Pennsylvania

Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Supply Chain

Marcellus Drillers Look for Partners to Supply Products/Services
January 23, 2013January 23, 2013

The Altoona-Blair County Development Corp. (ABCD) and the Blair County Chamber of Commerce partnered to host a seminar yesterday to help local businesses get a piece of the natural gas industry pie—or “plug into the supply chain” as it’s commonly referred to. The seminar was aimed at helping companies find business opportunities in the Marcellus Shale drilling industry, and although it was aimed at businesses in south central PA, the information shared will help businesses throughout the Marcellus/Utica region.

According to speakers at the seminar, one driller in particular who is new to the Marcellus is looking for business partners in the Marcellus to provide them with products and services. Who is that driller and whom should you talk to there? What types of businesses stand a good chance of getting business in the shale drilling industry? And where, geographically, are the best opportunities in PA? Read on…

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide PA | Wastewater

Duke/Kent State Publish New Research on Marcellus Wastewater
January 23, 2013January 23, 2013

A new report by researchers at Duke and Kent State universities takes a close look at the wastewater produced in Marcellus Shale gas well drilling. The paper, titled “Generation, transport, and disposal of wastewater associated with Marcellus Shale gas development,” appears in the January issue of the journal Water Resources Research. MDN was not able to score a copy of the full article and so must rely on the abstract and the press release (below) to describe it’s findings. However, from what we’ve read, it appears to be a careful, balanced and scientific look at the issue of drilling wastewater.

What did the researchers find? Shale wells produce about 10 times more wastewater than conventionally drilled wells, but they produce 30 times more natural gas. That is, shale wells are far more efficient and produce less wastewater per amount of gas produced than conventional wells. However, there are so darned many shale wells (in the Marcellus and other shale plays), the sheer volume of wastewater threatens to overwhelm the ability to deal with it.

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Energy Companies | Lycoming County | Pennsylvania | Seneca Resources

Seneca Resources: Impressive Results for 6 PA Marcellus Wells
January 22, 2013January 22, 2013

Seneca Resources, the drilling arm and subsidiary of National Fuel Gas Company, released a brief statement today announcing some very impressive initial flow rates on six recently completed Marcellus Shale wells in Lycoming County, PA—some of the best results in the Marcellus we’ve seen:

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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Research | Statewide PA

PA NatGas Pipelines: Coming to a Roadway Near You?
January 22, 2013January 22, 2013

An excellent report on natural gas pipelines in Pennsylvania issued in December has just come to our attention. The report (full copy embedded below) was created by PA Gov. Tom Corbett’s Energy Executive, Patrick Henderson, as a requirement under the state’s new Act 13 drilling law. The report provides a brief history of natural gas pipelines in the state with an excellent overview of how pipelines are regulated and who regulates them, followed by 16 recommendations for lawmakers to consider in crafting new policies.

Among the recommendations: Run new pipelines along existing local and state road right-of-ways; make it easier to share pipeline capacity without forcing a pipeline into becoming a public utility (with the associated nightmare of heavy regulation); and the state’s Public Utility Commission should create and maintain a comprehensive map displaying the routes for all shale gas pipelines.

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Broome County | Chenango County | Delaware County | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | New York | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Schoharie County | Susquehanna County | Williams

New Marcellus Constitution Pipeline Announces “Final” Route
January 21, 2013January 27, 2013

After more than a year of work, Williams has finalized the route for the new Marcellus Shale Constitution Pipeline that will run from the heavily-producing Marcellus Shale gas fields of Susquehanna County, PA all the way up to Schoharie County, NY, where the pipeline will connect with two large interstate pipelines: the Iroquois and the Tennessee. A copy of the map showing the “final” route is embedded below.

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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA Auditor General Targets State’s Marcellus Drilling Industry
January 21, 2013January 21, 2013

Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP): Prepare for a painful anal exam, coming courtesy the newly elected PA Auditor General Eugene DePasquale. That was the gist of a letter sent by DePasquale to Michael Krancer, Secretary of the DEP, on DePasquale’s first day on the job (a copy of the full letter is embedded below).

The DEP’s response to DePasquale? Bring it on…

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Energy Companies | Energy Services | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pennsylvania General Energy | Statewide PA | Universal Well

PA Frack Pumps Converting to Use LNG for Fuel
January 21, 2013January 21, 2013

EQT was the first driller in the Marcellus Shale to convert a drilling rig to run on electricity produced by engines using an LNG/diesel mix (see this MDN story). CONSOL was next to experiment with converting some of their rigs to use LNG/diesel (see this MDN story). Then Seneca Resources, the gas drilling arm of National Fuel Gas Company, announced two of their drilling rigs will use 100% LNG as fuel (see this MDN story).

What started as a trickle is turning into a flood in Pennsylvania and throughout the Marcellus/Utica region and beyond. More companies are in the process of converting fleets to run on LNG or a mix of LNG/diesel. These new conversions will not only power initial drilling, but will also power the massive pump engines and heavy equipment used in the fracking process itself…

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Allegheny County | CONSOL Energy | Energy Companies | EQT Corp | Lease & Royalty Payments | Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh Airport Wants More $ from CONSOL…After Accepting Bid
January 18, 2013January 18, 2013

The story of the Pittsburgh International Airport’s acceptance of a bid from natural gas driller CONSOL Energy to drill on and under airport property, a bid that would provide less than half the money that a bid from EQT would have provided, continues to get curiouser and curiouser (see Inside Job? Pittsburgh Airport Leases Land to CONSOL for background and MDN’s original comments).

