Pennsylvania

Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

The Mighty Marcellus Roars in PA – Production Up 55% in 6 Months
August 17, 2011August 17, 2011

Now we know why it’s called “The Mighty Marcellus.” New production figures for the first six months of 2011 show that on all counts—natural gas, gas liquids, and even oil—the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania is producing a tremendous amount of new energy. Figures for the southwestern part of PA show a 55 percent increase in production over the previous six month period.

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Butler County | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Public Opinion | Rex Energy

Community Supports 11 New Marcellus Wells in Butler County
August 17, 2011August 17, 2011

Contrary to media reports which make it appear that an overwhelming majority of people oppose Marcellus drilling, not “everyone” is opposed. Case in point: Local citizens in Lancaster Township (Butler County), PA turned out to support drilling in their community in two separate meetings:

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Allegheny County | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Range Resources Corp | Regulation

Range Resources Fights PA Town Ordinance, Threatens Lawsuit
August 17, 2011August 17, 2011

Range Resources, one of the largest Marcellus Shale drillers in Pennsylvania, and the first to sink a Marcellus well in the state in 2003, is pushing back against what it calls “death by a thousand paper cuts” – townships imposing their own regulations on drilling that result in a de facto ban on drilling. Range has just filed an appeal with the zoning hearing board in South Fayette (Allegheny County), PA challenging the township’s zoning regulations prohibiting drilling. Range says if the hearing board does not reverse course, it will take the township to court. A copy of Range’s 35-page challenge filed with the hearing board is embedded below.

UPDATE: Also embedded below is a full copy of the drilling ordinance passed by South Fayette Township in 2010. Thank you to MDN reader Josh Whetzel for suggesting we include it with this article.

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Industrialization | Industrywide Issues | Lancaster County | Pennsylvania

Shale Gas Drillers Spread STDs Says PA Democrat Legislator
August 17, 2011August 17, 2011

You know you’re winning the battle when the other side stoops to this… PA Rep. Mike Sturla (Democrat, Lancaster County) wrote the following in an email to Capitolwire:

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Energy Companies | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Ultra Petroleum

Ultra Petroleum Marcellus Production in PA Jumps 321%
August 16, 2011August 16, 2011

Ultra Petroleum, an independent energy company headquartered in Houston, TX, reports a major ramp-up in Marcellus Shale gas drilling and production for the second quarter of 2011. Ultra says their Marcellus net production increased 321 percent over the second quarter of 2010. Since Ultra started drilling in the Marcellus Shale in 2009, they have drilled 235 gas wells in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale. All of Ultra’s Marcellus drilling (so far) has been in PA.

Ultra’s PA Marcellus operational update (from their quarterly report):

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Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide PA

New Interstate Pipelines Mean Thousands of Jobs in PA
August 15, 2011August 15, 2011

Hundreds of miles of new interstate gas pipelines are on the way in Pennsylvania, and new pipeline construction is providing thousands of jobs in the state. The volume of Marcellus gas flowing from the Marcellus is projected to rise from a current 3 billion cubic feet (bcf) per day to 7 or 8 bcf per day in the next five years, which means more large interstate pipelines are required to get the gas to market.

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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Luzerne County | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Susquehanna County | Williams | Wyoming County (PA)

Williams’ Pipeline Project in Northeast PA Hits Opposition
August 15, 2011August 15, 2011

Williams is attempting to complete a pipeline that will at one end join to the Transco interstate gas pipeline in Dallas Township, PA, and at the other end join to the Tennesee Gas Pipeline near Springville (in Susquehanna County), PA. But local opposition from Dallas Township residents to the pipeline means Williams’ target completion date of October may be delayed.

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Bradford County | Crime | Industrialization | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania

Marcellus Areas See Increase in Drunk Driving, Lesser Crimes
August 15, 2011August 15, 2011

A statistical certainty is that as the population of an area grows, there’s bound to be more drunk driving arrests and more crime in general—one of the “hazards” of an increasing population. And so it is in Bradford County, PA and other regions in the Marcellus Shale where the Marcellus drilling boom is happening. The increase in crime is not caused by drilling, according to law enforcement officials, but is a simple fact that where there’s more people there are bound to be more criminal incidents. It’s one of the negatives of drilling, like industrialization of rural areas (more trucking, more noise, more traffic) that must be recognized and if possible, mitigated or at least anticipated.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

