Statewide OH

Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Ohio | Research | Statewide OH

OH Report Details Shale Drilling’s Huge Impact on Jobs, Economy
February 12, 2013February 12, 2013

The Ohio Dept. of Job and Family Services (Ohio’s welfare agency) issued the very first edition of a new quarterly publication yesterday which tracks the changes in Ohio’s oil and gas industry (see a copy of the first issue embedded below). What did ODJFS find with regard to the oil and gas industry’s impact on Ohio? Jobs in the oil and gas fields are up 17% from 2011 to 2012. The average salary across all the shale-related industries in Ohio is $73,934 per year. Those with jobs extracting oil in Ohio’s shale are making over $100K per year.

In short, the Utica and Marcellus Shale in Ohio has been a jobs and economic boom for the state:

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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pipelines | Statewide OH | Tennessee Gas Pipeline | Utica Shale

TGP Seeks to Convert Pipeline into Utica Wet Gas Gathering Line
February 7, 2013February 7, 2013

The Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co. recent made a filing with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) declaring its intention to convert an existing “lean gas” pipeline in the Ohio Utica Shale into a gathering pipeline to move wet gas from the Utica to market. TGP is getting a lot of pushback from existing pipeline customers that would be affected by the change:

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

PDC Energy Dumps Piceance to Concentrate on Ohio Utica
February 7, 2013February 7, 2013

PDC Energy, formerly known as Petroleum Development Corp., announced Tuesday they are selling off “non-core” assets in the Piceance Basin (northwestern Colorado) and assets they own in northeastern Colorado for $200 million so they can invest the money in wet gas drilling in the Ohio Utica and Niobrara Shale plays.

PDC’s announcement from Tuesday:

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

Details of OH Gov. Kasich’s Utica Shale Severance Tax Hike
February 6, 2013February 6, 2013

Ohio Gov. John Kasich released his budget for fiscal years 2014 & 2015 yesterday, and along with it, he resurrected the same plan he first introduced a year ago to increase severance tax on oil and gas production in the Utica Shale (see Details on Ohio Gov. Kasich’s New Tax on Shale Drilling). The plan in a nutshell: Hike the severance tax on Utica Shale drilling, then spread the new-found wealth around to buy votes to get re-elected.

Here’s a summary of the coming changes (and make no mistake, the plan will pass this time):

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Energy Services | Harrison County | Industrywide Issues | MarkWest Energy | Monroe County | Ohio | Pipelines | Processing Plants | Statewide OH

Cash Runs Low – MarkWest Floats $150M Loan in Utica Midstream JV
February 6, 2013February 6, 2013

At the end of 2011, MarkWest Energy and The Energy & Minerals Group (EMG) announced that MarkWest was buying out EMG’s share in a 3-year-old joint venture deal in the wet gas portion of the Marcellus Shale called MarkWest Liberty Midstream. EMG owned a 49% stake in that JV (see MarkWest Pays $1.8B to Buy Out JV Partner in Liberty Midstream). At the time of the buyout, the two companies announced they would form a new JV to build midstream infrastructure in the Utica Shale starting in 2012.

The new Utica JV (called MarkWest Utica EMG) ramped up in early 2012 as the pair set out to duplicate their success in building out the Marcellus in the fledgling Utica. The strategy? “Creating a large network of processing complexes connected through an extensive NGL gathering system,” which they immediately began to do by beginning construction on two new processing complexes in Harrison and Monroe counties in Ohio (see MarkWest to Expand/Build NGL Plants on New Agreements). Just one tiny problem: the Utica JV is now running short on cash…

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Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Ohio: 512 Utica Shale Permits Issued, 223 Utica Wells Drilled
February 6, 2013February 6, 2013

The numbers keep racking up for Utica Shale permits and wells drilled in Ohio. According to the latest report from the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources, Ohio has now approved 512 permits for Utica Shale drilling and the state has 27 drilling rigs busy at work in the Utica right now. So the numbers will continue to rapidly rise for the foreseeable future.

Here’s the particulars of where permits and drilling are taking place, including two helpful interactive maps:

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Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Statewide OH | Taxation

OH Gov. Kasich Budget Soaks Drillers & Farmer Landowners
February 5, 2013February 5, 2013

Ohio Gov. John Kasich (supposedly a Republican) just released his biennial budget and as promised, it’s a socialistic masterpiece that raises taxes on shale drillers and farmers in order to fund a massive expansion in Medicaid and provide a state income tax cut.

When liberals like what you’re doing and you’re a Republican, that’s not a good sign…

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Chenango County | Cortland County | Delaware County | Lease & Royalty Payments | New York | Ohio | Otsego County | Statewide OH | West Virginia | Wirt County

WV Group Largest Landowner Coalition in Marcellus/Utica
February 5, 2013February 5, 2013

A group of landowners in Wirt County, WV have just taken the crown as the largest landowner coalition MDN is aware of in the entire Marcellus and Utica Shale. The Wirt County Oil and Gas Group closed the door on new signups as of Monday, and the total acreage represented by the group is an astonishing 227,000 acres—almost 1/4 million acres! The really attractive part for potential drillers? The land is located in the wet gas area of the Marcellus.

