Marcellus Drilling News

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

DRBC Tells PennEast They Need DRBC (Not Just FERC) Approval
November 19, 2014November 19, 2014

Looks like all those phone calls and emails and letters and complaining by THE Delaware Riverkeeper, Maya van Rossum, about the PennEast Pipeline that will carry cheap, abundant, clean-burning Marcellus Shale gas from northeast PA to NJ, have had their intended effect. The Delaware River Basin Commission, under the new leadership of Steve Tambini, has notified PennEast that they will need to get the DRBC kiss of approval before they can build the pipeline through the Delaware River Basin area. Let’s hope it’s not the (typical) DRBC kiss of death…
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Energy Companies | Energy Corporation of America | Kanawha County | West Virginia

ECA’s New Regional HQ in Charleston: More WV Drilling on the Way?
November 19, 2014November 19, 2014

Energy Corporation of America (ECA) is a privately owned company founded in 1963 with corporate headquarters in Denver, CO. The company owns and operates approximately 4,600 (mostly vertical) wells, 5,000 miles of pipeline, and leases more than 1 million acres in North America alone. Most of ECA’s leased acreage is in the northeast, so it came as no surprise when they announced last year that they would build a new regional HQ that will house more than one-third of their employees (see ECA Breaks Ground on WV Regional HQ, Donates $600K to Clay Center). The brand spanking new regional HQ building in Charleston, WV is done (cost $10 million to build) and some 115 employees are now moved into a 60,000 square foot building with room for up to 200 employees. But MDN has discovered a head-scratcher…
Read More “ECA’s New Regional HQ in Charleston: More WV Drilling on the Way?”
Energy Services | EnLink Midstream

EnLink Midstream Job Promotion Signals Rapid Growth Ahead
November 19, 2014November 19, 2014

Personnel changes at upstream and midstream companies aren’t usually something we cover here at MDN. But there are times when personnel changes signal something important. This is one of those times. EnLink Midstream is the renamed Crosstex Energy that was merged with Devon Energy’s midstream division– a merger that happened in March 2014 (see Time to Congratulate Devon & Crosstex on the Birth of EnLink). Eight months later and the company, with a large presence in the Marcellus/Utica, is on a tear. They are raising money and buying assets and expanding rapidly. One of the key people in the merger and subsequent growth is Benjamin D. Lamb, who joined Crosstex in 2012. Prior to that Lamb worked for an investment bank. Lamb has just been promoted to senior vice president but retains his role in leading the company’s mergers, acquisitions and financing transactions. In other words, it’s his job to find the money and buy smaller fish. EnLink’s CEO wants to (gasp) double the size of the company in the next three years, so Lamb has his work cut out for him…
Read More “EnLink Midstream Job Promotion Signals Rapid Growth Ahead”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Taxation

Green Scissors Proposes New Energy Taxes Under Guise of Spending Cuts
November 19, 2014November 19, 2014

A completely bogus anti-drilling campaign calling itself “Green Scissors” attempts to pass off the latest anti-fossil fuel efforts by Friends of the Earth and two other unheard of, far left groups (Taxpayers for Common Sense and R Street) as cutting wasteful government spending. It is NOTHING of the sort. Their so-called interactive database identifies “more than $259 billion in environmentally-harmful government waste” that they hope Republicans in Congress will adopt. What it really is, is their recommendations for eliminating tax deductions that encourage energy companies to drill for oil and gas. Deductions like instead of the ability to write off an expense up front, in the year when the expense occurs–Green Scissors wants to force energy companies to amortize and depreciate the expense over the life of the asset (decades). In other words, raise taxes on energy companies. In the minds of Green Scissors–ALL MONEY belongs to the government and the government allows you to keep some of it–rather than the other way around…
Read More “Green Scissors Proposes New Energy Taxes Under Guise of Spending Cuts”
Industrywide Issues | McKean County | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Taxation

PA Severance Tax Will End Worthy Projects in Drilling Communities
November 19, 2014November 19, 2014

The McKean County, PA Board of Commissioners have just approved spending $42,750 to convert space over the Goodwill store in Kane, PA into four one-bedroom apartments to be used to house “transition age youth”–poor kids with no place to live. The money comes from a housing fund established by (yep) the Marcellus Shale impact fee. If PA’s Republican legislature caves and adopts newly-elected Gov. Tom Wolf’s nutball idea of a 5% severance tax, the impact fee will be gone and projects like this will disappear along with it. Which is why communities impacted by Marcellus drilling are universally opposed to changing from an impact fee to a severance tax–because they will get shafted. Right now, 60% of the fee stays local, for projects like this one. With a severance tax, all money goes to Harrisburg and slips through the fingers of greedy politicians–into the back pocket of teacher’s unions, mostly…
Read More “PA Severance Tax Will End Worthy Projects in Drilling Communities”
Dominion Energy | Education | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide VA | Statewide WV | Virginia | West Virginia

Dominion Awards $1M in Grants to Colleges in Marcellus/Utica
November 19, 2014November 19, 2014

