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Canadian Firm Buys PA Marcellus Survey/Mapping Company

Canadian firm Stantec, which provides consulting service in engineering, surveying and environmental sciences, announced on Friday that they have bought out Landmark Survey and Mapping. Landmark, with 24 employees in both Washington, PA and North Canton, OH, specializes in surveying and mapping oil and gas pipelines—a growing area of focus for Stantec.

From the announcement:

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Landowners at 2nd OH Gas Storage Field Sue for Right to Drill

MDN previously told you about a lawsuit from landowners who sit atop the Brinker Gas Storage Field in Columbiana County, OH (see this MDN story). Columbia Gas Transmission owns the rights to the hollowed out cavern in the Berea Sandstone known as the Brinker field—a place where they store natural gas for later use. The question or issue is whether or not the landowners have the right to drill under the Brinker, in the Utica Shale, or whether that right belongs to Columbia.

Landowners atop another gas storage field, the North Canton Gas Storage Field in Stark County, OH, have now filed a lawsuit for the same reason. In North Canton the storage field is leased by Dominion East Ohio (a division of Dominion) and CNX Gas (a division of CONSOL Energy). Dominion and CNX claim it’s their right to drill under the storage field—the landowners believe they forfeited the right to drill years ago.

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Rural OH Motel Sees Business Soar with Utica Drilling

It’s a story that’s told so much, people may get tired of hearing it: hotels and motels boom when there is shale drilling nearby. MDN delights in bringing you stories of small businesses that do well—extremely well—because of shale gas drilling. So please indulge us as we bring you one more, this one from rural Ohio…

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EV Energy Strikes Oil & NGLs in Stark County, OH

EV Energy’s Utica well in Stark County, Ohio is producing large quantities of light crude oil in addition to large quantities of natural gas liquids. EV Energy’s CEO, Mark Houser, said their well in Stark looks better in the early results than oil wells in the Eagle Ford basin in Texas. High praise indeed.

Because of what EV and others have found, drilling activity for oil and NGLs is moving to Stark, Tuscarawas, Guernsey and Noble counties.

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EV Energy Partners 2Q12 Update: Utica NGLs Now Producing

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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Chesapeake Forces Landowners in OH to Allow Fracking

forced poolingMDN 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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How Many GE Employees will Come to Canton, OH?

GE Oil & GasAlthough Chesapeake is leaving town, moving the majority of its 200 employees who work in offices in Canton to a new facility they’re building 7 miles away in Louisville (see this MDN story), it’s not all bad news for Canton.

GE will build a new facility in Canton where some 30 new jobs will be created to manage GE’s area Marcellus and Utica Shale operations. But it’s going to cost Canton up to $84,000 per year for five years to seal the deal.

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How Many Chesapeake Employees will Stay in Canton, OH?

Earlier this week, MDN highlighted the announcement that Chesapeake Energy has chosen Louisville, Ohio to build a new field office (think regional headquarters) on a 291-acre site in the Beck Industrial Commerce Center (see this MDN story).

Chesapeake currently has employees working out of several offices in the City of Canton (which is about 7 miles from Louisville). They also have employees in other offices in the surrounding region—approximately 400 workers total. About half of them (~200) work in offices in Canton. Canton city officials worked hard to get Chesapeake to build their regional HQ there, but in the end, Canton didn’t have a spot large enough for the consolidated operation.

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OH High School First to Offer 2-Year O&G Tech Course

In what is believed to be the first of its kind for Ohio, high school students at Marlington High School (Alliance, OH) can take a two-year course in oil and gas technologies starting this fall. The new course will prepare students with the skills they need to work in the rapidly growing shale drilling industry.

From a recent press article:

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Chesapeake’s Ohio Utica Drilling Program: Full Speed Ahead

full speed aheadAn update on Chesapeake Energy’s Ohio drilling program: They just received approval for two more Utica Shale horizontal wells at sites in eastern Stark County, brining their total to 10 permits for Stark.

Chesapeake has drilled four of the 10 permitted wells in Stark, although none are yet in production.

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Baker Hughes to Build $64M Facility in Ohio; Create 700 Jobs

Baker Hughes is planning to build a $64 million facility in Massillon (Stark County), Ohio. The announcement comes just a month after Baker Hughes announced they are building a new $40 million facility in Harrison County, West Virginia (see this MDN story). The company plans to employ 700 people at the Massillon facility when it’s done (in three years), at an average hourly wage of $31.25. The economic impact in eastern Ohio will be profound.

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