Marcellus Drilling News

Industrywide Issues | M&A | Research | Supply Chain

New Report on Shale Energy Deals from Top Energy Law Firm
February 17, 2015February 17, 2015

In July 2013 one of the country’s top energy law firms, Steptoe & Johnson, published a report detailing the biggest legal challenges faced by drillers that operate in shale plays (see New Report Details Top Legal Issues for Shale Drillers). Steptoe & Johnson have just published a follow-up report. Titled “Below the Surface 2: Digging Deep on Deals” (full copy embedded below), this new report takes a look at energy transactions and deals to find where natural gas producers are exploring for energy, their level of involvement, lessons they’ve learned, and what roadblocks they must overcome to succeed…
Read More “New Report on Shale Energy Deals from Top Energy Law Firm”
About MDN | Calendar

Calendar of Events for Feb 16 – Mar 1, 2015 [Free]
February 17, 2015February 17, 2015

Below are upcoming events for this week and next. To see the full list of future events, visit this page: //marcellusdrilling.com/calendar/.

NOTE: To have an item included, please email it to: calendar@marcellusdrilling.com.
Read More “Calendar of Events for Feb 16 – Mar 1, 2015 [Free]”
Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Tue, Feb 17, 2015
February 17, 2015February 17, 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 17, 2015”
Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Statewide OH | Taxation

OH Gov Kasich Says Utica Shale Industry Making State “Poorer”
February 16, 2015February 16, 2015

The only question that remains (for us) about Ohio Gov. John Kasich is this: When does he plan to change the (R) after his name to a (D)? He is, in almost all respects, a liberal Democrat at this point. What other conclusion can you draw after he made this statement last week when referring to oil and gas drillers and the incredibly high severance tax he’s proposing: “Every time you take valuable things out of the ground you make us poorer.” This is a typical Democrat class warfare argument he’s using to justify his high tax proposal (see OH Gov. Kasich Increases Proposed Severance Tax Rate by 236%). Kasich and his lackies keep harping on “out of state” (i.e. “foreign”) companies, as if they are robbing the state blind and absconding with Ohio’s money in the dead of night. The reverse is true. Those “foreign” companies are providing jobs and tax revenue like crazy to the state. But let’s not destroy Kasich’s tax fiction with a dose of non-fiction reality. Last week John “foreigner hunter” Kasich went on the offensive against the oil and gas industry in his state. Yes, he’s declared war…
Read More “OH Gov Kasich Says Utica Shale Industry Making State “Poorer””
Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Susquehanna County

Cabot O&G Clipped $50K by SRBC for Lack of Water Permit
February 16, 2015February 16, 2015

Timing is everything. If you start drilling a hole too early, it will cost you. In this case, $50,000. That’s the amount Cabot Oil & Gas has offered to pay the Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC) for their eager-beaver error in drilling a hole on a new well pad in Susquehanna County, PA before they had the necessary approval from the SRBC. No, the SRBC doesn’t suddenly issue permits to drill–that’s the job of the DEP (Dept. of Environmental Protection). However, the SRBC does issue permits for the water that’s needed to drill, and it was that permit Cabot didn’t have in hand when they started to drill late last year. The SRBC says it’s not a big deal and that Cabot is normally “very compliant.” That is, it was a mistake and not intentional. There was no environmental harm as a result. However, for Cabot, it was a costly mistake…
Read More “Cabot O&G Clipped $50K by SRBC for Lack of Water Permit”
DTE Energy | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines

DTE Energy Analyst Call: Utica/Marcellus Big Part of Co’s Future
February 16, 2015February 16, 2015

