Marcellus Drilling News

Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | PennEast Pipeline | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide PA

Time for Pro-Drillers to Take Action on the Penn East Pipeline
May 6, 2015May 6, 2015

A shout-out to everyone in Pennsylvania and New Jersey who wants to pay less for natural gas and electricity. Nefarious groups like THE Delaware Riverkeeper, Sierra Clubbers and others have turned the volume button all the way up on their opposition to the Penn East Pipeline–a 114-mile, 36-inch diameter natural gas pipeline that will run from Luzerne County, PA to Mercer County, NJ. There is no coherent or logical reason to oppose this pipeline, but reason and logic aren’t the stock in trade for anti-fossil fuelers. They just hate all fossil fuels and will lie about projects like the Penn East in an attempt to support their twisted philosophy of ridding the world of fossil fuels (don’t get us started!). At any rate, it’s time for those of us who support clean burning Marcellus Shale gas to step up to the plate and do two simple things: (1) send a comment to FERC supporting the pipeline, (2) send a comment to your elected officials supporting it. We have details below for how you can do it…
Read More “Time for Pro-Drillers to Take Action on the Penn East Pipeline”
Industrywide Issues | Regulation

Republican & Democrat Senators Fight Fed Takeover of Water Supplies
May 6, 2015May 6, 2015

Senator Jim Inhofe (from the great state of Oklahoma) and a group of bipartisan Senators recently introduced a bill that will stop the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers from a massive new power grab by redefining what are “waters of the United States,” or “WOTUS”. The EPA & Army Corps is attempting to redefine WOTUS from its traditional bodies of water you can navigate on to include just about every creek, swamp and mud puddle in existence. If WOTUS is redefined it will have major negative effects on shale drilling, including Marcellus and Utica Shale drilling. This change is yet another attempt by the federal government under Barack H. Obama to take over regulation of oil and gas drilling. It is a massive federal power grab that must be resisted and Inhofe is at the forefront, leading the charge to beat back the federal barbarians…
Read More “Republican & Democrat Senators Fight Fed Takeover of Water Supplies”
Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Wed, May 6, 2015
May 6, 2015May 6, 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, May 6, 2015”
Energy Companies | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County | WPX Energy

Mystery Buyer to Pay WPX Energy $200M for NE Marcellus Assets
May 5, 2015May 5, 2015

WPX Energy announced yesterday that they’ve sold more of (the rest of?) their northeast Marcellus Shale assets. This time it’s not leases and wells, but instead “various long-term natural gas purchase and sales agreements, along with 135 million Btu per day of firm transportation capacity on Transco’s Northeast Supply Link project.” That is, WPX was on the hook to either buy or sell natural gas along pipelines at certain locations in the northeast region, and those deals to buy and sell gas were sold, along with WPX’s contract to flow up to 135 million Btus (which equates to just 135 thousand cubic feet, or 135 Mcf) of natural gas on Transco’s Northeast Supply Link pipeline system. The combined sale was to an unnamed buyer for approximately $200 million. MDN has a guess about who the mystery buyer is…
Read More “Mystery Buyer to Pay WPX Energy $200M for NE Marcellus Assets”
Cambria County | Chevron | Clearfield County | Energy Companies | Pennsylvania

Chevron Shops Another 11,700 Marcellus Acres in Central PA
May 5, 2015May 5, 2015

Chevron continues to pare back on its Marcellus Shale acreage. With nearly 700,000 Marcellus Shale acres under lease, what’s a few thousand acres here and there? The Pittsburgh Business Times noticed that Chevron has posted 11,700 acres in central PA up for sale. You may recall Chevron previously shopped 17,000 acres in the same region in February (see Chevron Selling 17K Marcellus Shale Acres, More Sales Coming). At that time the company said more sales would be coming, and well, here we are! We might chalk it up to Chevron simply actively managing their portfolio and tweaking the locations where they intend to drill. Except. Except they’re also cutting way back on personnel too (see Chevron Laying Off 23% of their Marcellus Workforce in Pittsburgh). So this may be just tweaking the portfolio, or it may be a trickle in what will become a steady stream of divestiture. We just don’t know at this point. Here’s the details as we know them about the current 11,700 acres up for sale…
Read More “Chevron Shops Another 11,700 Marcellus Acres in Central PA”
Energy Companies | Energy Services | EQT Corp | Equitrans/EQT Midstream

EQT Floats IPO to Sell Off Some Ownership of Midstream Division
May 5, 2015May 5, 2015

