Pennsylvania

Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | TerrAqua Resource Mgmt | Washington County | Wastewater

TerrAqua Gets Conditional Approval for PA Frack Wastewater Plant
October 16, 2013October 16, 2013

MDN has been watching the progress of a proposed new frack wastewater processing facility proposed by TerrAqua for Smith Township (Washington County), PA. A month ago the town held a somewhat bumpy public hearing about the proposed facility (see TerrAqua a Half Step Closer to New Frack Wastewater Facility).

Last night Smith Township supervisors voted to grant a zoning variance to TerrAqua for the plant–contingent on the plant gaining approval from the state Dept. of Environmental Protection and provided TerrAqua agrees to the same terms MAX Environmental follows in that vicinity–terms that limit the number of trucks coming and going and the hours of operation. TerrAqua says they need to study the variance before commenting…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Bobby Vagt Out as Pres of Heinz Endowments – Fracking Connection?
October 15, 2013October 15, 2013

In August MDN told you about a shake-up taking place at the Heinz Endowments with the firing of “longtime head” of environmental grant making for the Heinz Endowments, Caren Glotfelty (see Heinz Endowments Fires Head of Enviro Grants – Change Coming?). The story is an important one because of the role played by the Heinz Endowments in funding anti-fracking causes. Earlier this year, president of the Heinz Endowments, Bobby Vagt, dared to strike up first a conversation, then a pact, with drillers and a few other brave environmental organizations to found the Center for Sustainable Shale Development (see Important: Drillers & Enviros Form New Group, Launch Cert Program). Apparently Vagt’s “sell-out” to the drilling industry was the beginning of the end and the enviro-nut long knives came out for him (see Heinz Endowments President Owns $1.2M in Kinder Morgan Stock).

In what appears to be a move by one of the Endowments’ board members–one of the Heinz boys, Andre–Vagt announced he is “retiring” from his job as president of the Endowments. Looks like the long knives finally found their mark…
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Ohio | Pennsylvania | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Unexpected News in Latest BH Rig Counts – 42% Jump in Rigs in…
October 15, 2013October 15, 2013

From time to time MDN takes a look at the Baker Hughes “rig count”–the number of rotary drilling rigs operating in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia. The “received wisdom” in the drilling industry that is as goes the rig count, so goes production numbers. Used to be if you saw a decrease in the number of rigs in a given geography, maybe 6-12 months later you would see a corresponding decrease in production from that area. No more. Shale drilling has changed all of that. Nowadays the rig counts go down, and production (in PA anyway), doubles! Why? A lot of wells previously drilled are still waiting to be hooked up to pipelines and begin their production. And shale well production is different from conventional well production. The once simple measurement of more rigs/more production (and the reverse) no longer holds completely true.

Rig counts are still, however, a useful metric to track. And sometimes they reveal something surprising, as MDN found out today in reviewing the latest numbers. Rig counts are an indication of where there is an increase (or decrease) in new drilling activity. Landowners eager to have a well drilled on their property can use rig counts to gauge how quickly (or not) that may happen. Supply chain companies that sell services to drillers are also interested in tracking rig counts. So what, exactly, did MDN find that surprised us? The big surprise is where rig counts have recently spiked–significantly. It’s in a Marcellus/Utica state you may not expect…
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Luzerne County | Lycoming County | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide PA | Transco | Williams

Williams Takes Next Step with Transco Leidy Pipeline Expansion
October 15, 2013October 15, 2013

Williams is hard at work on expanding their Transco Leidy interstate natural gas pipeline–especially in northeast PA around the Scranton area. The “Transco Leidy Southeast Expansion Project” is a massive $610 million project designed to increase the pipeline’s capacity by 525,000 decatherms per day–enough natural gas to serve 2 million homes. The expansion will pipe Marcellus Shale gas to points from New York City to the southeastern U.S. The project includes construction of approximately 30 miles of additional pipe segments, called loops, in PA and NJ, in addition to modifying some existing compressor stations and valve sites.

The Transco Leidy Southeast Expansion is a multi-year project that Williams hopes will be in service by the end of 2015. They recently took the next step in the project with an official filing with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). An update on the project’s status and what will happen next…
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Bradford County | Chief Oil & Gas | Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | EQT Corp | Greene County (PA) | Lease & Royalty Payments | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County

PA’s Top 10 Marcellus Shale Wells – Full Details
October 14, 2013October 14, 2013

Who doesn’t like a Top 10? We have one for you: What are the Top 10 producing Marcellus Shale wells in Pennsylvania? Would it surprise you to learn that 8 of the top 10 wells are found in a single PA county, drilled by the same driller?

