Ohio

Blue Ridge Mtn Res/Magnum Hunter | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Eureka Midstream | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pipelines | Statewide OH | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Eureka Hunter Nears 1/2 Billion Cubic Feet per Day in WV/OH
January 8, 2015January 8, 2015

Magnum Hunter announced yesterday that its pipeline/midstream subsidiary Eureka Hunter has set a new record. Eureka pumped more than 400,000 million Btus per day (MMBtu/d) in West Virginia and Ohio by the end of December, and they expect to be pumping more than 500K MMBtus by the end of this month. A half million MMBtus works out to be roughly half a billion cubic feet of natural gas per day…
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Antero Resources | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Antero Resources Lays Off 250 Landmen, Blames Low Oil Prices
January 7, 2015January 7, 2015

Antero Resources said on Monday it will lay off more than 250 contract land brokers operating in West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania. The layoffs will not affect any Antero employees–only contract workers (landmen and others) who work to get leases signed, sealed and delivered for future drilling. Antero blames the low price of oil, which causes the price they get for their Marcellus/Utica natural gas liquids to be low, which means they’ll stick to drilling on the half million plus acres they already have under lease…
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Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Lorain County | Ohio

US Steel Lays off 642 in OH & 142 in TX, Blames Low Oil Prices
January 7, 2015January 7, 2015

A second mass layoff ostensibly due to low oil prices is affecting Ohio and Texas. U.S. Steel will lay off more than 600 workers at its plant in Lorain, OH and more than 140 in their Houston, TX plant. Both plants make steel pipes used in shale drilling in the northeast and beyond. Shale drilling is slowing down, and now too are the companies that supply them…
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Decline/Depletion Rates | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Steep Declines in Production for Some of Utica’s Top Wells
January 7, 2015January 7, 2015

An excellent article by MDN friend and ace reporter Bob Downing appearing in the Akron Beacon Journal tackles the issue of decline rates in Utica Shale wells–that is, how fast production drops off. Bob’s deep dive into the data found that some of the Utica’s top performing wells in January had decreased output by 47%-70% by September. Yikes! No word on how that compares to the decline rate of the Marcellus layer. Here’s a sample of Bob’s analysis…
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Energy Companies | Gulfport Energy | Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Gulfport Production Soars in 2014, 6 Active Rigs in OH Utica
January 7, 2015January 7, 2015

On Monday Gulfport Energy, a major driller in the Utica Shale, released a high-level operational update. Gulfport CEO Michael G. Moore said the company produced more oil and gas in the fourth quarter of 2014 than they did in all of 2013. And the Gulfport production engine continues to chug away in the Ohio Utica Shale. Gulfport brought 22 new Utica wells online in 4Q14 and has six rigs currently drilling in the Utica. Gulfport is also wisely “hedged”–meaning they’re getting about $1 per Mcf more for their gas (they currently get $4.12/Mcf) than the current spot rate of ~$3.00/Mcf. Smart…
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Earthquakes | Energy Companies | Hilcorp Energy | Industrywide Issues | Mahoning County | Ohio | Research

OH Researchers Confirm Hilcorp Fracking Caused Low-Level Quakes
January 6, 2015January 6, 2015

According to one graduate student and two professors at Miami University of Ohio, the fracking done by Hilcorp in the Youngstown area DID cause some low-level earthquakes (see ODNR Says Youngstown Earthquakes “Probably” Caused by Fracking). The three researchers are set to publish an article titled “Earthquakes Induced by Hydraulic fracturing in Poland Township, Ohio” in the February/March issue of the peer-reviewed Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America. Using a technique called “template matching” the researchers say they could identify 77 earthquakes, all except one that could not even be felt at the surface (and the one was barely felt) and matched those quakes to fracking activities by Hilcorp. The researchers stressed that the only reason the quakes happened was because Hilcorp was fracking directly over top of a previously unknown underground fault. They also said it was a very small portion of the frack operations that led to the quakes…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Research | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Trout Unlimited Says Lake Erie Threatened by Utica Drilling
December 30, 2014December 30, 2014

