West Virginia

Blue Ridge Mtn Res/Magnum Hunter | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | M&A | Ohio | Statewide OH | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Magnum Hunter Buys Virco for $106.7M with 51,500 Net Acres
October 25, 2012October 25, 2012

Magnum Hunter announced this morning they’ve purchased 100% of privately-held Viking International Resources, Inc. (“Virco”) for $106.7 million using a stock swap and cash. The deal means Magnum Hunter will get an additional 51,500 net acres in the Marcellus and Utica Shale in West Virginia and Ohio, pushing their total acreage to something just over 166,000 acres throughout the Appalachian region. Management already has it’s eye on the new acreage and has identified 74 new drilling locations in the Marcellus and 31 new locations in the Utica Shale.

Details on the transaction and what it means:

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Dominion Energy | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Marshall County | NGLs | Processing Plants | West Virginia

Dominion $500M NGL Processing Plant in WV to Open in December
October 25, 2012October 25, 2012

Some 903 workers are hard at work in Natrium, WV building Dominion Resources’ new processing plant. Dominion announced they would build a $500 million natural gas liquids processing plant in August 2011 (see this MDN story). Dominion says they are on track to open the facility in December of this year.

Once the plant is done it will process an incoming 200 million cubic feet per day of Marcellus and Utica Shale “wet gas” and separate it into ethane, pentane, butane, propane and other compounds for resale. But the plant is not without controversy. The local trade union is not happy that the contractor building the new plant is only using one-third local workers for the project:

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Energy Services | GreenHunter Resources | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Ritchie County | Washington County (OH) | Wastewater | West Virginia

GreenHunter Buys 2 More Wastewater Injection Wells
October 25, 2012October 25, 2012

GreenHunter Energy, a company specializing in treatment and disposal of fracking wastewater, continues to add new wastewater injection wells to its portfolio. Just today they announced they’ve purchased two more injection wells, one in Washington County, OH and the other in Ritchie County, WV. In February of this year, GreenHunter purchased three injection wells, one of which was also in Washington County, OH (see this MDN story).

Here’s the details about the two newest injection wells for GreenHunter:

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Industrywide Issues | Statewide WV | Taxation | West Virginia

WV Tax Dept. Will Not Tax Well Pad Sites for Landowners
October 23, 2012October 23, 2012

The West Virginia Tax Department has decided they will not assess a property tax value to well pad sites for landowners. Officials were concerned that by assessing a value for a well pad site it would cause the landowner, who may not even own the mineral rights, to be classified in a higher tax bracket. This is good news for West Virginia landowners.

How the decision to not assess well pad sites was made:

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Brooke County | Hancock County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Taxation | West Virginia

Weirton, WV Slaps 6% Tax on Shale Drilling
October 22, 2012October 22, 2012

Somehow this one slipped by the MDN radar a few weeks ago. On Oct. 9, the city of Weirton, WV voted to slap a 6% business and occupation (B&O) tax on natural gas drilling in the city:

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Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Ohio County | West Virginia

Chesapeake Pulls Request to Drill Near Wheeling Park High
October 22, 2012October 22, 2012

In September MDN asked if it’s a good idea for Chesapeake Energy to move forward with a plan to drill 1,300 feet from Wheeling Park High School in Ohio County, WV (see this MDN story). Looks like it’s a moot point now.

Late last week Chesapeake withdrew its permit application and now says they’ll look elsewhere to drill:

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Statewide WV | West Virginia

WV Shale Marcellus Drilling & Production – By the Numbers
October 19, 2012October 19, 2012

A fantastic article in the West Virginia The State Journal takes a close look at natural gas production numbers from shale gas drilling in the state. It’s the kind of article MDN wishes it had written! In their review of the numbers, The State Journal asks a teaser question in the opening: Which county has produced the most shale gas in the state? You might guess Wetzel or Marshall counties. But you would be wrong. The county producing the most shale gas (to date, since shale gas drilling began in Dec. 2007), is Harrison County.

Here’s a few interesting highlights from this “mother load of information” article:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Surprising Data on Rig Counts for Dry vs Wet Gas Drilling
October 15, 2012October 15, 2012

Seeking Alpha blogger Richard Zeits, whom we’ve highlighted before on MDN, is back with a new analysis of the latest Baker Hughes rig count. You need rigs to drill the holes—so the rig count is a good indicator of whether new drilling is going up, down or staying constant.

