Industrywide Issues

Economic Impact | Industrialization | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Avoiding Shale Energy Boom/Bust Cycle in Ohio
June 8, 2012June 8, 2012

Two Ohio State University graduate students, under the watchful eye of an advisor, have authored a policy brief titled “Making Shale Development Work for Ohio” which aims to provide politicians with guidance on how to avoid the so-called boom/bust cycle that shale energy “may” create in Ohio (a full copy of the brief is embedded below).

The grad students say Ohio needs to take steps now to ensure the state benefits from the shale energy boom in both the short- and long-term. Failure to do so, according to the brief, will “likely” have long-lasting negative effects. Among the brief’s recommendations are:

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Beaver County | Economic Impact | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | Shell | Statewide PA

Shell: Final Decision on Cracker Plant Still 18-24 Mo. Away
June 8, 2012June 8, 2012

MDN previously warned that the final decision of where Shell will build an ethane cracker plant is not a done deal. It certainly is looking good—they selected a site in Beaver County, northwest of Pittsburgh—and they are deep into planning for that site. But Shell CEO Peter Voser was quoted as saying it would be “several years” before a go/no decision on whether to build it would be made (see this MDN story).

That timeline of several years was reaffirmed by a Shell representative yesterday in comments to the Pittsburgh Business Times:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Statewide OH

Muskingum Watershed Reverses Decision to Sell Water to Drillers
June 8, 2012June 8, 2012

Someone from the enviro-left movement has gotten to the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District (MWCD) board and the board has caved. On June 6 news broke that the MWCD had earlier this year commissioned a study that would look at using three of the reservoirs it controls to make water sales to drillers for use in hydraulic fracturing (see this MDN story). The MWCD had already approved one deal to sell 11 million gallons of water from Clendening Lake to Gulfport Energy.

But the very next day—yesterday—the MWCD issued a press release saying no more water sales would be considered until the study is complete “later this year” (except for the 11 million gallons already agreed to). You scratch your head and say, “Well yeah, duh, that’s what the study is for!” But that’s not all.

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AES Drilling Fluids | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Marshall County | West Virginia

New Drilling Mud Facility Opens in Marshall County, WV
June 8, 2012June 8, 2012

AES Drilling Fluids along with officials from the city of Benwood (Marshall County, WV) and state officials held a ribbon-cutting ceremony yesterday on a new $2 million drilling fluids facility just opened in the North Benwood Industrial Park. The new facility provides drilling mud to drillers in the Marcellus and Utica Shale.

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Columbiana County | Industrywide Issues | Lease & Royalty Payments | Litigation | Ohio | Utica Shale

Columbiana County, OH Landowners Seek Minimum Royalty Law
June 8, 2012June 8, 2012

A few weeks ago MDN highlighted a story about a couple living in Columbiana County, Ohio who were due to get more than $375,000 in lease payments from Chesapeake Energy for their 65 acres of property, but the deal fell through when Chesapeake discovered the land under the property was already locked into a decades-old lease by Columbia Gas Transmission. The couple is suing to be released from that contract (see this MDN story).

We have word today that other landowners from the same area also affected by the Columbia lease are trying a different tact: Pass a state law imposing minimum royalties.

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Accidents | Antero Resources | Energy Companies | Harrison County | Industrywide Issues | West Virginia

Antero Hits Aquifer in WV, Creates Backyard Geysers
June 8, 2012June 8, 2012

Antero Resources was drilling a natural gas well in the Sardis, WV area (near Clarksburg) when they hit a water aquifer in the area. It resulted in several abandoned nearby water wells to start gushing water, some of it blowing 10 feet or more into the air. But there were no chemicals being used during drilling, it was the initial stages and only water and air were used, and the air is what caused the problem.

Here’s what happened:

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Bradford County | Chemung County | Industrywide Issues | Landfills | New York | Pennsylvania

The Economics of Shale Cuttings and Landfills
June 8, 2012June 8, 2012

Some of what comes out of the holes drilled for natural gas wells is rock and dirt. More precisely, a substance called “shale cuttings.” According to the MDN glossary, shale cuttings are: “Small pieces of rock that break away during the drilling process. Cuttings are screened out of the liquid mud by using shale shakers, or screens that allow the liquid to pass through but filter out the bits of rock.”

Since 2010 the municipal landfill in Bradford County, PA has accepted shale cuttings, making a tidy sum from it ($130,000). But the cuttings, and the revenue, stopped at the end of 2011. Why? Bradford County charges more than other landfills, like the municipal landfill across the border in Chemung County, NY. Not surprisingly, drillers haul their cuttings to cheaper landfills instead.

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Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

How Can Businesses Sell to the Marcellus Shale Supply Chain?
June 7, 2012June 7, 2012

A question often asked of MDN editor Jim Willis by small and medium sized business owners and managers is this: How can we do business with the drilling industry? That is, how can we plug into the drilling industry supply chain?

