Ohio

Belmont County | Energy Companies | Lease & Royalty Payments | Ohio | Rice Energy | Utica Shale

Belmont County Shopping New Deal to Lease Additional 426 Acres
April 30, 2014April 30, 2014

Belmont County, OH commissioners like the $3 million check they just got from Rice Energy for leasing 406 acres of county-owned land (see Belmont County, OH Waiting for $3M Lease Check from Rice Energy). That’s $7,500 per acre for a signing bonus! Commissioners with Belmont like that gas money so much, they’re now looking to lease another 426 acres–at an even higher price. Oy vey!

The announcement about Belmont shopping for another lease deal came at a meeting last week…
Read More “Belmont County Shopping New Deal to Lease Additional 426 Acres”
BP | Energy Companies | Lease & Royalty Payments | Ohio | Trumbull County | Utica Shale

BP Calls it Quits in the Utica Shale – Total Write-off
April 29, 2014April 29, 2014

A sad day for landowners in Trumbull County, OH. Flashback: In March 2012 BP leased 84,000 acres in Trumbull County, OH from the Associated Landowners of the Ohio Valley (see BP’s Big Utica Shale Deal, Leases 84K Acres in Ohio). Just two years later and what started out with great fanfare is all down the toilet. BP announced today they are pulling out of the Utica Shale and writing it all off. In a very brief mention in a press release issued this morning about first quarter 2014 results, BP says: “Following on from the decision to create a separate BP business around its US lower 48 onshore oil and gas activities, and as a consequence of appraisal results, BP has decided not to proceed with development plans in the Utica shale. The Upstream result includes a write-off relating to the Utica acreage.”

Last November MDN wondered aloud whether BP would decide to move forward, or call it quits (see Decision Point: Will BP Drill Their Utica Acreage? Or Pass?). Now we know. Why leave? As we pointed out at the time, Trumbull County has proven to be mostly dry gas, and not wet gas (or natural gas liquids) which makes it a much less profitable part of the play to drill in. BP rolled the dice and bet wrong. The only other driller in Trumbull has been Halcon Resources. They pulled out too (see Halcon Resources Stops Drilling, Gives Up on the Utica Shale). Is there any hope for future Utica drilling in Trumbull County?…
Read More “BP Calls it Quits in the Utica Shale – Total Write-off”
Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Top 10 Oil Wells & Top 10 Gas Wells in Ohio for 4Q13
April 29, 2014April 29, 2014

Contrary to the all-but-silent treatment Utica Shale oil gets, drillers are pumping oil from the Utica. Quite a bit of it, as it turns out. They’re also pumping huge quantities of natural gas.

Last week MDN friend Bob Downing, reporter for the Akron Beacon Journal, did a great analysis of Q413 production numbers. He produced these two lists of “top 10” for oil producing wells and for natgas producing wells…
Read More “Top 10 Oil Wells & Top 10 Gas Wells in Ohio for 4Q13”
Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

OH Production for 4Q13: Natgas Up 28%, Oil Up 8%
April 29, 2014April 29, 2014

Last week the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) released it’s now quarterly production report–for fourth quarter 2013. The report shows natural gas production zoomed up by 28% while oil production increased by 8%. The report shows 352 wells were producing as of the end of the year. They produced a collective 1.4 million barrels of oil for the quarter, and 43 billion cubic feet of natural gas.

Below is an overview and analysis of the numbers, followed by the raw report (spreadsheet format) from the ODNR…
Read More “OH Production for 4Q13: Natgas Up 28%, Oil Up 8%”
Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | NGLs | Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Northeastern Ohio Benefits from Shale Too, Just Different
April 29, 2014April 29, 2014

There’s not much drilling in the Utica Shale in northeastern Ohio, but that doesn’t mean folks in the northern part of the state don’t benefit (and profit) from it. In fact, many in northern Ohio are downright excited about what’s happening in the state. Why? Because the plastics industry, which uses byproducts from natural gas liquids (NGLs) being extracted in Ohio, is taking off like a rocket, providing jobs, products and an economic bonanza in northern Ohio and indeed throughout the state…
Read More “Northeastern Ohio Benefits from Shale Too, Just Different”
Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Meetings | Ohio | Utica Shale | Washington County (OH)

Marietta Meeting Highlights Big Economic Impacts from Drilling
April 29, 2014April 29, 2014

Marietta (Washington County), OH residents and business owners had a chance last Friday to hear how the northeast shale boom has already benefited that area, and how the area will benefit in the future. The changes statewide are dramatic. The changes locally are starting to be felt too–and more changes are on the way. Exciting changes…
Read More “Marietta Meeting Highlights Big Economic Impacts from Drilling”
Energy Companies | EQT Corp | Guernsey County | Ohio | Utica Shale

EQT Leaving the Utica? Maybe. Guernsey County Wells Disappoint
April 25, 2014April 25, 2014

On a quarterly earnings call yesterday with analysts, EQT said they have drilled 8 wells in the Utica Shale, along the western side of the Utica, with 3 of those wells online. And they are not happy with the results. Therefore, effective immediately, their planned program to drill 21 Utica wells this year has gone to 0 while they “evaluate” the wells they’re completing and bringing online. Meanwhile, EQT is moving the money they would have spent to drill the 21 Utica wells (all of them in Guernsey County, OH) into drilling an additional 8 Marcellus and 13 Upper Devonian wells this year.

