In what is believed to be the first of its kind for Ohio, high school students at Marlington High School (Alliance, OH) can take a two-year course in oil and gas technologies starting this fall. The new course will prepare students with the skills they need to work in the rapidly growing shale drilling industry.
From a recent press article:
Read More “OH High School First to Offer 2-Year O&G Tech Course”
The City of Salem, Ohio, which straddles both Columbiana and Mahoning counties, is due to sign a three-year oil and gas lease with Chesapeake Energy today for 381 acres of land owned by the city.
The deal calls for an initial $3,500 per acre signing bonus and 20% royalties, with an additional $3,500 per acre for a three-year extension. All told, it will be $7,000 per acre for a six-year lease—one of the highest amounts MDN has seen (if the three-year extension is exercised).
Read More “Salem, OH to Sign Lease Deal with Chesapeake for $7K+20%”
CONSOL Energy’s drilling in Ohio’s Utica Shale is now under way and ramping up rapidly, according to CONSOL’s Harry Schurr who spoke Wednesday at a workshop on the campus of Kent State University. They’ve already drilled their first Utica well in Tuscarawas County, and they plan to drill 15 more this year. CONSOL also has a joint venture with Hess. Hess plans to drill six Utica wells this year.
CONSOL Energy has started work on its first drill pad in Mahoning County, OH. And although the landowner where they’re drilling sold his mineral rights years ago and will receive next to nothing in the way of royalties or lease payments, he’s still happy about it.
Read More “CONSOL Starts Work on Their First Well in Mahoning County, OH”
The former National Refractories complex just outside Columbiana, OH is getting a shale gas makeover. Owner Jerry Stoneburner says the 300,000 square foot facility that sits on 100 acres will become both a shale gas wastewater treatment center and a transfer point to load railroad cars with crude oil and condensate being produced in the Marcellus and Utica Shale.
Read More “Industrial Complex near Columbiana, OH Gets Shale Makeover”
A preliminary report released by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) on Friday concludes that a dozen earthquakes in northeastern Ohio were “almost certainly” induced by injection of gas-drilling wastewater (a full copy of the report is embedded below). The evidence is overwhelming: The earthquakes did not begin until three months after the injection well went online; the quakes were all clustered around the well bore; and a new fault has been discovered in the bedrock where the wastewater was being injected. Taken together, the ODNR is as sure as it can get that the injection well was causing the earthquakes.
Therefore, the ODNR has issued new regulations for injection wells, what state officials are calling among the toughest rules in the nation. From the ODNR press release:
Read More “ODNR Finds Youngstown Injection Well Caused Earthquakes”
Although new drilling activity is lessening in the Marcellus, it’s red hot in the Utica Shale. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) just issued another permit to Chesapeake to drill a horizontal well in Columbiana County, Chesapeake’s 18th permit in Columbiana. In Mahoning County, ODNR granted a permit for a new well in Goshen Township, making it seven wells for that township so far. Chesapeake holds 49 permits in Carroll County with 10 wells waiting to be fracked.
Read More “Drilling Heats Up with New Permits in Ohio’s Utica Shale”
More jobs coming courtesy of shale gas drilling—this time in Youngstown, Ohio. Exterran Energy Solutions has just announced plans to build a new $13 million facility that when done, will provide 100+ new jobs earning an average $23 per hour.
Read More “Youngstown, OH Scores Another 100 Jobs from Gas Drilling”
Officials in Mahoning County, Ohio are negotiating with an unnamed company to build a frack water recycling facility in the county. The new facility will treat wastewater, recycling it to be reused in fracking operations. As a bonus, the sewage treatment plant in Mahoning will sell treated water to the new plant, a new revenue stream for the county.
Read More “New Frack Wastewater Recycling Plant Coming to Eastern OH”
John Armbruster, a seismologist from Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, NY is one of the researchers investigating a string of 11 earthquakes near Youngstown, OH, the most recent of which occurred on New Year’s Eve in the afternoon. Armbruster says a local injection well, which injects wastewater from shale gas drilling under high pressure deep into the ground, is “almost certainly” the cause of the earthquakes.
As MDN pointed out yesterday, injection wells are not fracked gas wells (see this MDN story). But some politicians keep trying to tie the two together. A spokesman for Ohio Gov. John Kasich, Rob Nichols, does a great job in pointing out the difference:
A 4.0 earthquake in the Youngstown, OH area on Saturday afternoon is thought to be connected to a local injection well. MDN has chronicled previous episodes of earthquakes thought to be connected with injection wells in Arkansas and Texas. Saturday’s earthquake was the 11th in the Youngstown area in recent months, and by far the strongest. The theory is that fluid, which is pumped nearly two miles underground under very high pressure, had migrated to a nearby fault and is causing the fault to shift.
Until it can be determined what, exactly, is happening, all further injection of fluid into the well has been stopped. In fact, fluid injection had stopped a day earlier, on Friday, before Saturday’s quake. But pressure in the well would remain high for a period of time, likely leading to the 4.0 quake.
Read More “Youngstown Earthquake and Fracking: Is There a Connection?”
The good economic news keeps coming in for the Marcellus and Utica Shales. If approvals come (as expected) from the city of Youngstown, Ohio, Exterran Energy Solutions will build a new $13 million manufacturing facility in the city in 2012. Exterran manufactures parts used in compressors and compressor stations used in the production and transportation of natural gas from shale drilling. The new plant could provide as many as 200 new jobs in the next several years.
Read More “More Marcellus & Utica Shale Jobs Coming to Youngstown, OH”
An update on the state of shale gas drilling—both Marcellus and Utica—in Ohio:
Read More “Ohio Update: With 37 Permits, It’s Still Early Days for Marcellus & Utica Shale Drilling”
Kathryn Klaber, president and executive director of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, spoke at the Youngstown/Warren (OH) Regional Chamber economic breakfast yesterday. She outlined the economic boom created by drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus. That boom is not only benefiting Pennsylvania, but also over the border in Ohio as well. Some of her comments included:
The Vindicator (Feb 16)
V&M delivers plant, 350 jobs
Youngstown, Ohio is getting a new $650 million pipe mill and 350 new jobs due to Marcellus Shale drilling. V&M Star Steel has just announced they are building a new plant in Youngstown because of its proximity to the Marcellus Shale deposit. The new mill will manufacture pipes used in drilling in the Marcellus, according to V&M president, Roger Lindgren. The mill is expected to start operations in 2011, and be up to full capacity in 2012. Although this is a new plant and new construction, it is an expansion of V&M’s existing operation in Youngstown, built on property next to their current facility.