Pennsylvania

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    Former Marcellus Coalition CEO Katie Klaber Starts Consultantancy

    Con•sult•ant: a person who provides expert advice professionally. Synonyms: adviser, expert, specialist, authority, pundit. One of our favorite Marcellus personalities, Kathryn (Katie) Klaber, former CEO of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, has finally turned up again–as a consultant. Katie has begun her own consulting practice along with partner Ron Pettengill, a Wall Street IT wizard. It will be no surprise that Katie’s new consulting firm will focus on shale, and, if we read her press announcement correctly, help companies navigate the tricky PR waters of aggressive development while maintaining good relations with the public. And Katie should know, because she helped build the enormously successful MSC to its current 300 members–those members being some of the largest upstream (drilling) and midstream (pipelines) companies in the world.

    The Marcellus Shale has become the hottest of the hot shale plays in the United States–and Katie Klaber had a hand in that success. She’s now turning her expertise, specialization and authority into a consulting practice that will deliver her knowledge to companies across the country. Here’s the press announcement from Katie about her newly formed consulting practice, including a couple of customers she’s already serving (advising the Babst Calland law firm and working with global consulting firm Blue Water Growth)…
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    Williams Expands in PA Again, Adds Local HQ in Fayette County

    Although headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Williams–one of the largest (perhaps the largest) midstream company in the Marcellus and Utica Shale–continues to expand its footprint in the northeast. The latest area where Williams is expanding is southwest PA–Fayette County to be precise. Williams recently opened a new local headquarters for their Williams Energy division in Fayette. The new location currently employs 75 people (so far).

    Here’s the story of Williams’ ongoing expansion in SW PA…
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    Chief O&G Adds Field Office/Jobs in Bradford County, PA

    Chief Oil & Gas is expanding–in Wyalusing, PA. Where the heck is Wyalusing (population 564)? Smack in the middle of Bradford County, not far from Towanda, PA. Bradford is one of (perhaps the most) drilled Marcellus Shale counties in the state. It certainly makes sense for Chief to set up shop there–especially since Chief owns 210,000 acres of leases and operates 100 wells in the area!

    The new field office in Wylausing consists of three trailers and 12 employees–at least for now…
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    PA Judge Hears Mariner East NGL Pipeline Eminent Domain Case

    court gavelSunoco Logistics–and for that matter, MarkWest–have a lot riding on a single court case in Washington County, PA. It might be a bit melodramatic to say the future of the Mariner East NGL (natural gas liquids) pipeline hangs in the balance, but it certainly is not inaccurate to say the case could cause an extended delay–if it goes the “wrong” way (for Sunoco). What’s the case about?

    Sunoco’s Mariner East “refined products” pipeline spans the entire state of Pennsylvania. In order to connect to that pipeline to ship propane and ethane to the Marcus Hook refinery near Philadelphia, Sunoco first has to build a 50-mile feeder pipeline from the MarkWest processing plant in Houston (Chartiers Township) to Delmont (see the Sunoco map below). The problem is, a group of landowners in Washington County won’t play ball and lease their land to Sunoco to bury the pipeline. Sunoco got tired of negotiating with the recalcitrant landowners, and changed tactics to declare it (Sunoco) has eminent domain power under PA state authority. They sue the 25 landowners for force them to allow the pipeline. The landowners sued back arguing the 50-mile pipeline should come under federal, not state, authority. One of the 25 cases is being used as a proxy for the others and that case was just argued yesterday before a PA judge. A decision, according to the judge, will be “prompt”…
    Read More “PA Judge Hears Mariner East NGL Pipeline Eminent Domain Case”

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    CSSD Makes Case for Quasi-Regulation of Marcellus Drilling

    Yesterday MDN told you that the Center for Sustainable Shale Development (the CSSD) is back, in a big way (see Center for Sustainable Shale Comes Roaring Back (to Life)). About the time we posted that story, we received a number of announcements from the CSSD. One of those announcements was about a session for the press–to listen to and ask questions of CSSD interim director Andrew Place (from EQT) and former governor and EPA administrator Christine Todd Whitman. MDN dialed in to listen, this is what we heard…
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    Are CSSD’s Standards Really Needed? Comparison with PA/OH/WV/Feds

