Did Antero Pull the Rug Out from Under Fairmont Brine Processing?
MDN brought you the news today that Antero Resources is building its own frack wastewater treatment facility in Doddridge County, WV (see today’s lead story). It’s great news–great for Antero, but not great for some. One company feels betrayed by the announcement–Fairmont Brine Processing. Let’s back up. In December MDN told you the story of Fairmont Brine Processing, once called AOP Clearwater (see New Brine Processing Plant Coming to Panhandle of WV). Fairmont operates a small wastewater processing plant in Marion County, WV and has spent $2 million on engineering work and plans to build a new, larger facility near Wheeling, WV. Fairmont’s #1 customer is Antero Resources. All along Fairmont has been sharing plans and inside information with Antero to be sure the new facility they build meets Antero’s needs. And then Antero seemingly pulled the rug out from under them…
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On Friday Baker Hughes, which is being forced into a merger with Halliburton by the end of this year/early next year, issued a summary of rig counts last Friday. At first blush it appears to be good news, but when you dig under the surface, it’s not–at least for the Marcellus/Utica. The international rig count was 1,118, down 28 from the 1,146 counted in June 2015. However, the average U.S. rig count for July 2015 was 866, up 5 from the 861 counted in June 2015. It appears we’ve turned the corner on how low rig counts will go–we’ve bottomed and are either holding steady (in the U.S.), or perhaps every so slightly gaining ground again. But then we ran the numbers for the Marcellus/Utica and found rig counts continue to decline month over month…
This sounds like something out of a Jules Verne novel. You may recall from school that Verne wrote some of the earliest sci-fi adventures ever, like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Journey to the Center of the Earth. In Journey, Verne wrote about strange and mysterious critters that live deep in the earth–in rock caverns. Turns out Verne may not have been so far from the truth after all. And there’s a tie-in with the Marcellus Shale and with fracking. In November West Virginia University and Ohio State University received an $11 million grant by the federal government to study the Marcellus and Utica Shale (see 
There was a rupture of a gas pipeline at a Jay-Bee Oil and Gas drill pad in the Big Run area of Tyler County, WV early Friday morning. There was no explosion, and no one was injured–but there was a fire and the fire could be seen for miles in the dark early morning. The fire from the ruptured pipe (cause still being investigated) burned for an hour before it was extinguished. The wells on the pad are currently shut-in while the WV Dept. of Environmental Protection investigates. This is not the first Jay-Bee accident in the Big Run area…