Congratulations to the Marcellus. Stand up and take a bow! A new report just released by research company IHS says the Marcellus Shale has now surpassed the Haynesville Shale to be the largest natural gas producing play in the U.S.
Here’s the IHS press release announcing “game-changer” Marcellus report, which includes some interesting highlights:
Read More “IHS Report: Marcellus Dethrones Haynesville as Top Producing Play”
When was the last time you heard about a country bank that had so much money, it was having problems finding enough people and businesses to lend it to? Yeah, we’ve never heard of that either.
Until now…
Read More “Rural PA Bank has Too Much Cash from Marcellus Customers”
Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan announced last week that he and Ohio Congressman Bill Johnson have founded the “Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Export Working Group” for the 113th Congress. The purpose of the group is to encourage the Obama administration (specifically the Dept. of Energy) to get off it’s collective rear-end and start approving some of the many requests for permits to export natural gas.
Congressman Ryan’s press announcement:
Read More “OH Congressmen Form LNG Working Group to Encourage Exports”
MDN always marvels at the innovative ways businesses figure out how to market and do business in the Marcellus and Utica Shale drilling industry. Often referred to as “the supply chain,” businesses doing business in the shale industry is an often overlooked success story. We often hear about restaurants and hotels seeing a large increase in business, but numerous other businesses also benefit. Case in point: Utilities Employees Credit Union.
UECU has begun new marketing strategies to attract customers from those working in the Pennsylvania Marcellus Shale industry. Here’s their strategies to increase business from the Marcellus:
Read More “Marcellus Supply Chain: How Credit Union Targets PA Shale Workers”
Another stellar article on the Seeking Alpha website by energy analyst Richard Zeits. This one takes a look at the Marcellus Shale and notes that something “inconceivable” even a few years ago will become true this year: The Mighty Marcellus Shale will hit 10 billion cubic feet of natural gas production per day. Wow!
Here’s how the article starts:
Read More “Marcellus Shale will Hit 10 Bcf/d in Production in 2013”
Two days ago the Federal Reserve released their bi-monthly survey of regional economic trends, called “the Beige Book.” One of the stars in the current edition of the Beige Book (full copy embedded below) is the Marcellus and Utica Shale. Shale drilling is mentioned prominently for Region III (Philadelphia) and Region IV (Cleveland).
According to the Fed, shale drilling is expanding rapidly, and along with it an increase in banking, manufacturing and other sectors. Sort of “a rising tide raises all boats” theme.
Read More “Latest Fed Beige Book Credits Shale with Economic Expansion”
The BP-Husky Refinery, a 94 year-old oil and gasoline refinery in Oregon, OH (near Toledo), showed off a $400 million upgrade yesterday. The new upgrade took two years and 1,500 short-term workers to complete and will make the refinery more efficient, less polluting and enable it to refine better grades of gasoline.
The interesting part for MDN readers: Right now the refinery gets most of its crude oil from Canada, but new sources of crude are starting to flow from Ohio itself, as well as Pennsylvania and West Virginia—from the Utica and Marcellus Shale. The upgraded refinery has more flexibility to process different types of crude, including Ohio crude…
Read More “BP Refinery Near Toledo Gets Upgrade, Anticipates OH Crude”
What does Pennsylvania have that New York doesn’t? For one thing, fewer welfare deadbeats sucking off the public teat. For another, PA has shale gas drilling and NY does not. Shale gas drilling has propelled PA, for the second year in a row, to third place in the entire country for the number of new and expanded corporate facilities built. PA is #1 for new corporate facilities in the Northeast—thanks to Marcellus drilling. Too bad NY is missing out—the very real cost of not drilling is loss of infrastructure projects like these.
PA had 430 new or expanded corporate facilities built in 2012 with a minimum investment of at least $1 million and with each facility adding at least 50 new jobs. Translation: On the low end, PA had $430 million in new investment and 21,500 new jobs—most of which came from the shale industry. The actual number for new investment/jobs was more like double…
Read More “PA Leads NE in Corporate Facilities Expansion – TY Shale!”
As we’ve been hearing for some time now, midstream (pipelines and processing plants) will be the dominant theme and focus of the Marcellus and Utica Shale for 2013 and likely beyond. A lot of wells have been and continue to be drilled in the Utica and Marcellus. Those wells now require pipelines to carry the gas and gas liquids to market, and processing plants to get the gas and gas liquids ready for market. MarkWest Energy is one of the midstream companies answering the call.
