Pennsylvania

Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

2 Bills on PA Gov’s Desk: Monthly Production #s, Lease Termination
October 21, 2014October 21, 2014

A pair of bills recently passed both the Pennsylvania House and Senate now sit on Gov. Tom Corbett’s desk that are sure to delight landowners and (likely) frustrate drillers. The prime sponsor and author of both bills is PA Rep. Tina Pickett (Republican, Bradford/Sullivan/Susquehanna). House Bill (HB) 2278 will require drillers to file monthly production numbers with the Dept. of Environmental Protection. They currently file every six months. The second bill, HB 402, requires a driller to present a “recordable surrender document” to a landowner within 30 days of a lease cancellation/termination. With such a document, landowners know for sure, they have proof, that they can re-lease with someone else if they so choose…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Northampton County | PennEast Pipeline | Pennsylvania | Pipelines

Dela. Riverkeeper, Sierra Club Hold Stop PennEast Pipeline Mtg
October 21, 2014October 21, 2014

THE Delaware Riverkeeper herself, Maya van Rossum, has apparently been called back from outside the orbit of the Delaware River Basin (see Martian Chronicles: Delaware River Basin Shifts to Western PA?). What urgent matters would draw Ms. van Rossum from trying to stop evil shale well drilling in western PA all the way back to the Delaware River Basin in eastern PA? Why, a pipeline, of course. She, along with a contingent of Sierra Clubbers, held a “stop the PennEast Pipeline Project” meeting at Northampton Community College last night. There were lots of words like “dangerous” and “devastation” bandied about, in an attempt to fire up ~125 of the faithful who attended…
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Crestwood Midstream | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Luzerne County | Pennsylvania | Pipelines

Crestwood Announces Successful Open Season for MARC II PA Pipeline
October 21, 2014October 21, 2014

Speaking of the PennEast Pipeline, yesterday Crestwood Midstream announced a successful non-binding open season (a yeah, we’ll use your pipeline when you build it) for their MARC II Pipeline in the Marcellus Shale. The MARC II is a new 30-mile pipeline extending the Central New York Oil & Gas Company (owned by Crestwood) to connect with the proposed new PennEast Pipeline along with a connection to the Transco Pipeline and the proposed new Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline–all three connections happening in Luzerne County, PA…
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Aqua America | Energy Services | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Supply Chain

Water Pipelines for Drillers Great Idea, But Few & Far Between
October 21, 2014October 21, 2014

An excellent article appears in today’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, written by one of the few (perhaps only) reporters they have who is objective when it comes to writing about the natural gas industry: Anya Litvak. Anya used to write for the Pittsburgh Business Times before the Post-Gazette poached her. Anya’s article addresses the issue of using water pipelines to feed the growing demand for water used by shale drillers. It’s a win/win because it tends to be cheaper and it reduces truck traffic. However, the up-front cost to build a pipeline (on the part of a water company) is not cheap and many drillers aren’t willing to commit to the 3-15 year term that water utilities want to have before they are willing to build such a pipeline. As part of the article we get this interesting update on PA water company Aqua America…
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Energy Companies | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | MarkWest Energy | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Processing Plants | Range Resources Corp | Regulation | Washington County

Civil War Between Cecil Supervisors/Zoning Board Over Compressor
October 20, 2014October 20, 2014

As MDN reported in early October, MarkWest Energy finally (after four years) won the right to build a compressor station in Cecil (Washington County), PA (see MarkWest Wins Court Case to Build Compressor Station in Cecil, PA). The compressor station will be built on property owned by Range Resources. It’s Range’s gas that will flow through that station on its way to market. The Cecil Board of Supervisors voted to not challenge a Commonwealth Court (a lower court) decision that said the zoning board erred when denying MarkWest a permit to build the compressor station. However, the zoning board itself can still appeal the decision (see Cecil Supervisors Vote to NOT Appeal MarkWest Compressor Decision). It appears to us like a civil war has erupted between the Cecil board of supervisors and the zoning board…
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Lancaster County | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Williams

DC Lawyer: PA Landowners Should Get Involved in Pipeline Process
October 20, 2014October 20, 2014

