40 PA Housing Projects Funded in Marcellus Region w/Marcellus Money
When drilling comes to town, it brings a lot of people with it. Some of them are roughnecks that do the dirty work on the rigs. Others are in associated jobs–like landmen, surveyors, welders, truckers. The list goes on. If those people are not from the local area and if they are staying for a while, they need a place to sleep. It tends to fill up hotels and B&Bs quickly. When they know they will be in an area for a while (months, even years) some of them rent apartments or houses. All of that renting activity tends to drive up the price of local apartment and house rentals, making renting hard for locals. It’s happened in a number of drilling areas in Pennsylvania. That’s why when the Act 13 law was passed, it contained funding from severance tax revenue to help. The Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency recently announced they have approved another $6.2 million for 40 housing projects in Marcellus areas…
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The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: Hess sponsors Shale Safety Institute @ Belmont College; OH Supreme Court ruling affecting mineral rights across the state; new rig count high in PA; natgas prices will surge in New England this winter; antis try to block Atlantic Coast Pipeline in Virginia; 2017 rig count forecast; and more!
In February MDN brought you exclusive news that Shell had begun approaching landowners in Beaver County to get them to sign easements for two ethane pipelines to feed the mighty cracker plant they plan to build in the county (see 
Yesterday MDN’s favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), issued our favorite monthly report–the Drilling Productivity Report (DPR). The DPR is the EIA’s best guess, based on expert data crunchers, as to how much each of the U.S.’s seven major shale plays will produce for both oil and natural gas in the coming month. In September, the EIA added a new tab of information for Drilled but UnCompleted wells (DUCs), which showed the number of DUCs dwindling (see 
The New Jersey Division of the Rate Counsel (NJDRC) is a state government agency responsible for representing the interests of residents, businesses and other rate payers in dealing with regulated public utilities and insurance firms. Apparently the NJDRC filed a so-called analysis with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in September slamming the need and cost recovery plan for the PennEast Pipeline, a $1 billion, 118-mile, primarily 36-inch pipeline that will get built from Dallas (Luzerne County), PA to Transco’s pipeline interconnection near Pennington (Mercer County), NJ. PennEast has responded to that analysis with an independent report written by Concentric Energy Advisors (full copy below). The Concentric report refutes (i.e. obliterates) the “incorrect assumptions” made in the NJDRC comments to FERC…
Spectra Energy’s Algonquin Incremental Market (AIM) pipeline project is an $876 million expansion of the existing Algonquin pipeline system that will carry 342 million cubic feet (MMcf) of natural gas per day to New England states that badly need the gas. On March 3, 2015 the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued their final approval for the project, allowing it to go forward. Construction began last year and continues now. Two weeks ago FERC issued an order allowing part of the AIM project–in Putnam County, NY, and Fairfield County, CT–to power up and begin service. However, not all of the project is yet built. Four nutjob protesters criminally locked themselves inside a piece of pipeline in Verplanck (Westchester County), NY last week (see 
In June MDN brought you a report about a family (John and Ashley Voyle) living near a former Range Resources wastewater impoundment in Washington County, PA who had sued not only Range, but a water testing company (TestAmerica Laboratories) in a lawsuit alleging their water well had been contaminated by Range’s impoundment. The water testing company was made part of the lawsuit because, said the Voyles, the company allowed their test results to be doctored by Range before the results were reported to the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection. That aspect of this long, drawn-out lawsuit has been decided. The judge in the case said TestAmerica is not at fault and has been removed from the lawsuit…
Gulfport Energy, an Oklahoma City-based independent oil and natural gas exploration and production company (“driller”) that is a “top 5” driller in the Ohio Utica Shale, issued their third quarter operation update yesterday. Gulfport is one of a growing number of companies that issues their financial update separate from the operational update. Typically the operational update is the “good news” and the financial update the “not so good news,” so we’ll see what the financial update brings. In the meantime, let’s bask in the good news. Gulfport reports production is up 13% year over year, and the price they’re receiving for that production is also up. Here is Gulfport’s 3Q16 operational update…
Last week we reported on a half joking (half not joking) comment by Pennsylvania State Senator Gene Yaw made at a PA midstream conference, in which he said maybe PA should stop sending its fracked gas to New York State (see 
A little over a month ago, Bradford County, PA commissioners voted to hire a public relations firm to create a video to force the issue of passing House Bill (HB) 1391, a bill ensuring PA’s landowners will receive a 12.5% royalty check regardless of post-production costs (see 
Question: How can your business take advantage of the development of a petrochemical industry in your backyard? That was the question and premise behind a new white paper/report from the Ben Franklin Shale Gas Innovation and Commercialization Center. The white paper, titled “Shell Petrochemical Complex (“Cracker”) Project Overview – The First Step in Establishing a Regional Petrochemical Sector” (full copy below) provides an excellent overview of the coming ethane cracker in Beaver County, PA–with details for how and who can benefit from it. The paper is mainly aimed at manufacturers that will be able to leverage the output from the plant–but there’s plenty of other great information in this paper to inspire and get your creative business juices flowing. Take time to download and read it. The future of your business may depend on it!…