West Virginia

Accidents | Chevron | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Marshall County | Ohio County | West Virginia

Chevron Restarts Production for Some WV Wells after Accident
July 23, 2012July 23, 2012

Chevron previously purchased a number of leases and drilling operations in Marshall and Ohio counties in West Virginia. But they halted production for their WV operations earlier this year after a well exploded near Moundsville to conduct a top to bottom safety review and ensure the newly acquired operations met Chevron’s high safety standards.

Although the review is ongoing, it’s been completed in some areas and wells in Marshall County are now starting to come back online.

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Industrywide Issues | Processing Plants | Statewide WV | West Virginia

4 Companies Consider WV for Ethane Cracker Plant
July 17, 2012July 17, 2012

West Virginia’s intrepid State Commerce Secretary, Keith Burdette, is once again talking up ethane cracker plants. He says there are now four possible companies interested in building crackers in West Virginia—and that does not include Shell (which announced they would build across the border in PA).

We know about two of the four: Aither Chemicals (see this MDN story), and Brazilian company Braskem (see this MDN story). But who are the other two?

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Ohio | Pennsylvania | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Trend Toward Wet Gas Drilling Continues: Rig Count Data
July 16, 2012July 16, 2012

Yet more evidence that Marcellus and Utica Shale gas drilling is migrating from Pennsylvania to Ohio and West Virginia—away from dry gas areas toward wet gas areas. The number of drilling rigs, as tracked by Baker Hughes, tell the story:

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Industrywide Issues | NG Vehicles | Statewide WV | West Virginia

WV Gov. Tomblin Appoints Members to NatGas Vehicle Task Force
July 12, 2012December 19, 2012

West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin yesterday announced the members of his Natural Gas Vehicle Task Force. Tomblin announced the formation of the Task Force a month ago with the mission of investigating if, and how, the state can convert all of it’s state-owned vehicles to run on natural gas (see this MDN story).

Yesterday’s announcement names the members of the new Task Force. It’s all all-star cast from some of the country’s biggest drillers and pipeline companies.

From the Governor’s press release:

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Brooke County | Hancock County | Industrywide Issues | Ohio County | Pipelines | West Virginia

WV Landowners Drive a Hard Bargain for Pipeline Deals
July 6, 2012December 19, 2012

Some West Virginia landowners who feel shortchanged with low drilling signing bonuses ($5 per acre) and royalty rates (12.5%) are holding out for better deals to run pipelines across their property, and that’s leading to a slow-down of new wells coming online in the state, according to a former DEP representative.

Counties being affected by the slowdown include Ohio, Brooke and Hancock. Typically pipeline easements are a one-time payment, like a signing bonus, and are based on a per foot price. How high will those prices go? Some of the numbers being tossed about are breathtaking.

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

Morgantown, WV Passes New Marcellus Drilling Ban
July 5, 2012July 5, 2012

The Morgantown, WV City Council is at it again. You may recall they tried to ban hydraulic fracturing last year both inside and up to one mile outside of the city limits. A judge struck down the law (see this MDN story). Council members aren’t about to give up though. On Tuesday, they passed six new ordinances that will “limit” drilling to areas immediately surrounding the Morgantown Municipal Airport.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Statewide WV | West Virginia

The Inverse Relationship of Coal and Natural Gas
July 3, 2012July 3, 2012

A heartrending editorial in the Charleston Gazette tells about recent massive layoffs in the West Virginia coal industry. While there’s mention of Obama’s war on coal (and make no mistake, it’s a real war on coal by the global warmists), the editorial puts most of the “blame” on the rise of cheap natural gas, brought about by hydraulic fracturing of shale.

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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Processing Plants | Statewide WV | West Virginia | Williams

Exterran Wins Contract to Build 3 WV NatGas Processing Plants
July 2, 2012July 2, 2012

A big “get” for Exterran Holdings. They’ve won the contract to build three natural gas processing plants being built by Williams Partners in West Virginia.

From the Exterran press release:

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Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | New York | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Statewide NY | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Energy Execs Rank Drilling Locations Including WV, OH, PA, NY
June 27, 2012June 27, 2012

Each year, the Canadian-based Fraser Institute surveys petroleum industry executives and managers (623 of them for 2012) asking them their opinions on the barriers to investing in exploration and production in various geographies across the globe. That is, what makes them more likely or less likely to spend money drilling in a particular location?

The Global Petroleum Survey, as it’s called, tallies the survey responses and ranks each geography from most desirable place to invest, to least desirable. The rankings for this year are interesting and illustrative that politicians’ words and legislation have a direct bearing on where, and how much, drilling companies are willing to spend.

