Statewide OH

Industrywide Issues | Lease & Royalty Payments | Ohio | Pipelines | Statewide OH

Some OH Landowners Get “Take it or Leave it” Pipeline Offers
August 6, 2013August 6, 2013

Apparently, some heavy-handed tactics are being used by some (not all) landmen in Ohio who are telling property owners to “take it or leave it” when it comes to offers on the table to allow pipelines to cross their land. Landowners beware: a landman may tell you the company will run the pipeline anyway by using the power of eminent domain. Very few of the pipelines now being constructed in eastern Ohio right now have eminent domain power.

If you hear such a statement from a landman, ask to see a certificate from FERC or the Ohio Public Utilities Commission stating that particular pipeline has eminent domain authority. If they can’t produce such a certificate, you know they’re blowing smoke…
Read More “Some OH Landowners Get “Take it or Leave it” Pipeline Offers”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Statewide OH

USGS Finally Issues Report for Selling Water from 3 OH Reserviors
August 5, 2013August 5, 2013

In June 2012, the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District (MWCD) board flip-flopped on a decision to make water sales from their considerable inventory of lakes and reservoirs to Marcellus and Utica Shale drillers. At first they voted to move forward with water sales, then a few days later, reversed their decision pending a full-blown study by the U.S. Geological Survey (see Muskingum Watershed Reverses Decision to Sell Water to Drillers). Thankfully, the MWCD didn’t wait for the USGS study, which was supposed to be issued by the end of last year, before they went ahead with more water sales in September (see Muskingum Watershed Moves Forward with Water Sales to Drillers).

Perhaps the reason the MWCD moved forward before getting the results of the USGS study was a premonition about how long the study would take. The 33-page USGS report, titled “An analysis of potential water availability from the Atwood, Leesville, and Tappan Lakes in the Muskingum River Watershed, Ohio” was just released today (full copy embedded below)–seven months later than anticipated. Although the study offers analysis only and no conclusions or recommendations, the MWCD says the data in the study is “helpful”…
Read More “USGS Finally Issues Report for Selling Water from 3 OH Reserviors”
Carroll County | Chesapeake Energy | Columbiana County | Energy Companies | Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Chesapeake’s Latest Thinking about the OH Utica Shale
August 5, 2013August 5, 2013

More analysis of last Thursday’s investor/analyst phone call with Chesapeake Energy officials. Specifically, this article looks at the comments made by new CEO Doug Lawler and long-time COO Steve Dixon comments about the Ohio Utica Shale:
Read More “Chesapeake’s Latest Thinking about the OH Utica Shale”
Energy Companies | Halcon Resources | Mahoning County | Ohio | Statewide OH | Trumbull County | Utica Shale

Halcón Resources: Will Drill Up to 500 Wells in the Utica
August 2, 2013August 2, 2013

Halcón Resources Corporation, increasingly an important driller in the Utica Shale, released their second quarter update yesterday. Halcón CEO Floyd Wilson also held a conference call for analysts. On that call, Wilson boasted about Halcón’s Utica Shale program–in particular the Kibler 1H well in Trumbull County which has been producing 2,233 barrels of oil equivalent per day–75% of it liquids. Halcón, which concentrates its drilling in “oily” plays like the Bakken and Utica, is currently operating 2 drilling rigs in Ohio/Pennsylvania. They’ve drilled nine Utica wells and are now evaluating the results. Halcón has 142,000 acres leased in the Utica Shale (primarily in Ohio).

Remarks about Halcón’s Utica program from the conference call, and the Utica portion of yesterday’s 2Q13 report:
Read More “Halcón Resources: Will Drill Up to 500 Wells in the Utica”
Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pipelines | Regulation | Spectra Energy | Statewide OH

Spectra’s OH Pipeline Project Advances, Sept 20 Deadline w/FERC
August 2, 2013August 2, 2013

More than 1 1/2 years ago MDN told you about a planned new 70-mile pipeline and compressor station to connect Utica and Marcellus wells in eastern Ohio to Spectra Energy’s Texas Eastern pipeline system (see Chesapeake Investing in New 70-Mile Ohio Pipeline). Called the Ohio Pipeline Energy Network (OPEN), the project is a $500 million joint venture between Chesapeake Energy, American Electric Power and Spectra Energy. Not since December 2011 have we heard any news about the project–until now.

