Pennsylvania

Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

World Oil’s Drilling Forecast for Marcellus/Utica Balance of 2015
August 10, 2015August 10, 2015

World Oil is out with a wide ranging forecast for what will happen for the balance of 2015 in the upstream (drilling) sector of the oil and gas industry. Using surveys of both major and smaller drillers, World Oil confirms what we already knew: driller will spend less in 2015 than they did in 2014 on drilling new wells–on average 34.2% less (because of low commodity prices). World Oil takes a look at the regional impact and offers the following insight into what’s coming for both Pennsylvania and Ohio for the balance of 2015 (hint: PA drilling won’t feel the affects as much as OH)…
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Crime | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

PA’s Anti-Drilling AG Kathleen Kane Arrested, Fingerprinted
August 10, 2015August 10, 2015

Kathleen Kane, Pennsylvania’s anti-drilling Attorney General, has been arrested. It was a long time coming (too long), but last Thursday she was officially charged with perjury, obstruction, conspiracy, official oppression, and other offenses. Not related to the drilling industry. She was arrested and finger printed on Saturday. And what does Kane do? She hides behind her skirt–claiming it’s men (i.e. political bullies) out to get her because she’s a girl. Yeah, men forced her to lie under oath and fire people who worked for her that testified against her, right? What a coward. We’re not going to recount the litany of stories we’ve written about Kane’s prejudice against the Marcellus industry (you can read our Kane stories here). She hasn’t resigned–yet. We do expect that to happen. If she doesn’t resign, she should be forced from office via impeachment. Here’s the latest in PA’s ongoing soap opera about Kathleen Kane…
Read More “PA’s Anti-Drilling AG Kathleen Kane Arrested, Fingerprinted”
Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | MarkWest Energy | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Washington County

New $3M Electric Line for MarkWest Compressor in Robinson Twp, PA
August 10, 2015August 10, 2015

West Penn Power, a subsidiary of FirstEnergy Corp., is building a new $3 million electric transmission line in Washington County, PA to aide the Marcellus industry. The new electric line, running 1.3 miles in Robinson Township, will connect to a MarkWest compressor station due to be built (see Robinson Twp Delays MarkWest Compressor, Approval Coming Soon). According to FirstEnergy, they will spend close to $50 million on new electric transimission line projects in support of the Marcellus gas industry in western PA over the next three years…
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Allegheny County | Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Electrical Generation | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania

Anti-Drilling Pittsburgh Newspaper Backs Obama Plan to Dump NatGas
August 10, 2015August 10, 2015

Once again the editorial writers of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette slavishly support anything Barack Hussein Obama does–including his plan to dump natural gas use for electric generating plants in his recently released Clean Power Plan (see Obama Stabs Natural Gas Electric Plants in Clean Power Plan). Their default assumption is that mankind, by burning fossil fuels, is causing a catastrophic warming of the the earth–a silly notion proven wrong by science. But actual facts don’t matter anymore (really, when did fact EVER matter to liberals?). They continue to hum the mantra–humans are evil, they cause global warming. And so B.H.O.’s plan is better than nothin’ according to the wizards of smart at the Post-Gazette…
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Air Quality | Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Beaver County | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Shell

Big Green Groups File to Block Shell Cracker Air Quality Permit
August 7, 2015August 7, 2015

Simply amazing. Two Big Green environmental groups–the Philadelphia-based Clean Air Council and the Washington, DC-based Environmental Integrity Project–are trying to scuttle the Shell ethane cracker in the Pittsburgh area that would bring thousands of new jobs and eventually pump something like $20 billion into the regional economy, with a ripple effect of jobs and prosperity for the entire tri-state region. The two groups have just filed an appeal with state regulators saying the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) erred when granting an air quality permit that will allow the plant to operate (see Shell Receives Air Quality Permit from PA DEP for Cracker Plant). These two litigious Big Green groups hope to tie the whole matter up in court and “encourage” (scare) Shell away from its investment. It’s hard to put into words the depth of depravity of people who do disgusting things like this…
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Accidents | Energy Services | Energy Transfer Partners | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Tioga County (PA)