Antero Resource recently reported some less-than-stellar results in the same general area, along the western edge of the Utica…
Read More “EQT Leaving the Utica? Maybe. Guernsey County Wells Disappoint”
Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Statewide OH | Taxation | Utica Shale

Ohio Business Roundtable Sells Out – Endorses High Severance Tax
April 23, 2014April 23, 2014

Unbelievably, the Ohio Business Roundtable, comprised of CEOs of big businesses in Ohio, has endorsed a high severance tax on Utica Shale drilling. The OBR is using (abusing) an Ernst & Young “analysis” to say, in essence, go ahead and screw drillers and landowners–the drillers will stick around because they get screwed worse elsewhere. We’re somewhat befuddled at how the OBR can say it’s OK to steal the wealth from a specific industry and transfer to others who didn’t earn it. But we’re simple folks in our reasoning power. All’s we can say is that, with friends like these…

Below is the statement from the OBR and a copy of the “analysis” done by E&Y that blesses a high severance tax and makes it OK for Ohio’s RINOs to force it through.
Read More “Ohio Business Roundtable Sells Out – Endorses High Severance Tax”
Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Ohio | Statewide OH

Utica/Marcellus Welders Making $150K/Year – More Needed
April 23, 2014April 23, 2014

In a Wall Street Journal op-ed article, Ohio State Treasurer Josh Mandel says schools might want to think about bringing back shop class. Why? Because companies like Pioneer Pipe, operating in Ohio’s Utica Shale, can’t find enough certified welders to keep up with the demand. Right now Pioneer employs 60 welders who make over $150,000 per year!

Let’s see–go to college, get a four-year degree, and end up working at Starbucks. Or, go to trade school (or shop class), become a certified welder, work hard and join the ranks of what President Obama calls the 1% (those earning over $150K a year)…
Read More “Utica/Marcellus Welders Making $150K/Year – More Needed”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Preferred Fluids Management | Regulation | Richland County | Wastewater

Anti Group Stops Wastewater Injection Wells Near Mansfield, OH
April 23, 2014April 23, 2014

Anti-drilling group Frack Free Ohio (we call them Fracking Up Ohio) is claiming victory in stopping a pair of proposed frack wastewater injection wells that were planned for Mansfield (Richland County), OH. Fracking Up spread enough lies and innuendo around to confuse 63% of the voters into passing a resolution opposing the injection wells. Since the company planning to build the injection wells just wasted $200,000–now down the toilet–you can expect other Utica-related companies to give Mansfield a pass in the future. Bye bye jobs. Bye bye increased tax revenues. Bye bye Mansfield.

Now the folks from Fracking Up Ohio want to spread their anti-drilling disease to other locations–like Ashland and Crawford counties…
Read More “Anti Group Stops Wastewater Injection Wells Near Mansfield, OH”
Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Statewide OH | Taxation | Utica Shale | Washington County (OH)

OH County Commissioner Says ‘No Thanks’ to Severance Tax Increase
April 22, 2014April 22, 2014

A lone voice crying in the wilderness! Amid all of the calls for more socialism–redistributing the hard-earned money from landowners and drilling companies to people who didn’t earn it via a higher severance tax–a Washington County, OH commissioner says “No!” He says raising the severance tax is a fundamentally bad idea and he does not endorse the Republicans’ dalliance with the idea.

And so we bring you a letter to the editor reprinted in the Parkersburg (WV) News and Sentinel from Washington County, OH commissioner Ron Feathers, a man we salute!…
Read More “OH County Commissioner Says ‘No Thanks’ to Severance Tax Increase”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Landfills | Mahoning County | Ohio | Wastewater

Company Sets up in Youngstown to Handle Radioactive Shale Waste
April 22, 2014April 22, 2014

Too hot to handle? A Pennsylvania company operating in the Youngstown, OH area, Austin Masters Services, has been awarded a permit to handle and treat frack waste that potentially contains radioactivity. Anti-drillers want the permit revoked. Fracking waste is just too hot to handle, according to the nutters. Fortunately the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources, which studies these things, has confidence that Austin Masters Services knows what it’s doing, and does it right. The company knows how to test oil and gas drilling waste for radioactivity without exposing anyone or anything in the process.

