FTS Intl Fires All Drivers & Mechanics in Sand Hauling Business
On Tuesday MDN told you that FTS International, the largest private well-completion company in North America with offices and employees in the Marcellus/Utica, has laid off workers in Eighty Four and Venetia, both sites in Washington County, PA (see FTS International Lays off PA Workers – Won’t Say How Many). We now have a few more details on what is happening at FTS–and what’s happening is that FTS is in the process of selling their sand-hauling business, which is located in Eighty Four and Venetia. The company still won’t say how many people they’ve laid off, but an inside source told the Washington Observer-Reporter that 34 sand-truck drivers and seven “coordinators” were let go at Venetia last Friday. A company memo from FTS CEO Michael Doss says they laid off all of the truck drivers and mechanics involved in their sand hauling business. Here’s an update on FTS “adjusting head count,” as they euphemistically put it…
Read More “FTS Intl Fires All Drivers & Mechanics in Sand Hauling Business”
This is something you don’t see often these days: The Pennsylvania Game Commission is getting $15.5 million of revenue from new Marcellus leases with Chief Oil & Gas and EQT. The bulk of the money will come from a deal with Chief to lease 5,870 acres in Bradford and Sullivan counties. Terms of the lease? Chief is paying $2,500 per acre as a signing bonus and 20.55% in royalties when/if they drill and the gas and oil begin to flow. It just about floored us to see this deal! We though all deals were done until the price of gas goes up again. We’d not heard of any new deals being cut. As for EQT, they are paying the Game Commission $917,000 for the right to drill under a 306-acre parcel in Washington County, PA. Details on the per acre bonus and royalty for the EQT deal below…
Yesterday Range Resources, the fourth largest driller in the Marcellus, announced the company is laying off 55 people companywide, with 31 of those positions located in Washington County, PA. Another 20 positions will be eliminated in Range’s home office located in Fort Worth, TX. Two of the jobs disappearing will be in Williamsport, PA, and the final two in Oklahoma. Range CEO Ray Walker used the same identical language he’s used twice before (lazy PR department?) in saying, “Low commodity prices have created a harsh reality that everyone in our industry is facing.” Indeed. The oil and gas industry is facing the toughest market it’s had in 30 years…
MDN has been highlighting stories and writing about potential water well contamination by Range Resources at their Yeager well and wastewater impoundment site in Amwell Township (Washington County), PA since 2012 (see MDN’s list of 
The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) seems to have a grudge against EQT. Last October the DEP levied a $4.5 million fine against EQT over a leaky wastewater impoundment in Tioga County, PA (see 
Peters Township, the most populous township in Washington County, PA, is one of the seven selfish towns that sued the state over the zoning provisions in the Act 13 law, eventually winning at the PA Supreme Court level (see 
Looking like he’d had his morning Ensure drink, Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush had plenty of energy as he talked about energy policy in a speech he delivered yesterday at the headquarters of Rice Energy in Washington County, PA. As predicted, Bush said things the oil and gas industry can stand up and cheer for: lift the ban on exporting crude oil, make it easier to export natural gas, and repeal some of the onerous regulations now on the books. He would also roll back Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan regulations that target coal (and natural gas) with a regulatory death sentence. Below is how it was reported, followed by Bush’s policy paper on how he would handle energy policy if he were to get out of single digits in the polls and get the nomination (something not very likely)…
The Washington County (PA) Firemen’s Association recently opened a new $500,000 gas well training center at the fire academy located at 895 Western Ave in Houston, PA. The project, which took more than a year to plan and complete, was completely funded by some of the biggest and best drillers in the Marcellus/Utica, including Range Resources, Rice Energy, CONSOL Energy, EQT, American Well Service and others. It will be used to train first responders not only in Washington County, but also from other parts of Pennsylvania along with West Virginia and Ohio. According to Pennsylvania Fire Commissioner Tim Solobay, “There’s nothing like it outside of Texas”…