Ohio

Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide OH

Ohio EPA Seeks “Pre-Comments” on Compressor Station Permit Plan
September 2, 2015September 2, 2015

Compressor stations in Ohio, needed to flow natural gas through numerous new pipelines being built, require a permit from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in order to get built. The Ohio EPA considers each application independently, a laborious and long process. In an effort to streamline that process, the Ohio EPA is accepting comments during a “pre-comment” period from now until September 18 on a plan to issue general permits for compressor stations. A general permit is, essentially, a cookie cutter approach. If midstream companies agree to the provisions in the general permit, they will use certain types of equipment and certain standards, allowing the permit process to speed along much faster. Once the pre-comment (in essence, give us your feedback) period is over, the EPA will issue draft “final” general permits for full public comment, which will run for 30 days…
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Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Ohio | Statewide OH | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Ohio Valley Unions: Employ Locals First Before Importing Workers
August 31, 2015August 31, 2015

Once again the issue of “foreigners” taking jobs away from “locals” is rearing its ugly head. Over the past few years the pace of drilling and the construction of infrastructure like pipelines and compressor stations has been so rapid, the fact that companies import experienced workers from other states like Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana didn’t seem to bother anyone. Now that drilling rigs are being laid down and pipeline construction is slowing, local union workers who are out of work are questioning why they don’t get the remaining jobs first, ahead of the out-of-towners…
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Belmont County | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Supply Chain | Utica Shale

OH Oilfield Services Co Opens New Branch in Belmont County
August 31, 2015August 31, 2015

There is no disputing that Belmont County, Ohio is “the core of the core” when it comes to Utica Shale methane production, as evidenced by the latest quarterly production report issued last week by the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (see OH Utica Production for 2Q15 Breaks Record – Highest in 100 Years!). An incredible 23 of the top 25 producing wells in Ohio during 2Q15 were located in Belmont County. So it’s no surprise that a specialty oilfield services company, Stonebridge Oilfield Services, with headquarters in Marietta, Ohio, is expanding by adding a new operation in Barnesville, Belmont County…
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Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Research | Statewide OH

OH Utica Production for 2Q15 Breaks Record – Highest in 100 Years!
August 28, 2015August 28, 2015

Yesterday the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) released quarterly production numbers for second quarter 2015 for OH’s Utica oil and gas wells. The report shows 5.6 million barrels of oil and 221 billion cubic feet of natural gas were produced in 2Q15. According to the ODNR, these numbers break all previous production reporting records for the last 100 years! Numbers for 1Q15, by comparison, were 4.4 million barrels of oil and 183.6 billion cubic feet of natural gas. Below we have the ODNR’s high level overview of the numbers, along with our own 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 (91 days). We also include a link to the complete list of 1,020 wells that had at least some Utica oil or gas production in 2Q15 in a more usable format than that provided by the ODNR…
Read More “OH Utica Production for 2Q15 Breaks Record – Highest in 100 Years!”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Mahoning County | Ohio | Regulation

Elections Board Strikes Down 5th Youngstown Anti-Frack Ballot
August 27, 2015August 27, 2015

LogicFree Mahoning Valley (aka FrackFree Mahoning Valley) doesn’t like to bother with piddly things like, oh, the law. Who follows that? The law is only a useful tool when it favors their twisted viewpoint. When it doesn’t? Ignore it. Over the past several years FrackFree Mahoning Valley and their supporters have duped enough E! Entertainment viewers in Youngstown, OH to sign a petition putting a so-called home rule measure up for a vote four times (see Fourth Time the Charm for Youngstown Frack Ban Measure?). The measure is meant to ban fracking in Youngstown–a symbolic thumb in the eye of the Utica Shale industry. Fortunately the voters of Youngstown have voted it down all four times. But that doesn’t stop the crazies. They’re back with another petition, signed by enough E! Entertainment viewers to get it on the ballot yet again. But this time the Mahoning County Board of Elections has voted, unanimously, to keep it off the ballot…
Read More “Elections Board Strikes Down 5th Youngstown Anti-Frack Ballot”
Dominion Energy | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Marshall County | Monroe County | Ohio | Pipelines | Regulation | West Virginia

