Allegheny County

Allegheny County | CONSOL Energy | Economic Impact | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania

NIMBY Town to Provide Water for Fracking at Pittsburgh Airport
August 30, 2013August 30, 2013

Two towns located near the Pittsburgh Airport are set to make big money from the drilling that will happen at the airport–even though the drilling is not within their own boundaries. How? They’re going to sell water to CONSOL Energy to be used for fracking 47 wells at the airport–up to 300 million gallons of water.

One of the towns selling water, Findlay, recently approved three new shale wells in the town–the first three to be drilled there (see Findlay Twp, PA Approves First 3 Marcellus Wells, Range to Drill). Findlay’s approval of Marcellus wells indicates they are favorable to shale drilling. The second town that will sell water for fracking at the airport, Moon Township, is not so favorable toward fracking. Last December the Moon Board of Supervisors voted to ban drilling in 75% of the their town (see Moon Twp, PA Votes to Ban Fracking in 75% of the Town). We find it interesting that a town that leans against drilling is willing to sell water for drilling–as long as the drilling is not in their backyard…

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Allegheny County | Chesapeake Energy | CNX Resources | Energy Companies | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Marcellus Shale Coalition Gets New Chairman of the Board
August 29, 2013August 29, 2013

It appears that Chesapeake CEO Doug Lawler’s massive firings throughout the company (no doubt demanded by corporate raider and Chessy board member Carl Ichan) have not only affected Chesapeake itself, but also the Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC)–the premier group representing the drilling industry in Pennsylvania and the entire Marcellus region.

The chairman of the board of directors at the MSC had been David Spigelmyer, VP of government relations for Chesapeake. Spigelmyer is now gone from Chesapeake and gone from the board of the MSC. In his place, the board has appointed the current vice chairman, Randy Albert, COO of CNX Gas, to be chairman until Spigelmyer’s term was due to end in November…
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Allegheny County | CONSOL Energy | Economic Impact | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania

CONSOL Energy Reveals Drilling Plan for Pittsburgh Airport
August 28, 2013August 28, 2013

CONSOL Energy and Pittsburgh Airport officials held a joint press conference yesterday to share more of the details for CONSOL’s plan to drill on airport-owned property. You may recall the airport authority signed a deal with CONSOL in February of this year, netting the airport a nifty check for $50 million as the signing bonus (see $50M Check in the Mail: Pittsburgh Airport Lease a Done Deal). However, the signing bonus is just an hors d’oeuvre. All done and told–after receiving royalties for years to come–the airport expects the project to bring in a staggering $1 billion or more.

The proposed drilling plan (see the map below) calls for 6 well pads, 47 Marcellus Shale wells on those pads (with the possibility of drilling Upper Devonian wells later on), three fresh water ponds (“impoundments”) and 17 miles of gathering pipelines. CONSOL said that seismic testing in and around the airport property will begin in late October of this year, however, the first test wells will not be drilled until third quarter of 2014…
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Allegheny County | Pennsylvania

Babst Calland Ranked Top Energy Law Firm in Pittsburgh Area
August 27, 2013August 27, 2013

MDN congratulates the Babst Calland law firm for being ranked the number one energy law firm in the greater Pittsburgh region as measured by number of practicing energy attorneys (they have 70 in Pittsburgh). Babst Calland writes one of our favorite law blogs–ShaleEnergyLawBlog.com.

Well done, and well deserved! We’ve included the top 10 below…
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Allegheny County | Energy Companies | EQT Corp | Forced Pooling | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Bad News: EQT Sues 70 Landowners Using New PA Forced Pooling Law
August 1, 2013

The recently signed Pennsylvania Royalty Bill SB259 provides extra transparency for landowners in how royalties are calculated, but it also introduces forced pooling for some landowners with old, pre-Marcellus leases (see PA Gov Corbett Signs Back-Door Forced Pooling Bill into Law). As MDN and landowner groups like the National Association of Royalty Owners (NARO) feared, this legislation is now being used against landowners. Earlier this week, EQT Corp. used the new law to sue 70 landowners to force them to allow EQT to get on their land to conduct survey work for future drilling on or under the land. Bye bye negotiations. Bye bye fairness. Hello steamroller.

