Northwestern Univ Study: Marcellus Shale Fracture Properties
Researchers at Northwestern University have just published a new study called, “Characterization of Marcellus Shale Fracture Properties through Size Effect Tests and Computations” (full copy below). The study runs 33 pages and is highly technical. The premise of the study is to use a new/different method of testing on Marcellus Shale rock in order to more accurately describe how the rocks behave under certain conditions. We’re not scientists and don’t know whether there are important insights in this research which can help drillers, but we suspect there may be, which is why we pass it along. Any time we see hard science relating to the Marcellus that’s not colored by a fractivist agenda, we think it’s worth highlighting. Below is the abstract, followed by a full copy of the study, for our drilling engineer readers…
Read More “Northwestern Univ Study: Marcellus Shale Fracture Properties”
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: Appalachian ethane storage hub faces “chicken-egg” issue; Williams funds improvements in Lancaster, PA & the Brooklyn Library in NYC; hundreds attend youth expo for energy careers; West Texas needs more oil workers stat; shale industry faces stiff headwinds; U.S. gas market heading for oversupply; natgas truck sales flat; Canadian LNG; and more!
Platts held their Appalachian Oil and Gas Conference in Pittsburgh earlier this week. One of the more interesting comments at the event came from Alan Farquharson, senior vice president of Range Resources. Farquharson gave an interview to a Platts reporter and said natural gas production in the Marcellus/Utica can’t continue its rapid increase indefinitely. Farquharson said drillers are going to hit “sweet spot exhaustion,” by which he means they will soon run out of Tier 1 locations to drill, requiring they branch into Tier 2 and Tier 3. As they drill in those other locations, well production will decrease, and along with it regional output will decrease. Range was the very first driller to sink a Marcellus well, back in 2004, so they know a thing or two about the play. When Range talks, everyone listens. Here’s more of Farquharson’s provocative comments from earlier this week…
Two weeks ago MDN brought you analysis from RBN Energy that hints at least some Marcellus/Utica gas molecules are flowing all the way to Cheniere Energy’s Sabine Pass LNG export facility (see 
Yesterday MDN told you about two different environmental “riders” snuck into the Pennsylvania Fiscal Code bill that is part of the annual state budget (now four months late). The riders have nothing to do with the budget or raising revenue. It’s a sleazy political ploy to pass unpopular measures that wouldn’t get passed on a standalone vote. One of the riders changes the terms of existing leases by allowing drillers to reactivate old/expired leases, either by restarting production or by drilling a new well if the landowner doesn’t object within 90 days of notification (see 
Monroeville, PA (Allegheny County, suburb of Pittsburgh) is hostile toward the shale industry. In September, Monroeville Council voted to enact a super-restrictive seismic testing ordinance (see 
In August Energy Transfer’s Sunoco Logisitics unit struck a deal with the devil–the devil being the Philadelphia-based Clean Air Council, THE Delaware Riverkeeper and Mountain Watershed Association–in a move to lift a ban on underground horizontal directional drilling (HDD) for the Mariner East 2 NGL pipeline project (see 
The former CEO of the fourth largest oilfield services company in the world, Weatherford International, says “intensive fracking” being used in U.S. shale plays is becoming so effective that its draining wells faster, earlier, and that means decline rates will soon begin to skyrocket. At the Oil & Money Conference in London on Monday, Bernand Duroc-Danner said this: “If you’re going to be fracking closer zones like crazy, lots of sand, lots of water, lots of pressure, you drain the hell out of those zones which is why production goes up…But then those zones don’t get replenished…after two years, there’ll be a build up in decline rates…I am not so sure if the battle won’t be, in two years, to sustain the base as opposed to keep on growing.” What does he mean?…
