Pennsylvania

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USGS Releases Official Estimate of Oil & Gas in Utica Shale
October 5, 2012October 5, 2012

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has just released their first official assessment (i.e. estimate) of how much recoverable natural gas, oil and gas liquids is located in the Utica Shale throughout Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland and Virginia (a full copy of the USGS assessment is embedded below).

The USGS estimates the Utica is #3 in size behind the Marcellus (#1) and Green River Basin (#2) for volume of recoverable natural gas in the U.S. Here are the numbers from the USGS, along with and a brief introduction to their first-ever assessment of the Utica:

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Industrywide Issues | Lackawanna County | Landfills | Pennsylvania

Scranton Landfill Wants to Double (Again) Shale Cuttings
October 5, 2012October 5, 2012

The Keystone Sanitary Landfill, located on the borders of Dunmore and Throop, PA (Scranton suburbs) applied to the state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) last December to increase the amount of Marcellus shale cuttings—rock and soil leftover after drilling—from 600 tons to 1,000 tons per day. They also applied to accept “unprocessed” cuttings from drillers (see this MDN story for background).

The permit was granted in early March. Elected officials in Throop fought the increase but eventually dropped their fight from lack of interest and money (see this MDN story). Keystone just filed a new request to double the amount of cuttings again, from 1,000 to 2,000 tons per day. They also want trucks to be allowed to haul it in 24/7.

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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Processing Plants | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia | Williams

Williams Official Gives WV Huge Compliment, Disses PA
October 5, 2012October 5, 2012

At a Chamber of Commerce dinner in Marshall County, WV held last night, Darrell Bull, the general manager of Williams Ohio Valley Midstream (a division of midstream giant Williams) paid a huge compliment to West Virginia and dissed Pennsylvania.

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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Wastewater

PennFuture Challenges PA DEP Wastewater Treatment Permit
October 5, 2012October 5, 2012

On Monday, the anti-drilling organization PennFuture filed an appeal with the Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board over a permit granted by the state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) that allows treated Marcellus Shale wastewater to be used for purposes like keeping dust down on roads, and as a source of roadway salt (for wintertime).

According to PennFuture’s appeal (full copy embedded below), the DEP held public hearings were held for one use—simply treating the wastewater at a certain facility—and then the DEP turned around and issued a permit for a different use. PennFuture calls it a “switcheroo” in their official appeal.

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Allegheny County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

MSC to Post-Gazette: Quit Lying to Our Kids
October 5, 2012October 5, 2012

The industry-backed Marcellus Shale Coalition, headquartered in Pittsburgh, not-so-gently chided the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette over a recent story it ran on shale gas drilling—a story with a number of inaccuracies. Here’s the letter MSC sent to the newspaper:

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Allegheny County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation

Pittsburgh City Council Floats New Law to Allow Fracking
October 4, 2012October 4, 2012

It seems since former Pittsburgh City Council President Doug Shields left that august body the other council members have had a change of heart on fracking. Shields was the ringleader who helped ram through a ban on fracking in the city in 2010. He also tried to get a ban permanently written into the city’s charter, an effort that failed (see this MDN story).

Realizing the ban passed in 2010 is likely illegal and will be overturned, council members are now considering new legislation to allow limited, strictly zoned fracking inside city limits:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

PA Enviro Groups/Politicians Stage Small Rally in Harrisburg
October 3, 2012October 2, 2012

Even though fracking has proven to be safe in Pennsylvania, there are still extreme environmental groups (and legislators) in the state who want to ban it. Leading the pack, as usual, is the Sierra Club and Delaware Riverkeeper. A small group of anti-drillers gathered in Harrisburg yesterday to get a little press attention for their cause:

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Air Quality | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | Statewide PA

Not Everyone Happy with Reopening of Philly Refinery
October 3, 2012October 2, 2012

By all accounts the Marcus Hook refinery (near Philadelphia) is a Marcellus Shale success story. Sunoco shut it down in April, but later sold a controlling interest in the facility to the Carlyle Group (see this MDN story), retaining a one-third interest. The deal saves 850 jobs at the plant. Plans from Carlyle (under the name Energy Transfer Partners) are to use the refinery to process and market propane and ethane from western PA’s Marcellus region (see this MDN story).

