Marcellus Drilling News

Energy Companies | Gastar Exploration | Lease & Royalty Payments | Marshall County | West Virginia | Wetzel County

6 Months Later: Gastar Deal to Drill Under Ohio River Not Done
April 20, 2015April 20, 2015

Last October MDN brought you the news that Gastar Exploration had won a lease with West Virginia to drill under a 232-acre tract of the Ohio River at the border of Marshall and Wetzel counties (see Gastar Wins Lease to Drill Under Ohio River in WV). Terms of the lease: $3,500 per acre signing bonus with 20% royalties. At that time, “final aspects of the lease” were being negotiated. In March of this year Statoil signed a deal with WV to drill under 474 acres of the Ohio River (see Statoil Cuts Deal to Drill Under 474 Acres of the Ohio River in WV). Terms of the Statoil lease: $8,732 per acre signing bonus with 20% royalties. The Statoil deal is done and dusted. The Gastar deal? It’s six months later and the lawyers are still squabbling back and forth. The final contract has not yet been signed…
Read More “6 Months Later: Gastar Deal to Drill Under Ohio River Not Done”
American Energy Partners | American Energy Utica | Energy Companies | Harrison County | Ohio

McClendon’s American Energy-Utica Signs OH Water Deal with MWCD
April 20, 2015April 20, 2015

The Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District (MWCD) continues its pro-drilling ways. MWCD was organized in 1933 to reduce the effects of flooding and conserve water for beneficial public uses, oversees 16 dams and reservoirs across 22 counties in Ohio, covering 20% of the state. A huge part of Ohio is under the oversight and control of the MWCD. We’ve previously covered their deals with Antero Resources to lease District property for drilling. We’ve also covered District deals to sell water to Antero and other shale drillers. Last week they signed a new deal, much smaller than others they’ve signed, to sell water to Aubrey McClendon’s American Energy-Utica subsidiary. American Energy will pay $6 per 1,000 gallons (a little over half a penny per gallon). The deal is only for three months–from May through July…
Read More “McClendon’s American Energy-Utica Signs OH Water Deal with MWCD”
Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Range Resources Corp | Washington County | Wastewater

Range Loses 2nd Appeal, Must Provide PA Well Site Chemical List
April 20, 2015February 8, 2019

Three families who live near a former drill site and frack wastewater impoundment at the Yeager Marcellus Shale site in Washington County, PA sued Range Resources in May 2012 claiming the air they breathe and the water they drink had been contaminated by Range’s operation at the site (see EPA Investigating Range Drill Site in Western PA). Litigation ensued, and years passed. In 2013, a Washington County court ordered Range (not its contractors, but Range itself) to disclose a list of all chemicals used at the site–right down to the type of motor oil used in vehicles coming and going at the site (see PA Judge Forces Range, Contractors to Provide Chemical List). It will be an almost impossible task to construct such a list at this point, especially in light of the fact they’re in the process of closing the site. So Range appealed. Last June they lost that appeal (see Court Says Range Resources Must Disclose Chemicals in SW PA). Range appealed again, and last week they lost that second appeal…
Read More “Range Loses 2nd Appeal, Must Provide PA Well Site Chemical List”
Energy Companies | EQT Corp | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pipelines | West Virginia | Wetzel County

Why Some WV Landowners Resist MVP Pipeline: Threats & Low $$
April 20, 2015April 20, 2015

Two weeks ago MDN told you that EQT, NextEra US Gas Assets and their Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project have sued 103 West Virginia landowners to force them to allow access to their property so they can survey it for potential paths for the MVP (see Mountain Valley Pipeline Sues 103 WV Landowners for Survey Access). MVP is a 330-mile pipeline that will stretch from Wetzel County, WV to the Transco Pipeline in Pittsylvania County, VA. But landowners in, of all places, WV seem to be turning against the pipeline. There are so many projects underway in WV and other Marcellus/Utica areas, it almost seems as if there is pipeline fatigue setting in. Make no mistake, pipelines like the MVP are desperately needed to move large volumes of Marcellus/Utica gas to markets outside of the immediate region. Without the pipelines, the drilling will stop–which is what anti-drillers want to happen. But sometimes otherwise supportive landowners are not so supportive of a given pipeline project. Let’s get an inside perspective to better understand some of the reasons why…
Read More “Why Some WV Landowners Resist MVP Pipeline: Threats & Low $$”
Energy Companies | Energy Services | Keystone Clearwater Solutions | Rex Energy

