Events related to drilling in the Marcellus and Utica Shale, primarily pro-drilling.
To have your event included (or if you are aware of a worthy event you believe should be on this page), please send the details and/or a link to have it included to the calendar@marcellusdrilling.com email address. Thank you!
Read More “Calendar of Events for Oct 31 – Jan 30 (90 Days)”
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: DTE says NEXUS on schedule for 4Q17; rig counts stable in northeast; unbelievably biased green-sponsored push-poll; PA Sen Don White speaks frankly about energy & Clinton; slowdown in FERC approval for Texas LNG plants; Rockefeller family tied to corrupt Clinton Foundation; beginning of the end in Europe’s natgas war with Russia; and more!
Read More “Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Mon, Oct 31, 2016”
MDN reported on Monday of this week that we are down to the wire with passing Pennsylvania House Bill (HB) 1391, a bill that would guarantee a 12.5% minimum royalty payment for PA landowners (see This Week Last Chance to Pass PA Royalty Bill – Slim to No Chance). Yesterday the bill’s sponsor, Republican Rep. Garth Everett from Lycoming County, PA, announced that the bill never came up for a vote and has officially died. Everett said he would re-introduce the bill next year when the PA legislature convenes for a new session. To say that landowners in Bradford County (and other locations) are disappointed is an understatement…
Read More “PA Royalty Bill Dead for Another Year – Supporters Vow to Fight On”
In May 2014 Panda Power Funds broke ground on building an 829-megawatt Marcellus gas-fired electric generating plant in Asylum Township, Bradford County, PA (see Panda Liberty Breaks Ground on Bradford, PA Electric Plant). In June of this year, the plant was finally completed and went online (see Panda Power’s 2 PA Marcellus-Fired Electric Plants Complete!). However, the official ribbon-cutting ceremony to recognize the proud achievement that the very first built-from-scratch-plant-to-utilitize-Marcellus-Shale-gas happened yesterday. And what a soirée it was! Panda Liberty, as it’s called, generates enough electricity to power 1 million homes. The new plant is, according to Siemens (which helped build it), one of the most advanced electric generating plants in the world. Here’s more details, along with what happened at yesterday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony…
Read More “First NatGas Power Plant in Marcellus, Panda Liberty, Goes Online”
EQT issued its third quarter 2016 update yesterday. The company reports losing money on its drilling operations ($22 million), but making money on midstream operations ($133 million), so they ended the quarter in the black. Highlights include production zooming up 26% higher over the same period last year. EQT drilled 24 wells in 3Q16, which breaks down as 21 Marcellus wells, 2 Upper Devonian wells and 1 Utica well. However, the biggest news coming from yesterday’s update came from the analyst phone call when EQT president Steve Schlotterbeck said, “We continue to make solid progress on both the cost and recovery efforts and we’re encouraged that the Deep Utica can compete with or surpass our core Marcellus economics in the near future.” That is, although they just got done drilling a bunch of Marcellus wells, it is the Utica that has turned EQT’s head in a major way. Why? Schlotterbeck also said he thinks Utica drilling will end up costing the company half as much as Marcellus drilling (due to higher production in Utica wells). The company sees itself as primarily a Utica driller in the not-too-distant future. Here’s the update, along with a select portion of yesterday’s analyst phone call…
Read More “EQT 3Q16: Company will Soon be Primarily a Utica Driller”
Along with the big news yesterday that EQT believes the Utica Shale is where the company’s future lies (see EQT 3Q16: Company will Soon be Primarily a Utica Driller), came more big news that current EQT CEO David Porges will retire early next year. Porges will stick around as Chairman of the Board. Current EQT president Steve Schlotterbeck will step up to become the new CEO. Here’s the announcement…
Read More “EQT CEO David Porges Retiring Early 2017, Schlotterbeck New CEO”
MPLX, Marathon Petroleum Corp.’s fuels processing, transportation and logistics subsidiary, issued its third quarter 2016 update yesterday. MPLX reported that profits more than tripled, to $141 million, in 3Q16. MPLX is the owner of MarkWest Energy after buying them out late last year. One of the keys to MPLX’s increase in profits? Yep–the Marcellus/Utica. On an analyst phone call yesterday, MPLX’s president Don Templin said: “While other basins are in decline the Marcellus and Utica rich gas volumes continue to grow. For 2016 we continue to expect processed volumes to increase by approximately 15% year-over-year and gathered volumes to increase by approximately 20%. And in 2017, we expect an additional 10% to 15% increase in processed volumes compared to 2016.” Here’s the MPLX 3Q16 update…
Read More “Marathon Petroleum 3Q16: Profit Triples to $141M Thx to M-U”
