As MDN told you last week, natural gas production in Pennsylvania went DOWN from January to February 2015 (see Exclusive: PA Feb Natgas Production Numbers Show Decrease from Jan). We now have the percentage by which it decreased: 9%. As we said last week, EQT and a few other laggards didn’t file their numbers on time. Those numbers are now in and we have the final summary below showing production for both January and February, and the percentage difference–both by county and by driller. Mainstream and industry publications we’ve read say February natgas production in PA was either flat or slightly up from January. That simply is not the case. We’ve run the numbers–twice. We’ve pulled the raw data from the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection–twice. We’ve checked and rechecked and, as we predicted last week, “we expect production to have decreased somewhere around 8-10% overall.” We nailed it, if we might immodestly say so ourselves. So why does everyone else say production rose slightly?… Read More “Confirmed: PA Natgas Production Decreased from Jan to Feb 2015”
Wow–who woulda thunk? Drillers in West Virginia paid double the amount of revenue in severance taxes in 2014 than they did in 2013–a total of $188 million. Those numbers are approaching the total haul for the tax/impact fee in Pennsylvania (a little over $200 million each year). But there’s a big difference between the revenue raised in WV and PA. In PA, 60% of the revenue raised stays local with the towns and counties where drilling occurs, and 40% goes to the state and other geographies. We call the 40% “walking around money” (i.e. extortion) that politicians had to agree to in order to get any kind of deal done that remotely approaches common sense. In WV however, an eye-popping 90% of the severance revenue raised goes to the state–to disappear through politicians’ fingers–while a meager 7.5% stays in the counties that see drilling… Read More “WV Severance Tax Doubles in 2014, 90% Disappears in Charleston”
How low will it go? Data from the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) shows a significant drop in the number of Marcellus Shale drilling permits issued for the first quarter of 2015. In fact, the number of permits issued dropped 30% in 1Q15–to the lowest number of permits issued in the past five years. Here’s a look at the numbers… Read More “PA Drilling Permits Drop 30% Jan-Mar – How Low Will it Go?”
One more twist in what is shaping up to be a very long process to build the state’s largest electric generating plant powered by Marcellus Shale gas. Invenergy hopes to build the 1500-megawatt plant in the borough of Jessup (Lackawanna County), near Scranton, on an 80-acre former coal mine and landfill site (see UGI to Feed Jessup, PA Electric Plant with Marcellus Shale Gas). The project was announced in 2013. Part of the evaluation process for the site is to determine if there’s nasty stuff left over from the landfill that needs to be moved. Invenergy hired a company to drill some test holes to analyze what’s down there. As part of drilling those holes, the company hired “disturbed” three wetlands areas. In other words, they pushed some dirt around in three mud puddles/swamps. Invenergy recognized the error and immediately notified the Dept. of Environmental Protection who has now, nine months later, issued a notice of violation to Invenergy for disturbing the mud puddles. It remains to be seen how costly the error was… Read More “Invenergy Gets Notice of Violation in PA for Disturbing 3 Mud Puddles”
Aubrey McClendon, former CEO of Chesapeake Energy, current CEO of American Energy Partners and the media’s favorite bad boy of fracking–knows a thing or two about developing a deep bench. In addition to Aubrey’s focus on natural gas drilling, he’s one of the co-owners of the Oklahoma City Thunder NBA basketball team. So Aubrey knows it’s good to have a lot of talent on the bench and in the game. In that spirit, Aubrey has just made three more hires to, as he says, “broaden and deepen” his management team. Yesterday American Energy Partners announced that it has hired Scott D. Sachs as Senior Geoscience Executive Advisor, James C. Johnson as Senior Marketing and Midstream Executive and Traci D. Cook as Chief Accounting Officer… Read More “McClendon Deepens the AEP Bench with 3 New Hires”
Is there a weather forecast worth the pixels used to broadcast it? We doubt it. We laugh when we hear about “climate change” coming in the next X years, which really means global warming, and how the “average temperature” of old Mother Earth is about to skyrocket–any year now. Of course hucksters like Al Gore have been saying that for the past 25 years. And still the average temp on earth goes up, then it goes down, then it goes up. OMG–climate changes! Can you believe that?!! What dopes. Anyway, last month we brought you the long range weather forecast for the entire country, month by month, from Weather Services International (WSI)–a respected weather prognosticating company used by many in the natural gas industry (see Marcellus/Utica 3-Month Temp Forecast: Cold, Warm, Warm). New month, new forecast. And guess what? The forecast has changed. Now WSI says weather in the northeast will remain cooler than “normal” all summer long–at least through July. Yipee. Meanwhile Al Gore and those incredibly brainy “scientists” he listens to are making predictions about the weather decades down the road–when we can’t get it right from month to month–even day to day… Read More “Weather/Natgas Forecast for NE Revised: Cool All Summer (Yuck)”
