The Ohio Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review, a committee made up of five Ohio State Representatives and five Ohio State Senators, has approved new rules for constructing oil and gas wells in the state. They also approved new guidelines for Utica and Marcellus Shale drilling permits.
Read More “OH Legislators Vote to Approve New Drilling Rules”
Pipeline giant MarkWest has just gobbled up another, albeit much smaller, competitor. MarkWest announced yesterday it is purchasing Keystone Midstream for $512 million. Keystone is owned by Stonehenge Energy Resources and Rex Energy with operations primarily in Butler County, PA.
As part of the deal, MarkWest will gain contracts and a partnership with Rex Energy and Sumitomo Corporation to transport and process their rapidly expanding production in the liquids-rich portion of the Marcellus Shale in Butler and Beaver counties in Pennsylvania. MarkWest and Rex are also exploring a deal for Utica Shale production in eastern Ohio.
MarkWest has been in the news a lot lately, signing a raft of new agreements and even buying out a competitor. Last Friday, MarkWest announced they had signed an agreement (terms not disclosed) to expand MarkWest’s processing capacity in the Marcellus Shale to handle more Chesapeake production. The areas covered by the agreement include northern West Virginia (Brooke, Ohio and Marshall counties), and Washington County in Pennsylvania.
Read More “MarkWest Inks Two New Deals to Expand Processing in WV”
On Friday, the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released the long anticipated new rule for hydraulic fracturing on federally-owned and Indian-owned land (see a copy of the proposed new rule embedded below). The question for MDN readers is, does this have any impact on drilling in the Marcellus and Utica Shale? The answer to that question is…
Read More “BLM Issues Proposed New Rule for Fracking Federal Lands”
The Associated Press (AP) did an analysis of how much natural gas was produced in Pennsylvania and West Virginia during 2011 and have run some basic calculations based on an assumed average price (last year) of $3.50 per thousand BTUs (or mBtus). The results of those calculations should put to bed any claims that shale gas drilling does not have a profound economic impact that touches every resident in a shale gas producing state.
According to the AP analysis:
Read More “The AP Calculates 2011 Shale Gas Revenue for PA & WV”
In a somewhat unique turnabout, some townships in New York State are voting to not adopt a gas drilling ban, preferring to let the state complete it’s now four-year-long review process before making any decisions about drilling. One of those towns is Colesville:
The price for drilling a Marcellus Shale gas well in Pennsylvania that “misses” and is not economically viable may have just gotten a lot steeper. It looks like the state Public Utility Commission (PUC), charged with collecting and distributing the new impact fee under Act 13, is going to levy the fee on exploratory wells that end up not being productive and plugged.
Read More “Unproductive PA Wells Still Liable for Partial Impact Fee”
Friday was document-dump day at the federal government. In addition to the Bureau of Land Management’s new hydraulic fracturing on federal land proposed rule (see this MDN story), the Environmental Protection Agency issued a new policy, or “Guidance” as they call it, for granting drilling permits to drillers who want to use diesel fuel as a component in their fracking fluid mix (a copy of the new Guidance is embedded below).
Read More “EPA Issues Draft Rule on Using Diesel Fuel in Fracking Fluid”
Enterprise Products Partners 1,230 mile ethane pipeline from Pennsylvania to the Gulf Coast, called the ATEX Express (Appalachia to Texas), has hit a snag in Ohio and is suing a farmer who refuses to let them on the property for survey work.
The proposed ATEX Express pipeline includes building 353 miles of new pipeline through Ohio. They’re on a schedule, and they don’t want delays. So when Nancy and David Hyde asked Enterprise to find a different route other than go through David’s best hay field, Enterprise said “no” and is suing them to allow them on the property. As with most lawsuits, this one is complicated.
Read More “Ethane Pipeline Company Sues Farmer to Gain Access to Land”
In an indication of things to come, pipeline construction firm Price Gregory has requested 50 RV spaces for its workers in a new RV/camper park located in Morristown, OH (Belmont County)—by June 1st!
Read More “RV Park for Shale Workers in OH Sees Strong Demand”
Two Ohio state Democrat representatives have introduced a new bill that would require an “audit clause” to be recorded in every oil and gas drilling lease in the state. The bill is an effort, according to its authors, to insert third party verification of production numbers reported by companies so landowners don’t have to rely on the driller’s “honesty” in reporting those numbers.
Read More “OH Bill Requires 3rd Party Verification of O&G Production”
The anti-drillers in New York are not content to block horizontal drilling. They increasingly have turned their attention to conventional, vertical natural gas drilling as their target, trying to shut down or otherwise harass an industry that has been safely operating in the state for decades.
The latest attempt is a sham “report” by the anti-drilling group Environmental Advocates of New York. This new “report” says wastewater disposal from conventional, vertical wells is too lax in the state. They want conventional drilling wastewater to be classified as a hazardous substance with cradle-to-grave tracking of all water used in any oil and gas drilling in the state—which is just another way of strangling an industry that has been an important part of the state’s economy for the past 100+ years.
From the AP:
Read More “Anti-Drillers Target Conventional NatGas Drilling in NY”
Another day, another attempt by the anti-drilling left to scare people. Honestly, when will the general public wake up to these pathetic attempts to stop drilling?
The latest attempt is from two Cornell professors—from the veterinary department—who came to Endicott, NY to warn people that fracking will poison their cows and horses and chickens and dogs and cats, oh my! (Perhaps the good profs should make a trip to PA, just across the border, where fracking is everywhere and the animals are just fine.)
Read More “Cornell Veterinarians Say Fracking Poisons Animals & People”
A school board member from a district in western Pennsylvania that recently voted to allow Marcellus Shale drilling under, but not on top, of school property wrote a must-read article that appears on the American Thinker website today. He shares with readers the process the board went through, the agonizing, researching, questioning, and public hearings on gas drilling. And the board member came to a key conclusion about anti-drillers: at their core, they are unreasonable people. To wit:
Read More “Western PA School Board Member Speaks Out on Anti-Drillers”
Guess who’s now on board the anti-drilling bus? Peter Yarrow, of the sixties folk singing group Peter, Paul and Mary. Or as MDN editor Jim Willis used to call them back in the 1980s, “Peter, Paul and Commie.” Yeah, the singers of Puff the Magic Dragon have always been politically active—on the far left. In the 1980s they flew to Nicaragua to show their support for the brutal Socialist/Communist dictator Daniel Ortega. Why is it liberals love the commie dictators like Ortega and Castro? But we digress.
Read More “Folk Legend Peter Yarrow Joins Anti-Fracking Protest in NY”
MarkWest announced today two major new agreements to provide expanded natural gas processing and pipeline capacity for Chesapeake Energy and Antero Resouces in the Marcellus Shale. The deal with Chesapeake covers Brooke, Ohio and Marshall counties in WV, and Washington County, PA. The deal with Antero covers Doddridge and Harrison counties in WV. The new agreements, which include processing natural gas liquids, mean MarkWest will build new gathering pipelines and add compressor stations to their existing operations.
From the MarkWest press release:
Read More “MarkWest Inks Major New Deals with Chesapeake & Antero”