A surprisingly (mostly) fair and balanced article from anti-drilling PBS reporter (we’d call her an anti-drilling advocate) Marie Cusick with StateImpact Pennsylvania from last week on the topic of pipelines. The occasion was a good-sized meeting of 200 or so in Lancaster County, PA–folks who turned out to hear some out-of-town lawyers talk about how they can deal with the inevitable Atlantic Sunrise pipeline project proposed by Williams. The project will mean 177 miles of “greenfield” pipeline–pipeline that digs up completely new trenches across “virgin” land where there is no existing pipeline. Washington, DC attorney Carolyn Elefant was one of the speakers at the meeting and spoke to StateImpact following the meeting…
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Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Lease & Royalty Payments | Pennsylvania | Southwestern Energy | Statewide WV | Washington County | West Virginia

Chesapeake Sells Close to 25% of Marcellus/Utica Operation
October 16, 2014October 16, 2014

The Chesapeake Energy fire sale continues–and this time it’s cut right into the bone and sinew of the company. The beneficiary of Chesapeake’s ongoing divestiture, this time, is Southwestern Energy. Southwestern has signed a deal to pick up 413,000 (!) Marcellus/Utica acres, most of it in West Virginia with some of it in Washington County, PA. Much of the land is in prime wet gas areas (see the map below). The deal includes 256 (!) operating and producing Marcellus and Utica Shale wells and another 179 (!) non-operated, non-producing wells–a total of 435 drilled wells. Southwestern is paying Chesapeake $5.375 BILLION for the deal–which will make Chesapeake’s real boss, corporate raider Carl Icahn, very happy…
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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide PA | Taxation

New PA Legislation SB 1499 Would Stop Many Pipeline Projects
October 16, 2014October 16, 2014

In a cleverly disguised move to stop Marcellus drilling, two Philadelphia-area state senators–Andy Dinniman (Democrat, Chester) and John Rafferty (RINO, Montgomery)–have teamed up to introduce legislation, Senate Bill (SB) 1499 (full copy below) that would assess an “impact fee” on new pipelines and possibly existing pipelines re-purposed for a different use. The pipelines getting this new fee are pipelines that specifically carry natural gas, NGLs or oil (other pipelines don’t count). The fee would only be assessed on pipelines in what they define as “high-consequence areas” like, you know, the Philly area. Places with lots of residences and businesses. You live in the sticks? They don’t care. You don’t get nuthin. You live someplace “important” like Philly? Soak ’em. Similar to the current drilling impact fee part of Act 13 (this is what’s clever), the money raised stays local–50% of it to the county, 40% to the town/city where the pipeline runs, and 10% to the state Public Utility Commission. How much of this new “impact fee” does the landowner get–the people who are most inconvenienced by having the pipeline? 0%…
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Allegheny County | Beaver County | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Odebrecht | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | Shell | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia | Wood County

Odebrect Cracker Aims to Attract Chemical/Plastics Manufacturing
October 16, 2014October 16, 2014

David Peebles, Odebrecht’s vice president of business development and the guy working to make the $4 billion ethane cracker and petrochemical plant project in Parkersburg, WV a reality, gave some great insights into just how vast and complex a process building that plant is. Speaking yesterday at the Penn State Natural Gas Utilization Conference in Southpointe, PA, Peebles said…
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Crime | Greene County (PA) | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Wastewater

Illegal Wastewater Dumping in Greene County, PA?
October 15, 2014October 15, 2014

A disturbing bit of news. Officials in Waynesburg, PA (county seat of Greene County, in the very southwestern tip of PA) say about 4,000 gallons of a “gray, milky substance” flowed through the local sewage treatment plant and that the plant’s flow meters spiked up when it happened. In other words, someone, somewhere dumped something down a manhole and that something got processed by the plant and ultimately discharged into Ten Mile Creek. The disturbing bit is that the plant’s operators, along with the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), think the substance dumped may have been frack wastewater…
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Energy Companies | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | WPX Energy

WPX Marcellus Assets Being Shopped in “Controlled Auction”
October 15, 2014October 15, 2014

As MDN has pointed out for some time now, Elvis, er um, WPX has left the building. Meaning WPX, although finishing up wells already permitted and started in the Marcellus–will not drill any new wells in the Marcellus. Does that mean landowners should be concerned that WPX will sell their already-drilled (and producing) wells in the Marcellus? In February, WPX spokeswoman Susan Oliver told MDN the company is definitely not selling their already drilled wells–100 of them or so (see WPX Gives MDN an Update on Their 2014 Marcellus Plans). However, an analysis by a trusted energy analyst has us wondering…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Erie County (NY) | Industrywide Issues | New York | Pennsylvania | Potter County | Statewide PA | Tioga County (PA)

MDN Prediction Comes True: Anti Criticizes Bills Sale to Fracker
October 15, 2014October 15, 2014

