Ohio

Carroll County | Energy Services | Harrison County | Industrywide Issues | Marathon Petroleum | NGLs | Ohio | Pipelines

Cornerstone Pipeline Slightly Delayed, Construction Begins in May
April 6, 2016April 6, 2016

In the middle of March MDN brought you the news that Marathon Petroleum was saying they would begin construction on the Cornerstone Pipeline “in the next several weeks”–meaning by the beginning of April (see Cornerstone Liquids Pipeline Set to Begin Construction in E Ohio). The timeline has been moved back a month. Marathon officials are now saying construction won’t begin until May. Cornerstone is a $250 million, 50-mile liquids pipeline being built by Marathon from the MarkWest cryogenic processing plant in Cadiz (Harrison County, now owned by Marathon), northwest connecting to M3’s fractionator plant in Scio (also in Harrison County) and M3’s cryogenic processing plant in Leesville (Carroll County) before terminating and connecting to Marathon’s refinery in Canton, OH (see Marathon Petroleum’s Newly Announced “Cornerstone” Utica Pipeline). The pipeline will carry, at various times, crude oil, condensate and natural gasoline. No reason was given for the delay…
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Lease & Royalty Payments | Ohio | Statewide OH

OH Landowners Faced with Lease Extension Decision – What to Do?
April 5, 2016April 5, 2016

David Wigham is a second-generation Ohio oil and gas attorney with nearly 25 years of experience in the industry. He recently wrote an article outlining the current situation in Ohio (and beyond) of renegotiating shale leases. Typically landowners sign a five-year lease with an energy company. If the company fails to drill on/under the property during that five-year period, there is usually a provision allowing the energy company to renew the lease for an additional five years–provided they make a new bonus payment. But here’s the conundrum for drillers: with the price of oil and gas so low, drillers don’t have enough cash to drill right now, and they don’t have enough cash to pay big bonuses for another five years. Many leases are now coming due at the five-year mark. What to do? Drillers are going back to landowners and asking them to renew the lease–but instead of receiving a lump sum bonus payment for the next five years, drillers are asking if they can pay landowners one year at a time, over the next five years. Should a landowner take the deal?…
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Electrical Generation | Guernsey County | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Ohio

New Utica-Powered Electric Plant Proposed for Guernsey County, OH
April 4, 2016April 4, 2016

A new Utica (and Marcellus) natural gas-fired electric generating plant has been proposed for Guernsey County, OH. Apex Power Group is proposing to build a large 1,100 megawatt plant in Valley Township–producing enough electricity to power 1 million homes. The plant will generate 500 jobs during construction, and 25 full-time jobs to operate the plant when it’s completed. Apex says construction is targeted to begin in 2018 and will go online in 2020…
Read More “New Utica-Powered Electric Plant Proposed for Guernsey County, OH”
Allegheny County | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Winners of 2016 Northeast Oil & Gas Awards [FREE Access]
April 1, 2016April 1, 2016

Earlier this week (March 30th) the 2016 Northeast Oil & Gas Awards and Industry Summit was held in Pittsburgh. Once again the Awards and the Summit were a smashing success. Congratulations to all of the finalists and winners! Each year the Oil & Gas Awards recognize organizations operating responsibly and supporting the communities they operate within. Now in their 4th year, the Oil & Gas Awards are judged by over 100 senior industry professionals. Partners in the Northeast Awards are The US Chamber of Commerce, The Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry, The Washington County Chamber of Commerce and the Western Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association. Here is a complete list of the winners, by category…
Read More “Winners of 2016 Northeast Oil & Gas Awards [FREE Access]”
Ascent Resources | Belmont County | Chesapeake Energy | Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | EQT Corp | Greene County (PA) | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Range Resources Corp | Rice Energy | Susquehanna County | Washington County

Top 10 Shale Wells of 2015 for Marcellus, Utica, Entire Country
April 1, 2016April 1, 2016