    The Center for Sustainable Shale Development (CSSD) has a big hurdle to leap–convincing drillers to spend a lot of money and time (up to $50,000 and hundreds of hours) to become CSSD certified–and then ongoing monitoring to keep that certification. They’re using a carrot and stick. The carrot is that if you become certified, you’re elite, you’re “in”, you’re special–and landowners will be able to trust you. You’ll have the “Goodhouskeeping seal of approval” on your drilling because you’ve got the cert. The stick is that if you don’t get certified, you’re suspect, you’re in the “out” crowd, you’re not “one of us” and therefore landowners should be wary of signing a lease to have you drill on their property.

    Beyond the perceptions, the real question is whether or not the standards themselves will achieve what they say they will achieve–safer and “sustainable” drilling that does a minimum amount of damage to the environment while retrieving low-cost, more efficient and better for the environment natural gas. But wait (you may ask), don’t the states and even the feds already have a bookshelf full of standards and regulations drillers must follow? Indeed they do. The CSSD says, in essence, those standards are fine, but our (CSSD) standards are far better. The crux of the CSSD argument is that you should voluntarily (with peer pressure and cajoling) follow our standards because we have PA, OH, WV and even the feds beat on how strict and yummy good for the environment our standards are over theirs. In fact, the CSSD has produced a chart (embedded below) to “prove” it…
    Read More “Are CSSD’s Standards Really Needed? Comparison with PA/OH/WV/Feds”

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    Center for Sustainable Shale Comes Roaring Back (to Life)

    roaring backFinally, signs of life from the Center for Sustainable Shale Development (CSSD), a new independent certification organization for Marcellus Shale drillers launched with much fanfare in March of last year. Both drillers and environmentalist organizations, along with non-profits like the mostly anti-drilling Heinz Endowments, cooperated to develop a set of 15 standards drillers should meet to receive the CSSD’s official stamp of approval (see Important: Drillers & Enviros Form New Group, Launch Cert Program for MDN’s mixed feelings about the organization and its standards). Heinz Endowments president Bobby Vagt lost his job for promoting the CSSD (see Bobby Vagt Out as Pres of Heinz Endowments – Fracking Connection?).

    Since launching, aside from the Vagt/Heinz flap, all has been quiet with the CSSD. However, the CSSD was busy working behind the scenes. From the beginning, Andrew Place, corporate director of energy and environmental policy for EQT has served as interim director of the CSSD. News reports are now coming fast and furious. First, environmentalist lawyer Susan LeGros from Philadelphia has been named the director of the CSSD. She’ll be making a move to Pittsburgh where CSSD HQ is located. Second, Bureau Veritas (BV) has been selected as the company to audit/evaluate companies that want to spend the $30-$100K required to become certified. After they evaluate, a 3-member panel will decide on whether they get the stamp of approval. Two of those three people are Christy Todd Whitman, former governor of NJ and former EPA chief, and former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill. Third, it appears to MDN that no one else has joined the CSSD beyond the initial handful of signups (Shell, EQT, Chevron, CONSOL Energy), and that no one has sought certification–although that may change now that the cert process is up and running…
    Read More “Center for Sustainable Shale Comes Roaring Back (to Life)”

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    PA Resident Snaps 8,000 Pictures of Cabot Well Construction

    Photojournal of a PA NatGas WellMDN editor Jim Willis received an excited phone call from Susquehanna County, PA resident Janice Gavern after being pointed in our direction by Cabot Oil & Gas. Janice, who runs a goat farm with her daughter near Montrose, PA (and a cancer survivor) started a project a few years back to document the drilling of a shale well on her friend’s property. As Janice says, after she visited the site, just to “keep an eye on things” and snapped her first picture, she was hooked. And the rest, including some 8,000 pictures taken with Janice’s little digital camera, is history. At least that’s what Janice hopes.

