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    OH Minority Report: Shut Down Wells Before They Cause Earthquakes

    Minority ReportThe Chief of the Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management for the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (currently Rick Simmers) is a man with a lot of power. He has the power, according to a ruling just handed down on August 12, to make his own decisions about suspending permits to operate in the absence of specific violations of a law or regulation. In September 2014 Simmers suspended permits for two wastewater injection wells in Trumbull County, OH after a very low level earthquake was detected close to those wells (an earthquake that couldn’t be felt at the surface and caused no damage of any kind). American Water Management Services sued saying they hadn’t violated any laws or regulations on the books and their permits could not just be arbitrarily revoked like that. But the Ohio Oil and Gas Commission said nope–Tom Cruise, er, a, Mr. Simmers can arbitrarily do what he wants when there is no specific rule or guideline or law–because he has the best interests of the people at heart…
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    It Speaks! An “Ecosystem” has Filed to Join a Lawsuit in PA

    Better be careful, the water table running under your property may decide to sue you for sinking a water well into it and withdrawing water for drinking, showers, etc. What…Absurd? Funny? Foolish? We’re not kidding. It seems that water tables and rock and dirt are now considered “ecosystems” and, if a lawsuit is allowed to stand in a Pennsylvania court, such an “ecosystem” has the right, under law, to sue. A motion has been filed by the radical leftist PA-based group Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) on behalf of an ecosystem to intervene in a federal lawsuit to defend its own “right” to exist and flourish. Background: In 2013 the CELDF convinced enough ignoramuses in Highland Township in Elk County, PA to pass a so-called Community Bill of Rights. Essentially it’s a way to prevent wastewater injection wells from being drilled in the township. Seneca Resources filed a lawsuit to overturn the illegal law. Highland Twp taxpayers are now defending their illegal action with $upport from the deep pockets of Big Green groups (i.e. the CELDF). In an attempt to bully Seneca into backing down from the lawsuit, the CELDF claims to speak for the ecosystem and has filed a lawsuit on behalf of the ecosystem. It’s utter bull crap of the highest order–but a dangerous precedent if allowed. We can see your dog suing you, the trees that ring your property suing you, wrongful death lawsuits for killing a snake…you get the idea. An ecosystem filing a lawsuit would be funny, if it weren’t such a tragically vicious attack against the fabric of this country and the HUMANS that live in it (the only living things with “rights” under our Constitutional form of law)…
    Read More “It Speaks! An “Ecosystem” has Filed to Join a Lawsuit in PA”

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    CELDF Tries to Shut Down GreenHunter’s OH Injection Wells

    The radical leftist PA-based group Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) is making mischief in neighboring Ohio. The CELDF is using some of its millions of Big Green dollars to file a lawsuit against Meigs County, OH Commissioners because the commissioners refuse to put an illegal ballot measure up for a vote in November. The CELDF pressured the citizens of Highland Township in Elk County, PA in 2013 to pass a so-called Community Bill of Rights–the same kind of law they want Meigs County to adopt (see today’s companion story about the ecosystem that speaks). Meigs County already has two injection wells recently brought online by GreenHunter Resources, with plans to bring another two online in the near future (see GreenHunter Brings 2 New Injection Wells Online in Meigs County, OH). GreenHunter has built out a barge terminal along the Ohio River in Meigs County where they plan to unload barged brine for disposal (see GreenHunter Resources 1Q15: Bets the Ranch on OH Injection Wells). The CELDF so-called Community Bill of Rights would stop GreenHunter’s injection wells and the barge terminal from operating. Can you imagine the lawsuits and the amount of money Meigs County residents would have to pay out if that happened? It would likely bankrupt the county. Meigs County commissioners rightly seek to protect the citizens they were elected to represent from this horrific economic apocalypse. And so now, the CELDF is suing Meigs commissioners because they won’t allow the ballot measure to proceed…
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    Is Wayne County, OH Sheriff Breaking the Law re NEXUS Pipeline?