DTE Energy is a major utility and midstream company headquartered in Detroit, MI. DTE is part owner of the Millennium Pipeline across NY, sole owner of the Bluestone Gathering system in Susquehanna County, PA, and partner in the NEXUS Pipeline planned to cross OH. DTE is also the part owner of the Vector Pipeline, a pipeline that until recently has moved gas from Chicago (coming from Canada) to storage facilities in Michigan. A number of shippers have stopped using Vector for that purpose and it will now be used to flow Utica Shale gas, delivering it to both the NEXUS Pipeline and to Energy Transfer Partners’ ET Rover pipeline. According to DTE officials on an analyst call last Friday, the Utica and Marcellus Shale play a big role in the company’s future. Below we’ve extracted the juicy bits from the analyst call touching on the Utica/Marcellus, NEXUS and Vector pipelines, and how company officials say it all ties together…
Read More “DTE Energy Analyst Call: Utica/Marcellus Big Part of Co’s Future”
Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Ohio Utica Shale Just Keeps Chugging Along – Issues Permit No. 1799
February 16, 2015February 16, 2015

The Ohio Utica Shale is a quiet engine that just keeps chugging along. Yes, companies are cutting their capital expenditure budgets–some by a lot–but you wouldn’t know that based on the number of permits being issued for Utica Shale wells. As of Feb 7, Ohio has issued 1,799 permits for Utica Shale wells. Of those, 1,348 wells have been drilled and 740 wells are online and producing. Below is the latest updated ODNR map showing where the permits/drilled/producing wells are located…
Read More “Ohio Utica Shale Just Keeps Chugging Along – Issues Permit No. 1799”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Pipelines | Tennessee Gas Pipeline

Conway MA Offers Lame Excuses to Oppose Tenn Gas Pipeline
February 16, 2015February 16, 2015

If it wasn’t so tragic, it would be funny. Otherwise “intelligent” people in the Massachusetts town of Conway have concocted an ominous “report” on the proposed Kinder Morgan expansion of the existing Tennessee Gas Pipeline through their area. Since there are no real negatives to building the pipeline (it IS a pipeline, it gets buried in the ground never to be seen or heard from again)–they have to invent negatives to oppose it. Here’s how the lie goes: shale gas has a lot of radon in it (it doesn’t), and the gas traveling through the pipeline will be shale gas with radon, and EVERYONE knows those pipelines leak like sieves (it’s a wonder any gas actually makes it to market through those pipelines), and that leaking, nasty, fracked shale gas with radon will leak out and cause cancer. Just one teeny, tiny problem with that particular lie. How do you mitigate radon? Anyone? That’s right: You vent it into the air where it dissipates immediately…
Read More “Conway MA Offers Lame Excuses to Oppose Tenn Gas Pipeline”
Industrywide Issues | Lease & Royalty Payments | Litigation | Ohio | Statewide OH

OH Court: Developing Shallow Wells Enough to Hold Utica Layer
February 16, 2015February 16, 2015

An important Ohio Appellate Court case was recently decided in Ohio relating to Utica Shale lease rights. The case is called Marshall v Beekay Company. Beekay Company had drilled shallow, non-shale wells on the property of Gary and Cora Marshall. At some point along the way, Beekay had separated the deeper mineral rights (shale) from the shallower mineral rights. The landowners said because Beekay didn’t develop the deeper mineral rights by drilling in the deeper layers, they had broken the original contract. The upshot was the landowners hoped to lease the lower layer to someone who would develop it. But the court found that development and continuous extraction of gas from the shallow layer effectively holds the rights to the deeper layer. That is, the court shot down the request by the landowners to force development of the shale layer…
Read More “OH Court: Developing Shallow Wells Enough to Hold Utica Layer”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Using Technology to Stay Profitable in the Marcellus/Utica
February 16, 2015February 16, 2015

Given the low, and for now staying low, price of oil and natural gas, what can Marcellus and Utica Shale drillers do to stay profitable? A professor of Petroleum Engineering & Geology at Marietta College takes a look at some of the recent innovations in technology that hold promise for northeast shale drillers, including liquefied carbon dioxide and gelled propane…
Read More “Using Technology to Stay Profitable in the Marcellus/Utica”
Industrywide Issues | Research

Just 4 Countries Around the World Produce Shale Gas – Why?
February 16, 2015February 16, 2015

Here’s an interesting factoid from our favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Did you know that shale gas is currently produced in just four countries around the globe? One of them is the U.S., of course. Can you name the other three? Before reading the EIA article (which we’ve included below) we didn’t know there are only four countries currently producing shale gas. The other three countries are…Canada, China and Argentina…
Read More “Just 4 Countries Around the World Produce Shale Gas – Why?”
Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Shale Gas News Radio – Feb 14, 2015 [Audio]
February 16, 2015February 16, 2015

