Marcellus Drilling News

Industrywide Issues | Litigation | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

Federal Defense of Property Rights Act Explained; End of Frack Bans?
January 28, 2015January 28, 2015

MDN has the low-down on proposed new federal legislation we first told you about yesterday, the Defense of Property Rights Act (see Congressman Proposes Bill to Compensate NY’s Jilted Landowners). When we published yesterday’s article, we did not have a copy of the proposed legislation that has been introduced by Congressman Tom Reed (Republican from Corning, NY). We now have a copy of the bill (embedded below), we have comment from Reed’s office, comment from the Joint Landowners Coalition of New York (JLCNY), and we’ve spoken to a top attorney that has elucidated just what is in the bill. Bottom line: it’s a good bill and we need to support it. Here’s why…
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CNG/LNG | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

Small Victory: NY to Allow LNG Storage Facilities – Again
January 28, 2015January 28, 2015

Fracking to obtain natural gas is potentially too dangerous for public health, according to New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Joe Martens. Or so he said in December when he agreed with a trumped up report by Acting State Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker. (Stay tuned, Zucker won’t be “acting” much longer–he’ll soon be rewarded with the full title for his performance in December–the quid pro quo for prostituting himself for Cuomo.) However, it’s just fine with Joe if fracked gas from other states is liquefied and stored in facilities in NY, available for use by trucking fleets and other customers. Today (Wednesday) Martens will release new rules that allow liquefied natural gas (LNG) storage facilities to operate in the state–facilities that have been banned since the 1970s following an explosion at an LNG facility on Staten Island that tragically killed 40 workers. Anti-drillers have fought the re-introduction of LNG facilities tooth and nail, so we count today’s announcement as a small victory for the good guys in the ongoing fracking wars in NY…
Read More “Small Victory: NY to Allow LNG Storage Facilities – Again”
Allegheny County | Lease & Royalty Payments | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Pittsburgh Private Equity Fund Looks to Lease in Marcellus/Utica
January 28, 2015January 28, 2015

Not everyone is sitting on the sidelines during the downturn in shale drilling in the northeast. And yes, there is no doubt there’s been a downturn, along with the dropping price of gas (and oil). Ridgetop Capital, located in the Pittsburgh area, has just raised it’s sixth round of private investment capital (cash from wealthy people)–a huge $200 million. Ridgetop’s owner, Brad Carpenter, is now on the prowl to snap up Marcellus and Utica Shale leases that he hopes to get at a bargain because of the slow-down…
Read More “Pittsburgh Private Equity Fund Looks to Lease in Marcellus/Utica”
Dominion Energy | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Randolph County | Regulation | Statewide WV | West Virginia

USFS Seeks Comment on Pipeline Survey in Monongahela Natl Forest
January 28, 2015January 28, 2015

Here on Pandora where the forests are sentient and can think and feel…oh wait, that’s in the movie Avatar and the sequel is not due out until the end of 2017 (drats!). We live on Mother Earth, not on Pandora. But you wouldn’t know it by the reaction of anti-drillers at the prospect of running Dominion’s Atlantic Coast Pipeline through 17 miles of the Monongahela National Forest. You’d swear the forest can actually feel it–and would experience a catastrophic wound in its very soul…
Read More “USFS Seeks Comment on Pipeline Survey in Monongahela Natl Forest”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide PA

Anti-Drilling Environment America Issues “Report” of Top Violators in PA
January 28, 2015January 30, 2015

Looky here–another new “report” has just been issued by yet another anti-drilling organization. Must be time for a new fundraising campaign. The far-left, anti-fossil fuel Environment America (aka PennEnvironment) has just released a sham “report” titled “Fracking Failures: Oil and Gas Industry Environmental Violations in Pennsylvania and What They Mean for the U.S.” (full copy below). The “report” claims, “Fracking operators in Pennsylvania have committed thousands of violations of oil and gas regulations since 2011. These violations are not ‘paperwork’ violations, but lapses that pose serious risks to workers, the environment and public health.” The “report” was authored by a lawyer and a journalist, both anti-fossil fuelers that use fossil fuels every day of their lives, and funded by the Colcom Foundation–a far-out organization dedicated to removing the “scourge” of humankind from the face of the earth (and no, we’re not making it up). This latest “report,” which will no doubt be reported by sycophants at places like StateImpact Pennsylvania as “news,” claims that Cabot Oil & Gas is the number one violator of the environment in Pennsylvania. The “report” also throws heaps of mud on the Center for Sustainable Shale Development and the four companies that have endorsed the CSSD’s strict operating standards…
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Education | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide PA