In Zeits’ extensive analysis (well worth your time to read and digest), he draws some conclusions about wet gas (natural gas liquids) versus dry gas (methane only) drilling as evidenced by the Baker Hughes numbers. His conclusions may surprise you, as it did us:

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Lease & Royalty Payments | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Lease Bonus Payments for Marcellus & Utica Reach New Highs
October 12, 2012October 12, 2012

Because the sale price of domestically produced oil and natural gas has gone down over the past year, royalties for landowners have gone down as well. However, the bonus payments landowners receive when signing a new lease agreement have gone up—way up in the Marcellus and Utica Shale.

A newly released survey (embedded below) from Farmers National Co., a real estate management company for property owners, shows a dramatic increase for bonus deals in West Virginia (up 1.75 times), in Pennsylvania (more than doubling, up 2.3 times), but most dramatically, in Ohio (up nearly 13 times from a year ago). The largest reported lease signing bonus in Ohio for 3Q12 was a whopping $8,200 per acre.

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Accidents | Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | West Virginia | Wetzel County

Chesapeake Pleads Guilty to Enviro Damage in Wetzel County, WV
October 8, 2012October 8, 2012

Two years ago Chesapeake Energy damaged some streams in Wetzel County, West Virginia. The federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) got involved because it involved violations of the Clean Water Act. Last week Chesapeake agreed to settle the case. Here’s the outcome:

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Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Maryland | New York | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide MD | Statewide NY | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide VA | Statewide WV | Utica Shale | Virginia | West Virginia

USGS Releases Official Estimate of Oil & Gas in Utica Shale
October 5, 2012October 5, 2012

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has just released their first official assessment (i.e. estimate) of how much recoverable natural gas, oil and gas liquids is located in the Utica Shale throughout Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland and Virginia (a full copy of the USGS assessment is embedded below).

The USGS estimates the Utica is #3 in size behind the Marcellus (#1) and Green River Basin (#2) for volume of recoverable natural gas in the U.S. Here are the numbers from the USGS, along with and a brief introduction to their first-ever assessment of the Utica:

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

Williams Official Gives WV Huge Compliment, Disses PA
October 5, 2012October 5, 2012

At a Chamber of Commerce dinner in Marshall County, WV held last night, Darrell Bull, the general manager of Williams Ohio Valley Midstream (a division of midstream giant Williams) paid a huge compliment to West Virginia and dissed Pennsylvania.

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Air Quality | Energy Companies | EQT Corp | Industrywide Issues | West Virginia | Wetzel County

EQT Converts 2nd Drilling Rig in WV Marcellus to Run on LNG
October 5, 2012October 5, 2012

EQT was the first driller in the Marcellus to convert electrical generators used at a drilling site to burn liquefied natural gas, or LNG (see this MDN story). EQT announced yesterday they’ve commissioned a second drilling rig, located in West Virginia (as was the first converted rig) to be converted to the new LNG technology.

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

Preston County, WV Turns Down Sierra Club Request
October 2, 2012October 2, 2012

Preston County Commissioners (WV) politely said “no thanks” to supporting a statewide moratorium on new Marcellus Shale gas permits being pushed by the Sierra Club. Chairman of the WV Sierra Club, Jim Sconyers, addressed commissioners at a meeting Monday night to make a request that they support the effort.

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Air Quality | Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Ohio County | West Virginia

Chesapeake Applies for Air Pollution Permits in WV
October 1, 2012October 1, 2012

Chesapeake Energy, the only active Marcellus Shale driller in Ohio, Brooke and Hancock counties in West Virginia, has asked the WV Dept. of Environmental Protection to grant permits allowing them to release certain pollutants into the air from both flaring at some of their well sites and at compressor stations they own. People living near those sites are none too excited about the prospect and said so at a recent public hearing:

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Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Important Case in WV Supreme Court This Week
September 24, 2012September 24, 2012

An important case for surface rights owners goes before the West Virginia Supreme Court on Tuesday. The court will hear a case to determine whether or not surface landowners—those without the rights to minerals in the ground—have the right to appeal oil and gas drilling permits that allow companies to erect drilling sites on their land. As with most legal matters, this one gets complicated:

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