Here’s the Top 10 PA Marcellus Well List, complete with the name of well, county, driller, estimated earnings per day and estimated royalties paid per day:
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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Supply Chain

Marcellus Supply Chain Lessons: Local Drillers & WOM
October 14, 2013October 14, 2013

Do you work for a small or medium-sized business and want to plug in to the Marcellus Shale supply chain? Judy Wojanis, from the Wojanis Hydraulic Supply Co. in the Pittsburgh area, has a few pieces of sage advice…
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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

MSC Releases Recommended Practices for Drilling & Completions
October 14, 2013October 14, 2013

There are the rules and regulations that drillers must follow, issued by state laws and by regulatory agencies like the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection, the WV Dept. of Environmental Protection, and the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources. The rules & regs are non-negotiable. But then there are “best” or “recommended” practices–those things drillers can and should do that go above and beyond the letter of the law. The Marcellus Shale Coalition, whose members are many of the largest energy companies in the world, has issued seven such “recommended practices” documents to date for its members. They’ve just released the eighth, titled “Recommended Practices for Drilling and Completions.”

This latest set of practices is arguably one of the most important, affecting how drillers drill–everything from spacing to safety to well control technologies…
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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA | Taxation

MSC to PA Dem Gubernatorial Candidates: Nix the Big Tax Idea
October 11, 2013October 11, 2013

Most (all?) of the candidates who have announced they are running for the Democrat nomination for governor in Pennsylvania have said they will (a) increase regulation on the Marcellus Shale industry, and (b) dramatically increase taxes on the industry. Democrats either don’t know or don’t care that such taxes suffocate businesses and cause those businesses to go elsewhere. It’s a fact, not a threat.

The Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC)–a group of some of the biggest drillers and midstream companies in the Marcellus–have weighed in and are giving PA’s Democrat gubernatorial candidates a verbal slap about their plans to tax and regulate…
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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide PA

PA DEP Files Required Report on So-Called Climate Change Affects
October 11, 2013October 11, 2013

Let’s assume, just for the sake of argument, that there really is a Santa Claus. Let’s further assume brilliant politicians in Pennsylvania want a state government agency to do a “scientific study” of the physics of how Santa can visit all of the homes in PA in a single night–Dec. 24–and still make it home to the North Pole in time to eat cookies by sunrise. The purpose of the report is to reassure the little kiddies that Santie is real and yes, he can and does get it all done in a single night.

Now assume that those same PA politicians believe in another fairy story–something called man-made global warming (now renamed to “climate change” because the earth’s so-called average temperature hasn’t risen in the last 15 years)–and that said politicians directed a state agency–the Dept. of Environmental Protection–to draft up a document detailing how the big, bad bogeyman of global warming will affect all the little boys and girls in PA, and oh, by the way, don’t forget to sprinkle the report with lots of talk about “renewables” because we hate nasty fossil fuels, ya know. And snap snap, get that report written PDQ!

Unfortunately, the second scenario above is true. And when the DEP was late in filing this exercise in fantasyland, PA eco-nuts and anti-drillers got their knickers in a twist. They can untwist them now–the fairy story report is finally here…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Taxation | Washington County

PA Anti-Fracking Gatecrashers Outside, Real Work Gets Done Inside
October 11, 2013October 11, 2013

We know everyone likes a good story, so… Once upon a time there were four anti-drillers: Craig Stevens (from Dimock, PA, he of the little brown jug that supposedly contains contaminated drinking water from his well but he won’t let anyone test it); Ray Kemble (also from Dimock, PA); Robert Lee McCaslin (from Bath, NY); and Randy Moyer (from Portage, PA). None of these anti-drillers apparently have day jobs because they travel around the northeast like groupies following their favorite rock band–except in reverse. This band of merry anti-frackers travel about the countryside trying to gatecrash pro-drilling meetings. (Every now and again they do attend a meeting of the anti-drilling faithful–just to get some good juju to keep going.)

Anywho…our merry band of four anti-frackers descended on a peaceful meeting of elected PA officials in far western PA yesterday, and the Washington Observer-Reporter was there to report on the four anti-frackers outside instead of the 100 elected officials inside…
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Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

PA Natural Gas Advisory Committee Holds First Meeting
October 11, 2013October 11, 2013

Hats off to the Pennsylvania Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources for convening the first-ever meeting of the Natural Gas Advisory Committee (NGAC) on Wednesday, Oct. 9 in State College, PA. NGAC membership is composed of people from the drilling industry, academe and even anti-drilling environmental groups (like Trout Unlimited). It’s quite a feat to get them all in the same room and talking to each other.