New Report: Marcellus Shale Drilling’s Impact on PA Schools
January 28, 2015January 28, 2015

The Center for Rural Pennsylvania, a bipartisan, bicameral legislative agency that serves as a resource for rural policy within the Pennsylvania General Assembly, has just published the third report in a series of studies commissioned on the Marcellus Shale and its impact on the state. Titled “Marcellus Shale Gas Development and Impacts on Pennsylvania Schools and Education” (full copy embedded below), the report looks at whether or not the rapid development of shale drilling in the state has stressed local schools in areas with the most Marcellus Shale drilling. It was feared that with an influx of workers, and potentially families, local schools would see a spike in enrollment. The report says that hasn’t happened. There was also a concern about dropout rates–perhaps kids leaving school early to work in the gas fields. That hasn’t happened either. In fact, if anything, the Marcellus has contributed more money to the coffers of local schools. No negative impacts, lots of positive impacts from northeast shale drilling…
Read More “New Report: Marcellus Shale Drilling’s Impact on PA Schools”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Guest Post | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines

Guest Post: The Self Delusion of Anti-Pipeliners in New England
January 28, 2015January 28, 2015

Yesterday MDN ran a story from NGI’s Daily Gas Price Index that delves into the motivation behind the intense opposition to pipeline projects in the northeast (see Why Such Intense Opposition to Pipelines in the Northeast?). Rick Groll, a geologist and industrial seismologist living and working in the Boston area, has some of his own observations on the motives of his fellow New Englanders. What makes these anti-pipeliners tick? Rick offers us some insight in this guest post…
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Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Wed, Jan 28, 2015
January 28, 2015January 28, 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, Jan 28, 2015”
Accidents | Brooke County | Energy Services | Energy Transfer Partners | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | West Virginia

ATEX Ethane Pipeline Explodes, Burns in Brooke County, WV
January 27, 2015January 27, 2015

Yesterday morning a section of the 20-inch ATEX (Appalachia to Texas) ethane pipeline ruptured and caught fire in Follansbee (Brooke County), WV. No one was injured but two families living nearby were evacuated as a precaution. The first calls of an explosion and fire came around 10:40 am yesterday. The cause of the rupture is not yet known…
Read More “ATEX Ethane Pipeline Explodes, Burns in Brooke County, WV”
Energy Companies | Hess | Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Hess Cuts Utica Drilling Budget 42% for 2015
January 27, 2015January 27, 2015

Hess Corporation, with some 90,000 leased acres in the Ohio Utica Shale, announced yesterday they are whacking their Utica budget, reducing it by 42% for 2015. Last year Hess spent $500 million in the Utica. This year they plan to spend $290 million and drill 20-25 wells (around $11-$12 million per well). Hess will continue their joint venture with CONSOL Energy in the Ohio Utica. Here’s the announcement from yesterday:
Read More “Hess Cuts Utica Drilling Budget 42% for 2015”
Energy Companies | Equinor/Statoil | Gastar Exploration | Jay-Bee Oil & Gas | Lease & Royalty Payments | Marshall County | Noble Energy | Statewide WV | Triad Hunter | Tyler County | West Virginia | Wetzel County

More Bids to Drill Under WV State-Owned Land, Incl Ohio River
January 27, 2015January 27, 2015

West Virginia keeps up its aggressive push to lease and allow drilling under state-owned land–both under the Ohio River and under other tracts of state-owned land in prime Marcellus/Utica country. Last Friday the state Dept. of Commerce, responsible for overseeing the leasing program, opened its latest round of bids. Some of them are truly eye-popping. You may recall Antero Resources has paid $12,000 per acre (with 20% royalties) to drill under 518 acres of the Conaway Run Wildlife Management Area (see Record High Bid to Drill Under Bambi’s Home in Tyler County, WV). In the bids opened Friday, Jay Bee bid an even higher price to drill under the Jug Wildlife Management Area, also in Tyler County…
Read More “More Bids to Drill Under WV State-Owned Land, Incl Ohio River”
Industrywide Issues | Lease & Royalty Payments | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Taxation | Washington County

