Trumbull County Injection Well Spill Didn’t Affect Water Wells
Last week MDN told you about 5 injection wells in Trumbull County, OH that had been shut down by the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) following a finding that some of the frack wastewater intended for the wells had been found in a local wetland and nearby pond (see ODNR Shuts Down 5 Injection Wells in Vienna, OH After Spill). The operator is Kleese Development Associates of Warren, OH. The good news is that the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has investigated and found nearby water wells are just fine–no contamination…
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Baker Hughes, the company known for its publicly available rig count data (and it’s pink drill bits use in breast cancer awareness) yesterday published its official monthly rig count tally for March. In the public press release BH notes that (our language) rig counts have fallen off a cliff. The U.S. land-based rig count, most of which are used to drill in shale plays, sunk to 1,067, down 238 rigs from February (which is 18% in a single month), and down 683 from March 2014 (which is 39%). Not a pretty picture. MDN wondered if the same trend held for the Marcellus/Utica, so we ran the numbers for PA, OH and WV…
The Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources last week ordered the operator of five injection wells–all located in one area in Vienna Township (Trumbull County), OH–to close them all down. That somewhat radical action came following a finding that some of the frack wastewater meant to go down into the wells for injection had instead ended up in a nearby pond and wetland, contaminating both. The operator of the five injection wells is Kleese Development Associates of Warren, OH…
In early February, MDN told you that EV Energy Partners, a company with a huge amount of leased acreage in the Ohio Utica Shale region, was looking to sell its 21% interest in Utica East Ohio (UEO)–a midstream/pipeline company operating in Ohio (see 
Three weeks ago anti-drillers in the Cleveland suburb of Broadview Heights were handed a crushing defeat in which a County Common Pleas Court judge struck down a so-called community “bill of rights”–the only “right” of which was to deny legitimate oil and gas drillers the ability to conduct business. We pointed out what sore losers anti-drillers are (see 
Belmont County landowner Curtis Wallner doesn’t know what the term “nuisance oil” means in the contract XTO Energy is offering him to lease his 26 acres. The contract says Wallner will receive an eye-popping $8,000 per acre in signing bonus money, plus 20% royalties, MINUS revenue for “non-commercial nuisance oil.” Because XTO can’t or won’t explain it or remove it from the contract, Wallner won’t sign (can’t say that we blame him). So XTO is threatening him that they’ll take his gas anyway via forced pooling…