This lawsuit is bad news for PA landowners and bad news for pro-drilling Gov. Tom Corbett who mouthed platitudes that this type of thing would not happen when he signed it into law…
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Allegheny County | Energy Companies | EQT Corp | Pennsylvania

George Soros Plays Both Sides of Fracking Issue, for Profit
June 28, 2013June 28, 2013

You’ve got to hand it to George Soros–the guy has chutzpah. In case you don’t know who George Soros is, he’s an 82 year-old super-investor (think Warren Buffet) whose investments at last check were worth $9.5 billion. Soros was convicted of insider trading in 2005. He’s also accused of causing “Black Wednesday” in 1992 when his currency manipulation schemes precipitated a worldwide economic crisis. Soros essentially owns the Democrat party in the United States–he’s one of the (perhaps the) biggest contributors to their coffers. He’s a socialist (which used to be a bad word before Obama). His politics are slightly left of Attila the Hun.

Soros is also linked to the nefarious anti-drilling Public Accountability Initiative (see Soros-backed PAI Makes University of Texas Look Foolish). But what’s this? Two of the top five companies that Soros currently invests in are…wait for it…shale drillers! That’s right. Soros funds anti-drillers (PAI, the Democrat party, who knows what else) and at the same time invests in what he knows is the biggest energy bonanza that will happen during the rest of his lifetime. It’s kind of like those sleazy weapons manufacturers that sell to both sides of a war in a third world country.

So, which two drillers are in the Soros top five? One of them is a major Marcellus driller…
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Allegheny County | Armstrong County | Butler County | Columbia Pipeline Group | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Indiana County | Industrywide Issues | NiSource | PennEnergy Resources | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Westmoreland County | XTO

NiSource Big Pine Gathering Pipeline Goes Online in SW PA
June 19, 2013June 19, 2013

NiSource and Columbia Pipeline Group announced yesterday their new Big Pine Gathering System is now online and running in PA’s Marcellus Shale. Big Pine is a 57-mile pipeline gathering system serving southwestern PA: Allegheny, Butler, Armstrong, Indiana and Westmoreland counties. NiSource has a long-term contract with XTO Energy to deliver XTO’s natural gas to three different pipeline transmission systems. In addition to XTO, NiSource recently signed PennEnergy Resources as another customer for the new pipeline.

Details from the NiSource press release:
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Allegheny County | Pennsylvania

Shale Drilling Under (Gasp!) Allegheny County, PA Parks?
June 18, 2013June 18, 2013

Is shale drilling coming to an Allegheny County, PA (Pittsburgh area) park near you? Maybe. Drilling likely won’t involve putting a rig in a park, but instead on land situated near a park–where a number of rigs are already located.

Allegheny County Chief Executive Rich Fitzgerald is investigating the possibility of leasing the land under county parks for shale drilling, to help with $100 million in deferred park maintenance and improve the “deplorable conditions” at some of the parks…
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Allegheny County | Energy Companies | Pennsylvania | Range Resources Corp

Findlay Twp, PA Approves First 3 Marcellus Wells, Range to Drill
May 9, 2013May 9, 2013

Findlay Township (Allegheny County, PA, west of Pittsburgh) approved its first three Marcellus Shale wells at a meeting last night. Supervisors voted unanimously (3-0) to let Range Resources to drill on Clinton-Frankfort Road…

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Allegheny County | Chevron | Economic Impact | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Pennsylvania

Chevron to Build New (Big) Regional HQ in Pittsburgh Suburb
May 2, 2013May 2, 2013

Chevron has just stepped up its commitment to the Marcellus (and Utica) Shale region by purchasing 61 acres, including a Kmart that’s about to close, in Moon Township, PA, a suburb of Pittsburgh. Rumor has it that Chevron will build a new 350,000 square foot office complex that will house upward of 1,750 employees when it’s done. They currently employ around 650 employees in the region, housed at several locations.

Here’s the details that are known:
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Allegheny County | Meetings | Pennsylvania

MDN Goes to NAPE East in Pittsburgh (Pictures!)
April 16, 2013April 16, 2013

Sooner or later, all energy roads in the Marcellus and Utica Shale lead to Pittsburgh. In many ways, because of the huge impact of the Marcellus (and now Utica) Shale, Pittsburgh has become the new Houston–the center of the energy universe. At least in the northeast. Last week the North American Prospect Expo (NAPE) brought its franchise event to Pittsburgh. NAPE usually runs twice a year–in Houston. This year they’ve added Pittsburgh to the lineup, calling it NAPE East.