The Tax Man Returneth — for PA Landowners with Royalties
January 27, 2015January 27, 2015

Landowners who get royalty checks in Pennsylvania beware: the PA tax man may be coming for you. It’s a shame, but landowners who get royalty checks have to employ a bevy of accountants and tax experts in order to file a tax return. Such is life. One of the deductions landowners take from their royalty checks are for production costs. On paper, a landowner may be paid 14% in royalties, but in actuality it works out to be much less. Landowners have to navigate sometimes confusing statements from drillers to put the right numbers in the right boxes. What’s happening now is that the PA Dept. of Revenue is telling some landowners the numbers in the boxes don’t add up–according to their convoluted calculations anyway. And PA wants some of that money back they say should have been paid to them all along. It’s a confusing mess…
Read More “The Tax Man Returneth — for PA Landowners with Royalties”
Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

Congressman Proposes Bill to Compensate NY’s Jilted Landowners
January 27, 2015January 27, 2015

Congressman Tom Reed (Republican, Conservative) from the Southern Tier/Twin Tiers area of New York (Corning region) is “leading the charge” in Washington by proposing new legislation that would require states, like New York, to compensate residents when it causes them harm by action or inaction–like the recent Gov. Andrew Cuomo decision to ban fracking in the state. Under Reed’s proposal, called the “Defense of Property Rights Act,” landowners would be entitled to receive $20,000 or 20% of the value of their land. Below is the press release from Reed’s office, a few extra details we’ve gleaned from news accounts, and our own opinion of this strategy…
Read More “Congressman Proposes Bill to Compensate NY’s Jilted Landowners”
Columbiana County | Ohio | Utica Shale

Utica Drilling Still Going Strong in Northern Ohio/Columbiana County
January 27, 2015January 27, 2015

Although the received wisdom is that natural gas drilling in Ohio has “moved south” to places like Belmont, Harrison, Guernsey, Noble and Monroe counties, the fact remains there is still a strong and stead program of drilling in counties further north–like Carroll and Columbiana. Point in fact: Who’s drilling in Columbiana County, where are they drilling, and how much are they drilling? We have the latest stats that show a still-thriving Utica Shale industry in Columbiana…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines

Why Such Intense Opposition to Pipelines in the Northeast?
January 27, 2015January 27, 2015

An excellent article from the Natural Gas Intelligence’s (NGI) Daily Gas Price Index publication, sister to the excellent Shale Daily, delves into the reasons behind the widespread and ongoing opposition to pipeline projects in the northeast. Pipelines like PennEast from Wilkes-Barre, PA to Trenton, NJ, and the expansion of the mighty Tennessee Gas Pipeline across Massachusetts and New Hampshire, have raised the ire of anti-drillers. The Daily Gas Price Index article delves into the reasons why folks in the northeast are resisting new pipeline projects…
Read More “Why Such Intense Opposition to Pipelines in the Northeast?”
Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

Guest Post: Bradford Co Landowner Asks Gov. Wolf to Support HB 1684
January 27, 2015January 27, 2015

MDN has written plenty about Pennsylvania’s HB 1684–the Guaranteed Minimum Royalty Act (see these MDN articles). In essence, some companies (cough *Chesapeake Energy* cough) have gotten creative with deducting post-production costs from royalty checks. According to the PA Guaranteed Minimum Royalty Act of 1979, royalty owners (landowners) must receive no less than 1/8, or 12.5%, by law. But when Chessy and others start deducting this and that, never spelled out in the original lease agreement, landowners are getting the shaft–way lower than 12.5%. In some cases they get royalty checks for a few dollars! Bradford County landowner John Williams is concerned, both about HB 1684 and newly elected Gov. Tom Wolf’s stand on that bill, and about Wolf’s proposed 5% severance tax. Will the severance tax be the next deduction gas companies take, further reducing royalty checks? Is the severance tax Tom Wolf proposes a tax that will be paid, in essence, by landowners? We thank John for his guest post…
Read More “Guest Post: Bradford Co Landowner Asks Gov. Wolf to Support HB 1684”