Pennsylvania

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”
Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Research | Roads | Statewide PA

Study Says Each PA Well Creates $5-$10K+ in Road Damages
March 28, 2014March 28, 2014

A new study recently published in the peer reviewed Journal of Infrastructure Systems from a half dozen students and professors, some of them working for RAND Corporation, attempts to answer the question, How much road damage due to truck traffic happens in Pennsylvania–and how much does it cost? The study, titled “Estimating The Consumptive Use Costs of Shale Natural Gas Extraction on Pennsylvania Roadways” (full copy embedded below), was submitted for consideration a year ago–in March 2013. It was accepted by the Journal in November and finally published in their February 2014 issue.

The folks doing the research are smart–members of the American Society of Civil Engineers–we don’t dispute their credentials. What did they find? Using estimates of how many truck trips it takes to drill a well from data collected by the New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation (yes, NY data where there is no shale drilling), the authors estimate that for more frequently traveled state and local roads in PA the damage amounts to an average of $5,000 to $10,000 per well drilled. If you include less-traveled rural roads, that number jumps to $13,000 to $23,000 per well average…
Read More “Study Says Each PA Well Creates $5-$10K+ in Road Damages”
Beaver County | Economic Impact | Energy Companies | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | Shell | Statewide PA

County Officials Meet with Shell on PA Cracker, Come Away Hopeful
March 27, 2014March 27, 2014

Seems like it’s “cracker day” at MDN. Long before Odebrecht announced their potential ethane cracker plant for Parkersburg, WV, Shell announced plans to build a cracker in Pennsylvania. In fact it was exactly two years ago this month that Shell announced the location would be Monaca (Beaver County), PA (see Shell Announces Location of Ethane Cracker Plant). PA state legislators eventually voted on a package of significant tax breaks for the proposed new plant (see PA Legislature Reaches Deal on Tax Credit for Cracker Plant). However, since that time, it seems like the PA cracker deal has cycled through highs and lows as to whether it would actually get built (see PA Ethane Cracker – On Again, Off Again…Now On Again?).

More recently MDN told you the pendulum had swung back to the pessimistic side (see Shell’s Shale Pessimism Signals Worry for Some re PA Cracker). But what’s this? Last week some 30 Beaver County officials met with Shell about the proposed ethane cracker plant and left that meeting feeling “hopeful”–which is a good sign. Shell told the officials about moving forward with plans to move a portion of a local roadway, relocate power lines and other big-ticket projects that Shell would not be spending money on unless there is serious interest in moving forward. Here’s more from last week’s hopeful meeting between Shell and Beaver County officials…
Read More “County Officials Meet with Shell on PA Cracker, Come Away Hopeful”
Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Taxation

PA Dem Floats 5% Marcellus Severance Tax “For the Children”
March 27, 2014March 27, 2014

Pennsylvania Democrats continue their push for economic suicide. Borrowing from their 50 year-old playbook, the latest push is to impose a 5% severance tax on Marcellus Shale drilling in the state–which would effectively kill all drilling–and use the money (please don’t laugh)…”for the children.” Yes folks, PA’s schools suck big-time, and the only thing that can save them now is to extract some money out of the pockets of those nasty, filthy (and rich) drillers so teachers can educate young crumb crunchers to the superiority of socialism and taking money from one group (those who work) to redistribute to another (those who don’t work). What better way than to sink a pipeline right into the piles of money that come from drilling? What dunces.

State Sen. Vincent Hughes, dunderhead Democrat from the Philadelphia area, said he will introduce legislation to impose a 5% Marcellus Shale severance tax that will be DOA, so he and other Dems can use it as a politically divisive campaign issue come November. Such caring (and intelligent) folks those PA Democrats. Just a teeny, tiny problem Vinny–your party has voted to stop all Marcellus drilling (see PA Democrat Party Votes to End Marcellus Shale Drilling Statewide). How will you tax something that doesn’t happen anymore? Oops…
Read More “PA Dem Floats 5% Marcellus Severance Tax “For the Children””
Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | New York | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide NY | Susquehanna County | Williams

EPA/DOI Ask for More Time to Review PA-NY Constitution Pipeline
March 27, 2014March 27, 2014

NGI’s Shale Daily is reporting both the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Dept. of Interior (DOI) have filed requests with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to extend the comment period on the proposed 124-mile Constitution Pipeline. The Constitution will run from the prolific gas fields of Susquehanna County, PA across the border and up into Schoharie County, NY where it will interconnect with two major interstate pipelines–carrying Marcellus Shale natural gas produced by Cabot Oil & Gas and other drillers (see New Marcellus Constitution Pipeline Announces “Final” Route). Along the way a local utility company will tap into the Constitution to deliver natural gas to rural locations (see Leatherstocking to Tap Constitution Pipeline for Local Deliveries).