Every Saturday the one-hour Shale Gas News show airs on Scranton, PA’s 94.3 FM “The Talker” radio station. The show is co-hosted by Kevin Lynn of Linde Corporation and Bill desRosiers from Cabot Oil & Gas. MDN brings you the latest program show notes and recordings for Shale Gas News each week (well worth your time to listen). Here’s the latest program, recorded on Saturday, Feb 14…
Read More “Shale Gas News Radio – Feb 14, 2015 [Audio]”
Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Mon, Feb 16, 2015
February 16, 2015February 16, 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, Feb 16, 2015”
Accidents | Brooke County | Energy Services | Enterprise Products Partners | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | West Virginia

ATEX Express Ethane Pipeline Now Fixed, 100% Back Online Today
February 13, 2015February 13, 2015

Sometime today, the Appalachia-to-Texas Express (ATEX) ethane pipeline will once again be fully operational. On January 26 a section of the pipeline in Brooke County, WV ruptured and caught fire (see ATEX Ethane Pipeline Explodes, Burns in Brooke County, WV). The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) is investigating but so far they don’t have a final determination. When that section of the pipeline went offline, two of four processing facilities that feed ethane to the line we bumped off. Starting today, all four processing plants will once again be flowing ethane through the ATEX…
Read More “ATEX Express Ethane Pipeline Now Fixed, 100% Back Online Today”
Earthquakes | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Research | Statewide OH | Statewide WV | Wastewater | West Virginia

EPA Sees Connection Between Some Injection Wells & Earthquakes
February 13, 2015February 13, 2015

On February 5th the Underground Injection Control National Technical Workgroup, part of the federal Environmental Protection Agency, released their final report on a potential link between wastewater injection wells (called Class II wells) and earthquakes. To which we say, we knew a probable connection existed three plus years ago. That’s the typical lag you get with when the federal government “investigates” something. The report is titled “Minimizing and Managing Potential Impacts of Injection-Induced Seismicity from Class II Disposal Wells: Practical Approaches” (the full 415-page copy is embedded below). The report says, in essence, while they can’t prove there’s connection between injection wells in some locations and earthquakes, the relationship is “undeniable.” MDN’s comment: What everyone acknowledges is that when you inject fluid into the earth over an active fault line, that fluid acts like grease and eventually the rock layers can, in RARE circumstances, slip and slide, causing a LOW LEVEL earthquake–typically so light no one feels it at the surface. The EPA study was based on cases from four states, two of them (OH & WV) in the Marcellus/Utica region…
Read More “EPA Sees Connection Between Some Injection Wells & Earthquakes”
Energy Companies | JKLM Energy | Lease & Royalty Payments | Pennsylvania | Potter County | Utica Shale

Potter County, PA Hospital Leases Land to JKLM for Utica Drilling
February 13, 2015September 28, 2015

UPDATE: A sharp MDN reader tipped us with more of the details on this deal. The Cole property is 742.9 acres (located in the Townships of Eulalia and Sweden, and in the Borough of Coudersport); the lease signing bonus payment is reportedly $2,200 per acre, which makes the up-front payment to Cole Memorial a whopping $1,634,380; and the royalty is rumored to be 15%. Thanks to our great reader!

Cole Memorial Hospital in Coudersport (Potter County), PA has reportedly signed a lease with JKLM Energy to allow shale drilling on a “substantial amount” of hospital-owned property. What we don’t know about the deal is more than we do know. We don’t know how many acres. We don’t know how much the signing bonus was for. And we don’t know what royalty was agreed to. How’s that for good reporting? What we do know is that they signed a lease, JKLM has “ties” to Buffalo “Marcellus” Bills owner Terry Pegula. JKLM is potentially interested in the Utica layer and they will only be allowed to drill on non-hospital campus property…
Read More “Potter County, PA Hospital Leases Land to JKLM for Utica Drilling”