Looks like the mad dash to raise cash has not yet ended. Major Marcellus driller and midstream company EQT announced yesterday they are, using a subsidiary company (EQT GP Holdings) floating an initial public offering of 20 million units (roughly equivalent to shares of stock). The new company, EQT GP, is a holding company that will invest the money it raises into EQT’s midstream operations. On paper EQT’s midstream operations are run by a different entity with the stock ticker symbol of EQM (EQT Midstream). It’s all under one roof, but split on paper for tax and high finance purposes. If you net it all out, it appears to us (warning: we are neophytes with this high finance stuff) that EQT is selling off some of the ownership of EQT Midstream without exactly saying so. How much does EQT hope to raise? They don’t say in the announcement (below). But EQM’s current stock price is running at $86.45 per share as of close of business yesterday. Let’s say EQT gets, oh, $70 per unit for this new IPO. That would be a huge $1.4 billion. What if they get just $50 per unit? That would be an even $1 billion. However you slice it, EQT is looking to raise some major cash by selling off ownership of EQM…
Read More “EQT Floats IPO to Sell Off Some Ownership of Midstream Division”
Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Research | Statewide OH

Spring 2015 List of Shale-Related Infrastructure Projects in OH
May 5, 2015May 5, 2015

We’re excited to share with you an update to a report we LOVE. The sharp researchers at law firm Bricker & Eckler produce a twice yearly called “Shale Economic Development Overview.” It is a list of projects details, by county in Ohio, of those projects started or planned because of shale drilling. The Spring 2015 edition is embedded below. The first edition of this list was published in October 2013 and showed projects worth $12.2 billion. Last October that number had risen to a staggering $21.5 billion. For this report, the new total rises to $28 billion–a more modest increase than before, but the fact that it’s increasing is a testament to the fact that although drilling has greatly slowed, the midstream (pipelines and processing plants) have not…
Read More “Spring 2015 List of Shale-Related Infrastructure Projects in OH”
Accidents | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide PA

Penn State Finds Chemical Migration in 3 PA Water Wells from 2010
May 5, 2015May 5, 2015

Media reaction to research findings that trace amounts of chemicals used in Marcellus fracking were found a mile and a half away in three water wells is nearly orgasmic. “Finally! We can shut down this evil, wicked, nasty drilling for fossil fuels!” That’s the unstated (but very clear) reaction from anti-drilling “reporters” at the Associated Press, Bloomberg, StateImpact Pennsylvania and other assorted mainstream media outlets. They do their best to hide all of the pertinent facts in their “reporting.” So MDN is here to set the record straight. First, researchers at Penn State set out to tackle a particularly thorny problem. Back in 2010 (yes, over five years ago) three (yes, only three) property owners near a shale drilling operation reported problems with their drinking water. The researchers, using breakthrough, new “nontraditional” methods have determined that it’s likely (not 100% sure, but reasonably sure) that flowback water that was stored in an open pit leaked out of that pit and hit some underground fractures that allowed the flowback water to travel up to 2 kilometers (1.6 miles) away and contaminate the water wells of those three nearby neighbors. It happened one time, to three water wells, five years ago and was related to a leaky impoundment. Those are the facts. Here’s some of the headlines you’re reading yesterday and today in over 100 major news outlets coast to coast currently bombarding the population with this earth-shattering “news”…
Read More “Penn State Finds Chemical Migration in 3 PA Water Wells from 2010”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

Andrew Cuomo: Here’s $10M Instead of Billions from Fracking
May 5, 2015May 5, 2015

What a pathetic loser is New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. He caves to his hard left (lunatic) fringe supporters by banning fracking–an activity that would bring BILLIONS of dollars into the state, and in its place he announces a program to grant $20 million in government welfare giveaways to lure so-called “clean energy” companies to upstate. And then he cuts that in half–to just $10 million! It’s like saying “forget that brand new $1 million Ferrari sitting over there, here’s a shiny new penny for ya.” LOSER…
Read More “Andrew Cuomo: Here’s $10M Instead of Billions from Fracking”
Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies

Chesapeake Energy Appoints New VP Exploration, Prev Guy “Retires”
May 5, 2015May 5, 2015

Chesapeake Energy’s CEO Doug Lawler, the man who loves to swing the ax to make his corporate raider boss Carl Ichan more money (see The Great Chesapeake Massacre: Lawler Fires 800 People in One Day), continues to raid his old company, Anadarko, for new (i.e. loyal) lieutenants. Doug’s latest hire is for the very important position of Executive Vice President – Exploration, Land and Subsurface Technology. The guy who previously held that position, John Kapchinske, doesn’t get much of a mention in the announcement. The press release says Kapchinske “recently retired from the company” and that’s all it says. We find it interesting because Kapchinske was just promoted to that position in January 2015! And four months later he retires? Perhaps he’s “retiring” because he served under Aubrey McClendon and Doug is still swinging the ax and purging the company…
Read More “Chesapeake Energy Appoints New VP Exploration, Prev Guy “Retires””
Energy Companies | Stone Energy

Stone Energy 1Q15: No New Marcellus Drilling, But More Production
May 5, 2015May 5, 2015

