Marcellus Drilling News

Crude Oil | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

Norfolk Southern Responds to PA Gov Wolf’s Letter re Oil Trains
June 2, 2015June 2, 2015

A few weeks ago Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf sent an open and public letter to CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern Railway, two major railroads operating in the state, trying to pressure them into accepting the idea that PA may try and slip its own regulations on top of federal regulations with regard to crude oil trains traveling through the state, most of them coming from the North Dakota Bakken Shale region (see PA Gov Wolf Takes Aim at Bakken Oil Trains Traveling Thru PA). Wolf, in his letter, urged both companies “to join Burlington Northern and Santa Fe (BNSF) in adopting improved safety initiatives for all trains with crude-by-rail (CBR) cars operating in Pennsylvania and to fully and expeditiously comply with the U.S. Department of Transportation’s announced Final Rule.” Norfolk Southern has responded with their own open letter back to Wolf (copy embedded below). It’s message? We’re already in compliance with most of the DOT’s Final Rule, and we go over and above the standards in the Final Rule and standards followed by others like BNSF. So put that in your pipe and smoke it Mr. Wolf…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Regulation | Statewide OH | Wastewater

Anti-Drillers Ask Fed EPA (Again) to Regulate OH Injection Wells
June 2, 2015June 2, 2015

In December we wrote about anti-drillers in Ohio asking the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to step in an usurp the legal authority of Ohio’s Dept. of Natural Resources in their role of overseeing wastewater injection wells (see OH Anti Group Wants EPA to Suspend ODNR Injection Well Oversight). As we wrote at the time, “Whenever anti-drillers in a given state don’t like how the state environmental authority is doing its job, they run to the federal government like a petulant child clinging to its mother’s skirt.” The petulant children are back, asking yet again for the EPA to take over injection well regulation in the Buckeye State…
Read More “Anti-Drillers Ask Fed EPA (Again) to Regulate OH Injection Wells”
Centre County | CNG/LNG | Industrywide Issues | Lycoming County | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Getting Marcellus NatGas to Customers without Pipelines
June 2, 2015July 31, 2015

NOTE: This post was updated on 7/30/15 per the request of Compass Natural Gas Partners. The updates reflect that Compass does not market to rural communities/end users, but rather to manufacturers, fleets and businesses that are not located near natural gas pipelines. We thank Compass for setting the record straight. – Jim Willis, Editor, MDN

Wouldn’t it be great if you could sell Pennsylvania’s abundant, clean-burning and cheap Marcellus Shale gas to areas without access to a pipeline or natural gas? Just wave the magic wand and presto-magico gas is delivered to manufacturers, fleets and businesses where no infrastructure now exists. That’s the premise behind a very real company that aims to accomplish that lofty objective. Compass Natural Gas Partners, based in Camp Hill, PA, is building a first of its kind compressed natural gas (CNG) terminal in Lycoming County, PA that will accept Marcellus Shale gas in, clean it up (get rid of the water in it), compress it to 3600 psi, and load it into specially designed trailers that haul it to customers. If this project catches on, it has the power to change how natgas is distributed to locations with no pipelines…
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Industrywide Issues | Research | Sand/Proppant

USGS Spotlight on What Makes Good Frac Sand & Where to Find It
June 2, 2015June 2, 2015

According to the latest research by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), there’s a reason that 70% of frac sand, used in fracking, comes from Wisconsin and Minnesota. The silica (or sand) mined in those Great Plains states has the best characteristics to be used in fracking. But there are other places–even places in the Marcellus/Utica–that are being mined for silica used for fracking. In an article titled “Frac Sand Sources in the United States” published in the May 2015 issue of Rock Products magazine, USGS researchers describe what makes good frac sand and where, in the Lower 48 U.S. state, it’s being mined commercially. We’ve extracted out a section (below) on where silica is mined in the Marcellus/Utica region…
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Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Tue, Jun 2, 2015
June 2, 2015June 2, 2015

The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading:
Read More “Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Tue, Jun 2, 2015”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Taxation

Industry-Backed Ad Turning the Tide Against PA Severance Tax
June 1, 2015June 1, 2015

Must be that new advertisement airing in Pennsylvania warning folks against Gov. Tom Wolf’s Marcellus-killing 15% severance tax is having an effect. How can we tell? Because mainstream media outlets like the ABC affiliate in Harrisburg is manufacturing a false controversy about who’s behind the ads–quoting anti-drillers like Jan Jarrett from the non-transparent partisan group called the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center–to distract people from the effectiveness of the ad. Plus, the pro-Democrat Harrisburg Patriot-News doesn’t even bother manufacturing a false controversy–they just outright criticize and ridicule the ad, not even bothering with a veneer of objectivity…
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Belmont County | Economic Impact | Education | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Processing Plants

Belmont, OH School Will Need to Accept $ Cut from Cracker Project
June 1, 2015June 1, 2015

The teachers’ unions won’t like this one. As part of the “aggressive incentive package” (not yet disclosed) by Ohio Gov. John Kasich in order to lure an ethane cracker plant to the state, the local school district in Belmont County will have to accept concessions. That is, John Kasich wants to deny the lil’ chil’ren money OWED to them. The Shadyside school board will need to sign off on any property tax deal cut with the companies (from PTT Global Chemical from Thailand and Marubeni Corporation from Japan) planning to build the cracker plant complex. We seriously doubt that the school will have much choice in the matter. What if the school (and teachers’ unions) say “no”? Will that stop the plant? You can bet your bottom dollar that ain’t gonna happen with John “foreigner hunter” Kasich on the job…
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Butler County | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Rex Energy

Rex Energy Hires Stonehenge to Build Gathering Pipeline in PA
June 1, 2015June 1, 2015

Rex Energy has contracted with Stonehenge Energy Resources to build a pipeline gathering system for Rex in Butler County, PA. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed, but the system–to be built this year–will provide an additional 400 million cubic feet per day of natural gas pipeline capacity, expandable in the future. The Stonehenge gathering system will deliver gas to MarkWest Energy’s Bluestone processing plant. The details…
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Indiana County | Industrywide Issues | Lackawanna County | Landfills | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Wastewater

PA DEP Meetings on Injection Well, Marcellus Landfill Expansion
June 1, 2015June 1, 2015

The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) will hold two public meetings, one tonight and one two weeks from tonight, with implications for the Marcellus Shale industry in the state. The first meeting, tonight at 6 pm in Indiana County, will be a question and answer session followed by a public hearing on an application from Pennsylvania General Energy Company (PGE) to convert an old production well into a wastewater injection well. The well is located in Grant Township, Indiana County. The second meeting, on June 15 at 6 pm in Lackawanna County, will consider Keystone Sanitary Landfill’s permit application to expand its facility located in Dunmore and Throop Boroughs. That expansion would mean accepting more waste in general, including Marcellus drill cuttings (leftover rock and dirt from drilling). The details for both meetings…
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Electrical Generation | Industrywide Issues | Lackawanna County | Pennsylvania

Scranton Newspaper Endorses Jessup Marcellus-Powered Electric Plant
June 1, 2015August 26, 2015

Must be a major advertiser has jerked pretty hard on the Scranton Times-Tribune’s chain because the newspaper that rarely supports anything to do with drilling is all of a sudden singing the praises of the planned Marcellus gas-powered electric generating plant in Jessup, PA being planned by Invenergy (see Newspaper Admits PA Gas-Powered Electric Plant Will Pollute Less). The editorial board of the Times-Tribune penned an editorial that is a full-throated endorsement of the project. The editorial says, in part…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Maryland | Regulation | Statewide MD

Outsider Anti-Drilling Groups Celebrate Victory in Maryland Frack Ban
June 1, 2015June 1, 2015

As MDN reported last week, Maryland’s new Republican Governor, Larry Hogan–missing an important piece of his male anatomy–allowed a Maryland bill to become law that bans fracking in Maryland for another two years (see Maryland’s Pusillanimous Gov Allows Frack Moratorium to Become Law). That now gives non-Maryland anti-fracking groups another two years in which to lock down a total and permanent ban on fracking–which is their stated goal. The odious Food & Water Watch and other non-Maryland, outsider anti-drilling groups couldn’t be happier over the victory…
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CNG/LNG | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Spectra Energy