However, the Constitution will need to make a few changes, according to FERC (see FERC: Constitution Pipeline Should Make Changes to Lessen Impacts). But nothing too major. That is, unless the EPA and DOI jump in with new demands. Their delay is unwelcome and potentially troubling–although we’re not ready to hit the panic button just yet. Here’s what Shale Daily says about the request from EPA & DOI:
Read More “EPA/DOI Ask for More Time to Review PA-NY Constitution Pipeline”
Beaver County | Economic Impact | Energy Companies | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | Shell

Cracker Plant Talk Spurs Economic Growth in Beaver County, PA
March 26, 2014March 26, 2014

Over the past couple of years the prospects for an ethane cracker plant in Beaver County, PA have swung from wild optimism to wild pessimism and everything in between. Most recently the pendulum has once again tilted negative (see Shell’s Shale Pessimism Signals Worry for Some re PA Cracker). But don’t talk negative to the businesses setting up shop and expanding in Beaver County. The mere talk that it’s possible Shell will build the $2-$3 billion ethane cracker in Monaca has caused a significant uptick in the local economy. One Realtor has said for businesses looking to get a piece of the coming economic pie–you’re already late! Many have already grabbed up space and it’s increasingly difficult to find commercial real estate in the county.

Here is the story of the economic boom already under way in Beaver County just from talk–talk that Shell may build a cracker plant there…
Read More “Cracker Plant Talk Spurs Economic Growth in Beaver County, PA”
Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | Taxation | West Virginia

Best Way to Kill Drilling in PA/OH/WV: “Uniform” Severance Tax
March 26, 2014March 26, 2014

A few weeks ago MDN said the plan floated by lefties and libs to create a so-called uniform severance tax across PA, OH and WV is one of the dumbest things we’ve heard in a long time (see Stupid Idea of the Year: Create Uniform Severance Tax in PA-OH-WV). The plan as proposed means all three states hold hands and jump off the economic cliff together. Apparently it’s more fun to die together (economically) than alone.

MDN is not the only voice to point out the lunacy of this plan. The head of the PA Chamber of Business and Industry also says the proposed mega-tax is nuts. As Gene Barr highlights in the following letter to the editor, it’s apparent the people proposing such a plan–including the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center–are ignorant of how taxes in PA and other places actually work. You would think an organization with a name that includes the word “budget” would employ at least one economist or accountant. Apparently they don’t. They are economic illiterates who don’t realize what they are proposing is anything but fair–especially to Pennsylvanians…
Read More “Best Way to Kill Drilling in PA/OH/WV: “Uniform” Severance Tax”
Accidents | Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Anti-Drillers Attack Crude-by-Rail Traveling Through PA
March 26, 2014March 26, 2014

The leftist anti-drillers at the Pennsylvania news organization called PublicSource, backed by the likes of Teresa Heinz Kerry, is taking aim at shale-produced crude oil that travels by railroad. In a hit piece in which they begin by doing a bait-and-switch, starting with a derailment of ethanol (nothing at all to do with oil or gas), they then parry and say derailments of oil in Pennsylvania are an imminent threat and danger to PA residents. The hue and cry has gone up: Either have the feds regulate shale oil on railroads out of existence, or preferably just stop shipping crude by rail. Who wants all that nasty crude from North Dakota anyway? Funny how the answer is always the same no matter the question: just stop extracting fossil fuels.

Here’s how the latest PublicSource hit piece begins…
Read More “Anti-Drillers Attack Crude-by-Rail Traveling Through PA”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Birthplace of Fracking (NE USA) Once Again Leads O&G Innovation
March 26, 2014March 26, 2014

Fracking as a concept has been around for a long time. Would you believe us if we said the first rudimentary forms of fracking date back to the 1860s–around the time of the American Civil War? That’s when liquids were first used to fracture “shallow, hard rock wells” in places like PA, NY and WV. Somewhere along the way oil and gas drilling drifted to places like Texas and Louisiana and Oklahoma. In the modern era, fracking started to be widely used commercially in 1947. Oil and gas drilling “grew up” in, and innovations came from, drilling in the southwestern part of the U.S.

Shale drilling is a more recent development–the combination of fracking and horizontal drilling. Shale drilling has been around commercially for 15-20 years, and yes, it was first pioneered and developed by George Mitchell in the Barnett Shale of Texas. However, drillers in Texas and other locations are now learning from innovations coming from the Marcellus and Utica Shale. The country and indeed the world now looks to how companies like Cabot Oil & Gas are able to economically drill for gas in a low-price environment. The innovation that started in the northeast “once upon a time” some 150 years ago has finally returned to its birthplace in the northeast, and the northeast is showing the world how to do it better, faster, and safer than ever before…
Read More “Birthplace of Fracking (NE USA) Once Again Leads O&G Innovation”
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”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County

PA Anti-Drilling Activist Asks Court to Lift Cabot Restraining Order
March 25, 2014March 25, 2014