Rex Energy: 1Q15 Production Up 60%; Still Selling Keystone Clearwater
April 20, 2015April 20, 2015

Rex Energy issued a brief announcement today to say a) first quarter 2015 production was up 60% over first quarter of last year, and b) the company is still on track to sell its 60% ownership interest in Keystone Clearwater Solutions, the company’s water service subsidiary (announced in February, see Rex Energy Looks to Sell 28,300 Marcellus Acres in Bid to Raise $). Here’s the details…
Read More “Rex Energy: 1Q15 Production Up 60%; Still Selling Keystone Clearwater”
Education | Energy Companies | Exxon Mobil | Industrywide Issues | New York | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Statewide NY | Statewide OH | Statewide PA

ExxonMobil Donates $47M to Higher Ed, Including Marcellus Region
April 20, 2015April 20, 2015

ExxonMobil runs an incredibly generous program called the Educational Matching Gift Program under which they have just donated $47 million to ~900 colleges and universities across the United States. Here’s how it works: for every $1 ExxonMobil employees, retirees, directors and surviving spouses contribute to the Matching Gift Program, ExxonMobil matches it with $3. In Pennsylvania, the total pot donated to higher education was $3.8 million. In Ohio, it was $909,000. Virginia colleges are getting $1.3 million. New York State colleges and universities are getting a whopping $3.4 million–after New York State has screwed ExxonMobil royally (the company has lost millions of dollars in lease expirations when it couldn’t drill shale wells in the state because of Andrew Cuomo’s fracking ban). And yet, ExxonMobil gave money to the Empire State anyway, to some of the very schools who provide shelter and sponsor anti-drilling zealots. It shows the caliber of the people who run the company. One more: New Jersey, big users of oil and gas, but haters of pipelines and shale drilling, got $1.1 million…
Read More “ExxonMobil Donates $47M to Higher Ed, Including Marcellus Region”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Cayuga County | Industrywide Issues | New York

Sandra Steingraber’s Irrational Hatred of Fossil Fuels Continues
April 20, 2015April 20, 2015

There is no middle ground, no compromise, no basis on which to have a rational, intelligent discussion with a person who refuses to acknowledge reality. The reality we’re talking about is the fundamental and necessary role of petrochemicals–i.e. fossil fuels–in every society on earth, save a few jungle tribes. If you live in any modern civilization on earth today, fossil fuels make it possible. From the clothes on your body to the shoes on your feet, the chair you sit in, the carpet you walk on, the walls and roof of the house or dormitory where you live, the vehicle you drive–the materials that compose it, manufacture it and and power it are based on fossil fuels. And yet there are so-called intelligent, learned people, like Ithaca College’s Sandra Steingraber, who insist we must adopt a tribe-like existence and dump all fossil fuels–now. Forever. One of Steingraber’s favorite methods in talking about fossil fuels (and fracking) is to wax “poetic.” Her latest discourse, recently delivered at Wells College in beautiful Cayuga County, NY (Finger Lakes region), is described this way: “Rather than dissect the dispute [about fracking] through science, charts and graphs, visiting speaker Sandra Steingraber, Ph.D., instead probed the use of fossil fuels through anecdotes and imagery.” In other words, she just makes it up. She concocts erroneous analogies and stories, comparing fracking to things like smoking, and relies on her oratory skills to convince people that fracking, indeed fossil fuels in general, are from the devil himself. And young people at places like Wells College just lap it up…
Read More “Sandra Steingraber’s Irrational Hatred of Fossil Fuels Continues”
Industrywide Issues | Regulation