When MDN editor Jim Willis attends industry conferences, more often than not there is at least one, sometimes more than one, session on CSR, or Corporate Social Responsibility. CSR means oil and gas companies ensure they are in compliance not only with the letter, but the spirit of the laws and regulations under which they operate. It also means going beyond the minimum and being good neighbors and participating in the communities in which they operate. Our industry takes the CSR role seriously. So when we noticed that Hess was named the No. 1 oil and gas company on Corporate Responsibility magazine’s prestigious list of 100 Best Corporate Citizens for 2015, we thought it worth mentioning and giving them a shout-out for a job well done… Read More “Hess Named #1 O&G Company on 100 Best Corporate Citizens List”
Click image for larger versionThe U.S. is already the number one producer of both natural gas AND oil in the world (see USA is #1 Natgas and #1 Oil Producer in the World in 2014). We dethroned Russia as the #1 natgas producer and Saudi Arabia as the #1 oil producer. According to researchers at IHS, another #1 is fast on the way. IHS says the U.S. is poised to dethrone the Middle East as the #1 exporter of light naphtha, an essential steam-cracker feedstock used for the production of gasoline and numerous chemicals… Read More “Poised to Become #1 Exporter of Light Naphtha”
Last October MDN told you about the rumor that a pair of companies from Thailand and Japan were partnering with the aim of building an ethane cracker plant in the Marcellus/Utica region (see Thailand & Japan Partner to Build 3rd Big Marcellus Ethane Cracker). It’s not just any pair of companies, either. The companies are Thailand’s largest chemical company, Bangkok-based PTT Global Chemical, and Japan’s fifth largest general trading company/conglomerates, Tokyo-based Marubeni Corp. These are serious players. They were reported to be considering three different locations in Pennsylvania and Ohio. Since that time we’ve not heard anything–until now. Yesterday, Columbus Business First reporter Tom Knox reported PTT is taking a “big step forward” in the process and has decided on a site in Belmont County, OH. The new rumor is that PTT/Ohio will make some sort of announcement this week… Read More “Rumor: Ohio Cracker Plant Announcement Coming This Week”
Lots of cracker plant talk today on MDN. Last October, MDN told you about potential plans for a “baby” ethane cracker plant–smaller than the typical project–to be built (potentially) in Monroe County, OH (see Ohio to Get “Baby” Ethane Cracker Originally Slated for WV). The company behind that project is Appalachian Resins (AR). Their plan is to build an ethylene/polyethylene production facility rather than a full-blown cracker plant. Although smaller, it would still be a huge (really huge) economic boom for the region. A few weeks ago DownstreamToday learned that AR is still committed to moving forward with their plans to build the baby cracker in Monroe County, even though some of the economics have changed… Read More “Ohio “Baby Cracker” Plant Still a Go – 2018 Startup Date”
Patterson-UTI operates (leases out) drilling rigs for shale and conventional drilling. They are one of the biggest rig firms in the Marcellus/Utica. They were also, a few years ago, a juicy target for the mob. The mob told Patterson that the goodfellas didn’t like Patterson’s hiring patterns. Patterson wasn’t treating all of its employees exactly the same. And the color mix of employees was a bit off for the mob’s taste. So the mob did what they do best–a shake down. Patterson could pay them big bucks and the problems would all magically disappear. It’s called protection money. The cost to Patterson to “protect them” would run into the millions–which is why the company originally opposed such a scheme. But in the end, Patterson caved and handed over $12.26 million in protection money to the mob. Oops. Did we say “mob”? We meant to say “U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.” And did we say “protection money?” We meant to say “settlement.” Here’s the details behind the shakedown of Patterson-UTI… Read More “Patterson-UTI Shaken Down for $12.26 Million”
