Marcellus Drilling News

Industrywide Issues | Regulation

Widespread Use of Drones in Northeast Drilling May Start This Year
February 11, 2015February 11, 2015

Question: What do you call a model airplane or model helicopter with a camera attached to it? Answer: A drone. We always find is fascinating to hear talk about “drones” in the news because it conjures an image of unmanned but nearly full-sized airplanes flying over Afghanistan looking for baddies like Osama. When if finds a baddie, the remote pilot flies that sucker with a bomb strapped to it into the ground, killing the target. Somewhere along the way “model airplane” got renamed “drone”–we suspect intentionally, to give you that mental imagery. Anywho…the Marcellus and Utica Shale industry would like to use “drones” to monitor pipelines and scout out locations for future drill pads, but the Federal Aviation Administration currently blocks most such activity. That may change this year…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Statewide NY

NY Anti-Drillers have “Ban Fever,” Want to Spread It Beyond NY
February 11, 2015February 11, 2015

It wasn’t so long ago loonies in New York State pressured a politically weak governor, Andrew Cuomo, to ban fracking (see After 6+ Years, Andrew Cuomo Bans Fracking in New York). “Whew” (you may think), “That’s New York–you know, where all the liberal loonies live. Glad it’s not here in my state.” Well yes, in NY we do have more than our fair share of anti-drilling nutters. But don’t think you’re safe. Even though NY’s anti-drillers have had a small taste of “victory” in the Empire State, their appetite is not sated. Now NY’s anti-drillers are targeting drilling in other states. Their own members openly talk of halting/banning drilling everywhere, including PA. They say they’ve got the “ban fever” and just like the measles, they want it to spread…
Read More “NY Anti-Drillers have “Ban Fever,” Want to Spread It Beyond NY”
About MDN | MDN Resources

MDN Releases Vol. 3 for 2014 Marcellus/Utica Shale Databook
February 11, 2015March 13, 2015

MDN has just launched Volume 3 of the 2014 Marcellus and Utica Shale Databook. The Databook is a 3-volume series we issue each year, meant for companies and even serious landowners who want to know what’s happening and where in the Marcellus and Utica Shale. It contains a series of maps–one for each county throughout the northeast where permits have been issued for shale wells. On the maps we show where the permit was issued, and who (which company) it was issued to. In addition, MDN editor Jim Willis writes a number of special sections to update you on drilling and related issues, including regulatory, prices, rig and well count trends and much more. Each issue also sports special sections not repeated in the other volumes. In Vol. 3 we have a comprehensive list of Marcellus/Utica waste facilities–injection wells, landfills and more. We give you the name, location and phone number for the facility. Bang–we just saved you about 10 hours of work! Also in Vol. 3 is a special contributed section by two experts on factors influencing the production of Marcellus Shale wells–and how those factors affect a well’s decline curve…
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Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Wed, Feb 11, 2015
February 11, 2015February 11, 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: Wed, Feb 11, 2015”
Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA Senators Have Some Tough Questions for DEP Nominee John Quigley
February 10, 2015February 10, 2015

As the time approaches for hearings on newly-elected Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s choices to head up key agencies, like John Quigley nominated to heard the Dept. of Environmental Protection, some senators will have some pointed questions for him. MDN has covered some of Mr. Quigley’s controversial positions–things he’s written on his blog and the time he has spent at the anti-drilling PennFuture (see In His Own Words: Quigley’s Positions on Fracking, NY Ban, Etc.). He’s a true believer in global warming and thinks the heavy hand of government should do more to stop it. He’s also on record as saying in PA “in large measure, we have not gotten it right in the past”–referring to Marcellus Shale drilling (see Quigley Says Opportunity to Get Marcellus Drilling “Right” in PA). It’s statements like that that are giving some senators, according to Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, “indigestion”…
Read More “PA Senators Have Some Tough Questions for DEP Nominee John Quigley”
Columbiana County | Energy Companies | Hilcorp Energy | Lawrence County | Mahoning County | Mercer County | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Trumbull County | Utica Shale

