Industrywide Issues

Columbia County | Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Pennsylvania

Marcellus Economics: PA Manufacturer Adds 50 Jobs, $2.4M
October 23, 2012October 23, 2012

Pennsylvania manufacturing company K-Fab is expanding with help from the state, providing an additional 50 new manufacturing jobs in Columbia County. The company manufactures equipment for the Marcellus Shale drilling industry. Their plans call for investing $2.4 million in renovations and improvements.

PA Gov. Tom Corbett’s office issued the following announcement about the latest new jobs and economic expansion thanks to the Marcellus Shale:

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Industrywide Issues | Noise

New Service Reduces Noise at Drill Sites, Compressor Plants
October 23, 2012October 23, 2012

Drilling may get a bit quieter for some in the Marcellus (and other shale plays) if Principle Energy Services has their way. Principle—with fabrication facilities in Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Texas—has just launched a new service to mitigate (reduce) noise in and around drilling sites and compressor plants—so it doesn’t bother the neighbors quite so much.

Here’s the press release from Principle announcing their new service:

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Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues

Union Pacific RR Substitutes Shale Biz for Declining Coal
October 23, 2012October 23, 2012

Energy & Capital reports that Union Pacific Corp. has done a neat pivot. Coal shipping on the railroad is down, but UP has picked up the slack shipping equipment, sand, chemicals and other items needed for drilling in the Marcellus and other shale plays around the country. Oh, and on the return trip from those destinations, UP hauls crude oil from shale to places like California, Texas and Louisiana for refining.

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

NY DEC Com. Martens Gives Update on SGEIS Health Review
October 22, 2012October 22, 2012

We now know a bit more about where things stand with the “health review” taking place of New York’s proposed new drilling regulations (called the SGEIS). When Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Joe Martens announced he was asking NYS Health Commissioner Nirav Shah to conduct a review of the SGEIS’ handling of potential health impacts of fracking on residents, he said that Shah would assemble a panel of “outside experts” to advise him.

It appears the outside experts have been identified but haven’t agreed (yet) to the money being offered by the DEC and Health Department to do the work. Meanwhile, the clock is ticking on a Nov. 29 deadline. Martens says it’s still possible to make that deadline. Here’s what he said on Friday to reporters:

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Chesapeake Energy | Economic Impact | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Reuters Says Utica Shale Boom is Really a Secret Bust
October 22, 2012October 22, 2012

The mighty Reuters news agency, no friend of shale gas drilling, is taking aim at the Utica Shale in Ohio. A new article by Reuters attempts to sow the seeds of doubt about the size and potential of the Utica Shale. Their article opens by quoting drilling “bad boy” Aubrey McClendon, CEO of Chesapeake who famously said last year the Utica contains $500 billion worth of hydrocarbons. Reuters’ contention? Don’t believe it.

A key point of the article is that Ohio is only reporting oil and gas production numbers annually, not monthly as other states typically do. That irks Reuters, so they’re spinning it as an industry cover-up to conceal the “real truth” that the Utica is not as productive as McClendon and “the industry” is leading people to believe. It’s the old “it really ain’t all that big, it’s just a Ponzi scheme” meme started by The New York Times last year (see this MDN story).

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Chesapeake Energy | Commodity Price | Economic Impact | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

NYT Now Says There’s Too Much Natural Gas, Drillers to Blame
October 22, 2012October 22, 2012

The New York Times is a bit schizophrenic these days. It’s hard to keep track of which alternate reality they operate in. For the longest time, we’ve heard from the Times how shale drilling is just a Ponzi scheme a la Bernie Madoff—a fraud to get investors to dump billions into energy companies but with only a teeny tiny bit of gas in the ground (“proven reserves”) to get out (see this MDN story). Of course that contention is patently false as proven by the overwhelming production and inventories we now have from shale gas.

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Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Research

EIA Backpedals on Lowball Estimates of Marcellus Reserves
October 22, 2012October 22, 2012

An AP story actually sets the record straight and says, in essence, “Yes, the Marcellus really is ‘that big’ after all.” The AP article quotes research from two recently completed independent reports, one from Standard & Poor’s (see this MDN story) and one from ITG Research (see this MDN story), in “correcting” a lowered Marcellus proven reserves estimate from the Energy Information Administration (EIA).

The article quotes the EIA backpedalling on their lowered estimate from earlier this year and says in part:

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Brooke County | Hancock County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Taxation | West Virginia

Weirton, WV Slaps 6% Tax on Shale Drilling
October 22, 2012October 22, 2012

Somehow this one slipped by the MDN radar a few weeks ago. On Oct. 9, the city of Weirton, WV voted to slap a 6% business and occupation (B&O) tax on natural gas drilling in the city:

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Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Ohio County | West Virginia

Chesapeake Pulls Request to Drill Near Wheeling Park High
October 22, 2012October 22, 2012

In September MDN asked if it’s a good idea for Chesapeake Energy to move forward with a plan to drill 1,300 feet from Wheeling Park High School in Ohio County, WV (see this MDN story). Looks like it’s a moot point now.