Rystad Energy Ranks, a data company based in Norway, hosts web-based portal with easy-to-use access data on oil and gas wells around the globle. They call their service “Rystad Energy cubes.” Rystead has made a wealth of data available in predefined “ranking lists” where the user can change filter settings to drill into and slice and dice the data. They call it their “database list format Ranks.” Up to now, Rystad Energy cubes have been available only through Rystad Energy’s proprietary Cube Browser. With “Ranks” users can now access predefined analyses based on the same databases. The really cool thing? They offer the “top 10” for various queries absolutely free. No registration required. We took it for a spin and produced Top 10 lists for Marcellus Shale well production in 2015, Utica Shale well production in 2015, and all American shale wells for 2015. As you might imagine being an MDN reader, most of the wells in the “all American” list are wells located in the Marcellus/Utica…
Read More “Top 10 Shale Wells of 2015 for Marcellus, Utica, Entire Country”
Energy Services | Fairmount Santrol | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Regulation | Sand/Proppant | Statewide OH

SEC Investigates OH Frac Sand Company for Allegedly Paying Bribes
April 1, 2016April 1, 2016

One of the largest frac sand providers for shale drillers in the U.S. is Fairmount Santrol. Based in Ohio, Fairmount sells proppants (sand and other substances used in oil and gas drilling) around the world. Apparently Fairmount’s dealings in another country is what has landed them in hot water with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC is investigating Fairmount under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The company is accused of paying bribes to foreign officials for help in getting business. We’re not excusing such behavior, but come on, really? You don’t think such things don’t go on a million times a day in every industry from oil & gas to dog food?? Sounds more like a fossil fuel industry witch hunt to us than a legitimate investigation…
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Electrical Generation | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Regulation | Statewide OH

Cheap NatGas Blamed for Higher Electric Rates Coming in Ohio
April 1, 2016April 1, 2016

The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) approved a plan yesterday that is deeply complex and has us scratching our heads. From the press accounts we’ve read, we would summarize like this: The plan allows American Electric Power Co. and FirstEnergy Corp. to operate coal plants and a nuclear plant that currently (and for the foreseeable future) are uneconomical. The electricity produced by the plants can’t compete with electricity being produced by new natural gas-powered electric plants. But PUCO believes it is in the public interest to keep the old coal/nuclear plants running–so electric resellers will be forced to buy from the old plants at a high rate, and sell that electricity on the open market at a lower rate–and ratepayers (Ohioans) will pick up the difference in the price. Ohioans will subsidize the old plants. Because it’s in the public interest. Somehow. Even though the average Ohioan will pay $100-$130 more for the same electricity. Yes, it’s far more complex than that–there are provisions for more renewable energy sources, etc. baked into the plan. But what it boils down to is subsidizing old forms of energy that can’t compete with natgas…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Earthquakes | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Statewide OH | Statewide PA

Harrisburg “Reporter” Blames Republicans for Earthquakes in Ohio
March 31, 2016March 31, 2016

Truly amazing. That’s our reaction to the latest anti-drilling article published by the Democrat-controlled Harrisburg Patriot-News from “reporter” (i.e. anti-drilling advocate and propagandist pretending to be a reporter) Candy Woodall. Woodall used the news about a report recently released by the U.S. Geological Survey regarding earthquakes caused by injection wells to blame a series of earthquakes in Ohio on the previous Republican governor Tom Corbett. Yep. Corbett and his hated (for Democrats) Secretary of the Dept. of Environmental Protection at that time, Mike Krancer, are why there was a series of earthquakes near Youngstown, OH, including a 4.0 magnitude quake on Dec. 31, 2011 (see Youngstown Earthquake and Fracking: Is There a Connection?). Those wicked Republicans who just love to destroy everything. Here’s how the propagandist Woodall used a legitimate story and prefaced it with a totally made-up introduction, just so she could hammer Republicans on fracking one more time…
Read More “Harrisburg “Reporter” Blames Republicans for Earthquakes in Ohio”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | NEXUS Pipeline | Ohio | Pipelines | Statewide OH

CORNballs Tell OH Landowners to Call Police & AG to Stop Pipeline
March 31, 2016March 31, 2016

