Marcellus Drilling News

CNG/LNG | Exporting | Industrywide Issues

How a Louisiana LNG Export Facility is Connected to the Marcellus/Utica
November 30, 2015November 30, 2015

An article about Cheniere Energy’s Sabine Pass Liquefaction Project (LNG export plant) in remote Louisiana caught our attention for a couple of reasons. First, the plant will make its first shipment of LNG in January. Some of the natural gas the hungry Sabine Pass facility will use will (eventually) come from the Marcellus/Utica, via pipeline. That makes the Sabine Pass plant story an important story for our region. Second, the plant is a picture of/preview for what is coming to other regions where such facilities are built–like Cove Point, Maryland where Dominion is currently building (about half done) the Cove Point LNG export facility. Sabine Pass is a massive economic and job creation engine for Louisiana’s south coast. So too will Cove Point be for Maryland in the Chesapeake Bay area…
Read More “How a Louisiana LNG Export Facility is Connected to the Marcellus/Utica”
Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

State Official Calls Shale Impact “Profound” on PA Agriculture
November 30, 2015November 30, 2015

Recently the Pennsylvania Agriculture Department Executive Deputy Secretary, Michael Smith, addressed the Natural Gas Task Force for the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania (CCAP) in Hershey. He had some interesting things to say about shale development in the state. Among them: Shale’s impact on agriculture in the state will be “profound” and “transformative.” Did he mean that in a good way, or a bad way? Yes…
Read More “State Official Calls Shale Impact “Profound” on PA Agriculture”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Research

Antis Ramp Up to Discredit EPA Study that Found Fracking is Safe
November 30, 2015November 30, 2015

It was certainly a major blow to radical environmentalists when, after studying fracking for more than four years (reviewing some 950 studies, including conducting several original studies of its own), the federal Environmental Protection Agency announced what everyone already knew: fracking is safe (see EPA Draft Report Says Fracking Doesn’t Pollute Groundwater Supplies). Science is science and facts are facts. The announcement took the wind out of the sails for anti-fossil fuel nutters who thought they could convince everyone to return to the stone ages and eliminate the use of fossil fuels. However, science has been corrupted and politicized–just witness the global warming debate. Radical environmentalists knowing they can never convince the hoi polloi, the great unwashed, the people they consider idiots, to go along with their holier-than-thou energy plans to eliminate fossil fuels, if fracking is perceived as anything but evil–are fighting back. Here’s the plan. Get the EPA to discredit its own study. That process is now underway. In October the usual radical suspects showed up at EPA HQ to demand they turn their backs on their own study (see Anti Groups Try to Convince EPA They Got it Wrong with Water Study). Apparently they got through to at least a few sympathetic “scientists” who are members of the EPA’s own Scientific Advisory Board…
Read More “Antis Ramp Up to Discredit EPA Study that Found Fracking is Safe”
Economic Impact | Guernsey County | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Ohio | Supply Chain

Guernsey County, OH a Microcosm for Shale Economics in Northeast
November 30, 2015November 30, 2015

Have we entered the oil and gas apocalypse? If you’re one of some 230,000 oilfield workers out of a job in the past year, you may think so (who can blame them?). The reality is, however, that although rig counts are down (way down), permits issued are down, and in general drilling of new wells is down–drilling IS still happening. Businesses in the supply chain–those servicing the upstream and midstream sectors–are still making money. Not as much money, but we haven’t entered the apocalypse–not yet anyway. Example: Cambridge (Guernsey County), Ohio, where drilling happens less these days–but drilling still happens and local businesses like restaurants make more money than they did prior to the Marcellus/Utica fracking miracle…
Read More “Guernsey County, OH a Microcosm for Shale Economics in Northeast”
Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Supply Chain

Success Story: Welder Starts Pre-Fab Company in PA Shale Country
November 30, 2015November 30, 2015

MDN has previously marveled and talked about the amount of money welders can command in the shale industry–upward of $1,000 per day (VERY long, 12-hour days). It’s hard work out in the elements–not for the faint of heart. Today there are fewer welding jobs simply because there’s less drilling going on and therefore less wells that need pipelines connected to them. However, this is a story about a welder who didn’t just settle for welding pipelines and equipment at drill pads. This is the story of a welder who have the guts to start his own pre-fab business in the heart of Pennsylvania shale country–and hit it big. Make no mistake, this is not like hitting the lottery. Starting and running a business is HARD work. But if you have what it takes, it can pay off in spades, as it has for our latest Hero of the Marcellus, welder Bill Emick…
Read More “Success Story: Welder Starts Pre-Fab Company in PA Shale Country”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide PA

Natural Gas is Killing City Trees! Tree Whisperer Tells All
November 30, 2015November 30, 2015

