West Virginia

Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Fayette County | Industrywide Issues | Regulation | Wastewater | West Virginia

WV County Officially Bans Injection Wells; Children Brainwashed
January 14, 2016January 14, 2016

As we reported in December, two left-wing Democrats in Fayette County, WV voted, in a first reading of a new ordinance, to ban all injection wells in the county (see 2 Democrat Commissioners Ban Injection Wells in Fayette County, WV). The full commission (three members instead of two) took a final vote Tuesday night and passed the measure, making it “the law” in Fayette County (until it’s found illegal by a court). The interesting part in reading about this turn of events is how some of the left loony toons parents have brainwashed their own children into becoming socialist/communists. One little girl gave “an impassioned plea” to encourage passing the ordinance, and then ignorantly accused people from the oil and gas industry of causing the death of “our grandparents, family and friends for you to have private jets.” Talk about colossal stupidity on parade. We call it brainwashing…
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Cunningham Energy | Energy Companies | Kanawha County | West Virginia

Cunningham Using Horizontal Drilling to Target Weir Sand in WV
January 11, 2016October 23, 2017

This story is, for us, fascinating. A small driller based in West Virginia, Cunningham Energy, is zagging while everyone else is zigging. We told you in 2013 that Cunningham planned to drill three “shallow” horizontal wells in Clay County, WV (see The Injuns are Coming! Injun Formation Drilling, that is). Cunningham targeted the Big Injun sandstone formation, looking for oil. They struck oil this past year (see Cunningham Strikes Oil in West Virginia’s Big Injun Territory). Once again Cunningham is targeting a shallow formation, this time the Weir Sand formation, a few layers below the Big Injun (same group of rocks called the Mississippian system), once again looking for oil. Cunningham announced last week they are drilling two new horizontal wells, this time in Kanawha County, WV…
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Forced Pooling | Industrywide Issues | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Bill Sponsor Says It’s Now or Never for WV Forced Pooling Law
January 11, 2016January 11, 2016

At 11 pm on the last day of the 2015 legislative session in West Virginia, a session that lasts only 60 days at the beginning of each year, the WV legislature voted down what everyone thought was a sure thing to pass–House Bill (HB) 2688, otherwise known as the forced pooling bill (see The Real Story of Why Forced Pooling Bill Failed in WV). As we reported at the time, it was defeated by Democrats who had their knickers in a twist over another bill they wanted passed that Republicans defeated. So the Dems decided to give as good as they got and voted down HB2688 in retribution. Last March, following the negative vote, we said this: “Forced pooling is a dead issue in WV this year. Will it be back next year? You can bank on it.” And back it is. The Republican chairman of the House Energy Committee, Lynwood “Woody” Ireland believes a new version of the forced pooling bill is as fair as it gets for both landowners and drillers. Ireland also believes if the bill doesn’t pass this year, it is likely a dead issue–period. It’s “now or never” for a forced pooling bill in WV…
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Columbia Pipeline Group | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kanawha County | Pipelines | West Virginia

Columbia Pipeline Gets FERC Approval for WV Utica Access Project
January 11, 2016January 11, 2016

Columbia Pipeline Group has just received a green light from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to proceed with their Utica Access Project. The project will cost Columbia $45 million and involves building five miles of new pipeline and upgrading compressor stations in Kanawha County, WV. When complete, the project, begun under NiSource (before Columbia separated into its own company), will transport 200 million cubic feet per day of Utica Shale gas for Eclipse Resources Corporation to liquid trading points on the Columbia Gas Transmission interstate pipeline system…
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Columbia Pipeline Group | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide VA | Statewide WV | Virginia | West Virginia

Columbia Pipeline Files to Build $850M WB XPress Project in WV/VA
January 11, 2016January 11, 2016

In addition to receiving Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approval for the Utica Access Project, Columbia Pipeline Group has just filed their full, official application with FERC for approval of the $850 million WB XPress Project, consisting of two new compressor stations, 26 miles of pipeline replacement located along existing corridors, and 2.9 miles of new pipeline in Virginia and West Virginia. The WB XPress Project will expand capacity of the Columbia Gas Transmission pipeline in the region by 1.3 billion cubic feet per day, linking Marcellus gas supplies to new markets…
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Energy Companies | Lease & Royalty Payments | Marshall County | Ohio County | Southwestern Energy | West Virginia

