Marcellus Drilling News

Accidents | Industrywide Issues | NGLs | West Virginia | Wetzel County

CSX Train Hauling Propane Derails in Wetzel County, WV
December 28, 2015December 28, 2015

Very early Christmas Eve morning, at 2:45 am, six CSX rail cars loaded with liquefied petroleum gas (LPG, or propane) ran off the tracks in New Martinsville (Wetzel County), West Virginia. We don’t know if the LPG in those rail cars came from the Marcellus/Utica, but there’s a decent chance it did. Increasingly NGLs like propane are being shipped in the northeast by rail. The good news about the accident: no one was injured and the rail cars didn’t leak. The accident is being investigated by federal authorities for the cause…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Athens County | Industrywide Issues | Ohio

OH Antis Twist Christmas Carols into Anti-Drilling Drivel
December 28, 2015December 28, 2015

Last year it was the radicals at the Philadelphia-based Clean Air Council who tried to screw up Christmas by rewriting beloved Christmas carols as environmental wacko tunes (see Anti-Drilling Christmas Carols: Climate Change is Coming to Town [Video]). Apparently the tactic works to garner attention (from sycophantic media), because this year it was the environmental wackos in Athens, Ohio who rewrote carols into twisted messages of enviro holocaust. Ten fractivists sang anti-drilling “carols” at the Wayne National Forest headquarters near Nelsonville last Monday afternoon. Here’s one such demented song they sang (off key and out of tune): “Fire bells ring, are you listening. In the lane, oil is glistening. A terrible sight, the gas drills at night. Walking in a fracked-up wonderland.” The ones who are truly “fracked-up” were the ones singing…
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Fayette County | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Pennsylvania

Marcellus Christmas Miracle – PA Immigrants Find Jobs, Open Arms
December 28, 2015December 28, 2015

Here’s a story to warm your heart during the Christmas holiday season. It did ours. It is the story of real, live foreigners–from the island nation of Fiji–who came to America to make a better life for themselves. They didn’t arrive looking for welfare handouts. They didn’t arrive by illegally sneaking across our borders. They arrived like so many throughout our history–simply asking for an opportunity to work and create the life of their dreams. Those kinds of folks are Americans–in heart and spirit–in our book. We welcome them with open arms. Some 150 Fijians arrived three years ago in California and decided to seek their dream life in western Pennsylvania, working in the Marcellus industry…
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Electrical Generation | Industrywide Issues | Lackawanna County | Pennsylvania | Regulation

PA DEP Approves Jessup, PA Marcellus Gas Electric Plant
December 28, 2015December 28, 2015

MDN has written plenty about a Marcellus gas-powered electric generating plant proposed from Jessup (Lackawanna County), PA (see our stories here). The project is owned and operated by Invenergy, a company that owns and operates electric plants across the country. At various times we’ve said the plant would be 1300 megawatts and 1500 megawatts, based on changing news stories and documents. It seems the final output of the plant will be 1480 megawatts. The project also has, for the first time that we’ve noticed, its own name: the Lackawanna Energy Center. Last week the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) issued a very important approval for the Lackawanna Energy Center’s air quality plan. That is, the DEP has just approved the Jessup plant which can now break ground and begin construction. However, there is still one permit left to issue by the DEP–a permit to discharge treated wastewater from the facility. A DEP-led public hearing will be held on Jan. 4 at the Valley View High School in Archbald about that permit…
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Forced Pooling | Industrywide Issues | Regulation | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Battle Lines Drawn as WV Forced Pooling Bill Nears Introduction
December 28, 2015December 28, 2015

As MDN told you in mid-November, West Virginia legislators will revisit the topic, and likely vote on the issue of, forced pooling in the 60-day legislative session that will begin in early January (see WV Forced Pooling Bill Coming Around Again in 2016). The battle lines–in the Republican party–are already being drawn in a contentious issue that has been brought before the WV legislature in five of the last six years…
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Commodity Price | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Why Do Marcellus Drillers Continue Drilling with Prices in the Basement?
December 28, 2015December 28, 2015

If a company that makes a product can no longer make that product at a profit, why would it keep making that product? Put another way, if Marcellus drillers can’t make money by selling natural gas for 75 cents per thousand cubic feet (and they can’t), why would they keep drilling new wells? And why would they keep pumping gas from existing wells? That’s the question asked–and answered–by an excellent Oil & Gas 360 article…
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Commodity Price | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