The next largest group MDN is aware of is in Upstate New York—the CNY (Central New York) Landowners Coalition—with 194,500 acres. Both the Wirt County and CNY coalitions have representatives in Houston this week for the NAPE Winter Expo, shopping the acreage looking for a lease.

More details on the Wirt County group:

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Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Ohio | Statewide OH

Chesapeake Wins Permit Case Before OH Supreme Court
February 1, 2013February 1, 2013

Chesapeake Energy has won an important appeal before the Ohio Supreme Court that ruled the Ohio Oil and Gas Commission did not have jurisdiction to hear an appeals case from a landowner over a permit issued to Chesapeake from the OH Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management to drill on the property. It was a case of the wrong agency sitting in judgment—the wrong “referee” if you will:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Regulation | Statewide OH | Wastewater

Is Shale Brine Dumping Coming to OH Landfills?
January 28, 2013January 28, 2013

MDN friend and Akron Beacon Journal reporter, Bob Downing, has just published an excellent piece of investigative journalism about brine dumping in Ohio landfills. Bob has tracked down a change in policy in Ohio that theoretically allows landfills to begin accepting brine from shale drilling. Brine is (mostly) naturally occurring salt water from deep below the earth that comes out of the wellbore after the well is drilled.

Some of the state’s 40 landfills have received permits to accept drill cuttings and other solids from the drilling process, but so far none have received permits to accept liquid brine that’s solidified with fly ash and other materials. That may be about to change…

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Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Utica Drilling in a Nutshell: Permits & Wells Drilled, by Driller
January 22, 2013January 22, 2013

The Akron Beacon Journal has done a great job of cataloging a condensed list of who is actively drilling—or intends to drill—in the Utica Shale. There are 23 companies in the list. No surprise that Chesapeake is #1 with 325 of the 498 permits handed out so far.

Here’s the entire list of 23 companies, along with a rundown of who’s drilled all 48 wells currently in production:

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Carrizo Oil & Gas | Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Energy Services | EV Energy Partners | Gulfport Energy | Hess | MarkWest Energy | Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

More than $1.2B & Counting on New Utica Drilling for 2013
January 21, 2013January 21, 2013

So far, more than $1.2 billion (that we know of) has been budgeted by Ohio’s Utica Shale drillers for 2013. A whopping $7 billion has been allocated for pipelines and processing plants over the next several years.

Here’s a quick rundown on the plans for a few of the Utica’s major drillers and what they plan to spend on drilling in the Utica in 2013:

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Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Another Milestone for Ohio: 500 Utica Shale Well Permits
January 18, 2013January 18, 2013

One Rubicon was passed just a few weeks ago when Ohio had officially drilled more than 200 Utica Shale wells (see Ohio Passes 200 Drilled Utica Shale Wells, New Permits Keep Coming).

Another Rubicon is about to pass: Ohio had officially approved 498 Utica Shale drilling permits as of Jan. 12, so by now, Ohio has gone over the 500-mark.

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Antero Resources | Chesapeake Energy | CNX Resources | Energy Companies | Gulfport Energy | Hess | Hilcorp Energy | Ohio | Statewide OH

ODNR Issues 17 New Permits for Utica Drilling…Last Week
January 16, 2013January 16, 2013

The permits to allow Utica Shale drilling in eastern Ohio continue to roll out from the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR). Here are the details on the 17 new permits issued in Ohio last week:

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

Why More Ohioans Don’t Work in Utica Shale Industry? Drugs
January 11, 2013January 11, 2013

Er, um, we’re not exactly sure how to broach this delicate topic without offending a great many residents of Ohio, including Ohio Gov. John Kasich who keeps saying he doesn’t want “foreign” workers in Ohio’s oil and gas fields (meaning he wants Ohioans only, not workers from Texas and Oklahoma), but, well, Gov. Kasich? Maybe you don’t have more Ohioans working in those gas fields because 50-60% of the Ohioans applying for those jobs are druggies. Yeah, you read that right. Half or more are strung out on drugs—both illegal and/or prescription.

In a recent interview, the head of the Ohio Oil and Gas Energy Education Program, Rhonda Reda, said that 50-60% of those applying for jobs in eastern Ohio’s shale industry are rejected because of the presence of illegal drugs or the “wrong” kind of prescription drugs (like Vicodin) found in the pee test. Note: we did not say half of all Ohioans use drugs! It’s half of all Ohioans applying for these jobs.

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Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Utica Shale Potpourri: from Names to Production to Multiple Wells
January 11, 2013January 11, 2013

Akron Beacon Journal reporter Bob Downing—in our opinion Bob is one of the best reporters covering the Utica Shale story in Ohio—brings us the following six “tidbits” that didn’t make it into a larger story he wrote looking back at 2012 and ahead to 2013 with respect to Utica Shale drilling.

There’s some interesting factoids below, along with MDN’s own (snarky) thoughts interspersed, including how one Ohio official wants to rename the Utica Shale! Forthwith:

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