Southwestern Energy Renewing Leases in WV, PA
January 8, 2016January 8, 2016

Tick tock tick tock. Every day that passes brings landowners and drillers closer to the end of an initial five-year lease contract. In October 2014, Southwestern Energy purchased a humongous 413,000 acres of leases from Chesapeake Energy, most of that land in West Virginia (see Chesapeake Sells Close to 25% of Marcellus/Utica Operation). Southwestern paid over $5 billion for the deal. That leased acreage came with an expiration–which is happening now, at least for some (most?) of the acreage. Every lease is different. Some leases allow the driller to pay the same (or a different) renewal payment to keep the lease going for another period of time, typically another five years. The $5 billion question is, what will Southwestern do? Everyone is scaling back right now. Companies just can’t afford to do much drilling. Will Southwestern opt to renew those leases that they paid big bucks for? It seems we have an answer to that question. A WV newspaper is reporting that Southwestern has begun extending leases in Ohio and Marshall counties…
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Accidents | Industrywide Issues | NGLs | West Virginia | Wetzel County

CSX Train Hauling Propane Derails in Wetzel County, WV
December 28, 2015December 28, 2015

Very early Christmas Eve morning, at 2:45 am, six CSX rail cars loaded with liquefied petroleum gas (LPG, or propane) ran off the tracks in New Martinsville (Wetzel County), West Virginia. We don’t know if the LPG in those rail cars came from the Marcellus/Utica, but there’s a decent chance it did. Increasingly NGLs like propane are being shipped in the northeast by rail. The good news about the accident: no one was injured and the rail cars didn’t leak. The accident is being investigated by federal authorities for the cause…
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Forced Pooling | Industrywide Issues | Regulation | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Battle Lines Drawn as WV Forced Pooling Bill Nears Introduction
December 28, 2015December 28, 2015

As MDN told you in mid-November, West Virginia legislators will revisit the topic, and likely vote on the issue of, forced pooling in the 60-day legislative session that will begin in early January (see WV Forced Pooling Bill Coming Around Again in 2016). The battle lines–in the Republican party–are already being drawn in a contentious issue that has been brought before the WV legislature in five of the last six years…
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Commodity Price | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

2016: Fewer Rigs Operating, Less Gas Flowing in Marcellus/Utica
December 28, 2015December 28, 2015

This is the time of year when prognosticators come out of their prognostication holes to prognosticate about the rapidly-approaching New Year. Some of those predictions involve the Marcellus/Utica industry and what we may see coming our way in 2016. And what might we see? Most believe we’ll see cut-backs in drilling–most companies have announced such plans. However, one thing we won’t see is all drilling stop. As we highlight in a companion story today (see Why Do Marcellus Drillers Continue Drilling with Prices in the Basement?), drillers will keep drilling in the Marcellus in 2016. Perhaps not as much as they drilled in 2015–but make no mistake, the industry is not finished. So if they will continue to drill, even though prices are in the basement, where will they get the money to do so? That’s the focus of this particular piece of prognostication…
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Beaver County | Belmont County | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Odebrecht | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | PTT Global | Shell | West Virginia | Wood County

Will 2016 be the Year *Somebody* Commits to Building a Cracker?
December 28, 2015December 28, 2015

Will somebody, somewhere PLEASE build the northeast an ethane cracker plant? Pretty please? We noticed a couple of stories that indicate 2016 is THE year that at least one company will likely pull the trigger on an FID–a Final Investment Decision to build an ethane cracker. But which company is likely to do it? Shell? PTT Global? Odebrecht? Leaving Odebrecht’s Parkersburg, WV proposed cracker aside for the moment (a project where we barely detect a pulse), both the Shell plant, planned for Beaver County, PA, and the PTT Global plant, planned for Belmont County, OH, have seen impressive signs of activity in 2015. Which of those two will likely say “yes” in 2016?…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Dominion Energy | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Upshur County | West Virginia

Sierra Club Pressures WV County to Oppose Atlantic Coast Pipeline
December 22, 2015December 22, 2015

The Virginia Chapter of the Big Green (and very radical) Sierra Club is pressuring county commissioners in Upshur County, WV to support their effort to block the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. Atlantic Coast is a $5 billion, 564-mile natural gas pipeline from West Virginia through Virginia and into North Carolina. Dominion is the company building it. The strategy being employed by the radicals at the Sierra Club (and at other Big Green groups that should lose their non-profit status because the engage in political activities) is to try and force the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to combine all of the pipelines being proposed into one, massive environmental impact review–hoping that by combining separate projects together it will trigger a decision to deny all of them. The problem is by law FERC cannot combine separate projects together. Not all of those projects will get built. And they run in different geographies. FERC’s mandate, under U.S. law, is to evaluate each project individually. But silly things like obeying the law never stops Big Green groups–they just keep right on community agitating…
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Energy Companies | Gastar Exploration | Lease & Royalty Payments | Marshall County | Statewide WV | West Virginia | Wetzel County

