West Virginia

Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Regulation | Southwestern Energy | Statewide WV | West Virginia

WV Gov Tomblin Signs “We Love You Southwestern” Bill into Law
February 5, 2015February 5, 2015

Last week MDN told you about the hurry-up-and-pass-it Senate Bill (SB) 280 in the West Virginia legislature. Southwestern Energy has just paid over $5 billion to acquire a bunch of land and drilling operations from Chesapeake Energy, most of it in WV (see Chesapeake Sells Close to 25% of Marcellus/Utica Operation). A new drilling law passed a few years ago stipulates if leases/operations change hands, the new owner must apply for permits to drill all over again, even if the previous owner had already been awarded those permits. The law threatened to shut down a number of drilling operations for new owner Southwestern. So the legislature passed a law “fixing” that problem–in record time. They then hustled it over to Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin’s desk where, as we predicted, he was waiting with bells on to sign it…
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Blue Ridge Mtn Res/Magnum Hunter | Energy Companies | Energy Services | GreenHunter Resources | Industrywide Issues | Meigs County | Ohio | Regulation | Ritchie County | Wastewater | West Virginia

US Coast Guard Approves Brine Shipping via Barge on Ohio River
February 4, 2015February 4, 2015

Some big news coming from GreenHunter Resources, the wastewater disposal arm of MagnumHunter Resources. As MDN has chronicled for the past several years, MagnumHunter has been trying to secure a permit from the U.S. Coast Guard to transport frack wastewater via barges down the Ohio River. The Coast Guard floated a preliminary plan to allow it all the way back in November 2013 (see More on Coast Guard Plan to Allow Barging of Frack Wastewater). However, until now, they have withheld permission due to meddling by The White House and other federal agencies. According to a conference call last week, MagnumHunter/GreenHunter officials said the Coast Guard “quietly” granted permission in December to allow them to begin barge shipments down the Ohio River. The permission apparently applies only to brine, or “produced water” and not flowback for frack wastewater…
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Accidents | Brooke County | Energy Services | Enterprise Products Partners | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | West Virginia

PHMSA Update on ATEX Pipeline Explosion in WV – Faulty Weld?
January 30, 2015January 30, 2015

It’s been five days since a section of the Appalachia to Texas (ATEX) Express ethane pipeline ruptured/exploded and burned in Brooke County, WV (see ATEX Ethane Pipeline Explodes, Burns near Follansbee, WV). Since the pipeline is under the regulatory oversight of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), that organization is doing the investigation into the accident. The rupture and resulting fire burned approximately 24,000 barrels of ethane and scorched some 5 acres of woodland. What has the PHMSA learned so far? Not much. They have some theories, according to an initial report. It appears that the 20-inch pipeline ruptured near a section that had been welded together…
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Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Regulation | Southwestern Energy | Statewide WV | West Virginia

WV Legislature Passes Bill to Help Southwestern Keep Drilling
January 29, 2015January 29, 2015

Currently in West Virginia, if an E&P company, say Chesapeake Energy, has applied for and received permits to drill dozens or hundreds of wells which are currently in various states of being drilled, and then decides to sell those leases and drilling operations to someone else, like Southwestern Energy, the drilling law passed a few years ago says the new company buying those leases and drilling operations must re-apply for all of those permits to continue drilling. That’s a big problem. Southwestern, you may recall, has just paid Chessy $5.375 BILLION for leases, wells and drilling operations–most of it in WV. Can you imagine what will happen? Rigs idled…people laid off…chaos and confusion. It’s an economic disaster. So you can understand why the WV legislature has dispensed with the rules and passed a bill in record time that fixes the problem, allowing Southwestern (or anyone else) to assume permits on leased property that changes hands…
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Accidents | Brooke County | Energy Services | Enterprise Products Partners | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | West Virginia

Enterprise Releases 2014 Results – Remains Mum on ATEX Explosion
January 29, 2015January 29, 2015