Each month MDN tracks how many rigs oilfield services company Patterson-UTI Energy reports operating–as a proxy for when/if the drop in rig counts for the Marcellus/Utica will turn around. Patterson operates a number of rigs in the northeast, as well as other areas of the continental United States (and Canada). Patterson reported losing $84 million during the second quarter of 2016, responding that the company is positioned for a recovery (see Patterson-UTI 2Q16: $86M Loss, “Well Positioned” for a Recovery). How about 3Q16? Patterson issued their third quarter update yesterday, and it shows the company lost $84 million. Yuck. Of course, that’s an improvement from losing $226 million a year earlier in 3Q15. Patterson CEO Andy Hendricks said rig counts have steadily climbed higher since May, something we’ve noted month by month here on MDN. Patterson Chairman of the Board, Mark Siegel, said the industry “has begun the initial stages of the recovery process.” That’s good news. Here’s the 3Q16 update from Patterson-UTI Energy…
Read More “Patterson-UTI 3Q16: $84M Loss, Industry has Begun Recovery”
The 16,000-member Pennsylvania Medical Society is controlled by a small and dedicated group of radical leftists. They’re also shockingly stupid, for doctors and medical people (you might want to seek medical care in another state). The PA Medical Society’s 300-member House of Delegates voted unanimously to pass a resolution calling for a total ban on fracking in the Keystone State. Stop it–all of it–right now. That’s what they said. Even though there is no evidence that fracking harms human health. That is, independent studies done all say the same thing: fracking is safe. However, biased bought-and-paid-for studies say fracking will kill ‘ya. We find it astonishing that there was not one single delegate who didn’t vote for the resolution–which proves our point that radical, lock-step lefties control the society…
Read More “Group of Radical PA Doctors Pass Resolution Calling for Frack Ban”
One of the largest banks in the world (#11) is the German-based Deutsche Bank. They have major branches in dozens of countries, including the U.S. The Equity Research – North America operation of Deutsche Bank attended the Platts 9th Annual Appalachian Oil & Gas Conference in Pittsburgh earlier this week. The DB analyst who attended wrote up notes and shared them. We found the writeup interesting and thought you would too…
Read More “DB Takeaways from 9th Annual Appalachian Oil & Gas Conference”
It will be fun watching far left Democrat politicians in New England point fingers at each other this winter when electricity and natural gas prices go through the roof. It won’t be fun watching the residents of New England pay 4-10 times what people in other parts of the country pay for their electricity and natural gas–but they’re the ones who elected the dolts that “lead” them. So we don’t have too much sympathy. An agreement by the New England states to seek new natural gas pipeline infrastructure and LNG resources has fallen apart because of squabbling among the states. In large part because of political pressure being applied by lunatic global warming scaremongers. Connecticut is the latest state to throw in the towel, canceling an RFP (request for proposal) that would bring cheap, abundant, clean-burning natural gas from places like the Marcellus, just a few hundred miles away, to the state. What a shame. The only thing to do now is sit back and watch the fun begin. We’ll be here to chronicle the sad decline of (and mass exodus from) New England…
Read More “CT Latest New England State to Give Up on NatGas Cooperation”
Get this. More than 100 so-called protesters (i.e. criminals) had illegally set up camp on PRIVATE PROPERTY–against the landowner’s wishes–in an effort to stop work on the Dakota Access Pipeline project. A large group of police officers, SWAT teams, etc. had to move in to remove the lawbreakers. So what does the group of protesters who claim to worship Mother Earth and are there to protect Mom Earth from being raped by a pipeline do? They set fire to a pile of used tires–emitting the worst kind of fumes and emissions into the air, polluting everything around. They also torched equipment used to lay the pipeline. One of the “protesters” produced a .38-caliber pistol and fired three times at police officers. Yeah, that’s the peace-loving, earth-protecting THUGS in North Dakota–most of whom arrived from out-of-state and are paid to be there. Hired thugs engaging in thuggery. Why mention this story on MDN? Because as we previously wrote, one of the leaders of these thugs has promised to bring the fight to the Marcellus/Utica next…
Read More “Police Remove Pipeline Protesting THUGS from Private Land in ND”
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: Marcellus operators save money with online water management; ExxonMobil ordered to turn over 30 year-old documents by corrupt NY Supreme Court; battle over PA drilling rules continues; PA mobilizes to mine cracker benefits; FERC authorizes Elba LNG work commencement; Nevada sitting on biggest undiscovered oilfield?; shale honeymoon over for East Coast refineries; US drilling tech heading overseas; and more!
