Marcellus Drilling News

Energy Companies | EQT Corp | Industrywide Issues | Jefferson County (OH) | Lease & Royalty Payments | Litigation | Ohio | Statewide OH

Federal Judge Rules for EQT in Ohio Lease Dispute – Ramifications
December 29, 2015December 29, 2015

An important decision was recently made in a lease case in Ohio–a case which has implications for both drillers and landowners with Marcellus/Utica leases. Driller EQT signed a lease with Jefferson County, OH landowner Alex Cooper on Oct. 6, 2008. The initial term of the lease was for five years, with a five year extension IF EQT makes an extension payment. The lease also stipulates that EQT MUST drill a well on or before Oct 6, 2013–the end of the first term of the lease. EQT opted to extend the lease, making (or rather attempting to make) a payment to Cooper–but EQT did not drill a well by Oct 6, 2013. Cooper claimed since EQT hadn’t drilled, the lease expired on Oct 6, 2013 and he is free to lease again. The case ended up in Federal District Court for the Southern District of Ohio and U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley decided in favor of EQT, even though the language in the lease stipulates a well MUST be drilled during the first term of the lease. How and why did Judge Marbley decide the case as he did? Below is a recap of the case, followed by a copy of the full decision from Judge Marbley…
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Ohio | Statewide OH

ODNR Boss: Ohio Will be Net NatGas Exporter in 2016
December 29, 2015December 29, 2015

Little-know fact: Ohio is the seventh most populous state in the U.S. The only states with more population are California, Texas, Florida, New York, Illinois and Pennsylvania. Another little-known fact: In 2015 Ohio produced enough natural gas to meet the needs of 95% of what the state uses. Just four years ago that number was 9%. The director of the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR), James Zehringer, predicts that next year Ohio will produce more natural gas than can be used by the entire state–making Ohio a net exporter of natgas. Zehringer issued a year-end message from ODNR to tout not only the enormous production coming from Ohio’s shale fields, but also the big emphasis his agency places on safety for people and the environment…
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American Water Management | Earthquakes | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Regulation | Wastewater

Judge Tosses Appeal to Re-Open Trumbull, OH Injection Well
December 29, 2015December 29, 2015

It appears that in Ohio it’s A.O.K. for regulatory bodies to write laws–something the legislature is supposed to do–and not only can they write laws, they can take their sweet time doing it, denying a legally permitted business the right to conduct operations in the meantime. And if the legally permitted business seeks justice in the court system? Yeah, even the judge sides with the all-powerful state to prevent that business from operating. That about sums up the situation in Ohio for American Water Management Services (AWMS). AWMS owns a wastewater injection well in Trumbull County that supposedly caused a low-level earthquake (that nobody could feel) in 2014. Two wells located at the site, both operated by AWMS, were “temporarily” shut down by the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources following the quake (see ODNR Temporarily Shuts Down Injection Wells After Low-Level Quake). One of the two injection wells was allowed to re-open, but not the other (see ODNR Clears Trumbull Co. Injection Well in August Quake). Why was one well allowed to re-open but not the other? Because the ODNR is supposedly crafting new regulations that will govern the offending well that may or may not have caused the low-level quake. When will we see those new regs? Who knows! AWMS appealed ODNR’s decision to keep the second well shut down to the Ohio Oil and Gas Commission, a body that works for (yes) the ODNR. Unsurprisingly the Commission found ODNR is within its right to keep the second well shut down while it takes its time writing new regulations. AWMS appealed the Commission’s decision to a court, and the judge threw out the case because of a filing deadline legal hoop AWMS didn’t jump through properly…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Athens County | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Statewide OH | Wastewater

Scare Tactics re Ohio Injection Wells Continue, Aided by Newspaper
December 29, 2015December 29, 2015

