Study Finds PA Wastewater Volumes in 2014 Same as 3 Yrs Ago
The Ben Franklin Shale Gas Innovation & Commercialization Center (SGICC), affiliated with the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic with a mission to accelerate technology breakthroughs related to shale gas in PA, has just released an updated report on shale wastewater treatment and disposal in PA. The report, titled “Shale Gas Development – Summary of Shale Gas Wastewater Treatment and Disposal In Pennsylvania 2014” (full copy below) finds that drillers in PA produced about 1.8 billion gallons of gas and oil wastewater in 2014–a figure largely unchanged since 2011. The study also finds the shale industry in PA is recycling 91% of the wastewater it produces. Interestingly, the updated report shows “produced water” (or brine, naturally occurring water from the depths) volumes far exceeded volumes for “frac fluid” (or the fluid originally pumped into the well when drilling and fracking). That’s a reversal from the data evaluated in 2011 when frac fluid represented the bulk of the wastewater stream…
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A pipeline upgrade project in western Pennsylvania is making excellent progress. In February 2014 National Fuel Gas Company (NFG) filed an application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for the Line N West Side Expansion and Modernization Project in Washington, Allegheny, Beaver, Venango and Mercer Counties, PA. The project calls for building some 23 miles of new pipeline next to an existing NFG pipeline in Washington and Beaver counties, along with compressor station and other upgrades along other portions of the existing Line N pipeline. NFG previously signed Range Resources and NFG’s own subsidiary, Seneca Resources, as customers for an increase in capacity to flow an additional 175,000 decatherms per day, Dth/d (175 million cubic feet per day, MMcf/d). The extra capacity allows Range and Seneca to move of the Marcellus Shale gas they produce in western PA to market. Although construction is still underway, NFG has asked FERC to begin partial service now, two months ahead of schedule…
LogicFree Mahoning Valley (aka FrackFree Mahoning Valley) doesn’t like to bother with piddly things like, oh, the law. Who follows that? The law is only a useful tool when it favors their twisted viewpoint. When it doesn’t? Ignore it. Over the past several years FrackFree Mahoning Valley and their supporters have duped enough E! Entertainment viewers in Youngstown, OH to sign a petition putting a so-called home rule measure up for a vote four times (see 
In April MDN reported on a successful open season (time when new customers sign up) for the Michigan/Ohio Pipeline Expansion Project–a pipeline expansion project that will deliver “refined petroleum products” (things like gasoline, kerosene and heating oil) from Woodhaven and Detroit, Michigan, and from Toledo and Lima, Ohio, to destination points in both Ohio and Western Pennsylvania (see 
The writers at NGI–Natural Gas Intelligence–continue to pump out hit article after hit article. (Full disclosure: MDN editor Jim Willis works part time for NGI on the marketing side. But hopefully by now you know that Jim doesn’t offer false praise for friend or foe. He always calls ’em like he sees ’em.) The latest article we’re excited about is one about a potential shift among Marcellus drillers in southwestern PA and WV–a shift away from Marcellus drilling, potentially replacing it with Utica drilling. Yes, you read that right. No, not all Marcellus drilling will suddenly stop–but in a continuing low-cost gas environment where every dollar counts, drillers are rethinking their strategies and where they will spend precious capital dollars. The recent blockbuster Utica well drilled by EQT in southwestern PA is catching everyone’s attention (see 
Yesterday the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection announced an agreement/settlement with three Marcellus drillers operating in the northeastern portion of the state. The three–Chesapeake Energy, XTO Energy and SWEPI (i.e. Shell) were fined a collective $374,481 for methane migration related to their drilling activities at three locations (three different counties) in 2011 and 2012. The bad news is that 13 private water wells between the three incidents were negatively affected, along with several local creeks. The good news is that the problems are all fixed. Methane migration is an eminently fixable condition. Here are the details for each fine, including what happened and where it happened…
The proposed buyout of MarkWest Energy by Marathon Petroleum just took a giant step forward after the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Dept. of Justice last Friday signed off on the transaction by granting an “early termination” of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act (HSR Act). Such a notice means “you don’t have to wait the standard length of time for us to complete a review, we’ve completed it and we find nothing to object to.” Unitholders (the equivalent of stockholders) in MarkWest must still approve the buyout, but that doesn’t appear to be an issue…