Even though there’s been no media coverage, Spectra has been hard at work planning and holding public meetings for feedback on eight different proposed pipeline routes. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has given Spectra until Sept. 20 to tell them which alternative is their preferred route. FERC will then make a decision and (presumably) issue a permit that will allow Spectra to begin construction. An update on the OPEN project…
Read More “Spectra’s OH Pipeline Project Advances, Sept 20 Deadline w/FERC”
Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Chesapeake’s Lawler Excited about OH Utica, Calls it “Outstanding”
August 2, 2013August 2, 2013

Chesapeake Energy’s new CEO, Doug Lawler, like Chessy’s founder and first CEO Aubrey McClendon, positively gushes when it comes to the Utica Shale. On a conference call with analysts yesterday, Lawler said, “The Utica is outstanding,” and he sees the Utica as “…a very strong asset going forward.”

More details on Chessy’s Utica Shale drilling program in Ohio from Lawler:
Read More “Chesapeake’s Lawler Excited about OH Utica, Calls it “Outstanding””
Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Latest OH Utica Numbers: 819 Permits, 460 Wells Drilled
August 1, 2013August 1, 2013

The latest numbers of permits and wells drilled in the Ohio Utica Shale, courtesy the Akron Beacon Journal:
Read More “Latest OH Utica Numbers: 819 Permits, 460 Wells Drilled”
Belmont County | Energy Companies | Harrison County | Hess | Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Hess Drills 10 Wells in OH Utica Shale in 2Q13
August 1, 2013August 1, 2013

As part of their 2Q13 update, Hess reports the following details about their Utica Shale drilling program in Ohio for the past three month period:
Read More “Hess Drills 10 Wells in OH Utica Shale in 2Q13”
Access Midstream Partners | Columbiana County | Energy Companies | Energy Services | EV Energy Partners | Industrywide Issues | M3 Midstream | NGLs | Ohio | Processing Plants | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

M3’s Kensington, OH NGL Plant Now Live & Processing
July 30, 2013July 30, 2013

A new $400 million natural gas liquids (NGL) processing plant in Kensington (near Hanoverton, OH) has went online Sunday. The Utica East Ohio Midstream (UEO) plant, a joint venture owned by M3 Midstream, Access Midstream (formerly Chesapeake Energy) and EV Energy Partners, was originally supposed to be online in May. That date slipped. In June, MDN picked up on a bit of news that indicated the plant would go live “by the end of July” (see M3 Midstream’s Kensington, OH NGL Plant Launch Date Slips). The July rumored date proved correct.

Yesterday, M3 issued the following press release announcing that the UEO plant is now operating and processing NGLs. It is the first plant of its kind to go online in the Utica Shale:
Read More “M3’s Kensington, OH NGL Plant Now Live & Processing”
Energy Companies | Ohio | Oxford Oil Company | Statewide OH | Upper Devonian Shale

Ohio Drillers Not So Excited About Upper Devonian Shale
July 29, 2013July 29, 2013

It seems some drillers have become excited about the Upper Devonian Shale in southwestern Pennsylvania and West Virginia (see today’s companion story: 5th Upper Devonian Driller + Maps of Best UD Spots to Drill). However, it also seems that the UD isn’t all peaches and cream–especially for drillers in eastern Ohio. Akron Beacon Journal reporter Bob Downing reports the UD in Ohio has so far been pretty lackluster.

Surprisingly, there have already been 125 UD wells drilled in Ohio over the past two years, most of them vertical-only wells. An update on UD drilling in Ohio:
Read More “Ohio Drillers Not So Excited About Upper Devonian Shale”
Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

OH Passes 800 Utica Shale Permits, 117 Wells Now Producing
July 25, 2013July 25, 2013

Ohio has passed the 800-mark for Utica Shale permits. As of last week, 812 Utica Shale permits have been issued. Of that number, 390 wells have been completed and 117 are now in production. The number of drilling rigs operating in Ohio continues to go up and now stands at 36.