MDN has written a number of stories about CORN–the COalition to Reroute NEXUS (see our stories here). The CORNballs have just resurfaced to pedal more obstructionist advice, hoping to incite a riot against a simple pipeline in Ohio. Do you know how many thousands of miles of pipelines already exist in Ohio–and have for generations? And yet this group falsely paints a picture of environmental holocaust if one more pipeline is built in the Buckeye State. Like community organizers everywhere, CORN is attempting to foment civil unrest and create an atmosphere where there are potential clashes between landowners, the pipeline company, and local law enforcement. They hope and pray for an “incident” that they can use as publicity to paint the pipeline as evil and uncaring about landowners. It’s all bilge–every last bit of it. Here’s the latest PR offensive from the CORNballs of Ohio…
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Belmont County | Energy Services | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Processing Plants | PTT Global

Ongoing Demolition Work at Future Belmont OH Ethane Cracker Site
March 29, 2016March 29, 2016

Bulldozers and heavy equipment continue to demolish an old coal-fired electric plant in Belmont County–at the site where PTT Global Chemical says they want to build a $5.7 billion ethane cracker plant. It’s a good sign that PTT continues to spend big money on the project. PTT is in the midst of spending $100 million on engineering plans for the plant (see PTT Announces 2 Contractors Working on Belmont Cracker Plant). The project is the first of all the announced cracker projects in the northeast to get its own website (see Getting Serious: Ohio Ethane Cracker Gets its Own Website). And now, demolition at the FirstEnergy R.E. Burger power plant site…
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Energy Services | Energy Transfer Partners | Industrywide Issues | Michigan | Ohio | Pipelines | Public Opinion | Regulation | Statewide MI | Statewide OH

FERC Seeks Input on ET Rover Pipeline – MI Poll Shows 91% Favor
March 28, 2016March 28, 2016

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) wants to know what landowners and residents along the path of the proposed Energy Transfer Rover pipeline think about the project. ET Rover is a 711-mile Marcellus/Utica natural gas pipeline that will serve mostly U.S. customers. The pipeline will cost $3.7 billion to build and run from PA, WV and eastern OH through OH into Michigan and eventually into Canada. The bulk of the pipeline would run through Ohio (see ET Rover Pipeline Launches New Website, Updated Route Maps). We say ET Rover is “for the children” because the pipeline will generate $91 million in taxes for local schools–in its first year alone (see For the Children: ET Rover Pipeline $91M in School Taxes 1st Year). We spotted a story in a Michigan newspaper about the project. The story says FERC is eliciting feedback until April 11 (be sure to comment!). The story is running a poll of its readers asking them if they support or oppose the project. The results aren’t even close. Some 91% (at the time we wrote this) support the project. See a copy of the poll results below…
Read More “FERC Seeks Input on ET Rover Pipeline – MI Poll Shows 91% Favor”
Allegheny County | American Petroleum Partners | Belmont County | Brooke County | Greene County (PA) | Jefferson County (OH) | Marion County | Marshall County | Monongalia County | Monroe County | Ohio | Ohio County | Pennsylvania | Washington County | West Virginia | Wetzel County

New Marcellus/Utica Driller Quietly Launches w/$800M Investment
March 23, 2016March 23, 2016

Details are just now coming to light of a new E&P (exploration and production, or drilling) company headquartered in Pittsburgh and focused totally on the Marcellus and Utica region. Until now the company has flown under our radar. The company is American Petroleum Partners (APP)–not to be confused with Aubrey McClendon’s American Energy Partners (AEP)–and is headed by Rice Energy alumnus Varun Mishra, who is the founder and CEO. The big news is that last September Mishra’s new company, founded in 2014, received a major injection of investment capital. Apollo Global Management invested $411 million in APP with the option to double it up to $800 million. MDN has it on very good authority that although APP quietly issued a press release about this last September (see it below), the company has intentionally kept the news quiet. Not any more! Big mouth MDN is blabbing it to the world. Below are the bits and pieces we’ve been able to put together about this newest Utica/Marcellus driller…
Read More “New Marcellus/Utica Driller Quietly Launches w/$800M Investment”
Energy Companies | EnerVest | Ohio | Statewide OH

EnerVest Likes Clinton Sandstone “Utica-lite” Oil Wells in OH
March 22, 2016March 22, 2016

Once upon a time the Clinton Sandstone layer was the most drilled rock layer in Ohio. Then the Utica/Point Pleasant came along and it seemed as if everybody forgot about the Clinton. Previously the Clinton was drilled vertically, or conventional-only. But what if you drilled the Clinton horizontally, like you do in the Utica? You might get a “Utica-lite” well, as we commented a year ago (see Ohio Clinton Sandstone Horiz Wells on the Increase – Utica-Lite?). Last year MDN told you that EnverVest, among others, was experimenting with horizontal drilling in the Clinton Sandstone. According to drillers who are experimenting in the Clinton, drilling a horizontal Clinton well is anywhere from 3-10 times more expensive than a conventional well, but it produces anywhere from 7 to 20 times more oil, which is typically what they’re drilling for in the Clinton. EnerVest has drilled seven horizontal Clinton wells and is extracting 1,100 barrels of oil per day from those seven wells. Here’s more details shared by EnevVest at a recent OOGA meeting about their Clinton Sandstone efforts…
Read More “EnerVest Likes Clinton Sandstone “Utica-lite” Oil Wells in OH”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Medina County | Ohio | Portage County | Regulation | Statewide OH

OH Antis Circulate Petitions for Bans Already Tossed by Courts
March 22, 2016March 22, 2016

The Pennsylvania-based Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) is a radical environmental group backed with Big Green money that exists to fleece local towns into adopting bans on fracking and pipelines. Last year we carried an expose of the group (see PA’s CELDF Unmasked as Troublemakers in Ohio Utica Shale). Much of their community agitating work is done in Ohio. Time after time their so-called “community bill of rights” initiatives are shot down by Ohio courts. The latest instance (and there have been many) was earlier this month when the U.S. 8th District Court of Appeals overturned the CELDF-created bill of rights law passed in the Cleveland suburb of Broadview Heights (see Mad Moms Hopping Mad Over Court Decision re Broadview Heights, OH). You would think towns would learn that a) these initiatives invariably are challenged and thrown out by the courts, and b) if the initiatives interfere with a local business that sues the town, the CELDF is nowhere to be found (see Anti Group CELDF Won’t Help Grant Twp Pay $1M Judgement). But there’s plenty of insane people–like those circulating petitions in Medina and Portage counties to get a CELDF-backed bill of rights initiative on the local ballot. The very same initiative already shot down by Ohio courts in other locations…
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Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Research | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

OOGA’s DeBrosse Report: 2015 Utica Continues to Wow
March 18, 2016March 18, 2016

Each year the 3,200-member Ohio Oil and Gas Association (OOGA) issue the DeBrosse Memorial Report (full copy below). The report is a high level look at where (and how much) drilling there has been in the state–and what they’re finding (methane, oil, NGLs). The latest report, recounting 2015, was released yesterday at the OOGA Annual Winter Meeting in Columbus. Once again it was a record-breaking year for Ohio–and the Utica Shale is the reason why…
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Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

MDN Exclusive Analysis of Ohio’s 2015 & 4Q15 Shale Production
March 17, 2016March 17, 2016

As MDN previously reported, as of the third quarter 2015 Ohio’s oil and natural gas production from shale deposits had already surpassed production for all of 2014 (see OH Shale Wells Already Smash 2014 Record, 3Q15 Results). The Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) recently issued production numbers for the fourth quarter of 2015, as well as reporting on the entire year. Ohio’s oil production from shale in 2015 doubled over 2014–up 99.9%. Ohio’s natural gas production in 2015 more than doubled, up 110% over 2014. Below we have the ODNR’s high level overview of the numbers, along with MDN’s own exclusive analysis showing: the top 25 producing gas wells, the top 25 producing oil wells, and then the top 25 gas and oil wells as ranked by average production per day. There is a difference! The longer an oil or gas well is online, the less it produces. Newer wells produce more. So we show you which wells are not just producing the most quantity overall, but which wells are producing at the fastest (most productive) rates–even if they haven’t yet been online a full three months. We also include a link to the complete list of 1,265 wells that had at least some Utica oil or gas production in 4Q15, in a more usable format than that provided by the ODNR…
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