Statewide OH

Carrizo Oil & Gas | Energy Companies | Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Carrizo’s New Drilling Strategy: Closer Well Spacing
October 7, 2013October 7, 2013

An analysis by brokerage firm Sterne Agee turns up an interesting strategy change by Carrizo Oil & Gas. Carrizo is a driller in the Utica Shale. They also have active drilling in the Eagle Ford “oily” play (in Texas).

The interesting change-up in their strategy? In the Eagle Ford Carrizo is experimenting with well spacing. Currently the company spaces wells on 105-acre sections. But lately they’re trying it on 80-acre sections, which allows them to place more wells on their leased acreage. Will they use the same strategy in the Utica?…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Ohio | Regulation | Statewide OH

Muskingum Watershed Taken to Court by Anti-Frackers (Yawn)
October 3, 2013October 3, 2013

MDN has long chronicled the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District’s (MWCD) challenges with selling a relative thimble-full of its vast water supplies to Utica Shale drillers. Not only are they now selling water, they’ve leased a good number of acres for drilling–some of it under lakes and reservoirs. That really ticks off the eco-nuts.

Anti-frackers have thrown tantrums and have done their darnedest to stop the MWCD from allowing drilling and from selling water to frackers–for a time they even bullied them into a retreat (see Muskingum Watershed Reverses Decision to Sell Water to Drillers)–but ultimately the anti-frackers have failed. So now it’s off to court to see if they can convince a liberal judge somewhere to put the breaks on progress in Ohio…
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Energy Companies | Hess | Industrywide Issues | Jefferson County (OH) | Lease & Royalty Payments | Litigation | Ohio | Statewide OH

Hess Loses OH Court Case, May Owe Big Bucks to 300 Landowners
October 2, 2013October 2, 2013

Hess has just lost a court case in Ohio that may end up costing the company dearly. Hess had purchased leases in eastern Ohio from other companies. The original leases date to 2006-2008 and in many cases the landowners were paid as little as $10 per acre for a signing bonus–absolutely peanuts compared to today’s rates for $5K or more per acre. A Jefferson County landowner sued Hess to get out of his lease agreement because the company had not drilled on his property. Hess argued provisions in the lease let them extend the lease by paying a nominal extra fee.

Hess lost, and now will have to pay that landowner (and by extension around 300 other landowners) big re-signing bonuses or risk losing the land…
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American Energy Partners | American Energy Utica | EMG | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Aubrey McClendon Forms Utica Company, Gets Major Investor
October 1, 2013October 1, 2013

As MDN has said before and will no doubt say again, we believe Chesapeake Energy will rue the day they fired its founder, Aubrey McClendon. Just a few short months after being tossed out the door by board member and corporate raider Carl Icahn, McClendon founded a new company and was already active in Ohio’s Utica Shale (see He’s Baaaack! Aubrey McClendon is Back in OH Shale Country). His new company, with offices about a mile from Chesapeake’s HQ in Oklahoma City, is called American Energy Partners.

Word has leaked once again from “inside sources” that McClendon has now founded a second company, this one specifically set up to target the Utica Shale. The new company is called American Energy Utica and is being backed with big money by a prominent player in the energy space…
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Energy Companies | EV Energy Partners | Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

EVEP CEO Mark Houser Discusses Utica Shale Strategy, Future
October 1, 2013October 1, 2013

Mark Houser, president and CEO of EV Energy Partners, presented at the IPAA Oil and Gas Investment Symposium yesterday in San Francisco. Below are portions of his talk dealing with EVEP’s Utica Shale assets and strategy. Also below is the PowerPoint presentation he used, which contains some great maps and charts dealing with the Utica. In particular take a look at slides #8 through #18. Don’t miss the close-up pictures of UEO’s Kensington and Harrison plants.