Here’s one more reason to dump evil, nasty, rotten fossil fuels–like natural gas. It kills trees. Yes, methane is a TREE KILLER. Who knew? In yet another laughable “all fossil fuels are evil” meme from the usual suspects at the Democrat house organ called StateImpact Pennsylvania, we get the latest anti-fossil fuel story about how methane leaks in cities are killing poor, defenseless trees that can’t stand up to that nasty bully, fugitive methane. Seems there’s a good business to be had being a tree whisperer…
Read More “Natural Gas is Killing City Trees! Tree Whisperer Tells All”
About MDN | Calendar

Calendar of Events for Nov 30 – Feb 28 (90 Days)
November 30, 2015November 30, 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.
Read More “Calendar of Events for Nov 30 – Feb 28 (90 Days)”
Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Mon, Nov 30, 2015
November 30, 2015November 30, 2015

The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: dawn of the Utica era; the tortoise and the flare; Utica Shale Academy gets grant; Q&A with PennEast; EQT hits a gusher, stock takes a plunge; Chesapeake’s doldrums; OPEC still hasn’t killed shale a year later; China’s shale gas problems; and more!
Read More “Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Mon, Nov 30, 2015”
Industrywide Issues | Research

List of 36 Oil & Gas Companies that Filed for Bankruptcy in 2015
November 25, 2015November 25, 2015

Whew. Dodged a bullet–this year. Haynes and Boone, LLP is an international corporate law firm with offices in Texas, New York, California, Colorado, Washington, D.C., Shanghai and Mexico City. Their HQ is in Texas. The firm has a sizable Bankruptcy and Energy practices. Unfortunately those two practices are increasingly becoming one, and the firm says they’re adding lawyers to the Bankruptcy practice. Last week Haynes and Boone issued their very first Oil Patch Bankruptcy Monitor (full copy below), a report that details the rising tide of 2015 exploration and production company Chapter 11 filings. The report lists 36 bankruptcies in 2015 totaling about $13 billion in cumulative secured and unsecured debt. With fear and trepidation we reviewed the list–and found that none of the companies listed have major, nor even minor, operations in the Marcellus/Utica. However, that may not remain the case…
Read More “List of 36 Oil & Gas Companies that Filed for Bankruptcy in 2015”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Athens County | Industrywide Issues | Ohio

Anti-Frackers Out of Control at Athens Mtg on Wayne Natl Forest
November 25, 2015November 25, 2015

Correction: We labeled the publication reporting on the BLM meeting in Athens as “the Athens Post.” It is, more correctly, “The Post,” a student newspaper published at Ohio University’s Athens campus. We have yet another glaring example of the outright lies and distortions of not only national, but local liberal media. In this case from the student-run The Post — a publication of Ohio University – Athens. A “reporter” (leftie stenographer) is repeating propaganda from anti-drilling crazies who attended a recent meeting hosted by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the U.S. Forest Service about the plan to begin fracking in the Wayne National Forest. As they usually do, a group of hippie and hippie wannabe nutters turned out to harass people who support drilling. The antis behaved badly–as they always do. They threw things (paper airplanes, namely), they spat on fracking supporters, hollered and chanted and in general, behaved in an aggressive manner. At one point, when it became apparent the meeting was getting out of hand, a U.S. Forest Service officer used his baton to push some of the crazies back. A very short clip, taken out of context, shows it happening–and that became the focus of the story published by The Post. From start to finish the “story” is a lie. These aggressive (we’d call them terrorist) nutters are demanding the Forest Service agent lose his job for doing his job in protecting the peaceful people at the meeting…
Read More “Anti-Frackers Out of Control at Athens Mtg on Wayne Natl Forest”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Pipelines | Tennessee Gas Pipeline

Susan Sarandon Supports Anti-Pipeline Movement in Massachusetts
November 25, 2015November 25, 2015

What do Hollywood celebrities do to boost a sagging career? Celebrities who were once “A” list but have sunk to “B” and “C” list status? Celebrities like Mark Ruffalo and Susan Sarandon found notoriety in supporting the anti-fracking movement. But the problem with “success” when it comes to anti-fracking (a la New York’s ban), is that once you’ve won, what do you do then? You see, antis like Ruffalo and Sarandon always need another bogyman–another “cause” to inject (a) notoriety, and (b) meaning into their otherwise meaningless lives. Like a junkie who needs another fix, these people need to be in the news, their face and name plastered everywhere, or they don’t think anyone “loves” them anymore. It’s a shame what depths they sink to, really. At least Sarandon has talent–Ruffalo has no talent. Sarandon (or more properly, her agent) has (surprise!) found a new cause to promote–time to prop up that sagging career. Sarandon has thrown in her lot with the crazies opposing the Kinder Morgan’s Northeast Energy Direct (NED) pipeline project–the massive $5 billion expansion of the Tennessee Gas Pipeline system from Pennsylvania into New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and back into Massachusetts where it will end near Boston. Sarandon recently issued a statement through the Mount Grace Land Conservation Trust, whose director, Leigh Youngblood, has been at the forefront of opposing any new pipelines in the Bay State…
Read More “Susan Sarandon Supports Anti-Pipeline Movement in Massachusetts”
Beaver County | Energy Companies | PennEnergy Resources | Pennsylvania

