RV Parks Pop Up in Ohio Valley for “Transient” Shale Workers
Although drilling activity has slowed in many locations in the Marcellus/Utica Shale region, in some places it just keeps booming. Like Belmont and Monroe counties in Ohio. How do we know? Just take a look at the rise of “Oil City” located right next to the Ohio Valley Mall in St. Clairsville (Belmont County), OH. Oil City has 120 RVs and campers–all of them workers in the Utica and Marcellus gas fields. They are “transients” in the sense that new workers come in as other workers leave. Some are even from (gasp) “foreign” locations like Texas and Oklahoma (see OH Gov. Kasich Continues Trash Talk Out-of-State Workers). The words transient and foreigner are used by some as a pejorative to denigrate hard-working oilfield workers, blaming them for rowdiness and even for spreading STDs (see Is There a Link Between Fracking & STDs in Ohio?). How are oilfield transients perceived by the locals in the Ohio Valley area? A Monroe County official said this about the 350 transient oilfield workers living in RV parks in his county: “We’ve received little to no negative feedback. Most of them seem to work long hours, so they aren’t around all that much. They fit in pretty well.” So much for those who object to “foreigners” and “transients”…
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We have major news coming from Aubrey McClendon’s American Energy Partners (AEP). A lot of news. So buckle in. First we’ll tell you the news, then we’ll give you our take on that news–what it means. In brief, the news coming from AEP HQ in Oklahoma City is this: (1) AEP’s Marcellus/Utica AEP subsidiary, American Energy Appalachia Holdings, has been spun out into a 100% standalone company and has changed its name to Ascent Resources; (2) the CEO of Ascent is the same guy who was the CEO of American Energy Appalachia Holdings–trusted McClendon lieutenant Jeffrey A. Fisher; (3) Ascent has cut a deal with Gulfport Energy to sell 35,000 prime Utica Shale acres for $407 million; and (4) Ascent has just sold shares in the company and taken out new loans for $977 million, giving them $700 million in cash after they pay off certain other loans. Whew! Here’s the details, along with a little news of our own about AEP…
Yesterday the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) released their first quarter production numbers for both oil and natural gas (see our companion story today). Below are details for the top 6 natural gas producing wells, and the top 6 oil producing wells in the state. Rice Energy and Antero Resources split the top 6 natural gas wells with three apiece. Of note, Rice’s wells took the top 3 slots. Aubrey McClendon’s American Energy drilled the most top oil wells (4 of the top 6), followed by one apiece for Antero Resources and PDC Energy…
Last Friday MDN brought you the Rice Energy first quarter 2015 update (see 
We hate to rain on Belmont County, OH’s parade, but we have to point out their celebration over the announcement about a potential ethane cracker plant announced on Wednesday may be a bit premature (see 
As we told you Tuesday, Ohio is now squarely in the ethane cracker race (see 
Last October MDN told you about the rumor that a pair of companies from Thailand and Japan were partnering with the aim of building an ethane cracker plant in the Marcellus/Utica region (see