Apparently MDN isn’t, as we had thought, the only one who noticed this deal smells to high heaven. The latest news: PIA is negotiating with CONSOL to get them to raise the signing bonus, which is now rumored to be somewhere in the neighborhood of “$35 million to $40 million.” That’s certainly better, but still not has high as EQT’s offer of a $44 million bonus payment.

And what’s with “negotiating” after a bid has been accepted? A bid is a bid—you accept or reject it, especially if a public agency is involved. You don’t accept an offer and then promptly start negotiating to change it! Something is still very “off” about all of this…

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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County

Looney Toons Anti-Fracking Celebrities Visit Montrose, PA
January 18, 2013January 18, 2013

Yesterday John Lennon’s widow Yoko Ono and son Sean Lennon, along with reliably left movie star Susan Sarandon, boarded a Mercedes tour bus in New York City (burning gobs of diesel, a hated fossil fuel) and headed to the Montrose area of northeastern PA to “tour” drilling and compressor plant sites, visit with the commoners, and make pretentious pronouncements about how gas drilling is killing everyone and everything.

Ono and Lennon, in a bid to boost their non-existent public profiles, started a group last year called “Artists Against Fracking,” which is really kind of funny. Neither Ono nor Lennon can hold a tune in a bucket (see this hysterically funny video of them singing a song about fracking). But perhaps the “art” in “artists” comes from the pornography the 79 year-old Ono creates (see this story about her 2012 “fashion line for men”).

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Bradford County | Industrywide Issues | NG Vehicles | Pennsylvania

Northeast PA Convenience Store Chain Installs CNG Pumps
January 18, 2013January 18, 2013

In what seems to be a flood of news about CNG (compressed natural gas) filling stations popping up for vehicles, a convenience store chain in the Marcellus-rich area of northeastern PA is in the process of installing CNG filling pumps at three (so far) of it’s 70 stores in PA and NY.

One of the three locations—Towanda (Bradford County), PA—is having its “grand opening” today, but the new pump has already been operating for about month. Towanda is the very first public CNG filling location in northern PA:

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Industrywide Issues | Lycoming County | Pennsylvania | Violence

PA Marcellus Drilling Site Vandal Gets Probation, Told “Grow Up”
January 18, 2013January 18, 2013

In what can only be called an act of utter stupidity, a 21-year-old man from Trout Run, PA, vandalized and damaged a bunch of expensive equipment and the environment last August at a drill site in Lycoming County, PA. Was he drunk? An anti-drilling crusader? Showing off for his girlfriend? We don’t know the details or his motivation—but at a sentencing hearing yesterday (where he got probation), the judge told him to “grow up.”

The punch line? “He recently got work with another natural gas company, court records state.” Let’s name names:

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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

Newly Elected PA Auditor General Targets DEP First Day on Job
January 16, 2013January 16, 2013

Keeping a campaign pledge—because it’s always good to keep a pledge if you’re an anti-drilling Democrat, but it’s OK to conveniently forget all the other pledges you made—the newly sworn-in Auditor General for Pennsylvania, Eugene DePasquale, has targeted the state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) in what can only be described as a political attack in his very first day on the job:

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Allegheny County | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Man Bites Dog: Pittsburgh Law Firm Opens Operation in Houston
January 16, 2013January 16, 2013

In the news business, no one wants to run a story along the lines of “dog bites man”—that’s not news. But when the story is “man bites dog,” that’s news. This is one of those stories. Hardly a week goes by that MDN does not read about a law office expanding it’s practice somewhere in the Marcellus or Utica Shale region, many times it’s a branch office of a large Houston, TX law firm opening up in the Marcellus region. Such announcements are (let us be honest) self-serving advertisements to try and get business. Nothing wrong with that! But it’s not something MDN readers will be interested in reading about.

This time, however, a law office expansion is news. Why? Because it’s not a big Houston energy law firm setting up shop in Pittsburgh, but the other way around. For MDN, the story points out how the Marcellus Shale has changed the energy game in the U.S. and is, ever so gradually, shifting the center of power in the energy universe from Houston to Pittsburgh…

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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Was PA Gov. Tom Corbett Bribed by Fracking Waste Hauler?
January 15, 2013January 15, 2013

In typical fashion, anti-drillers have brought out the long knives for pro-drilling PA Gov. Tom Corbett. The latest attempt to try and influence next year’s election cycle is brought to you by the Philadelphia Inquirer.

This story paints the picture that a wealthy political donor whose company hauls drill cuttings got special treatment from the (then) incoming Corbett and the state Dept. of Environmental Protection in early 2011 in return for a $100,000 political donation. That is, the Inquirer says, in so many words, that Corbett was bribed. Was he?

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Energy Companies | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Potter County | Tenaska Resources | Tioga County (PA) | UGI Energy Services

UGI & Tenaska Sign Deal to Build New Marcellus Pipeline in PA
January 15, 2013January 15, 2013

Pennsylvania electric & gas utility UGI Corporation announced yesterday they’ve cut a deal with driller Tenaska Resources to jointly develop Marcellus Shale projects in both Potter and Tioga counties in north-central PA. Over the next 10 years UGI will invest $65 million to build a new gathering pipeline system in Potter County, and another $25 million investment in return for a 19% interest in Tenaska’s Tioga County acreage/operations.

From the UGI announcement yesterday:

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Centre County | Industrywide Issues | NG Vehicles | Pennsylvania

More CNG Vehicles on the Way in Centre County, PA
January 14, 2013January 14, 2013

More evidence that compressed natural gas vehicles (CNG) are taking off comes from Centre County, PA where local elected officials are applying for a grant to help purchase CNG vehicles for the county and local towns.

Aside from the cost to convert vehicles to CNG (which state and federal grants help with), the only thing that really holds back local municipalities from adopting CNG technology are fueling stations:

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