Shale Insight Starts Today – Visit MDN in Booth 208
Welcome to Pittsburgh! MDN editor Jim Willis always enjoys the City of Bridges. Today begins Shale Insight. If you’re attending (and a number of MDN subscribers do attend), please stop by Booth 208 and say hello. There will be a number of top notch speakers both today and tomorrow. The person grabbing most of the headlines is Donald Trump, who will speak tomorrow. However, there are many other noteworthy speakers on the agenda. Harold Hamm, CEO of Continental Resources is one of them. Gary Heminger, CEO of Marathon Petroleum is another. Other standouts for MDN: Stacey Olson, the new president of Chevron Appalachia; Gladys Brown, chairwoman of the PA Public Utility Commission; Keith Burdette, Secretary of the West Virginia Department of Commerce; Camera Bartolotta, PA Senator; and Alex Epstein, author of the book, “The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels” (great book, Jim has read it). For the list of speakers and a full agenda, visit: //shaleinsight.com. See you in Pittsburgh!
Anti-coal, anti-natural gas, anti-oil, anti-logic…the radicals who make up the Sierra Club are anti-everything. They can’t even stand themselves! Self-loathing seems to be a requirement for membership. The Allegheny sub-group of the Sierra Club is planning to protest in front of the David L Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh this coming Thursday morning. Why? Because presidential candidate Donald Trump is scheduled to speak and they HATE HIS GUTS. They also hate frackers and those who support them, like your humble editor. There’s no better unifier on the left than hatred. MDN will be on location at the event and if we get a chance we’ll snap a picture or two of the nutters out front protesting. Meanwhile, here’s the Sierra Club game plan for Thursday…
Last week the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) doled out a total of $13 million in grants for twelve multi-year research projects. The aim of the projects is to develop ways to mitigate methane emissions from natural gas pipelines and storage infrastructure, ways that don’t break the bank. Two of the twelve projects will be run in Pittsburgh. PPG Industries, the Gas Technology Institute and RTI International received a combined $876,639 to study remote monitoring of natural gas pipelines. The University of Pittsburgh and Corning together got a whopping $1.2 million to develop an advanced distributed optical fiber technology for natural gas infrastructure monitoring. Here’s the lowdown from the DOE…
A banker, a real estate developer and a natural gas drilling company rep walk into a bar… No wait! This isn’t a joke! A banker, a real estate developer and a natgas drilling rep were panelists at seminar held yesterday, organized by the Pittsburgh Business Times. Even though there has been a major slowdown in Marcellus/Utica drilling, all three panelists were upbeat and optimistic–in no small part because of the coming Shell ethane cracker in nearby Beaver County. One comment made about the Shell cracker: “We’re not just building a facility; we’re building an industry.” That’s just how major the Shell project will be in the greater Pittsburgh area. Another comment: “The Marcellus Shale is not in the tank…It has slowed down, which is typical of industries that are sensitive to price cycles, [but] it’s consistent, affordable and is stable.” More interesting tidbits from the PBT soiree…
In May 2013 amidst much fanfare, Chevron purchased 61 acres to build a new regional Marcellus Shale headquarters in Moon Township, PA, a suburb of Pittsburgh (see 
This week the Developing Unconventional Gas (DUG) East event was held in Pittsburgh, PA. There was a fair bit of news and a host of interesting stories coming from the event. Below we’ve listed stories worth your time, with a very brief summary of why to read those stories. To tease you: the money people think land deals are about to pick up in the Marcellus/Utica; Dept. of Energy Deputy Director Carmine Difiglio signs the praises of the Marcellus/Utica; in the weeds talking about technology; CONSOL’s plans for the Ohio Utica; and much more!…
The coming Shell ethane cracker plant complex in Monaca (Beaver County), PA, will create a lot of jobs–some in the near-term, but many in the medium-to-longer term. The plant won’t be complete for another five years. Between now and then it will take 6,000 temporary workers to build it. Once built, the plant will take 600 permanent employees to run it. Is Beaver County and the greater Pittsburgh region ready for that kind of jobs challenge? As of today, the answer would be “no.” But leaders in the area are working on it…
Something noteworthy has happened in western Pennsylvania and (so far) local media has chosen not to cover it. So MDN is happy to break the following story about South Fayette Township in Allegheny County (near Pittsburgh). South Fayette is one of seven PA towns that sued the state after the Act 13 law was enacted in 2012 (see 
Earlier this week (March 30th) the 2016 Northeast Oil & Gas Awards and Industry Summit was held in Pittsburgh. Once again the Awards and the Summit were a smashing success. Congratulations to all of the finalists and winners! Each year the Oil & Gas Awards recognize organizations operating responsibly and supporting the communities they operate within. Now in their 4th year, the Oil & Gas Awards are judged by over 100 senior industry professionals. Partners in the Northeast Awards are The US Chamber of Commerce, The Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry, The Washington County Chamber of Commerce and the Western Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association. Here is a complete list of the winners, by category…
Details are just now coming to light of a new E&P (exploration and production, or drilling) company headquartered in Pittsburgh and focused totally on the Marcellus and Utica region. Until now the company has flown under our radar. The company is American Petroleum Partners (APP)–not to be confused with Aubrey McClendon’s American Energy Partners (AEP)–and is headed by Rice Energy alumnus Varun Mishra, who is the founder and CEO. The big news is that last September Mishra’s new company, founded in 2014, received a major injection of investment capital. Apollo Global Management invested $411 million in APP with the option to double it up to $800 million. MDN has it on very good authority that although APP quietly issued a press release about this last September (see it below), the company has intentionally kept the news quiet. Not any more! Big mouth MDN is blabbing it to the world. Below are the bits and pieces we’ve been able to put together about this newest Utica/Marcellus driller…