A few weeks ago MDN told you about a new gas-to-liquids plant coming to Ashtabula, OH (see Utica Shale Gas-to-Liquids Plant Planned for Ashtabula, OH).
Another story, this one in Crain’s Cleveland Business, provides a few more details about this $300 million plant that will convert Marcellus and Utica Shale gas into chemicals and even diesel fuel…
Read More “More Details on Ashtabula, OH Gas-to-Liquids Plant”
As we’re always fascinated with a good railroad story, our eyes perked up when we saw that a MarkWest subsidiary company is about to close a deal to purchase a 36-mile short line railroad from the Columbiana County (OH) Port Authority–for just $3 million. The railroad, known as the Youngstown & Southern Railroad, runs from Boardman (Mahoning County), OH through Columbiana, Rogers and Negley (all in Columbiana County), ending it’s tracks at Darlington (Beaver County), PA.
What will MarkWest do with a railroad? Right now, they’re being tight-lipped…
Read More “MarkWest Energy Buys an Ohio Short Line Railroad – Why?”
In a move that’s sure to anger West Virginians, but make Ohioans happy, Halliburton announced Tuesday they’re shutting down their cement plant operations in Weston (Lewis County), WV and moving it 150 miles away to a new service center they’ve opened in Zanesville (Muskingum County), OH. No word on how many jobs in Weston are affected…
Read More “Halliburton Shuts Down WV Cement Plant, Moves to OH”
MDN has long chronicled the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District’s (MWCD) challenges with selling a relative thimble-full of its vast water supplies to Utica Shale drillers. Not only are they now selling water, they’ve leased a good number of acres for drilling–some of it under lakes and reservoirs. That really ticks off the eco-nuts.
Anti-frackers have thrown tantrums and have done their darnedest to stop the MWCD from allowing drilling and from selling water to frackers–for a time they even bullied them into a retreat (see Muskingum Watershed Reverses Decision to Sell Water to Drillers)–but ultimately the anti-frackers have failed. So now it’s off to court to see if they can convince a liberal judge somewhere to put the breaks on progress in Ohio…
Read More “Muskingum Watershed Taken to Court by Anti-Frackers (Yawn)”
Rice Drilling is betting big on Belmont County, OH. County commissioners recently signed a sweet deal with Rice Drilling for 406 acres of county-owned land. The lease terms were $7,500 per acre signing bonus and a 20% royalty. That delivers just over $3 million to the county coffers, plus a lot more when the gas begins to flow.
The county deal is, however, sweeter than other recent contracts signed by Rice in the area–contracts between Rice and more than 1,000 landowners in Belmont County. Those leases resulted in payments from Rice for more than $236 million! But area landowners got “just” $5,900 per acre from Rice for a signing bonus…
Read More “Rice Pays Belmont County Higher Signing Bonus than Landowners”
Yesterday MDN brought you the news that former Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey McClendon had started a second company specifically created to target the Utica Shale (see Aubrey McClendon Forms Utica Company, Gets Major Investor). In true Aubrey “wheeling and dealing” fashion, his new company, called American Energy Utica, is already forming joint ventures with other companies in the Utica Shale. One of those companies is Red Hill Development, an independent oil & gas driller located in Dover (Tuscawaras County), OH.
Red Hill Development is tickled pink to be working with McClendon and says the partnership will be an ongoing venture “for many years to come.” According to Red Hill, the new joint venture is already applying for permits and will begin drilling by the end of this year. The focus of their drilling efforts? Guernsey and Harrison counties…
Read More “McClendon’s Utica Company Does JV with OH Driller, Drilling Soon”
In July 2012, the city of Salem, OH signed a lease with Chesapeake Energy to allow drilling on 381 acres of city-owned land (land outside city limits). Terms of the lease: $7,000 signing bonus and 20% royalties (see Salem, OH to Sign Lease Deal with Chesapeake for $7K+20%). It probably wouldn’t send the right signal to turn around and pass a law that would prevent drilling inside city limits after signing a lease and accepting millions of dollars. Yet, such a law was under serious consideration by Salem City Council.
Tuesday night, City Council wisely chose to vote down a proposed zoning amendment that would have prevented drilling inside city limits…
Read More “Salem, OH Votes Down Ordinance to Restrict Drilling in City”
Hess has just lost a court case in Ohio that may end up costing the company dearly. Hess had purchased leases in eastern Ohio from other companies. The original leases date to 2006-2008 and in many cases the landowners were paid as little as $10 per acre for a signing bonus–absolutely peanuts compared to today’s rates for $5K or more per acre. A Jefferson County landowner sued Hess to get out of his lease agreement because the company had not drilled on his property. Hess argued provisions in the lease let them extend the lease by paying a nominal extra fee.
