | Enerplus

Sudden Resignation of Enerplus President Dana Johnson

March 29, 2012March 29, 2012

Enerplus Corporation, a Denver-based exploration and production company, announced yesterday that its president has resigned “to pursue other opportunities.” No word on what those other opportunities are. According to MDN’s newly published Marcellus and Utica Shale Databook 2012 – Volume 1, Enerplus had active Marcellus drilling operations in both Clinton County, PA and Preston County, WV in 2011.

Allegheny County | Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Pennsylvania | Range Resources Corp

South Fayette School Passes on Offer from Range Resources

March 29, 2012March 29, 2012

The South Fayette School District in South Fayette Township (Allegheny County), PA has decided to pass on an offer from Range Resources to transfer a Marcellus Shale drilling lease previously signed with Chesapeake Energy.

BP | Energy Companies | Lease & Royalty Payments | Ohio | Trumbull County

BP’s Big Utica Shale Deal, Leases 84K Acres in Ohio

March 28, 2012March 28, 2012

keeping secrets BP has entered the Utica Shale play by signing a lease agreement with with the Associated Landowners of the Ohio Valley (ALOV) group to lease 84,000 acres in Trumbull County, OH. Not sure why, but BP and the ALOV group officially are not disclosing the terms of the deal (as you’ll see in the press release below). However, terms have already leaked:

After 7 Years of No Drilling, PA Families Sue to End Contract

March 28, 2012March 28, 2012

Seven Beaver County, PA families filed a lawsuit yesterday in Common Pleas Court accusing O&G Investments of Wooster, Ohio of not drilling on their land (and not paying them) for the past seven years. The lawsuit also names Chesapeake Energy, who purchased the leases from O&G last year and who now, “at the last minute,” is trying to tie up the land and continue the contract by moving in equipment to start a drill pad—even though they haven’t received any permits to drill.

Shell’s ‘Silent’ Partner in Building Cracker Plant: The EPA

March 27, 2012March 27, 2012

Shell will decide whether or not to build an ethane cracker plant in Beaver County, PA over the next two years (see this MDN story). If they decide to build, which seems likely, it will take between four and 10 years and $3 billion to build it. It’s a massive project. And Shell will have the federal Environmental Protection Agency looking over their shoulder the whole time, according to an EPA rep from Texas:

Energy Companies | Seneca Resources

National Fuel Gas Announces Second Cutback in Marcellus

March 27, 2012March 27, 2012

National Fuel Gas Company and its subsidiary Seneca Resources announced yesterday that for the second time in two months they are further scaling back Marcellus Shale drilling in light of low natural gas prices. According to CEO David Smith they will curtail production by “a modest amount” and delay some completions in the Marcellus.

From the press release:

Commodity Price | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Range Resources Corp

Range CEO Predicts Long-Term Commodity Price of NatGas

March 23, 2012March 23, 2012

Here’s a prediction on the commodity price of natural gas from John Pinkerton, CEO of Range Resources, as delivered at the Wall Street Journal’s ECO:nomics conference this week: