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Marcellus Drilling News
  • Blue Ridge Mtn Res/Magnum Hunter | Energy Companies

    Magnum Hunter to Restart Marcellus/Utica Drilling Later This Year

    August 11, 2015August 11, 2015

    MDN reports in a related story today that Magnum Hunter Resources (MHR) is “this close” to closing two separate deals that will bring in around 1 billion big ones. What do they plan to do with all that money? About half of it–somewhere around $550 million of it, will be used to restart MHR’s drilling program in the Utica and Marcellus. When? Sometime in the late third to mid-fourth quarter of this year, says MHR CEO Gary Evans. Along with his comments on timing for MHR to restart their currently stalled drilling program, Evans gave the following inside information on how much (or how little) you can contract a drilling rig for these days in the Marcellus/Utica region. Used to be it cost $24,000 a day for a rig to drill your wells. But that was last year. Now?…
    Read More “Magnum Hunter to Restart Marcellus/Utica Drilling Later This Year”

  • Allegheny County | Energy Companies | Pennsylvania | Shell

    Shell Lays Off 6,500 Worldwide – But Where?

    August 11, 2015August 11, 2015

    Shell recently announced that the company would reduce spending by $7 billion in 2015–a 20% cut from 2014 spending levels. Ouch. Even more painful, Shell said they are cutting more than 6,500 jobs globally (they employ 94,000) in preparation for a long period of low oil prices. How will Shell’s announcement affect their northeast drilling program (SWEPI) and the planned ethane cracker plant in Beaver County, PA? We don’t know. There are rumors circulating about Shell’s Pittsburgh office–but since we can’t verify those rumors, we won’t repeat them. As for the ethane cracker plant, there’s never a shortage of rumors that say it will, and won’t, get built. Here’s what is known…
    Read More “Shell Lays Off 6,500 Worldwide – But Where?”

  • Commodity Price | Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues

    A Basic Guide to Understanding “Impairments” for Marcellus/Utica

    August 11, 2015August 11, 2015

    There is precisely one reporter at the usually anti-drilling Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Anya Litvak, who writes objectively about the Marcellus/Utica and the oil and gas industry in general. Anya used to write for the Pittsburgh Business Times until the Post-Gazette snagged her away a few years ago. It’s our opinion that the Post-Gazette keeps Anya hidden under a bushel where her light doesn’t shine nearly as brightly as it used to. Anya has just written an excellent article about something MDN recently noticed when reviewing quarterly earnings updates–this business of “impairments” or writing down the value of o&g assets on paper. As we’ve noted for a number of the quarterly updates we have reported on for the second quarter, many (most) drillers are reevaluating their acreage in the Marcellus/Utica and, according to specified formulas tied to the price of natural gas and oil, determining those assets (leases and operating wells) are not worth as much now as they were just a few months or years ago–something called an impairment…
    Read More “A Basic Guide to Understanding “Impairments” for Marcellus/Utica”

  • Electrical Generation | Guest Post | Industrywide Issues

    The Rotten Core of Obama’s Clean Power Plan: Global Warming Myth

    August 11, 2015August 11, 2015

    The uber-arrogant Barack H. Obama and his bullying Environmental Protection Agency have given us an untenable Clean Power Plan that a) guts the rest of the coal industry, and b) sets its sights on gutting the natural gas industry, for power generation, too (see Obama Stabs Natural Gas Electric Plants in Clean Power Plan). The core tenant/religious belief perpetrated by Obama is the myth that mankind’s burning of fossil fuels, with an increase in carbon dioxide, is leading to a catastrophic warming of the earth’s atmosphere. There is no credible scientific proof for such a theory–it’s only a theory. But that doesn’t stop Obama and his minions from using it as an excuse to shut down legal and legitimate businesses that use fossil fuels to generate electricity. Since global warming jiggery-pokery is central to Obama’s Clean Power Plan, we thought it would be instructive to show you the headlines from six years, in the run-up to the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. The headlines then, as now, blare that we have “just five years left” before it’s “too late”. We’re now six years later without the beseeched onerous policies and guess what: We’re no worse off today than we were then. The planet didn’t get warmer (and hasn’t for 18 years now). In fact, the global warming meme has been circulating for 100 years (see Global Warming Meme has Been Around Nearly 100 Years). Today we bring you a guest blogger that illustrates the falseness of global warmers’ claims by comparing their predictions from six years ago (that didn’t come true) with their predictions now…
    Read More “The Rotten Core of Obama’s Clean Power Plan: Global Warming Myth”

  • Industrywide Issues | Regulation

    Paul Driessan: Obama’s Clean Power Plan Will Kill Us, Literally

    August 11, 2015August 11, 2015

    Paul Driessen, senior policy adviser for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) which sponsors the All Pain No Gain petition against global-warming hype, and a senior policy adviser to the Congress of Racial Equality and author of Eco-Imperialism: Green Power – Black Death, has penned a brilliant analysis of the Obama Clean Power Plan released last week. In black and white numbers, Driessen lays out how, if Obama’s plan is implemented, electricity rates will skyrocket. And when they do, everything we make, grow, ship, eat and do will also skyrocket in cost. The end result: “It will impair our livelihoods, living standards, liberties and life spans.” This is not hyperbole, folks. Driessen speaks the truth. Give his column a read below…
    Read More “Paul Driessan: Obama’s Clean Power Plan Will Kill Us, Literally”

  • Accidents | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Lycoming County | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA | Tioga County (PA)

    EPA Causes Environmental Disaster in CO; Connection to Marcellus?

    August 11, 2015August 11, 2015

    We’ve watched, with some interest, the unfolding story that began last week in Colorado when the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) caused an environmental disaster of incalculable proportions. EPA workers were fiddling around with, what, testing?, at the now abandoned Gold King Mine, an old gold mine where millions of gallons of wastewater used during mining was stored. During their testing (or whatever they were doing) at the site, they accidentally unplugged the wastewater storage pond and millions (originally said to be 1 million, now disclosed as 3 million) gallons of very nasty wastewater with lead, arsenic and other heavy metals flowed into the the Animas River north of Silverton, CO, turning the water “an opaque orange color reminiscent of boxed mac and cheese.” Stick with us–we’re about to make a connection to the Marcellus Shale…
    Read More “EPA Causes Environmental Disaster in CO; Connection to Marcellus?”

  • Huntingdon County (PA) | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

    HalenHardy’s Annual Oil & Gas EHS Day – Learning + Fun!

    August 11, 2015August 11, 2015

    MDN is happy and proud to announce the annual one-day oil & gas EHS Day sponsored and hosted by HalenHardy in Spruce Creek, PA next Tuesday, August 18. This year’s theme: “Reducing Costs & Eliminating Waste While Improving EHS in Tough Economic Times”. MDN friend Donny Beaver is once again hosting the annual oil and gas EHS (environmental health and safety) Day. For those who may not know, Donny owns several companies, one of them HalenHardy which develops products and services that improve worker health and safety across multiple industries, including oil and gas (see Marcellus Entrepreneur Donny Beaver: Silica Dust, Mud & Heck Out). This year’s EHS Day speakers include Roger Willis, the retired president of Universal Well Services, and Bob Slack, current director of health, safety and environment for Universal Well Services, as well as Donny himself. Come on out for a day of learning…and fun! You might win a prize too…
    Read More “HalenHardy’s Annual Oil & Gas EHS Day – Learning + Fun!”

  • Baker Hughes | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

    Baker Hughes July Rig Counts – U.S. May have Bottomed, but Not NE

    August 10, 2015August 10, 2015

    Are we there yetOn Friday Baker Hughes, which is being forced into a merger with Halliburton by the end of this year/early next year, issued a summary of rig counts last Friday. At first blush it appears to be good news, but when you dig under the surface, it’s not–at least for the Marcellus/Utica. The international rig count was 1,118, down 28 from the 1,146 counted in June 2015. However, the average U.S. rig count for July 2015 was 866, up 5 from the 861 counted in June 2015. It appears we’ve turned the corner on how low rig counts will go–we’ve bottomed and are either holding steady (in the U.S.), or perhaps every so slightly gaining ground again. But then we ran the numbers for the Marcellus/Utica and found rig counts continue to decline month over month…
    Read More “Baker Hughes July Rig Counts – U.S. May have Bottomed, but Not NE”

  • Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

    World Oil’s Drilling Forecast for Marcellus/Utica Balance of 2015

    August 10, 2015August 10, 2015

    World Oil is out with a wide ranging forecast for what will happen for the balance of 2015 in the upstream (drilling) sector of the oil and gas industry. Using surveys of both major and smaller drillers, World Oil confirms what we already knew: driller will spend less in 2015 than they did in 2014 on drilling new wells–on average 34.2% less (because of low commodity prices). World Oil takes a look at the regional impact and offers the following insight into what’s coming for both Pennsylvania and Ohio for the balance of 2015 (hint: PA drilling won’t feel the affects as much as OH)…
    Read More “World Oil’s Drilling Forecast for Marcellus/Utica Balance of 2015”

  • Crime | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

    PA’s Anti-Drilling AG Kathleen Kane Arrested, Fingerprinted

    August 10, 2015August 10, 2015

    Kathleen Kane, Pennsylvania’s anti-drilling Attorney General, has been arrested. It was a long time coming (too long), but last Thursday she was officially charged with perjury, obstruction, conspiracy, official oppression, and other offenses. Not related to the drilling industry. She was arrested and finger printed on Saturday. And what does Kane do? She hides behind her skirt–claiming it’s men (i.e. political bullies) out to get her because she’s a girl. Yeah, men forced her to lie under oath and fire people who worked for her that testified against her, right? What a coward. We’re not going to recount the litany of stories we’ve written about Kane’s prejudice against the Marcellus industry (you can read our Kane stories here). She hasn’t resigned–yet. We do expect that to happen. If she doesn’t resign, she should be forced from office via impeachment. Here’s the latest in PA’s ongoing soap opera about Kathleen Kane…
    Read More “PA’s Anti-Drilling AG Kathleen Kane Arrested, Fingerprinted”

  • Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY | Tioga County (NY)

    NY Heroes: More Details on NY Propane Fracking Proposal

    August 10, 2015August 10, 2015

    real heroesSome more details about the brilliant move by some average farmers in Tioga County, NY who plan to use propane to frack a Utica Shale well, bypassing the existing ban on fracking in New York because the existing ban only disallows high volume water-based fracking…
    Read More “NY Heroes: More Details on NY Propane Fracking Proposal”

  • Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Dominion Energy | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Virginia

    One US Forest Service Employee Sends Questions to FERC re Pipeline

    August 10, 2015August 10, 2015

    We spotted a story last week published by the Associated Press with a first sentence that begins this way: “The U.S. Forest Service has raised hundreds of concerns about a proposed natural gas pipeline that would carve a 30-mile swath through national forests in Virginia and West Virginia.” The pipeline is Dominion’s $5 billion, 550-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline from West Virginia into Virginia and onward to North Carolina. We read the story and then dug a bit further. It seems it’s not the monolithic U.S. Forest Service that is questioning the pipeline, but a single U.S. Forest Service worker–H. Thomas Speaks Jr., forest supervisor for the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests. Mr. Speaks was fed anti-pipeline propaganda from the head of an anti-pipeline organization who is a semi-retired researcher from the University of Virginia–Rick Webb. Webb continues to use his UVA official email account to promote his anti-pipeline viewpoints, implying UVA also opposes the project (see Researcher Uses Official UVA Email to Oppose Dominion Pipeline). We Googled and found a letter from Webb to Speaks which (we assume) include some (many?) of the same talking points Speaks used when submitting his “335 questions, comments and corrections” to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission with regard to running a pipeline through 30 miles of the George Washington and Monongahela national forests…
    Read More “One US Forest Service Employee Sends Questions to FERC re Pipeline”

  • Energy Companies | Gastar Exploration

    Earnings Call Reveals More Details on Gastar’s Marcellus/Utica Plans

    August 10, 2015August 10, 2015

    Last week we reported the very brief comments in Gastar Exploration’s 2Q15 update with respect to the Marcellus/Utica (see Gastar 2Q15: No New Marcellus/Utica Wells, Production Increased Anyway). Last Friday Gastar’s executives held a conference call with analysts and from that call we get a bit more color commentary on what’s happening with Gastar’s northeast drilling program, including an interesting question/answer about Gastar’s Marcellus East acreage actually being a good prospect for Utica development and a discussion about EQT’s monster Utica well in Pennsylvania…
    Read More “Earnings Call Reveals More Details on Gastar’s Marcellus/Utica Plans”

  • Energy Services | Harrison County | Industrywide Issues | Jefferson County (OH) | Lease & Royalty Payments | Ohio | Pipelines | Sunoco Logistics

    Sunoco Settles Case with OH Landowners to Allow Mariner East 2

    August 10, 2015August 10, 2015

    Sunoco Logistics Partners still has an uphill battle to get certain communities to approve pump and valve stations for the Mariner East 1 and 2 pipelines, but is making progress (see Sunoco Reconciles Differences with Municipalities re Mariner East). Sunoco can cross off one problem area in Harrison and Jefferson counties (in Ohio) with respect to the Mariner East 2 set of pipelines. A group of landowners in those two counties have just settled with Sunoco out of court for 50-foot-wide permanent easements the company will place on their property to build the second set of Mariner pipelines. What happened is that the landowners (wisely) held out and got more money out of Sunoco. Everyone is now happy–the landowners get a better (more reasonable) price for permanent easements, and Sunoco is that much closer to beginning construction on the next Mariner project…
    Read More “Sunoco Settles Case with OH Landowners to Allow Mariner East 2”

  • Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | MarkWest Energy | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Washington County

    New $3M Electric Line for MarkWest Compressor in Robinson Twp, PA

    August 10, 2015August 10, 2015

    West Penn Power, a subsidiary of FirstEnergy Corp., is building a new $3 million electric transmission line in Washington County, PA to aide the Marcellus industry. The new electric line, running 1.3 miles in Robinson Township, will connect to a MarkWest compressor station due to be built (see Robinson Twp Delays MarkWest Compressor, Approval Coming Soon). According to FirstEnergy, they will spend close to $50 million on new electric transimission line projects in support of the Marcellus gas industry in western PA over the next three years…
    Read More “New $3M Electric Line for MarkWest Compressor in Robinson Twp, PA”

  • Energy Companies | Rice Energy

    Vote of Confidence: 2nd Rice Energy Exec Purchased Company Stock

    August 10, 2015August 10, 2015

    eating your own dog foodWe’re always a little bit troubled when we see senior management at a company selling their shares of stock in the company they continue to manage. Not long ago four top Carrizo Oil & Gas executive officers, including the CEO, dumped 50,000 shares of stock (see 4 Top Carrizo O&G Officers, Incl CEO, Sell 50K Shares of Company Stock). Not long after that, Carrizo’s CEO Chip Johnson dumped another 6,000 shares (see Carrizo CEO Chip Johnson Sells Another 6K Shares of Stock). Then there are some companies where senior management continues to buy shares of stock. One such company is Marcellus/Utica driller Rice Energy. In May, Rice Energy senior VP and CFO Grayson T. Lisenby bought 6,000 shares of Rice Energy Midstream (see Rice Energy CFO Buys Another 6K Shares of Rice Midstream Stock). We’ve just learned (albeit late) that another Rice Energy executive–James Rogers, senior VP and chief accounting & administrative officer–also purchased stock in Rice Energy Midstream in May…
    Read More “Vote of Confidence: 2nd Rice Energy Exec Purchased Company Stock”

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