Ohio’s Center Port Transload Terminal – Barging Triples
According to Center Port Terminal, McKees Rocks Harbor Services (MRHS) has put the “Port” back in Center Port. Center Port Terminal is the former Ormet Aluminum Plant site located on the shoreline of the Ohio River in Monroe County, OH. The plant closed its doors as an active aluminum plant in 2014 after Ohio regulators and Gov. John “foreigner hunter” Kasich failed to get high electric rates reduced for the plant, and refused to allow Ormet to burn coal to produce their own electricity until they could begin using natural gas to create electricity from gas wells drilled on the property (see Final Chapter of Ormet Plant Closing – Utica Could have Saved It). The new owner, Niagara Worldwide LLC, first tried to market the property, renamed Center Port Terminal, to Marcellus/Utica Shale drillers and oilfield services companies (see New Ormet Aluminum Plant Owner Shops Barge Facility to Shalers). The terminal has also been marketed as the perfect place to locate a natgas-fired electric plant (see Old Ormet Site in Monroe, OH Shopped as Power Plant Location). Earlier this year, the facility was marketed to manufacturing companies (see 3rd Time the Charm: OH Center Port Terminal Woos Manufacturers). One of the chief advantages of the facility is cheap transportation to/from on the Ohio River. Center Port has 52 barge slips. It’s also connected to rail lines and highways. MRHS opened “fleeting operations” at the facility and within 90 days barge traffic to the facility tripled. That’s good for everybody, including the Marcellus/Utica industry…
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MDN has been reporting on the Ohio Dormant Minerals Act (DMA) for years. In a nutshell, there are two DMAs in Ohio–one passed in 1989 that went into effect in 1992, and another in 2006 which added certain additional procedural requirements to the 1989 version. The DMA in its various versions provides for mineral rights that had previously been separated from surface rights to transfer back to the surface owner under certain conditions. The problem, for drillers and for landowners in Ohio, is in knowing which set of DMA rules to use (1989 or 2006) in determining who owns the mineral rights. A number of DMA cases went before the Ohio Supreme Court. In May, Ohio attorney David Wigham (Roetzel & Andress law firm) said there are signs that the Supremes were about to release a massive, all-in-one-go ruling on the DMA (see 
Last year the Ohio Supreme Court accepted a case that will sound familiar to readers of MDN. The case, known as Lutz v. Chesapeake Appalachia, is about whether or not drillers (Chesapeake in this case) is allowed to deduct certain post-production costs from landowner royalty checks. That debate currently rages in Bradford County, PA–as well as other locations across the country. In the Ohio case, the high court was asked to decide whether Ohio follows the “at the well” rule, which permits the deduction of post-production costs, or if the state follows the “marketable product” rule, which limits the deduction of post-production costs under certain circumstances. Drillers and landowners have a lot riding on the decision. The Supremes came down off Mount Olympus yesterday to render their verdict (full copy of the decision below). The court said in so many words, “We’re not deciding.” In other words, each royalty case should be litigated individually, case-by-case, in a trial court. There is no one-size-fits-all with respect to deducting expenses from royalty checks. Each case will depend on how the contract is written, and the success of lawyers litigating it…
In April of this year, Mountaineer NGL Storage announced an open season for a new underground NGL storage facility in Monroe County, Ohio, near Clarington, along the Ohio River (see 
Yesterday Murray Energy, which operates coal mines in Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Utah, and West Virginia, announced it had sold the leases for 5,900 of the acres it owns in Belmont and Monroe counties (in eastern Ohio) to an unidentified shale driller for $63.6 million. That works out to be ~$10,800 per acre. According to Murray officials, the sale will allow the company to focus on its core activity–coal mining. The money will also help the company stay out of bankruptcy court. The sale, which is slated to close “in the coming weeks” doesn’t ID the buyer. But we have a guess as to who bought…
In June 2014 Dominion filed an application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to construct and operate new compression facilities at existing compressor stations in Marshall County, WV and Monroe County, OH, and certain other facilities, collectively called the Clarington Project (see 
Tim Greene is owner of Land & Mineral Management of Appalachia and a former West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection inspector. He knows a thing or two about leasing and drilling in the Mountain State. As part of a recent article, Greene was asked about the many leases signed five years ago that are coming up for renewal (or release). Greene said five years ago landowners in WV and OH were getting signing bonuses of $5,000 per acre and more, with royalties going as high as 20%. As those leases come up for renewal, Greene cautions landowners that they won’t see anywhere near those terms if they sign again. What will they see?…
The Ohio Oil & Gas Association’s (OOGA) director of public relations recently attended and spoke at a meeting of the Columbiana County Port Auhority. His words for Columbiana County? Drilling will (eventually) return to the county in bigger numbers. He said drilling has never really stopped in the county–it’s just slowed down, a lot. But that trend will reverse sooner or later. The county is blessed with wet gas, but wet gas (natural gas liquids, or NGLs) has currently fallen out of favor. That too shall pass. Here’s a bit of the pep talk OOGA gave at the meeting, with a good description of Utica drilling in Columbiana County and the many benefits of drilling in the county…
It’s been 10 looooooong years, but finally the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has just posted a lease sale auction for 33 parcels in Ohio’s Wayne National Forest (WNF). Although there are some 18,000 acres under consideration for leasing by the BLM in WNF, this first batch amounts to about 1,600 acres–most of it in Monroe County, OH. Monroe is a prime location for Utica Shale drilling. WNF is the only national forest in Ohio and portions of it are found in Athens, Gallia, Hocking, Jackson, Monroe, Morgan, Noble, Lawrence, Perry, Scioto, Vinton, and Washington counties. 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 a decade. The BLM controls drilling on federally-protected lands like WNF. Last November the BLM held a series of hearings about finally beginning to drill in WNF. With this auction, it appears that not only will public land get leased, but drilling on private land in WNF can go forward as well…
In December MDN wrote that Hilcorp Energy is making some magic happen in Lawrence County, PA–in the northern Utica Shale region (see 
In February MDN brought you exclusive news that Shell had begun approaching landowners in Beaver County to get them to sign easements for two ethane pipelines to feed the mighty cracker plant they plan to build in the county (see 
In May MDN brought you the story that Columbiana, OH was contemplating aiding and abetting a fracking company in its quest to expand (see 
The 2017 Northeast Oil & Gas Awards has received a boatload of nominations for the upcoming awards ceremony in Pittsburgh next March. LOTS of nominations. The folks at the Oil & Gas Awards will be contacting each nominee to see if they want to participate this year. Below is the entire list of nominees. Note: there is still time to nominate your company! The deadline is Dec. 14th. Below we have a list of everyone nominated so far, and the list of categories for which your company can be nominated…