Last November MDN told you that Range Resources was testing an all-electric fracking fleet at the Ziolkowski Pad in Allegheny County (see Range Resources Fracking Program – Meticulous & Thirsty). The results are in and Range likes what it sees. The company has signed on with U.S. Well Services to continue using “electric fracking.”
Read More “Range Resources Converts to Electric Fracking with US Well Serv.”
A new Franklin & Marshall College (F&M) poll released today shows a befuddling result. F&M keeps tabs on a variety of political issues in the Keystone State. The latest poll’s findings on the issue of fracking raise some red flags for us. The results are mixed. The poll surveyed 628 registered voters over six days in January. It found 48% of voters support shale gas drilling in Pennsylvania, compared with 44% who oppose it. Pretty thin margin. However, 48% of those same voters favor a ban on all fracking in the state, versus 39% who oppose a ban. Can anyone say schizophrenia?
Read More “Latest F&M Poll Shows 48% of PA Residents Favor Frack Ban”
What is it about Yale University researchers and their obsession with sexually transmitted diseases? It seems like an unhealthy obsession to us. The same Yale brain trust that brought us a sham “study” in 2018 that said fracking causes STDs in Ohio (see Yale Study Claims Ohio Utica Fracking Causes STDs) has just published a new “study” to say the same thing happens in Colorado, North Dakota, and Texas too. Another “f” word certainly can cause STDs, but not fracking. Perhaps the “researchers” got their semantics mixed up?
Read More “Recycled Pap: Yale Study Says Fracking Causes STDs in Mult. States”
As we reported earlier this week, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo intends to take full advantage of a far-left, Democrat-controlled state legislature, in order to pass a permanent (for all time) ban on fracking (see NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo Wants to Make Frack Ban Permanent). New York’s largest landowner rights group, the Joint Landowners Coalition of New York, has just issued a statement warning Cuomo not to pass such a ban.
Read More “NY’s Largest Landowner Group Opposes Cuomo’s Permanent Frack Ban”
Upwing Energy, an artificial lift technology company headquartered in California, announced earlier this week it has successfully completed a field trial of an underground compressor system in a “liquid-loaded” unconventional shale gas well located in…Indiana?! We had no idea there are *any* horizontal shale wells in Indiana. This was the first full-scale commercial field trial of their new technology and it resulted in a 62% increase in natgas production, and a 50% increase in liquids production.
Read More “Underground Compressor Boosts Shale Gas Well Production 62%”
There is one court case in Pennsylvania that we’ve been concerned about since April 2018. The Briggs v Southwestern Energy case had the power to block most new Marcellus Shale drilling in the state. The case, revolving around the oil and gas “rule of capture” principle, was appealed by Southwestern all the way to the PA Supreme Court. We are elated to report that yesterday the Supremes ruled supreme and found in favor of Southwestern–retaining the rule of capture in the Keystone State. This is seriously good news for both drillers and leased landowners. Below we explain what the rule of capture is, the background of the case, and what the Supremes said in yesterday’s important ruling.
Read More “HUGE NEWS: PA Supreme Court Keeps ‘Rule of Capture’ for Fracking”
Andrew Cuomo makes us puke. Literally. Cuomo, Governor of New York, became a dictator and stripped away the property rights of citizens living in NY in 2015 when he autocratically decided to prohibit shale fracking throughout the state (see It’s Official: Cuomo Bans Economic Opportunity & Prosperity in NY). He knows he won’t be the dictator of NY forever. Someday there will be a Republican governor who can unilaterally lift the frack ban in the same way Cuomo unilaterally imposed it. Yesterday Cuomo, in his so-called State of the State address, said he wants the legislature to pass a law permanently banning fracking in NY. Forever.
Read More “NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo Wants to Make Frack Ban Permanent”
Electric fracking (or e-fracking) continues to displace traditional fracking in the Marcellus/Utica. What’s the difference between the two? Traditional fracking uses diesel-fueled engines to produce electricity to power pressure pumps for hydraulic fracturing operations. Electric fracking uses natural gas from the well pad to power turbines to create electricity. Electric fracking fleets are roughly half the size of traditional diesel fleets–and a whole lot quieter.
Read More “Another Marcellus Driller Converts to Electric Fracking”
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, a liberal Democrat who sometimes supports the shale gas industry (as long as he can tax it) has caved to demands from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette to launch a “study” in a bid to “prove” cases of childhood cancer in southwestern PA can be tied to shale drilling in the region. A pair of studies, actually. The studies won’t be completed for three years, after Wolf is out of office, so he gets credit for caring, but he won’t be around for the fallout when it happens.
Read More “PA Spending $3.9M on Flawed Studies to Link Fracking with Cancer”
U.S. Senator Pat Toomey, from Pennsylvania, introduced a resolution two weeks ago that he (and other sane individuals) want to adopt to prevent people like “Crazy” Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth “Pocahontas” Warren from banning fracking, should they ever get elected president. (Sanders or Warren as president is a truly nightmarish prospect, meaning the country has officially gone to Hades.) Best put some protections in place now before frothing-at-the-mouth socialist/communists like Sanders or Warren get elected.
Read More “U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey Floats Resolution to Block Dem Frack Ban”
Washington (PA) Observer-Reporter reporter Rick Schrum recently went on a tour of fracking operations at a Range Resources site in Allegheny County, PA. Schrum interviewed Range’s water operations manager about how and where Range gets the water to drill and frack its wells.
Read More “Range Resources Fracking Program – Meticulous & Thirsty”
Speaking of electric fracking, this past summer CNX Resources converted to using 100% electric frac fleets in its drilling operations (see CNX Operates SWPA’s Sole 100% All-Electric Fracking Unit). According to a recent article, they still love their electric frackers.
Read More “CNX Continues to Love Electric Fracking Fleet”
Is this time different? The oil and gas industry is known for its “boom and bust” cycle. The price of oil and gas goes high, drillers jump on the bandwagon and inevitably produce far more than the market demands resulting in a price bust and a slowdown in drilling as it becomes unprofitable. Until the next cycle.
Read More “Experts Say ~13% of Fracking Equipment Retiring, Sold for Scrap”
There is not a SINGLE major candidate for the Democrat nomination for president that has not pledged to end the use of fracking in the oil and gas industry. It’s a breathtaking turn of events–that someone who wants to lead this nation would strip away Constitutional rights from its citizens in a massive power grab. Not even sleepy Joe Biden is exempt. He’s on record saying he would end the use of fracking across the country, same as Elizbeth “Pocahontas” Warren.
Read More “Joe Biden as Radical on Frack Ban as Elizabeth Warren”
The Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC) established the Remote Water Quality Monitoring Network (RWQMN) in January 2010 in response to natural gas drilling activities in the basin. Each year the SRBC issues an update/report on findings from the previous year. The report for 2018 was just released and it found, as all previous reports have found, that there are NO impacts from natural gas drilling on the water in the Susquehanna River Basin and its sub-basins, nor on PA state land within the basin.
Read More “SRBC Report: No Impact from Drilling on PA Watersheds, State Land”
Last week MDN told you that oral arguments would be heard on Thursday at the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in what we believe is one of (perhaps THE) most important shale cases ever in the Keystone State (see Most Important Court Case in PA Shale History Heads to Supremes). The case deals with whether or not the age-old oil and gas principle called “the rule of capture” applies in PA shale drilling.
Read More “Which Way will PA Supreme Court Rule on ‘Rule of Capture’ Case?”