EPA Brainwashes Kids: Quit Taking Baths, Check Toilet for Leaks
April 20, 2015April 20, 2015

Below is a sterling example of why the federal Environmental Protection Agency should not only be stopped–it should be dismantled. Immediately. The article appears on the Heartland Institute’s website and sports this title: “EPA Tells Kids to Avoid Baths and Asks them to Check Toilets for Leaks”…
Read More “EPA Brainwashes Kids: Quit Taking Baths, Check Toilet for Leaks”
Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Mon, Apr 20, 2015
April 20, 2015April 20, 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, Apr 20, 2015”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Crime | Energy Companies | HG Energy | Industrywide Issues | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Domestic Eco-Terrorism: Worker Shot at Rural WV Oil Well Site
April 17, 2015November 3, 2015

We have what appears to be an act of eco-terrorism, (possibly attempted murder) in southwestern West Virginia, by what appears to be an anti-driller who has had a snap with reality. Mark Miller, a 39 year-old married father of two who works for oil and gas company HG Energy, was visiting a conventional oil well site in Lincoln County on Monday. Miller said in an interview he was at the well, which has a history of leaks, to take pictures of an existing leak. The well is located on state-owned land, in a rural wildlife management area. Miller, in an unmarked pickup truck, started to drive away when a “tall, lanky man dressed in camouflage, with black stuff rubbed all over his face” approached the truck. Miller stopped to see if he could help, assuming the man’s vehicle was broken down somewhere nearby. The man approached the passenger side window, didn’t talk but held up a recorder which played something about not drilling, and he stuck a gun through the window, pointing it at Miller’s head. Miller tried to knock the gun away and the man pulled the trigger, shooting Miller in the hand, shattering bones in his left hand…
Read More “Domestic Eco-Terrorism: Worker Shot at Rural WV Oil Well Site”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | CNG/LNG | Exporting | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

“Peaceful” Protesters Removed from LNG Export Hearing in Philly
April 17, 2015April 20, 2015

Another example of a “peaceful, non-violent” protest occurred yesterday in Philadelphia. City Councilman David Oh organized a meeting to discuss the feasibility of locating a facility inside city limits to liquefy and export natural gas. The city owns Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW), the largest municipal-owned utility in the country. PGW already has a small LNG facility in the city, but currently it’s set up to import LNG, not export it. Councilman Oh wanted to explore the possibility of converting the site to export LNG. You may recall the corrupt Philly City Council nixed a potential deal to sell PGW to UIL Holdings (see Philly City Council Kills the Phila. Gas Works $1.86B Deal). Since that time, City Council members like Oh have tried to save face and figure out how they might turn around the near-bankrupt PGW. One of the most promising ideas is to set up a small exporting operation. A meeting to discuss that idea was held on the campus of Drexel University. A meaningful portion of those attending were anti-drilling nutters who wouldn’t shut up and had to be escorted out by Drexel security personnel. Yep, just more of your “peaceful, non-violent” types out to make a point…
Read More ““Peaceful” Protesters Removed from LNG Export Hearing in Philly”
Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Luzerne County | Pennsylvania | Pike County | Pipelines | Susquehanna County | Tennessee Gas Pipeline | Wayne County

Kinder Morgan Hops on the Pipeline Payola Bandwagon in NEPA
April 17, 2015April 17, 2015

Look–we’ve written about this before and we’re not going to belabor the point–about pipeline companies using payola to buy support for the pipelines they plan to build through communities. The Constitution Pipeline did it last March in New York (see Constitution Pipeline Payments to Groups – Donations or Payola?). PennEast recently did it this March in southeast Pennsylvania and New Jersey (see PennEast Payola? Buying Support One Community at a Time). Now it’s Kinder Morgan’s turn. KM handed out checks this week in Wayne, Susquehanna, Pike and Luzerne counties in northeastern PA. It’s amazing how much good press, and good will, a $10,000 donation can buy you–especially when you give it to a school…
Read More “Kinder Morgan Hops on the Pipeline Payola Bandwagon in NEPA”
CNG/LNG | Dominion Energy | Energy Services | Exporting | Industrywide Issues | Maryland | Regulation | Statewide MD

