Hydraulic Fracturing 140 - Marcellus Drilling News

Ohio Passes New Drilling Law, Gov. Kasich Will Sign

May 25, 2012May 25, 2012

Ohio’s new shale oil and gas drilling legislation (SB 315) has now passed both the House (73-19) and the Senate (21-8) and is on the way to Gov. John Kasich’s desk for his signature, which it will receive. The bill as passed is 220 pages long and wide-ranging in its scope, covering not only shale oil and gas extraction, but renewable energy, water conservation, and wastewater treatment. The bill reportedly contains some of the strictest rules in the nation for hydraulic fracturing.

So what’s in the bill? MDN doubts you want to read through 220 pages to find out. Embedded below is the 70-page summary overview version. However, here’s a few brief highlights of what’s in it:

Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

FracFocus.org Chemical Reporting Service Expands Rapidly

May 25, 2012May 25, 2012

FracFocus.org, the hydraulic fracturing chemical registry website, is now just over one year old and contains detailed information on the fracking chemicals used in over 18,000 hydraulically fractured wells. FracFocus.org is an independent organization that enjoys both drilling industry and environmental group support. With over 200 drillers now submitting data to the FracFocus.org website, it has become the de facto standard source for fracking chemical data, expanding rapidly each month as more and more drillers use the service.

A press release issued today describes FracFocus.org in more detail and links to online training offered by the organization along with a video of highlights from the past “wild ride” year:

Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Regulation | Statewide OH

Anti-Driller Groups in Ohio Don’t Like Being Legally Neutered

May 24, 2012May 24, 2012

scalpel Ohio legislators have been working to craft new shale oil and gas drilling rules that will do more to protect the environment, and at the same time, help protect the fledgling shale drilling industry in the state. New legislation passed in committee yesterday that will now go to the full House includes a provision to help prevent frivolous lawsuits brought by deep-pocketed anti-drilling groups, like the Ohio Environmental Council and the Sierra Club. These groups, who are opposed to expanded use of fossil fuels, use the legal system to tie up shale drillers in court and force them to spend huge sums of money as a tactic to reduce fossil fuel mining and use.

When the Ohio House added a protection against such shenanigans, predictably the anti-drillers objected.

Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

NY DEC Chief Martens Says Fracking Can be Done Safely

May 24, 2012May 24, 2012

Finally, one thing that Joe Martens has said publicly that MDN fully agrees with. Martens, for those new to the drilling debate in New York, is the Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservation—the organization that is tasked with regulating oil and gas drilling in the state. Martens is also the former long-time president of the Open Spaces Institute, an organization dedicated to stopping development of land. Strange choice by Andy Cuomo to run the organization tasked with developing the state’s land. But whatever.

Here’s what Martens said at a conference yesterday in New York City:

Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Animated Map Shows Vertical vs Horizontal Gas Wells in PA

May 24, 2012May 24, 2012

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) has created a very cool animated map showing the transition from conventionally drilled, vertical natural gas wells to unconventional, horizontally fracked natural gas wells (Marcellus wells) from January 2005 to April 2012 (a copy of the video is embedded below). Just as cool—and startling—are a couple of bar charts (also embedded below) showing the dramatic increase in the volume of natural gas production in PA while at the same time the number of gas wells, the number of holes drilled in the ground, has gone down! How can that be?

Fracked horizontal wells drilled in shale formations are far more productive than conventional, vertically drilled wells.

Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

Sierra Club Hindering Change from Coal to Natural Gas

May 23, 2012May 23, 2012

In what can only be described as idiotic, the Sierra Club is actively preventing utility companies from converting electrical generating plants from coal to natural gas—because they don’t like fracking. This kind of stuff has to stop.

PA Resident Wins Right to Appeal DEP Water Contamination Case

May 23, 2012May 23, 2012

The Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board (EHB) ruled on May 16 that a Washington County resident who claims that nearby shale gas drilling is responsible for his water well being contaminated with methane and chemicals can appeal a Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) determination that his well was not contaminated by shale drilling.

Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

G8 Ministers Give Fracking the Thumbs Up

May 22, 2012May 22, 2012

Looks like the G8 members—countries that belong to “the group of eight” of the largest economies in the world (the United Kingdom, France, Russia, Germany, the United States, Japan, Italy and Canada)—think fracking is a good idea. So says the official communiqué issued by the ministers that met last weekend at Camp David.

Louisville, OH to Sell Chesapeake Water for Fracking

May 22, 2012May 22, 2012

The Louisville City Council (Stark County, OH) passed an agreement yesterday to sell both potable and treated sewage water to Chesapeake Energy for their use in fracking Utica Shale wells. The water purchase agreement runs through 2017.

Economic Impact | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Injecting Some Realism in the Shale Gas Debate

May 22, 2012May 22, 2012

Writing in the Financial Post, Vaclav Smil, a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and until 2011 a Distinguished Professor in the Faculty of Environment at the University of Manitoba gives some sage advice on the wild claims on both sides of the shale gas drilling isle:

Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

NY Towns Pass Resolution They WON’T Ban Fracking

May 21, 2012May 21, 2012

Tired of New York municipalities passing ill-advised bans on fracking, and hoping to increase the chances that landowners will be “first in line” for permits when they are finally issued, a group of landowners in New York have launched a campaign to get municipalities to pass a non-binding resolution that they will not enact a ban on fracking—and it’s working.

GASFRAC Waterless Fracking Technology Debuts in Utica Shale

May 18, 2012May 18, 2012

Utica debut An unnamed driller in Ohio has asked Canadian company GASFRAC to use its waterless fracking technology to drill two trial wells in the Utica Shale. You may recall that a group of Tioga County, NY landowners with a collective 135,000 Marcellus Shale acres were set to use GASFRAC’s LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) technology to jump start drilling in New York, but the lease and royalty deal with the driller, eCORP, fell through (no fault of GASFRAC, see this MDN story).

Will GASFRAC’s innovative technology do the trick in Ohio’s Utica Shale? There’s some disagreement on that point.

Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Statewide OH | Taxation

Ernst & Young’s Analysis of Ohio Proposed Severance Tax

May 18, 2012May 18, 2012

Yesterday MDN wrote a story about a newly released study by Ernest & Young that purports to show that Ohio’s oil and gas taxes are the lowest in the country, and would remain the lowest even if Gov. John Kasich’s plan to boost those taxes were to be adopted (see this MDN story). MDN stated that we could not find a copy of that study to review the data. Thanks to two intrepid MDN readers, we now have a copy (embedded below).

Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

UK Gives Fracking the Green Light

May 17, 2012May 17, 2012

It seems a lot of today’s news is about fracking, so here’s one more story about fracking—not Marcellus or Utica related—but important all the same. Our ultra-environmentally conscious friends from across the pond have decided that fracking is a safe technology. Take note Vermont!

From a press release issued by British Gas:

Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

NC Law to Legalize (and Encourage) Fracking Advances

May 17, 2012May 17, 2012

In contrast to closed-minded Vermont (see this MDN story), North Carolina and its Democrat governor are also considering adopting new legislation with regard to hydraulic fracturing—but North Carolina’s legislation would make fracking legal, not ban it.

Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

Vermont Becomes First State to Ban Fracking

May 17, 2012May 17, 2012

In a purely symbolic gesture, Vermont has become the first (and likely only) state in union to ban hydraulic fracturing. Gov. Peter Shumlin signed the law yesterday with a crowd of grade school students from Twinfield Union School who have been brainwashed by their teachers into thinking fossil fuels are evil. The ban is symbolic because there is no oil or gas underneath Vermont to drill for.