As MDN told you last week, natural gas production in Pennsylvania went DOWN from January to February 2015 (see Exclusive: PA Feb Natgas Production Numbers Show Decrease from Jan). We now have the percentage by which it decreased: 9%. As we said last week, EQT and a few other laggards didn’t file their numbers on time. Those numbers are now in and we have the final summary below showing production for both January and February, and the percentage difference–both by county and by driller. Mainstream and industry publications we’ve read say February natgas production in PA was either flat or slightly up from January. That simply is not the case. We’ve run the numbers–twice. We’ve pulled the raw data from the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection–twice. We’ve checked and rechecked and, as we predicted last week, “we expect production to have decreased somewhere around 8-10% overall.” We nailed it, if we might immodestly say so ourselves. So why does everyone else say production rose slightly?…
Wow–who woulda thunk? Drillers in West Virginia paid double the amount of revenue in severance taxes in 2014 than they did in 2013–a total of $188 million. Those numbers are approaching the total haul for the tax/impact fee in Pennsylvania (a little over $200 million each year). But there’s a big difference between the revenue raised in WV and PA. In PA, 60% of the revenue raised stays local with the towns and counties where drilling occurs, and 40% goes to the state and other geographies. We call the 40% “walking around money” (i.e. extortion) that politicians had to agree to in order to get any kind of deal done that remotely approaches common sense. In WV however, an eye-popping 90% of the severance revenue raised goes to the state–to disappear through politicians’ fingers–while a meager 7.5% stays in the counties that see drilling…
More troubling talk from Odebrecht about a proposed ethane cracker plant in Parkersburg, WV. In February, MDN brought you the first tremors in what until that point had been nothing but positive signs the project would move forward (see First Cloud Appears for Odebrect WV Ethane Cracker Plant Project and Parkersburg Cracker Plant Decision May Not Come in 2015 After All). Now comes word that Odebrect and its American subsidiary Braskem have pushed the pause button on the WV cracker project…
How low will it go? Data from the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) shows a significant drop in the number of Marcellus Shale drilling permits issued for the first quarter of 2015. In fact, the number of permits issued dropped 30% in 1Q15–to the lowest number of permits issued in the past five years. Here’s a look at the numbers…
One more twist in what is shaping up to be a very long process to build the state’s largest electric generating plant powered by Marcellus Shale gas. Invenergy hopes to build the 1500-megawatt plant in the borough of Jessup (Lackawanna County), near Scranton, on an 80-acre former coal mine and landfill site (see UGI to Feed Jessup, PA Electric Plant with Marcellus Shale Gas). The project was announced in 2013. Part of the evaluation process for the site is to determine if there’s nasty stuff left over from the landfill that needs to be moved. Invenergy hired a company to drill some test holes to analyze what’s down there. As part of drilling those holes, the company hired “disturbed” three wetlands areas. In other words, they pushed some dirt around in three mud puddles/swamps. Invenergy recognized the error and immediately notified the Dept. of Environmental Protection who has now, nine months later, issued a notice of violation to Invenergy for disturbing the mud puddles. It remains to be seen how costly the error was…
Aubrey McClendon, former CEO of Chesapeake Energy, current CEO of American Energy Partners and the media’s favorite bad boy of fracking–knows a thing or two about developing a deep bench. In addition to Aubrey’s focus on natural gas drilling, he’s one of the co-owners of the Oklahoma City Thunder NBA basketball team. So Aubrey knows it’s good to have a lot of talent on the bench and in the game. In that spirit, Aubrey has just made three more hires to, as he says, “broaden and deepen” his management team. Yesterday American Energy Partners announced that it has hired Scott D. Sachs as Senior Geoscience Executive Advisor, James C. Johnson as Senior Marketing and Midstream Executive and Traci D. Cook as Chief Accounting Officer…
The third shoe has now dropped. On Monday we told you that Schlumberger has cut an additional 11,000 jobs–20,000 total now gone–from the payroll (see Schlumberger Cuts Another 11K Jobs, 15% of Workforce Gone in 4 Mos). Yesterday Baker Hughes cut an additional 3,500 jobs–10,500 now gone (see Baker Hughes Follows Schlumberger, Ups Layoffs to 17% of Workforce). Today? Halliburton has admitted instead of cutting 6,400 jobs as previously announced, they’ve actually cut 9,000 jobs…