FERC Approves Dominion WV/OH Compressor Project, Rips Anti Group
August 26, 2015August 26, 2015

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 Dominion Asks FERC for New Compressors in Upstate NY, WV). The Clarington project, costing a modest $76.5 million, will allow Dominion to provide 250,000 dekatherms (Dth) per day of firm transportation service for CNX Gas, otherwise known as CONSOL Energy. One week ago today, FERC approved Dominion’s request. Below we outline the particulars of what Dominion requested and was granted. However, the project was not without opposition. The Allegheny Defense Project filed a motion to intervene. Allegheny tried to force FERC into denying Dominion’s application–but it didn’t work. What’s most interesting to MDN about the FERC approval of the Clarington Project is their very extensive, line by line response to Allegheny. In FERC’s response, they rip Allegheny’s arguments apart, bit by bit, argument by argument–and expose the group for the outrageous extremists they are, devoid of facts, with a total reliance on empty allegations and innuendo. We LOVE FERC’s response that puts Allegheny in its place…
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Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Lease & Royalty Payments | Litigation | Ohio | Tuscarawas County

OH Court: Landowners Can’t Cancel Lease for Royalty Nonpayment
August 25, 2015August 25, 2015

An unfortunate decision in an Ohio court case may have far-reaching implications for Ohio landowners. In Armstrong v. Chesapeake Exploration, L.L.C., landowners Myron and Nikki Armstrong purchased 61 acres of land in Tuscarawas County, OH in 2003 with an existing oil and gas lease (dating back to 1972). After purchasing the property, the Armstrong’s land was pooled into a drilling unit and a well was drilled. We do not know how much (or even if) the well produced in the way of gas and oil. We don’t know if it was hooked up to a pipeline for production. We assume it was hooked up and is producing because the Armstrongs have sued to cancel the lease saying they haven’t received a single royalty check since the well was drilled. Tuscarawas County Court ruled that because there is no express provision in the original lease saying “you can cancel this lease if we don’t pay you the royalties we say we’ll pay you,” the court ruled in favor of Chesapeake and the company that owns the lease and is supposed to pay the royalties–Belden & Blake. The Armstongs appealed the decision to the Ohio Court of Appeals, Fifth Appellate District. That court has just ruled the same way–saying even though royalties haven’t been paid, that’s not a good and sufficient reason to cancel the lease…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Athens County | Fulton County | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Medina County | Ohio | Statewide OH

OH Anti Groups File Lawsuit in Supreme Court re Home Rule Ballots
August 21, 2015August 21, 2015

Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Example: Ohio anti-fossil fuelers repeatedly suing to achieve the right to ban drilling and pipelines in local municipalities. Earlier this year the Ohio Supreme Court struck down so-called home rule laws in the state (see OH Supreme Court Strikes Down Home Rule in Gas Drilling Case). Anti-drillers, being manipulated by the out-of-state Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) attempted to get the very same measures on the November ballot in three counties, but those efforts were correctly struck down last week by Ohio’s Secretary of State John Husted as a waste of taxpayer time and money, because if they passed, they would be illegal (see OH Anti-Drilling November Ballot Measures Tossed in 3 Counties). What do the anti-drillers do? They file a lawsuit against Husted’s decision–in Ohio Supreme Court. The very same court that previously struck down “home rule” in February of this year. Yes, they ARE insane!…
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Belmont County | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pipelines | Spectra Energy

New OPEN Compressor Station in Belmont County Under Construction
August 21, 2015August 21, 2015

A new compressor station is being built in Colerain Township (Belmont County), OH as part of the Ohio Pipeline Energy Network (OPEN) pipeline project. Last month we told you that the OPEN project, 76 miles of new pipeline running through Belmont, Columbiana, Carroll, Jefferson and Monroe counties that will connect to the Texas Eastern Pipeline, and then reverses the flow on the Texas Eastern to carry Marcellus and Utica Shale gas from eastern Ohio to the Gulf Coast, is on track to be done this year (see Spectra’s OPEN Ohio Pipeline on Track to be Done by End of 2015). One of the remaining, important pieces of the puzzle is to build a large compressor station to help flow the gas. Here’s an update on that part of the project…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Companies | Hilcorp Energy | Industrywide Issues | Lawrence County | Mahoning County | Ohio | Pennsylvania

