Research

Education | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide PA | Supply Chain

GE Donates $10M to Fund New Penn State Shale Gas Center
September 26, 2014September 26, 2014

Earlier this week Penn State announced they are receiving a grant/investment from GE to the tune of $10 million to study and improve natural gas supply chains and systems. Penn State’s Center for Collaborative Research on Intelligent Natural Gas Supply Systems at Penn State (CCRINGSS) will, according to the announcement, have “researchers and students from many disciplines in collaborative work with various industry stakeholders. The center will seek to advance efficiency and environmental sustainability both through technological innovations and improved supply chain management.” The money GE is giving to Penn State for the CCRINGSS will be used for research projects, buying equipment and funding undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral fellowships. More from the announcement…
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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide PA | Wastewater

Stanford Study Tells Us What We Knew 3 Years Ago About Wastewater
September 24, 2014September 24, 2014

A new research study from Stanford University titled “Enhanced Formation of Disinfection By-Products in Shale Gas Wastewater-Impacted Drinking Water Supplies” proves what we already knew more than three years ago: When you send frack wastewater untreated, or lightly treated, to a municipal sewage treatment plant–the plant can’t get the residual water clean enough to not cause problems down river. Back in 2011, then-PA DEP Sec. Michael Krancer ended the practice of municipal treatment plants without special equipment from processing frack wastewater (see PA DEP, Marcellus Shale Coalition Admit Drilling Wastewater Likely Contaminating Drinking Water). Not long after it was shown that bromide levels–one of the hazards of treating frack wastewater with chlorine–had fallen after the ban (see Marcellus Wastewater Ban Leads to Lower Bromide in PA Rivers). Here we are three years later and a new study says the same thing…
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Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Regulation | Research

GAO Report Recommends Feds Start Regulating Gathering Pipelines
September 24, 2014September 24, 2014

Instead of “planes, trains and automobiles” it was “trains, trucks, barges and pipelines” in a report just released by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). The report, prepared for Congress and delivered to them in August but only publicly released two days ago, is titled “OIL AND GAS TRANSPORTATION: Department of Transportation Is Taking Actions to Address Rail Safety, but Additional Actions Are Needed to Improve Pipeline Safety” (full copy below). In the report, the GAO, along with the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), recommends the feds get involved with regulating gathering pipelines–the low pressure pipelines that connect directly to the well. Those pipelines have historically been regulated by the states themselves…
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Industrywide Issues | Marshall County | Ohio County | Research | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Report Shows Dramatic Increase in Water/Sand Usage in WV Drilling
September 23, 2014September 23, 2014

A few years ago drillers in Ohio and Marshall counties in West Virginia would use an average 1 million pounds of frack sand and 4 million gallons of water. Today, because the horizontal portion of the wells are longer (longer “laterals”), those numbers are closer to 13 million pounds of sand and 10 million gallons of water, according to a Wood Mackenzie report…
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Albany County | Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | New York | Research | Statewide NY

Albany Times Union’s Continued Obtuseness on Fracking
September 22, 2014September 22, 2014

Last week MDN highlighted two new studies out that prove fracking doesn’t pollute water supplies (see New Study Finds Well Casings, Not Fracking, Cause Methane Migration and Federal NETL Study: Fracking Doesn’t Contaminate Water Supplies). Objective science proving that fracking is A-OK is anathema to liberal editors at publications like the Albany Times Union. What to do? Ah yes, write an editorial acknowledging those studies (because you can’t hide the news forever), and then lie about those studies by saying people still have “polluted” water…
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Housing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide PA

Penn State Study on Marcellus & Hotels: Saturation Point?
September 19, 2014September 19, 2014

Is the hotel room shortage in the Marcellus region (Pennsylvania specifically) about to turn into a hotel room glut? Has there been a bit of “irrational exuberance” on the part of hoteliers to build, build, build to meeting demand, only to lead to too many rooms? That may be one conclusion you can draw from a new report by Penn State researchers. The report, titled “The Impact of Marcellus Shale Development on Hotel Revenues in Pennsylvania” (full copy below), was recently published by the International Council on Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional Education (CHRIE). It set out to determine just how much of an impact Marcellus Shale drilling has had on the hotel industry in PA. They found that (so far) Marcellus drilling has generated $685 million in new revenue and has led to 1,600 new jobs being created…
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Greene County (PA) | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Research