Enterprise Products Partners, a huge $41 billion midstream company with 51,000 miles of pipelines, and the company that built the Appalachia to Texas (ATEX) Express pipeline, released their 2014 results today. In the update is no mention of the explosion and fire along the ATEX in Brooke County, WV that happened on Monday (see ATEX Ethane Pipeline Explodes, Burns in Brooke County, WV). We’ve looked, and haven’t found a peep about what caused the explosion. The agency charged with investigating the pipeline rupture is the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA)…
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Allegheny County | Lease & Royalty Payments | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Pittsburgh Private Equity Fund Looks to Lease in Marcellus/Utica
January 28, 2015January 28, 2015

Not everyone is sitting on the sidelines during the downturn in shale drilling in the northeast. And yes, there is no doubt there’s been a downturn, along with the dropping price of gas (and oil). Ridgetop Capital, located in the Pittsburgh area, has just raised it’s sixth round of private investment capital (cash from wealthy people)–a huge $200 million. Ridgetop’s owner, Brad Carpenter, is now on the prowl to snap up Marcellus and Utica Shale leases that he hopes to get at a bargain because of the slow-down…
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Dominion Energy | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Randolph County | Regulation | Statewide WV | West Virginia

USFS Seeks Comment on Pipeline Survey in Monongahela Natl Forest
January 28, 2015January 28, 2015

Here on Pandora where the forests are sentient and can think and feel…oh wait, that’s in the movie Avatar and the sequel is not due out until the end of 2017 (drats!). We live on Mother Earth, not on Pandora. But you wouldn’t know it by the reaction of anti-drillers at the prospect of running Dominion’s Atlantic Coast Pipeline through 17 miles of the Monongahela National Forest. You’d swear the forest can actually feel it–and would experience a catastrophic wound in its very soul…
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Accidents | Brooke County | Energy Services | Energy Transfer Partners | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | West Virginia

ATEX Ethane Pipeline Explodes, Burns in Brooke County, WV
January 27, 2015January 27, 2015

Yesterday morning a section of the 20-inch ATEX (Appalachia to Texas) ethane pipeline ruptured and caught fire in Follansbee (Brooke County), WV. No one was injured but two families living nearby were evacuated as a precaution. The first calls of an explosion and fire came around 10:40 am yesterday. The cause of the rupture is not yet known…
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Energy Companies | Equinor/Statoil | Gastar Exploration | Jay-Bee Oil & Gas | Lease & Royalty Payments | Marshall County | Noble Energy | Statewide WV | Triad Hunter | Tyler County | West Virginia | Wetzel County

More Bids to Drill Under WV State-Owned Land, Incl Ohio River
January 27, 2015January 27, 2015

West Virginia keeps up its aggressive push to lease and allow drilling under state-owned land–both under the Ohio River and under other tracts of state-owned land in prime Marcellus/Utica country. Last Friday the state Dept. of Commerce, responsible for overseeing the leasing program, opened its latest round of bids. Some of them are truly eye-popping. You may recall Antero Resources has paid $12,000 per acre (with 20% royalties) to drill under 518 acres of the Conaway Run Wildlife Management Area (see Record High Bid to Drill Under Bambi’s Home in Tyler County, WV). In the bids opened Friday, Jay Bee bid an even higher price to drill under the Jug Wildlife Management Area, also in Tyler County…
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Industrywide Issues | Research | Statewide WV | West Virginia

MDN Exclusive: WV Horizontal Well Production Report w/Well Names
January 26, 2015January 26, 2015

The West Virginia Dept. of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) requires annual reporting of production data–woefully out of step with both Ohio (quarterly reports) and Pennsylvania (monthly reports starting in March 2015). The WVDEP “requires” drillers to file reports by March of each year–but many wells did not list production data for 2013 until “recently”–in September 2014. What does the data show? Production varies widely depending on the geography. Below are some examples, along with the complete production report from 2013 for horizontal wells in WV, specially produced to show the well name (available only from MDN)…
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Energy Companies | Lease & Royalty Payments | Marshall County | Noble Energy | West Virginia

WV Leases Another 1,400 Acres Under Ohio River for Drilling
January 21, 2015January 21, 2015