Tiny Protest (in PA) Claims to be Part of “Hands Across Our Land”
August 20, 2015August 20, 2015

Yesterday we told you about the “nationwide” protest that was a bust–held in three locations in Virginia and one in West Virginia by less than a cumulative 100 people (see Anti-Pipeline “Hands Across Our Land” Protest in VA & WV a Bust). The protest was supposedly against two natural gas pipelines planned to run from West Virginia through Virginia and for one of the pipelines, into North Carolina. We spotted one more protest that claims to have been part of the Hands Across Our Land “movement”–a protest at a well pad site in Pennsylvania. Of course the PA gathering had nothing to do with being against pipelines, the supposed reason for the protest in the first place. This particular group of protesters slipped across the border from Ohio (an anti-drilling group called Frackfree Mahoning Valley) to show their “solidarity” with a family who didn’t want a drill pad operating near their property. Once again it illustrates that whether they claim to be “against” fracking/drilling, or “against” a pipeline–it’s really neither. These protesters are “against” fossil fuels, period. That’s what motivates them–an irrational hatred of fossil fuels…
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Education | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Statewide OH

300 Ohio Boy Scouts Earn Oil & Gas Engineering Merit Badge
August 20, 2015August 20, 2015

This goes under the “How cool is that?” department. More than 300 Boy Scouts, attending a special summer camp in Ohio, have earned their oil and gas engineering merit badge over the past three years. The latest batch of 100 have just completed earning their badges. Scouts learn about the key role engineering and science plays in the Ohio oil and gas industry. Scouts visit working oil and gas wells as part of the program and put their learning to use by building scale models of pipelines and drilling rigs. No doubt some of them, as a result of their experiences, will decide to go to work in the greatest industry on the planet…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Athens County | Fulton County | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Medina County | Ohio | Regulation

OH Anti-Drilling November Ballot Measures Tossed in 3 Counties
August 17, 2015August 17, 2015

Anti-drillers in Ohio are persistent–we’ll grant them that. Local anti-drillers in three Ohio counties–Athens, Fulton and Medina–have been hoodwinked (are being used by) Big Green groups like the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF), attempting to get so-called Community Bill of Rights measures on the ballot in those counties. Problem is, the Ohio Supreme Court has already ruled such measures unconstitutional (see OH Supreme Court Strikes Down Home Rule in Gas Drilling Case). And yet, certain counties with high concentrations of wackos keep trying again and again and again–even though the very same type of measure has already been ruled illegal. What was that definition of insanity promulgated by Albert Einstein? “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” That about sums up the latest efforts by Athens, Fulton and Median county anti-drillers. They’ve filed petitions with enough signatures to once again put so-called “home rule” measures on the ballot. But this time officials in those three counties appealed to the Ohio Secretary of State who has ruled, striking down the ballot measures. A small victory for sanity in Ohio…
Read More “OH Anti-Drilling November Ballot Measures Tossed in 3 Counties”
American Water Management | Earthquakes | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Ohio | Regulation | Statewide OH | Trumbull County | Wastewater

OH Minority Report: Shut Down Wells Before They Cause Earthquakes
August 14, 2015August 14, 2015

The Chief of the Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management for the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (currently Rick Simmers) is a man with a lot of power. He has the power, according to a ruling just handed down on August 12, to make his own decisions about suspending permits to operate in the absence of specific violations of a law or regulation. In September 2014 Simmers suspended permits for two wastewater injection wells in Trumbull County, OH after a very low level earthquake was detected close to those wells (an earthquake that couldn’t be felt at the surface and caused no damage of any kind). American Water Management Services sued saying they hadn’t violated any laws or regulations on the books and their permits could not just be arbitrarily revoked like that. But the Ohio Oil and Gas Commission said nope–Tom Cruise, er, a, Mr. Simmers can arbitrarily do what he wants when there is no specific rule or guideline or law–because he has the best interests of the people at heart…
Read More “OH Minority Report: Shut Down Wells Before They Cause Earthquakes”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | GreenHunter Resources | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Meigs County | Ohio | Regulation | Wastewater

