Officials in Mahoning County, Ohio are negotiating with an unnamed company to build a frack water recycling facility in the county. The new facility will treat wastewater, recycling it to be reused in fracking operations. As a bonus, the sewage treatment plant in Mahoning will sell treated water to the new plant, a new revenue stream for the county.
Read More “New Frack Wastewater Recycling Plant Coming to Eastern OH”
The executive director of the Ohio Oil and Gas Energy Education Association, Rhonda Reda, predicts that oil and gas drilling rigs will increase 300% in the next five years, and those rigs will create new jobs to operate them:
Read More “OH Drilling Rigs Expected to Increase 300% in Next 5 Years”
Under pressure from low commodity prices for natural gas causing a cash deficit for drilling, Chesapeake Energy is looking to sell off some of its oil and gas fields in Texas, Mexico and Oklahoma so it can continue to concentrate on drilling in eastern Ohio’s Utica Shale and other “wet gas” areas of the country.
Read More “Chesapeake Selling Assets to Concentrate on OH/Wet Gas”
The Utica Landowner Group of eastern Ohio has just cut a deal with Antero Resources for what is believed to be the highest amount paid yet for a lease deal: $5,900 per acre for a signing bonus, and 21 percent royalties. The deal covers land in Belmont, Monroe and Noble counties in Ohio.
Read More “Antero Pays Record Rates in Eastern Ohio Utica Lease Deal”
Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine (Republican) said yesterday he wants tougher penalties for Utica and Marcellus Shale drillers who “pollute.”
Read More “OH Attorney General Wants Drillers Who Pollute to Pay More”
Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a Republican in his first term in office, delivered the annual State of the State address yesterday. He chose to do it from the auditorium of a high-performing elementary school in Steubenville. During the 90-minute speech he was briefly interrupted by several hecklers until state troopers removed them from the room. Who were the bad actors? You guessed it—anti-drillers.
Read More “OH Gov. Kasich Heckled by Anti-Drillers During Speech”
Coshocton County in eastern Ohio requested Utica Shale lease offers for 436 acres of county-owned land no longer being used for any other purpose. There was only one offer put on the table, by Anadarko. Under the five-year lease offer, the county would receive a $1.3 million signing bonus ($3,000 per acre) and 17.5 percent in royalties.
Read More “Anadarko Offers $3K/Acre + 17.5% Royalties for Utica Lease”
According to press reports, XTO Energy—a subsidiary of Exxon Mobil—will drill its first Ohio Utica Shale well in Belmont County.
Read More “Exxon to Drill First Ohio Utica Shale Well in Belmont County”
West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio are all in the hunt to land an ethane cracker plant in their respective states (see the long list of MDN stories on a potential cracker plant in the Marcellus/Utica Shale region). According to WV Commerce Secretary Keith Burdette, Shell and another unnamed company are now in talks with private property owners. That is, the deals are now being negotiated, and it’s a waiting game to see the outcome.
All three states have offered huge tax incentives to land the plant. Shell originally set January for an announcement, but changed it a few weeks ago to be February.
Read More “Waiting Game: Cracker Plants Talk to Property Owners”
Yesterday, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and others provided more details about MarkWest’s Tuesday announcement that they will build two new natural gas liquids (NGL) processing plants and a new fractionation plant in Ohio’s Utica Shale (see MDN’s story on the original announcement here).
Read More “More on MarkWest’s New Investment in Ohio’s Utica Shale”
MarkWest Energy Partners, a major midstream player in the Marcellus and Utica Shales, just announced major expansion plans that will add an additional 600 million cubic feet per day (mmcf/d) of natural gas processing capacity which includes natural gas liquids (NGLs). Most of the new capacity will come from expansion of its Majorsville, WV plant. The expansion is made possible by new long-term agreements MarkWest signed with CONSOL Energy, Noble Energy and Range Resources to process NGLs.
MarkWest also announced they will build two new processing plants in Ohio’s Utica Shale—in Harrison and Monroe counties.
Read More “MarkWest to Expand/Build NGL Plants on New Agreements”
Increasingly, you will read on MDN and in press accounts about natural gas liquids (NGLs), and how major energy companies are now focused on drilling in the “liquids-rich” portion of the Marcellus and Utica Shales. The geography of where NGLs are found is typically western Pennsylvania, the West Virginia panhandle and eastern Ohio. But, just what are NGLs anyway? A helpful article on The Motley Fool website provides an excellent summary:
In the complicated, ongoing story of fracking wastewater treatment in Warren, Ohio, the existing permit that allows the Warren Water Pollution Control Facility (sewage treatment plant) to dispose of treated brine water in the Mahoning River expires today. But because the renewal of the permit is something that has been appealed, according to Ohio EPA rules, the facility can continue to accept brine water from fracking.
Read More “Warren, OH Frack Wastewater Treatment Continues…for Now”
It looks like a $520 million Marcellus Lateral Project pipeline that Kinder Morgan wanted to build spanning 240 miles from the West Virginia panhandle to Toledo, Ohio, and the 2,500 jobs it would have provided, is dead.
Read More “Kinder Morgan OH Marcellus Lateral Pipeline Project Dead?”
West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio wait on pins and needles for Shell to announce which state they have chosen as a site to build a new $1.5-$2.0 billion ethane cracker plant, each of them looking for an edge to ensure their state is selected. WV Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin is flying to Houston this week to meet with representatives of Shell to make a personal pitch that West Virginia should be that place, with a promise of no property taxes on the plant for 25 years if they do so. Thing is, Ohio Gov. John Kasich has already been to Houston to pitch his state—two months ago. Does that give Ohio an edge?
Read More “Ohio vs. West Virginia in the Cracker Plant Sweepstakes”
Local pipeline work in the Marietta (Washington County), Ohio area has brought an influx of pipeline workers from out of town. Along with those workers has come a mini-economic boom for Marietta with money being spent at local RV parks, grocery stories, restaurants and other area businesses.
Read More “Mini-Economic Boom from Pipeline Workers in Marietta, OH”