A new study (embedded below) released by the University of Pittsburgh’s Institute for Entrepreneurial Excellence aims to answer just that question. The study, titled “Understanding the Marcellus Shale Supply Chain,” outlines how the natural gas industry in Pennsylvania works, and how companies can plug into that system to provide goods and services.

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Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA Commonwealth Court Hears Arguments in Act 13 Lawsuit
June 7, 2012June 7, 2012

Arguments in the lawsuit brought by seven Pennsylvania townships and a handful of individuals against the state over newly passed drilling legislation known as Act 13 were heard in PA Commonwealth Court yesterday in Harrisburg. The towns are suing to overturn a portion of the Act 13 law which eliminates most of zoning rights of PA towns when it comes to zoning oil and gas drilling (see this MDN story for background).

So how did it go? Depends on who you ask.

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

Fracking Bills in NY Legislature See Movement
June 7, 2012June 7, 2012

Several bills that deal with hydraulic fracturing are making their way through the legislature in Albany, but with only eight days left in the legislative session for 2012, it’s not at all assured any of them will pass. The bills range from stricter control of fracking wastewater to an outright ban on fracking in the state—and everything in between.

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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Taxation

Infographic Shows Impact of PA Marcellus Impact Fee
June 7, 2012June 7, 2012

A helpful (?) infographic in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette shows the breakdown of where the new Marcellus Shale impact fee being collected in Pennsylvania will go, by county and by the townships within those counties.

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

Elected Democrats Tell Cuomo to Continue Fracking Moratorium
June 7, 2012June 7, 2012

A new partisan effort is under way to pressure New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to just keep the hydraulic fracturing moratorium in place for another year, and another year, and another year…

This effort is to get elected officials throughout the state to sign a letter which asks Cuomo to keep the moratorium in place, “until analyses have thoroughly and properly evaluated the potential health, economic, and cumulative environmental impacts on local communities.” Of course that very analysis has been going on now for four years, so may we presume another four years or more is what they’re asking for?

So far, the “letter” (which is really a website with a form on it) has 306 signatures (as of June 7) from elected representatives—everything from town clerks to county legislators to mayors—virtually of them Democrats.

You can find the letter and the list of signatories (people you should vote out of office), here: //www.nyelectedofficials.org/.
Broome County | Chemung County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Statewide NY | Tioga County (NY)

NY Rumor Mill: Cuomo to Allow Test Sites for Fracking?!
June 6, 2012June 6, 2012

The anti-drillers are hot and bothered. A fringe anti-drilling group called Toxics Targeting (from where else, Ithaca, NY) held a small rally in Binghamton yesterday. They enlisted the support of the Binghamton Mayor Matt Ryan to their cause. And this week’s cause? Send a letter to Gov. Andrew Cuomo asking him to ban fracking, but especially to drop any plans to allow the drilling of “demonstration wells” in Broome, Tioga and Chemung counties.

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Air Quality | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

New Study: Methane Emissions Half of EPA’s Previous Estimates
June 6, 2012June 6, 2012

A new study just released by America’s Natural Gas Alliance (ANGA) and the American Petroleum Institute (API) finds that methane emissions from hydraulic fracturing are at least 50% less than estimates from the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). And this is not a wild, unsubstantiated claim by “the industry.” ANGA and API have the science to prove it.

The new study (full copy embedded below) takes the most comprehensive look at the data to date—data from 91,000 U.S. natural gas producing wells. That’s a sample size 10 times larger than the EPA used in their estimates.

Here’s some of the stunning results found by the new study:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Monongalia County | Regulation | West Virginia

Morgantown WV Attempts to Ban Fracking a Second Time
June 6, 2012June 6, 2012

Here we go again. Yesterday, the Morgantown, WV City Council voted on new legislation that would “regulate” (i.e. ban) hydraulic fracturing. But this time, those sharp-as-a-tack council members have contented themselves with regulating it within their own borders.

You may recall that last year the same Morgantown City Council (pictured below) passed a ban on fracking that included areas up to one mile outside of the city limits in a blatant attempt to try and stop the fracking of two gas wells that sit about a mile from the edge of the city. A WV circuit court judge overturned the ban (see this MDN story). Since then, both of those Marcellus wells were fracked, came online, and somehow, mystically—there has been no water contamination or ill health affects of any kind. Who woulda thunk?

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Statewide OH

OH Watershed Looking to Increase Water Sales for Fracking
June 6, 2012June 6, 2012

The Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District (MWCD) has ordered a study to determine if three of the district’s reservoirs—Clendening, Atwood and Leesville—can safely become a source of water sales for drillers who need water for hydraulic fracturing. Some residents are concerned, but the MWCD is already successfully selling some water and believes there may be an opportunity to sell more.

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