Is there a weather forecast worth the pixels used to broadcast it? We doubt it. We laugh when we hear about “climate change” coming in the next X years, which really means global warming, and how the “average temperature” of old Mother Earth is about to skyrocket–any year now. Of course hucksters like Al Gore have been saying that for the past 25 years. And still the average temp on earth goes up, then it goes down, then it goes up. OMG–climate changes! Can you believe that?!! What dopes. Anyway, last month we brought you the long range weather forecast for the entire country, month by month, from Weather Services International (WSI)–a respected weather prognosticating company used by many in the natural gas industry (see Marcellus/Utica 3-Month Temp Forecast: Cold, Warm, Warm). New month, new forecast. And guess what? The forecast has changed. Now WSI says weather in the northeast will remain cooler than “normal” all summer long–at least through July. Yipee. Meanwhile Al Gore and those incredibly brainy “scientists” he listens to are making predictions about the weather decades down the road–when we can’t get it right from month to month–even day to day…
When MDN editor Jim Willis attends industry conferences, more often than not there is at least one, sometimes more than one, session on CSR, or Corporate Social Responsibility. CSR means oil and gas companies ensure they are in compliance not only with the letter, but the spirit of the laws and regulations under which they operate. It also means going beyond the minimum and being good neighbors and participating in the communities in which they operate. Our industry takes the CSR role seriously. So when we noticed that Hess was named the No. 1 oil and gas company on Corporate Responsibility magazine’s prestigious list of 100 Best Corporate Citizens for 2015, we thought it worth mentioning and giving them a shout-out for a job well done…![IHSPredictsNaphthaOversupplyThrough2020[1]](//marcellusdrilling.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/IHSPredictsNaphthaOversupplyThrough20201.jpg)
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading:
Last October MDN told you about the rumor that a pair of companies from Thailand and Japan were partnering with the aim of building an ethane cracker plant in the Marcellus/Utica region (see Thailand & Japan Partner to Build 3rd Big Marcellus Ethane Cracker). It’s not just any pair of companies, either. The companies are Thailand’s largest chemical company, Bangkok-based PTT Global Chemical, and Japan’s fifth largest general trading company/conglomerates, Tokyo-based Marubeni Corp. These are serious players. They were reported to be considering three different locations in Pennsylvania and Ohio. Since that time we’ve not heard anything–until now. Yesterday, Columbus Business First reporter Tom Knox reported PTT is taking a “big step forward” in the process and has decided on a site in Belmont County, OH. The new rumor is that PTT/Ohio will make some sort of announcement this week…
It seems that unfortunately, Schlumberger’s second round of layoffs was an omen and indeed a predictor of things to come (see Schlumberger Cuts Another 11K Jobs, 15% of Workforce Gone in 4 Mos). After Schlumberger announced their new massive layoff, Baker Hughes followed suit and today added another 3,500 layoffs to the 7,000 previously announced (see Baker Hughes Announces 7,000 Layoffs Due to Low Oil Price). The new 10,500 number represents 17% of Baker Hughes’ workforce. Of course mixed up in this mess is the shotgun marriage–Baker Hughes is being forced to sell to Halliburton (see Halliburton & Baker Hughes Vote to Approve Shotgun Wedding). This morning Baker Hughes released their first quarter 2015 results, and the new layoffs news was embedded in that announcement…
Patterson-UTI operates (leases out) drilling rigs for shale and conventional drilling. They are one of the biggest rig firms in the Marcellus/Utica. They were also, a few years ago, a juicy target for the mob. The mob told Patterson that the goodfellas didn’t like Patterson’s hiring patterns. Patterson wasn’t treating all of its employees exactly the same. And the color mix of employees was a bit off for the mob’s taste. So the mob did what they do best–a shake down. Patterson could pay them big bucks and the problems would all magically disappear. It’s called protection money. The cost to Patterson to “protect them” would run into the millions–which is why the company originally opposed such a scheme. But in the end, Patterson caved and handed over $12.26 million in protection money to the mob. Oops. Did we say “mob”? We meant to say “U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.” And did we say “protection money?” We meant to say “settlement.” Here’s the details behind the shakedown of Patterson-UTI…
As MDN told you last week, natural gas production in Pennsylvania went DOWN from January to February 2015 (see 
Wow–who woulda thunk? Drillers in West Virginia paid double the amount of revenue in severance taxes in 2014 than they did in 2013–a total of $188 million. Those numbers are approaching the total haul for the tax/impact fee in Pennsylvania (a little over $200 million each year). But there’s a big difference between the revenue raised in WV and PA. In PA, 60% of the revenue raised stays local with the towns and counties where drilling occurs, and 40% goes to the state and other geographies. We call the 40% “walking around money” (i.e. extortion) that politicians had to agree to in order to get any kind of deal done that remotely approaches common sense. In WV however, an eye-popping 90% of the severance revenue raised goes to the state–to disappear through politicians’ fingers–while a meager 7.5% stays in the counties that see drilling…