    Janice’s aim in doing a photo documentary of the drilling process is to preserve an important bit of Susquehanna County history, for future generations. Janice has selected 650 of the 8,000 pictures and compiled them into an e-book on Amazon–the first e-book of a series she’s planning. The first batch cover site preparation and building the well pad–up to the point when the drill arrives. She’s done a fabulous job, and we’re happy to help her make it known to the world. In fact, although the e-book normally retails for $9.99, you can order it FREE today and then again on Feb. 1. We recommend you head on over and download it right now. Here’s a bit more of Janice’s story as told by the Scranton Times-Tribune…
    Read More “PA Resident Snaps 8,000 Pictures of Cabot Well Construction”

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    Allegheny County Health Dept to Monitor Air Near PIT Airport

    Here’s a good idea that everyone can embrace: Measure air quality both before and after drilling near a local drill site. In this case, it’s not just any drill site–it’s the 9,000 acres surrounding the Pittsburgh Airport where CONSOL Energy is now ramping up to drill 47 Marcellus Shale wells on 6 well pads and install 17 miles of gathering pipelines (see CONSOL Energy Reveals Drilling Plan for Pittsburgh Airport). The Allegheny County Health Department announced they will conduct an air quality study at the airport before and after drilling.

    What will they find? (It’s always fun to speculate!) We suspect…not much. Oh, there may be a temporary increase in some undesirable pollutants in the air from truck traffic (if they use diesel, increasingly natgas trucks are being used). However, since CONSOL will use electric motors to do all of the drilling and fracking at the airport property, most of the air pollution problems that come from drilling will be nonexistent (see CONSOL to Use Electric Motors for Drilling at Pittsburgh Airport). MDN will keep an eye on this interesting story. Here’s the article that talks about the Health Department’s plan to monitor air quality near the airport:
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    Warning: Marcellus Welders in PA Targets of Copper/Tool Theft

    Welders in the Marcellus Shale should be on the lookout–especially in western PA. There’s been a recent rash of thefts of welder’s tools and supplies–particularly copper welding cable. The thieves are bold–really bold. Sometimes a welding truck is targeted for theft while the guys are inside a restaurant having lunch!

    Here’s the sad, and maddening, story:
    Read More “Warning: Marcellus Welders in PA Targets of Copper/Tool Theft”

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    “Enviro” Groups: Keep Acid Mine Drainage So Drillers Can’t Use It

    How to Be Your Own Selfish PigGet this: Environmentalists (like those at PennEnvironment) hate fossil fuels from shale drilling so much, they would rather have millions of gallons of acid mine drainage pour into creeks and rivers in PA every day rather than let shale drillers use that drainage as a fracking fluid–thereby freeing up fresh water sources and solving one of the state’s most pernicious long-term pollution problems. Anti-drillers can’t stand the idea that drillers might, in any way, be perceived as helping the environment. Talk about selfish pigs.

    The residents in PA should be outraged at the 35 groups listed below, including PennEnvironment, that sent a letter last Thursday to political leaders asking them to abandon support for one of the best ideas to roll around in generations–cleaning up acid mine drainage by using it as a fracking fluid…
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    WV Cracker Plant has Already Purchased Land for Future Site

    In November, WV Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin announced he finally had him a cracker (see WV Announces Brazilian Company to Build Ethane Cracker Complex). By Dec. 31, Odebrecht, the company that will build the ethane cracker, had purchased the future site for their proposed plant in Wood County, WV through a holding company–for $10.9 million. A chemical plant currently located on the site employing 130 people will close in 2015. But have no fear–when the cracker plant is built, it will (for a time) employ 10,000 people to build it. It’s a massive undertaking that will ultimately lead to an estimated $7 billion economic injection just for the state of West Virginia. Talk about an economic revolution!

