Ohio

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    FERC Slaps Rover Pipeline with Stop Drilling Order

    You can’t see we didn’t warn Rover Pipeline. In our story yesterday about the Ohio EPA’s frustration with Rover over regular spills of drilling mud (and other violations), we pointed out that the OEPA’s language is “Not good news for Rover, when one of the main state regulators (that can stop the project) is leveling criticisms like that” (see Ohio EPA Slaps Rover Pipe with $431K Fine for Spills, Other Issues). We also said, in the last sentence of that post, “Rover needs to get this situation under control before an emergency stop work order is slapped on them.” Such an order, more or less, has now been issued by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Yesterday FERC sent a letter (copy below) to Rover telling the pipeline it can no longer drill horizontally underground for the pipeline in some locations–until it complies with certain measures outlined by FERC and gets FERC staff sign-off every step of the way. In other words, Rover has likely just been delayed–due to its own haste and by not displaying the proper contrite attitude toward the OEPA. No one to blame but themselves…
    Read More “FERC Slaps Rover Pipeline with Stop Drilling Order”

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    Rex Energy 1Q17 Full Update – Swings to Black, Drilling Picks Up

    In April, Rex Energy, a driller focused mainly on the Marcellus/Utica (headquartered in State College, PA), issued an operational update (see Rex Energy 1Q17: Production Drops 8.5%). Earlier this week the company issued a full 1Q17 update. What does it show? Rex swung from losing $62 million in 1Q16 to making $2.1 million in 1Q17–quite a turnaround! This update also includes a fuller look at the drilling that did happen in 1Q17, and what the company plans for the balance of 2017. In Rex’s Legacy Butler Operated Area (Butler County, PA), the company has begun drilling 4 wells on a single pad and plans to have them completed and online in 3Q17. In Rex’s Moraine East Area (also Butler County) the company drilled 7 gross (3.3 net) wells and completed 4 gross (1.4 net) wells in 1Q17. In addition, Rex had 12 gross (5.5 net) wells awaiting completion at the end of 1Q17. In Rex’s Warrior North Area (Carroll County, OH), the company plans to drill 12 gross (10.2 net) wells by the end of 2017, with most of them not going online until 2018. Below is the full update, along with select portions of the earnings call where Rex’s CEO shares some interesting insights… Read More “Rex Energy 1Q17 Full Update – Swings to Black, Drilling Picks Up”

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    Ohio EPA Slaps Rover Pipe with $431K Fine for Spills, Other Issues

    Rover mud spill in April

    The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA) is frustrated with Energy Transfer and its management of constructing the ~$4 billion Rover Pipeline through the state. As MDN reported in April, Rover spilled some 2 million gallons of non-toxic drilling mud (i.e. bentonite) in three separate incidents (see Rover Pipeline Accident Spills ~2M Gal. Drilling Mud in OH Swamp and Rover Update: Half of 15K Workers Now Hired, 2% Pipeline Laid). We know that the biggest spill happened in Stark County, and another sizable spill in Richland County. It appears spilling some mud wasn’t the only environmental violation. The OEPA has just assessed a $431,000 fine against Energy Transfer for “18 incidents involving mud spills from drilling, stormwater pollution and open burning at Rover pipeline construction sites have been reported between late March and Monday.” The latest mud spill happened on Monday–200 gallons in Harrison County. OEPA Director Craig Butler said, “All told, our frustration is really high. We don’t think they’re taking Ohio seriously…Normally when we have…a series of events like this, companies respond with a whole lot of contrition and whole lot of commitment. We haven’t seen that. It’s pretty shocking.” Not good news for Rover, when one of the main state regulators (that can stop the project) is leveling criticisms like that… Read More “Ohio EPA Slaps Rover Pipe with $431K Fine for Spills, Other Issues”

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    Seneca County, OH – Where All Forms of Energy Come Together

    Generally speaking, the western side of Ohio is seeing a lot of activity with new solar and wind installations. And the eastern side of the state is seeing a lot of activity with shale drilling and natural gas pipelines. But there is one county, Seneca County (slightly left of center, in the northern part of the state) where both renewable projects like solar and wind, and fossil fuel projects like pipelines, are both active. And that means landowners in Seneca County are being bombarded with offers from solar, wind, pipelines and electric lines. Some sage advice from the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation for landowners: hire a lawyer before you sign anything… Read More “Seneca County, OH – Where All Forms of Energy Come Together”

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    40 Ohio Groups Band Together to Oppose FirstEnergy’s Nuke Bailout