Sad Day: Pipeline Worker Killed in Tioga County, PA Accident
August 6, 2015August 6, 2015

It’s always a sad day when MDN has to report on the death of a worker related to the Marcellus/Utica Shale. On Tuesday, Ricky Dettman was operating a bulldozer on a steep grade in Tioga County, PA working on installing a pipeline for Energy Transfer Partners when the bulldozer rolled over, several times, killing Ricky. We’re not sure exactly which pipeline project it is Ricky was working on, but its a 36-inch pipeline (a big pipeline) that will flow Marcellus and Utica Shale gas, according to the PR agency working for ETP. Below are four news accounts of the accident. They all have slightly different accounts, including a discrepancy on Ricky’s age–he was either 54 or 55 years-old. Ricky hailed from Nebraska…
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Electrical Generation | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA Gov Wolf Salutes Obama, Eagerly Buys into Clean Power Plan
August 5, 2015August 5, 2015

On Monday President Obama and his rogue Environmental Protection Agency made another power grab, infringing on our freedom and liberty, with the release of a so-called Clean Power Plan (see Obama Stabs Natural Gas Electric Plants in Clean Power Plan). As we pointed out, natural gas use in electric generating plants is one of the casualties in Obama’s latest “brilliant” strategy, much to the consternation of those in the oil and gas industry. But two very important people in Pennsylvania love Obama’s overreach–America’s most liberal governor, Gov. Tom Wolf, and his minion PennFuture Sec. of the Dept. of Environmental Protection, John Quigley. They think Obama’s Clean Power Plan is just dandy–and they intend to plunge Pennsylvania down the same rat hole Obama is taking the rest of the country…
Read More “PA Gov Wolf Salutes Obama, Eagerly Buys into Clean Power Plan”
CNG/LNG | Electrical Generation | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | PennEast Pipeline | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide PA | UGI Energy Services

UGI Provides Update on PennEast & Other New PA Pipeline Projects
August 5, 2015August 5, 2015

During the AmeriGas Partners quarterly analyst conference call yesterday, Pennsylvania utility giant UGI Corporation CEO John Walsh gave an update on several projects of interest for those in the PA Marcellus Shale. Oh! We should point out AmeriGas is the country’s largest propane company and a subsidiary of PA-based UGI, which is why Walsh was on the call. And what did he say? Walsh provided an update on UGI’s $60 million project to build a new LNG production plant in Wyoming County, PA (see UGI Building LNG Plant in NEPA, Local Marcellus Gas to Feed It). He also spoke in glowing terms about the PennEast Pipeline and how he sees that project unfolding (it should be operational by late 2017). Walsh also updated analysts on several pending pipeline projects that will feed electric plants being built in the Marcellus. Here’s what he said yesterday…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide PA

Grimm’s Fairy Tales: Rural PA Pipelines Pose “Hidden Risks”
August 5, 2015August 5, 2015

Another anti-pipeline screed from PBS reporter Susan Phillips at the taxpayer-funded StateImpact Pennsylvania website. This is another propaganda piece in a series meant to smear the superb safety record of pipelines, which happen to be the safest form of transportation on earth (see StateImpact: PA Pipelines “Risky” & “Mystery” – Might Kill ‘Ya Too). The latest “pipelines will kill ‘ya” fairy tale begins this way…
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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA DEP Sec Quigley’s Own Committee Appointees Turn Against Him
August 4, 2015August 4, 2015