If we could “net net” summarize what Houser said about the Utica and the role it will play in the company’s future, it’s in line with our previous observations, which is…
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Blue Ridge Mtn Res/Magnum Hunter | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Eureka Midstream | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Statewide OH | Statewide PA

Magnum Hunter CEO Gary Evans Charts a Marcellus/Utica Future
October 1, 2013October 1, 2013

Gary Evans, CEO of Magnum Hunter, presented at the IPAA Oil and Gas Investment Symposium yesterday in San Francisco. He did a deep dive into MH’s Marcellus and Utica Shale operations and plans moving forward. Evans said the company now owns 490,000 net acres in the northeast (Appalachia) with 81,000 net acres in the Marcellus Shale and 80,000 net acres in the Utica Shale. They have investments and operations in both drilling and in the midstream (pipelines) segment via subsidiary Eureka Hunter.

Below are Evans’ comments from yesterday along with a PowerPoint presentation which we believe is likely the one he used (or very similar to the one he used). Slides #13-#27 cover the Marcellus and Utica–well worth your time to review, some great maps and charts. Also included, a nifty picture of MH’s new robotic drilling rig (slide #26)…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Regulation | Statewide OH

OH Antis Force Change in Chemical Reporting, Everyone Less Safe
September 30, 2013September 30, 2013

Ohio’s anti-drillers, in their zeal to needle the drilling industry, have just put everyone who lives near active drill sites at more risk than they once were. Following state law, drillers (until now) have filed a list of the chemicals they store and use for fracking with the Ohio Department of Environmental Resources (ODNR). Local first responders–police and firefighters–could then electronically retrieve that information from the ODNR website for any given well if an incident occurred, like a fire. But anti-drillers asked the federal government to intervene and that has now happened. The feds have said drillers must file paperwork listing the chemicals stored and used directly with local counties and municipalities.

Now, firefighters will have to haul out a paper file from some filing cabinet and rifle through it if there’s any kind of emergency–instead of using the much faster online version from ODNR. Congratulations Ohio anti-drillers! You’ve just made everyone in Ohio more unsafe…
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Crude Oil | Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | NGLs | Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

U.S. Chamber’s Chris Guith Talks About Ohio Utica Shale
September 30, 2013September 30, 2013

Chris Guith is vice president for policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for 21st Century Energy. He’s also very familiar with the development of Ohio’s Utica Shale play. In a recent interview, Guith had some interesting comments on Ohio’s prospects for oil, NGL pipelines, industry jobs, regulations and more…
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Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Regulation | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Ohio Moves to Quarterly Production Reports Starting Jan 2014
September 16, 2013September 16, 2013

Investors and those who watch the Utica Shale industry, including MDN, have long called on the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) to abandon annual reporting of gas and oil production and instead move to a more frequent reporting system–quarterly would be about right. Late last year MDN prematurely told you quarterly reporting was on the way (see [Corrected] ODNR Moving to Quarterly Production Numbers for O&G). The state legislature took up the measure again earlier this year and made quarterly reporting part of the language in the 2013 Ohio budget bill (see Ohio Moves One Step Closer to Quarterly O&G Production Reports). The budget passed with quarterly reporting language intact.

Last Thursday, director of the ODNR, James Zehringer, along with the chief of the division of oil and gas operations for the ODNR, Rick Simmers, spoke at the Guernsey County Energy Coalition meeting. Simmers said starting in January 2014, Ohio drillers will be required to file quarterly production reports…
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Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Research | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Benesch Law’s Useful Quarterly Report/Overview on Utica Shale
September 16, 2013September 16, 2013

How about a handy quarterly snapshot of the Utica Shale and where various initiatives (like infrastructure investments) stand? The attorneys and researchers at Benesch Law produce just such a report every three months. The latest edition is now out. One statistic of note to give you a feel for the enormous scope and potential of the Utica Shale in Ohio: There are 133 pipeline projects–from local gathering lines to interstate natural gas liquids pipelines–either now being built or on the drawing board. It represents billions of dollars of investment in the Utica.