Cove Point LNG Plant STILL Waiting for Final DOE Approval?!
April 17, 2015April 17, 2015

Something a tad strange caught our eye. Yesterday America’s Natural Gas Alliance (ANGA) released a white paper (copy below) and held a conference call to step up pressure on the Obama Dept. of Energy–with pleas to do the right thing and grant final approval for a list of LNG export projects currently on the list. Some of those projects have been waiting years for a final approval. We knew all of that–but one of the projects named by ANGA on the call and in the white paper is Cove Point. Which made us scratch our head. We thought Cove Point was already was already fully approved by the plethora of government agencies, including DOE, that need to approve it. We reported that Dominion began construction of the facility last October (see Dominion Breaks Ground on Cove Point, MD LNG Export Facility). Just last month Dominion threw a big party to celebrate the project’s approval and future prospects with no less than the Japanese ambassador attending (see Dominion Needles Anti-Drillers by Throwing Party for Cove Point LNG). But now here’s ANGA saying the DOE needs to provide a “final” approval for Cove Point. What gives?…
Read More “Cove Point LNG Plant STILL Waiting for Final DOE Approval?!”
Columbiana County | Energy Companies | Hilcorp Energy | Lease & Royalty Payments | Ohio

Hilcorp Gets Permission to Drill Under Columbiana County Cemetery
April 17, 2015April 17, 2015

Earlier this week we had some fun telling you about Hilcorp’s request to drill under a quarter of an acre of a cemetery in Columbiana County, OH (see Zombie Alert! Hilcorp Wants to Drill Under OH Cemetery). Fairfield Township trustees needed some extra time to consider the matter. After finding out that if they didn’t sign it would prevent a lateral from being drilled, affecting neighboring landowners (cutting them out of royalties–no lateral, no money), all but one trustee voted to sign the deal. The one holdout thought the town should get more in a signing bonus/royalties. He thinks $500 for a quarter acre and 15% royalties isn’t enough…
Read More “Hilcorp Gets Permission to Drill Under Columbiana County Cemetery”
Energy Services | Erie County (OH) | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pipelines | Spectra Energy

Erie County, OH Rolls Out Red Carpet for NEXUS Pipeline
April 17, 2015April 17, 2015

It doesn’t seem to happen often enough, which is why this is noteworthy: The Erie County, OH Board of Commissioners (with three members) sent an official letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to endorse and support the proposed $1.5 billion NEXUS Gas Transmission pipeline from Ohio through Michigan and into Canada (see NEXUS Gas Pipeline Pre-Files with FERC, New Details Come to Light). The NEXUS, like all other proposed pipelines in the northeast, has encountered plenty of opposition (see CORNy Opposition to NEXUS Pipeline in Eastern Ohio). But all three Erie County commissioners want FERC to know their county stands behind the pipeline and welcomes it through their neck of the woods–which means new pipeline trenches would be dug in places where pipelines have not previously been installed. The commissioners are rolling out the red carpet for this “greenfield” project coming through their county. Refreshing!…
Read More “Erie County, OH Rolls Out Red Carpet for NEXUS Pipeline”
Energy Companies | Gulfport Energy

Gulfport Upsizes Stock Offering to 9.5M Shares, Seeks $454M
April 17, 2015April 17, 2015

An update to a story we brought you yesterday about Gulfport Energy. We told you that Gulfport is both floating 7.5 million shares of new stock and floating IOUs (senior notes) to raise money (see Gulfport Looks to Raise $600M+ with Notes & New Stock Offering). At the time Gulfport had not announced the price per share they were looking for and we theorized that if they got the current price of $49.15 they would haul in around $368 million from new stock sales. Gulfport updated the offering. It’s now 9.5 million shares and Gulfport has announced they’re looking for $47.75 per share. Consulting our handy calculator, that would generate $454 million…
Read More “Gulfport Upsizes Stock Offering to 9.5M Shares, Seeks $454M”