CELDF Tries to Shut Down GreenHunter’s OH Injection Wells
August 14, 2015August 14, 2015

The radical leftist PA-based group Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) is making mischief in neighboring Ohio. The CELDF is using some of its millions of Big Green dollars to file a lawsuit against Meigs County, OH Commissioners because the commissioners refuse to put an illegal ballot measure up for a vote in November. The CELDF pressured the citizens of Highland Township in Elk County, PA in 2013 to pass a so-called Community Bill of Rights–the same kind of law they want Meigs County to adopt (see today’s companion story about the ecosystem that speaks). Meigs County already has two injection wells recently brought online by GreenHunter Resources, with plans to bring another two online in the near future (see GreenHunter Brings 2 New Injection Wells Online in Meigs County, OH). GreenHunter has built out a barge terminal along the Ohio River in Meigs County where they plan to unload barged brine for disposal (see GreenHunter Resources 1Q15: Bets the Ranch on OH Injection Wells). The CELDF so-called Community Bill of Rights would stop GreenHunter’s injection wells and the barge terminal from operating. Can you imagine the lawsuits and the amount of money Meigs County residents would have to pay out if that happened? It would likely bankrupt the county. Meigs County commissioners rightly seek to protect the citizens they were elected to represent from this horrific economic apocalypse. And so now, the CELDF is suing Meigs commissioners because they won’t allow the ballot measure to proceed…
Read More “CELDF Tries to Shut Down GreenHunter’s OH Injection Wells”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | NEXUS Pipeline | Ohio | Pipelines | Wayne County (OH)

Is Wayne County, OH Sheriff Breaking the Law re NEXUS Pipeline?
August 14, 2015August 14, 2015

It appears that an anti-pipeline member of the Wayne County, OH sheriff’s department, Capt. Doug Hunter, has convinced his boss, Sheriff Travis Hutchinson, to ride roughshod over the members of the department–telling deputies they can’t, in their off-duty hours, moonlight as security guards for the NEXUS Pipeline. Hunter’s argument to Hutchinson is that a member of the sheriff’s department going out with surveyors, who have been threatened by anti-pipeline wackos, somehow “intimidates” landowners. Even though the sheriff’s deputies are not in uniform, not driving a police car, and are otherwise unrecognizable to landowners as belonging to the sheriff’s department when they tag along to be sure the surveyors don’t get accosted by the peace-loving landowners the sheriff is “sworn to serve.” Sheriff Hutchinson bought Hunter’s argument hook, line and sinker. And so Sheriff Hutchinson has told his deputies what they can and can’t do in their off-duty hours. Hmmm. We wonder how the deputies like being told what they can and can’t do when they’re off the clock? We wonder if they like the sheriff preventing them from earning extra money working for a private company (a common practice with off-duty law officers)? Could the sheriff himself be breaking the law by disallowing his deputies from working for one specific private company, when (we presume) he allows the very same practice for other private companies?…
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | NEXUS Pipeline | Ohio | Pipelines | Regulation | Summit County

Stark County, OH Judge Orders Sheriff to Assist NEXUS with Surveys
August 14, 2015August 14, 2015

In Summit County, OH, a county judge has denied NEXUS Pipeline’s request to force recalcitrant landowners to allow surveyors on their property (see Summit County, OH Judge Denies NEXUS Request to Survey Properties). In neighboring Stark County, it’s the reverse. A judge in Stark County granted NEXUS a court order allowing them to survey properties where the pipeline may potentially run. And whereas in Wayne County (borders both Summit and Stark) the Wayne County Sheriff won’t let his deputies work as off-duty security guards for NEXUS (see today’s story questioning the legality of the Sheriff’s action), the judge in Stark County has ORDERED the sheriff there to enforce NEXUS’ right to enter properties to survey them. The Stark County sheriff is telling his on-duty deputies to accompany surveyors to protect them. Is your head spinning yet?…
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