Below is the full Benesch Shale Industry Report – Quarterly Summary Q2 2013. Well worth the few minutes it takes to read…
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CONSOL Energy | Energy Companies | Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

OOGA Pegs Utica Shale “Sweet Spot” at YOUNG 2013
September 13, 2013

An Ohio Oil and Gas Association (OOGA) representative told attendees at the YOUNG 2013 conference held this week in Youngstown that counties in southeastern Ohio are the “sweet spot” of the Utica Shale play because the pressure there is higher and because the shale layer includes an abundance of natural gas liquids. However, another speaker–an executive from CONSOL Energy–said counties in northeastern Ohio will continue to see successful drilling too. So don’t despair!

Executive VP of OOGA, Tom Stewart, used a map to detail the location of a “strip of highly pressurized shale containing natural gas liquids.” While we don’t have a copy of the map, we do have his identification of precisely which counties he says are in that strip–the Utica Shale sweet spot…
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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Landfills | Ohio | Statewide OH | Supply Chain

OH Company Turns Drill Cuttings into Clean Fill Dirt in 24 Hours
September 13, 2013September 13, 2013

An intriguing supply chain story that caught MDN’s eye: An Ohio company has figured out a way to speed up the work of Mother Nature in decomposing the nasty stuff that contaminates “drill cuttings”–the rock and soil left over from drilling natural gas or oil wells. Drill cuttings are typically hauled off to a landfill where it takes Mother Nature hundreds (sometimes thousands) of years to fully break down the chemicals (naturally and not-naturally occurring) in drill cuttings.

Ohio Soil Recycling greatly speeds up the natural process and turns drill cuttings into soil suitable for use as “clean fill dirt” in as little as 24 hours!…
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Accidents | Belmont County | Energy Companies | Gulfport Energy | Harrison County | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Statewide OH

Gulfport Pays $250K Fine for Leaky Pad Liners at 7 OH Utica Sites
September 11, 2013September 11, 2013

The Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) investigated Gulfport’s shale drilling sites in eastern Ohio after an inspector found ground contamination at a Harrison County well. ODNR found evidence of brine–naturally occurring underground water that comes to the surface after drilling is done–escaping from (leaking from) the well–which is not supposed to happen. Each well pad has a big rubber pad liner that’s supposed to catch anything that happens to leak. Gulfport’s pad liners did not do the job.

In addition to a $250,000 fine, Gulfport has to rebuild each of the seven drill pads where there are defective liners before they can continue drilling at those locations…
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Antero Resources | CONSOL Energy | Energy Companies | Ohio | PDC Energy | Statewide OH

Eastern OH Shale Drillers Donate to Local Schools
September 11, 2013September 11, 2013

Several high schools in eastern Ohio have received a surprise gift: money from drillers. Antero Resources recently donated $2,500 to each of five high schools for use in their athletics programs. PDC Energy recently donated $5,000 to the Wolf Creek school. And CONSOL Energy is running a contest for select Ohio schools with a $10,000 first prize.

All of these efforts come under the umbrella of what we call “the industry gives back”…
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Ohio | Statewide OH | Summit County | Utica Shale

Ohio Utica Shale Blog Takes Top Honor in Statewide Contest
September 11, 2013September 11, 2013

A huge congratulations are in order for Bob Downing (whom we have met and like a great deal) and Jim Mackinnon (whom we’ve not met but are sure we would like) for winning the contest as the No. 1 newsblog in Ohio for 2012 for their Ohio Utica Shale blog (published by the Akron Beacon Journal). MDN editor Jim Willis reads a lot–every day–and one of his favorite “must read” websites (that we often quote from) is the Ohio Utica Shale blog/Akron Beacon Journal.

The award is well-deserved and we can’t think of a better pair who deserve the recognition from their peers in the Society of Professional Journalists, the organization making the award. So, “Way to go, guys!”…
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Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

OH’s Utica Shale Drillers Go South
September 4, 2013September 4, 2013

Ace reporter Bob Downing from the Akron Beacon Journal does a great job in an article published yesterday with reviewing the most recent permit (and drilling) trends in Ohio. What did he find? Most drillers are moving their permits and their drilling rigs to the southern part of the state. Carroll County remains the current champ for Utica Shale drilling with 319 wells permitted (38% of all Utica Shale wells in Ohio). However, at some point in the not-too-distant-future that will change…
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