    It appears that an anti-pipeline member of the Wayne County, OH sheriff’s department, Capt. Doug Hunter, has convinced his boss, Sheriff Travis Hutchinson, to ride roughshod over the members of the department–telling deputies they can’t, in their off-duty hours, moonlight as security guards for the NEXUS Pipeline. Hunter’s argument to Hutchinson is that a member of the sheriff’s department going out with surveyors, who have been threatened by anti-pipeline wackos, somehow “intimidates” landowners. Even though the sheriff’s deputies are not in uniform, not driving a police car, and are otherwise unrecognizable to landowners as belonging to the sheriff’s department when they tag along to be sure the surveyors don’t get accosted by the peace-loving landowners the sheriff is “sworn to serve.” Sheriff Hutchinson bought Hunter’s argument hook, line and sinker. And so Sheriff Hutchinson has told his deputies what they can and can’t do in their off-duty hours. Hmmm. We wonder how the deputies like being told what they can and can’t do when they’re off the clock? We wonder if they like the sheriff preventing them from earning extra money working for a private company (a common practice with off-duty law officers)? Could the sheriff himself be breaking the law by disallowing his deputies from working for one specific private company, when (we presume) he allows the very same practice for other private companies?…
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    Stark County, OH Judge Orders Sheriff to Assist NEXUS with Surveys

    In Summit County, OH, a county judge has denied NEXUS Pipeline’s request to force recalcitrant landowners to allow surveyors on their property (see Summit County, OH Judge Denies NEXUS Request to Survey Properties). In neighboring Stark County, it’s the reverse. A judge in Stark County granted NEXUS a court order allowing them to survey properties where the pipeline may potentially run. And whereas in Wayne County (borders both Summit and Stark) the Wayne County Sheriff won’t let his deputies work as off-duty security guards for NEXUS (see today’s story questioning the legality of the Sheriff’s action), the judge in Stark County has ORDERED the sheriff there to enforce NEXUS’ right to enter properties to survey them. The Stark County sheriff is telling his on-duty deputies to accompany surveyors to protect them. Is your head spinning yet?…
    Read More “Stark County, OH Judge Orders Sheriff to Assist NEXUS with Surveys”

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    Differing Versions of How PA Budget/Severance Tax Talks are Going

    baseball bat kneecapsWhere does the Pennsylvania budget negotiation/standoff stand? Depends on who you ask. There have been some intense negotiations over the past few days (a room with a bunch of men hollering at each other). When he emerges from the meetings, PA Gov. Tom Wolf, the most liberal governor in the United States, paints a smile on his face and mouths unspecific platitudes about making progress. When Wolf’s top surrogate emerges, State Sen. Vincent Hughes (Democrat from Philadelphia), Hughes says they aren’t any closer to getting Republicans to cave on a Marcellus Shale-killing severance tax. And that irks him. And Hughes blusters that there will be NO budget without a severance tax as part of it. Good luck with that Sen. Hughes. We applaud Republicans for preserving the Marcellus industry–what’s left of it in this low price environment. Let’s hope Republicans don’t cave to the bluster and deceit being pedaled by the Democrats in Harrisburg. We certainly understand the Dems are in a real bind. They PROMISED the teachers unions big money in return for their support. This is a payoff–shaking down the Marcellus industry to give the money to overpaid teachers and union bosses. And if Wolf doesn’t pull it off–he can kiss a second term good-bye as far as the unions are concerned. They play for keeps and Wolf knows it. Here’s the latest in the ongoing budget battle…
    Read More “Differing Versions of How PA Budget/Severance Tax Talks are Going”

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    New NatGas Powered Electric Plant Coming to…Rhode Island?!

    Yet another new electric generating plant that will use abundant, cheap and clean-burning natural gas to power it was recently announced in…Rhode Island? Yep–Rhode Island, the socialist paradise on the East Coast. Home to old money and people who oppose change of any kind. At a big ceremony last week none other than RI’s Gov. Gina Raimondo joined the CEO of Invenergy to announce the Clear River Energy Center–a 900 megawatt electric generating plant that runs on natural gas. The new plant will lower RI residents’ electric bills by a collective $280 million and replace aging coal and oil power plants–cleaning the air in the process. With the jobs created, the investment in the facility, and lower electric rates, it’s calculated this single plant will have a $1.3 billion impact on the economy of RI. Now if we can only get either the Kinder Morgan’s Northeast Energy Direct or Spectra Energy’s Access Northeast pipelines built…
    Read More “New NatGas Powered Electric Plant Coming to…Rhode Island?!”

