At a petrochemical industry conference last week in Philadelphia, a senior ExxonMobil executive said shale gas in general, and the Marcellus Shale in particular, is revitalizing the petrochemical industry in this country.
Comments from Lynne Lachenmyer, senior vice president, ExxonMobil Chemical Company:
Read More “ExxonMobil: Shale Gas is Revitalizing U.S. Petrochemical Industry”
A sobering and excellent article in the Coshocton Tribune takes a look at how the re-election of Barak H. Obama will negatively impact small businesses and the Utica Shale drilling industry in Ohio. We highly recommend you read the entire article to gain an understanding of the implications for all types of small businesses—businesses that are the economic backbone of our country.
Here’s a small portion of the article that deals with federal impacts on shale gas drilling in Ohio:
Read More “Obama’s Re-election Impact on Ohio’s Utica Shale Drilling”
Here’s a contrary view if ever we’ve seen one: Bill Powers, editor and writer of the Powers Energy Investor newsletter and someone who has sat on the board of three oil and gas companies and has been an active investor for 25 years, says shale gas supplies in the U.S. have been vastly overhyped. Over the past three years Powers researched and next spring will publish a new book called: Cold, Hungry and in the Dark: Exploding the Natural Gas Supply Myth. In the book he argues that contrary to the popular belief that the U.S. has a 100-year supply of natural gas due to shale gas fracking, he believes it’s more on the order of 5-7 years. Say what??
Powers was interviewed by The Energy Report and the interview was posted on the Seeking Alpha website. Here’s a brief excerpt:
Read More “Energy Industry Expert Says Shale Gas Will Last <10 Years”
Netherlands-based ASDReports.com has just released a new research study focusing on the Marcellus Shale titled, Marcellus Shale in the US, 2012 – Gas Shale Market Analysis and Forecasts to 2020. The company issued a press release (below) which hits some of the highlights from the study. Among the astonishing predictions: The Marcellus Shale will produce a “massive” (their words) 7,685 billion cubic feet equivalent of gas by 2020—or said another way, 7.7 trillion cubic feet equivalent. They predict the Marcellus will be producing 4,861 bcfe (4.9 tcfe) by 2015.
Here’s the press release announcing the study with a few juicy tidbits thrown in:
Read More “Netherlands Research Co. Predicts Marcellus will Reach 7.7 Tcfe by 2020”
More than two and half years ago V&M said they would build a new $650 million steel pipe plant in Youngstown, Ohio and create 350 new jobs (see this MDN story). The new plant would manufacture steel pipes used in Marcellus and Utica Shale drilling. Last week the first pipe to be produced at the promised plant rolled (pun intended) off the production line.
But just what kind of pipe is V&M making for the shale drilling industry? A special kind of pipe called OCTG…
Read More “Youngstown Plant Produces Special Steel Pipe for Drilling”
Another feel good story about a small hotel that made it big because of the Marcellus and Utica Shale. This story comes from rural Bentleyville, PA, not far from West Virginia and Ohio:
Read More “Hotel in Rural Western PA Makes it Big from Marcellus/Utica”
A quick update on numbers for the Utica Shale, including how many permits have been issued to date in the Utica, how many wells have been drilled, how many rigs are operating and how many permits have been issued county by county, courtesy MDN friend Bob Downing of the Akron Beacon Journal:
Read More “The Latest Permit/Drilling Numbers for OH Utica Shale”
It’s a story that’s told so much, people may get tired of hearing it: hotels and motels boom when there is shale drilling nearby. MDN delights in bringing you stories of small businesses that do well—extremely well—because of shale gas drilling. So please indulge us as we bring you one more, this one from rural Ohio…
Read More “Rural OH Motel Sees Business Soar with Utica Drilling”
Last week Aqua America CEO Nicholas DeBenedictis addressed Drexel University students at the 2012 Energy/Utility Forum held at Drexel and told them the natural gas industry in Pennsylvania will be the biggest thing to come along, economically, since the “heydays” of coal and steel in the state.