Federal NETL Study: Fracking Doesn’t Contaminate Water Supplies
September 17, 2014September 17, 2014

This is a very important story that MDN has been following for more than two years. In June 2012, MDN reported the launch “out of nowhere” of a study by U.S. Dept. of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) to test whether or not faults, or large cracks that sometimes exist through multiple rock layers, can create a pathway for hydraulic fracturing fluids to migrate to aquifers (see NETL Study of Faults & Fracking, Are We Being Set Up?). We were a tad skeptical at first, but we were soon reassured this is real and unbiased science (see Update on NETL Faults & Fracking Study). A year later, the preliminary data reported by NETL was encouraging (see Breaking: Obama DOE Says Study Shows Fracking Fluids Don’t Migrate). The final version of the study, more than two years in the making, was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Monday (full copy below). What did it show? According to the headline of an AP story: “Landmark fracking study finds no water pollution”…
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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Portage County | Research | Utica Shale

OH Village Water Study Finds Utica Drilling Doesn’t Pollute
September 17, 2014September 17, 2014

Smart people in Garrettsville, Ohio. Garrettsville is a small village (population 2,325) located in Portage County, OH. In 2011 there were five Utica Shale wells being drilled near the village. Some of the residents were concerned that the drilling may affect sources of public drinking water the village relies on. So the village Board of Public Affairs contacted and arranged to have the Natural Gas and Water Resources Institute at Youngstown State University monitor some 20 water wells in the area to see if Utica drilling affected any of them. The study began in 2012 and is “ongoing.” What has it found?…
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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide PA

New Study Finds Well Casings, Not Fracking, Cause Methane Migration
September 16, 2014September 16, 2014

Another new “study” and already the headlines are blaring. A research team led by Ohio State University and composed of researchers at Duke, Stanford, Dartmouth, and the University of Rochester have just published their findings that methane migrates from some shale wells into local water wells. It certainly doesn’t sound like earth-shattering news, but the headlines across the country range from “Bad fracking wells taint water, scientists find” (Sacramento Bee) to “Weak wells not fracking caused US gas leaks into water” (BBC). The media has picked up on this latest study and, depending on the view of the reporter, has spun it to either say fracking is the culprit, or fracking isn’t the culprit–and just about everything in between. Once again MDN will break it down for you and tell you what the study really says. And, we have a copy of the published findings (embedded below) so you can read it for yourself and make up your own mind…
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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Research

Research: Shale Water Stays in the Ground in “Permeability Jail”
September 11, 2014September 11, 2014

Hack “researchers” will collect research others have done, run some numbers in a spreadsheet to bias the outcome, and then make off-the-wall pronouncements like burning coal is less damaging to the environment than drilling for natural gas (see New Study Final Nail in Coffin of Inflated Fugitive Methane Claims). Then there are real researchers–you know, scientists that perform actual measurements in the lab and in the field. They do real science to test hypotheses and issue real results–not theoretical hyperbole. Yesterday a real scientist/researcher from Penn State (Terry Engelder, geologist), a real scientist/researcher from Cornell University (Larry Cathless, earth and atmospheric sciences), and a real scientist/researcher from Shell (Taras Bryndzia, geologist) released the results of careful scientific testing. They wanted to know if the water injected into shale wells really stays in the ground–or if it, per chance, somehow magically travels back to the surface in a capillary fashion, possibly contaminating ground water sources. Their research paper, titled “The fate of residual treatment water in gas shale,” is published in the September 2014 issue of Journal of Unconventional Oil and Gas Resources. Here’s what they found…
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Health Impacts | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Research | Washington County

Research for Hire: Anti Groups Sponsor Latest Yale Frack “Study”
September 10, 2014September 10, 2014