More drilling under the Ohio River is about to become reality. Last October, MDN told you about the deal to lease a 232-acre tract of land around and under the Ohio River in Marshall County, WV. The state leased the land for drilling to Gastar Exploration for $3,500 per acre plus a 20% royalty (see Gastar Wins Lease to Drill Under Ohio River in WV). That deal netted WV a tidy signing bonus check for $812,000, to say nothing of the royalties they’ll get once the gas starts to flow. WV liked that deal and decided to put more land under the river on the market (see WV Looks to Lease More Ohio River, Other State Land for Drilling). Yesterday the state confirmed they are close to finalizing a deal with Noble Energy to lease another 1,400 acres of state-owned land around and under the Ohio River–also in Marshall County. This new deal also nets the state $3,500 per acre, or $4.9 million, as a signing bonus…
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Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

WV Gov Earl Ray Tomblin Praises Marcellus Shale During Speech
January 21, 2015January 21, 2015

At Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s inauguration yesterday, Wolf didn’t even mention the word “Marcellus” and said nothing of shale drilling in the state beyond a vague statement about the state being “blessed with an abundance of natural resources” which includes “gas.” Compare Wolf’s total lack of acknowledgement of the Marcellus and the key role it plays in Pennsylvania with the West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin’s State of the State speech last week, a speech in which he positively gushes about the Marcellus, by name. Tomblin even treats two representatives from Southwestern Energy present in the audience as exalted guests, asking them to stand for applause (Southwestern has just invested $5 billion in WV). The kicker: both governors are Democrats. In part, here’s what Tomblin said last week in his annual speech to the state:
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Energy Companies | Gulfport Energy | Marshall County | Ohio County | Utica Shale | West Virginia

Gulfport Energy Enters WV Utica, Leases in Ohio/Marshall Counties
January 19, 2015January 19, 2015

Looks like Gulfport Energy, with 184,000 acres of leases and an active driller in eastern Ohio’s Utica Shale, is making moves into the West Virginia Utica Shale. We spotted an article that says Gulfport has purchased an 87.5% stake in “hundreds of lease agreements” in Ohio and Marshall counties in WV. We don’t know how many acres are involved (yet). But we do know who they’ve purchased the leases from…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | New York | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide NY | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | Wastewater | West Virginia

Yet Another Duke University Study Smears the Marcellus Industry
January 15, 2015January 15, 2015

Let’s see, it’s a new month in a new year–must be time for a new Duke University study (located in North Carolina) to pop up smearing Marcellus Shale drilling (located in Pennsylvania and West Virginia). Yep, that’s just what’s happened. The new study, titled “Iodide, Bromide, and Ammonium in Hydraulic Fracturing and Oil and Gas Wastewaters: Environmental Implications” was published yesterday in the “peer reviewed” journal Environmental Science & Technology. Here’s all you need to know about this “study”: The lead author is a Duke University student (looking to make a name for herself), and it was funded by the virulently anti-drilling Park Foundation. Which means the outcome of the so-called “study” was written before the first test tube was held over a Bunsen burner…
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Air Quality | Health Impacts | Industrialization | Industrywide Issues | Research | Statewide WV | Wastewater | West Virginia

WVU Launches 5-Year Study of Local Frack Site for Air, Noise, H&S
January 13, 2015January 13, 2015

This is very cool. A West Virginia University professor, now interim chairman of WVU’s School of Public Health (Department of Occupational and Environmental Health Sciences), is going to perform some REAL science. Dr. Michael McCawley is someone we’ve highlighted before. He’s done some excellent research on air quality near drill sites (see WVU Prof Keeps Up Pressure on Improved Air Quality at Drill Sites). Dr. McCawley is launching the Marcellus Shale Energy and Environment Laboratory (MSEEL)–a project that will drill a test well and provide real-time air, noise, occupational safety and health monitoring over a five-year period. It is one of three such projects approved and funded (in part) by the U.S. Dept. of Energy…
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Industrywide Issues | Monongalia County | Supply Chain | West Virginia

Seeing Purple: Land Management Company Opens Office in WV
January 9, 2015January 9, 2015

Purple Land Management, a ~~Houston~~ Fort Worth, TX-based company that performs a variety of services (mapping services, title services, surveying, etc.) has just opened a new office in Morgantown, WV to better serve the Marcellus and Utica Shale region. The Purple announcement…
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