    Compare WV’s proposed cracker to the Pennsylvania proposed cracker plant. Shell announced their intention to build a PA cracker plant in June 2011. How long did it take Shell to purchase the property on which they plan to build their cracker plant? They still haven’t purchased it. Let’s see: under 2 months to purchase the property for the WV cracker, still no purchase after 2 1/2 years for the PA cracker. Which one do you think is serious about building, and which one will get built first?…
    Read More “WV Cracker Plant has Already Purchased Land for Future Site”

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    Heinz Spent $3.3M in 2013 on Anti-Drilling Research/Activities

    It now becomes crystal-clear (as if there were ever any doubt) about why the Heinz Endowments, under the direction of Teresa Heinz Kerry, fired its president Bobby Vagt and a couple of other senior members of the Endowments team: Heinz herself is through and through anti-drilling. Attempting to spread a thin veneer of euphemistic language, the Heinz Endowments admits that last year they provided $3.3 million of their considerable warchest to support anti-drilling organizations and causes. Oh, they don’t call it that, but that’s exactly what it is: Every single “cause” they funded took aim at shale drilling–to stop it, not make it better. With people like the Heinz’s there is no attempting a reasoned, considered “how can we improve this” approach. Instead, it’s a “how do we eliminate these evil, nasty drillers–eradicate them from the face of the earth” approach.

    Some of the recipients of Teresa’s largess last year include anti-drilling “studies” at Ivy League schools like Yale, Harvard and Cornell, and anti-drilling “activities” at non-profits like FracTracker Alliance. Contrast that with the tiny bit of money Vagt tried to spend to help create the very strict (too strict in our opinion) Center for Sustainable Shale Development–an alliance between drillers and environmental groups–getting both sides to the table and to agree. That one made mamma Teresa really mad, so Bobby had to go bye bye. We can’t have any talk of a “third way” and cooperation in shale exploration. It’s “no way” for the Heinz clan when it comes to shale…
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    Internet Company Invests in…Marcellus Shale?

    An internet company–Worldwide Internet, Inc.–spent $5 million to acquire a 40% in Marcellus Shale property near Erie, PA. The company swapped some stock to make the purchase. It may seem kind of strange that an internet tech company would invest in a property specifically because it has Marcellus Shale drilling potential. But perhaps it’s not so strange when you consider Worldwide Internet develops technology for huge data centers (big server farms with lots of computers), and those data centers are increasingly powered by natural gas used to generate electricity.

    This investment is “crazy like a fox” on Worldwide’s part, if you ask us. Here’s their brief press announcement:
    Read More “Internet Company Invests in…Marcellus Shale?”

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    Rex Energy 4Q13: Several Marcellus Experiments Paying Off

    The “little” driller in the Marcellus, Rex Energy, posted impressive gains in production for the fourth quarter of 2013. According to their 4Q13 update issued yesterday, Rex’s production, nearly all of which comes from the Marcellus and Utica Shale region, was 110 million cubic feet per day–a 12% increase over 2012. Of keen interest to investors is that 31% of net production for 4Q13 was oil and natural gas liquids (NGLs). The company gets a lot more money for those products than just plain “dry gas” methane.

    Rex has operations in western PA and eastern OH. Of interest to MDN is that Rex is testing a strategy of drilling both the Marcellus and the shallower Upper Devonian layers in a single well, apparently with good success. They’re also experimenting with spacing wells closer together–at 600 feet apart instead of the traditional 750 feet. Rex is innovating, and reaping the rewards. Here’s their full 4Q13 update:
    Read More “Rex Energy 4Q13: Several Marcellus Experiments Paying Off”

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    Murrysville Park Lease to be Discussed at Meeting

    Last June MDN told you that Huntley & Huntley, a small conventional gas driller, had leased land surrounding the Murrysville Community Park in Westmoreland County, PA. At that time Huntley made overtures to Murrysville officials about leasing the land under the park for drilling from neighboring properties they already have under lease (see Conventional Driller Eyes Marcellus Under Murrysville, PA Park). Since that time MDN has learned that Huntley often works with and for Range Resources. Although it’s not clear if Range is the client in this case, we suspect that is the case.

    Next Wednesday, Murrysville Council will take up a proposal from Huntley & Huntley (Range?) at their regularly scheduled public meeting. Both council members and Huntley want the public to attend and hear more about Huntley’s (Range’s?) plan, “in the interests of good communication.” Should be interesting…
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