NYC Conf: Competing Visions to Relieve New England Gas Crunch
June 1, 2015June 1, 2015

SNL Financial reports on the Platts Northeast Power and Gas Markets Conference in New York City, held last week on May 28-29. Among those participating were companies offering vastly different solutions for the ongoing natural gas shortage in New England. On one side was GDF Suez Gas NA LLC (a French company) and Repsol Energy North America (a Spanish company), both hoping to import LNG to Massachusetts. Their pitch is that New England just needs enough natural gas to even out the peaks and valleys of supply–and of course GDF’s LNG terminal is the perfect solution (see Guess Why GDF Suez Doesn’t Want Marcellus Pipeline to New England). On the other side was Spectra Energy whose stated goal is to move 1/3 of Marcellus Shale gas produced into New England (see Access Northeast Pipeline — Pulling Ahead of Kinder’s NED Project?). Here’s a summary/wrap-up…
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Industrywide Issues | Research

Report: Shale Drillers Find Ways to Profit by Lowering Costs
June 1, 2015June 1, 2015

The New York-based Manhattan Institute, a non-profit think tank with a mission “to develop and disseminate new ideas that foster greater economic choice and individual responsibility,” says the shale revolution is only just getting started, contrary to the naysayers who believe the low price of oil and gas means the end of the revolution. In a new report titled “Shale 2.0: Technology and the Coming Big-Data Revolution in America’s Shale Oil Fields” (full copy below), Mark Mills, a Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, writes that new technology is rapidly lowering the cost to produce shale energy and that drillers will be able to turn a profit on much lower oil and gas prices than previously thought…
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BG Group | BP | Energy Companies | Equinor/Statoil | Industrywide Issues | Shell | Taxation | Total

Big European Oil Companies Want UN to Slap Carbon Tax on U.S.
June 1, 2015June 1, 2015

The Europeans are sometimes, well, stupid. How else can you explain six large oil companies–BG Group, BP, Eni, Royal Dutch Shell, Statoil and Total–buying into the tax scheme called carbon credits? The six sent a letter (copy below) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) begging the UN to introduce carbon pricing systems and “create clear, stable, ambitious policy frameworks that could eventually connect national systems” that would “reduce uncertainty and encourage the most cost effective ways of reducing carbon emissions widely.” This is madness. Create laws that supersede each country’s sovereignty and impose a worldwide tax on carbon–the stuff you breathe out with every breath–as some sort of solution for the imaginary problem of man-made global warming? If the UN does such a thing, it will spell the end of the companies sending the letter! What do you call a company trying to commit economic suicide? Do the investors of these six companies know the heads of those companies are trying to destroy the company and their investments along with it? No wonder Europe is in decline…
Read More “Big European Oil Companies Want UN to Slap Carbon Tax on U.S.”
Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Mon, Jun 1, 2015
June 1, 2015June 1, 2015

The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading:
Read More “Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Mon, Jun 1, 2015”
Accidents | Chevron | Energy Companies | Greene County (PA) | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania

Chevron Settles PA Marcellus Wrongful Death Lawsuit for $5M
May 29, 2015May 29, 2015

In February 2014 there was an explosion and fire at a Chevron well pad that eventually spread from one Marcellus well to a second well on the same well pad in Greene County, PA (see Explosion & Fire at Chevron Well in SWPA – 1 Person Missing). Ian McKee, 27, a Cameron International contractor working at the site was tragically killed in the blast (see Remains of Chevron Contractor Found at Greene County Well Site). The final report of the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) investigating the accident concluded there was plenty of blame for Chevron, primarily from using overworked and inexperienced well site managers (see DEP Issues Final Report – What Caused Chevron Well Fire?). Ian’s girlfriend/partner was pregnant at the time of his death. Ian’s parents sued Chevron for wrongful death (see Parents of Worker Killed in Chevron Greene Co Fire Sue). That lawsuit has just been settled for $5 million, broken down as follows…
Read More “Chevron Settles PA Marcellus Wrongful Death Lawsuit for $5M”