MDN editor Jim Willis attended and hung out at the NGI Shale Daily booth for most of the event, chatting with passersby. We already brought you links to stories about the event from several Pittsburgh media outlets (see Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Fri, Apr 12, 2013). Below, Jim provides his thoughts on the event, and the comments (gossip!) he heard at the event. More importantly, he took pictures! We’ve created a “virtual tour” of the event, so you get a feel for what such an event looks like, and what happens…

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Allegheny County | Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Education | Energy Companies | EQT Corp | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania

The Nutty Antics of Anti-Drilling Kids – Pittsburgh Edition
April 16, 2013April 16, 2013

Just a few days after MDN editor Jim Willis visited Pittsburgh, a small group of 15 anti-drillers made fools of themselves in front of EQT Plaza in downtown Pittsburgh. Their (latest) cause? They don’t like the new Center for Sustainable Shale Development (CSSD) and EQT’s participation in it. They believe the CSSD legitimizes "dirty" fossil fuels, like clean-burning natural gas, and since they (irrationally) hate all fossil fuels, any effort at ensuring mining of those fuels is done safely is tantamount to killing Mother Earth. Wackos.

To illustrate the "folly" of big, nasty drillers cooperating with eco-nut organizations like GASP and the Heinz Foundation, this small group of true believers (local college students with time on their hands, from a Fruit Loops organization called the Energy Action Coalition) staged a mock wedding in front of EQT…

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Allegheny County | Pennsylvania

Southwest Airlines Begins Daily Roundtrip Houston/Pittsburgh
April 16, 2013April 16, 2013

Makes sense that Houston, the reigning champ as "energy capital of the world" and Pittsburgh, the challenger and on the ascendancy to the title, would have a direct airline flight between them. Until last weekend, there was one–United. United is now joined by a second direct flight every day: Southwest Airlines.

Southwest announced on Sunday they have begun a daily flight from Pittsburgh to Houston and back.

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Allegheny County | Meetings | Pennsylvania

NAPE Takes Shape – Speakers Announced for April 10 Program
April 4, 2013April 4, 2013

For anyone in the orbit of Pittsburgh, or for those already planning to attend, MDN editor Jim Willis will attend the North American Prospect Expo (NAPE) in Pittsburgh next week, April 10-12. This is the first time NAPE has come to Pittsburgh—the big annual event is held in Houston each year. The Pittsburgh event is called NAPE East and promises to be a great show. Please stop by the Shale Daily booth (# 205) and say hello to Jim!

Yesterday, NAPE released their lineup of “distinguished speakers and panelists” speaking during the Business Conference portion of the event, held on the first day, April 10 (see below). Here’s the press release about next week’s event and list of speakers for the first day:

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Allegheny County | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Winners Announced for Northeast Oil & Gas Awards 2012
April 4, 2013April 4, 2013

Launched in 2012, Oil & Gas Awards has just held its first regional awards for the northeastern United States, the “Northeast Oil & Gas Awards” ceremony, held in Pittsburgh on March 14 at the Westin Convention Center. Outgoing PA DEP Secretary Michael Krancer was the guest of honor.

In all, 19 different awards were handed out in categories ranging from law firm of the year to drilling & well services company of the year (and many others). Here’s the complete list of winners, and more information about the awards:

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Allegheny County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrialization | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Research | Susquehanna County | Wildlife

USGS Study: Marcellus Drilling Fragmenting Forests in PA
March 28, 2013March 28, 2013

The U.S. Geological Survey earlier this week released a new report raising concerns about Marcellus Shale drilling in the Allegheny Plateau (pretty much the entire Marcellus region). The 38-page report (full copy embedded below) looks at two counties in particular: Susquehanna County in northeastern PA, and Allegheny County in southwestern PA.

Using a series of maps and data, the authors raise concerns that Marcellus drilling, along with drilling for gas in coalbed methane (a similar process), is leading to “forest fragmentation”—a situation where forested areas get “carved up” with roadways and drill pads that lead to limiting the geographic habitat area for some species of animals:

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