Research

Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Research

New USGS Study Proves Fracking Does Not Contaminate Water Wells
January 22, 2013January 22, 2013

An important new scientific study was released by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) on Jan. 9 that tests 127 water wells in the Fayetteville Shale area of north-central Arkansas. Fracking for natural gas began in the Fayetteville Shale in 2004, and since then, some 4,000 wells have been drilled. There were good historical records available for the 127 water wells to compare pre- and post-drilling results. Who woulda thunk we would actually use science to determine whether or not fracking is safe? What a novel concept.

The study is titled “Shallow Groundwater Quality and Geochemistry in the Fayetteville Shale Gas-Production Area, North-Central Arkansas, 2011” (full copy embedded below). What did the USGS find? They found that fracking didn’t affect water wells. No chemical contamination. Nada.

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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Research | Statewide PA

PA NatGas Pipelines: Coming to a Roadway Near You?
January 22, 2013January 22, 2013

An excellent report on natural gas pipelines in Pennsylvania issued in December has just come to our attention. The report (full copy embedded below) was created by PA Gov. Tom Corbett’s Energy Executive, Patrick Henderson, as a requirement under the state’s new Act 13 drilling law. The report provides a brief history of natural gas pipelines in the state with an excellent overview of how pipelines are regulated and who regulates them, followed by 16 recommendations for lawmakers to consider in crafting new policies.

Among the recommendations: Run new pipelines along existing local and state road right-of-ways; make it easier to share pipeline capacity without forcing a pipeline into becoming a public utility (with the associated nightmare of heavy regulation); and the state’s Public Utility Commission should create and maintain a comprehensive map displaying the routes for all shale gas pipelines.

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BP | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Research

BP Energy Outlook 2030: Shale Energy Impact “Far Reaching”
January 22, 2013January 22, 2013

Energy giant BP, like energy giant ExxonMobil, are both drillers in the Marcellus and Utica Shale plays. They both also publish an annual energy outlook that shares their latest thinking about where the world’s energy markets are headed in the next few decades. ExxonMobil’s annual Outlook for Energy was published in December (see ExxonMobil Predicts World Fossil Fuel Usage Up 5% by 2040). BP’s Energy Outlook 2030 was just released this month (full copy embedded below). The word “shale” appears a lot.

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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Maryland | Regulation | Research | Statewide MD

Maryland Gov Finally Allocates Money for Fracking Study in Budget
January 17, 2013January 17, 2013

The stumbling, bumbling governor of Maryland, Socialist/Democrat Martin O’Malley, finally figured out that if the fracking study he himself ordered back in 2011 is ever going to get done by 2014, he’ll need to find money in the budget to do it. So in a blinding acknowledgement of the obvious, he included $1.5 million in the proposed budget he delivered to the legislature yesterday.

Of course, $1.5 million in Maryland is a rounding error in the state budget, but until now anti-drillers in the state have used lack of funding for the study as a convenient excuse to continue a moratorium on drilling. Look for the state’s Dems to neuter out the $1.5 million and then throw up their hands and say “no funding, no study, no drilling.” Typical.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Research

Elsevier Launches New Journal for Unconventional Oil & Gas
January 17, 2013January 17, 2013

Elsevier, perhaps the world’s biggest publisher of scientific journals, is launching a new journal in 2013 called, Journal of Unconventional Oil and Gas Resources—that is, a journal about fracking.The new scholarly journal will be published quarterly and edited by a professor from Penn State.

Here’s the announcement:

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Commodity Price | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Marcellus Shale’s Prominent Role in Latest EIA Outlook
January 9, 2013January 9, 2013

Yesterday the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released their monthly Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), which includes the outlook for natural gas. EIA has some of the best and brightest that crunch the numbers, so when they issue their reports, people pay attention. EIA reports are not exactly a crystal ball to predict the future—but they’re darned close.

The Marcellus Shale of Pennsylvania and West Virginia is mentioned prominently in this update, including its predicted role in boosting overall natural gas production this year. Below is the natural gas portion of the STEO, with predictions for prices, production and consumption in 2013:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide PA

EPA to Release Fracking Study Water Test Results in Few Weeks
January 7, 2013January 7, 2013

A few weeks ago the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a “progress report” on their multi-year study of hydraulic fracturing and it’s potential impact on water supplies (see EPA’s Fracking Study Progress Report – Dec 2012).

Last week, during an online presentation, an EPA official said the water test sample results/data they’ve gathered to date, including results from testing done in Pennsylvania, will be released “a number of weeks from now”:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation | Research

EPA’s Fracking Study Progress Report (Dec 2012)
December 28, 2012December 28, 2012

Early last week, the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a 278-page “progress report” on it’s multi-year study of hydraulic fracturing (full copy embedded below). The final report is due to be completed in late 2014. The purpose of the study? To try and figure out if there’s any conceivable way the EPA can get its hooks into regulating oil and gas drilling in the U.S.—something Constitutionally left to the individual states to do. The EPA is hoping to prove that fracking somehow, in some way, impacts groundwater, which would let them claim fracking comes under the purview of the Clean Water Act and empower them to regulate drilling.

The Dec. 2012 interim report was issued to keep everyone posted on their progress. It specifically details how the EPA is conducting its research—their methodology—but not any results…not yet. The results of the research and the conclusions/recommendations will come in late 2014. Unfortunately it seems the EPA held private meetings with prominent anti-frackers before releasing the progress report (see Energy in Depth’s excellent analysis here), casting doubt on the EPA’s ability to conduct impartial research.