Vera Scroggins, a local and outside NEPA a little-known anti-driller in Susquehanna County with a potty mouth (see this video of her harassing filmmaker Phelim McAleer), had her day in a Montrose, PA court yesterday in which she and her commie-lib ACLU lawyers tried to get a restraining order lifted. Vera, according to Cabot Oil & Gas, repeatedly violated no trespassing requests from the company. She would show up at Cabot drill sites playing tour guide to obtuse politicians from New York City and on occasion even Hollywood celebrities (like Susan Sarandon), pretending the drill sites and compressor plants she showed them are somehow harming the environment. Cabot repeatedly told Vera to please stop entering roadways and drill sites as a safety precaution. She wouldn’t listen, so Cabot was forced to turn to the local Susquehanna County Court for help (see NE PA Anti-Driller Slapped with Trespassing Injunction)…
Read More “PA Anti-Drilling Activist Asks Court to Lift Cabot Restraining Order”
Energy Companies | Forced Pooling | Hilcorp Energy | Industrywide Issues | Lawrence County | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Regulation

Hilcorp Forced Pooling Hearing Postponed, More Landowners Added
March 24, 2014March 24, 2014

MDN previously told you about Hilcorp’s lawsuit to force some hold-out landowners in Lawrence County, PA to allow drilling under their land–a concept called forced pooling. The PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the PA courts treated it like a hot potato. The courts finally told the DEP that they (the DEP) would need to decide the matter. So the DEP had set aside two days this week to conduct public hearings in New Castle (see Forced Pooling Circus (ie Hearing) Coming to Lawrence County, PA).

However, the circus/hearing scheduled for this week has been postponed. No new date has been announced. The DEP and Hilcorp both wanted the delay offering the explanation that they need more time, “to provide more complete notice to potentially affected people.” Apparently some landowners haven’t yet been served notice that they will be affected–forced–to be part of a Hilcorp drilling unit, and both Hilcorp and the DEP want them to know it before the public hearing commences. Seems like the forced pooling in Lawrence issue keeps getting better and better (not)…
Read More “Hilcorp Forced Pooling Hearing Postponed, More Landowners Added”
Blair County | Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Pennsylvania | Supply Chain

Companies Flock to Blair County, PA to Serve Marcellus Industry
March 24, 2014March 24, 2014

Blair County, PA (home of Altoona) doesn’t have active Marcellus or Utica Shale drilling. But that doesn’t mean the industry hasn’t been an economic boom for the county. Because it is located at the doorstep of wet gas drilling in southwestern PA, and not all that far from dry gas drilling in northeastern PA, Blair is quickly becoming supply chain central for the drilling industry. In May 2012 MDN told you about a new pump plant setting up in Blair to service the industry (see Altoona Scores a New Pump Plant for the Marcellus). According to the plant manager, 2013 was a banner year and they “exceeded all of our targets and projections.”

HalenHardy LLC, a company that created and manufactures an innovative mobile air unit to suck silica dust off workers’ clothes, opened in Blair in January 2013. HalenHardy won an award last September for their technology (see HalenHardy Wins Ben Franklin EHS Award for Silica Air Shower). They won a second award for their technology last week–at the Oil & Gas Awards (more on that this week, check back). A second Oil & Gas Awards winner has also set up shop in Blair County–Drill Baby Drill Staffing. Read on to learn about other companies that have located and are now flourishing in Blair County–companies aimed at providing products and services for the Marcellus Shale industry…
Read More “Companies Flock to Blair County, PA to Serve Marcellus Industry”
Allegheny County | Energy Companies | Olympus/Huntley & Huntley | Pennsylvania | Range Resources Corp

PPG Blesses Deer Lakes Park Drilling in Allegheny County, PA
March 24, 2014March 24, 2014

Stop Press! The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editorial board has blessed the proposed deal to drill under (not on) Deer Lakes Park in Allegheny County, PA. Last Thursday MDN told you how County Executive Rich Fitzgerald got even more money out of Range Resources than originally proposed (see Allegheny Co Exec Bests Range on Deer Lakes Park Lease Deal). Anti-drillers are squawking (what’s new?). However, the increasingly anti-drilling Pittsburgh Post-Gazette endorsing the deal? Now that IS news!

Here’s what they wrote in today’s editorial…
Read More “PPG Blesses Deer Lakes Park Drilling in Allegheny County, PA”
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”
Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Taxation

PA Shale Industry Demonized for “Lack” of Severance Tax
March 21, 2014March 21, 2014

The Democrats in Pennsylvania are bound and determined to impose a nosebleed severance tax on shale drilling in the state. Their latest effort comes from the partisan so-called Independent Fiscal Office, a branch of the state legislature, that just released an apples to oranges comparison of PA with other states claiming PA doesn’t pay as much in taxes as those other states. Of course what the very flawed analysis by the IFO doesn’t show are all of the other taxes and fees in PA not levied in those other states that more than make up for the “lack” of a severance tax.

PA Dems seem to have the philosophy that 100% of the money earned by other people (drillers in this case) belongs to the state (i.e. them) for redistribution purposes, and how dare the industry oppose them from extracting 5%, or preferably 10%, right off the top (see PA State Treasurer Rob McCord Unveils Gas Death Plan). Here’s the latest salvo in the PA Dem war to regain the governor’s chair this November by demonizing the shale industry as not paying their “fair share”…
Read More “PA Shale Industry Demonized for “Lack” of Severance Tax”