Pennsylvania

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    PA DEP Sec Quigley’s Own Committee Appointees Turn Against Him

    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…
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    Antis “Shocked” One of Their Own Sent Death Threats to PennEast

    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…
    Read More “Antis “Shocked” One of Their Own Sent Death Threats to PennEast”

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    Philly Rags Continue to Blame Marcellus Drillers for Late PA Budget

    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”

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    StateImpact: PA Pipelines “Risky” & “Mystery” – Might Kill ‘Ya Too

    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”

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    PA Gov Tom “Severance Tax” Wolf: America’s Most Liberal Governor

    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”

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    EQT Releases Data on Biggest Utica Well Ever; Dumping UD Drilling

    changing courseOne 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”

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    Is Shale Wastewater Causing Radiation Spike in Ten Mile Creek?

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    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?”

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    PennEast Changes Route Where it Crosses Appalachian Trail

    This story is cool on many levels. Score another PR victory, and another clever re-route, for the PennEast Pipeline. PennEast, you may recall, is a $1 billion, 110-mile, 36-inch diameter natural gas pipeline that will run from Luzerne County, PA to Mercer County, NJ. It is vigorously opposed by Big Green groups like the nutty Sierra Clubbers and THE Delaware Riverkeeper. Some who oppose it have threatened violence (see today’s companion story). Why? Because the PennEast will flow that evil, nasty fossil fuel called natural gas. Can’t have that, you know. PennEast has made a course correction that is sure to cut down on the time it requires to get approved. The course correction is where the PennEast will cross the Appalachian Trail in Carbon County, PA. The course correction also lets the PennEast deliver cheap Marcellus Shale gas to a new electric generating plant being built by the Blue Mountain Ski Resort…
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    Range Resources Chops 11% of Workforce (so Far) in 2015

    The low price drillers receive for natural gas, NGLs and oil, and the results those prices have on revenues for drillers, continues to take a big bite out of the industry. Companies, rightly or wrongly, reduce head count in order to keep the balance sheet less red than it otherwise would be. One of the easiest and quickest ways to improve finances at big companies is to cut head count. Two weeks ago CONSOL Energy laid off 10% of its workforce–some 470 people (see CONSOL Slashes 10% of Workforce – 470 Jobs Gone). Range Resources is latest to confirm company-wide layoffs. So far this year Range has cut 11% of its workforce. In May, Range laid off 41 people in the Marcellus/Utica region…
    Read More “Range Resources Chops 11% of Workforce (so Far) in 2015”

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    PA Court: Gas Storage Fields Lock Up Property for Drilling Too

    In some locations there are small or large underground storage fields for natural gas located in the Marcellus/Utica. We’ve covered stories in the past about one such field–the Brinker Storage Field, a 35,000 acre area in Columbiana County, Ohio that Columbia has used to store natural gas going back more than 50 years (see Some Brinker Field (OH) Leases Revised, Others in Lawsuit). More often than not these fields seem to be a flash point with respect to leases and potential drilling under them. Because the fields were leased years ago, there are disagreements about what the leases say about royalties for any gas drilled under them. Little did we know (in fact we didn’t know) there are such storage fields located in Pennsylvania too. A case went to court challenging the right of Range Resources and NiSource (their Columbia Gas subsidiary) to retain lease rights for both storing natural gas and drilling for natural gas for property partially included in a unit that includes a 14,000 underground Donegal Storage Field operated by NiSource in Washington County, PA. The landowners have just lost the case–meaning units with storage fields under them can “hold by production” undrilled land in the unit solely because there is gas stored…
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    Pitt Law School Launches ‘Energy Law and Policy Institute’

    A meaningful percentage of MDN’s paying subscribers are lawyers. Energy lawyers. Why? Just about everything involved with shale energy–from exploration to signing leases to drilling, pipelines, production and even selling the end product involves lawyers. Whether the energy industry is in a up-cycle or down-cycle, the one recession-proof area of the industry is the law. So it was no surprise to learn that the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Law has just launched an Energy Law and Policy Institute. The institute “is a major priority of the School of Law and the University” according to the Pitt announcement. The purpose of the Institute? To “advance the training of law students to become leaders in providing legal services to the regional, national, and international energy sectors” by offering new courses, seminars, conferences and the like. Here’s the announcement…
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    CONSOL Drills 2nd Best Utica Well Ever in PA, Flows 61 Mmcf/d!