It is an issue that simply won’t go away. Frankly, we’ve thought (until now) that it was more or less a publicity stunt. Pro-drillers and pro-gun rights residents of New York State have, since Gov. Andrew Cuomo banned fracking last December, called for upstate counties to secede from New York and either form a new state, or join with Pennsylvania. On the surface it may sound silly, but did you know secession has happened in our country three times before? And one of those times was for land that used to be part of New York State? No, we didn’t know that bit of history either. This Sunday, August 30th, a rally will be held in the tiny village of Bainbridge (Chenango County), NY from 1-3 pm for Marcellus/Utica landowners, gun owners and other overtaxed and over-regulated NY residents to demonstrate their support for secession. This is a movement that is gaining momentum. It’s a serious movement. None other than the liberal USA Today files this very serious report…
In June 2014 Dominion filed an application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to construct and operate new compression facilities at existing compressor stations in Marshall County, WV and Monroe County, OH, and certain other facilities, collectively called the Clarington Project (see 
Liberal Democrats don’t like to play by the same rules everyone else does. They somehow think they’re better than the rest of us–above the law. That’s what happened when the arrogant, and alleged criminal PA Attorney General Kathleen Kane, decided she could flout the law by leaking secret grand jury information to a reporter (see 
A piece of interesting news today about Summit Midstream. Compared to midstream giants like MarkWest Energy, Williams and Access Midstream (now part of Williams, formerly Chesapeake Midstream), Summit has a pretty modest presence in the northeast. Summit’s Mountaineer Midstream gathering system is 49 miles long, operating in Doddridge and Harrison counties in WV. Last December Summit announced they’ve been hired by XTO Energy to build a new 115-mile pipeline gathering system in the Utica Shale in Belmont and Monroe counties in OH (see 
A blockbuster report from the Energy & Environment Legal Institute blows the doors off the potentially illegal collusion between the Obama White House, several state governors, and climate scare-monger groups backed by billionaire Tom Steyer. The report, titled Private Interests & Public Office: Coordination Between Governors, the Obama White House and the Tom Steyer-“Founded and Funded” Network of Advocacy Groups to Advance the “Climate” Agenda (full copy below) connects the dots of a disgusting, coordinated attack on fossil fuels (specifically coal, but also other fossil fuels). Using open records laws E&E Legal has produced a must-read exposé that lays bare how environmental extremists have put their own self-interests ahead of the nation, profiting from it as they do so. “This is the 5th transparency report in a series that E&E Legal has published on the ‘green movement’ and its network of public, private, and business interests, and what is clear is that 1%-ers are using ‘climate’ policies to destroy politically disfavored industries in order to transfer wealth to the politically preferred,” said Craig Richardson, E&E Legal Executive Director. We encourage you to read the report, and get as angry as we are about the ongoing deception that begins at the very top–with Barack Hussein Obama…
The U.S. Labor Department is on a witch hunt, unfairly targeting not only the Marcellus/Utica drilling industry–but any company in the entire supply chain that benefits from drilling, including hotels, restaurants and convenience stores. When you have the full force and backing of an out-of-control president like B.H. Obama, you get kind of drunk on your own power. That seems to be what has happened at the Labor Department. The Department of Labor’s wage and hour division in Pittsburgh has been targeting Marcellus-related companies since 2012, arriving for surprise audits of how companies classify employees–and how they pay them (particularly overtime payments). The jack boots have investigated 395 companies in three years and assessed $10 million in wages, civil penalties and liquidated damages and spurred a number of lawsuits by employees (and even the Labor Dept. itself) against employers. One question: Why hasn’t the Labor Department launched ANY investigations into the employment practices of Big Green organizations like the Sierra Club, THE Delaware Riverkeeper, William Penn Foundation, Heinz Endowments, PennFuture, Clean Air Council, Food & Water Watch and a myriad of other such organizations where wild-eyed zealots appear to work 24/7 for weeks on end in their mission to end all fossil fuels? Surely there are some overtime violations happening in Big Green…