PennEnergy Resources Building Frack Water Pipeline from Ohio River
November 25, 2015November 25, 2015

PennEnergy Resources, a small but active driller in the Pennsylvania Marcellus Shale, is working on a plan to pipe water from the Ohio River to its drill sites in Beaver County, PA. PennEnergy is, according to the latest edition of the Marcellus and Utica Shale Databook (Vol. 2) one of two active drillers in Beaver County–and the most active at that. The company was founded by energy executives Rich Weber and Greg Muse in 2011. Here’s the low down on piping Ohio River water to be used for fracking…
Read More “PennEnergy Resources Building Frack Water Pipeline from Ohio River”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Statewide NY | Tioga County (NY)

NY Town Supports, Antis Fundraise Against, Waterless Fracking
November 25, 2015November 25, 2015

MDN editor Jim Willis is often asked, when people learn of his occupation of writing about shale drilling, “What’s up with New York? Will there ever be any drilling in the state?” Jim’s answer is always the same: some day. But likely not until we excrete out of office our current man-child governor, Andy Cuomo. The one potential bright spot for fracking in the Empire State is a plan by a small group of farmers in Tioga County, NY to use waterless fracking technology to drill a test shale well (see NY Landowners File to Frack Horizontal Well w/Waterless Tech). The Snyder Farm Group, as it’s called, has filed an application with the state Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC)–owned and controlled by Cuomo–so that’s where the application now sits, with nothing happening so far as we can tell. Sooner or later the Snyder Group will have to sue the DEC to move things along. In the meantime, we have two bits of news to share with respect to the Town of Barton waterless fracking proposal. One bit of news is about support for the plan in Tioga County, and the other is about opposition to the plan from the usual suspects who oppose ANYTHING to do with fossil energy, not because it’s somehow inherently dangerous to extract natural gas, but because it IS natural gas. An irrational hatred of carbon molecules (the stuff you breathe out with every breath)…
Read More “NY Town Supports, Antis Fundraise Against, Waterless Fracking”
Allegheny County | Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Pennsylvania

Prominent Energy Law Firm Closing Down – Lack of Business
November 25, 2015November 25, 2015

It’s always fun to bust on lawyers–everyone’s favorite pass time, right? “How many lawyers does it take to screw in a light bulb?….” All joking aside, we love lawyers here at MDN. Well, most of them, anyway. Some of our best customers (and biggest supporters) are lawyers. And we love them right back–because you’re nuts if you sign ANYTHING to do with oil and gas without first running it by a qualified attorney. We’ve always said it, and we always will. You need a good lawyer. So it pains us to report that a prominent energy law firm is closing up shop. Burleson LLP, headquartered in Houston, opened an office in Pittsburgh six years ago. Burleson founder and managing partner, Rick Burleson, announced to the firm on Monday that not only is he shutting down the Pittsburgh office, but ALL of the firm’s offices, including HQ in Houston. Why? The slowdown in the oil and gas sector. You don’t lose 233,000 jobs over the course of a year in a single industry without major ramifications for other businesses involved in that industry…
Read More “Prominent Energy Law Firm Closing Down – Lack of Business”
CNG/LNG | Dominion Energy | Energy Services | Exporting | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Maryland | Processing Plants | Statewide MD

Antis Try Last Desperate Ploy to Stop Cove Point LNG in Court
November 25, 2015November 25, 2015

Dominion is working fast and furiously on constructing the Cove Point LNG export facility in Maryland. In fact, it’s now half done (see Dominion 3Q15: Progress on Atlantic Coast Pipeline, Cove Point LNG). Even though the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) gave its blessing on the project, and even though Dominion suffered through something like 70+ federal, state and local permits to begin building, irrational anti-fossil fuel haters are still opposing the project. We told you how some of the most extreme among them endangered fans at an NFL game recently (see Cove Point Protesters Disrupt Monday Night Football Game on TV). Now comes word that several groups of nutters, including Waterkeepers Chesapeake, Potomac Riverkeeper, Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper and others have filed a “friend of the court” brief in a lawsuit that is trying to get the project stopped cold in its tracks…
Read More “Antis Try Last Desperate Ploy to Stop Cove Point LNG in Court”
Industrywide Issues | Research

Platts Bentek: October NatGas Production Drops 1% from September
November 25, 2015November 25, 2015

Each month the U.S. Energy Information Administration issues natural gas production figures–but it’s usually two months or more behind. The smart folks at Platts’ Bentek Energy subsidiary provide a much quicker (and accurate) estimate, typically beating the EIA’s estimate by at least a month. For example, Bentek recently issued their estimate of what natgas production for October was in the Lower 48 States. Bentek says October averaged 71.9 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d), a decline of more than 0.5 Bcf/d, or 1%, from September’s production numbers. The EIA won’t even issue September’s “official” production numbers until Nov. 30. Here’s a good preview of what October numbers will show by the time EIA gets around to disclosing them…
Read More “Platts Bentek: October NatGas Production Drops 1% from September”