Here’s the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources report showing where Utica Shale permits were issued last week (by town and county), and to which drillers:
Read More “OH Passes 800 Utica Shale Permits, 117 Wells Now Producing”
Belmont County | Energy Companies | Gulfport Energy | Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Gulfport 2Q13: Oil Production Down, NatGas & NGLs Way Up
July 24, 2013

Gulfport Energy issued its second quarter 2013 operations update yesterday. Among the highlights: The company produced less oil than a year ago after selling off its Permian wells and acreage to Diamondback, but they saw a dramatic increase in production of natural gas and natural gas liquids from a year ago. Gulfport’s natgas production was up 6.5X and liquids production more than doubled–up 2.3X from last year. The company also said they increased their Utica Shale acreage by an additional 8,000 acres–they now own 145,000 leased Utica acres.

Also in the update are production numbers for a series of new wells recently brought online–the McCort wells in Belmont County (Somerset Township), OH. The full 2Q13 Gulfport update:
Read More “Gulfport 2Q13: Oil Production Down, NatGas & NGLs Way Up”
Lease & Royalty Payments | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

New Report Shows Permits, Wells Drilled & More Near Your Address
July 23, 2013July 23, 2013

As you may know, MDN editor Jim Willis has been partnering with ShaleNavigator founder Ed Camp for more than a year now to bring you the three volume Marcellus and Utica Shale Databook series. The 2012 series was a huge success, and the new 2013 series (Volume 1 is out now) is shaping up to be the same. The Databook is a series of maps created using the excellent ShaleNavigator service to display where (and to whom) permits have been issued, county by county, throughout the Marcellus and Utica Shale region. However, the ShaleNavigator itself service is far more than just permits, displaying multiple “layers” of information users can turn on and off to display lease offers, pipeline locations, compressor station locations and much more (24 different layers in all).

Ed has just released an exciting and important new feature for the ShaleNavigator service: Subscribers may now produce reports displaying shale oil and gas wells, well permits, pipelines, and lease offer information near a specific address “on the fly.” Type in any address (your address maybe?), wait a few seconds, and get a PDF report detailing all of the permits issued, wells drilled, pipelines and lease offers within both a 2 mile radius and within a 5 mile radius of that address (see an example report embedded below). Folks, this is beyond cool!…
Read More “New Report Shows Permits, Wells Drilled & More Near Your Address”
Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Statewide OH | Taxation

Cincy Paper Targets OH Republicans for Not Supporting High Tax
July 18, 2013July 18, 2013

Retribution: Time to make the brave Republicans in the Ohio House pay for not supporting the socialist concept of “spreading the wealth around” to people who didn’t earn it by supporting a high severance tax on Utica Shale drilling. A new hit piece in the Cincinnati Enquirer tries to do just that–by proclaiming that “big oil & gas” has “pumped” a (measly) $660,000 in campaign contributions to Ohio House legislators, most of them Republican. Implication: They were bought off.

What utter folly…
Read More “Cincy Paper Targets OH Republicans for Not Supporting High Tax”
Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pipelines | Processing Plants | Statewide OH

So Who’s Building All Those OH Pipelines Anyway?
July 17, 2013July 17, 2013

An MDN subscriber recently emailed us to ask for more details about that map showing, by region, the number of new natural gas gathering and transmission pipelines that will be built (see The Surprising Number of New NatGas Pipelines Coming in OH). The map we showed (embedded below) indicates that Ohio is in the midst of a major pipeline build-out with an astonishing 100+ new pipelines either currently under construction, or soon will be. The question from our reader: Who’s building all those pipelines?

We went looking and found an excellent article in Farm and Dairy that gives us the answer…
Read More “So Who’s Building All Those OH Pipelines Anyway?”
Columbia Pipeline Group | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Hilcorp Energy | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | NiSource | Ohio | Pipelines | Processing Plants | Statewide OH

OH Hickory Bend Pipeline/Plant Makes Excellent Progress
July 17, 2013July 17, 2013

An update on the Pennant Midstream “Hickory Bend” pipeline and cryogenic processing plant being built in eastern Ohio. The local labor union boss says excellent progress is being made as the project now enters its second phase, in spite of distractions from anti-drillers (see Slight Delay for Hickory Bend Processing Plant, Permit Appealed)…
Read More “OH Hickory Bend Pipeline/Plant Makes Excellent Progress”