What Chemicals are Being Used by Marcellus Drillers in PA?
August 12, 2011August 12, 2011

Want to know what chemicals are being used at a nearby Marcellus gas well that’s being drilled near you in Pennsylvania? Right now, it’s not so easy to find out. Here’s how Pennsylvania’s fracking chemical disclosure rules work, which went into effect in February of this year:

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Accidents | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Laser Northeast Gathering | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Susquehanna County

Three Mud Spills in PA Creek from Laser Pipeline Construction
August 10, 2011August 10, 2011

Laser Northeast Gathering recently broke ground is quickly working to complete a new 30-mile shale gas pipeline, called the Susquehanna Gathering System, that spans much of Susquehanna County in northeastern Pennsylvania and crosses the southeast corner of Broome County in New York State where the pipeline will connect to the larger Millennium interstate pipeline (see this MDN story).

But Laser is having troubles with drilling underneath Laurel Lake Creek, a waterway considered to have “exceptional value” by the PA Department of Environmental Protection. In the span of just a few weeks, drilling under the creek resulted in three separate incidents of non-toxic drilling mud being spilled into the creek, the latest incident occurring on Monday.

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Bradford County | Landowner Coalition News | Pennsylvania

Northeast PA Landowners Discuss Forming Large Gas Coalition
August 10, 2011August 10, 2011

Individual landowners and landowner groups are looking to organize into a large coalition in northeastern Pennsylvania in an effort to promote Marcellus Shale gas drilling in a safe, responsible way and to counter those who want to stop drilling. A small group of landowners met on Tuesday in Wysox (Bradford County), PA to discuss strategy. Tom Shepstone from Energy in Depth Northeast Marcellus Initiative (inaccurately referred to as Tom Shepp in the media article below), addressed the group on the need for large coalition of PA landowners—like the 70,000-member Joint Landowners Coalition of New York.

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Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide PA

New Pipeline Permit Rules Delay Landowner Royalties in PA
August 9, 2011August 9, 2011

A new set of rules governing pipeline construction permits issued by the U.S. Army Corps or Engineers is causing extreme delays in getting gas from wells to market according to Chesapeake Energy. The new rules have turned what was an average 45-day process to file paperwork into a 300-day process.

The bottom line is that wells that are drilled and completed sit idle because gathering pipelines aren’t being built to them, and consequently landowners are not receiving royalty checks.

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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Taxation

PA Lt Gov Cawley Addresses Severance Tax in Chat Session
August 9, 2011August 9, 2011

On Monday, Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. Jim Cawley, the head of Gov. Tom Corbett’s Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission, did a Q&A session via text chat with readers of the Philadelphia Inquirer to answer questions about the final report of 96 recommendations filed by the Commission and about the work they performed to arrive those recommendations. The questions covered jobs, taxes, regulation, pollution and more. Among the Q&A was this excellent exchange on taxes that puts to bed the widespread misunderstanding that the drilling industry is not paying taxes and “if only PA had a severance tax it would solve the budget problems in the state”:

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Energy Companies | Lawrence County | Pennsylvania | Shell

Lawrence County, PA Gets its First Marcellus Shale Well
August 9, 2011August 9, 2011

Lawrence County, a western Pennsylvania county which borders Ohio, has just had its first Marcellus Shale gas well drilled, with hydraulic fracturing of the well under way now. With 815 land leases signed since last year, it’s a pretty safe bet more wells are coming to Lawrence County soon.

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Energy Services | MarkWest Energy | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

MarkWest Processing Plants in PA & WV Ramp Up Output
August 9, 2011August 9, 2011

MarkWest Energy Partners and its subsidiary companies concentrate on what the industry calls the “midstream” area of natural gas drilling—that is, gathering, processing and transporting natural gas. MarkWest’s quarterly report includes an update on their expanding capacity to process natural gas and natural gas liquids in the Marcellus Shale of Pennsylvania and West Virginia as well as news about a new pipeline to Canada:

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Centre County | Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania

PA Municipalities Profit by Selling Water for Fracking
August 8, 2011August 8, 2011

Pennsylvania municipalities have found a new market in the Marcellus drilling industry for excess fresh water and for treated sewage wastewater. The going rate they receive, depending on whether it’s fresh water or treated wastewater, is between $2 and $6 per 1,000 gallons. In some cases, the sale of water used in hydraulic fracturing of Marcellus gas wells is netting millions of dollars in extra revenue for state and local organizations.

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