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    Moody’s Downgrades EXCO Resources Credit Profile to the Basement

    We don’t mean to be piling on EXCO Resources–honest. We just report what we notice. We’ve been reporting for some time that EXCO appears to be in financial trouble (see our EXCO stories here). Just yesterday we brought you information about EXCO’s #1 stockholder, Wilbur L. Ross, Jr. (see EXCO Resources #1 Stockholder and his “Distressing” Investment). Today we noticed an investment bulletin issued by Moody’s Investors Services, one of the top two or three such credit ratings agencies that evaluate the credit worthiness of companies, governments, even countries. Moody’s issued a notice yesterday about EXCO–essentially downgrading the company’s credit risk to one of Moody’s lowest ratings categories–Caa1 and Caa3…
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    Moody’s Says Oil & Gas Prices Staying Low Another 3 Years

    How long will oil and gas prices still in the basement? Isn’t that the quadrillion dollar question! A new report from Moody’s Investors Service says, after evaluating data on 90 companies, it expects oil and gas prices to stay low for another three years. Ouch. Here’s some insights from the wizards of smart at Moody’s…
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    Frack Wastewater Treatment Market Still Worth $1.9 Billion

    Even though we’ve had a dramatic decline in global oil prices–a price collapse from near $100 per barrel to less than $45 per barrel in under a year, and even though that price collapse is directly related to less shale drilling and fracking everywhere–including the Marcellus/Utica, water reuse/recycling in the Marcellus Shale is still in demand says a new report by Lux Research. In fact, the market for frack water management across the country is still estimated to be worth $1.9 billion, not including water transportation and disposal…
    Read More “Frack Wastewater Treatment Market Still Worth $1.9 Billion”

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    PA DEP Finalizes Onerous New Drilling Regs, Industry Opposes

    fireworksMajor changes are on the way for Pennsylvania’s conventional (vertical) and unconventional (shale/horizontal) drillers. In 2011 PA began a process that’s gone on way too long, to update certain regulations that apply to oil and gas drillers known as Chapter 78 of the 1984 Oil and Gas Act. Along the way the PA legislature decided there should be separate rules governing conventional and unconventional drilling–so Chapter 78 has become Chapter 78 (conventional) and 78a (unconventional). PA was close to adopting the new rules at the end of the Tom Corbett administration but then he lost his bid for re-election, throwing the process into turmoil once again with newly elected Tom Wolf and his PennFuture buddies wanting to put their own stamp on drilling regulations in the Keystone State (see PA DEP Sec Quigley Pulls a Fast One, Changes Drilling Rules). Yesterday the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) released the final draft version for both Chapter 78 and 78a (copy below). Last week the group that will consider this new draft for conventional drilling, the Conventional Oil and Gas Advisory Committee (COGAC), preemptively said they would vote against adopting the draft (see PA DEP Sec Quigley’s Own Committee Appointees Turn Against Him). PennFuture DEP Sec. Quigley said, “COGAC’s opposition will not hinder the progress of the final rule, and I hope when they meet in August that they are prepared to engage with us as we finalize the rule.” In other words: “Screw you, I’ll do what I want to do anyway.” We predict fireworks at the COGAC meeting on August 27 in Harrisburg…
    Read More “PA DEP Finalizes Onerous New Drilling Regs, Industry Opposes”

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    MarkWest to Build $1B OH Utica Dry Gas Gathering System for Ascent

    Although it seems there is no end of bad news in drilling company financials right now, here’s a spot of good news: MarkWest Energy, the premier midstream/pipeline company in the Marcellus/Utica (selling itself to Marathon Petroleum), has just announced they are investing $1 billion over the next three years to install a new gathering pipeline system in eastern Ohio–particularly in Belmont and Jefferson counties–mostly for Ascent Resources. Ascent, backed by major investor EMG, was once Aubrey McClendon’s subsidiary company called American Energy Appalachia Holdings that has since broken free of McClendon and American Energy Partners and is now its own 100% standalone company. The MarkWest/Ascent deal is to build a 250-mile pipeline system in the Utica dry gas region that will gather more than 2 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of natural gas not only from Ascent, but also from other producers in the area. Here’s the details from MarkWest…
    Read More “MarkWest to Build $1B OH Utica Dry Gas Gathering System for Ascent”

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    AG Kathleen Kane’s Defense: Dirty Old Men are Out to Get Me!