Late last week Chesapeake withdrew its permit application and now says they’ll look elsewhere to drill:

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Health Impacts | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide PA

New EARTHWORKS “Study” of Marcellus Health Effects in PA
October 19, 2012October 19, 2012

Oh lookie here. A new “research study” (full copy embedded below) has just been released by the extreme environmental anti-drilling group EARTHWORKS that says residents in Pennsylvania who live near Marcellus Shale drilling have a “pattern of health symptoms associated with oil and gas development.”

Let’s use the same standard they use to judge such studies, shall we? If any of the study’s authors have, at any point in time since birth, ever had anything to do with an anti-drilling organization, the study is instantly discredited. That’s the standard used for studies and research that are favorable to shale gas drilling—if the author of such a study has had any experience in the drilling industry, that study is tainted and must be expunged from the public discourse (see this MDN story about the University at Buffalo study and this MDN story about the University of Texas study).

The three authors of this so-called study either work for, or are related to, the enviro-left. So why wouldn’t we apply the same standard here?

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Accidents | Atlas Energy | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

Atlas Fined Twice for Same Incident – EPA Sticks Nose in PA
October 19, 2012October 19, 2012

The federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) continues to interfere in oil and gas drilling—an activity specifically regulated by states and not the federal government. Yesterday the EPA slapped Atlas Resource Partners, L.P. (owned by Atlas Energy, L.P.) with an $84,500 fine over a fire at a Marcellus drilling site in 2010—after the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) had already investigated and fined Atlas $80,000 for the same incident last year.

This is the first time both a state agency and the EPA have fined a Marcellus driller for the same incident.

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Accidents | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation | Research

API Says EPA Botched Pavillion, WY Fracking Tests
October 19, 2012October 19, 2012

The American Petroleum Institute (API) issued a press release yesterday taking the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to task over their sloppy work in Pavillion, Wyoming.

You may recall the EPA is on a quest to try and prove fracking has contaminated water supplies in the Pavillion area with fracking chemicals. Never mind that the drilling and fracking done in Pavillion is shallow at around 1,200 feet down (not the one mile or more that’s common in shale plays). Never mind that the water table in Pavillion is deep at 800 feet (not the 300 feet as is typical in the northeast). Never mind that drilling and fracking was done in porous sandstone in Pavillion (not tightly-packed shale deposits). And never mind the EPA drilled just two test wells, one of which didn’t produce enough water for a valid sample. (See this MDN story for more background on Pavillion.)

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Allegheny County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

South Fayette, PA Thumbs Nose at PUC over Zoning Review
October 19, 2012October 19, 2012

Although parts of the zoning provisions in Pennsylvania’s new Act 13 Marcellus drilling law have been challenged in court and oral arguments were heard in PA Supreme Court earlier this week, there are other parts of the Act 13 law—zoning parts—that were not overturned and are not up for discussion. According to the PA Public Utility Commission (PUC), the agency charged with interpreting whether or not a town is in violation of those remaining sections, the town of South Fayette in Allegheny County is in violation and unless they revise their zoning laws, they won’t get impact fee revenue this year.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Where Do Obama & Romney Stand on Fracking Issue?
October 19, 2012October 19, 2012

What do President Obama and Mitt Romney really think about fracking? MLive Media, representing some of Michigan’s largest newspapers, asked the two campaigns this question: Should Michigan should ban fracking? Here’s what the candidates said…

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Anschutz Exploration | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | New York | Norse Energy | Otsego County | Regulation | Statewide NY | Tompkins County

Important Developments in NY Fracking Ban Court Cases
October 18, 2012October 18, 2012

There’s been an important development in two cases on appeal in New York State courts that challenge municipal bans of fracking. The two cases challenge municipal fracking bans in the Town of Dryden, NY (see this MDN story for background) and the Town of Middlefield, NY (see this MDN story for background).

According to lead attorney Tom West, all the necessary paperwork for both cases has been filed (called “perfecting” the case). West believes both cases will make it onto the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court docket for an early February hearing of oral arguments. The Appellate Division typically issues an opinion 6-8 weeks following oral arguments, so we should have a decision by late spring. In addition and of keen interest, the plaintiff in one of the cases has changed.

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Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues

Why Do Drillers Prefer the Marcellus/Utica? (from S&P Report)
October 18, 2012October 18, 2012

Why is the Marcellus Shale and its first cousin the Utica Shale so darned popular—more popular for drillers than other shale plays in the U.S.? Is it because of the size of the play—the Marcellus and Utica is the largest play in the U.S.? Not really, or maybe we should say not exclusively. The recent report issued by Standard & Poor’s titled “How The Marcellus Shale Is Changing The Dynamics Of The U.S. Energy Industry” (see this MDN story) contains a very interesting section that MDN believes gives the answer to the question of why the Marcellus is so popular for drillers. It won’t come as a surprise to you that economics play a key role.

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