Looks like the PennFuture Secretary of the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection, John Quigley, didn’t get exactly what he wanted with new appointments to the new Conventional Oil and Gas Advisory Committee (COGAC). You may recall that Quigley, in an unprecedented move, fired all of the members of the Oil and Gas Technical Advisory Board (TAB) and in its place created a new TAB and a second, new group–COGAC (see Why did PA DEP Acting Sec Quigley Mass Fire Gas Advisory Board?). We speculated he was packing both boards with yes men and women–but it turns out the members of COGAC aren’t saluting the chief. The purpose in having two boards is to represent the different interests of shale drillers (TAB) and traditional, much smaller “mom and pop” conventional drillers (COGAC). New drilling regulations are about to be imposed on both conventional and unconventional (shale) drillers. Conventional drillers have said, for years, that many of the rules applied to shale drillers should not apply to them because it is a vastly different extraction process. The voting members of the new COGAC have weighed in and told Quigley, in a letter, that they will not support the rules he intends to release in late August. In fact, they outright oppose those rules as applied to conventional drillers. Quigley has said, as he typically does, “screw you” in so many words…
Read More “PA DEP Sec Quigley’s Own Committee Appointees Turn Against Him”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Crime | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | PennEast Pipeline | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide PA

Antis “Shocked” One of Their Own Sent Death Threats to PennEast
August 3, 2015August 3, 2015

Last Friday MDN told you about an ongoing FBI investigation into death threats made by anti-drilling zealots against workers of the PennEast Pipeline (see FBI Investigates Death Threats Against PennEast Pipeline Workers). Multiple choice question: When one of their own tips over the edge into violence or proposed violence, anti-drillers (a) act shocked and surprised, (b) deny it’s true, implying it’s a made-up story by the pipeline company, or (c) both. If you guessed (c) you would be correct…
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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Taxation

Philly Rags Continue to Blame Marcellus Drillers for Late PA Budget
August 3, 2015August 3, 2015

Once again the Philadelphia Inquirer and its Daily News subsidiary show why their circulation numbers (and profits) continue to plummet: Because they are nothing more than a Democrat house organ propaganda outlet. They don’t report news–they manufacture and repeat, endlessly, Dem lies. Note the latest “editorial” written by the same people who supposedly report the news in what has become a Democrat rag. The editorial, reproduced below, blames the budget stalemate in the Pennsylvania on Republicans because Republicans are supposedly in the back pocket of Marcellus big oil and gas companies. The self-righteous and pure as the wind-driven snow Democrats only want all remaining profits from Marcellus Shale drilling for the chil’ren (those evil, nasty, vile big oil and gas companies, anyway). Of course the editorial says NOTHING about Democrat lust and desire for OPM–other people’s money–to fund Big Education and to repay Tom Wolf’s election debt to teachers’ unions. Nope, not a word. And that’s why rags like the Philly Inquirer and crashing and burning…
Read More “Philly Rags Continue to Blame Marcellus Drillers for Late PA Budget”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide PA

StateImpact: PA Pipelines “Risky” & “Mystery” – Might Kill ‘Ya Too
August 3, 2015August 3, 2015

Yet another hit piece against the shale industry from the taxpayer-funded, left-leaning, anti-drilling PBS StateImpact Pennsylvania. This time it’s about pipelines. Reporter Susan Phillips says there’s so darned many of the stupid things under our feet, we don’t even know where they all are and “POOF!” they may explode at any minute if you look at ’em wrong. Case in point: A man operating a bulldozer whose company called One Call before digging, dug up a pipeline that wasn’t mapped and had evil, nasty natural gas running through it. It exploded and sent the man to the hospital with burns over 70% of his body. We’re not making light of the accident or this man’s plight (which is truly tragic). We are making light of the silly notion implied by Phillips in her wide-ranging hit piece that pipelines are “risky” and a “mystery” with the implication we shouldn’t build another single pipeline until we can get pipelines already in the ground fully mapped down the square centimeter. This is a new, coordinated attack on the industry from the usual suspects. Stop the pipelines and you stop the evil fossil fuel natural gas from getting to market…
Read More “StateImpact: PA Pipelines “Risky” & “Mystery” – Might Kill ‘Ya Too”
Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Taxation

PA Gov Tom “Severance Tax” Wolf: America’s Most Liberal Governor
August 3, 2015August 3, 2015

