Ohio

Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Regulation | Statewide OH

Ohio Enviros Not Happy with Sustainable Shale Center
March 25, 2013March 25, 2013

Last week MDN pointed out some of the initial reaction against the pronouncements of the newly formed and self-appointed Center for Sustainable Shale Development, or “CSSD” (see More Groups Weigh In For/Against New Sustainable Shale Center).

You can add the Ohio Environmental Council (OEC) to the list of those groups not in love with the CSSD, even though they haven’t bothered to read the CSSD’s standards yet. Why are they down on the CSSD? Because (pout, whine) they didn’t have a seat at the table. Then again, the OEC is calling for a moratorium on all drilling—an extremist and unreasonable position. Perhaps that’s why they weren’t invited…

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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrialization | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Statewide OH | Trucking | West Virginia | Wetzel County

OH Group Wants to Launch Neighborhood Watch for Shale Wells
March 25, 2013March 25, 2013

When we started to read an article about a “neighborhood watch” program for Utica and Marcellus Shale wells that’s being discussed in Ohio by the anti-drilling Southeast Ohio Fracking Interest Group, we kind of grinned. We thought it sounded like the typical nutty stuff anti-frackers do to try and put a veneer of respectability on their extremist, hate-all-fossil-fuels philosophy. However, when we read further, we found there is such a “well watching” group operating in West Virginia, and it’s members are level-headed and don’t have the attitude that they’re going to stop drilling—they just want to open a line of communication with drillers so everyone is a little bit happier with the process.

The WV group’s constructive attitude is the kind of attitude more people on the other side of the issue (in OH) should adopt…

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Energy Companies | Guernsey County | Noble County | Ohio | Rex Energy | Statewide OH

Rex Energy OH Utica Wells go Toe-to-Toe with Gulfport Wells
March 20, 2013March 20, 2013

So far, we’ve had precious little in the way of well production numbers from the Ohio Utica Shale. The numbers we have had are encouraging. On Monday, Rex Energy released well production numbers for their “Warrior South Prospect” wells in the Ohio Utica, and the numbers look very good indeed. From two wells in Guernsey County and one in Noble County, Rex is reporting an average daily production of around 8 million cubic feet of natural gas, 500 barrels of condensate (natural gasoline), and 1,200 barrels of natural gas liquids (mostly ethane), per day for each well.

Below are the details from Rex, along with an embedded copy of their company presentation just updated (March 2013) which shows many more details, including maps and a very interesting table (on page 18) that compares Rex’s three Ohio wells with other drillers’ wells, including Ohio’s largest producing wells drilled by Gulfport. When converted to BTUs produced—which takes into account not only methane, but also gas liquids, condensate and oil—the Rex wells are among the best producing wells in the state…

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Ohio | Statewide OH

OH Utica Numbers Keep Going Up: 575 Permits, 272 Wells Drilled
March 20, 2013March 20, 2013

The Ohio Utica Shale numbers just keep going up. The latest, including tallies for where permits were issued last week:

Read More “OH Utica Numbers Keep Going Up: 575 Permits, 272 Wells Drilled”
Columbiana County | Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Mahoning County | Ohio | Sand/Proppant | Supply Chain

OH Property Management Firm Plugs into the Shale Supply Chain
March 20, 2013March 20, 2013

More lessons for small businesses that want to plug in to the booming Marcellus and Utica Shale supply chain, this time from a new transloading facility in Columbiana, OH, started by a property management company. What’s a transloading facility? It’s a place where (in this case) railroad cars full of sand are parked and unloaded with special equipment onto waiting trucks that then haul the sand to nearby drilling sites for use in hydraulic fracturing.

The Buckeye Transfer Realty transloading facility accepted their first sand shipment via rail on Jan. 4. In the past three weeks they’ve hired 22 new people, with plans to hire more. Here’s their story, along with some of the things they’ve learned:

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Energy Companies | Energy Services | Guernsey County | Harrison County | Industrywide Issues | MarkWest Energy | Noble County | Ohio | PDC Energy | Pipelines | Processing Plants | Utica Shale

MarkWest Signs Deal with PDC Energy for OH Utica Shale, Etcetera
March 19, 2013March 19, 2013

Yesterday, PDC Energy announced they would nearly double their drilling budget for the Ohio Utica Shale this year (see PDC Nearly Doubles Utica Shale Drilling Budget for 2013). PDC’s announcement mentioned they will do a deal with MarkWest for pipelines and processing. Last night, MarkWest issued their announcement to say they’ve officially signed a deal with PDC to provide “gathering, processing, fractionation, and marketing services in the Utica Shale.” In their announcement, MarkWest took the opportunity to remind everyone this is the fourth Utica Shale driller they’ve signed up in the past nine months—the other three are Gulfport, Antero and Rex Energy—and to chronicle the work they’re doing at their Cadiz and Seneca processing facilities in the Utica Shale.

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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Statewide OH | Wastewater

Anti-Drilling Groups Want ODNR to Shut Down All Injection Wells
March 19, 2013March 19, 2013

Anti-drilling groups held multiple concurrent press conferences in Ohio yesterday to demand the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) stop doing their job in regulating wastewater injection wells. Instead, the enviro-extremist groups want the federal EPA to take over the job. Whacko. Their rationale? One bad actor, Ben Lupo, dumped wastewater down a storm drain in Youngstown.