    In April, MDN brought you news of an effort underway in Ohio to tax Ohio ratepayers $5.4 billion and give that money to FirstEnergy to prevent some of its nuclear power plants from closing (see OH Law Would Bailout Nuke Plants for $5.4B, Kill NatGas Plants). Given stiff regulations, nuke plants face stiff competition in the free marketplace. Natural gas-fired plants are cheaper to build and operate, and deliver cheaper electricity. Since nukes can’t compete in the free and open market, FirstEnergy wants to rig the game, all in the name of “energy diversity” and keeping their nuke plants open (and investors happy). Rate-paying Ohioans get screwed in the process. Some 40 groups have banded together for form the Coalition Against Nuclear Bailouts. Some are big groups, some are individuals. They are diverse. For example, the far-left AARP (disgusting organization) is in the coalition. So too is the Ohio Oil and Gas Association (OOGA) and the National Association of Royalty Owners (NARO). Plus some pastors of churches, and local politicians. Feels kind of weird to support an organization with groups like the AARP in it. But perhaps the enemy of my enemy is my friend. At least in this case. It is, truly, a nonpartisan (or should we say bipartisan) coalition that has risen up to fight the nuclear bailout… Read More “40 Ohio Groups Band Together to Oppose FirstEnergy’s Nuke Bailout”

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    Titan Energy Sells Marcellus Assets, Buyer Rapidly Expanding

    In February, MDN told you that Titan Energy, which used to be known as Atlas Energy/Resource Partners, was listing what appeared to be the rest of the acreage they still own on the Appalachian basin–some 494,229 acres–including rights for drilling in the Marcellus (see Titan Energy Puts 494K Appalachian Acres Up for Sale). On Friday, Titan announced it has signed an agreement to sell the acreage, along with 8,400 oil and gas wells across Pennsylvania, Ohio, Tennessee, New York and West Virginia, for $84.2 million to Diversified Gas & Oil (DGO). Yes, the vast majority of those wells are conventional (vertical only) and not shale wells. In fact, we’re not sure any of the wells are shale wells. However, Marcellus assets were part of the sale–so at least some of the acreage will allow for Marcellus drilling, should DGO want to pursue it. Although Titan is keeping its Utica Shale acreage, the company says it use the money from this sale to concentrate efforts on oil drilling in the Texas Eagle Ford Shale play. Titan is moving its headquarters from Pittsburgh to Houston, TX. In addition to the news about Titan selling its conventional assets and moving, the twin story (perhaps even more interesting) is that the buyer, DGO (nominally headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, although actually a UK company), has been on a buying spree–snapping up 75,250 conventional acres (1,300 wells) in PA & WV earlier this year. All told, DGO now owns 1.6 million acres of leases and 10,000+ conventional oil and gas wells in Appalachia…
    Read More “Titan Energy Sells Marcellus Assets, Buyer Rapidly Expanding”

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    PDC Energy Pulling Out of the Utica – Selling Acreage & Wells

    PDC Energy, a driller in the Wattenberg Field in Colorado and the Utica in Ohio, paused their Utica drilling program in 2015 (see PDC Energy Pushes Pause Button on OH Utica Drilling for 2015). In December 2015, the company announced they would restart Utica drilling in 2016 with plans to drill five wells (see PDC Energy to Restart OH Drilling in 2016, Drilling 5 Utica Wells). Indeed they did reactivate their program, in a much-scaled-back fashion, last year. However, another shale play has turned the head of PDC–the Permian Basin in Texas, an oil play. When PDC released their plans for 2017 in December, they said they would drill two more Utica wells in the second half of 2017 and spend just $18 million to do it, spending the bulk of their money in the Permian and Wattenberg (see PDC Releases 2017 Plans – Drilling Just 2 Utica Wells in 2H17). Then in March, the plan to drill those two Utica wells this year got mothballed (see PDC Changes Course, Delays More Utica Drilling in 2017). Now we know why. Buried in their first quarter 2017 update (released last Friday), PDC has announced they are putting their Utica assets up for sale, so they can concentrate on the Wattenburg and Delaware Basin (i.e. Permian)…
    Read More “PDC Energy Pulling Out of the Utica – Selling Acreage & Wells”

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    Ohio DNR Issues New Pooling Guidelines for Drillers

    Last week the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) issued updated guidelines for “statutory unitization applications” (full copy below). That is, when a driller wants to form a unit for drilling by combining adjacent properties, the driller must first request permission from the ODNR to form a unit. In Ohio, a unit can be formed when the driller has 65% of the acreage in the unit under a lease agreement. In other words, these are the revised/new guidelines (i.e. hoops) drillers must jump through before the ODNR will agree to combine either willing, or unwilling (force pooled) landowners into a unit for drilling… Read More “Ohio DNR Issues New Pooling Guidelines for Drillers”

