Pennsylvania 509 - Marcellus Drilling News

Drilling Deal Between Williams & Municipality in Western PA

January 19, 2012January 19, 2012

The Latrobe Municipal Authority in Westmoreland County, PA (near Pittsburgh) is negotiating with Williams to lease 236 acres of municipal property for $2,500 per acre with 15 percent royalties on any gas produced. Latrobe is also talking with landowners who own adjacent property hoping they can pool enough land together to present Williams with 800-1,000 acres, including the right to drill on an eight-acre parcel owned by Latrobe located next to their wastewater treatment plant.

Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Pastor Claims Bible Says ‘Thou Shalt Not Frack’

January 18, 2012January 18, 2012

The following brief is purely for your entertainment purposes, to illustrate how loony the anti-drilling opposition can get. Yesterday, at a rally in Harrisburg, PA to protest new Marcellus Shale drilling legislation, a Lutheran pastor laid claim that the Bible says we shouldn’t frack.

Energy Companies | Pennsylvania | Range Resources Corp | Statewide PA

Range Resources Doubles PA Marcellus Output in 2011

January 18, 2012January 18, 2012

Range Resources, one of the largest drillers in the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania, just posted year-end results and said that despite selling their Barnett Shale acreage, 2011 was the eighth consecutive year of double-digit gains for the company. In the Marcellus, Range doubled their output from 2010 levels.

Energy Companies | Enerplus | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Enerplus Allocates 24% of 2012 Capital Budget to Marcellus

January 18, 2012January 18, 2012

Enerplus Corp. , a Calgary-based oil and gas producer, has approved an $800 million capital spending program for 2012 the company expects will help boost production 10 percent. Of that $800 million, Enerplus will spend $190 million (24 percent) in the Marcellus Shale, focused primarily on drilling to delineate and retain leases. The target is to drill 20 Marcellus wells in 2012, with 18 of those wells coming on-stream by the end of the year. They plan to nearly triple their Marcellus production from 25 mmcf/d (million cubic feet per day) now to 70 mmcf/d by the end of the year.

Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA Bill Requiring EMS Plan for Marcellus Wells Nears Passage

January 17, 2012January 17, 2012

Although a comprehensive bill to tighten regulations on Marcellus Shale drilling in Pennsylvania along with an impact fee has still not passed the PA legislature, a separate, smaller bill is about to. The smaller bill requires Marcellus Shale well operators to provide geographic siting information to local, county and state EMS officials and to develop an emergency response plan.

Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | Statewide PA

The Two Faces of Sen. Robert Casey (D-PA) on Shale Drilling

January 16, 2012January 16, 2012

hypocrite U.S. Sen. Robert Casey (Democrat, Pennsylvania) has been an outspoken critic of fracking and Marcellus shale gas drilling. He introduced and is lead sponsor of legislation in the Senate called the FRAC Act—Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals (see this MDN story). The title sounds nice with words like “responsibility” and “awareness” in it, but in reality the FRAC Act is a massive power transfer, stripping the right to regulate oil and gas drilling from the individual states and handing it over to the Environmental Protection Agency in the federal government. It’s bad legislation that would gut oil and gas drilling in the United States.

Possible New Case of Methane Migration in Wyoming County, PA

January 16, 2012January 16, 2012

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) sent a violation notice to Chief Oil & Gas on Jan. 4 for three gas wells in Nicholson Township (Wyoming County) saying there is 100 percent combustible gas between the cemented steel casings, which the DEP uses as a sign of flaws in construction of the well. The investigation began after a nearby resident complained of high methane levels in well water supplies. The DEP is still investigating two nearby water wells with high levels of methane and has not yet determined if Chief’s wells are the cause.

Accidents | Industrywide Issues | Lycoming County | Pennsylvania | Wastewater

PA DEP Fines TerrAqua for Frack Water Spill in March 2011

January 16, 2012January 16, 2012

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has finally gotten around to assessing a fine for a fracking water spill that happened in March 2011—a spill of 800-1,000 gallons of fracking water that the DEP says was preventable.

