Lycoming County

Accidents | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Lycoming County | Pennsylvania | Wastewater | XTO

XTO Energy Files to Have AG Kane’s Lawsuit Dismissed
June 12, 2014June 12, 2014

It’s now obvious to everyone that Pennsylvania’s Attorney General Kathleen Kane abuses her office to selectively prosecute high-profile cases to support her own anti-drilling agenda. During her campaign in 2012 Kane pledged to fight to end fracking in PA. She’s doing her best to keep her promise. Example 1: Kane is persecuting/prosecuting a small business owner and his family, including his wife, mother and father (see Minuteman Enviro Says PA AG Office “Terrorized” Family Members, Filing Lawsuit). Example 2: Kane is attempting to criminalize the accidental spill of a small amount of recycled wastewater by XTO that happened years before she took office (see PA AG Abuses Her Authority, Files Criminal Charges Against XTO). XTO filed a motion on Monday to dismiss Kane’s case against the company, pointing out her anti-drilling bias to the judge…
Read More “XTO Energy Files to Have AG Kane’s Lawsuit Dismissed”
Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Lebanon County | Luzerne County | Lycoming County | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide PA | Transco | Williams

Williams Open House Sheds more Light on Transco Atlantic Sunrise
May 22, 2014May 22, 2014

On Tuesday night Williams held the first of 10 open houses (this one in Luzerne County) on their roadshow to discuss the proposed Atlantic Sunrise Project includes new and reversed pipeline flows for the mighty Transco (see Williams Plans $2.1B Transco Pipeline Expansion, 100% Sold Already). The Transco, built 50 years ago, as always brought gas from the southwest to the northeast. Under Williams’ plan, new pipes will carry gas to the northeast/New England markets, but the vast majority of the existing pipeline will become bidirectional–able to flow gas in either direction–carrying cheap Marcellus Shale gas to southern markets…
Read More “Williams Open House Sheds more Light on Transco Atlantic Sunrise”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Lycoming County | Pennsylvania | Research

Real Science: Comprehensive Water Study in Lycoming County, PA
May 16, 2014May 16, 2014

Finally, some real scientific inquiry is about to take place in the PA Marcellus. Instead of yesteryear hippies who teach at places like Cornell and “analyze” other people’s data, reading into it whatever they want to (cough Ingraffea/Howarth cough), we’re about to have a groundwater quality monitoring program in the heart of the Marcellus Shale–Lycoming County–and they’re going to use real, in-the-field-measurement science…
Read More “Real Science: Comprehensive Water Study in Lycoming County, PA”
Industrywide Issues | Lycoming County | Pennsylvania | Seismic Testing

Fracking Killed the Rabbits!
May 15, 2014May 15, 2014

Proving anyone can sue anyone else for anything in our litigious society, here’s one we’ve never heard of before: Fracking killed the rabbits. Or rather, helicopters being used for seismic testing flew too low over a rabbit farm and the owners claim the noise essentially scared the rabbits to death. Some 168 (out of 300) rabbits supposedly keeled over after hearing a helicopter. Boo! Whoops. There goes another one!…
Read More “Fracking Killed the Rabbits!”
Delaware County (PA) | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Lycoming County | Pennsylvania | PVR Midstream

Happy Ending? ULS Awarded $24.3M from PVR for Unpaid Invoices
May 14, 2014May 14, 2014

In March MDN brought you the story that Utility Line Services Inc. (ULS), a construction company that works for utility companies–like digging trenches and laying pipeline–sued PVR Marcellus Gas Gathering in a Delaware County, PA court (see ULS Says PVR Marcellus Bankrupted Their Company by Not Paying). ULS says PVR owes them more than $17.7 million in unpaid invoices and another $7.8 million in lost profits–and that the unpaid invoices caused the company to declare bankruptcy, closing their doors. A sad story.

Good news (?) for ULS. In what is believed to be the biggest jury award of its kind in PA, the court ruled in favor of ULS and awarded them $24.3 million to be paid by PVR. The problem remains that ULS had to go out of business and 600 jobs were lost and they had to liquidate their equipment. So although this is good news, it’s small consolation after the company had to declare bankruptcy…
Read More “Happy Ending? ULS Awarded $24.3M from PVR for Unpaid Invoices”
Accidents | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Lycoming County | Pennsylvania | Wastewater | XTO

Judge in XTO Criminal Spill Case Says Figure Out Your Own Charges
April 22, 2014April 22, 2014

A small development in the shameful case brought by Pennsylvania’s anti-drilling Attorney General, Kathleen Kane, against XTO Energy over a four year-old accidental spill that she’s trying to prosecute as a crime (see PA AG Abuses Her Authority, Files Criminal Charges Against XTO). XTO filed paperwork with the court to ask for more information about the charges that have been made against them. Apparently environmental cases are quite complex and you don’t always know what, exactly, you’ve been charged with!