Full Speed Ahead for Hilcorp in the Northern Utica in 2015
February 10, 2015February 10, 2015

In 2014 Hilcorp spent some $400 million on drilling in the *northern* Utica Shale play–an area that virtually everyone else has abandoned for the more alluring wet gas to be found in the southeaster portion of the play. According to Hilcorp, they are enjoying success in the northern Utica and that’s where they will continue to focus their efforts…
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Devon Energy | Energy Companies | Guernsey County | Ohio | Utica Shale | Wayne County (OH)

Devon Puts 2 Utica Wells Up for Sale, Not Happy with OH Utica
February 10, 2015February 10, 2015

Devon Energy has put Wayne County, OH’s lone Utica shale well up for sale, along with another Utica well they own in Guernsey County. To which we say we were surprised. We had forgotten Devon had drilled (or owned) any Utica wells in the first place. Perhaps the reason they’re dumping the Wayne County well, which the say has “future utility,” is because it hasn’t produced a thing–oil or natural gas. The well in Guernsey also appears to be a bust. Here’s the brief blurb we caught on Devon exiting the Utica…
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Energy Services | Harrison County | Industrywide Issues | Marathon Petroleum | Ohio | Pipelines | Statewide OH

Marathon Announces Open Season on New Wet Gas Pipelines
February 10, 2015February 10, 2015

Marathon Pipe Line and Ohio River Pipeline, both subsidiaries of Marathon Petroleum Corp., announced binding open seasons on two new pipeline projects in Ohio and beyond. The first is called Cornerstone Pipeline is a 16-inch pipeline for condensate, natural gasoline, diluent and butaine (NGLs) that will begin in Harrison County, OH and run for about 50 miles to Marathon’s refinery in Canton, OH. Along the way it has the potential to connect various processing facilities. The second project is something they’re calling the Utica Build-Out Projects–a pipeline or pipelines that will carry product beyond Canton to other Midwest refineries, reaching Chicago and even into Canada…
Read More “Marathon Announces Open Season on New Wet Gas Pipelines”
Belmont County | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Monroe County | Ohio | Pipelines | Rice Energy | Rice Midstream

Rice Midstream Building New “Zeus” Pipeline in Belmont/Monroe OH
February 10, 2015February 10, 2015

MDN picked up on a bit of news we had not previously heard about. Rice Midstream, the newly formed subsidiary of Rice Energy launched in December (see Rice Midstream IPO Falls Short of Goal by Approx. $134M), is busy at work. They are building eight miles of 30-inch pipeline through portions of Belmont and Monroe counties (in Ohio) as part of their “Zeus” project. This is the first time we’d heard of Zeus (the pipeline). The project will last four months and employ 350 temporary union workers–welders and construction workers…
Read More “Rice Midstream Building New “Zeus” Pipeline in Belmont/Monroe OH”
Columbia Pipeline Group | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | NiSource | Pipelines

Columbia Pipeline IPO Blows By Rosiest Expectations, Nets $1.1B
February 10, 2015February 10, 2015

Last week MDN told you that NiSource was launching an initial public offering (IPO) and spinning off its Columbia Pipeline Group subsidiary into its own subsidiary. NiSource and Columbia were hoping to raise upward of a huge $1 billion (see Columbia Pipeline Floats IPO, Hopes for Upward of $1B). Guess what? They got MORE than $1B! They ended up netting $1.1 billion after pricing units at $23 each (their target was $19-$21). When the units started to trade, they hit $28.01 per unit for a time before falling back to $26.79. How did Columbia’s IPO measure up with some other recent northeast midstream IPOs, like CONSOL, Rice Energy and Antero Resources?…
Read More “Columbia Pipeline IPO Blows By Rosiest Expectations, Nets $1.1B”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Berks County | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants

Canadian EmberClear Aborts Plan to Build $1B GTL Plant Near Philly
February 10, 2015February 10, 2015

