Energy Companies

Anadarko | Centre County | Energy Companies | Pennsylvania

SRBC Rejects Anadarko Water Request in Centre County, PA
December 21, 2011December 21, 2011

At the the Dec. 15 meeting of the Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC) held in Wilkes-Barre, PA, commissioners voted to reject a request from Anadarko Petroleum to withdraw up to 715,000 gallons of water per day from a well near Council Run in Snow Shoe Township (Centre County), PA. The rejection is rare because the SRBC informs requestors ahead of time that a request is likely to be voted down. Apparently Anadarko wanted to move forward with the request despite a warning from the SRBC.

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Energy Companies | Southwestern Energy

Southwestern Doubling Marcellus Shale Investment in 2012
December 21, 2011December 21, 2011

On Monday, Southwestern Energy announced it will spend $2 billion in 2012 on exploration and production, with plans to double their investment in the Marcellus Shale.

From the Southwestern press release:

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Belmont County | Chesapeake Energy | Economic Impact | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Utica Shale

Chesapeake Real Estate Purchases in Ohio Signal Expansion
December 20, 2011December 20, 2011

Chesapeake Energy has just paid $630,000 for two pieces of real estate in Belmont County, Ohio—ground zero for Utica Shale drilling in eastern Ohio. Chesapeake will not officially comment on the purchases, but there’s little doubt they will build a new satellite office at one location for their Ohio drilling operations, and perhaps use the other parcel (land and warehouse) for storage and operations. It shows the serious commitment Chesapeake is making in Ohio and signals their further expansion in the area.

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Energy Companies | EQT Corp

EQT Bets the Farm on the Marcellus Shale
December 20, 2011December 20, 2011

EQT is betting big on the Marcellus for 2012 and will spend 80 percent of its upstream budget on Marcellus Shale development in 2012.

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Butler County | Energy Companies | Gastar Exploration | Pennsylvania | Preston County | West Virginia | Wetzel County

Gastar Marcellus Wells: Strong Production, Lots of Liquids
December 20, 2011December 20, 2011

Gastar Exploration gives the following operational update on their drilling activities in the Marcellus Shale in Marshall and Preston counties in West Virginia, and Butler County in Pennsylvania. Most of Gastar’s Marcellus activity is concentrated in Marshall County, WV, where they plan to complete 24 horizontal wells by the end of 2012.

From the Gastar press release:

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Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Range Resources Corp | Regulation | Statewide PA | Washington County

Gas Drillers and Townships Working Together Resolve Issues
December 19, 2011December 19, 2011

A recent example from western Pennsylvania illustrates how drilling companies and residents in PA are working together to resolve thorny issues and move forward with gas drilling in a way that everyone can live with:

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Accidents | Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County

New Report Says No Health Threats from Spills in Dimock PA
December 15, 2011December 15, 2011

In December 2009, Dimock Township (PA) resident Scott Ely, an employee of Cabot Oil & Gas drilling subsidiary GasSearch Drilling Services, made claims of hidden or ignored spills, leaking pits and shoddy practices to both state environmental regulators and Cabot officials. Ely identified 11 sites where he said such problems had occurred. Cabot contracted with URS Corp. to investigate the claims and either prove or disprove them. A final URS report has just been issued which says it found nothing in the streams, ponds and soil it sampled at levels that would pose a risk to human health.

The report (a copy is embedded below) says URS did find some substances which may indicate past spills from natural gas drilling operations, but that the substances they found do not have state-mandated limits for soil and water.

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Endeavour International | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | SM Energy

Endeavour Leaves SM Energy at the Altar, SM Ready to Sue
December 15, 2011December 15, 2011

Yesterday, U.S. oil and gas exploration firm Endeavour International Corp announced they were bailing out of a deal to buy the Marcellus holdings of SM Energy (no stated reason for abandoning the deal). This was the single-sentence press release they issued:

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Accidents | Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County

Judge Denies Request to Restart Water Deliveries in Dimock PA
December 14, 2011December 14, 2011

Last Friday, Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board Judge Bernard Labuskes, Jr. denied an appeal from 11 families in the Carter Road area of Dimock Township, PA who were asking that water shipments from Cabot Oil & Gas be restored. The 11 families, from an original group of 19 families, decided to not accept a remediation solution ordered by the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) that directed Cabot to pay the families up to twice the value of their homes and to install filtration systems that would remove all methane from their water supplies.