The next round in so-called anti-drilling research into the “health impacts” from fracking have arrived in the form of a study about to be published in the National Institutes of Health journal Environmental Health Perspectives. Titled “Proximity to Natural Gas Wells and Reported Health Status: Results of a Household Survey in Washington County, Pennsylvania” (full copy embedded below), this latest salvo in the fracking wars is DOA. Why? The anti-drilling Heinz Endowments, led by Mamma Teresa Heinz-Kerry, the Schmidt Family Foundation, founded by former Google CEO (and big-time anti-driller) Eric Schmidt, and the Philadelphia-area Claneil Foundation, funder of many anti-drilling “studies” are the main sponsors of this latest “study” that tabulates self-reported ailments of skin rashes and coughing from 492 people (in 180 families) living in Washington County, PA. Guess what they found? If you read the USA Today headline, they found “People near ‘fracking’ wells report health woes,” to which we say, those who don’t live near fracking wells report health woes too! The study itself says this: “…these results should be viewed as hypothesis generating…proximity of natural gas wells may be (emphasis added) associated with the prevalence of health symptoms including dermal and respiratory 3 conditions in residents living near natural gas extraction activities. Further study of these associations, including the role of specific air and water exposures, is warranted.” That is, nothing conclusive was found from this small sample of 180 households in a single county. But let’s not let “nothing conclusive” get in the way of spinning yet another tall tale that fracking causes health problems. Crank up the media lie machine…
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Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Research | Supply Chain

API Research/List of Shale Supply Chain Companies for PA/OH/WV
September 10, 2014September 10, 2014

Important new research has just been released by the American Petroleum Institute on the role of supply chain businesses in oil and gas. In particular, not only how many such businesses exist–but who they are, by name. MDN has glanced through the report and has pulled the writeups for Pennyslvania, Ohio and West Virginia (all three below). The research shows that the oil & gas industry in PA is contributing $34.7 billion to the economy each year–a staggering number. The average salary for a PA worker is $48,785–but the average salary for o&g workers in PA is $78,898 per year. Similar numbers are found for both OH and WV as well…
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Industrywide Issues | Research

EIA Drilling Productivity Report Shows Marcellus Passing 16 Bcf/d
September 9, 2014September 9, 2014

Yesterday the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released the latest monthly Drilling Productivity Report (DPR). To the ongoing consternation of peak oil & gas theorists that the shale oil/gas bubble is gonna burst “any day now,” the numbers continue to blow everyone away. The mighty Marcellus continues to roar: In October the EIA projects the Marcellus will pass 16 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of natgas production each and every day. Astonishing! Meanwhile, the Utica Shale will hit almost 1.5 Bcf/d in October, which (for the first time) surpasses the natgas output of the Bakken Shale play. Granted, the Bakken is primarily an oil play. Here’s the full rundown of the latest DPR…
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Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Research | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Latest OH Production Numbers: Utica Wells Change the Picture
September 9, 2014September 9, 2014

Yesterday, to much fanfare, the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) announced the results of Ohio’s second quarter oil and natural gas production for unconventional (mostly Utica Shale) wells. During 2Q14 Ohio’s oil wells produced 2.5 million barrels of oil and Ohio’s gas wells produced 88 billion cubic feet of natgas. The ODNR press release also includes a few other bits of trivia like average well production numbers. Below is the trumpet blowing (deservedly so) from the ODNR on the latest round of numbers. They point out that “Horizontal wells [i.e. Utica wells] produced more gas in 3 months than all Ohio wells produced in 2012.” How cool is that?!…
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Industrywide Issues | Research

Shale 101: EIA Explains the Basics, Why Marcellus is So Important
September 8, 2014September 8, 2014

Last week the U.S. Energy Information Administration, our favorite government agency, released an updated Energy in Brief article called “Shale in the United States.” Think of it (as Columbus Business First reporter Tom Knox called it), a “Shale 101” short course in what’s what in shale drilling and production. What’s the difference between shale, “tight gas” and “tight oil”? The EIA explains it. Our favorite part of this short and enlightening article are the graphs–which illustrate the out-sized importance of the Marcellus Shale and growing importance of the Utica Shale. Here’s the full EIA article:
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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide PA

MSC Launches Study on Water Sample Testing & Standards
September 5, 2014September 5, 2014

It’s relatively easy for so-called researchers with an agenda (and backed by Park Foundation money), to manufacture “proof” that shale drilling is evil and harms the environment. Duke University seems to be one hotbed of such so-called research (see Duke Study #2: Drilling Causes Methane Migration in Water Wells?). Cornell University is another Park Foundation funded source of so-called research (see Devastating Critique of New Ingraffea/Howarth Methane Study by EID). Much of that so-called research claims when shale drilling arrives, it causes methane to migrate into nearby water wells. That evil ole methane just can’t help itself! The highly respected trade organization, the Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC), is tired of waiting for the EPA and others to develop standards that can be used when determining whether or not methane in water was caused by drilling–or far more likely–was there all along…
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