Ohio

Belmont County | Energy Companies | Gulfport Energy | Lease & Royalty Payments | Ohio

Would Drillers be Interested in a Half Acre? Yep
August 13, 2012August 13, 2012

You may not get rich as a landowner of a small plot of ground by leasing it for gas drilling, but depending on where you live, even if you own just a half acre of land, you may be able to participate in Marcellus or Utica Shale drilling. That’s what happened with Belmont County when they recently discovered the county owns a half acre plot of land they previously didn’t know they owned. Gulfport Energy made them an offer they couldn’t refuse.

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Columbiana County | Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Mahoning County | Ohio | Trumbull County | Utica Shale

OH Union Wins Grant for Utica/Marcellus Job Development
August 13, 2012August 14, 2012

[UPDATE BELOW] Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 396 won a competitive grant process to receive funds for job development in the Utica and Marcellus Shale plays. Local 396 craftsmen consist of plumbers, pipefitters, steamfitters, and HVAC/refrigeration fitters.

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Carroll County | Energy Companies | EnerVest | EV Energy Partners | Ohio | Stark County

EV Energy Partners 2Q12 Update: Utica NGLs Now Producing
August 10, 2012August 10, 2012

EV Energy Partners (EVEP) reported their 2Q12 financial results yesterday. EVEP is a master limited partnership controlled by oil & gas company EnerVest. They look for lower risk, long-term oil and gas properties, with investments in a number of oil and gas plays across the U.S., including the Utica and Marcellus. It seems they’re doing a good job. Their 2Q12 profits were up 20% from a year ago—to $66.1 million. Production for the second quarter of 2012 was up 47%—10.7 billion cubic feet of natural gas, 282,000 barrels of oil and 403,000 barrels of natural gas liquids, or 14.8 billion cubic feet equivalent.

The only direct quote in the press release from the CEO was in reference to their activities in the Utica Shale:

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Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Statewide OH | Statewide PA

How Many Jobs will Utica Shale Drilling Create in Ohio?
August 9, 2012August 9, 2012

How many jobs can Ohio expect from Utica Shale drilling? If it follows the same general path of Pennsylvania—and there’s no reason to expect it would not—for every job created in the oil and gas industry, two jobs are created in other industries to support it. It’s a 1:2 ratio.

Every new well drilled in PA created 30 jobs (in 2009) and $4 million in economic activity in the local economy. That is, shale gas drilling is hugely beneficial for both job creation and economic activity.

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Ashland County | Devon Energy | Energy Companies | Medina County | Ohio | Utica Shale

Devon Reports Disappointing Results in 2 NW OH Utica Wells
August 8, 2012August 8, 2012

Devon Energy reports “not encouraging” results from two wells in Ohio’s Utica Shale, one in Ashland County, the other in neighboring Medina County—both in the northwestern corner of the Utica Shale in Ohio. Although Devon is not saying whether or not they will drill more wells in that area, they have indicated they will drill more wells to the east.

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Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Want a Job in Ohio’s Utica Shale? There’s a Website for that! [Free]
August 7, 2012August 7, 2012

Energy in Depth – Ohio has just launched a new portal to connect job seekers with companies that have jobs working in the Marcellus and Utica Shale drilling industry in Ohio.

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Energy Companies | Halcon Resources | Lease & Royalty Payments | Mahoning County | NCL Appalachian Partners | Ohio | Trumbull County

Halcon Resources Pays $194M for Old Leases in Trumbull County, OH
August 3, 2012August 3, 2012

Bombshell: Halcon Resources Corp. is paying NCL Appalachian Partners $194 million (over $6,000 per acre) to take over land leases for drilling on 31,000 acres mostly in Trumbull County, OH (and about 3,000 acres in Mahoning County, OH). This is not money going to landowners but to the leaseholder, NCL. And it’s for old leases dating back to the 1960s.

By comparison, mass transfer of lease deals done by Chesapeake and others have been in the $1,000-$2,000 per acre range. But there is a difference: the lower-priced deals include a one or two percent royalty on anything produced going to the original leaseholder. Again, this is not landowner royalties, but leaseholder. It’s hard to follow the bouncing ball on this story.

The leases purchased by Halcon are not without potential problems (for Halcon) and opportunities (for landowners):

Read More “Halcon Resources Pays $194M for Old Leases in Trumbull County, OH”
Chesapeake Energy | Economic Impact | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Statewide OH | Taxation | Utica Shale

AP Questions OH Gov’s Mathematical Skills on Utica Shale
August 3, 2012August 3, 2012

Ohio Gov. John Kasich has stated that an energy company executive told him (in 2010) that they would eventually recover $1 trillion worth of oil and gas from Ohio’s Utica Shale. Kasich has repeated that remark many times since then—using it as a justification for his plan to increase severance taxes in the state to spread some of that wealth around to all Ohioans.