The Columbus Dispatch is doing its best to paint safe frack wastewater injection wells as dangerous underground dumps ready to spring a leak at any moment and contaminate life as we know it. They’ve brought out their biggest anti arguments in a recent “article” (i.e. propaganda) that focuses on Athens County, OH–hotbed of far-left liberalism and anti-drilling sentiment. The article, boiled down, goes like this: Athens is a dumping ground for frack wastewater via injection wells. It saw the highest volume of wastewater disposed of by injection wells in the state, and most of the wastewater came from operations outside of Ohio. Implied (but not stated) in the article: It’s time to shut down injection wells in Athens County…
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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA PUC Commissioner’s Full-Throated Support of Marcellus Shale
December 29, 2015December 29, 2015

Pamela A. Witmer is one of five Commissioners of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Service (PUC). She is, in our opinion, one of the stars of the PUC–having been appointed by then-Gov. Tom Corbett in 2011. Pam is also a strong supporter of the Marcellus Shale industry and the miracle of fracking, as she indicates in a column she wrote for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Pam writes about the “numerous benefits” of the Marcellus…
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Dominion Energy | Economic Impact | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Statewide OH

Dominion East Ohio Gas Bills Fall 40% in 1 Year, Thx to Shale
December 29, 2015December 29, 2015

Utility company Dominion East Ohio says it’s customers are benefiting from the low cost of natural gas, thanks to the Marcellus and Utica Shale. In fact, according to Dominion, the cost of the gas itself is down 53% this year over last–and the savings gets passed on to consumers. That’s really good news for those who heat and cool using natural gas. Just because the commodity itself is only half the price, doesn’t mean rate payers will see their bills go down by the same amount. There are two components to the price consumers pay: the commodity flowing through the pipes, and the pipes/infrastructure itself. Even though Dominion East utility bills won’t go down by 53%, they will go down by about 40%. Not too shabby! Here’s what Dominion East is saying about rate decreases for its customers…
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Sand/Proppant | Seventy Seven Energy

Seventy Seven Energy Sells Frac Sand Subsidiary, Undisclosed Sum
December 29, 2015December 29, 2015

Seventy Seven Energy (SSE), an oilfield services company with major operations in the northeast, is the old Chesapeake Oilfield Operating division of Chesapeake–spun off into its own company on July 1, 2014 (see Long Labor & Delivery: Seventy Seven Energy Born Yesterday). Each quarter we report on the performance of this public company, and each quarter it’s the same story: red ink (see our stories here). In May of 2015 Seventy Seven sold one of its assets, a trucking operation, in an effort to raise money (see Seventy Seven Energy Sells Trucking Subsidiary for Undisclosed Sum). Also in May the company secured a $100 million loan to stay afloat (see Seventy Seven Energy Secures $100M Loan to Keep on Drillin’). We’ve just learned that a few days before Christmas Seventy Seven sold off a Wisconsin frac sand operation. Like the trucking sale earlier this year, terms of the deal were not disclosed. In fact, Seventy Seven hasn’t said anything about the sale–it was the buyer, Emerge Energy Services, who issued a press release about it…
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Air Quality | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

9 Fatal Flaws with Obama EPA Clean Power Plan
December 29, 2015December 29, 2015

The Wall Street Journal recently ran an article addressing the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s lawless tendencies, including what is perhaps the Agency’s “crowning” achievement under the oversight of Barack Hussein Obama: the so-called Clean Power Plan (see WSJ: Brushing Back a Lawless EPA). We’ve written a number of stories about the CPP–primarily that it not only outright assassinates the coal industry, it mortally wounds (with intent to kill) all fossil fuels, including natural gas. MDN guest blogger Stephen Heins saw the WSJ article and created a succinct list of nine flaws with the Obama EPA CPP. Steve’s arguments are rock-solid and unmask the CPP for what it really is: fatally flawed…
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Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Tue, Dec 29, 2015
December 29, 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: Pipeline to gas-powered electric plant in PA approved; new WV pipeline begins operations; Piedmont Natural Gas spent $8.9M on merger with Duke; DrillingInfo opens new Houston office; low natgas price = low coal price; energy sector bankruptcies on the increase; P&G’s natgas fleet; most outrageous fractivists stunts of 2015; and more!
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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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