Statewide OH

Appalachian Oilfield Services | Crime | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Statewide OH

Feds Slap Appalachian Oilfield Svcs with $129,802 for Back Wages
July 11, 2014July 11, 2014

The federal government has slapped Appalachian Oilfield Services with a hefty fine. The U.S. Dept. of Labor investigated the company and found they were shorting employees by not paying them overtime. So 25 Appalachian employees working in Ohio will be given $129,802 in back wages/overtime according to an announcement by the DOL. Appalachian Oilfield Services is based in Lafayette, LA but as the name suggests, they focus on northeast drilling–providing equipment and personnel to assist with fracking operations. The company has an office in New Matamoras, OH. Here’s the feds tooting their own horn…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Statewide OH

Liberal “Churches” Tell OH to Dump Fracking, Embrace Renewables
July 10, 2014July 10, 2014

Churches pretending to be apolitical, but very much political, are once again in the news with regard to the fracking issue. On Monday MDN told you of the repugnant efforts by so-called churches who claim they will divest from a blacklist of 200 companies (like ExxonMobil) that produce evil, vile, nasty fossil fuels (see Some So-Called Churches Vote to Divest from Fossil Fuel Companies). The United Church of Christ and the Unitarian Universalist denominations are two of the so-called churches behind the move. Those two are back in the news in Ohio, trying to (irrationally) tell state legislators to move as quickly as possible to so-called renewable forms of energy and leave fracking for Utica Shale gas behind…
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Lease & Royalty Payments | Ohio | Statewide OH

Let’s Play Lease Poker – Calling the Lease Agent’s Bluff
July 10, 2014July 10, 2014

Psst, hey buddy, want to play some poker? A landman with inside knowledge sheds light on how drillers time their lease filings–particularly in Ohio. Bill Dannley writing in Ohio Oil & Gas likens the process to playing poker–knowing when to hold ’em and when to fold ’em. Before landowners are approached to sign a lease, a lot of work has already been done, according to Dannley. Expensive seismic surveys have been conducted and deeds have been researched. When a landowner signs on the dotted line, you might expect the landman to hustle on down to the courthouse to file the lease–but that’s not what usually happens…
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Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Mid-Year Update for OH Utica – Who’s Drilling Where & How Much?
July 9, 2014July 9, 2014

Time for an update on the rapidly expanding Utica Shale region. Below MDN outlines the most active drillers in the Utica, indicating their acreage positions and how many wells they have permitted, drilled or producing (so far). Information on acreage positions was gleaned from company websites, the 2014 Marcellus and Utica Shale Databook, Vol. 1 and NGI’s Shale Plays Fact Book…
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Housing | Industrialization | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Research | Statewide OH

OSU Extension Says Shale Boom Towns Don’t Have to Go Bust
July 9, 2014July 9, 2014

Are communities that see a boom from shale drilling destined to experience a bust sometime down the road? MDN recalls that was one of the main reasons Cornell “professor” Tony Ingraffea offered for why he doesn’t like shale drilling at a meeting he addressed back in 2010 (see Cornell Hydraulic Fracturing Expert Headlines First Meeting of New York Residents Against Drilling (NYRAD) in Vestal, NY). However, a new project being launched by Ohio State University’s Extension program says boom then bust “isn’t inescapable” and they aim to help communities avoid that fate…
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Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Ohio | Statewide OH

OH Makes $150K Grant to Union to Train Utica/Marcellus Welders
July 7, 2014July 7, 2014

More highly skilled (and highly paid) welders will be on the way soon in the Utica and Marcellus Shale thanks to a $150,000 training grant by the State of Ohio to the Plumbers & Pipefitters Local 396. The grant, from the Governor’s Office of Appalachia, will train (or retrain) 40 union welders over the next one year. The money will put Ohioans back to work by working in the gas fields (no “foreigners” need apply). Here’s the official announcement:
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Ohio | Statewide OH

OH Natgas Production Doubles from 2012 to 2013 Thx to the Utica
July 3, 2014July 3, 2014

Yesterday the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) released production numbers for 2013 and the numbers were truly impressive. ODNR says all oil and gas wells (conventional and unconventional/shale) in Ohio produced 8 million barrels of oil and 171 billion cubic feet of gas in 2013. Compared to 2012, Ohio’s total oil production increased by 62% and natural gas production increased by 97%. The increase in natural gas is due almost entirely to the Utica Shale…
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Ohio | Statewide OH

Ohio Utica’s Top 10 Gas Wells & Top 10 Oil Wells 1Q14
July 3, 2014July 3, 2014

The Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources not only released 2013 full year oil and gas production figures yesterday, they also released first quarter 2014 production figures. For 1Q14 the state’s Utica wells produced almost 2 million barrels of oil and 67 billion cubic feet of natural gas from 418 operating wells (out of 476 completed wells). Below MDN has assmebled the Top 10 natural gas producing wells for 1Q14, the top 10 oil wells, and stats by county and by driller. It paints a fascinating picture…
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Lease & Royalty Payments | Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

MWCD Reinvesting $300M of Utica Shale Revenue over Next 10 Yrs
July 3, 2014July 3, 2014

The Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District (MWCD) covers more than 8,000 square miles of rivers, reservoirs and creeks that drain into the Muskingum River. It is the largest wholly contained watershed in the state of Ohio, covering about 20% of the state. MWCD owns 54,000 acres of land. Early in the Utica Shale boom in Ohio the MWCD was scared off from participating (see Muskingum Watershed Reverses Decision to Sell Water to Drillers). But it wasn’t long before the MWCD board found their resolve and started to not only sell water for Utica fracking, they started leasing land like crazy (see Antero Pays $15K/Acre, 20% Royalties for MWCD Piedmont Lake Lease). All of those water sales and leases for drilling are now paying off for MWCD rate payers and indeed for all Ohioans…
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Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Ohio | Statewide OH