Because of their ongoing refusal to accept the remediation solution offered, preferring instead to pursue litigation with Cabot, the DEP finally told Cabot they could end water deliveries to those families as of Nov. 30—deliveries that have been ongoing for more than two years.

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Energy Companies | Lease & Royalty Payments | Pennsylvania | Range Resources Corp | Washington County

Range Resources Reduces Lease Offer to North Strabane Twp
December 14, 2011December 14, 2011

North Strabane Township (Washington County), PA reports that Range Resources has lowered its offer to lease 141 acres of township-owned land.

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Barbour County | Crestwood Midstream | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Mountaineer Keystone | Pipelines | Preston County | Randolph County | Taylor County | West Virginia

Crestwood to Build New Marcellus Pipeline in NE WV
December 14, 2011December 14, 2011

Houston-based Crestwood Midstream yesterday announced they will construct a new 16” inch Marcellus gathering pipeline that will run 42 miles through Preston, Taylor and Barbour counties in northeast West Virginia, connecting to Columbia Gas Transmission’s WB Pipeline in Randolph County, WV. By connecting to the WB Pipeline the new gathering pipeline will have access to the Washington, DC and Baltimore markets.

The new pipeline will be completed by this time next year and already has a long term “anchor” contract with Mountaineer Keystone, a Pittsburgh-based drilling company that will commence their horizontal drilling program in the area in the middle of 2012.

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Blue Ridge Mtn Res/Magnum Hunter | Energy Companies | Stone Energy | West Virginia | Wetzel County

Magnum Hunter, Stone Energy JV to Drill in Wetzel County WV
December 13, 2011December 13, 2011

Magnum Hunter Resources and Stone Energy yesterday announced a joint venture combining their leased Marcellus acreage in Wetzel County, WV, some 1,925 acres, with the stated objective of drilling 19 new horizontal Marcellus Shale wells in the next two years.

From the press release:

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Bradford Drilling | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | New York | Norse Energy | Statewide NY

Bradford Drilling Sues Partner Norse Energy for No Drilling
December 12, 2011December 12, 2011

Norse Energy Corp, the U.S. subsidiary of the Norwegian energy company, owns leases for 180,000 net acres in New York State, 130,000 of those acres being in the Marcellus and Utica Shale plays. Norse bet the farm on New York allowing shale gas drilling long before now, and they lost (NY is still months, if not years away from allowing shale gas drilling). Norse has put their New York acreage on the auction block, looking for another company to buy it.

In the meantime, one of Norse’s drilling partners is suing them for lack of drilling according to their agreement. That agreement had nothing to do with shale gas, but instead was drilling in the Herkimer formation, a limestone-type layer in central New York. Norse seems to indicate they may restart Herkimer drilling at some point. From the Norse press release:

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Accidents | Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County

Dueling Press Conferences in Dimock PA
December 7, 2011December 7, 2011

In the ongoing press event that is Dimock, PA, yesterday Gasland creator Josh Fox and actor Mark Rufalo, among others, gathered in Dimock to keep up the pressure and to continue to demagogue what has really happened in Dimock. See MDN’s previous coverage for background. A brief summary of events leading up to yesterday’s dueling press conferences:

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Economic Impact | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Shell

Shell’s Major Shift to Natural Gas, US Gas-to-Liquids Plant?
December 7, 2011December 7, 2011

Shell is moving into natural gas in a major way. In fact, natural gas will eclipse crude oil for Shell sometime next year by being more than 50 percent of Shell’s global production. Shell has committed to spending $2 billion to build an ethane cracker plant in the Marcellus region of the U.S., and now they are talking about building a gas-to-liquids plant. Shell invested an astonishing $19 billion in a gas-to-liquids plant in Qatar. Imagine that investment coming to the U.S.! Such is the transformative power of shale gas.

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Economic Impact | Energy Companies | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Shell | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Shell, One Other Company Close to Cracker Plant Announcement
December 7, 2011December 7, 2011

According to officials in West Virginia, who are super-serious about attracting at least one ethane cracker plant to their state, Shell and one other company will announce site selections for their plants in January of 2012. West Virginia fully intends that at least one of those two plants will be inside their borders, and they are pulling out all of the stops to ensure it happens. In fact, according to WV Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin’s chief of staff, it’s the newly-elected governor’s “No. 1 goal.”

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