Range Resources Corp 42 - Marcellus Drilling News

Washington County Commissioners to Vote on Modifying Gas Lease

February 2, 2012February 2, 2012

Commissioners for Washington County, PA will vote today on modifying an agreement they have with Range Resources to allow drilling for gas at a county-owned park. The revisions will limit how much time Range has to complete drilling and extracting natural gas, and it also ups the royalty percentage.

MarkWest to Expand/Build NGL Plants on New Agreements

February 1, 2012February 1, 2012

MarkWest Energy Partners, a major midstream player in the Marcellus and Utica Shales, just announced major expansion plans that will add an additional 600 million cubic feet per day (mmcf/d) of natural gas processing capacity which includes natural gas liquids (NGLs). Most of the new capacity will come from expansion of its Majorsville, WV plant. The expansion is made possible by new long-term agreements MarkWest signed with CONSOL Energy, Noble Energy and Range Resources to process NGLs.

MarkWest also announced they will build two new processing plants in Ohio’s Utica Shale—in Harrison and Monroe counties.

Range’s Wet Gas Drilling Location & Dry Gas Drilling Timeline

January 31, 2012January 31, 2012

Interstate 79 The talk coming from the largest drillers in the Marcellus Shale is that they will scale back drilling activities in the dry (methane only) portions of the Marcellus Shale play and instead focus on the wet (liquids-rich) portion.

Ever wonder where, exactly, the liquids-rich area can be found? We now know where it is for Range Resources, one of the largest drillers in Pennsylvania. We also have an estimate of how long drilling in the dry gas portion of the Marcellus may be pushed back for Range due to low prices for natural gas.

Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Range Resources Corp

Enterprise Scores Second Commitment for New Ethane Pipeline

January 26, 2012January 26, 2012

Enterprise Products Partners have scored another customer, Range Resources, for their ethane pipeline that will connect the Marcellus and Utica Shales to the Gulf Coast. The 1,230 mile pipeline, dubbed the ATEX Express (Appalachia to Texas) will transport ethane from Washington County, PA to (at first) Cape Girardeau, MO—that’s new pipeline construction. And from Cape Girardeau, Enterprise will reverse an existing 16-inch diameter pipeline and place it into ethane service, going all the way to Mont Belvieu, TX.

Energy Companies | Pennsylvania | Range Resources Corp | Statewide PA

Range Resources Doubles PA Marcellus Output in 2011

January 18, 2012January 18, 2012

Range Resources, one of the largest drillers in the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania, just posted year-end results and said that despite selling their Barnett Shale acreage, 2011 was the eighth consecutive year of double-digit gains for the company. In the Marcellus, Range doubled their output from 2010 levels.

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:

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.

Energy Companies | Pennsylvania | Range Resources Corp | Statewide PA

Range Completes 56 New PA Marcellus Wells in Q311

October 26, 2011October 26, 2011

Range Resources, one of the largest drillers in the Marcellus Shale, reports in its third quarter operations update that the company is on track to produce 400 million cubic feet of shale gas per day from its Marcellus Shale gas wells. During the third quarter, Range drilled 56 new wells in the Marcellus region of PA with a total of 229 producing wells across the state, most of them in the southwest part of the state.

From the Range quarterly operations update:

Range Resources Sues Cecil Township Over New Ordinance

October 13, 2011March 24, 2012

Cecil Township in Washington County, PA—a suburb of Pittsburgh—recently passed an ordinance changing shale gas drilling from a permitted use to a conditional use, meaning each well drilled would have to be approved by the township on a case by case basis. It requires drillers to do twice the work—once in filing a permit application with the state, and a second time with the local municipality. Range Resources, one of the nation’s largest Marcellus Shale drillers (and with operations in Cecil), has just filed a lawsuit requesting the new ordinance be overturned.

Top 7 Marcellus Shale Gas Producers in PA

October 3, 2011October 3, 2011

Who are the biggest producers of Marcellus shale gas in Pennsylvania so far this year? Below is the list of the top seven as compiled from production numbers by the Pittsburgh Business Times.

The following are production numbers for January to June 2011 in Pennsylvania.

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

Canon-McMillan School Signs Gas Lease with Range Resources

October 3, 2011October 3, 2011

A school district in Washington County, PA (in western PA) just signed a five-year lease for school district property with Range Resources:

Energy Companies | Pennsylvania | Range Resources Corp | Statewide PA

Marcellus, Utica, and now…Upper Devonian?!

September 29, 2011September 29, 2011

You’ve heard of the Marcellus Shale. You’ve also heard of the Utica Shale. Now get ready to hear about another geologic formation that may “rock” the energy world: the Upper Devonian, a group of shale and sandstone layers that sit above the Marcellus and the Utica. Range Resources said on Tuesday there’s a lot of natural gas trapped in the Upper Devonian layers—so much so that in Pennsylvania, the Upper Devonian may contain as much gas as the Marcellus.

Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Range Resources Corp

Range CEO Says Everyone Should Disclose Fracking Chemicals

September 27, 2011September 27, 2011

John Pinkerton will step down as CEO of Range Resources by the end of this year. Having been in the industry for two decades, and with nothing to lose, he minces no words and spoke bluntly at a recent conference about the need for energy companies to fully disclose all of the chemicals they use in hydraulic fracturing. He said there are no secrets and everyone uses pretty much the same fracking recipes:

Energy Companies | Range Resources Corp

Is Range Resources for Sale?

September 22, 2011September 22, 2011

An interesting rumor is making the rounds that Range Resources is about to be sold:

Range Sending Natural Gas Liquids to Canadian Cracker Plant

September 9, 2011September 9, 2011

Range Resources is not waiting for a new multi-billion dollar cracker plant to be built in the Marcellus region to process the natural gas liquids they’re producing in the region. Instead, Range is going to send its natural gas liquids to Canada for cracking. Natural gas liquids contain ethane which can be processed or “cracked” to produce ethylene, a raw material used to make plastics.

Recent Marcellus Shale Joint Venture Deals

August 19, 2011August 19, 2011

Joint ventures are a common way for oil and gas companies to share risk, expertise and resources. Here is a list of recent deals in the Marcellus shale: