Research

Industrywide Issues | Research

Latest EIA Report Shows Marcellus Production Passing 16 Bcf/d
November 11, 2014November 11, 2014

The American shale revolution continues–at a brisk pace. Yesterday our favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released our favorite report–the monthly Drilling Productivity Report (DPR). Lots of acronyms! In viewing total production across the seven major commercially active shale plays in the U.S., which include both the Marcellus and the Utica, one thing stands out: Every single play saw an increase in both oil and natural gas production over the past 30 days. In the case of the Marcellus, natgas production is forecast to increase another whopping 214 million cubic feet per day (Mmcf/d) in the next 30 days. The Marcellus will officially pass the 16 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) mark–forecast for a 16.1 Bcf/d average in December. Utica natgas production is forecast to grow 86 Mmcf/d and hit a 1.67 Bcf/d average during December. Here’s the full November DPR from the EIA that gives you the 411 on the Bcf’s…
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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide PA | Wastewater

Researchers: Frack Wastewater “Not quite as bad as we thought”
November 10, 2014November 10, 2014

What do you know–some real science has once again popped up with respect to shale drilling. A pair of researchers from Rice University published the results of their analysis of frack wastewater from the PA Marcellus Shale, the TX Eagle Ford Shale, and the NM Barnett Shale. The study, titled “Organic compounds in produced waters from shale gas wells” (full copy below) was just published in the October issue of the journal Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts. The study is a detailed breakdown of the chemical components found in shale wastewater. And what did the study find? According to one of the researchers, the results show the frack water “was not quite as bad as we thought”…
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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Monongalia County | Ohio | Research | Statewide OH | Statewide WV | West Virginia

WVU/OSU Get $11M Grant to Study Shale Energy Best Practices
November 7, 2014June 29, 2015

The mother’s milk of academe is grant money–and West Virginia University is happy to announce a new grant related to the Marcellus Shale. The U.S. Dept. of Energy is forking over $11 million to WVU and Ohio State University for a five-year project to study “baseline measurements, subsurface development and environmental monitoring” in the Marcellus and Utica Shale. The money will be used for research and to establish a first-of-its-kind Marcellus Shale Energy and Environment Laboratory–a field site and dedicated research laboratory to be located at the Morgantown (WV) Industrial Park…
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Industrywide Issues | Research

US Breaks Another Natgas Record: 69.9 Bcf/d Production in October
November 7, 2014November 7, 2014

Bentek Energy, the analytics and forecasting unit of Platts, is fresh out with numbers that the U.S. Energy Information Administration won’t release until Dec. 31. Namely, natural gas production in the lower 48 United States averaged 69.9 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) in October–breaking its previous monthly average high for the 10th consecutive month. Production was up up 7.9% (or 5.2 Bcf/d) from average production a year ago, and according to Bentek, there’s no end in sight for how high production will go…
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Industrywide Issues | Research | Sand/Proppant

Sham Frac Sand Report: The Sky is Falling!
November 6, 2014November 6, 2014

Several anti-drilling groups have issued a “research report” that tries to shut down drilling based on the hazards of frac sand mining. The report, titled “Communities At Risk: Frac Sand Mining in the Upper Midwest,” was published by the Civil Society Institute’s Boston Action Research (BAR) and released in cooperation with Environmental Working Group (EWG) and Midwest Environmental Advocates (MEA). It is just the latest in a string of not-so-veiled attempts to shut down the miracle of hydraulic fracturing. We’ve written a number of times about the very serious issue of safely handling frac sand (see Silica Dust Exposure Topic A at ShaleSafe Conference in Wheeling for one example). We welcome real research that looks for solutions instead of hocus pocus “just stop drilling” solutions offered by the authors of this “report”…
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Economic Impact | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Research

U.S. Fracking Lowers Gasoline Prices by Nearly $1 per Gallon!
November 3, 2014November 3, 2014

Do you like paying nearly a buck per gallon less for gasoline now over what you were paying a year ago? Yeah, we do too. But little did we know that the primary reason gas prices are so much lower is thanks to fracking! A new report released last week by the American Petroleum Institute (full copy embedded below) shows that horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, which are now responsible for 48% of all U.S. oil production, shaved up to $0.94 per gallon from fuel prices in 2013. How cool is that?…
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Air Quality | Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Research

New Faux “Research” on Air Emissions Near Frack Sites
October 31, 2014October 31, 2014

We think there needs to be more scientific/objective studies done on air quality and emissions near drilling sites and compressor stations–you get no argument from us on that score. We suspect there are some problems and issues with air emissions from shale drilling and compressor stations–but we’d like some hard evidence to prove or disprove that suspicion. Yesterday a new study was published in the online journal Environmental Health. The new study, titled “Air concentrations of volatile compounds near oil and gas production: a community-based exploratory study” (full copy embedded below) concludes: “Air concentrations of potentially dangerous compounds and chemical mixtures are frequently present near oil and gas production sites.” The big red flag is that the study is based on “data” collected by anti-drilling “volunteers” who have skin in the game. The data was not collected by impartial, objective scientists. The authors of the “study” are themselves rabid anti-drillers. This is the latest in a long line of “research studies” that is scientific GIGO: garbage in, garbage out…
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Air Quality | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Research

New Western Study IDs Drill Site Equipment that Pollutes Most
October 23, 2014October 23, 2014

An ongoing issue for shale drilling is the seeming conundrum that although we’re burning more natural gas and therefore the air, on average, is cleaner–the air is not cleaner in heavily drilled counties. We’ve seen studies in Pennsylvania (see PA DEP Report: Counties with Fracking Have More Air Pollution), West Virginia (see Did WVDEP Ignore It’s Own Research on Shale Well Air Pollution?) and now Ohio (see UC Hints Air Problems Near Drill Sites in Carroll County Research) that tell us where there’s drilling, there’s far more air pollution. This is an important issue that isn’t going away. Two days ago researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) say they’ve identified what, precisely, is doing the polluting at drilling sites…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Research

NRDC Says Efficiency, Not Fracking, Reason for Energy Security
October 23, 2014October 23, 2014

The U.S. has drastically reduced its dependence on foreign oil in the just the past 3-4 years. Electricity prices keep going down for many Americans too. The price of natural gas keeps falling. The air is getting cleaner. Why? Because of shale drilling, of course. But if you shake the snow globe real hard, tap your heals together three times and enter into the alternate universe of the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the reason for all of that good news not because of nasty, filthy shale–it’s because of (wait for it)…….energy efficiency. Instead of acknowledging that the miracle of fracking is the cause of this good news, the NRDC is attempting to simply rewrite history in an attempt to make cutting back–energy efficiency–the prime reason why things are looking up. Nice try NRDC, but no cigar…
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Air Quality | Industrywide Issues | Research

Abioitic (Non-Organic) Methane Not as Rare as Once Thought
October 23, 2014October 23, 2014

Everything you thought you knew about methane (or natural gas) is about to change. Until know you (and we) thought methane is solely a byproduct of organic things that have died (or living things that smell like they’ve died!). Methane coming from rocks like shale? That shale rock is full of what was once living things that died long ago–that’s where the methane in shale comes from. Except, there are times, albeit rare, that methane in nature comes from non-organic (non-dead) sources. It comes from a chemical reaction. It’s called abiotic methane and some recent finds by an Italian geophysicist may give anti-fossil fuelers heartburn…
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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation | Research

EPA Draft Frack Study Coming March 2015, Peer Reviewed Papers Soon
October 22, 2014October 22, 2014

So what’s happening with federal Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) long awaited report on fracking? Back in 2010 an activist Congress “ordered” the EPA (funny, the legislative branch ordering the executive branch) to study fracking and its affects (or lack thereof) on water supplies. Congress wanted to give EPA a big, fat open door to control and regulate fracking at the federal level–something that’s supposed to be done by Congress itself. Of course such laws, if passed by Congress, might fail since they contravene the U.S. Constitution–you never know with our Supreme Court. Easier to get the executive branch to create new laws via “regulations.” The study was originally due by the end of this year. But in June of 2013, EPA said they would need an extra two years (see Big News: EPA Fracking Study Delayed 2 Years – Now Due 2016). However, some great investigative reporting by NGI’s Shale Daily has discovered the EPA will release a draft report in March 2015…
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Air Quality | Carroll County | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Research | Utica Shale

UC Hints Air Problems Near Drill Sites in Carroll County Research
October 22, 2014October 22, 2014

In December MDN told you about a new air quality study in Carroll County, OH, being researched by the University of Cincinnati and Oregon State University. The study will measure air quality for pollution potentially caused by local Utica Shale drilling. A good concept and worthy of everyone’s support. The only problem we had/have is that some of the volunteers helping with the project are from a local anti-drilling group (see Carroll County Anti-Drillers Eager to Help with Air Quality Study). The full results are not yet in, but preliminary results (UC won’t release any specifics), according to the AP, say that air pollution near some well sites is “higher than those in downtown Chicago”…
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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Research | Wastewater

NSF/Park Found. Research Claims Frack Fluid Tracking with Tracers
October 21, 2014October 21, 2014

Last year MDN endorsed a proposal put forth largely by anti-drillers–a proposal that tracers be used in fracking fluids to put to rest, once and for all, the silly notion that frack fluids are rising from the depths to “contaminate” water aquifers (see Using Tracers in Fracking Fluid – Ready for Prime Time?). Using tracers, or unique “fingerprints” that positively identify fluid as coming from shale drilling, can be used to check nearby streams and rivers to ensure such fluids have not somehow been released into the environment after they’ve come back to the surface for disposal by recycling or injection well. Our only concern was/is that the science is solid. Yesterday, the National Science Foundation announced researchers (using NSF and Park Foundation grant money) have field tested and pronounced they now have a solid solution…
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Economic Impact | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrialization | Industrywide Issues | Research

Cleveland Fed Bank Report Addresses Boom & Bust in Shale Drilling
October 21, 2014October 21, 2014

An analyst with the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland authored and released an article addressing the concerns over shale gas and oil development. The article, titled “Deep Wells, Deep Pockets, and Deep Impact” (full copy embedded below) purports to address the issue of what can communities do about the boom and bust cycle attached to any natural resource extraction process? We were excited to read what the Fed’s learned analyst would say about an important issue like this one. We were disappointed that he did a lot of problem identification, but offered little in the way of problem resolution…
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Electrical Generation | Industrywide Issues | Research

The Big Change from Coal to Natgas in Electric Generating Plants
October 21, 2014October 21, 2014

We take no pleasure, as some do, in the demise of the coal industry. Yes coal pollutes more than other fossil fuels, but there are newer technologies that can be used to ease emissions from coal. But it seems it is an uphill battle and a battle that is (unfortunately) already lost. Once “environmentalists” have put the last nail in the coffin of the coal industry, they’ll be sharpening their axes to come after natural gas. It’s already starting to happen. However, the fact remains that many coal-fired electric generating plants in the U.S. are in the process, or soon will be, of converting to use natural gas. It’s good news for natgas, but the good news comes at the expense of coal. SNL Energy has just published a report tracking the conversion of these plants–plant by plant–from coal to (mostly) natgas…
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Earthquakes | Harrison County | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Research | Utica Shale

Study Says Series of Unfelt Earthquakes in OH from Utica Fracking
October 16, 2014October 16, 2014

Another day, another “study” that says fracking causes earthquakes–this time in Ohio’s Utica Shale. In typical and now predictable fashion, mainstream media does a “drive-by” with the information–like a drive-by shooting–and then continues on its merry way. Here at MDN we’ll break it down and explain it so you have ALL the facts and not anti-drilling “impressions” of what the data says. First off, an admission that we don’t (yet) have a full copy of the newly published study, which has reportedly been published in the journal Seismological Research Letters (but which we can’t find on their website). We’ve requested a full copy of the paper and are awaiting it and hope to share it with you when we get it. The study is titled, “Characterization of an earthquake sequence triggered by hydraulic fracturing in Harrison County Ohio” and looks at a series of “400 earthquakes” that were so tiny as to be unfelt by anyone–but detectable by finely tuned equipment. The earthquakes happened in Harrison County, OH and are thought (but not proven) to be the result of fracking several Utica wells over top of a previously unknown geologic fault. The author of the study himself says the earthquakes couldn’t even be felt by anyone…
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