Statewide OH

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”
Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale | Washington County (OH)

OH Students Get High-Paying Jobs in OH Utica Shale Industry
July 17, 2013July 17, 2013

A group of Ohio schoolteachers went on a field trip recently, touring drilling sites in eastern Ohio–Washington County, to be specific. A reporter tagged along to get their impressions and produced an interesting article. As part of that article, the reporter spoke to several educators about job opportunities in the Ohio oil (and gas) field patch. We’ve brought you such stories before, but it bears repeating that (in this case) Ohio students graduating from Marietta College’s petroleum engineering and geology department are actively, aggressively recruited and many get jobs right out of college with starting salaries of over $100,000 per year!

In addition, there’s plenty of high-paying jobs for those without a degree who have skills–like welding, truck driving and diesel mechanic. You can see how the Ohio Utica Shale is radically improving the jobs situation in Ohio:
Read More “OH Students Get High-Paying Jobs in OH Utica Shale Industry”
Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Portage County | Statewide OH | Wastewater

Wastewater Injection Wells in Ohio – Comprehensive Update
July 15, 2013

On Sunday, the Akron Beacon Journal ran an excellent article on injection wells in Ohio. Their findings: Portage County disposed of more frack wastewater via injection wells than any other county in Ohio last year–disposing of 2.3 million barrels of brine and frack fluid wastewater. Brine, you may recall, is naturally occurring water from the depths that comes out of drilled wells long after the fracking fluid has been pumped out. Brine is very “salty” with a high concentration of minerals.

What may be a surprising statistic for some: Nearly two-thirds of the wastewater disposed of in Ohio wells was from out of state–most of that from Marcellus drilling in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Here’s part of the article, which details a list of Ohio counties and how much wastewater they disposed of via injection wells:
Read More “Wastewater Injection Wells in Ohio – Comprehensive Update”
Energy Services | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | MarkWest Energy | NGLs | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Processing Plants | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

MarkWest: $2.2B in Marcellus/Utica, Bring on the Cracker Plants!
July 15, 2013July 15, 2013

MarkWest Energy, a major Marcellus and Utica midstream company, is investing $2.2 billion in the Marcellus/Utica region in pipelines, processing and fractionation plants. According to MarkWest, they have enough work in the northeast to keep them expanding for the next five years. One of the main services offered by MarkWest is removing ethane from raw natural gas. Their plan is to ship the ethane to either Canada or the Gulf Coast via pipelines. However, they’d love it if the region had “several cracker plants.” Here we go again with more cracker talk!

A good overview of MarkWest’s several billion dollar investment in the northeast, and their belief that the region needs its own cracker plant:
Read More “MarkWest: $2.2B in Marcellus/Utica, Bring on the Cracker Plants!”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

WRLC Says, “Why Can’t We be Friends?” in the OH Utica
July 15, 2013July 15, 2013

The Western Reserve Land Conservancy (WRLC), a nonprofit conservation organization dedicated to preserving the natural resources of northern Ohio, has the mission of working to “permanently protect natural areas and farmland.” The good news is that the WRLC believes Utica Shale drilling in Ohio can be done safely and wisely–with some effort. They also believe that if the Utica becomes “a battlefield” in the fracking wars, all Ohioans will lose. The WRLC says what’s needed by both sides is cooperation and creativity.

We like the WRLC’s sentiment. Only problem is, when dealing with extreme and unreasonable people who view all fossil fuels (and those who want to use them) as the enemy, cooperation and creativity is not possible. There is no middle ground when dealing with unreasonable (as in you can’t rationally reason with them) people who demand a ban on fracking…
Read More “WRLC Says, “Why Can’t We be Friends?” in the OH Utica”
Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Latest OH Utica Numbers: 767 Permits, 386 Wells Drilled
July 11, 2013July 11, 2013

The hits keep rollin’ in… The latest numbers for Utica Shale wells permitted and drilled in Ohio, including which counties received permits for last week:
Read More “Latest OH Utica Numbers: 767 Permits, 386 Wells Drilled”
Ohio | Pennsylvania | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Oil & Gas Awards – Enter Now
July 11, 2013July 11, 2013

Marcellus Drilling News is pleased to partner with the Oil & Gas Awards to promote their annual, regional events. Specifically, we’re promoting the 2013 Northeast Oil & Gas Awards (entries due by Nov. 29, 2013). However, there are a number of MDN readers from outside the Marcellus/Utica Shale region, so we’re also putting a shout-out to drillers and others in the industry about the Oil & Gas Awards for the Midcontinent, Southwest and West Coast (entries due Aug. 9, 2013).

The full, official announcement below…
Read More “Oil & Gas Awards – Enter Now”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Statewide OH | Statewide PA

Fracking Comes to Amish Country – Will They Allow It?
July 10, 2013July 9, 2013

Contrary to common belief and misconception, the Amish are not bumpkins and naive when it comes to the ways of the “English” world. Far from it. Take the issue of shale drilling on and under the land. While the Amish have a deep and healthy respect for the land, they’re not green zealots who worship it. They know Whom to worship and it’s not trees and grass. The land is here to be used wisely and circumspectly. Many Amish families in Ohio and Pennsylvania are deciding it’s just fine with God if their land is used for fracking…
Read More “Fracking Comes to Amish Country – Will They Allow It?”
Housing | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide OH | Statewide PA

OSU Study of PA Data Shows No Housing Crisis in Shale Country
July 9, 2013July 9, 2013

How many times have we heard (and believed) that when drilling comes to town, higher housing prices, specifically rent, comes along too. A quick influx of people for a relatively fixed inventory of housing and voilà–high rents. In fact, MDN previously highlighted a study in November 2011 by a cabal of PA colleges that issued a 200-page report on how shale drilling was causing a “housing crisis” in northeastern PA (see New Study Claims Housing Crisis in NE PA from Gas Drilling).

But what’s this? Researchers at Ohio State University, understandably concerned that a housing shortage may be on the way in eastern Ohio, studied the PA data for 2007-2011, the first four years of PA’s drilling boom. Using government data (objective and unbiased, from the Dept. of Housing & Urban Development), OSU researchers found, “…in Pennsylvania, counties experiencing the most shale-related development saw little change in fair market rents…housing vacancy rates and median home values.” A full copy of the OSU report debunking the “shale drilling creates a housing crisis” meme is embedded below.
Read More “OSU Study of PA Data Shows No Housing Crisis in Shale Country”