New Waterless Frack Company Uses Rocket Fuel! Gets $3M Investment
Over the years MDN has covered waterless fracking technologies. Every now and again a waterless technology comes along as the next, great White Knight in Shining Armor that will sleigh all of the concerns by nutty anti-drillers. Never happens. The waterless fracking tech companies we’ve watched with interest, like GASFRAC, went belly up (see our stories about waterless fracking here). In speaking with experts at industry conferences, MDN editor Jim Willis was struck by the simple rejoinder to his questions about waterless fracking that even if a magical solution were to appear on the scene, there may be times and places when using water to frack just works better, given its physical properties. Frankly, there’s nothing wrong with using water for fracking. But hey, hope springs eternal. So when we saw yet another new waterless fracking technology company issue a press release to say they tried to raise $1 million and ended up raising $3.1 million, we were (of course) drawn to it like a moth to a flame. Canadian company RocketFrac Services Ltd. (gotta love the name, reminds us of Elton John’s iconic song Rocket Man) has an interesting twist on waterless fracking technology–they use solid rocket fuel. No danger of leaks. No worries about transporting it. No water involved. The company is making some pretty big boasts: “We are confident that our fracing process will rapidly become a valuable alternative, perhaps even the preferred choice, for oil and gas exploration and development companies around the globe.” Here we go again…
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Seems like every time we talk about Big Money foundations, those foundations (which are tax exempt) are far-left in philosophy and when they fund anything to do with the environment or education or business, it’s always with strings attached that said activity will have an anti-drilling bias. Need money for a new “study” to bash shale energy? Take your pick. In Philadelphia, there is the William Penn Foundation. In New York (and North Carolina) there’s the Park Foundation. And in Pittsburgh, the Heinz Foundation–run by Teresa Heinz Kerry (whom we call Mamma Teresa here on MDN). Hard left, all of them. So when we spotted an article about another Pittsburgh-based foundation–the Benedum Foundation–that is donating money to HELP the shale industry, well, we knew that’s a “man bites dog” story worthy of highlighting. The Benedum Foundation does a great deal of its grantmaking for science, technology, medical and engineering (STEM) education. Lately they’ve concentrated on training students who will, after school, land a job at someplace like CONSOL Energy, or the under-construction Shell ethane cracker plant in Beaver County. Although Benedum doesn’t spend nearly as much as the larger Heinz Foundation, we see Benedum as the antidote–a counterbalance–to some of the damage caused by Mamma Teresa and her married-into, huge piles of money that she spends to oppose shale energy…
Fire departments, schools, parks and townships are some of the 44 Pennsylvania organizations in 11 counties that will receive $326,800 in funding *this spring* from Williams–through its bi-annual community grant program. Grants up to $10,000 per organization are being awarded by Williams in communities where the proposed Atlantic Sunrise pipeline project will be constructed and operated. This is the fifth round of grants for areas that will host or be affected by the Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline. All together (including this latest round of $326,800), Williams has now given away $1.79 million to communities on behalf of Atlantic Sunrise. Now that’s something worth celebrating! Is your organization eligible? Grant applications are available at 
In early April MDN reported that West Virginia’s effort to pass a law dealing with co-tenancy and joint development–what we called forced pooling lite–had gone up in pot smoke (see 
Whenever a big, important project like the Shell ethane cracker, reported to be a $6 billion investment, goes forward, a whole lotta people were involved before the decision was made. However, if there is one universal truth in business it is this: There is always a champion at the center of any important project. The one person who’s responsibility it is to propel that project forward. The person who, we like to say, has their “butt in a sling.” It is on their shoulders to ensure the projects success. When you dig down into the story of the multi-billion dollar Shell cracker plant now being built in Beaver County, PA, you will find that one person. His name is Brent Vernon. He worked for more than five years to lure Shell to the Keystone State. Vernon was senior project manager for energy for the state when he began working, full time, on the Shell project in 2011. Since then he was promoted, first to deputy director and eventually director of the Governor’s Action Team, a role he continues. Vernon is key–one of the linchpins without whom the Shell deal would not have happened…
Dominion CEO Diane Leopold held a conference call last Thursday to provide an update on progress for the company’s $5 billion, 594-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline–a natural gas pipeline that will stretch from West Virginia through Virginia and into North Carolina. Leopold said on the call that Dominion has procured 85% of the land, materials, and services it needs to build the pipeline. Nearly all of the land surveying is now done (98%)–and the company now has signed agreements with 60% of the landowners along the proposed route. Leopold expects the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) will grant a final approval for the project this fall. In other words, it’s full speed ahead for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, irregardless of opposition from anti-fossil fuel fanatics, a relative few who continue to vociferously oppose the project…
More fake “research” is on the way courtesy of the anti-drilling Southwest Pennsylvania Environmental Health Project. The Project is launching a so-called public health registry. Log in to the website and if you live within five miles of a drilling site, you can report your latest headache in an attempt to link it to (and smear) shale development. Yep, just blame everything on drilling. Got allergies? Blame drilling. Headache? Blame drilling. Earache? Blame drilling. Er, a “performance issues?” Blame drilling. (Maybe they’ll give you some free Viagra.) That’s the purpose of this latest sham initiative by the same group that has brought us such glittering examples of “research” as “The List of the Harmed”…
An important breakthrough in our long struggle to overthrow the odious and misnamed Obama Clean Power Plan–a plan that assassinates coal and mortally wounds natural gas (see 
Talk about a waste of taxpayer time and money. The so-called leaders of Newtown Township in Bucks County (Philadelphia orbit) took time out to compose, debate, and pass a resolution opposing the PennEast Pipeline. Even though the pipeline isn’t coming anywhere near Newtown Township. What the vote reveals is that Newtown is led by far-left anti-fossil fuelers with nothing better to do than get on their soapbox and prance around discussing issues that don’t affect the residents of the town. Typical leftist politicians that believe they know better than you what’s best for you–even if it doesn’t even affect you…
It’s finally come to this. There is one anti-fossil fueler who sent a letter to the editor of a Colorado newspaper–the Boulder Daily Camera–that says antis “have a moral responsibility to blow up wells and eliminate fracking and workers.” In a followup interview, the same anti said, “I wouldn’t have a problem with a sniper shooting one of the workers” at a drilling site. Have we not warned you that anti-fossil fuel lunacy has finally tipped over into violence? Did we not point out the mob in North Dakota that destroyed millions of dollars in equipment, burned tires, and shot at police–is planning to spread their sedition to places like the Marcellus/Utica (see 
In January, MDN highlighted a developing issue in Ohio that potentially impacts Utica/Marcellus shale in the region (see 
As of today, the nameplate on the door that says “Sunoco Logistics Partners” is getting changed to “Energy Transfer Partners” (ETP). On paper (and for investors) Sunoco LP & ETP have been different companies, but functionally both companies have co-existed under the Energy Transfer Equity (ETE) umbrella for years–essentially as different divisions of the same company. Sunoco LP is (currently) best known for its Mariner East pipeline projects–along with the Marcus Hook refinery/terminal. ETP is (currently) best known for the recently completed Dakota Access Pipeline. Sunoco LP’s headquarters will move from Newtown Square, PA to combine with ETP’s HQ in Dallas, TX. For investors, Sunoco LP will stop trading at close of business today and become part of the ETP ticker symbol as of Monday. Shareholders for both companies approved the paper merger on Wednesday…
Penn State University professor Terry Engelder, the geologist who first discovered the potential of the Marcellus (and called “the Father of the Marcellus Shale”) is retiring from Penn State in June. The Marcellus Shale boom, while starting with a single Range Resources well in 2004, is largely due to the insights of Engelder. In 2007 he did some “back of the envelope” calculations that showed (first) there is roughly 50 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of recoverable natural gas in the Marcellus. He later revised that number, to 489 Tcf. It was Engelder’s calculations that caught the interest and confidence of drillers who then decided to give the Marcellus a try. The rest is history–and we have Dr. Engelder to thank. Penn State News does a good job in providing a tribute to celebrate the contributions of Engelder to the university’s geosciences department. What will Engelder miss the most when he retires? Finding new shale layers? Figuring out new techniques to extract oil and gas? Maybe a better way of predicting earthquakes? Nope. He’ll miss the people–students and the professors/staff at “one of the finest geosciences departments in the world.” Here’s a proper sendoff for a key figure, a giant in the canon of the Marcellus story…