WorkForce West Virginia issued a new report to the WV legislature on Wednesday documenting that employment throughout WV in the oil and gas industry has increased 10% since 2008, and average wages for those workers have gone up 19%. Why? The Marcellus Shale, of course.
A few more interesting facts and figures from the report:
Read More “WV Jobs, Wages Go Up Because of Marcellus Shale Drilling”
It’s official: The New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) will file for a 90-day extension on the rulemaking process for fracking. Although it would be better for the DEC to just release the new rules now, before tomorrow (Nov. 29), at least the process is still alive, albeit now delayed. Still, given the current climate in New York, MDN takes it as good news for landowners and a signal that drilling may indeed yet come to the Empire State.
Here’s how it all came down yesterday, with Gov. Andrew Cuomo admitting to reporters that the DEC will “have to” file for an extension:
Read More “NY DEC Files for 90-Day Fracking Rules Extension, What Now?”
MDN recently told you about Seneca Resources, the first Marcellus driller to convert a drilling rig to run on a 100% liquefied natural gas (LNG) engine, a rig they now use for drilling in Lycoming County, PA (see this MDN story). Seneca has just completed the conversion of a second 100% LNG-powered rig and uses it for drilling in Forest, Elk, Jefferson and McKean counties in PA.
Stands to reason the company that makes the engine would want to crow about it, and sure enough they now have. General Electric is the manufacturer of the Jenbacher J320 turbocharged natural gas engine, and they issued this press release yesterday about their innovative new engine being used by Seneca:
Read More “Second Seneca 100% LNG-Powered Drilling Rig Goes Online”
In order to comply with the Great Lakes Compact, the New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation yesterday instituted a new permitting system for large water withdrawals from NY bodies of water. The new system impacts any industry or user withdrawing more than 100,000 gallons per day. It also helps pave the way for natural gas drillers who use fracking—when and if new fracking rules are released in the state.
Read More “NY DEC New Permit System for Large Water Withdrawals”
A few facts and figures about the Marcellus Shale and it’s immense importance to the energy picture in the United States, from a recent U.S. Energy Information Administration report:
A few weeks ago the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette took a swipe at the gas drilling industry with an article that implied that wastewater from drilling is responsible for ongoing, high levels of bromides in the Allegheny River near Pittsburgh. Louis D’Amico, the president and executive director of the Pennsylvania Independent Oil & Gas Association (PIOGA), responds in today’s PPG to set the record straight and provide background and context missing from the article.
Read More “Setting the Record Straight on Bromides and Drilling in PA”
The Independent Oil & Gas Association of New York (IOGA of NY), Joint Landowners Coalition of New York (JLCNY) and a number of other landowner and business groups announced yesterday they have launched a new public relations advertising campaign that calls on Gov. Cuomo and state leaders to end the delays in allowing safe natural gas drilling in the state.
From the press announcement:
Read More “NY Groups Launch New Ad Campaign – End Fracking Delays Now”
Principle Energy Services, a Texas-based company with offices and operations in both the Marcellus and Utica Shale regions, has just launched a new product/service called Whisper Noise Enclosures™ that it says will drastically cut noise coming from compressor stations.
Calling it a “game changing solution,” here’s the Principle press release announcing their new service:
Read More “New Product Reduces Noise from Pipeline Compressor Stations”
A major court case before the West Virginia Supreme Court was decided last week, and the decision is not favorable to surface rights landowners. MDN previously alerted you to the case as it went to court back in September (see this MDN story). In brief, in WV the sub-surface mineral rights in many cases were severed and sold separately from the surface landowner rights—years ago. Surface rights landowners understand that mineral rights owners (and drillers) need access, but they want the right to have a say in where a drilling pad will be located on their property—and just compensation for taking the property for that purpose.
The WV Supreme Court decided last week (a copy of the decision is embedded below) that surface rights landowners cannot challenge WV DEP permits for drill pads, and where the pads are located, on their property:
Read More “Major WV Court Case Goes Against Surface Landowners”
The mainstream media loves to run stories about the dozens of townships in New York state that voted to ban hydraulic fracturing. What the media doesn’t cover are the dozens of townships in New York state that have voted to ban or restrict wind power in their communities. You read that right. Many communities in New York don’t like the noisy, disruptive (and permanent, unlike natural gas drilling) presence of huge wind turbines.
Take the case of 60 residents in Herkimer County who are suing Iberdrola, the parent company of New York State Electric & Gas (NYSEG), over a wind farm in their community:
Crestwood Marcellus Midstream announced yesterday they have purchased four compression/dehydration stations from Enerven Compression for $95 million. The stations service Crestwood’s own gathering pipelines in Harrison and Doddridge counties in West Virginia. Antero Resources is the driller in the area using the Crestwood pipeline system. Crestwood’s CEO calls it a “bolt-on acquisition” for the company.
From the Crestwood press release, which includes an update on their Marcellus-related business with Antero:
Read More “Crestwood Midstream Buys 4 Compressor Stations in WV”
MDN has highlighted plenty of stories about companies and governments hopping on the bandwagon to convert vehicle fleets to run clean-burning natural gas. Why wouldn’t you? It’s half the cost of gasoline! There are, of course, some hurdles along the way—namely finding filling stations. But ever-so-gradually more filling stations are appearing. But in addition to the problem of lack of filling stations, there are federal, and often state, regulatory hurdles to consider as well.
A new white paper from the Ben Franklin Shale Gas Innovation and Commercialization Center takes a look at both Pennsylvania and federal regulations when it comes to converting vehicles to run on natural gas (a copy of the white paper is embedded below). Here’s the press release announcing the white paper, which provides a good overview of what’s in it:
Read More “Regulatory Hurdles in Converting Vehicles to NatGas”
The federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved new rules earlier this year (that is, created new laws by fiat that no one has the guts to oppose) requiring all oil and gas drillers nationwide to use so-called “green completions” by the year 2015. What are green completions?
Read More “Marcellus Drillers Drop Flaring, Adopt “Green Completions””
An opinion-editorial piece in today’s Harrisburg Patriot-News co-written by PA Dept. of Environmental Protection Sec. Michael Krancer and Gov. Tom Corbett’s energy executive Patrick Henderson touts Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale as the “global superstar of natural gas formations.” Referring to recently released reports from the IEA and S&P, here’s what else they said about the mighty Marcellus:
Read More “PA Marcellus is “Global Superstar” of NatGas Plays”
For the past five years one of the key indicators that the Marcellus Shale has been red hot is the level of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity among energy companies. That is, companies doing deals to work together, or to buy outright, leased acreage, drilling operations or pipelines and other infrastructure. For the first time in several years, there was no significant M&A activity for an entire 3-month period (third quarter 2012) in the Marcellus, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers, a consulting and research firm that tracks it.
What, exactly, does that mean?
Binghamton, NY’s failed mayor, Matt Ryan, now has the answer to his question direct from the laboratory he hired (with taxpayer money) to test Binghamton’s water: Drilling in Pennsylvania has had zero impact on Binghamton’s water supplies which come from the Susquehanna River.
Even with irrefutable scientific evidence that drilling doesn’t pollute the Susquehanna, don’t expect Ryan, an ideologically-driven leftist, to shut up on the topic of fracking. He won’t let something like science get in the way of a good political issue.
Read More “Tests Show No Impact from PA Drilling on Binghamton Water”