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    Green, OH Paying Lawyers $100K to Fund Stop NEXUS Crusade

    The City of Green, Ohio, located in Summit County (south of Akron, north of Canton) seems to have no problems with spending boatloads of taxpayer money on anti-pipeline efforts. A few weeks ago Green City Council voted to give $10,000 to the anti-pipeline CORN–Coalition to Reroute Nexus. We call the group CORNballs and have written extensively about their supposed desire to just see the NEXUS pipeline routed around them, pretending to be NIMBYs (see our CORN stories here). In reality, CORN wants the pipeline stopped, period. Anti-fossil fuel nuttery. But $10K for the CORNballs is small potatoes for Green–almost a distraction. The city has just “upped the ante” by voting to spend $100,000 to hire a Cleveland law firm to file a lawsuit “aimed at stopping the pipeline from being built or stopping the project altogether.” Since when was it legal for a city like Green to squander taxpayers’ money on cockamamie anti-fossil fuel lawsuits against legal American businesses that build energy infrastructure? Will someone please investigate Green council members and their ties to Big Green groups (no pun intended)? Smells to us like somebody is getting paid off somewhere…
    Read More “Green, OH Paying Lawyers $100K to Fund Stop NEXUS Crusade”

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    Ohio Legislators Push to Allow Fracking in State Parks, Forests

    Thumbing their collective noses at Ohio RINO Gov. John “foreigner hunter” Kasich, Republican legislators in the House added a “little-noticed provision” in the state budget deal that will give the legislature, and not the governor, the power to select members of the Ohio Oil and Gas Commission. That small change would have huge consequences. How? the Oil and Gas Commission is charged with approving potential drillers on state land. Five years ago, Kasich flip-flopped on the issue and since then has not allowed shale drilling in state-owned forests and state-owned parks–by refusing to add any new members to the Commission. It is a de facto moratorium from the governor that prevents fracking on state-owned land. Enough is enough. Republicans intend to change it this year…
    Read More “Ohio Legislators Push to Allow Fracking in State Parks, Forests”

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    Radical Green Groups Sue Fed Govt to Block Fracking in Ohio WNF

    After 10 long years, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) auctioned 719 acres in Ohio’s Wayne National Forest (WNF) last December (see BLM Auction Leases 17 Parcels, 719 Acres in OH Wayne Natl Forest). In March, the BLM held a second auction for 1,180 acres (see 2nd Wayne Natl Forest Lease Sale Hauls in $5.2M, Double Expectations). Ultimately there are some 18,000 acres under consideration for leasing by the BLM in WNF. WNF is a “patchwork” of public land scattered among private land. Some 60% of the mineral rights below WNF are privately owned. Those mineral rights owners have been denied the use of their property rights for more than a decade. Until now, with these lease sales. Just when progress was being made, three radical Big Green groups have sued the BLM and the U.S. Forest Service to prevent fracking in WNF. Yesterday the odious Sierra Club, Ohio Environmental Council, and Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit (copy below) in federal court to block fracking in WNF…
    Read More “Radical Green Groups Sue Fed Govt to Block Fracking in Ohio WNF”

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    Environmentalist Argues Against Subsidies for Solar & Wind in Ohio

    Michael Shellenberger

    Michael Shellenberger is an American author, environmental policy expert, cofounder of the Breakthrough Institute and president of Environmental Progress. He was named a Time magazine Heroes of the Environment in 2008. He lives in San Francisco and is a big-time, lefty, lib, environmentalist wacko. But, he’s also an honest big-time, lefty, lib, environmentalist wacko. And for that, we respect him. Shellenberger sent a letter to the editor of the Akron Beacon Journal with the meme of stopping “discrimination against nuclear power.” Among his statements in the letter, Shellengberger says: “Like most environmentalists, I used to be opposed to nuclear power. I thought solar and wind would be enough. But the more I learned about solar and wind, I realized they could never power a high-energy industrial civilization.” Whoa, hold on. We’re dizzy and wobbling…having been knocked up side the head with straight truth from an environmentalist. Shellenberger goes on to make a very strong case that Ohio’s subsidies for solar and wind are, in part, killing nuclear energy in the state. He actually advocates an end to such subsidies. And for those who may not know, “subsidies” means Ohio Gov. John “foreigner hunter” Kasich wants to transfer money from the pockets of Ohio taxpayers into the pockets of businesses in the solar and wind industry. Shellenberger takes Kasich to task for such lunacy. Whoa, there we go again, wobbling…must hold on to something…
    Read More “Environmentalist Argues Against Subsidies for Solar & Wind in Ohio”

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    OH Law Would Bailout Nuke Plants for $5.4B, Kill NatGas Plants