Read More “Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Fri, Oct 28, 2016”
Yesterday Murray Energy, which operates coal mines in Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Utah, and West Virginia, announced it had sold the leases for 5,900 of the acres it owns in Belmont and Monroe counties (in eastern Ohio) to an unidentified shale driller for $63.6 million. That works out to be ~$10,800 per acre. According to Murray officials, the sale will allow the company to focus on its core activity–coal mining. The money will also help the company stay out of bankruptcy court. The sale, which is slated to close “in the coming weeks” doesn’t ID the buyer. But we have a guess as to who bought…
Read More “Coal Co. Murray Energy Sells 5,900 OH Utica Acres – Who Bought?”
Two weeks ago the Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC) filed a court challenge to the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) onerous new Marcellus drilling regulations (see Marc. Shale Coalition Files Lawsuit to Block PA Chapter 78a Regs). The MSC lawsuit, filed in PA Commonwealth Court, does not object to the entire canon of new regulations–only those regulations that are “vague or are unsupported by authorizing legislation.” Just yesterday we brought you an excellent editorial outlining the justified reasons the MSC is pushing back against the DEP’s new regulations (see PA DEP Declares War on Shale Gas – a.k.a. Chapter 78a). On Tuesday and Wednesday a judge conducted hearings in the case, to accept testimony. The DEP put forward Scott Perry, the DEP deputy secretary for oil and gas. Perry spent most of Tuesday outlining the new rules for the judge, along with the (tortured) process that produced the rules. Wednesday was the MSC’s day. However, the MSC only put forward their own lawyers and did not call any witnesses–no drillers to testify how the rules will harm them. On that score, the judge said he was “shocked” that there were no witnesses for the MSC. We’re not lawyers, but a judge offering a comment like that doesn’t, in our book, bode well for the MSC’s case…
Read More “Judge “Shocked” MSC Didn’t Present Witnesses @ Chapter 78a Hearing”
More Utica/Marcellus natural gas will begin flowing to the Chicago area beginning next Tuesday, Nov. 1. In June 2014 MDN brought you the news that the mighty Rockies Express (REX) pipeline was reversing the flow on the eastern end of the pipeline, to send Utica/Marcellus gas from Ohio all the way to points in Indiana and Illinois (see Rockies Express Pipeline Reverses Flow from Utica to Midwest). In October 2014 MDN reported Kinder Morgan’s subsidiary Natural Gas Pipeline Company of America (NGPL) announced plans to expand their Gulf Coast mainline pipeline from the REX pipeline interconnection in Moultrie County, Illinois, to points north on NGPL’s pipeline system, called the Chicago Market Expansion Project (see Kinder Morgan Plans Chicago Pipeline Expansion for Marcellus/Utica). In March of this year, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved it (see FERC Approves Pipeline to Move More Marcellus/Utica Gas to Chicago). Great news! The work is done, and FERC has just granted permission to NGPL to start up the compressor station next Tuesday that will deliver more gas to Chicagoland…
Read More “More Marcellus/Utica Gas Begins to Flow to Chicago Area via NGPL”