Hess lost, and now will have to pay that landowner (and by extension around 300 other landowners) big re-signing bonuses or risk losing the land…
Read More “Hess Loses OH Court Case, May Owe Big Bucks to 300 Landowners”
As MDN has said before and will no doubt say again, we believe Chesapeake Energy will rue the day they fired its founder, Aubrey McClendon. Just a few short months after being tossed out the door by board member and corporate raider Carl Icahn, McClendon founded a new company and was already active in Ohio’s Utica Shale (see He’s Baaaack! Aubrey McClendon is Back in OH Shale Country). His new company, with offices about a mile from Chesapeake’s HQ in Oklahoma City, is called American Energy Partners.
Word has leaked once again from “inside sources” that McClendon has now founded a second company, this one specifically set up to target the Utica Shale. The new company is called American Energy Utica and is being backed with big money by a prominent player in the energy space…
Read More “Aubrey McClendon Forms Utica Company, Gets Major Investor”
Mark Houser, president and CEO of EV Energy Partners, presented at the IPAA Oil and Gas Investment Symposium yesterday in San Francisco. Below are portions of his talk dealing with EVEP’s Utica Shale assets and strategy. Also below is the PowerPoint presentation he used, which contains some great maps and charts dealing with the Utica. In particular take a look at slides #8 through #18. Don’t miss the close-up pictures of UEO’s Kensington and Harrison plants.
If we could “net net” summarize what Houser said about the Utica and the role it will play in the company’s future, it’s in line with our previous observations, which is…
Read More “EVEP CEO Mark Houser Discusses Utica Shale Strategy, Future”
Gary Evans, CEO of Magnum Hunter, presented at the IPAA Oil and Gas Investment Symposium yesterday in San Francisco. He did a deep dive into MH’s Marcellus and Utica Shale operations and plans moving forward. Evans said the company now owns 490,000 net acres in the northeast (Appalachia) with 81,000 net acres in the Marcellus Shale and 80,000 net acres in the Utica Shale. They have investments and operations in both drilling and in the midstream (pipelines) segment via subsidiary Eureka Hunter.
Below are Evans’ comments from yesterday along with a PowerPoint presentation which we believe is likely the one he used (or very similar to the one he used). Slides #13-#27 cover the Marcellus and Utica–well worth your time to review, some great maps and charts. Also included, a nifty picture of MH’s new robotic drilling rig (slide #26)…
Read More “Magnum Hunter CEO Gary Evans Charts a Marcellus/Utica Future”
Ohio’s anti-drillers, in their zeal to needle the drilling industry, have just put everyone who lives near active drill sites at more risk than they once were. Following state law, drillers (until now) have filed a list of the chemicals they store and use for fracking with the Ohio Department of Environmental Resources (ODNR). Local first responders–police and firefighters–could then electronically retrieve that information from the ODNR website for any given well if an incident occurred, like a fire. But anti-drillers asked the federal government to intervene and that has now happened. The feds have said drillers must file paperwork listing the chemicals stored and used directly with local counties and municipalities.
Now, firefighters will have to haul out a paper file from some filing cabinet and rifle through it if there’s any kind of emergency–instead of using the much faster online version from ODNR. Congratulations Ohio anti-drillers! You’ve just made everyone in Ohio more unsafe…
Read More “OH Antis Force Change in Chemical Reporting, Everyone Less Safe”
A handful of residents in Medina, OH are opposing an update to a pumping station that sits on the Mariner West pipeline. Sunoco Logistics owns and operates the pipeline which they are converting to handle ethane, a natural gas liquid. The plan is to pipe ethane from the Marcellus and Utica Shale region all the way to Sarnia (Ontario), Canada to an ethane cracker plant located there.
Local anti-drillers in Medina don’t like fracking (even though it’s perfectly safe) so they’ve decided to focus on stopping the pipeline as a deterrent to more fracking…
Read More “Handful of Medina, OH Anti-Drillers Oppose Ethane Pipeline”
In February, MDN brought you the news that the Columbiana County Port Authority would spend nearly $1 million to improve a stretch of road leading to the Wellsville industrial park where Arrowhead Utica Pipelines, a Hilcorp subsidiary, is building a shale gas transfer facility (see Hilcorp Subsidiary Leases Property for Utica Transfer Facility). Looks like it won’t take anywhere near that much money to get the project done.
Last Friday the Port Authority voted to accept a bid and move forward to have the work done–at a cost of $526,000…
Read More “Utica Shale Transfer Facility Gets Road Upgrade”
Chris Guith is vice president for policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for 21st Century Energy. He’s also very familiar with the development of Ohio’s Utica Shale play. In a recent interview, Guith had some interesting comments on Ohio’s prospects for oil, NGL pipelines, industry jobs, regulations and more…
Read More “U.S. Chamber’s Chris Guith Talks About Ohio Utica Shale”
Want a good paying, hands-on job in the Marcellus or Utica Shale? Try welding. The Career and Technology Education Centers (C-TEC) in Licking County, OH recently launched a new 10-month-long structural and pipe welding fabrication course. Students who are willing to work hard will get an average $45/hour after they graduate…
Read More “Pipe Welders Needed – Ohio’s C-TEC Will Train Them”