Trout Unlimited (TU) might have once been populated with reasonable people, but it long ago left behind reasonableness and became a radical “green” group, funded and controlled by anti-drilling foundations (see Trout Unlimited, Other Groups Outted as Radical Green Groups). Even though TU has been exposed as having a radical, anti-drilling agenda, they still pretend, with the help of PBS and others, to be “reasonable” on the issue of shale drilling. When a member of TU says the group isn’t anti-shale, you know you just heard a 100% lie. They ARE anti-shale–to the core. We find it repugnant when mainstream media unquestioningly reports yet another TU spin story. The latest such story says that Utica Shale drilling in the Buckeye State is a “threat” to Lake Erie. TU has just released a so-called report (PowerPoint presentation, really) called “10 Special Places” (full copy embedded below). The “report” highlights 10 areas in the Eastern U.S. that TU says are threatened by Marcellus and Utica Shale drilling–including Lake Erie…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Regulation | Statewide OH

Water Withdrawals from Creeks Next Point of Attack for Antis in OH?
December 29, 2014December 29, 2014

Are water withdrawals the next point of attack for anti-drillers in Ohio? Perhaps. We noticed an interesting story where a pair of elected Democrats (one from the Ohio House, one from the Ohio Senate) are making noise about the drilling industry’s unrestricted right to withdraw water from creeks as long as they report it to the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR). The Dem politicians seem to be saying they would like to slap a new law in place to limit (or disallow) water withdrawals…
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Accidents | Blue Ridge Mtn Res/Magnum Hunter | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Monroe County | Ohio | Triad Hunter

Triad Hunter Well Blowout in Ohio Fixed, Residents Go Home
December 24, 2014December 24, 2014

On Monday we noted that it had been 10 days since a well blowout at a Triad Hunter Utica Shale well pad in Monroe County, OH with some 50 area residents still displaced from their homes (see Residents Near Leaking Triad Hunter Well in OH Still Displaced). Good news: residents near the well pad will be home for Christmas. Magnum Hunter (parent of Triad Hunter) reports as of yesterday Wild Well Control has successfully replaced the well head and temporarily capped the well. Residents are now home, just in time for the holidays. We sense a new Hallmark Christmas movie coming…
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Economic Impact | Energy Services | Ethane | Housing | Industrialization | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Odebrecht | Ohio | Processing Plants | Washington County (OH) | West Virginia | Wood County

WV/OH Officials Going on Field Trip to Prepare for Cracker Plant
December 24, 2014December 24, 2014

The Odebrecht ethane cracker plant planned for the Parkersburg, WV area continues to walk/smell/act/behave like it’s the real deal. The latest evidence: Odebrecht has told area officials around Parkersburg, you need to be prepared for when the 100% official announcement comes, cause at that point, things will happen fast. So area officials are boning up now to be prepared for an influx of people and jobs–both a good thing, and a challenge. Area officials from Wood County, WV and neighboring Washington County, OH will head to the bitter-cold north country–Minot, North Dakota–in January (!) to see how that community has dealt with a rapidly expanding population and influx of new jobs due to the Bakken Shale…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Regulation | Statewide OH | Wastewater

OH Anti Group Wants EPA to Suspend ODNR Injection Well Oversight
December 24, 2014December 24, 2014

Whenever anti-drillers in a given state don’t like how the state environmental authority is doing its job, they run to the federal government like a petulant child clinging to its mother’s skirt. “Mommy, mommy! Johnny hurt my feelings!” Such is the case with Ohio Citizen Action (OCA), an anti-drilling group that is accusing the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) of falling down on the job when it comes to regulating injection wells–wells used to dispose of frack wastewater. OCA’s demand? That the federal EPA suspend ODNR’s oversight of the injection well program in Ohio and that the feds move in and take over. OCA used 16 untrained volunteers (activists), gave them mountains of official paperwork from the ODNR archive, and armed each of them with yellow highlighters. The 16 untrained volunteer activists found every reference they could of what they say is incompetence and malfeasance by the ODNR, stitched it all together in a “report” (full copy below), and are now calling on Mommy EPA to “do something” about it…
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Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pipelines | Supply Chain | Wayne County (OH)