The non-partisan website InsideGov, a site built and maintained by technology company FindTheBest, used public statements, press releases, campaign platforms and voting records to score each state governor’s view on important issues. InsideGov then used the data they collected to assign values for the most conservative political philosophy, and the most liberal. No lie–the single most liberal state governor in the United States is not Andrew Cuomo–he’s #5 in the list of most liberal. Nope. The single most liberal governor in these United States is (trumpet fanfare): Tom Wolf, from Pennsylvania. Wolf is ahead of the whack-a-doos in New York, Vermont, Connecticut and even Minnesoooota. Yeah, the same Tom Wolf who wants to steal the profits from Marcellus drillers to give to teachers’ unions to pay them back for voting him into office. That Tom Wolf. Most liberal. And what do the libs at Philadelphia Magazine write? (This is hilarious.) They write that even though Wolf walks like a liberal duck, quacks like a liberal duck, swims like a liberal duck–he isn’t really all THAT liberal…
Read More “PA Gov Tom “Severance Tax” Wolf: America’s Most Liberal Governor”
Energy Companies | EQT Corp | Greene County (PA) | Pennsylvania | Upper Devonian Shale | Utica Shale

EQT Releases Data on Biggest Utica Well Ever; Dumping UD Drilling
July 31, 2015July 31, 2015

One week ago MDN brought you the news of EQT’s monster Utica Shale well drilled in Greene County, PA–the single highest producing on-shore shale well on the planet with initial production (IP) of 72.9 million cubic feet of natural gas per day (see EQT’s 1st Utica Well Shatters Record – 72.9 MMcf/d IP Rate!). Yesterday EQT provided an update on the well. It’s currently shut in while they get all of the pipelines connected and things ready to rock and roll. But before they shut it in, they flowed it for seven days and the average per day production was 27 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d). It’s a truly astonishing well. Interestingly, this one, single well has changed the course of EQT’s drilling program. In the update (full copy below) they’ve announced the results from this well are so good, they are abandoning their Upper Devonian (UD) drilling program before it ever really got under way. They also announced they will drill a second Utica well in Greene County in August. Here’s the full update on the record-shattering Scotts Run 591340 dry Utica well and how it’s changed the direction of EQT…
Read More “EQT Releases Data on Biggest Utica Well Ever; Dumping UD Drilling”
Greene County (PA) | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Washington County | Wastewater

Is Shale Wastewater Causing Radiation Spike in Ten Mile Creek?
July 31, 2015July 31, 2015

Click image for larger version – Tests continue on drainage from the Clyde Mine in East Bethlehem Township, Washington County, for radiation and bromide levels. The mine, which is abandoned, is the responsibility of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. (Photo by Natasha Khan)

Ten Mile Creek runs through Washington and Greene counties in southwestern Pennsylvania and is considered a “major tributary” to the mighty Monongahela River, a 130-mile-long river in north-central West Virginia and southwestern Pennsylvania. The Monongahela joins the Allegheny River to form the Ohio River at Pittsburgh. An abandoned coal mine, the Clyde Mine, sits near the Ten Mile Creek where the creek joins the Monongahela, and the abandoned coal mine (as many do) leaks acid mine water into the creek and ultimately into the Mon River. Anti-drillers suspect, apparently with no basis for doing so, that shale wastewater has been dumped in the Clyde Mine and is leaking out along with the acid mine water and is creating a radioactive hazard that could affect water in the Mon River used for drinking water sources. The PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) ran some initial tests in April 2014 and found ” high levels of radioactive materials and other chemicals typically related to Marcellus Shale drilling operations” according to the left-leaning news agency PublicSource. The DEP ran more tests in June of this year, but because the testing followed heavy rains, anti-drillers have already said they “won’t accept” the results from those tests. Anti-drillers love to cherry-pick their “science”. What’s really going on with Ten Mile Creek? Has there been, or is there still, illegal wastewater dumping going on at the Clyde Mine?…
Read More “Is Shale Wastewater Causing Radiation Spike in Ten Mile Creek?”