2016: Fewer Rigs Operating, Less Gas Flowing in Marcellus/Utica
December 28, 2015December 28, 2015

This is the time of year when prognosticators come out of their prognostication holes to prognosticate about the rapidly-approaching New Year. Some of those predictions involve the Marcellus/Utica industry and what we may see coming our way in 2016. And what might we see? Most believe we’ll see cut-backs in drilling–most companies have announced such plans. However, one thing we won’t see is all drilling stop. As we highlight in a companion story today (see Why Do Marcellus Drillers Continue Drilling with Prices in the Basement?), drillers will keep drilling in the Marcellus in 2016. Perhaps not as much as they drilled in 2015–but make no mistake, the industry is not finished. So if they will continue to drill, even though prices are in the basement, where will they get the money to do so? That’s the focus of this particular piece of prognostication…
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Beaver County | Belmont County | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Odebrecht | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | PTT Global | Shell | West Virginia | Wood County

Will 2016 be the Year *Somebody* Commits to Building a Cracker?
December 28, 2015December 28, 2015

Will somebody, somewhere PLEASE build the northeast an ethane cracker plant? Pretty please? We noticed a couple of stories that indicate 2016 is THE year that at least one company will likely pull the trigger on an FID–a Final Investment Decision to build an ethane cracker. But which company is likely to do it? Shell? PTT Global? Odebrecht? Leaving Odebrecht’s Parkersburg, WV proposed cracker aside for the moment (a project where we barely detect a pulse), both the Shell plant, planned for Beaver County, PA, and the PTT Global plant, planned for Belmont County, OH, have seen impressive signs of activity in 2015. Which of those two will likely say “yes” in 2016?…
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Crude Oil | Energy Services | Enterprise Products Partners | Exporting | Industrywide Issues

Enterprise Products First to Export Crude Post-Ban – Implications
December 28, 2015December 28, 2015

The very first shipment of crude oil from America’s shores to another country since the ban on crude exports was lifted two weeks ago in perhaps the worst national budget we’ve ever had (thanks to sell-out Republicans like House Speaker Paul Ryan), will happen the first week of January. Enterprise Products Partners, owner of the ATEX (Appalachia-to-Texas Express) natural gas liquids pipeline, will load 600,000 barrels of U.S. light sweet crude oil at the Enterprise Hydrocarbon Terminal (EHT) on the Houston Ship Channel and the ship will set sail in early January. How will oil exports affect the domestic (and international) oil industry?…
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Commodity Price | Crude Oil | Industrywide Issues | Research

OPEC’s 2015 World Oil Outlook Paints a Rosy Price Picture
December 28, 2015December 28, 2015

There is nobody on the planet who watches the oil market more closely than OPEC–the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. OPEC is made up largely of tinpot Middle Eastern dictatorships who keep their general populations pacified by sharing some of the riches from oil sales with them via socialist government programs. While the leaders of OPEC countries often lie to each other and lie to the world, one thing they typically don’t lie about is the oil industry, where it’s headed–and their own very vital role in it. Last week OPEC released its annual 2015 World Oil Outlook (WOO, full copy below), which outlines OPEC’s expectations for the global energy sector–in particular oil and gas–from now until 2040. One admission in the 2015 WOO: US oil production from shale plays will be “more robust” than OPEC had predicted as recently as last year. Another prediction in this year’s WOO: oil will hit $70 per barrel by 2020 (four short years from now) and climb to $95 per barrel by 2040 (15 short years from now). There are plenty of other interesting predictions and observations in this year’s WOO…
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About MDN | Calendar

Calendar of Events for Dec 28 – Mar 27 (90 Days)
December 28, 2015December 28, 2015

Below are upcoming events for the next three months (90 days). To see the full list of future events, visit this page: //marcellusdrilling.com/calendar/.

