| | | | | | | | | | | |

WV/OH Officials Going on Field Trip to Prepare for Cracker Plant

The Odebrecht ethane cracker plant planned for the Parkersburg, WV area continues to walk/smell/act/behave like it’s the real deal. The latest evidence: Odebrecht has told area officials around Parkersburg, you need to be prepared for when the 100% official announcement comes, cause at that point, things will happen fast. So area officials are boning up now to be prepared for an influx of people and jobs–both a good thing, and a challenge. Area officials from Wood County, WV and neighboring Washington County, OH will head to the bitter-cold north country–Minot, North Dakota–in January (!) to see how that community has dealt with a rapidly expanding population and influx of new jobs due to the Bakken Shale…
Continue reading

| | |

Marietta’s City-Owned Land for Lease Tied Up (Again) by City Council

For (quite) a while now the city of Marietta, OH has tried to get leases of city-owned property for drilling under (not on) to extract Utica Shale gas. The first time around they tried, they delayed and it cost them (see Delay in Leasing City-Owned Land Costs Marietta, OH Big $). They decided to try again, with five different parcels (see Marietta Tries 2nd Time to Lease City Land for Utica Drilling). MNW Energy, a leasing company for Protege Energy, originally offered to lease Gunlock Park and Goose Run Road (two of the five parcels) for $4,750 per acre signing bonus and 17.5% royalties. Looks like that deal is back on the table and the city is reviewing it–hopefully in a more timely manner this time around. The problem is, it appears city council is once again frittering around…
Continue reading

| | | | | | | |

EnLink Midstream Announces New Condensate Pipeline in ORV

Earlier this year, midstream company Crosstex Energy merged with the midstream division of shale driller Devon Energy and gave birth to a new company–EnLink Midstream (see Time to Congratulate Devon & Crosstex on the Birth of EnLink). EnLink has a small but growing presence in the northeast, including the Utica Shale. EnLink’s commitment to the Ohio River Valley (Utica Shale) has just doubled by adding another $250 million committed to a project that will build a new 45-mile condensate pipeline and add compressor stations in Noble, Belmont, and Guernsey counties…
Continue reading

| | | | |

Marietta Tries 2nd Time to Lease City Land for Utica Drilling

The City of Marietta, OH has several parcels of land they’re interested in leasing for Utica gas drilling: (1) Gunlock Park, behind the Walmart complex off Pike Streeet, (2) city-owned land along Goose Run Road in Marietta Township, (3) city garage property off Alderman Street, and (4) Buckeye Park off Acme and Greene Streets, and (5) the Kroger swap (i.e. “wetlands”) off Acme Street. All five locations total 95 acres. MDN reported that because city council snoozed, they lost out on an earlier opportunity to lease the Gunlock Park and Goose Run properties (35 acres) back in May (see Delay in Leasing City-Owned Land Costs Marietta, OH Big $). The city will run a second advertisement (legal requirement) to lease all parcels, and once again, they may have some interest. If they don’t botch it this time…
Continue reading

| | | | | | |

New Condensate Processing Coming to Utica/Marcellus from Ergon

coming soonNew condensate processing is on the way later this year from Ergon, Inc.–a company headquartered in Mississippi but with refineries and processing facilities in Ohio and West Virginia (and operations that include western Pennsylvania, Kentucky and New York). Ergon announced yesterday the company has spent over $75 million in the past two years to upgrade facilities, and continues to spend. Coming later this year is a 10,000 barrel per day condensate stabilization facility in Marietta, OH. Coming next year, the same kind of facility (also 10,000 bbl/d) in Newell, WV…
Continue reading

| | | | |

Seismic Testing Coming in July to Washington County, OH Town

Seismic testing is coming to Fearing Township (Washington County), OH starting in July. Seismic testing usually precedes drilling–so that means drilling is most likely on the way. The testing will allow drillers to “see” the best locations to place wells. So how will Protege Energy III, the company that’s hiring the testing done, go about doing the testing? No big thumper trucks along roadways for Protege. Instead, they favor drilling small holes and putting small explosive charges in the holes and recording the sound waves that bounce from the explosive charges. Protege held a community meeting earlier this month in Fearing to discuss the process and answer questions…
Continue reading

| | | | |

Magnum Hunter JV Deal with EdgeMarc to Drill 1,080 Acres in OH

This morning Magnum Hunter Resources announced a new, small joint venture with EdgeMarc (EM Energy Ohio) to drill on and under 1,080 acres of Marcellus/Utica property in Washington County, OH. This is the third such smallish jv between Magnum Hunter and other companies to drill in either the Marcellus or Utica Shale…
Continue reading

| | | | | |

OH Newspaper’s Sloppy Reporting on Drilling Workers/Problems

Local newspapers in drilling towns should know better, but sometimes reporters are either snookered, or they have an anti-drilling bent. We’re not sure which it is for The Marietta Times (Washington County, OH), but a recent article uses a so-called research report from the anti-drilling FracTracker that says when drilling comes to town so too does an increase in crime. And on that particular false premise the reporter hangs an entire article full of anecdotes and innuendo. Shame on The Marietta Times…
Continue reading

| | | | | |

Marietta Meeting Highlights Big Economic Impacts from Drilling

Marietta (Washington County), OH residents and business owners had a chance last Friday to hear how the northeast shale boom has already benefited that area, and how the area will benefit in the future. The changes statewide are dramatic. The changes locally are starting to be felt too–and more changes are on the way. Exciting changes…
Continue reading

| | | | |

OH County Commissioner Says ‘No Thanks’ to Severance Tax Increase

A lone voice crying in the wilderness! Amid all of the calls for more socialism–redistributing the hard-earned money from landowners and drilling companies to people who didn’t earn it via a higher severance tax–a Washington County, OH commissioner says “No!” He says raising the severance tax is a fundamentally bad idea and he does not endorse the Republicans’ dalliance with the idea.