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Dominion Energy | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Marshall County | Pipelines | West Virginia

Marshall County, WV Pipeline Installation Problems
June 25, 2012June 25, 2012

George Lagos and his small staff of water department employees who work at Marshall County (WV) Public Service District No. 4 (PSD No. 4) have a problem—too many gas pipelines being laid, not enough workers to inspect the process.

PSD No. 4 serves a large area of the county between Moundsville and Cameron. Lagos and two others are responsible for inspecting and maintaining 200 miles of water and other types of pipelines. When new natural gas pipelines are installed, Lagos is supposed to get 48 hours notice so they can monitor the installation. According to Lagos, that isn’t happening.

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Aither Chemicals | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kanawha County | Processing Plants | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Aither Chemicals Still Trying for a Cracker Plant in WV
June 22, 2012June 22, 2012

Will West Virginia ever get its own ethane cracker plant? It will if Aither Chemicals, based in South Charleston, WV has any say in the matter. MDN has been following the Aither story for some time. Aither Chemicals, a spin-off/subsidiary of Mid-Atlantic Technology, Research & Innovation Center, was established to build and operate ethane cracker plants that use modern technology making the plants smaller and less expensive to build and operate than tradition cracker plants (see this MDN story for background).

Aither had a deal in principle with Bayer CropScience and MarkWest Energy to build one of these “new” kinds of cracker plants in the Charleston, WV area. That deal was set to be officially announced in mid-March (see this MDN story). But then the wheels came off the wagon and all was silent. No deal, no announcement. Until now.

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Industrywide Issues | Regulation | Statewide WV | West Virginia

EPA’s Aggressive Actions Against Marcellus Drillers
June 19, 2012June 18, 2012

An attorney writing on the JD Supra legal website says it’s not just the imagination of oil and gas drillers in the Marcellus Shale region—the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) really is out to get them. He proceeds to use statistics to show the rapid escalation in citations coming from the EPA since 2010.

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Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Statewide WV | West Virginia

WV Oil & Gas Employment Numbers: Underreported by 14K?
June 15, 2012June 15, 2012

MDN reported two days ago that WorkForce West Virginia reported that direct jobs held by West Virginians in the oil and gas industry in the state had actually decreased from 2010 to 2011 (see this MDN story). We observed the total number of jobs cited, 2,179 in 2011, seemed really low, and perhaps inaccurate. WorkForce WV says that’s the total number of “direct” jobs held by West Virginians so we took them at their word.

But what’s a “direct” as opposed to an “indirect” (but created because of the drilling industry) job? Seems we’ve hit some semantic issues here. According to the Independent Oil and Gas Association of West Virginia, the actual number is something over 16,000 jobs:

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Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Does Shale Gas Drilling Create Jobs for In-State Residents?
June 13, 2012June 13, 2012

There’s no doubt that Marcellus and Utica Shale drilling creates jobs. But one of the criticisms often leveled is that jobs directly related to drilling are given to people from other states, like Texas and Louisiana and Oklahoma—states with experienced oil and gas workers who don’t need extensive training.

Recent employment numbers from West Virginia seem to lend credence to those concerns. The unemployment rate has risen slightly in WV, but more telling, employment of West Virginians who work directly in the oil and gas sector dropped slightly from 2010 to 2011. However, indirect jobs in other industries—like hotels, restaurants and retail businesses—have gone up due to drilling. It seems to be a mixed picture, at least in WV, with respect to job creation.

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Brooke County | Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Equinor/Statoil | Industrywide Issues | Lease & Royalty Payments | Litigation | Range Resources Corp | West Virginia

WV Couple Challenges Chesapeake Lease Renewal
June 13, 2012June 13, 2012

A husband and wife in Brooke County, West Virginia are suing to have their 5 year-old lease, which is now expired and up for renewal, nullified so Chesapeake (now the owner of the lease) cannot automatically renew it as they are attempting to do.

Increasingly landowners who signed leases that are now expiring after a customary 5 year period face the same issue—and drillers are trying to lock them in under the terms of lease for a new period of time.

Here’s the story of Ramon and Lois Bowen:

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Industrywide Issues | NG Vehicles | Statewide WV | West Virginia

WV Task Force Investigates CNG for State Vehicles
June 11, 2012June 11, 2012

West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin wants the state-owned vehicles in his state to run on compressed natural gas (CNG) produced right in his own state, and he’s assembled a task force to investigate how to make it happen:

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