Last week the Commonwealth Foundation released a policy briefing paper titled “The Great Frack Attack: The War On Natural Gas” (full copy of the paper embedded below). The policy paper names names and outlines the big money behind groups critical of drilling in the Marcellus Shale.
From the introduction:
Read More “Commonwealth Foundation Identifies Groups, People Who Fund Anti-Drilling Efforts in PA”
The Altoona [PA] Water Authority is looking to expand its program to sell treated sewage wastewater to Marcellus drillers in central PA.
Read More “Altoona Water Authority Expands Sale of Treated Wastewater to Marcellus Drillers in PA”
Houston-based Cabot Oil & Gas just released its quarterly operations update. Cabot reports the following about its operations in the Pennsylvania Marcellus Shale region:
The Wall Street Journal ran an excellent article in yesterday’s edition comparing Pennsylvania’s approach to drilling in the Marcellus Shale with New York’s approach. It’s a tale of two states: One state embraces economic opportunity, and the other let’s environmental politics strangle development.
The article says this about Pennsylvania:
Read More “WSJ Article Compares PA and NY Approaches to Marcellus Drilling”
Yet another study is about to be launched looking for a connection between Marcellus Shale gas drilling and elevated methane (natural gas) levels in nearby water wells—this time from a group of researchers at Temple University.
You may recall that Duke University recently released a study which supposedly showed a connection between drilling and high levels of methane in water wells (see MDN story here). However, the Duke study cherry-picked the locations they used—locations where there was already high levels of methane in the water, methane that is naturally occurring (and has been for decades). Hopefully the Temple researchers will employ a more rigorous methodology in their study.
Range Resources, one of the largest drillers in the Marcellus Shale, had a very good second quarter (revenue-wise) because of increased production of natural gas liquids and because of an uptick in the price of natural gas in the commodity markets:
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett’s Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission filed their final report on Friday, containing some 96 recommendations for Gov. Corbett and the PA legislature to consider that will strengthen regulation of, and further promote, the shale gas industry in the state. The entire report (137 pages, containing a lot of background details) is embedded below. What follows first is a high level summary of the recommendations, to give you the bullet point quick overview.
Read More “PA Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission Final Report with 96 Recommendations”
A number of landowners in Pennsylvania signed gas leases with energy companies more than five years ago for very low amounts—$2 per acre in some cases—as a signing bonus. Landowners, realizing that a contract is a contract, waited patiently for the expiration of the lease—typically five years. But then, at the last possible moment, sometimes just hours before the lease is due to expire, the energy company would clear a few trees or park a bulldozer on the land in order to comply with the terms of lease, thereby extending the lease indefinitely because they had “made an effort” to start drilling.
Case in point: Dave and Karen Beinlich. They signed a lease for $2 an acre, for a grand total of $234 signing bonus on their 117 acre farm.
Read More “Some Drillers Using Questionable Tactics to Hold Land Under Lease Beyond Original Term”
Anti-drilling group PennFuture is suing driller Ultra Resources claiming they are causing air pollution from almost all of their operations. A copy of the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania is embedded below.
A new report titled “The Pennsylvania Marcellus Natural Gas Industry: Status, Economic Impact, and Future Potential” was released yesterday by three Penn State University researchers. The report is the third in a series of economic forecasts from the same researchers and outlines the astonishing impact Marcellus Shale drilling has had and continues to have in Pennsylvania—generating $11.2 billion in economic activity in the state in 2010 and supporting nearly 140,000 jobs. The 68-page report was funded by the Marcellus Shale Coalition, an industry group based in PA (a full copy of the report is embedded below).
The report’s authors predict the Marcellus Shale play will become the nation’s leading supplier of natural gas by 2020, providing one quarter of all natural gas used in the U.S. A summary of the key findings in the report includes:
Seismic testing to create a map of underground geology almost always precedes gas drilling. Seismic testing has been, and continues to be, very active in Centre County, PA, appropriately named being located smack in the middle of the state. Seismic testing usually involves large trucks thumping the ground to produce vibrations picked up by computers that use the sound waves to create 2D and 3D maps of what lies beneath. Sometimes helicopters are used, and sometimes holes are drilled and small explosive charges are ignited to create sound waves.
Read More “Helpful Guide for Marcellus Landowners on Seismic Testing for Natural Gas”
The Centre County (PA) Natural Gas Task Force says that drilling for Marcellus gas in the county has slowed down this year, with only about a quarter of the number of new wells being drilled this year vs. last year. Why? According to the task force, the reasons for the slowdown are low gas prices and lack of pipeline infrastructure.
Read More “Marcellus Drilling in Central PA Slowing Down in 2011”
Endeavour International, an independent energy company, has just picked up an additional 50,000 net acres in the Marcellus Shale along with three producing wells and a pipeline, all located in McKean and Potter counties in Pennsylvania, in a deal with SM Energy. From the Endeavour press release:
The Susquehanna River Basin Commission, which oversees a huge watershed area that runs from Upstate New York all the way to the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland, is preemptively and temporarily putting water withdrawals for gas drilling on hold in parts of of the watershed because stream levels are dropping from lack of rain. Below is the full press release with a list of the 36 locations where water withdrawals have been suspended.
Two activist environmental organizations, Clean Water Action and Three Rivers Waterkeeper, are attempting to make a federal case against the McKeesport (Allegheny County) municipal sewage treatment plant that in the past has accepted hydraulic fracturing wastewater because the plant won’t categorically commit to never accepting fracking wastewater again. Here’s the very confusing setup from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
Pittsburgh, PA enacted an ordinance banning hydraulic fracturing and Marcellus gas drilling some eight months ago. Leading the charge against drilling was city Councilman Doug Shields (Democrat-District 5). Now Mr. Shields is concerned that once he’s gone from office, future city councils may waver in their anti-drilling commitment and may repeal the ban, so he wants to enshrine the ban in the city’s charter:
Read More “Pittsburgh Councilman Doug Shields Lobbies to Get Drilling Ban Added to City’s Charter”