    In January, MDN highlighted a developing issue in Ohio that potentially impacts Utica/Marcellus shale in the region (see OH Power Cos. Try to Stop Gas-Fired Plants with “Re-Regulation”). Three large utility companies–FirstEnergy, American Electric Power, and Dayton Power and Light–are behind an effort to re-regulate the electric power generation industry in Ohio. The electricity industry is a complicated industry, with some some power producers operating as “regulated” and some operating as “unregulated.” Regulated power producers have their rates, and rate of profit, set by government regulators–which limits but also guarantees profits. Unregulated power producers, on the other hand, do not have the safety net of the government forcing ratepayers to pony up–they operate in the free market, taking all of the risks, and reaping the rewards if those risks prove worthwhile. Many (most?) of the new natural gas-fired electric plants getting built, like those we have focused on in Ohio, are of the unregulated kind. If Ohio rolls back the clock 18 years to re-regulate, it would likely spell the end of billions of dollars of investments in unregulated/shale-powered electric plants. A disaster. The latest tact companies like FirstEnergy are using to force through a rotten piece of legislation is to claim without it, their nuclear power plants will close down. And precious “diversity” of sources to generate electricity is needed. The legislation proposed (Senate Bill 128 and House Bill 178, same language) is actually a $5.4 billion bailout for FirstEnergy. So says Clean Energy Future CEO Bill Siderwicz. Clean Energy is in the middle of investing $4.5 billion in five new shale-fired electric plants in Ohio. That investment and those plants will disappear if this disastrous “bailout FirstEnergy” bill becomes law…
    Read More “OH Law Would Bailout Nuke Plants for $5.4B, Kill NatGas Plants”

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    Rover Pipeline Paying $2.3M for Knocking Down Historic OH House

    On Feb. 3, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) gave its final approval to Energy Transfer’s Rover Pipeline project–a $3.7 billion, 711-mile Marcellus/Utica natural gas pipeline that will run from PA, WV and eastern OH through OH into Michigan and eventually into Canada (see ET Rover Pipeline Gets Final Approval by FERC). Normally when FERC approves such a project, they issue a “blanket certificate” that allows the pipeline company to move forward with construction without getting “Mother May I?” permission for every step along the way. But FERC denied ET a blanket certificate for Rover. Why? Because Rover demolished a house that was under consideration for a national registry of historic homes, without first telling FERC (see Rover Pipeline in Hot Water Over Demolishing Historic House in OH). In May 2015, Rover purchased a house in Carroll County, OH, located near where the pipeline, and a compressor station for that pipeline, is due to run. Rover bought the house to use for offices for several Rover affiliate companies. After buying it, Rover determined the house was “ill-suited for its intended purpose” and decided to demolish it. Problem was/is, that house was under consideration to be added to the National Register of Historic Places. The house was not yet on the list of Historic Places, but was on a list of properties under consideration. FERC says Rover should have reported their decision to demolish the house, which has Rover in hot water with FERC and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. That’s the last we had heard about the “historic” house–until we spotted an article that makes reference to a deal Rover agreed to, to pay out $2.3 million “to a fund administered by the Ohio History Connection Foundation and the State Historic Preservation Office. A total of $1 million is for preservation work in the 18 counties crossed by the pipeline. The rest of the money will be used for projects across the state.” So Rover didn’t pay a fine. Instead, they paid hush money. A shakedown, with money going to a PRIVATE nonprofit organization…
    Read More “Rover Pipeline Paying $2.3M for Knocking Down Historic OH House”

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    OH & PA NatGas Production Increased More Than Other States in ’16

    Would it surprise you to learn that Pennsylvania and Ohio had the largest increase in natural gas production in 2016–larger than any other natgas-producing states? If you read MDN regularly, perhaps not. Old news. However, it may surprise you to learn that from 2012 to 2016, 85% of the growth in our country’s enormous natural gas output came from the Marcellus/Utica. Yeah, 85%. That’s huge. More old news: Pennsylvania passed Louisiana back in 2013 to become the second highest-producing natgas state in the country. More new news: Last year, in 2016, Ohio passed West Virginia to become the seventh highest producing natgas state in the country. Here’s some more facts about PA & OH from our favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration…
    Read More “OH & PA NatGas Production Increased More Than Other States in ’16”

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    OH Gov. Kasich’s Severance Tax Hike is Dead, Again

    As in previous years when Ohio’s RINO Gov. Kasich has proposed a super-high boost to the state’s severance tax, calm-headed Republicans (people from his own party!) have come to the rescue. Ohio House Republicans have removed Kasich’s boost in the severance tax rate from the budget. Meaning, it’s dead…
    Read More “OH Gov. Kasich’s Severance Tax Hike is Dead, Again”