Just last week, with respect to the sale of the Buffalo “Marcellus” Bills to East Resources CEO Terry Pegula, we said the following tongue-in-cheek: “What’s interesting to us is that there’s zero talk about how Marcellus “blood money” has purchased the Bills. No talk that Pegula is an evil, nasty fracker….The talk, universally, is of a really great guy with a big heart that’s whip smart and committed to the Buffalo region (he previously bought the NHL Buffalo Sabres team). Where are the crazies and their loony toons criticisms? Where are the protesters? Nowhere to be found” (see Buffalo “Marcellus” Bills – Team Sold to Fracker for $1.4B). Well, such a loon has now been found, and a Wilkes-Barre newspaper published his rantings…
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About MDN | Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Maryland | MDN Resources | New York | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Processing Plants | Statewide MD | Statewide NY | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide VA | Statewide WV | Virginia | West Virginia

MDN Research: $58B in NE Infrastructure Projects, List of Top 5
October 14, 2014October 14, 2014

Marcellus Drilling News collaborates with the excellent ShaleNavigator service to publish a series of research reports called the Marcellus and Utica Shale Databook. MDN editor Jim Willis is very excited to announce that Volume 2 for the 2014 Databook series has just been released–and it is, without question, our best-ever. Among the pearls in this newest edition: Jim completely updated a comprehensive list of Marcellus/Utica Shale midstream and infrastructure projects (pipelines and processing plants) that first appeared in Vol. 2 of last year’s series. At that time, in 2013, projects either under construction or planned added up to a staggering $40 billion of investment coming to the northeast. This year? It’s even more mind-blowing. Infrastructure projects planned for the northeast now tally $58 billion–a 45% increase! Read on for the list of the top 5 big-money projects planned for the Marcellus/Utica…
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Crestwood Midstream | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide PA

Crestwood Midstream Marcellus Volume Up 10%, New NEPA Pipeline
October 14, 2014October 14, 2014

Crestwood Midstream filed their latest quarterly operations update yesterday, for third quarter 2014. Crestwood has pipeline gathering/processing systems in three major U.S. shale gas plays: the Marcellus, the Niobrara and the Barnett. They also have an oil pipeline gathering system in the Bakken Shale. The Marcellus is the largest of their natgas gathering systems, and according to the update, flows for the Marcellus system were up another 10% in 3Q14. At one point, the system hit a new daily average high of 700 million cubic feet per day (Mmcf/d). With a couple of new compressor stations coming online, the system will have a capacity of 875 Mmcf/d…
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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Taxation

Corbett Starting to Cave on Taxing Natgas? Sort of…
October 14, 2014October 14, 2014

In a fight for his political life, PA Gov. Tom Corbett is dipping his toe in waters he has, until now, not been willing to enter. In an interview with the anti-drilling PBS reporters at StateImpact Pennsylvania, Corbett talked about the possibility of a “transmission tax” on natural gas. He still doesn’t support a severance tax (thank God), but he is talking about a new tax on gas flowing through pipelines in the state. Dangerous talk, if you ask us. Corbett’s best shot at re-election is to NOT cave on the issue of unfairly taxing the drilling industry so grubby politicians in Harrisburg can redistribute the wealth, spending it on their own pet projects (pork barreling)…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Butler County | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Rex Energy

Martian Chronicles: Delaware River Basin Shifts to Western PA?
October 14, 2014October 14, 2014

The Martians are getting an assist from THE Delaware Riverkeeper herself (Maya van Rossum). Get this: The Delaware Riverkeeper, along with another anti-drilling group called The Clean Air Council (both based near Philadelphia), have filed an appeal with Adams Township (Butler County), PA over the town’s decision to grant Rex Energy permits to drill gas wells 3/4 of a mile away from the Mars public school. In June, Adams Township supervisors voted 4-1 to allow drilling to commence, subject to getting permits from the Dept. of Environmental Protection (see Adams Twp, PA Votes to NOT Block Drilling “Near” Mars School). Just a month ago, Rex got the permits from the DEP to begin drilling (see Rex Gets Permits to Drill Near Martian School, Antis Apoplectic). Some Martian parents objected, and found a sympathetic wallet all the way across the state in Philadelphia with van Rossum. What does Butler County, on the western edge of PA have to do with van Rossum’s Delaware River Basin group, which is focused exclusively on the eastern edge of PA? NOTHING. Except for her personal hatred of fossil fuels and willingness to spend her own (and other people’s) money to fight shale drilling wherever it happens…
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