MarkWest plans to invest $1.8 billion in new infrastructure this year in the Utica Shale region, after investing nearly $2 billion last year:
Read More “MarkWest’s Multi-Billion Dollar Investment in Utica/Marcellus”
Last week energy analyst Richard Zeits posted a terrific piece on Cabot Oil & Gas on the Seeking Alpha website (see Cabot’s Drilling in Susquehanna County Moves Needle on U.S. Supplies). Zeits turns in a “part 2” on the Cabot story yesterday—and if anything, it’s even better. In his latest post, Zeits talks about the uber-productive wells Cabot has drilled in Susquehanna County, PA. Cabot had 30 wells in the fourth quarter of last year that turned in initial 24-hour flow rates of 20 million cubic feet of natural gas, settling back to a 30-day average rate of 16.6 Mmcf/d.
Even more astonishing? One well they drilled—with 35 frack stages—had a 24-hour initial rate of 41.4 Mmcf/d and settled back to a 30-day average of 35.9 Mmcf/d. Superlatives are not enough to express how big this news is. These are the highest numbers we’ve ever seen—higher than the Gulfport wells in the Ohio Utica Shale (although this is dry gas only, so it’s not a true apples to apples comparison). This is big news not only for Cabot and Pennsylvania…these wells are relatively close to the border of New York State. Hello Gov. Ditherer!
One of the arguments launched by anti-drillers is that “shale gas supplies won’t last”—supplies will run out quite quickly, in less than ten years (OMG!). This particular meme started with a pair of articles in the New York Times in June 2011 (see New York Times: Nightmare on Shale Gas Street). The Times articles call shale drilling a Ponzi scheme with very little actual gas (or “proved reserves”) in the ground. It’s just a head fake by energy companies to get investors to part with big money. Then we found out the main anonymous government source quoted in the Times articles was a lowly intern with ties to the anti-drilling Natural Resources Defense Council (see Unnamed Source in New York Times Anti-Gas Articles was…an Intern?!).
Leaving behind the fiction we so often find in the pages of the NYT, there’s at least two books being published this year by supposed industry insiders who pick up on the same meme (see Energy Industry Expert Says Shale Gas Will Last <10 Years). Let’s inject a little science into this discussion, shall we? The University of Texas is about to publicly release a new study on shale supplies in the Barnett Shale. The Barnett was the first shale play to be commercially developed in this country. The study’s conclusion? The Barnett will still be producing natural gas until 2050—and beyond. Although production will decline over time, the Barnett is a powerhouse—the country’s second-most productive formation. But you wouldn’t know that by reading stories about the new UT study from Bloomberg…
Read More “University of Texas Study: 1st Shale Play Good til 2050 & Beyond”
Marietta (Washington County), Ohio is starting to feel the impact from Utica and Marcellus Shale drilling. It’s showing up in a dramatic increase in tax revenue from hotels and motels. It’s also showing up in the local real estate market that’s turned from being a buyers market into a seller’s market:
Read More “Marietta, OH Feels the Economic Effects of Utica Drilling”
A welding and fabrication company—Six C Fabrication—has just purchased a former plastics plant in Rootstown (Portage County), Ohio where it will establish a manufacturing plant for piping and structural steel equipment for the Utica Shale drilling industry.
Six C hails from Louisiana. They believe the Utica offers a great opportunity to expand their business. Another 100 new jobs are on the way (this year) in the Utica…
Read More “New Utica Pipe/Equipment Plant Setting up in Portage County, OH”
The heads of several drilling companies spoke this week at the West Virginia Independent Oil and Gas Association (WV IOGA) in Charleston. They gushed with praise for the Marcellus Shale in West Virginia.
Among the speakers were the CEOs of Gastar, PetroEdge and EnerVest. A few of their comments:
Read More “Drilling Company CEOs Talk up WV Marcellus Shale at IOGA Meeting”
More tales of companies starting, companies expanding, and new millionaires being created at a rapid rate—all because of Utica Shale drilling. This time it’s happening in Guernsey County, Ohio…
Read More “Guernsey County Shale: Businesses Expand, Millionaires Created”
The Boston Globe features an article in today’s issue praising the miracle of hydraulic fracturing for keeping oil and gasoline prices lower than they otherwise would be, and highlighting the fact that domestically-produced oil (from fracking) is forcing Middle Eastern countries to keep their oil prices competitive.
When was the last time you read a quote in mainstream/liberal media about fracking in U.S. shale plays being a “game-changer” and something good? Yeah, we can’t remember either. That’s why this story is noteworthy:
Read More “Boston Globe: Fracking is Good, Leads to Lower Oil & Gas Prices”