And so we bring you a letter to the editor reprinted in the Parkersburg (WV) News and Sentinel from Washington County, OH commissioner Ron Feathers, a man we salute!…
Continue reading

| | | |

Lawyers Give Heads-up on Cobra Pipeline in Warren, OH

MDN makes no claims to omniscience when it comes to Marcellus and Utica drillers and pipeline operators–but it’s not often a completely new name pops up to surprise us–something we had not heard of before. Such is the case with Cobra Pipeline. According to the Cobra Pipeline website: “Cobra Pipeline Co., LTD is an Ohio based intrastate natural gas pipeline company headquartered in Willoughby, Ohio. Cobra Pipeline Co, LTD owns approximately 300 miles of intrastate gas pipeline and compression within the State of Ohio. Our system connects natural gas suppliers with major interstate transmission pipeline systems. Cobra Pipeline provides competitively priced gas transportation service as well as operating a safe and efficient gas pipeline system.”

So it appears Cobra is a local gathering system that perhaps at one point connected conventional (vertical only) wells, but increasingly now connects unconventional (shale) wells to larger pipeline systems. The reason it popped up on the radar is because a couple of lawyers recently spoke to a small group of landowners in Marietta (Washington County), OH about Cobra’s plans to come through that area–mostly along an existing route used by Columbia Pipeline. The lawyers were there to give landowners a heads-up and tips for how to negotiate the best deal for a pipeline easement, and what to do if eminent domain rears its ugly head…
Continue reading

| | | | | | | | | |

Company Targets OH Landowners – Buy Future Royalties for Cash Now

Gateway Royalty is back and has $58.5 million on the bank they can’t wait to give landowners in the Ohio Utica Shale in return for future royalty payments. MDN told you about Gateway last summer. They were the company that the town of Carrollton, OH sold 1/4 of their royalty rights to (see OH Town Votes to Give Up 1/4 Royalties for Cash Payment Now). The way it works, in brief: Gateway pays landowners a lump sum now in return for the right to receive that landowner’s future royalty payments for years to come. You (the landowner) get your money now, they (Gateway) get the money you would have gotten dribbled out over time. Of course the money you receive now is discounted and in all likelihood far less than you would have gotten if you had waited just a few years (the bulk of royalty payments come in the first four years). It’s a bit of a gamble by both parties because no one really knows how much a well will produce.

Still, there are reasons why someone may want to get cash up front–pay off debt, ill health, etc. So in that vein, we bring you the latest press release from Gateway announcing they are ready, willing and waiting to give Ohio Utica Shale landowners money now. Specifically they are targeting landowners in Washington, Noble, Guernsey, Monroe, Belmont, Harrison, Carroll and Columbiana counties…
Continue reading

| | | | |

Marietta Residents Generally in Favor of Leasing City-Owned Land

Seems to us, from an informal survey around town, that most residents of Marietta, OH are in favor of the city leasing 35 acres of municipal property to Protege Energy for the offered $4,750 per acre signing bonus and 17.5% royalty on any gas produced.

A sampling of reaction “around town”…
Continue reading

| | | | | |

Tackling a Serious Issue: Low Level Radioactivity in Drill Waste

There are a number of problems to be addressed and resolved when it comes to shale drilling–issues like truck traffic, noise, lights at night and yes, wastewater and drill cuttings (leftover rock and dirt from drilling). MDN has never shied away from discussing those issues–we need to discuss them openly and honestly for that’s the only way we solve them. Simply saying those issues are unsolvable and therefore drilling should never happen is an unreasonable and intellectually dishonest position, yet that’s what many anti-drillers do. Case in point: a single anti-driller’s objection to Washington County, OH company Envirotank Clean’s request to handle and blend semi-liquid drill cuttings that have low levels of naturally occurring radioactivity to make it safe for disposal at certified landfills ready to take it.

Envirotank wants a permit from the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources to begin accepting what is called TENORM, or technologically-enhanced naturally-occurring radioactive material. In a self-defeating argument a single, solitary anti-driller who will no doubt recruit more to her side, says any amount of radioactive material is unsafe. We hate to tell her, but she may want to stay away from the local hospital where there’s lots of radioactive material–material that often sets off radiation alarms at landfills. Should hospitals ban cancer treatments because it produces TENORM material? According to her logic, yes…
Continue reading

| | | | |

Marietta, OH Offered $4,750/Acre + 17.5% Royalties for 35 Acres

An offer–or more accurately a pre-offer–was made at the Marietta (OH) City Council meeting yesterday that would put an initial $166,250 in the city’s coffers from leasing 35 city-owned acres along the edge of the city for shale drilling. A driller is tentatively offering $4,750 per acre as a signing bonus, plus 17.5% royalties, for land in the area. Some city council members (Democrats) expressed concerns about the potential offer, and several residents from anti-drilling groups in attendance also added their drivel 2 cents.

Here’s more of the details about the offer–the driller who’s making it, when the drilling would begin, and what was ultimately decided as the next step at yesterday’s meeting…
Continue reading