OH Dem Gov Candidate Tries to Outdo “Foreigner Hunter” Kasich
July 3, 2014July 3, 2014

This is interesting. We didn’t even know there is a governor’s race in Ohio this year. The OH race is probably not newsworthy because the Democrat running against John Kasich doesn’t stand a prayer of a chance. Most polls we checked have Kasich trouncing his opponent–Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald–by at least 10 points. However, what’s interesting and noteworthy is that FitzGerald is trying to out-foreigner hunter the foreigner hunter himself, Gov. Kasich. You may recall MDN labeled Kasich “the foreigner hunter” back in 2012 after he started his jingoistic talk labeling out-of-state experts who work on some of Ohio’s drilling rigs and in the Ohio Utica Shale as “foreigners” (see OH Gov. Kasich Continues Trash Talk Out-of-State Workers). Such talk is unbecoming a governor and unbecoming a supposed conservative–and we continue to point it out. Well it seems Democrat FitzGerald is even more extreme than Kasich…
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Blue Ridge Mtn Res/Magnum Hunter | Energy Companies | Energy Services | GreenHunter Resources | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

3 New (Short) Pipelines from GreenHunter in Tri-state Area
June 30, 2014June 30, 2014

GreenHunter Resources, a subsidiary of Magnum Hunter Resources, is making small moves to compete with MarkWest Energy and Williams. Today, GreenHunter announced they are building (in a partnership with Major Pipeline LLC) three new, short pipelines. The three pipelines represent a total of 34 miles of new pipeline, when added together. One pipeline each will be dedicated to brine/wastewater, fresh water, and condensate. Two of the pipelines will originate in southwestern PA and one in WV. All of them will connect with one of GreenHunter’s barge terminals on the Ohio River. Also in the mix is a condensate “splitter”…
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Energy Services | Energy Transfer Partners | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pipelines | Statewide OH

Big News: ETP “Rover” Marcellus/Utica Pipeline to Midwest/Canada
June 27, 2014June 27, 2014

Midstream company Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) announced a major new Marcellus/Utica Shale pipeline infrastructure project yesterday that will transport up to 3.25 billion cubic feet per day of northeast shale gas to markets in the Midwest and Canada. Dubbed the Rover Pipeline Project, ETP says they already have three important (and big) customers lined up to use the new pipeline system, including Aubrey McClendon’s American Energy Partners, Antero Resources and Range Resources. A binding open season to sign up more customer begins today and runs for a month. The first leg of the new pipeline will connect PA, WV and southeast OH processing plants by crossing Ohio, following an existing pipeline route. A second leg will connect northwestern OH to Canada by slicing up through Michigan. Here’s the particulars, along with a map…
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Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Statewide OH | Taxation

Anti-Drilling Policy Matters Ohio Says Severance Tax Too Low
June 25, 2014June 25, 2014

It probably won’t surprise you to learn that the far left, anti-drilling group Policy Matters Ohio (PMO) doesn’t like the current proposed severance tax of 2.5% for Ohio. It’s not nearly high enough to chase drillers away for PMO, and there’s waaaay too many “tax breaks” in House Bill 375, the severance tax bill, for their taste. But then, every last dime earned by hardworking drillers belongs to the government, right? The government should just let those nasty drillers keep a little bit of it so the government can spend it on people who didn’t earn it, right? That’s the attitude of PMO…
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Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Chesapeake CEO Lawler Calls Himself “Anti-Core”
June 20, 2014June 20, 2014

Speaking at a conference this week, Chesapeake Energy CEO Doug Lawler says he doesn’t believe in nonsense like “core of the core” in given shale plays–like the Utica. Lawler says he’s “anti-core” and instead of trying to zero in on the best-producing locations in a play he would rather not limit himself or technology. Which is all kind of funny since Chessy missed the core in the Utica Shale. Lawler’s comments are a tacit admission that they blew it in the Utica, so now they’ll make some lemonade with the lemons in their hand and simply ignore reality…
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pipelines | Rockies Express Pipeline | Statewide OH

Rockies Express Pipeline Reverses Flow from Utica to Midwest
June 19, 2014June 19, 2014

Nearly a year ago MDN tipped you off that the Rockies Express (REX) Pipeline would reverse at least part of its flow and start sending natural gas from the Utica/Marcellus to the Midwest (see REX Reverses Pipeline Flow from OH for Mystery Utica Customer). That momentous day has arrived. As of today, a new 14.3-mile lateral is flowing gas north from the MarkWest Seneca natural gas processing plant to the REX mainline, where a newly built compressor station will allow the gas to be delivered to points west in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. Eventually the gas may also go to Missouri…
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Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Lease & Royalty Payments | Litigation | Ohio | Statewide OH

OH Landowners Lose Important Lease Case to Chesapeake
June 17, 2014June 17, 2014

Sometimes the drilling industry gets a well-deserved black eye for their sleazy actions. This is one of those times. Chesapeake Energy took over low-ball leases signed in Jefferson County, OH in 2007 that awarded landowners $10 per acre. The lease calls for paying $10 per acre until the land is drilled. Original term of the lease was five years. But at the end of the five years Chessy automatically renewed it based on something called “paragraph 19” in Ohio’s contract law. Chessy says the language in the lease allows them to renew with the same screw-ya terms. Thing is, landowners who waited now get thousands per acre when signing a lease…
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