OH Gov Kasich’s 500% Severance Tax Increase a Jobs Killer
Ohio Gov. John “severance tax” Kasich is Johnny One Note when it comes to his desire to tax the Utica Shale industry and transfer their hard-earned money away to other people who didn’t earn it. In January, Kasich announced he would obstinately include a nosebleed-high Utica Shale severance tax (6.5%) in his biennium budget–again (see OH Gov. Kasich Recycles Proposal to Increase Utica Severance Tax). If you calculate it out, Kasich’s proposed increase is 500% higher than what it is now. According to Joe Nichols, policy analyst at The Buckeye Institute’s Economic Research Center in Columbus, the increase in the Utica Shale tax is a jobs-killer in the Buckeye State. Nichols takes aim at this latest effort by Kasich to screw up the Utica Shale industry in Ohio…
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PTT Global Chemical, based in Thailand, announced in April 2015 they are interested in building a $5 billion ethane cracker plant complex in Belmont County, OH (see 
Yesterday Chesapeake Energy provided a glimpse into their plans for 2017. In Chessy’s “gudiance” for 2017, we learn that the company plans to up the number of active drilling rigs (nationwide) from 10 to 17. We also learn that last year Chessy spent ~$1.75 billion to drill 213 new wells, and place 428 wells into production–the difference between the two numbers being they finished up already-drilled wells, or DUCs. This year? They will spend ~$2.5 billion to drill ~400 new wells–essentially doubling the number of wells drilled–and place ~450 into production. The only problem (from our perspective) is that most of the drilling will happen in places other than the Marcellus/Utica. Of the new wells they plan to drill, only 10-15 new wells will get drilled in the Marcellus, and 40-50 new wells in the Utica. Chessy says they will complete and turn into production 50-60 Marcellus wells in 2017, and 70-80 Utica wells. Translation: Not a lot of new drilling in our neighborhood, with more of an emphasis on completing already-drilled wells…
Some farms not only produce products like milk, meat, eggs and/or crops–some farms produce energy. Would it surprise you to learn that in 2014 (the most recent year with stats available), energy companies paid farmers a staggering $2.9 billion for the energy extracted from private farms? The U.S. Dept. of Agriculture posted a brief blurb from their Amber Waves magazine yesterday, recounting stats from a report released last November. The report, “Trends in U.S. Agriculture’s Consumption and Production of Energy: Renewable Power, Shale Energy, and Cellulosic Biomass” (full copy below) points out it’s not just oil and gas extraction that farmers receive income from. Some farmers lease their land for solar and wind generation. Some biomass. However, it was one particular chart and stat that caught our attention: About 9.6% of Pennsylvania farms received energy income in 2014. The average amount received, per farm? $157,000! Almost all of that revenue came from the Marcellus Shale…
Last week we pointed out that of all the major pipeline projects we had hoped the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) would approve before Norman Bay quit the Commission in a huff, that NEXUS (runs through Ohio) did not get a go-ahead (see 
Artex Energy Group, a subsidiary (on paper) of Marietta, OH-based Artex Oil Company, is selling 14,885 Utica Shale acres located in Noble, Guernsey, Washington and Tuscarawas Counties (southeastern OH). On its website, Artex claims it is “one of the largest oil and gas producers in Ohio” pumping out “millions of dollars per year in royalties to landowners.” The company says it has drilled and operates “more than 600 operated wells in Ohio.” Some of those wells are Utica Shale wells. However, many of their wells are conventional (vertical only) non-shale wells. The auction notice says 87% of the leases being offered are held by production. Over 2,000 acres is part of a joint venture Artex has with Antero Resources on land in Noble and Washington Counties. Artex is accepting bids now and will accept bids through March 2nd, with a target closing date of March 31st. Here are the particulars of what is being offered for sale…
The clock just ran out for Ohio landowners who either thought Energy Transfer’s Rover Pipeline would not get authorized, or hoped to hold out and get higher rates of payment to agree to allow the pipeline to cross their land. As pipeline companies often say, the use of eminent domain to gain access to property is a “last resort.” The time of last resort has come. As soon as Rover received its final authorization from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Friday (see 
When reporting on the flurry of Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approvals from last Friday, before Commissioner Norman Bay resigned in a huff over losing the chairmanship of the agency (and leaving the Commission with only two Commissioners, not enough to vote on more projects), we noticed there was one major Marcellus/Utica pipeline project that didn’t receive a final approval: the NEXUS Pipeline project. NEXUS is a $2 billion, 255-mile interstate pipeline that will run from Ohio through Michigan and eventually to the Dawn Hub in Ontario, Canada. It is a critically needed pipeline to move Utica and Marcellus Shale gas from an over-saturated market in the northeast to markets in the Midwest and Canada. It is a joint venture between DTE Energy and Spectra Energy. In December FERC issued a positive final Environmental Impact Statement (see 
In December the Bureau of Land Management proceeded with an online auction for BLM-controlled land in Ohio’s Wayne National Forest (see 
A few weeks ago MDN highlighted a developing issue in Ohio that potentially impacts Utica/Marcellus shale in the region (see 
Kinder Morgan has proposed the UTOPIA (Utica To Ontario Pipeline Access) pipeline, a 12-inch ethane pipeline that will run ~240 miles across the state of Ohio where it will connect with another pipeline and (eventually) flow ethane all the way to a cracker plant in Canada. That is, if they can get some holdout landowners to allow them onto their land (see 
In December 2013 MDN first reported a new $250 million pipeline on the way in the Utica Shale from Marathon Petroleum Corporation, the largest refiner in the Utica Shale region (see 
MDN reported in September that American Electric Power is selling four electric generating plants to a newly formed joint venture of Blackstone and ArcLight Capital Partners (see 
World Oil calls itself “the premier trade publication for the international upstream industry.” Perhaps it is–who are we to say otherwise? The folks at World Oil have done us all a favor. They surveyed the upstream (i.e. drilling) oil and gas industry to find out what drillers are planning for 2017. Overall, they find drillers plan to drill 18,552 wells in North America this year–a big 26.8% jump from last year. In releasing a summary of the results, Wold Oil outlines region by region in the U.S. what they predict will happen this year, based on survey results. The northeast section caught our eye. World Oil predicts Pennsylvania will see a 29% increase in new well drilling this year (total of 774 new wells drilled). Ohio will see an increase of 19.1% in new well drilling (380 new wells). And West Virginia will see a big 21.9% increase (245 new wells). Here’s the full summary from World Oil…