The judge in the case has denied XTO’s request to be told what, exactly, they’re being charged with. Last Thursday Lycoming County Judge Marc Lovecchio essentially told XTO, “You figure it out”…
Read More “Judge in XTO Criminal Spill Case Says Figure Out Your Own Charges”
Accidents | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Lycoming County | Pennsylvania | Range Resources Corp | Regulation | Wastewater

Range Resources Fined $75K by PA DEP for Brine Spill
April 14, 2014April 14, 2014

On Friday the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection slapped Range Resources with a $75,000 fine for a brine spill of 3,066 gallons at its Cornwall Mountain Hunting Club Unit A well pad in Lewis Township, Lycoming County. The spill occurred in July 2012, but according to the DEP it took Range nearly a year to remediate the spill, resulting in the fine.

Here’s what happened (and when), and what the DEP said about it…
Read More “Range Resources Fined $75K by PA DEP for Brine Spill”
Bradford County | Economic Impact | Electrical Generation | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Lycoming County | Pennsylvania | Supply Chain

Plugging in to Panda Power’s Electric Generation Supply Chain
April 9, 2014April 9, 2014

As we reported in December, Panda Power Funds, a private equity firm located in Dallas, TX, purchased the rights to build two electric generating plants–one in Bradford County, PA and the other in Lycoming County, PA (see Panda Power Buys Rights for 2nd Marcellus-Fueled Electric Plant). Construction on the Bradford County plant, dubbed Panda Liberty, is under way now. Panda is spending northward of $1.3 billion to build the two plants–an incredible amount of money that’s being pumped into the northeastern Pennsylvania economy.

MDN spotted an article that mentions Panda and their projects, including the two PA electric plants. The reason that we bring it to you is that it provides background on the vendors Panda is using to build the plants. Which may be of interest to companies that would like to plug into the supply chain and see if they can drum up some business from these two projects…
Read More “Plugging in to Panda Power’s Electric Generation Supply Chain”
Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Lycoming County | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | PVR Midstream

ULS Says PVR Marcellus Bankrupted Their Company by Not Paying
March 28, 2014March 28, 2014

Utility Line Services Inc. (ULS), a company that does construction work for utility companies–like digging trenches and laying pipeline–is suing PVR Marcellus Gas Gathering in a Delaware County, PA court. ULS says PVR owes them more than $17.7 million in unpaid invoices and another $7.8 million in lost profits. The lawsuit stems from work done by ULS for PVR in laying 17 miles of pipeline in Lycoming County. Like all lawsuits, this one is a bit complicated, but essentially ULS says PVR slowed and then stopped payments, even though the pipeline was completed and gas now flows through it.

Both companies are pointing the finger at the other saying the other company was responsible for obtaining certain permits, and lack of those permits caused delays and increased costs in overtime and project overruns. Unfortunately PVR’s lack of payments to ULS has bankrupted ULS. They’ve closed their doors, laid off 600 workers and sold their equipment at auction. Not a happy ending. Here’s the story behind the lawsuit just getting under way and expected to run for at least three weeks in Delaware County Common Pleas Court…
Read More “ULS Says PVR Marcellus Bankrupted Their Company by Not Paying”
Cameron County | Elk County | Energy Companies | Lycoming County | Pennsylvania | Seneca Resources | Upper Devonian Shale

Seneca Drills First Upper Devonian Well with Impressive Results
March 25, 2014March 25, 2014

Seneca Resources, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Buffalo-based National Fuel Gas Company, reports drilling their very first Upper Devonian shale well in Lycoming County, PA. The results are impressive: a peak 24-hour production rate of 14.1 million cubic feet (MMcf) per day, and an average 8.6 MMcf per day during its first 30 days. The Upper Devonian (UD) is a number of shale layers lumped together under one umbrella name. The specific layer targeted by Seneca for their first UD well is the Geneseo rock layer.

Word of Seneca’s success in the UD comes as part of an operational update issued by National Fuel Gas yesterday. Another gem in the update: Seneca has just completed drilling a 9-well pad and is almost finished drilling a 6-well pad. Here’s the full update from Seneca with the exciting UD news…
Read More “Seneca Drills First Upper Devonian Well with Impressive Results”
Anadarko | Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Crime | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Lycoming County | Pennsylvania

Protesters Shut Down Anadarko Drill Site in Lycoming County, PA
March 21, 2014March 21, 2014

The very twisted philosophy of so-called “Earth First” group members seems to be that humans are an infestation on Mother Earth, hence the name (full of self-loathing people, apparently). A group of Earth Firsters, most of them not from Pennsylvania, protested and shut down an Anadarko Petroleum drilling site in PA yesterday. Anadarko owns leases land in the Tiadaghton State Forest in Lycoming County, PA where they have an active drilling site (near Williamsport). Three of the protesters locked themselves to a solid concrete pipe embedded with shrapnel that reached across the road blocking the way to the drill site. The protesters had to be cut free at great personal danger to themselves and the first responders who cut them free. Five protesters in all were arrested.