Here’s the EPA’s press announcement from last week’s release of the progress report:

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

National Lab Looks for Industry to Fund “Extreme Drilling”
December 28, 2012December 28, 2012

Hey buddy, can you spare a few (million) dimes? The National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) is looking for someone in the oil and gas drilling industry to help get a now four year-old project off the ground. The NETL unveiled, to great fanfare, the Extreme Drilling Laboratory (XDL) in January 2009 in Morgantown, WV. It’s centerpiece of technology is the Ultra-Deep Single-Cutter Drilling Simulator (UDS), which they call their “rock star.” The UDS is an impressive device that can simulate drilling at 30,000 pounds of force per square inch and temperatures exceeding 480 °F – conditions that would be found at the bottom of very deep oil and gas wells.

Just one tiny problem: Industry isn’t using this marvelous technology to figure out better ways to drill. How come?

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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Research | Venango County

Venango County Geophysical Study for Marcellus/Utica is Done
December 21, 2012December 21, 2012

NEOS GeoSolutions, a company that measures and analyzes what’s under the ground to help energy companies figure out “what’s down there” announced yesterday they have completed a new geological and geophysical study of the Marcellus and Utica Shale plays in and around Venango County, PA. NEOS delivered the findings to the unnamed party or parties that paid for the project (the “underwriters”). According to NEOS, the rest of us (euphemistically called non-underwriters) will get to see the study results on March 15, 2013.

Landowners in Venango County: Between now and March 15, if someone turns up on your doorstep eagerly wanting to sign you to a lease, take a deep breath and ask to see a copy of the survey results before you sign anything. Information is power, and the information in these kinds of studies can give those who possess it an advantage.

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Economic Impact | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Research

New Report: Fracking Creates Jobs in States with No Drilling
December 20, 2012December 20, 2012

In October, global research company IHS released the first (of three) volumes in a new study titled America’s New Energy Future: The Unconventional Oil and Gas Revolution and the Economy (see this MDN story). Yesterday they released Volume 2 of the study which focuses on the economic contributions from the Lower 48 states—from both states where there is unconventional drilling, as well as from states without unconventional drilling. Yes, jobs and economic benefits are generated in non-drilling states thanks to the borders they share with those that do have drilling.

Volume 2 of the study finds that of the states with no unconventional drilling, New York leads the pack in the number of jobs created for its residents as a result of unconventional drilling (thank you Pennsylvania!). Of those states that do have unconventional drilling (i.e. they allow high volume fracking), Texas leads the way in job creation, followed by Pennsylvania. The study also finds that by 2025 Ohio (because of the Utica Shale) will become the third most job-creating state when it comes to the oil and gas industry.

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Alternative Energy | Energy Companies | Exxon Mobil | Industrywide Issues | Research

ExxonMobil Predicts World Fossil Fuel Usage Up 5% by 2040
December 12, 2012December 12, 2012

ExxonMobil, not only the world’s largest energy company but the world’s largest company period by revenue, publishes an annual Outlook for Energy. Yesterday they issued the 2013 edition (embedded below). The annual publication is an inside look at how some of the world’s keenest minds in energy view what’s coming down the road for energy over the next 30 years.

A few (very interesting) highlights from this year’s edition:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Research

World Marvels at U.S. Fracking Water Management
December 11, 2012December 11, 2012

The rest of the world is looking to the United States to learn how to leverage the miracle of hydraulic fracturing. A newly released report from global management consulting firm Accenture, titled “Water and shale gas development: leveraging the US experience in new shale developments” (full copy embedded below), looks at the water issue when it comes to fracking—and how the U.S. has effectively managed water use and disposal. According to the report, we in the U.S. are masters at moving water from point A to point B, conserving it, and disposing of it—and our hard work and innovation can benefit other countries now considering fracking their own shale deposits.

Here’s a description of the report from Accenture:

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Industrywide Issues | Ohio County | Research | Wastewater | West Virginia

WVU & Jesuit Univ Testing Ohio & Allegheny Rivers for Bromides
December 10, 2012December 10, 2012

Wheeling Jesuit University and West Virginia University are teaming up to study water samples from the Ohio and Allegheny rivers for the presence of bromides to see if bromides are coming from shale drilling wastewater discharges into the rivers. Bromides themselves are not toxic, but in sufficient quantities bromides can lead to the formation of cancer-causing trihalomethanes.

The study is a precaution to ensure bromides, which are found naturally, are not coming from drilling activity (i.e. drilling wastewater discharges).

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Air Quality | Industrywide Issues | Ohio County | Research | West Virginia

WVU & Wheeling Health Dept Conduct Marcellus Air Quality Study
December 10, 2012December 10, 2012

The Wheeling-Ohio County Health Department and West Virginia University are together collecting data in the greater Wheeling, West Virginia area to see if drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale has a detectable impact on local air quality.

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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Research

University of Texas Goes Amish, Shuns its Own Fracking Study
December 7, 2012December 7, 2012

The University of Texas (UT) is the latest institution of “higher learning” to succumb to political correctness—they have withdrawn (censored) a previously published study that concludes hydraulic fracturing does not pollute groundwater. Science has gone out the door at UT like it did at the University at Buffalo, over the same issue. Professors and researchers issue a report, based on scientific evidence, that anti-drillers perceive as favorable to fracking—and the rabid anti-drillers form up like a pack of wolves and hunt down and academically kill anyone connected to the research and resulting report. “You say fracking doesn’t contaminate water, that there’s no scientific proof that it does (going against our orthodoxy)? You’re dead meat—we’re coming for you.”

Thing is, the chief accuser, the alpha wolf who’s doing the hunting, is the Public Accountability Initiative (PAI). Who are they? An anti-fossil fuel organization funded in the background by ultra-leftist and financial markets manipulator George Soros (see this MDN story for background). Bloomberg and other mainstream media won’t touch that part of the story—the part that those doing the accusing are full of conflicts of interest themselves. That doesn’t fit the template narrative of their reporting.

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