Accidents | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County

PA DEP Sec Krancer Tells EPA You Don’t Understand Dimock

January 12, 2012January 12, 2012

wise up Michael Krancer, Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, sent a letter to federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 3 Administrator, Shawn Garvin, on Jan. 5 about the situation in Dimock, PA (a copy is embedded below). The letter is a follow-up to a conversation between the two about the long history and ongoing media circus that is Dimock. In the letter, Mr. Krancer says:

PVR Buys Rail-Trail Right-of-Way for Pipeline in PA

January 12, 2012January 12, 2012

A possible new Marcellus Shale pipeline is in the works in Susquehanna County, PA (northeast region of the state). Yesterday, Penn Virginia Resource Partners (PVR) announced they signed a deal granting them a right-of-way along a the Rail-Trail from Union Dale, PA to the New York State border. The plan is to connect wells in Susquehanna County to the Tennessee Pipeline in Union Dale.

PVR is a coal and natural gas midstream company with 4,200 miles of natural gas gathering pipelines and seven natural gas processing plants. The amount to be paid for the right-of-way was not disclosed.

Accidents | Bradford County | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania

Fracking Fluid Spill in Bradford PA Result of Sabotage

January 11, 2012January 11, 2012

According to police reports, between midnight and 8:30 am early Tuesday, someone intentionally tampered with a tank on a well pad in Bradford County, PA, resulting in a spill of up to 20,000 gallons of fracking wastewater. Fortunately the wastewater was contained in a plastic liner designed for just such a scenario. There are no reports that the wastewater escaped the containment area. PA State Police are investigating.

Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Marcellus Shale Gas Fuels PA Hotel Industry Growth

January 11, 2012January 11, 2012

An analysis of hotel occupancy rates in northeast Pennsylvania by PKF Consulting, published on Hotel Online, shows the huge impact Marcellus Shale gas drilling is having in the region. PKF reports that revenue per available room (RevPAR) has grown at an annual rate of 14.8 percent from 2007 to 2011. Additionally, the average daily room rate (ADR) has grown a “remarkable” 7.8 percent annually during the same period. Compare PA’s northeast Marcellus hotels with national averages for the same period, which were 1.7 percent RevPAR and 0.7 percent ADR.

Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA Supreme Court’s Indecision on Local Regulation of Drilling

January 10, 2012January 10, 2012

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Friday declined to hear a four-year-old case over how much leeway local municipalities have in regulating drilling within their borders. Does the court’s refusal to hear the case mean local governments will have more, or less, latitude than they do now? Depends on who you ask.

Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

PA DEP Undercounting Marcellus Gas Wells – By 12%

January 10, 2012January 10, 2012

It looks as though the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has a data problem: They’ve been undercounting the number of Marcellus Shale gas wells in the state by a significant number. It’s especially a problem for legislators who are trying to calculate how much money new impact fees might generate.

EPA Promises Water for Dimock PA, Reneges 24 Hours Later

January 9, 2012January 9, 2012

EPA fingers crossed The news out of Dimock, PA is coming so fast and furious, it’s hard to keep track of it all. First, a brief background on the situation in Dimock, the context you almost never read in the mainstream media:

In 2008, Cabot Oil & Gas drilled a number of Marcellus Shale gas wells in Dimock Township in Pennsylvania, a rural area in the northeastern part of the state, in Susquehanna County. Homeowners located along the Carter Road area noticed high levels of methane in their drinking water. After an investigation by the PA Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), the DEP fined Cabot in 2009 stating that Cabot’s operations in the area caused methane to migrate into a local water aquifer serving anywhere from 13 to 19 houses, depending on the changing storyline.

New Cases of Methane Water Well Contamination by Cabot in PA

January 9, 2012January 9, 2012

Three private water wells in Lenox Township (Susquehanna County), PA have been contaminated with methane from nearby Marcellus Shale drilling done by Cabot Oil & Gas according to the PA Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). Cabot has installed methane detection alarms in the three homes and has vented the affected wells.