MDN received exclusive photos from someone at the scene (below). We’ve also located a video showing the shrapnel embedded in a solid concrete pipe–and the gentle care the local first responders took in protecting the protesters as they cut them free. First responders put their own lives at risk to free these idiots. We would have been far less gentle (picking the whole thing up with a forklift and dropping it on the side of the road–with these kooks attached–comes to mind). Read the news, look at the photos, and be sure to watch the video below to see what we’re up against with extreme Earth First nutters…
Read More “Protesters Shut Down Anadarko Drill Site in Lycoming County, PA”
Anadarko | Energy Companies | Lycoming County | Pennsylvania

Syndicated Columnist’s Eyes Opened by Marcellus Shale Drilling
March 10, 2014March 10, 2014

Syndicated columnist Deroy Murdock visited an Anadarko Petroleum Marcellus Shale drilling site in Lycoming County, PA last year to see first-hand what happens when a well gets drilled. As he puts it, at the time it was a “cyclone of equipment, personnel and activity.” Four months later he returned to the same location. And what did he see? Three acres of a well pad with five wellheads sticking up a few feet and a “constant, mild hiss.” The sound of natural gas being harvested.

Here is Murdock’s first-hand account of what he experienced upon his return, and what it means for our nation at large…
Read More “Syndicated Columnist’s Eyes Opened by Marcellus Shale Drilling”
Bradford County | Chesapeake Energy | Citrus | Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | EQT Corp | Greene County (PA) | Lycoming County | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Susquehanna County | Washington County

PA Gas Production #s Released: Top 10 Wells, Top 5 Counties & More!
February 19, 2014February 19, 2014

Pennsylvania released their second half 2013 production numbers yesterday and man oh man is it another sizzling hot report. Another 700 horizontal (mostly Marcellus) shale wells were brought online in the second half of 2013 in PA which brings the number of horizontal wells with reported production to 5,074. And, in what we believe is a first, Susquehanna County has displaced Bradford County as having the most production during a 6-month reporting period.

Not surprisingly Cabot Oil & Gas and their prolific wells in Susquehanna County top the list as most productive. Get this, when you look at average daily production by wells, Cabot has the top 13 most productive wells in the state for 2H13–all top 13 spots. When you expand it out, they have 17 of the top 20 spots, and 34 of the top 50 spots. Truly astonishing.

Below we have a few lists for you: Top 10 All Time Producing Wells in PA, Top 10 Wells by Production per Day, and the amount of gas produced by the top 5 counties in PA…
Read More “PA Gas Production #s Released: Top 10 Wells, Top 5 Counties & More!”
Bradford County | Energy Services | Greene County (PA) | Industrywide Issues | Lycoming County | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Preston County | PVR Midstream | PVR Partners | West Virginia | Wyoming County (PA)

PVR Partners Marcellus Pipeline Flows Increase 60% in 1 Year
January 14, 2014January 14, 2014

Midstream company PVR Partners issued an update yesterday to brag about their Marcellus operations–and well they should. Average throughput on the PVR “Eastern Midstream Systems” increased 60%, from 1.1 billion cubic feet per day average in December 2012 to 1.8 Bcf/d in December 2013. They also completed a total of 101 well connections in 2013 for the Eastern Midstream area.

PVR’s Eastern Midstream includes operations in Lycoming, Wyoming, Bradford and Greene counties in Pennsylvania, and Preston County in West Virginia. Here’s the full PVR update with more details:
Read More “PVR Partners Marcellus Pipeline Flows Increase 60% in 1 Year”
Crime | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Lycoming County | Pennsylvania | Seismic Testing

Final Chapter in GPX Saga of Using Illegals in PA Marcellus
January 6, 2014January 6, 2014

We thought the final chapter had been written about GPX, a Texas-based seismic surveying company doing work in Pennsylvania for the oil and gas industry that was caught using illegal aliens to work on their surveying crews. Last March we told you the company admitted to the scheme and agreed to pay out some big money (see GPX Pleads Guilty in Using Illegal Aliens for PA Marcellus Work).

It’s taken 10 long months, but on Thursday in a federal courtroom in Harrisburg, PA the final chapter really will be written:
Read More “Final Chapter in GPX Saga of Using Illegals in PA Marcellus”
Electrical Generation | Industrywide Issues | Lycoming County | Pennsylvania

Panda Power Buys Rights for 2nd Marcellus-Fueled Electric Plant
December 23, 2013December 23, 2013

In August, MDN told you that Panda Power Funds, a private equity firm located in Dallas, TX had purchased the right from Moxie Energy to build the first new electric generating plant that will run exclusively on Marcellus Shale gas, to be built in Bradford County, PA (see Moxie Liberty Sells PA Electric Plant Project to Panda Power). Construction started on the “Panda Liberty” project in August of this year and it expected to take about 30 months to complete.

Panda announced last Friday they have purchased a second set of permits from Moxie Energy for a second electric generating plant that will run on Marcellus Shale gas–this one in Lycoming County, PA (southwest of Bradford County, but close by to the first project). This new, second project will be called Panda Patriot, adopting the Patriot name Moxie was using for the project. Here are the particulars from Panda:
Read More “Panda Power Buys Rights for 2nd Marcellus-Fueled Electric Plant”