    2nd placeYesterday CONSOL Energy’s management team hosted their second quarter 2015 analyst and investor conference call. There was major information contained in that call. The big news is that CONSOL just hooked up and tested a new Utica Shale well in Westmoreland County, PA that is the second best initial producing Utica well ever. Just last week MDN told you about the #1 Utica well drilled so far, by EQT (see EQT’s 1st Utica Well Shatters Record – 72.9 MMcf/d IP Rate!). The EQT monster Utica well is located in Greene County, PA. The CONSOL well just brought online is located about four miles away from that well–and is initially producing and flowing at 61 million cubic feet per day! [Correction: CONSOL’s 61 MMcf/d gusher is the Gaut 4IH. CONSOL is right now drilling the GH9 well that is four miles from the big EQT monster well.] This is really big news and is the reason that Utica drilling has turned CONSOL’s head away from Marcellus drilling…
    Read More “CONSOL Drills 2nd Best Utica Well Ever in PA, Flows 61 Mmcf/d!”

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    PA House Speaker Stands Firm Against Gov Wolf’s Severance Tax

    Thank God for Pennsylvania House Speaker Mike Turzai, Republican from Allegheny. Turzai continues to stand against the lunacy of Tom Wolf’s insane budget proposals, including a proposed Marcellus Shale severance tax that would further gut shale drilling in the state–handing the money raised over to teachers’ unions. Turzai said it’s time to think about overriding Wolf’s veto of the proposed Republican budget–a plan which balances the budget instead of running up the tab as Wolf would do. The Republican budget would INCREASE spending on education (something mainstream media doesn’t tell you) all while not increasing taxes on the middle class and without killing the Marcellus industry with a new/high tax. Socialist Tom Wolf won’t hear of it. So Turzai is putting out the word: Are there 16 Democrats in the House and 4 Democrats in the Senate that will be brave and bipartisan and reach across the isle to vote for a sane budget–to override Wolf’s veto? Apparently not yet–but perhaps there will be in time. Meanwhile, Wolf’s dirty tricks division continues to launch advertisements to smear Republicans, something Turzai calls “tawdry and unproductive”…
    Read More “PA House Speaker Stands Firm Against Gov Wolf’s Severance Tax”

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    Antis Plan to Protest Pipeline Talk Tonight in Lancaster County

    A small group of anti-fossil fuel protesters plans to disrupt an information meeting being hosted by the Chamber of Commerce in Lancaster County tonight. The event will feature representatives from Williams discussing and sharing information about their planned $3 billion Atlantic Coast Pipeline project–a project largely embraced by the public but opposed by a few small pockets of dedicated protesters, one such group being Lancaster Against Pipelines. The Atlantic Coast project will flow Marcellus Shale gas to Mid-Atlantic and southern states. Most of the protesters are too cheap to buy a $25 ticket to the event, so they’ll stand outside and make fools of themselves by chanting and hollering at those who enter the meeting. We encourage a contingent of pro-drillers to show up and stand outside to show support for the project. It’s time to show everyone that supporters far outnumber detractors…
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    Mariner East Pipeline Uses Eminent Domain Against SWPA Landowners

    Confession: We have a tough time with eminent domain cases filed by pipeline companies. We believe property rights are sacrosanct–you don’t tell me what I can and can’t do with my property, and I don’t tell you what you can and can’t do with your property. But then zoning laws enter the picture. And statewide bans on fracking. Etc. What happens if all but a handful of landowners sign up to allow a pipeline? Should an entire project that when built results in a greater “good” for society get nixed because of half a dozen of holdout landowners? Tough tough issues. The latest skirmish comes from Washington County, PA where Sunoco Logistics has filed eminent domain cases against a handful of landowners who won’t allow new construction through their property for the Mariner East Pipeline project. Sunoco has taken them to court and seeks leases on a total of 11 acres…
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    EQT’s 1st Utica Well Shatters Record – 72.9 MMcf/d IP Rate!

    top prizeWe have plenty of EQT news today, but none of it is (for us) as big as this: EQT finished fracking their very first Utica Shale well in Greene County, PA last week, a well that they call “the most technically challenging well” they’ve ever drilled. But man oh man was it worth it! The EQT Utica well is gargantuan. It is the new reigning #1 champ for any on-shore shale well anywhere in the world that we’re aware of when it comes to production. The EQT Utica well produced a truly astonishing initial production (IP) of 72.9 million cubic feet of natural gas per day (MMcf/d). The previous record-holder was a Range Resources Utica well in Washington County, PA at 59 MMcf/d (see Range Resources Drills #1 Producing Marcellus Shale Well in 1Q15). We’re not quite sure how to convey just how big this news is! EQT flowed their new Utica production right into a pipeline for sale–the well has not been shut in. Once the initial gush settled down, the well is now producing 22 MMcf/d. Stupendous output. EQT is planning to drill their second Utica well in Wetzel County, WV later this year…
    Read More “EQT’s 1st Utica Well Shatters Record – 72.9 MMcf/d IP Rate!”