Stone Energy, one of the smaller drillers in the Marcellus/Utica region, released their first quarter 2015 update yesterday. Previously Stone announced they would hit the pause button on any new Marcellus drilling after 1Q15 (see Stone Energy Will Suspend Marcellus/Utica Drilling after 1Q15). Even though Stone is not drilling any new wells, they did begin bringing 8 Marcellus wells online that were previously drilled, which led to a slight bump up in Marcellus production to an average of 130 million cubic feet per day during 1Q15. Below are select portions of yesterday’s update that touch on the northeast…
Read More “Stone Energy 1Q15: No New Marcellus Drilling, But More Production”
Allegheny County | Meetings | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Still Time to Attend SGICC’s Free May 12 Event & See Cool Tech
May 5, 2015May 5, 2015

Who says there’s no free lunch?! On May 12, you can attend the Ben Franklin Shale Gas Innovation & Commercialization Center’s (SGICC) free event (with lunch!) at the Southpointe, PA Hilton Garden Inn. And what’s the event? It is the unveiling of four winners of the SGICC’s annual Shale Gas Innovation contest. Each year the SGICC runs a contest to highlight early-stage technologies that enhance responsible stewardship of the environment while properly utilizing our bountiful Marcellus Shale as an asset. Four winners (out of the final 14 selected) will receive a $25,000 cash prize each–$100,000 total. The event will celebrate the newest winners and give YOU the opportunity to mill around and review each of the 14 finalists and their truly unique and innovative technologies. Here’s more details and how to register…
Read More “Still Time to Attend SGICC’s Free May 12 Event & See Cool Tech”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Research

MDN Thinks It’s Time to Divest Your Money from HSBC Bank
May 5, 2015May 5, 2015

If you still do your banking at HSBC (otherwise known as The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation), perhaps it’s time you didn’t. We think it’s time to “divest” from doing business with, and putting your money in this anti-fossil fuel organization. The so-called Climate Change section of HSBC recently circulated a note to investors (copy below) telling them they should divest from fossil fuel companies and if they don’t, they “may one day be seen to be late movers, on ‘the wrong side of history'”. We’d like to make a little history ourselves. If you have your checking and savings account with HSBC, personal or commercial, why not move it now? Don’t be a “late mover” or you may not get your money once the stampede to divest from HSBC begins…
Read More “MDN Thinks It’s Time to Divest Your Money from HSBC Bank”
Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Tue, May 5, 2015
May 5, 2015May 5, 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, May 5, 2015”
Energy Companies | Forest County | Lease & Royalty Payments | Pennsylvania | SWEPI | Tioga County (PA)

PA DCNR Publishes Lease Agreements for Deals Under Rivers/Creeks
May 4, 2015April 30, 2018

In February 2015, MDN did a deep dive into the issue of Pennsylvania leasing underneath rivers and streams to allow Marcellus/Utica Shale drilling (see PA DCNR Program Leases Under Rivers/Creeks for Marcellus Drilling). PA maintains the state owns the land underneath any river or creek that is “navigable” and therefore has the right to lease it for drilling, denying the landowners who own the land along the banks of that stream signing bonuses and royalties. It is a thorny issue. Does the state actually “own” the land under rivers and creeks? It’s an issue that (seems to us) should be litigated and decided. In that story in February MDN brought you a list of river and creek deals signed, as of early January, with an indication of who signed and how much the signing bonus was for. At the bottom of that list (we’ve included the list below for your convenience) are six deals with Shell’s SWEPI–five of the deals for tracks of river/creeks in Tioga County, PA, and one in Forest County, PA. Interestingly, the Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR), the state agency doing the leasing on behalf of the state, has just published notification for those six SWEPI deals in the May 2 Pennsylvania Bulletin which include the full details for each deal…
Read More “PA DCNR Publishes Lease Agreements for Deals Under Rivers/Creeks”
Belmont County | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Processing Plants

FirstEnergy Says Talk of Selling Land for OH Cracker “Premature”
May 4, 2015May 4, 2015

Two weeks ago MDN brought you the good news that two foreign companies–one from Thailand and the other from Japan–are teaming up with the aim of building a $5 billion ethane cracker plant in Belmont County, OH (see It’s Official: Belmont County Chosen as POSSIBLE Cracker Plant Site). A day later we shared with you Belmont County’s enthusiasm for the project, and our own “cracker fatigue” (see Belmont County Elated with Cracker Plant Announcement (Drip)). These projects take years and have more ups and downs than a roller coaster. It seems our words of advice to temper enthusiasm for this new project are already bearing out. Utility company FirstEnergy owns the land where the cracker plant would, theoretically, be built. FirstEnergy is saying wait a minute, we haven’t agreed to sell that land to anybody…
Read More “FirstEnergy Says Talk of Selling Land for OH Cracker “Premature””