The litigious Lea Harper, head of the so-called Fresh Water Accountability Project (who is suing the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District over a drilling lease in the Seneca Lake area, and has sued to stop injection wells, etc.), has her knickers in a twist about the Austin Masters Services operation. So too do other anti-drilling wackos, although there’s not much to be upset over. Austin Masters doesn’t even have any customers for their services in Ohio, yet…
Read More “Company Sets up in Youngstown to Handle Radioactive Shale Waste”
Antero Resources | Belmont County | Energy Companies | Guernsey County | Harrison County | Lease & Royalty Payments | Ohio | Utica Shale

Antero Pays $15K/Acre, 20% Royalties for MWCD Piedmont Lake Lease
April 21, 2014April 21, 2014

All’s we can say is “WOW!” Last Friday the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District (MWCD) signed another (new) lease with Antero Resources to lease more than 6,300 acres in and around Piedmont Lake, in Guernsey, Harrison and Belmont counties in Ohio. The land is in prime Utica Shale territory and Antero must have wanted it bad, because they paid a $15,000 per acre signing bonus. Plus 20% in royalties for anything produced from the land. That is, by far, the largest bonus payment we have ever heard of in the Marcellus and Utica region.

Landowners in the MWCD area should be thankful. Because of this deal and other leases signed by the MWCD, the rates landowners pay to the MWCD are going down–by 50%–starting next year. What a fantastic story where everyone wins. Landowners win with lower watershed fees, Antero wins by scoring what will no doubt be very productive property for shale wells, America wins with more (and cheaper) natural gas. There are no losers in this scenario. Here’s more on Friday’s meeting of the MWCD board and the decisions they made…
Read More “Antero Pays $15K/Acre, 20% Royalties for MWCD Piedmont Lake Lease”
American Energy Partners | Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Aubrey McClendon Leases Rigs from Chesapeake to Drill in the Utica
April 21, 2014April 21, 2014

Aubrey McClendon, the former CEO of Chesapeake Energy (before corporate raider Carl Icahn tossed him from the company he founded) is back in business with Chesapeake. Sort of. McClendon’s new company, American Energy Partners, which is set to go great guns in the Ohio Utica Shale, is leasing drilling rigs from Chesapeake for $26,000 per day–six of them (with a seventh at $23,500 per day). Makes for strange bedfellows, no? But hey, a rig’s a rig’s a rig. Doesn’t matter who owns it. What matters is to get drilling now, before the competition. And Aubrey is all over it.

However, Aubrey is being mum on the arrangement. Here’s the little that is know, picked up from Chesapeake’s financial filings with the SEC…
Read More “Aubrey McClendon Leases Rigs from Chesapeake to Drill in the Utica”
Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pipelines | Regulation | Washington County (OH)

Lawyers Give Heads-up on Cobra Pipeline in Warren, OH
April 21, 2014April 21, 2014

MDN makes no claims to omniscience when it comes to Marcellus and Utica drillers and pipeline operators–but it’s not often a completely new name pops up to surprise us–something we had not heard of before. Such is the case with Cobra Pipeline. According to the Cobra Pipeline website: “Cobra Pipeline Co., LTD is an Ohio based intrastate natural gas pipeline company headquartered in Willoughby, Ohio. Cobra Pipeline Co, LTD owns approximately 300 miles of intrastate gas pipeline and compression within the State of Ohio. Our system connects natural gas suppliers with major interstate transmission pipeline systems. Cobra Pipeline provides competitively priced gas transportation service as well as operating a safe and efficient gas pipeline system.”

So it appears Cobra is a local gathering system that perhaps at one point connected conventional (vertical only) wells, but increasingly now connects unconventional (shale) wells to larger pipeline systems. The reason it popped up on the radar is because a couple of lawyers recently spoke to a small group of landowners in Marietta (Washington County), OH about Cobra’s plans to come through that area–mostly along an existing route used by Columbia Pipeline. The lawyers were there to give landowners a heads-up and tips for how to negotiate the best deal for a pipeline easement, and what to do if eminent domain rears its ugly head…
Read More “Lawyers Give Heads-up on Cobra Pipeline in Warren, OH”
Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Labor Unions a Powerful Ally for Northeast Shale Industry
April 21, 2014April 21, 2014

Unions in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio are backing shale drilling in a big way, and that’s giving lefty Democrats heartburn. The unions note that in the early days of northeast shale drilling a lot of the help came from out of state–places like Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana. But that’s changed. Today most of the workers are local, and many of them belong to labor unions. Regardless of your opinion on labor unions, there is one inescapable fact–their members want jobs and they’re willing to work and work hard in those jobs.

Labor unions have become an important and powerful ally for the drilling industry. Here is that story…
Read More “Labor Unions a Powerful Ally for Northeast Shale Industry”