NOTE: To have an item included, please email it to: calendar@marcellusdrilling.com.
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Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Mon, Dec 28, 2015
December 28, 2015December 29, 2015

The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: Attack of the fractivist clones; NY antis just say no to everything; Belmont County, OH the one to watch in 2016; FirstEnergy continues to prep cracker site; first responders often unprepared for derailments; still no budget in PA; ECA asks FERC to approve gas plant pipeline; Resnikoff, again?; oil companies’ strategy – hope; more challenges to Clean Power Plan; and more!
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Commodity Price | Industrywide Issues

Price of Marcellus NatGas at Record Lows – $0.59/Mcf @ Dominion S
December 23, 2015December 23, 2015

The price that physical natural gas is selling for–in December (winter!) no less–is enough to make grown men cry. And it does. While natgas prices for gas trading at the Henry Hub delivery point in southern Louisiana sold for an average of $1.89/Mcf yesterday, the price for gas trading at Dominion South (in the Marcellus Shale) was just 59 cents per Mcf–an historic low. Weather certainly has a lot to do with that price–but so does an overabundance of supply and lack of pipelines to carry that supply to other markets…
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Carlyle Group | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Hilcorp Energy

Hilcorp Forms $1.24B JV with Carlyle to Shop for Shale Deals
December 23, 2015December 23, 2015

Smart. Everyone knows the best time to buy something, whether it’s stocks, real estate, fuel oil, whatever–is when the market is crashing and burning. Always buy in a “down” market and sell in an “up” market. Natural gas and oil selling at current historic lows qualifies as a down market. It’s about as down as it gets! So it figures those companies who have kept their debt levels low and managed themselves well are now in the catbird seat and can go shopping for bargain basement deals–while their competitors sit on the sidelines hoping to stay out of bankruptcy court. Marcellus/Utica driller Hilcorp is one of those well managed/smart companies. Hilcorp has just joined forces with energy investment firm Carlyle in a partnership to go shopping for deals…
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Energy Companies | Rice Energy

Rice Family Sells 5M Shares of Rice Energy Stock to Pay Off Debt
December 23, 2015December 23, 2015

Yesterday the Rice family offered up for sale up to 5 million shares of stock in Rice Energy–the first time that’s happened since the Rice’s founded the company in 2007. Rice Energy was founded by Dan Rice III and his boys Dan IV, Toby and Derek. In fact Dan III, who was the most successful mutual fund manager in the U.S. for 10 years, was unceremoniously dumped by his employer BlackRock because BlackRock screwed up by not telling investors Dan was bankrolling a new company (Rice Energy) while at the same time investing in other oil and gas companies that could be construed as competitors via his mutual fund transactions (see BlackRock’s Screw-up with Dan Rice & Rice Energy). Dan was completely up front and transparent and told his bosses at BlackRock what he was doing–it was his bosses who screwed up, and then fired Dan in a blame-shifting move. Dan has been laughing his way to the bank ever since. Rice Energy has been a huge success. Until the end of last year Rice Energy was a private company–the Rices held most all of the stock. They went public last year and began to take OPM–other people’s money (see Rice Energy IPO Soars, Brings in $84M More Than Expected). As part of the IPO process, the Rices took out a loan with Morgan Stanley. Yesterday’s sale of up to 5 million shares is most definitely NOT the Rices stepping back from their own company. It’s actually meant to defend the company from financial market gyrations, as the Rices explain below…
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Axiall | Energy Services | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Processing Plants

Final Decision: Axiall Building Ethane Cracker in LA…NE Ethane?
December 23, 2015December 23, 2015

Two years ago Axiall Corporation, the former Georgia Gulf/PPG, announced a plan to build a $3 billion ethane cracker/petrochemical facility in Louisiana. The facility, as we noted at the time, will almost certainly use at least some ethane coming from the Marcellus/Utica region (see Axiall Announces New Cracker Plant for LA, Fed by NE Ethane). As we know only too well, making a “final investment decision” (FID) about whether or not to spend $3 billion of a company’s money (or more correctly go into debt and spend other people’s money), and take upward of 3-4 years to build a plant, is not something you just decide to do willy-nilly. It takes a looooooooooong time to get to that point. Shell announced a cracker for Pennsylvania back in 2012 and they still haven’t made an FID. It was certainly a good sign from Axiall when they announced a partnership with Lotte Chemical for their new Louisiana cracker project (see 4th World Class Marcellus/Utica Ethane Cracker…in Louisiana??). Lightening has struck! Last Friday Axiall and Lotte announced an FID has been reached and indeed they are moving forward. Horray! Of course it would be more exciting if that plant were located in PA, WV or OH rather than Lake Charles, LA (where they have enough crackers already). But we’ll take these victories when and where we can. The expected startup date is 2019…
Read More “Final Decision: Axiall Building Ethane Cracker in LA…NE Ethane?”