Here’s a summary of what he said to Drexel students:
Read More “Aqua America Says Shale Gas Will be Big as Coal/Steel for PA”
The American Clean Skies Foundation has just released a major new study (copy embedded below) based on analysis by ICF International which finds that shale oil and gas drilling in the U.S., from 2007 to 2017 (10 years) will lead to the creation of upward of 1.6 million new jobs and increase the country’s domestic gross product (GDP) by as much as $245 billion. These are seriously huge numbers.
The 123-page study takes a detailed look at where the jobs are being created (state by state), and the types of jobs created. It is without a doubt the best kind of economic stimulus—it doesn’t come from the government! Here’s the press release announcing and summarizing the findings of the study:
Read More “New Study: U.S. Shale Drilling = 1.6M Jobs, $245B in 10 Yrs”
This is a fascinating (to MDN) story about where the industry and economics for shale gas drilling may be heading. Yesterday LSB Industries, an Oklahoma City chemical (and equipment) manufacturer that depends on natural gas as its raw materials, announced they have purchased ownership interest in 14 producing natural gas wells, 7 soon-to-be producing wells and 36 yet-to-drilled wells in the Marcellus Shale, in Wyoming County, PA.
Why would a manufacturing company invest in natural gas wells? As a hedge against natural gas prices going higher—which they believe is going to happen relatively soon. They want a piece of the action that supplies their company with a key raw material, to keep their future costs down. Smart.
Read More “Oklahoma Manufacturer Buys Interest in PA Marcellus Wells”
We interrupt this blog post to bring you the following news: New York’s unemployment rate is 8.2% (a full 9% in Chemung County). The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 345 out of 372 metro areas in the country (93%) have lower unemployment rates than the New York State average. The lowest unemployment rate in the country? North Dakota—at 2.2%.
Why is ND’s unemployment rate so low? And why is NY’s so high? Is there a connection?
Read More “NY vs ND Unemployment Rates: Why is One High, the Other Low?”
A blogger on the Seeking Alpha website says the Marcellus is “a ticking time bomb” waiting to “explode” with a tremendous amount of new natural gas production that will flood into the U.S. marketplace over the next 1-2 years. How much new gas? Blogger David White makes a compelling case he believes an additional 5 billion cubic feet of new natural gas will flow—from just the Marcellus Shale region—by the end of 2013.
Here’s his reasoning:
Read More “Marcellus May Produce Additional 5Bcf/d of Gas in Next 14 Mo”
Although Hurricane turned Super Storm Sandy gave New York City, Delaware and New Jersey a big, black eye (and we grieve for their losses), further inland Marcellus and Utica Shale drillers prepared for and appear to have avoided any major impacts from the storm. Some production was and still is shut in to avoid potential problems, but given the storm is now mostly gone from the Marcellus and Utica Shale region, shut in production should quickly come back online.
Here’s a Sandy report from four of the largest drillers in the Marcellus:
Read More “Sandy’s Affect on Drillers in the Marcellus & Utica Shale”
Although some of the initial frenzy of activity has subsided, drilling in Ohio’s Utica Shale continues, and along with it comes a growth in business, jobs and economic impact.
Here are a few stories of Ohio businesses that have seen a major impact from plugging in to the Marcellus and Utica Shale “supply chain”:
Read More “Plugging in to the Marcellus & Utica Shale Supply Chain”
It seems the entire country watched with morbid fascination as Hurricane-now-Super Storm Sandy slammed into the northeast yesterday. The exceptionally large and powerful storm—some 1,000 miles across—lingers over what is essentially the Marcellus and Utica Shale region of the U.S. As of early Tuesday more than 5 million people are without power due to storm damage. New York was heavily hit with the highest storm surge to hit Manhattan in over 200 years, flooding subway tunnels and covering some city streets. The New York Stock Exchange is closed for two consecutive days for the first time since 1888. Truly history in the making.
How will Sandy affect drilling, production and refining in the Marcellus? Reports came in yesterday that refineries were shutting down in advance of the storm. Production coming from the field likely will not be affected all that much, but drilling is another matter. Some drilling operators reported they would lay down rig masts until the storm passes.
Read More “Sandy’s Effect on Marcellus/Utica Shale Drilling & Production”