Gastar Deal to Lease Under the Ohio River in WV Falls Apart
December 21, 2015December 21, 2015

Remember the brouhaha over energy companies bidding to drill on land underneath the Ohio River in West Virginia? We told you about one such lease–Gastar won a bid on a 232-acre tract underlying the river at the border of Marshall and Wetzel counties. They paid $3,500 per acre as a signing bonus and 20% royalties in their winning bid (see Gastar Wins Lease to Drill Under Ohio River in WV). There were just a few minor details to settle before the deal closed. Guess what? Gastar never closed the deal. Since October 2014 the price of natural gas has crashed, making it uneconomical to drill in many (most?) locations, and Gastar didn’t want to part with its precious capital–so no deal was never finalized. And now the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources is about to call the deal dead and shop it again. Problem is, it’s now a buyer’s market for leases, not a seller’s market as it was in October 2014. WV won’t get anywhere near the same terms this time around, of that we’re sure…
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Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Processing Plants | Statewide WV | West Virginia

IOGAWV Rep Says Marcellus/Utica Can Support “8 or 9 Crackers”
December 21, 2015December 21, 2015

The president and CEO of Eagle Manufacturing in Wellsburg, WV is Joe Eddy. During a recent meeting in Oglebay Park, Eddy represnted the WV Indpendent Oil and Gas Association. He had some interesting things to say. Among them: the Marcellus/Utica region could right now support “eight or nine crackers.” He also spoke out against three ethane pipelines that transport northeast ethane to other regions…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Fayette County | Industrywide Issues | Regulation | Wastewater | West Virginia

2 Democrat Commissioners Ban Injection Wells in Fayette County, WV
December 18, 2015December 18, 2015

In the end it was just two people who decided to outlaw a legally operating wastewater injection well in Fayette County, WV. Two county commissioners, Denise Scalph and Matt Wender (both Democrats), voted to end the right of Danny Webb Construction to operate an injection well in the county, as it has done for over a decade (perhaps longer, we’re not sure). Aided by a rabidly leftist group called the Mountain Party (left of Vlad Putin), the so-called county commission attorney, Larry Harrah, crafted the state’s first “screw ’em royally” ordinance that he believes is lawsuit-proof. We’ll see just how lawsuit-proof it is when it gets tested, as it surely will…
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Economic Impact | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Poly(ethylene) Wants a Cracker: OH Study Predicts Ethane Tsunami
December 14, 2015December 14, 2015

A researcher and “Executive in Residence” from Cleveland State University, Andrew Thomas, writes about a new study produced by the University “to better understand the ramifications of huge quantities of natural gas and liquid ethane being produced in Ohio.” Unfortunately we were unable to track down a copy of the full study and its results, but we do have the summary as contributed by Thomas in writing for Crain’s Cleveland Business. And wow, what insights we gain! Thomas says the study he worked on concludes that even in this down market, Ohio’s production of natural gas liquids (NGLs), specifically ethane, is on a rocket ride to the moon. He says, “Ohio’s about to see an ethane tsunami.” He also says if all four ethane crackers that have been floated as possibilities for the region get built, that would only sop up one-third of the ethane supply projected to be produced in the Marcellus/Utica. Here’s the high-level but very exciting and insightful news coming from this study…
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Marshall County | West Virginia

WV Hare Krishnas “Purify” Gas Money to Benefit Commune
December 14, 2015December 14, 2015

Outside of Moundsville (Marshall County), WV is a Hare Krishna community called New Vrindaban. Hare Krishna is an offshoot of Hinduism. According to Wikipedia, “International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) was formed to spread the practice of bhakti yoga, in which those involved (bhaktas) dedicate their thoughts and actions towards pleasing the Supreme Lord, Krishna.” We’re not here to make fun of any particular religion, but believe it or not, there is a tie-in between Hare Krishna in New Vrindaban and the Marcellus Shale. The community there (a commune, actually) used to have the opinion (still does) that “gas drilling is exploitative, that it is unsustainable and ‘contributes to the culture of death and toxicity.’ Somehow signing bonuses and royalties helped them to see past their disdain. The Krishnas in Moundsville used to use horse and buggies to get around. Those days are long gone and fossil fuel-powered cars are here to stay. The Krishnas in New Vrindaban signed leases, a couple of times, over the past few years and they haven’t looked back. They like the money that “toxic” gas has brought to the commune…
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