More troubling talk from Odebrecht about a proposed ethane cracker plant in Parkersburg, WV. In February, MDN brought you the first tremors in what until that point had been nothing but positive signs the project would move forward (see 
How low will it go? Data from the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) shows a significant drop in the number of Marcellus Shale drilling permits issued for the first quarter of 2015. In fact, the number of permits issued dropped 30% in 1Q15–to the lowest number of permits issued in the past five years. Here’s a look at the numbers…
One more twist in what is shaping up to be a very long process to build the state’s largest electric generating plant powered by Marcellus Shale gas. Invenergy hopes to build the 1500-megawatt plant in the borough of Jessup (Lackawanna County), near Scranton, on an 80-acre former coal mine and landfill site (see 
Aubrey McClendon, former CEO of Chesapeake Energy, current CEO of American Energy Partners and the media’s favorite bad boy of fracking–knows a thing or two about developing a deep bench. In addition to Aubrey’s focus on natural gas drilling, he’s one of the co-owners of the Oklahoma City Thunder NBA basketball team. So Aubrey knows it’s good to have a lot of talent on the bench and in the game. In that spirit, Aubrey has just made three more hires to, as he says, “broaden and deepen” his management team. Yesterday American Energy Partners announced that it has hired Scott D. Sachs as Senior Geoscience Executive Advisor, James C. Johnson as Senior Marketing and Midstream Executive and Traci D. Cook as Chief Accounting Officer…
The third shoe has now dropped. On Monday we told you that Schlumberger has cut an additional 11,000 jobs–20,000 total now gone–from the payroll (see 
Is there a weather forecast worth the pixels used to broadcast it? We doubt it. We laugh when we hear about “climate change” coming in the next X years, which really means global warming, and how the “average temperature” of old Mother Earth is about to skyrocket–any year now. Of course hucksters like Al Gore have been saying that for the past 25 years. And still the average temp on earth goes up, then it goes down, then it goes up. OMG–climate changes! Can you believe that?!! What dopes. Anyway, last month we brought you the long range weather forecast for the entire country, month by month, from Weather Services International (WSI)–a respected weather prognosticating company used by many in the natural gas industry (see 
When MDN editor Jim Willis attends industry conferences, more often than not there is at least one, sometimes more than one, session on CSR, or Corporate Social Responsibility. CSR means oil and gas companies ensure they are in compliance not only with the letter, but the spirit of the laws and regulations under which they operate. It also means going beyond the minimum and being good neighbors and participating in the communities in which they operate. Our industry takes the CSR role seriously. So when we noticed that Hess was named the No. 1 oil and gas company on Corporate Responsibility magazine’s prestigious list of 100 Best Corporate Citizens for 2015, we thought it worth mentioning and giving them a shout-out for a job well done…![IHSPredictsNaphthaOversupplyThrough2020[1]](http://marcellusdrilling.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/IHSPredictsNaphthaOversupplyThrough20201.jpg)
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading:
Last October MDN told you about the rumor that a pair of companies from Thailand and Japan were partnering with the aim of building an ethane cracker plant in the Marcellus/Utica region (see 
It seems that unfortunately, Schlumberger’s second round of layoffs was an omen and indeed a predictor of things to come (see 
Patterson-UTI operates (leases out) drilling rigs for shale and conventional drilling. They are one of the biggest rig firms in the Marcellus/Utica. They were also, a few years ago, a juicy target for the mob. The mob told Patterson that the goodfellas didn’t like Patterson’s hiring patterns. Patterson wasn’t treating all of its employees exactly the same. And the color mix of employees was a bit off for the mob’s taste. So the mob did what they do best–a shake down. Patterson could pay them big bucks and the problems would all magically disappear. It’s called protection money. The cost to Patterson to “protect them” would run into the millions–which is why the company originally opposed such a scheme. But in the end, Patterson caved and handed over $12.26 million in protection money to the mob. Oops. Did we say “mob”? We meant to say “U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.” And did we say “protection money?” We meant to say “settlement.” Here’s the details behind the shakedown of Patterson-UTI…