On Monday, a bi-partisan group of 84 Members of Congress signed a letter addressed to Attorney General Jeff Sessions at the Department of Justice. The letter asks whether existing federal laws allow prosecution for criminal activity that threatens energy infrastructure and additionally, if attacks on energy infrastructure that threaten human life fall within the DOJ’s classification of domestic terrorism. The Congressfolks are tired of radicalized environmentalists who tip over into acts of vandalism, like burning holes through pipelines and destroying construction equipment–actions that happened in North Dakota last year, part of the “peaceful” Dakota Access Pipeline protests. The not-so-subtle message for the DOJ is that such acts should be considered domestic terrorism. Let’s call it what it is. The people who perpetrate these acts are not to be dismissed as overly enthusiastic but well-meaning, perhaps going an inch or two over the line. NO. They endanger the lives of innocent adults and children with their violent actions. They are to be considered terrorists and treated as such under the laws of the United States…
Ohio Utica Shale drilling is showing signs of a new boom in drilling–much to the delight of everyone, except anti’s. A new shale boom in the Buckeye State is good for landowners, it’s good for the economy, and it’s good for jobs. Frankly, it’s good for everyone. What are the signs of a burgeoning new shale boom? Here’s one sign: Business at a barge facility on the Ohio River where drillers offload equipment and supplies had all but dried up–at least traffic coming from shale-related customers. The facility operator kept afloat by handling soybeans and corn. But now? The bookings from the oil and gas industry are rolling in again. Drilling supplies like barite are once again coming to the facility. Add to that rig counts in Ohio are inching up–almost at parity with Pennsylvania (see 
Last week the The Independent Power Producers (IPPs) of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia wrote an official letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) detailing their objection to a proposed plan by the Dept. of Energy (DOE) to give special treatment to electric power generating facilities powered by coal and nuclear plants. The DOE recently ordered FERC to devise new market rules favoring coal and nukes on the premise they contribute to “grid resiliency.” The IPPs writing the letter in opposition represent at least 26 shale gas-fired electric plant projects across the three states, which will contribute $21 billion to those state economies and generate 20,000+ jobs. Below we have the letter sent to FERC by the IPPs. That letter prompted our friends at Energy in Depth to produce a list of the projects the IPPs are building (or have built) in the tri-state area. It is an impressive list. We liked it and grabbed it to share with the MDN audience…
In just about every state in the country, before you start digging a hole in the ground for some reason (water well, septic system, laying an underground electric line, etc.)–the first thing you do is call 811 or some similar phone number. The “one call” or “first call” reaches a state-authorized (not necessarily state-run) office where they have, on file, maps detailing any kind of underground cables, pipelines and other infrastructure. If such underground structures exist, a representative of the owner for the underground line will, if necessary, stop by and mark the areas so when you do begin digging, you don’t hit it. Makes sense. A bill introduced last year in the Pennsylvania legislature would “enhance” the existing 811 law in PA. One of the “enhancements” is that it removes an exclusion for low-pressure natural gas gathering pipelines from being required to be part of the 811 system, mainly lines run to low-producing conventional gas wells. The bill was opposed by the Pennsylvania Independent Oil & Gas Association (see 
The Pennsylvania State budget is a complicated pile of…bills. At it’s core are three basic budget-related bills that implement the $31.9 billion state budget (unwisely) passed in June. It was unwisely passed because Republican lawmakers voted for a plan to spend money without having a way to pay for it. Stupid. PA Gov. Tom Wolf (liberal Democrat) demanded part of the new revenue required to pay for all that wild spending is to tax the Marcellus industry with a severance tax–on top of the existing impact tax (already the equivalent of a severance tax in other states). One of the three main bills to pay for the budget is the Fiscal Code bill–House Bill 674. HB 674 was adopted by the PA Senate on Monday (vote of 41-9). In the Senate version, which now goes to the House for final adoption, there are a number of “environmental riders”–or bits of legislation that have nothing to do with the budget or spending, but tacked on as a way of getting them passed without the mess of voting on them individually. Swamp politics. One of those provisions is “SECTION 1610-E” which gives drillers the right to reactivate old, non-producing wells after they have not been producing (and the lease considered terminated) under certain conditions…