    On Monday MDN told you that Kathleen Kane, Pennsylvania’s anti-drilling Attorney General, had been arrested and fingerprinted on a felony charge of perjury, plus various misdemeanor charges (see PA’s Anti-Drilling AG Kathleen Kane Arrested, Fingerprinted). We told you the charges against Kane have nothing to do with the Marcellus industry that she so zealously persecutes, but we’ll be darned if the Marcellus, in a roundabout way, hasn’t crept into this ongoing saga. Yesterday Kane held a press conference where she a) avoided responding to or commenting on the very serious charges against her, and b) instead claimed people are out to get her because of a case her office prosecuted last year in which she found, in going over old emails from before she took office, that some state employees swapped pornographic emails using government computers. That case that led to the resignation of a state Supreme Court judge and also the resignation of then-Secretary of the Dept. of Environmental Protection Chris Abruzzo (see PA DEP Sec. Chris Abruzzo Resigns Following Porn Email Scandal). Abruzzo was liked by the Marcellus industry. Kane’s performance yesterday was, frankly, sad and somewhat bizarre. It appears the pressure is causing her to self-destruct right before our eyes. Her “defense” was not a denial that she leaked privileged information to a reporter in an act of revenge against a subordinate (something a grand jury indicted her for)–but that dirty old men are mad that she snooped through their emails, and now they’re out to get her. Kane’s solution? Release the “filthy” emails to distract everyone from her own crimes…
    Read More “AG Kathleen Kane’s Defense: Dirty Old Men are Out to Get Me!”

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    Eclipse Resources 2Q15: Revenue Up, Bleeding Less than Last Year

    Eclipse Resources, a smaller but important Utica/Marcellus driller based in State College, PA (but mostly drilling in eastern Ohio) released an operational but not financial update at the end of July (see Eclipse Resources Releases Operations but not Financial Update). We noted at the time that typically the operations update is the “good news” and the financial update would likely be the “bad news.” Eclipse released their financial update yesterday and hey, contrary to other companies, the news is pretty good. Let’s get the bad news out of the way first: Yes, they lost money in second quarter 2015–$42.0 million. But the net loss was much less than 2Q14 when it was $112.6 million. The good news? Revenue was up 181% to $73.4 million (amidst a price collapse over the past year), net production was up 374% to 198.6 million cubic feet equivalent per day (MMcfe/d), and Eclipse increased their estimates of production for 2015 by another 5% over last year…
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    EXCO Resources #1 Stockholder and his “Distressing” Investment

    EXCO Resources, a sizable independent driller with operations in several shale plays including the Marcellus Shale, is a company in trouble. The price of EXCO’s stock has dropped 96% during the last 5 years, 71% since the beginning of this year, and 86% during the last 12 months. EXCO appeared on David Fessler’s “Death List” of oil and gas companies earlier this year (see 19 Oil/Gas Companies on “Death List” – 8 are in Marcellus/Utica). In April, EXCO experienced a major shake-up and saw the installation of new leadership managing the company and new members on the board of directors (see Bluescape Pulls Strings Installs New CEO, COO at EXCO Resources). The numbers for second quarter weren’t so hot (see EXCO 2Q15: Marcellus Production Down 23%; Net Income Down 1,991%), and the New York Stock Exchange has put the company on notice their stock is about to be de-listed (see More Trouble for EXCO Resources – NYSE Threatens to De-List Stock). We ran across an interesting reference to who owns the most stock in EXCO. Turns out the #1 stockholder is Wilbur L. Ross, Jr., founder of private equity firm WL Ross & Co.–someone known for investing in “distressed” companies. How much EXCO stock does Ross own and how much value has that stock lost for Ross?…
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