Nearly a year ago MDN told you about another plan to build a gas-to-liquids (GTL) plant in Berks County, near Philadelphia (see Another New Gas-to-Liquids Plant Coming in PA – Near Philly). GTL plants convert natural gas into other products, like diesel fuel. Canadian company EmberClear planned to sink $1 billion into the project, but almost immediately the wacko anti-drillers came crawling out of the woodwork (see 0.0024 of Berks County Population Opposes New $1B GTL Plant). Even though fairly small in number, they are mouthy and they are dedicated. So much so that EmberClear has just announced they’re giving up on the project, partially (mostly?) because of the wackos who oppose it…
Read More “Canadian EmberClear Aborts Plan to Build $1B GTL Plant Near Philly”
American Energy Partners | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Litigation

OH Coal Company Sues McClendon to Obtain Copies of Leases
February 10, 2015February 10, 2015

Robert Murray, who owns a coal company that operates under the name Murray Energy, sued Aubrey McClendon in 2013 when McClendon used the name American Energy Partners for his new company. Murray, you see, owns a subsidiary company in Ohio named American Energy Corp. Murray says ole Aubrey has infringed on his company’s name and trademark, so he sued (see McClendon Gets Sued in OH Over New Company’s Name). That was the last we had heard of it, until now. It seems the case is alive and well and Murray has just filed brief saying ole Aubrey should be forced to produce copies of leases he has with landowners in Ohio…
Read More “OH Coal Company Sues McClendon to Obtain Copies of Leases”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Research

New Research: USGS In-Depth Study of Fracking from 1947-2010
February 10, 2015February 10, 2015

The U.S. Geological Survey recently released two new comprehensive studies on fracking. The publications are a “first of their kind” and look at the history of fracking and how it’s changed from 1947 to 2010. The report is a nationwide study of hydraulic fracturing trends, but most of the data comes from (unsurprisingly) Texas, where fracking was born. The report is an analysis of data on nearly one million hydraulically fractured wells and 1.8 million fracturing treatment records. Dunderheaded anti-drillers believe fracking is some new fangled, dangerous technology. It’s not. It’s been around for nearly 70 years! Horizontal drilling has been around for decades too. It is the combination of horiztonal drilling and fracking that is relatively “new”. The more you know about fracking, the more you love it. This pair of studies helps us understand how the technology has changed and evolved over the past seven decades…
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Mahoning County | Ohio | Supply Chain | Vallourec

Vallourec Star Pipeline Plant in OH Shutting Down for 3 Weeks
February 10, 2015February 10, 2015

Vallourec Star, a steel pipe manufacturer in Youngstown, OH, has had more business than it knows what to do with since it opened in 2012. That is, until recently. With the plunging price of oil and gas comes scaled back budgets for drilling in 2015. Vallourec Star has been experiencing a slow down. In anticipation of even more slowing down, they’ve announced a three week shut down of the plant, meaning hundreds of families will have a big hole in their family budgets. For those that can do without a paycheck for a while, the company is also offering a 6-month voluntary layoff, which signals they think the “slow down” may be with us for while…
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Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Tue, Feb 10, 2015
February 10, 2015February 10, 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, Feb 10, 2015”
Blue Ridge Mtn Res/Magnum Hunter | Energy Companies | Energy Services | GreenHunter Resources | Industrywide Issues | Regulation | Wastewater

GreenHunter to Coast Guard, We’re Barging While You Fiddle Around
February 9, 2015February 9, 2015

As MDN chronicled on Friday, there is a dispute between GreenHunter Resources and the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) over what, exactly, constitutes “oil field waste” (see GreenHunter/Coast Guard War of Words — MDN Explains It). If we might toot our own horn for a moment, we were the first to understand and share that understanding of the key issue, which is whether or not produced water (“brine”) from horizontal wells is essentially the same chemically as produced water from vertical-only wells. That is what GreenHunter and the USCG disagree about. GreenHunter says it is the same thing, and the USCG isn’t so sure. On Saturday, our interpretation of that key issue was confirmed by USCG statements–they remain concerned that low levels of radiation, which may or may not be present in produced water from horizontal wells, DOES make shale well produced water potentially different from regular old produced water from vertical wells…
Read More “GreenHunter to Coast Guard, We’re Barging While You Fiddle Around”