PA Firm Helped Drill ‘Purple Hayes’ – World’s Longest Shale Well
Earlier this month MDN told you about the “Purple Hayes”–a Utica Shale well drilled by Eclipse Resources in Guernsey County, OH that is thought to be the longest shale well every drilled, at 3.5 miles (see Eclipse Res. 1Q16: Drills Longest Shale Well Ever! “Purple Hayes”). The well was drilled in just 18 days and included 124 frac stages–truly astonishing! Not long after Eclipse announced the completion of Purple Hayes, Nine Energy stepped up to say they helped drill the well (see Nine Energy Completed World’s Longest Shale Well – in the Utica). Another company has just stepped up to say they also had a hand in drilling and completing the well–Deep Well Services (DWS). We’ve told you about DWS in the past, a Pennsylvania-based “snubbing” company (see PA “Snubbing” Company DWS Experiences Rapid Expansion). What’s a snubber and what role did it play in completing the Purple Hayes?…
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Both Energy Transfer Equity (ETE) and Williams yesterday issued statements about their proposed/impending merger that say Form S-4 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been ruled “effective.” As we so often point out, we’re not Wall Street wizards. From what we can determine, an S-4 is a filing between companies that propose to merge. The SEC is (we think) saying that the proposed stock swap between ETE and Williams can move forward, when and if the merger closes. That is, the SEC is cool with the proposed plan to merge. ETE points out there are still roadblocks to such a merger, and Williams continues to press several lawsuits to force ETE into the merger they (ETE) wanted in the first place. Below we have yesterday’s statement about the S-4 along with ETE’s continued “but but but” statement. We also include some interesting and insightful analysis from a writer on the Seeking Alpha investors website…
Recently the proposed merger/buyout of Baker Hughes (BH) by Halliburton crashed and burned (see 
In February Shell completed the merger with/purchase of BG Group–the largest such megamerger since Exxon bought Mobil in the 1990s (see 
Last July MDN told you about a group of so-called religious leaders from the Boston area who have taken to worshiping Mother Earth (the creation) instead of worshiping the Creator (see 
The climate changer crazies were in full regalia outside of the Dallas, TX facility where Exxon Mobil was holding its annual meeting yesterday morning. Sporting signs that said “Keep It in the Ground” and “System Change not Climate Change” (which was from “an ecosocialist coalition”) and many others, these nutjobs shouted at investors filing in to the facility. Christopher Helman, a reporter from Forbes, was on hand–both inside the meeting and outside to talk with the crazies (give that man hazard pay!). Helman files this report…
MDN will not publish on Friday, May 26 or Monday, May 30 in observance of the Memorial Day holiday. To be honest, it seems like most folks in the o&g industry have already headed out of town for the holiday. The news is scarce right now.
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: Tallgrass in tall cotton with REX pipeline; closeup on 4 smaller Marc/Utica midstreamers; banks in Marc/Utica not hurt by downturn; OH’s wastewater volume jumps 43%; Atlantic Coast Pipeline a lifeline for the southeast; Colorado Dem gov says fracking is safe; the dawn of the Petroleum Age; Mark Ruffalo’s water scam; and more!
As MDN has previously pointed out, even during the downturn in the oil and gas market, there is at least one sub-sector that’s expanding: wastewater. Long after a well is drilled and fracked, once it begins producing, that well will continue to produce not only natural gas and/or oil and other hydrocarbons–it will also produce water from the depths. We’re not talking about groundwater or aquifers that sit several hundred feet down. Those water sources are well-protected by well casing. There is also abundant supplies of mineral-laden water deep in the earth that comes out of the borehole for years after a well is drilled. When drillers were sinking holes as fast as they could–and fracking them–that salty/minerally water from the depths (often called brine or saltwater) would be recycled and used for more drilling. But when there’s little or no drilling–what do you do with all that brine/wastewater? You still have to get rid of it. So the wastewater hauling/recycling/disposal industry is actually expanding. BlueJack Energy Solutions is one such new company, begun to service several shale plays including the Marcellus/Utica. Yesterday BlueJack announced it has received $100 million in investment capital from Energy Spectrum Partners–to help get the company launched quickly and into a full gallop…
In April MDN brought you the news that Mountaineer NGL Storage launched a non-binding open season for drillers who want to reserve storage capacity in a new underground storage facility to be built in Monroe County, Ohio, near Clarington, along the Ohio River (see 
Last week MDN told you that the board at EXCO Resources, a company in financial trouble, is considering “restructuring”–coded language for bankruptcy (see 
Each year the Ben Franklin Shale Gas Innovation and Commercialization Center (SGICC) hosts an annual Shale Gas Innovation Contest. Last week the SGICC hosted their fifth annual contest and announced four winners that split an $80,000 prize purse. The four winners this year include: Aridea Solutions, valve manufacturer; Compass Natural Gas, a CNG (compressed natural gas) station supplier; Epiphany Water Solutions, a wastewater recycler; and someone we personally know and like a great deal–Donny Beaver with HalenHardy, who won for yet another superb product (from an ingenious and serial entrepreneur). Donny’s new product is called SPILLTRATION™–a product engineered to absorb and contain oil-based leaks and spills while allowing clean water to be filter through. Read on for a description of the products/services that won. A huge congrats to our friend Donny!…
In December MDN called attention to a newly published study by researchers at Dartmouth College (see 
You know what magical thinking is? It’s when an analyst/consultant repeatedly predicted that the world had reached “peak oil” production and that oil production was/will soon decline, leading to insanely high prices for oil. Then the shale revolution happened. Oops. So much for the discredited “peak oil” theory. But the same analyst, for a long time, kept repeating his discredited theory. We call that magical thinking. That same analyst then predicted “peak natural gas”–that the shale revolution was a bubble and would soon end because shale wells peter out so quickly, dontcha know. The analyst never factored new technology, and new shale layers, would be discovered. Oops. More magical thinking. Now that same analyst says cheap shale gas will end soon–the price is about to go insanely high. Yet more magical thinking…