OH Company Innovates Spray Foam Barriers to Lay Pipelines
December 24, 2014December 24, 2014

Ask anyone who’s ever worked on laying pipelines and you’ll find it can be back-breaking work. First you dig a trench, then you lay the pipeline. However, while digging the trench and laying the pipeline, you also need to install a barrier every 50 feet or so to stop water from running down the trench, leading to soil erosion. Most of the time sandbags are used. Stacking 30-50 pound sandbags around a pipe in a single location typically takes a couple of people an hour or more. However, Ohio entrepreneurs have come to the rescue. Dalton’s Spray Foam Solutions in Dalton, OH now offers a much faster and easier way, using spray foam. Spray it in, the foam hardens–clinging to the pipe and the soil–and in about 15 minutes (1/4 the time) a much easier solution is in place, protecting the environment, saving time, and reducing the need for Icy Hot Patches for the workers…
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Energy Companies | Hinto Energy | Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Potential New OH Utica Driller First Drills Conventional Oil Well
December 23, 2014December 23, 2014

A very small independent oil and gas company headquartered in Denver, CO, Hinto Energy (market cap of $5.4 million), issued a press release today to say they’ve drilled a shallow, conventional oil well in the Berea Sandstone of Ohio. A conventional driller targeting shallow rock layers is typically not something that catches our attention. The thing that does catch our attention is that Hinto is also eyeing other rock layers for the leases they own in Ohio–including the Utica Shale. Hinto has not previously drilled any horizontal shale wells, from what we can tell. It appears they didn’t even drill this conventional Ohio Berea well as their announcement states they will maintain a “75% non-operated interest” (i.e. ownership) in the well. Non-operated means they didn’t do the drilling. While this isn’t big news by any stretch, it is notable that yet another E&P is sniffing around the Ohio Utica…
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Accidents | Blue Ridge Mtn Res/Magnum Hunter | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Monroe County | Ohio | Triad Hunter

Residents Near Leaking Triad Hunter Well in OH Still Displaced
December 22, 2014December 22, 2014

It’s now 10 days since Triad Hunter, a division of Magnum Hunter, lost control of a Utica Shale gas well in Monroe County, OH (see Triad Hunter Well Blowout in Monroe County, OH – No One Injured). The problem is, for the 28 homes (50 or so people) who live nearby, they are still displaced–evacuated from their homes. They’ve been allowed back for a few hours at a time, periodically. But the wellhead needs to be replaced and until that’s done, it’s not safe for them to return full-time. Triad Hunter is hoping that Wild Well Control will have the wellhead replaced so that residents can return home tomorrow–December 23rd–and spend Christmas at home instead of at the friends, family and hotel rooms they’re staying in now…
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Deep Well Services | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Supply Chain

PA Snubber DWS Continues to Expand, Adds New Rigs for Utica Shale
December 19, 2014December 19, 2014

In September, MDN told you about Deep Well Services, the only “snubbing” oilfield services company headquartered in Pennsylvania (see PA “Snubbing” Company DWS Experiences Rapid Expansion). Once again the company is on the grow, adding several new rigs to its expanding fleet…
Read More “PA Snubber DWS Continues to Expand, Adds New Rigs for Utica Shale”
American Energy Partners | Energy Companies | HG Energy | Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

McClendon Deal Last June was HG Energy’s OH Utica Acreage/Wells
December 18, 2014December 18, 2014

Columbus Business First is reporting that during this past summer’s wheeling and dealing by Aubrey McClendon and his American Energy Partners (see McClendon Buys 48K WV Marcellus Acres, 27K More OH Utica Acres), McClendon picked up HG Energy’s Ohio Utica Shale acreage–all 27,000 acres–along with HG’s already-drilled Utica Shale wells (in the June announcement HG was simply referred to as “an unnamed private company”). HG Energy has now fully exited the Utica Shale. Oh! Two of the HG wells purchased by McClendon as part of that deal were in the top 10 most productive wells in the state for 3Q14. Yet another smart move by Aubrey…
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