The Associated Press takes aim at the $1 trillion claim (and at Kasich) with a new story saying Kasich and the unnamed energy exec are way off base:

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Industrywide Issues | New York | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide NY | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

OH River Valley Commission Names Pro-Drilling Chairman
August 3, 2012August 3, 2012

The Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission (ORSANCO), established in 1948 to control and abate pollution in the Ohio River Basin, has elected a pro-drilling attorney as their new chairman. Kenneth Komoroski from Pittsburgh, PA assumed his new position on July 1, although the press release was not issued until August 1. Komorski was appointed to the Commission in 2003 by then President George W. Bush.

ORSANCO is an interstate commission representing eight states and the federal government. Member states include: Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia. While ORSANCO does not have the same broad powers as the Susquehanna River Basin Commission or Delaware River Basin Commission to issue permits and control shale gas drilling, some of their regulatory power does impact the drilling industry, especially on matters of drilling wastewater disposal.

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Chesapeake Energy | Columbiana County | Energy Companies | Lease & Royalty Payments | Mahoning County | Ohio | Statewide OH | Trumbull County | Utica Shale

Chesapeake Buys 28K Acres of OH Leases from Everflow
August 1, 2012August 1, 2012

MDN reported on Monday that Chesapeake Energy had purchased the rights to leases and had transferred ownership of those leases for more than 14,000 acres from two counties in Ohio—Trumbull and Mahoning (see this MDN story). We now know that’s only half of the number of acres they transferred. We now also know who they bought the rights from and how much they paid for those rights.

Read More “Chesapeake Buys 28K Acres of OH Leases from Everflow”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Public Opinion | Statewide OH

Poll: 63% of Ohioans Have Heard Little/Nothing on Fracking
August 1, 2012August 1, 2012

A new poll by University of Cincinnati researchers for the Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati asked 834 randomly selected Ohioans their opinions about fracking. A copy of the poll results is embedded below.

Perhaps most surprising is that a combined 63% of Ohioans claim they have heard little or nothing about hydraulic fracturing. Asked about whether or not they believe fracking poses a threat to health, respondents were evenly divided.

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Belmont County | Carroll County | Guernsey County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Jefferson County (OH) | Mahoning County | Noble County | Ohio | Utica Shale | Wayne County (OH)

The Permits Keep Coming for New OH Utica Shale Wells
July 31, 2012July 31, 2012

According to the Daily Jeffersonian, Ohio’s Utica Shale drilling shows no signs of diminishing based on the number of new permits issued for horizontal wells in June:

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Encore Energy | Energy Companies | Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Encore Energy Shopping 175K Utica Shale Acres in OH
July 31, 2012July 31, 2012

Encore Energy, a drilling company formed just last year and headquartered in Bowling Green, Kentucky, is acting as a leasing agent and shopping 175,000 Utica Shale acres in Ohio to larger drillers, trying to catch their interest in drilling for wet gas and oil.

Encore issued the following press release yesterday:

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Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Forced Pooling | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Portage County | Stark County

Chesapeake Forces Landowners in OH to Allow Fracking
July 30, 2012July 30, 2012

MDN has written a number of times on the issue of “forced pooling,” which is the concept that a property owner can be forced to allow fracking under their land if a majority of their neighbors have signed leases and a driller wants to drill in a “unit” (usually one square mile or 640 acres) where the reticent landowner owns property.

If there’s a single landowner, or a few landowners in the middle of the unit with a small number of acres who doesn’t want drilling, it can scuttle the deal for neighboring landowners. Most states, including Ohio, have a forced pooling provision. In Ohio it’s called “unitization.” No matter what you call it, MDN (in a departure with industry), believes it’s just plain wrong.

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Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Lease & Royalty Payments | Mahoning County | Ohio | Trumbull County

Chesapeake Transfers more than 14K Leases in 2 Ohio Counties
July 30, 2012July 30, 2012

An excellent story in today’s Youngstown (OH) Business Journal covers the massive number of lease transfers taking place in Ohio—specifically in Trumbull and Mahoning counties. At the end of June, both counties received an order to transfer more than 7,000 existing oil and gas leases to a single lease for Chesapeake Energy—and that’s in each county!

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Industrywide Issues | NGLs | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Statewide OH | Statewide PA

The Shift from Dry to Wet Gas Continues
July 30, 2012July 30, 2012

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has a story in today’s edition on the recurring theme that dry gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale is slowing down in Pennsylvania and is shifting to wet gas drilling in the Utica Shale in eastern Ohio and southwestern PA.

Read More “The Shift from Dry to Wet Gas Continues”