West Virginia

Industrywide Issues | Marshall County | Property Value | West Virginia

Marshall County, WV Property Values Double in 6 Years
January 29, 2013January 29, 2013

In the past two years, the assessed value of property in Marshall County, WV has increased by 50%. Since 2007, assessed values in the county have gone up 200%! The reason is, of course, almost entirely due to Marcellus Shale drilling and related infrastructure.

How do local officials describe it? “Extraordinary.” Kind of flies in the face of the anti-drilling argument that property values go down when Marcellus drilling comes to town. Here’s the story…

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Energy Companies | Gastar Exploration | Marshall County | West Virginia | Wetzel County

Insider Look at Gastar’s WV Marcellus Operations, Changes in 2013
January 21, 2013January 21, 2013

Gastar Exploration Ltd. is a Houston-based independent company engaged in exploration and production of natural gas, natural gas liquids, condensate and oil. Their current focus is on the Marcellus Shale play—specifically in West Virginia’s northern panhandle.

A recent interview with Gastar’s vice president of northeast operations, Michael McCown, pulled the curtain back on the company’s WV Marcellus results in 2012, and revealed their plans to change drilling locations in 2013:

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Energy Services | IGS Energy | Industrywide Issues | NG Vehicles | Statewide WV | West Virginia

CNG Fueling Corridor for Motorists Comes to WV – Fill ’er Up!
January 18, 2013January 18, 2013

IGS Energy, America’s largest independent supplier of retail natural gas, believes natural gas is no longer the “fuel of tomorrow” when it comes to vehicles, but instead is “the fuel of today.” One of the biggest issues for the adoption and use of natural gas-powered vehicles is lack of fueling stations. IGS announced yesterday they are building a string of CNG (compressed natural gas) fueling stations along Interstate 79 from Charleston, WV to Mount Morris, PA—an area they have dubbed the “CNG Fueling Corridor.”

IGS says this is just the beginning…

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Accidents | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Marion County | Omni Energy Services | West Virginia

Accident Kills Marcellus Shale Rig Worker in Fairview, WV
January 16, 2013January 16, 2013

Monday night, an Omni Energy Services Corp. worker died when a rig being used to drill shallow exploratory holes for Marcellus Shale seismic testing overturned and crushed him. The accident happened at the Loveridge Mine preparation plant property owned by CONSOL Energy in Fairview (Marion County), WV. The accident was not related to CONSOL’s coal mining operations at the property.

The few details that we know thus far:

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Commodity Price | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Marcellus Shale’s Prominent Role in Latest EIA Outlook
January 9, 2013January 9, 2013

Yesterday the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released their monthly Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), which includes the outlook for natural gas. EIA has some of the best and brightest that crunch the numbers, so when they issue their reports, people pay attention. EIA reports are not exactly a crystal ball to predict the future—but they’re darned close.

The Marcellus Shale of Pennsylvania and West Virginia is mentioned prominently in this update, including its predicted role in boosting overall natural gas production this year. Below is the natural gas portion of the STEO, with predictions for prices, production and consumption in 2013:

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Crestwood Midstream | Energy Services | Harrison County | Industrywide Issues | J-W Power Company | Pipelines | West Virginia

Enerven Completes Sale of WV Compressor Plants, All Other Assets
January 3, 2013January 3, 2013

Crestwood Midstream announced in November they were purchasing a “bolt-on” acquisition of four compression/dehydration stations from Enerven Compression for $95 million (see Crestwood Midstream Buys 4 Compressor Stations in WV). The deal will mean an additional $11-$12 million in new revenue for Crestwood in 2013. As of Dec. 28, the transaction is officially completed and the stations now bear the name of Crestwood Midstream.

Apparently selling the four compressor stations was part of a larger strategy for Enerven. In addition to the WV sale, they’ve now sold the rest of the company!

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Accidents | Chesapeake Energy | CNX Resources | Columbia Pipeline Group | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Marshall County | West Virginia

WV Landowner Sues 3 Companies for Methane Contamination of Water
January 2, 2013January 2, 2013

A landowner in Marshall County, West Virginia had previously sued Chesapeake Energy, claiming Chesapeake’s nearby drilling and fracking operations (from 2009/2010) caused methane to migrate and contaminate his water well. Chesapeake sampled the well and found the kind of methane in the well (the “fingerprint” for the methane) does not match the methane from their drilled natural gas well.

The story then gets complicated. It seems that CNX Gas, a division of CONSOL Energy, had previously drilled a number of shallow natural gas wells in the area, and that Columbia Gas, a division of NiSource, has an underground natural gas storage field adjacent to the landowner’s property. Oy vey. There’s no shortage of possibilities for how the methane may have gotten into his well, and so now everyone is now getting sued…

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Monongalia County | Research | West Virginia

National Lab Looks for Industry to Fund “Extreme Drilling”
December 28, 2012December 28, 2012

Hey buddy, can you spare a few (million) dimes? The National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) is looking for someone in the oil and gas drilling industry to help get a now four year-old project off the ground. The NETL unveiled, to great fanfare, the Extreme Drilling Laboratory (XDL) in January 2009 in Morgantown, WV. It’s centerpiece of technology is the Ultra-Deep Single-Cutter Drilling Simulator (UDS), which they call their “rock star.” The UDS is an impressive device that can simulate drilling at 30,000 pounds of force per square inch and temperatures exceeding 480 °F – conditions that would be found at the bottom of very deep oil and gas wells.