NGAC was a recommendation that came out of Gov. Tom Corbett’s Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission, chaired by Lt. Gov. Jim Cawley. Here’s who attended, and what was on the agenda:
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Health Impacts | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide PA

New Study: No Increase in Childhood Cancer Rates Near PA Fracking
October 10, 2013October 10, 2013

More bad news for anti-drillers. A recently published study in the peer-reviewed Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (July 2013 issue) looks at incidences of childhood cancers in Pennsylvania–in areas with hydraulic fracturing. The study, titled “Childhood Cancer Incidence in Pennsylvania Counties in Relation to Living in Counties With Hydraulic Fracturing Sites” (full copy embedded below) looks at the rates of cancer both before fracking begins, and then again after fracking has been going on.

And what did this scientific study find? Statistically, there are no increases in childhood cancers in areas where there is fracking. Bad news for anti-drillers–good news for everyone else, including “the children”…
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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

How Do You Talk to (Educate) Friends & Neighbors About Shale?
October 10, 2013October 10, 2013

It’s a common problem for those of us who are immersed in the shale energy industry. We are so saturated all the time with the arguments and counter-arguments and details about shale drilling, that when faced with a family member, friend or neighbor who isn’t well-versed in the industry, we grope for the words and terms to use to describe this incredible industry and its successes. Most of the time our friends and family have a built-in reticence and caution about shale drilling because they know nothing more than what mainstream media feeds them, most of it untrue.

So how do we quickly, accurately and effectively communicate the positive shale drilling message? Michael Krancer, former Secretary of the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection, has a solution, which he shared recently at the Energy Inc. conference in Pittsburgh…

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Air Quality | Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County

More on “Pro-Drilling” Conversion of Gasland II Star from Dimock
October 10, 2013October 10, 2013

A few days ago we told you that one of Josh Fox’s stars in Gasland II, Victoria Switzer, has changed sides and now wants to work with the drilling industry to ensure the air is clean in Susquehanna County, PA (see Gasland II Starlet Leaves Anti-Drilling Behind, Adopts “Realism”). This is a huge problem for the anti-drilling movement, a movement that is typically shrill and frankly, unthinking. We now have at least a few people who, while they don’t like natural gas drilling going on around them, are willing to have a cogent, what they call “respectful” dialog about it. They also recognize shall drilling is here to stay–they are realists. Finally, some people on the other side of the issue we can talk to!

A bit more about the new tone and the new group which Switzer and other former anti-drillers have formed–a group called Breathe Easy Susquehanna County…
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Air Quality | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Processing Plants | Regulation | Statewide PA

Should PA Compressor Plants Miles Away be Considered “Adjacent”?
October 9, 2013October 9, 2013

A few weeks ago at the Shale Insight 2013 event in Philadelphia, MDN heard a panel discussion that tackled a thorny, and on-going, issue in Pennsylvania. The issue is complex, but if we can condense it to a brief statement, it would be this: Should processing and compressor plants that are connected by pipelines but not directly next to each other be considered a “single source” when it comes to the pollution they emit? The argument comes down to the concept of adjacency–what does the word “adjacent” mean in the federal Clean Air Act? Does it mean “directly next to each other,” or “in the same general vicinity” (up to X miles away)?

If the plants scattered in a general area–say 20-30 miles around–are considered a single source or “adjacent”, it means collectively they would be considered a “major source” of pollution and therefore subject to very strict federal guidelines under the Clean Air Act. If they are not adjacent and not a single source, they are regulated by the state and the state has less onerous rules when it comes to air pollution emissions. It may sound like a small difference, but being regulated by the EPA or the state of Pennsylvania is a huge (and expensive) difference. The real question is, are residents who live in areas with an abundance of compressor stations and processing plants being exposed to dangerously high levels of air pollution?…
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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

17 State Chambers of Commerce to EPA: States Regulate Fracking
October 9, 2013October 9, 2013

On Sept. 20, 17 state Chambers of Commerce sent a joint letter to President Obama’s new EPA Administrator, Gina McCarthy. They opened the letter (full copy below) with a nice greeting and a congratulations on her recent confirmation as administrator, and then immediately launched into a statement (not really a request) that tells her to, in so many words, keep her mitts off fracking. That is, leave the regulation of fracking where it properly and Constitutionally belongs–with the individual states.

The federal government does not have a Constitutional role in regulating fracking and the Chambers of Commerce, representing 34% of all states and from the biggest oil and gas producing states in the Union–want to keep it that way. Not surprisingly, among the signatories are the Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia Chambers of Commerce…
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