What does Lupo’s actions have to do with wastewater injection wells? Er right…Nothing, actually! Such twisted reasoning is called a non sequitur—an illogical argument. Just because one bad actor dumped wastewater instead of properly disposing of it in an injection well doesn’t mean injection wells are not properly regulated. It “doesn’t follow.” But that’s what passes for logic among the fracking-deranged crowd.

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Anadarko | Energy Companies | Muskingum County | Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Is Anadarko Leaving the Ohio Utica Shale?
March 18, 2013March 18, 2013

A story in the Columbus Dispatch floats the rumor that Anadarko Petroleum, one of the country’s largest drillers, has not only suspended plans to drill in a 9,000-acre wild game preserve in Muskingum County, OH (known as “the Wilds”), but they also may be abandoning plans to drill anywhere in the Ohio Utica and the 141,000 acres they control…

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Statewide OH

The Non-Issue of Water “Disappearing” in the Fracking Process
March 18, 2013March 18, 2013

As the number of Utica Shale wells drilled in Ohio increases, so too does the need for water. Each well fracked uses, on average, about 5 million gallons of water. Some of that water is recycled, but most of it (80%) stays in the ground. Anti-drillers try to use the issue of water “disappearing” from the hydrologic cycle to scare the hoi polloi, but a Gannett article does a nice job of laying those fears to rest.

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Crime | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Mahoning County | Ohio | Wastewater

Youngstown Wastewater Dumper Pleads Not Guilty in Federal Court
March 18, 2013March 18, 2013

Some truly amazing chutzpah from the Youngstown, OH company caught dumping untreated frack wastewater down a drain that eventually emptied into the Mahoning River (see Youngstown Shale Wastewater Dumper Faces Jail and Big Fines for background).

Ben Lupo, the owner of the company who concocted the “allegedly” illegal plan, and Michael Guesman, the employee he co-opted into participating, both pled “not guilty” in federal court on Friday to the very acts they’ve already admitted doing:

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Hancock County (OH) | Hardin County | Ohio | Seneca County (OH) | Statewide OH | Wyandot County

Some OH Counties Happy Their Oil Prospects Improve on ODNR Map
March 18, 2013March 18, 2013

The new “best places to drill” map from the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) continues to generate buzz. Some counties, like Meigs, are happy they’re back on the map for natural gas drilling (see related article from today). Other counties are saying, “Hey look, we’re on the map for oil!”

Four counties along the western edge of the Utica on the map for potential oil drilling include…

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Meigs County | Ohio

Meigs County, OH “Back on the Map” for Possible Utica Drilling
March 18, 2013March 18, 2013

The prospects for Utica Shale drilling in Meigs County, OH may have just improved. Last year the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) released a revised “best places to drill” map that pretty much removed Meigs County from contention for Utica Shale drilling. Leasing in the county tanked. Two weeks ago, that same map was revised and a good portion of Meigs (located in southeastern OH) is once again “back on the map”…

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Economic Impact | Exporting | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Ohio | Statewide OH

OH Congressmen Form LNG Working Group to Encourage Exports
March 18, 2013March 18, 2013

Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan announced last week that he and Ohio Congressman Bill Johnson have founded the “Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Export Working Group” for the 113th Congress. The purpose of the group is to encourage the Obama administration (specifically the Dept. of Energy) to get off it’s collective rear-end and start approving some of the many requests for permits to export natural gas.

Congressman Ryan’s press announcement:

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Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

OH Utica’s “Best Oil Window” Boundaries Taking Shape
March 15, 2013March 15, 2013

With more and more wells being drilled in the Ohio Utica Shale, drillers are starting to zero in on the best places to drill for oil.

Where is the “best oil window” in the Utica/Point Pleasant? A recent article describes its boundaries…

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Carroll County | Forced Pooling | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Statewide OH

2nd Forced Pooling Order in OH Utica, Landowner Gets No Bonus
March 15, 2013March 15, 2013

For the second time since the Utica Shale drilling boom began, the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management (DOGRM) has issued a forced pooling order (in Carroll County). In Ohio it’s called a “unitization order.” No matter what you call it, it means that the driller—Chesapeake Energy—will be allowed to drill under someone’s property that doesn’t want it because a majority of the surrounding property (88% in this case) is leased and the property in question is needed to complete a drilling unit.

Not only is this news because it’s only the second unitization order issued for Utica Shale drilling, it’s news because in this case DOGRM is not forcing Chesapeake to pay a leasing bonus to the reluctant landowner—a change from the first unitization order:

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Beck Energy | Belmont County | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Lease & Royalty Payments | Litigation | Monroe County | Ohio | XTO

XTO, Beck Energy Appeal OH Case Allowing Lease Termination
March 15, 2013March 15, 2013

Earlier this week MDN told you about 600-700 landowners in Ohio who won a lawsuit allowing them to terminate leases held with Beck Energy and XTO Energy (see OH Lawsuit Victory: 600-700 Landowners Can Terminate Beck, XTO Leases).

Beck and XTO are none too happy with the decision and have appealed it to the Ohio Court of Appeals:

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