Just one tiny problem: Industry isn’t using this marvelous technology to figure out better ways to drill. How come?

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Accidents | Columbia Pipeline Group | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kanawha County | NiSource | Pipelines | West Virginia

Thinning Pipeline Caused Explosion Near Charleston, WV
December 27, 2012December 27, 2012

The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), part of the U.S. Dept. of Transportation, has issued a corrective order to Columbia Gas (subsidiary of NiSource) dealing with the pipeline explosion near Sissonville, WV on Dec. 11 (see this MDN story). The PHMSA found that the pipeline section that exploded, which was built in 1967, was getting too thin:

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Blue Racer Midstream | Caiman Energy | Dominion Energy | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Marshall County | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Processing Plants | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | Utica Shale | West Virginia | Williams

Dominion, Caiman in $1.5B Utica JV: Blue Racer Midstream
December 21, 2012December 21, 2012

Two large midstream (pipeline & processing plant) companies, Dominion and Caiman Energy II, announced a new $1.5 billion, 50/50 joint venture to form a new midstream services company to service the Utica Shale in Ohio and Pennsylvania. The name of the new company is Blue Racer Midstream. Sound familiar? It should. Yesterday MDN brought you the news that Williams is investing $380 million in Caiman Energy/Blue Racer (see this MDN story).Williams owns nearly half of Caiman Energy II (47.5%).

One of the core assets of the new Blue Racer Midstream company will be Dominion’s previously announced $500 million natural gas liquids processing plant in Natrium, WV (see this MDN story). The Natrium plant was scheduled to go online by Dec. 31—a deadline that won’t be met. However, work on the new NGL plant continues at a “furious pace” and the plant will be online in early 2013. Dominion’s extensive gathering pipeline system in eastern Ohio is also part of the deal.

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Energy Companies | Equinor/Statoil | Harrison County | Lease & Royalty Payments | Monroe County | Ohio | Tyler County | West Virginia | Wetzel County

Statoil Pays $590M for 70K “Wet Gas” Marcellus Acres
December 19, 2012December 19, 2012

In August, MDN told you that Statoil (a Norwegian company) was in the hunt for more U.S. shale acreage (see this MDN story). Statoil previously purchased a 32.5% interest in Chesapeake Energy’s Marcellus Shale acreage in 2008, securing 600,000 net acres for the company (but not as the “operator” for that acreage). They’ve been in the hunt for more, specifically to become an operator, and today they announced they’ve done a deal for an additional 70,000 Marcellus Shale acres—in the wet gas area of the play.

Statoil officially closed on the deal yesterday with Grenadier Energy Partners LLC, Protege Energy II LLC and PetroEdge Resources II LLC, paying $590 million for 70,000 acres in both West Virginia and eastern Ohio. The purchase price works out to be $8,429 per acre.

Here’s the Statoil press release announcing the deal, along with a slide presentation and map of the newly acquired acreage:

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Energy Companies | Gastar Exploration | Marshall County | West Virginia

Gastar Issues Report on Marcellus Drilling Results/Strategy
December 19, 2012December 19, 2012

Gastar Exploration Ltd. provided an update this morning on the results of its 2012 drilling operating operations in the Marcellus Shale. Gasstar says they currently operate 34 gross Marcellus Shale wells (in Marshall County, WV) and will up that number to 38 wells by the end of the year. They also discuss their Marcellus drilling strategy in the near-term, over the next several months:

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Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Processing Plants | Statewide WV | West Virginia

WV’s Burdette Still in Hunt for Ethane Cracker Plant
December 17, 2012December 17, 2012

West Virginia’s Commerce Secretary Keith Burdette, who has been in the hunt for an ethane cracker plant for several years now, is still upbeat on both Marcellus/Utica Shale drilling in the state, and on upbeat on the state’s chances to land an ethane cracker:

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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | MarkWest Energy | Processing Plants | West Virginia | Wetzel County

MarkWest’s Mobley, WV Wet Gas Processing Plant Goes Online
December 13, 2012December 13, 2012

MarkWest Energy today announced the first of it’s three planned Mobley processing plants, located in Wetzel County, WV, is now online and producing. The plant is currently operating at 60% of capacity.

MarkWest’s announcement:

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Accidents | Columbia Pipeline Group | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kanawha County | NiSource | Pipelines | West Virginia

Update on WV Pipeline Explosion Near Charleston
December 13, 2012December 13, 2012

On Tuesday, the 20-inch Columbia Gas Transmission natural gas pipeline exploded near Sissonville, WV—about 10 miles from Charleston (see this MDN story). Yesterday, NiSource, the parent company Columbia Gas, issued this update on the explosion:

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Accidents | Columbia Pipeline Group | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kanawha County | NiSource | Pipelines | West Virginia

Columbia NatGas Pipeline Explodes Near Charleston, WV
December 12, 2012December 12, 2012

This is big news because it’s so extremely rare: A 20-inch natural gas transmission pipeline—the Columbia Gas Transmission pipeline (owned by Nisource)—exploded near Sissonville, WV, 10 miles north of Charleston. The resulting fire burned for more than an hour and has shut down a portion of nearby Interstate 77 for at least two days.

The explosion happened not far from the Lanham Compressor Station, although there is no indication the compressor station had anything to do with the explosion. An investigation into the explosion is just beginning and there are few known facts. The (rather thin) details as we know them:

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