But not everyone is happy about the refinery reopening. The Clean Air Council has filed an appeal with the state Dept. of Environmental Protection claiming the DEP’s decision (as part of the sale) to consider the refinery part of an existing, currently open refinery for the purposes of air pollution emissions essentially allows it to emit more emissions than if it were treated as a separate facility. The United Steelworkers union says “not so fast.” They disagree with the Clean Air Council.

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Citrus | Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County | Wyoming County (PA)

Which Driller Had Top 2 Producing Wells in PA for 1H12?
October 2, 2012October 2, 2012

Yesterday MDN shared with your our detailed look at the production numbers—the amount of natural gas and gas liquids—produced in the entire state of Pennsylvania for the first half of 2012 (see this MDN story). Today the Philadelphia Inquirer, quoting Powell Shale Digest and other sources, takes a closer look at well by well statistics for the same period.

Here’s a few interesting tidbits brought to light by their analysis, and the surprise answer for who had the top two producing wells in the state for the first half of the year:

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Beaver County | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | NGLs | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | Shell

Shell Volunteers to Pay Local Taxes on PA Ethane Cracker
October 2, 2012October 2, 2012

In order to lure Shell to build its multi-billion dollar ethane cracker plant in Beaver County, PA, the state passed a law granting Shell tax exempt status for the next 25 years. Problem is, the place where they will build the plant currently pays school and town taxes ($344,000 per year) that would disappear under the state plan. So Shell has offered to pay 110% of those taxes over the next 25 years—to avoid a PR problem and to support the local community where it will be doing business for at least the next generation.

Here’s the details:

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Accidents | Elk County | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Wastewater

Wastewater Truck Accident in Elk County, PA
October 2, 2012October 2, 2012

Accidents involving the shale drilling industry are so rare, when one happens, it’s news. And so we bring you news of a brine truck (shale drilling wastewater) that was in an accident and flipped over in Ridgway, PA (Elk County). Even though it was a serious accident, no wastewater leaked and no one was seriously injured.

Here’s an account of what happened:

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Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Detailed Look at PA’s First Half Production Numbers
October 1, 2012October 1, 2012

For the first six months of 2012, over 85% of Pennsylvania’s shale gas production came from just six (of 67) counties in the state, and more than half (57%) of PA’s production came from three counties—three counties that share a border with New York State (hello NY, pay attention!).

Last Friday the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection released production figures for the first half of 2012. Here’s a detailed look at those numbers, with charts and tables:

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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Luzerne County | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | PVR Partners | Wyoming County (PA)

New PVR Marcellus Pipeline Comes Online in Northeast PA
October 1, 2012October 1, 2012

The newest Marcellus Shale pipeline became operational today. PVR Partners made an announcement that their Wyoming Pipeline, a 30-mile pipeline running from northern Wyoming County, PA south to Luzerne County where it connects to the Transco interstate pipeline, is now operational. The new pipeline has a 750 million cubic feet per day capacity (MMcfd), of which 255 MMcfd (so far) has been spoken for by producers.

From the announcement:

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Accidents | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Luzerne County | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Processing Plants | PVR Partners

Emergency Shutdown at Gas Deydration Plant in PA
October 1, 2012October 1, 2012

Around 10:30 am Sunday morning a sound described by one neighbor as “deafening” came from the emergency shutdown of a PVR natural gas dehydration station in Monroe Township, PA (near Wilkes-Barre). What happened?

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Butler County | EdgeMarc Energy | Energy Companies | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

EdgeMarc Energy in the Hunt for 15-20K Acres in PA Marcellus
September 28, 2012September 28, 2012

Conventional wisdom says that in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio most (or all!) of the land available to lease for Marcellus and Utica Shale drilling is already leased. If you’re an energy company that wants a piece of the Marcellus action, you’ll have to buy acreage from a competitor.

According to newly formed energy company EdgeMarc Energy, that bit of conventional wisdom is wrong:

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Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County

Former Dimock Landowners Buy New Property…with Gas Lease
September 28, 2012September 28, 2012

Dimock Proud, a group of landowners in the township of Dimock, PA who seek to defend their town’s reputation against unfair media attacks, recently reported that Craig and Julie Sautner, landowners in Dimock and some of the most vocal critics of Cabot Oil & Gas, settled their claim with Cabot, sold their property and left town (see this MDN story). Dimock Proud provided MDN an update on the Sautners yesterday via email.

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