Statewide PA

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

PA DEP Changes Notification Policy on Methane Contamination
October 16, 2012October 16, 2012

The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) made a policy change in September that’s just now coming to light—and creating a bit of controversy. In the case of suspected methane contamination of water wells near drilling sites, it was standard policy to let the local field office make a determination as to whether or not water test results show possible methane contamination, and whether or not a letter should go out to landowners in the affected area.

The new policy is that someone in Harrisburg at DEP HQ will make the judgment call on sending letters to landowners.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Surprising Data on Rig Counts for Dry vs Wet Gas Drilling
October 15, 2012October 15, 2012

Seeking Alpha blogger Richard Zeits, whom we’ve highlighted before on MDN, is back with a new analysis of the latest Baker Hughes rig count. You need rigs to drill the holes—so the rig count is a good indicator of whether new drilling is going up, down or staying constant.

In Zeits’ extensive analysis (well worth your time to read and digest), he draws some conclusions about wet gas (natural gas liquids) versus dry gas (methane only) drilling as evidenced by the Baker Hughes numbers. His conclusions may surprise you, as it did us:

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Lease & Royalty Payments | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Lease Bonus Payments for Marcellus & Utica Reach New Highs
October 12, 2012October 12, 2012

Because the sale price of domestically produced oil and natural gas has gone down over the past year, royalties for landowners have gone down as well. However, the bonus payments landowners receive when signing a new lease agreement have gone up—way up in the Marcellus and Utica Shale.

A newly released survey (embedded below) from Farmers National Co., a real estate management company for property owners, shows a dramatic increase for bonus deals in West Virginia (up 1.75 times), in Pennsylvania (more than doubling, up 2.3 times), but most dramatically, in Ohio (up nearly 13 times from a year ago). The largest reported lease signing bonus in Ohio for 3Q12 was a whopping $8,200 per acre.

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Industrywide Issues | Jefferson County (PA) | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Taxation

PA County Sees Expected Impact Fee Revenue Cut in Half
October 12, 2012October 12, 2012

Officials in Jefferson County, PA say their predicted portion of the new Marcellus Shale impact fee being collected by the state just went down by half—and they don’t know why. Previous numbers issued by the state Public Utility Commission (PUC) showed Jefferson would receive $160,000-$200,000 in impact fee revenue from the nine wells currently drilled in the county. But as of Tuesday, that number has gone down to $100K or lower.

The unanswered question on everyone’s mind: Will other PA counties share a similar fate? Just what’s going on with the impact fee numbers anyway?

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Lackawanna County | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA | Taxation

NE PA Town Welcomes PUC Review of Shale Zoning Ordinances
October 12, 2012October 12, 2012

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) continues its activity of reviewing local town ordinances for compliance with the new Act 13 Marcellus Shale drilling law. If a town’s ordinances are found to be in violation of the law, they either will have to change their zoning ordinances or risk not receiving their cut of the Marcellus Shale impact fee (i.e. tax) being collected by the state. Checks are due out in December.

Some townships, like South Fayette, are thin-skinned and have a persecution complex over a PUC review (see this MDN story). Other towns, however, take it in stride and when told their laws need fixing, they fix them—like Roaring Brook Township in Lackawanna County, PA.

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Ohio | Pennsylvania | Statewide OH | Statewide PA

A Look at the Numbers: OH Drill Permits Dip, PA Permits Grow
October 11, 2012October 11, 2012

The number of permits filed to drill new shale oil and gas wells in Ohio slowed a bit in September, according to recent records. The number of permits to drill new shale wells in Pennsylvania saw an uptick in September.

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Industrywide Issues | NG Vehicles | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | York County

Republic Spends $21M to Convert PA Garbage Trucks to CNG
October 11, 2012October 11, 2012

Republic Services is investing $21 million to convert the majority of its garbage truck fleet from diesel to running on compressed natural gas (CNG) in York, PA. Nationwide, Republic is doubling it’s fleet of CNG-powered vehicles this year to 1,100.

The details on the York, PA project:

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Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Taxation

Manufacturer Assoc Says Key to PA Drilling Success: Low Taxes
October 9, 2012October 9, 2012

A letter to the editor published in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal from the head of the Pennsylvania Manufacturers’ Association in response to an editorial on fracking in New York succinctly summarizes why Pennsylvania has been so successful in attracting and keeping drilling in their state. It also points out the differences between former Gov. Rendell and current Gov. Corbett in PA on the issue of shale gas drilling:

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

Heinz Funds Cornell Research – Will We See Outcry like UB?
October 8, 2012October 8, 2012

It’s interesting to MDN how a politically correct witch hunt has gone forth at University at Buffalo (UB) after the “revelation” that the authors of a new study at the university’s new shale institute had (gasp) done work for natural gas drilling companies in years gone by. Somehow the fact they have made a living outside of academe and (gasp) “in the industry” taints their ability to reason and research beyond acceptable (to the left) limits (see this MDN story).

Yet when anti-drilling organizations (like the Heniz Endowments) fund research at major universities (like Cornell and Carnegie Mellon) for millions of dollars in an effort to gin up so-called science to discredit natural gas drilling, not a peep from the same self-righteous crusaders. Why is that?

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Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Maryland | New York | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide MD | Statewide NY | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide VA | Statewide WV | Utica Shale | Virginia | West Virginia

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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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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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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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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