Each year Dominion, a major midstream and utility company with operations throughout the northeast, donates money in education grants via their Dominion Foundation to schools ranging from pre-K through college in the states where Dominion does business: Ohio, Connecticut, Maryland, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia. Dominion, you may recall, is the company building the East Coast’s first LNG export facility, investing $3.4-$3.8 billion (see Dominion Breaks Ground on Cove Point, MD LNG Export Facility). They also want to build the 550-mile, $5 billion Atlantic Coast Pipeline from WV to NC (see Dominion Asks FERC to Start Environmental Review of SE Pipeline). The company pumps a lot of money back into local communities where they operate with their investments. They also pump a good bit back via charitable contributions, including $1 million for colleges in the Marcellus/Utica region in 2014…
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Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Wed, Nov 19, 2014
November 19, 2014November 19, 2014

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, Nov 19, 2014”
Baker Hughes | Energy Services | Halliburton | Industrywide Issues | M&A

Shotgun Wedding: Halliburton Forces Baker Hughes to Sell
November 18, 2014November 18, 2014

That was fast. Last week MDN told you the scuttlebutt that the second largest oilfield services company in the U.S., Halliburton, was “in talks” to buy the third largest oilfield services company in the U.S., Baker Hughes (see Big News: Halliburton in Talks to Buy Baker Hughes). The “talks” advanced quickly. Yesterday the two companies announced they will tie the knot in something of a shotgun wedding (which we explain below). Halliburton is paying a dowry of $34.6 BILLION in stock and cash to buy out Baker Hughes, lock, stock and barrel…
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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation | Statewide VA | Virginia

Shocker: U.S. Forest Service to Allow Shale Drilling in GW Forest
November 18, 2014November 18, 2014

Virginia’s Democrat Gov. Terry McAuliffe may end up eating his own words. He once famously said that as long as he’s governor there will be no fracking in the George Washington National Forest, most of which is located in his state (see VA Gov. McAuliffe Vows No Drilling in Washington Natl Forest). Whoops. Careful what you promise, Terry. The U.S. Forest Service, in a shock reversal of their previous position, released a plan today that allows oil and gas drilling on 167,000 acres of the 1.1 million-acre GW National Forest…
Read More “Shocker: U.S. Forest Service to Allow Shale Drilling in GW Forest”
Belmont County | Energy Companies | Ohio | Rice Energy | Utica Shale

Single Rice OH Utica Well Produces 2 Bcf in 5 Months!
November 18, 2014November 18, 2014

What adjectives and superlatives can you use to describe a single shale well that produces 2 billion cubic feet of natural gas in five months? That’s how much has been produced by Rice Energy’s Bigfoot 9H well in Belmont County, OH. If you figure Rice is getting an average $4 per thousand cubic feet for the gas, that means the gas sold from that well over the past five months has grossed the company something like $8 million. If the landowners get a 20% royalty from the well, that’s a $1.6 million check. “Darn impressive” is perhaps the understatement of the year…
Read More “Single Rice OH Utica Well Produces 2 Bcf in 5 Months!”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Research

Fracking Chemicals No More Toxic than Common Household Substances
November 18, 2014November 18, 2014

If MDN or someone from the oil & gas industry said, “Fracking chemicals are no more toxic than common household substances,” it would be dismissed by anti-drillers as just another industry lie. MDN has, in fact, been making that very assertion for years. That exact statement was made (once again) last week–but this time it was made by researchers at the liberal University of Colorado Boulder. Researchers recently published a new study in the peer-reviewed journal Analytical Chemistry titled “Analysis of Hydraulic Fracturing Flowback and Produced Waters Using Accurate Mass: Identification of Ethoxylated Surfactants.” The study concludes that yes, the oft-maligned “toxic chemicals” used in fracking that “big oil” supposedly hides from you are essentially the same chemicals found in cleaning products underneath your kitchen sink and in your bathroom medicine cabinet. Chemicals found in stuff like laundry detergent and toothpaste…
Read More “Fracking Chemicals No More Toxic than Common Household Substances”
Carrizo Oil & Gas | Energy Companies | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Utica Shale

Carrizo Scales Back in Marcellus, Keeps Drilling in Utica
November 18, 2014November 18, 2014

What a difference three months can make. In second quarter 2014 Carrizo Oil & Gas drilled 9 Marcellus wells and purchased more Utica acreage (see Carrizo 2Q14: Drills 9 Marcellus Wells, Buys More Utica Acreage). In third quarter 2014, Carrizo didn’t drill or complete any Marcellus wells, they began work to complete their second-ever Utica well and now have plans to drill only 5 more Utica wells in 4Q13. The problem seems to be lack of infrastructure (pipelines) to carry any production from their wells to market, as well as stubbornly low prices for natural gas in the northeast–leading to voluntary “curtailment” on the part of Carrizo (they shut the wells off for a period of time). Carrizo is re-focusing their efforts on the more oily Eagle Ford and Niobrara Shale plays…
Read More “Carrizo Scales Back in Marcellus, Keeps Drilling in Utica”
Centre County | Clearfield County | Energy Companies | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Susquehanna County | Westmoreland County | WPX Energy

Scranton Newspaper Discovers WPX is Leaving PA–9 Months Later
November 18, 2014November 18, 2014

Better nine months late than never, we suppose. Back in February, MDN told you that WPX Energy is leaving the Marcellus (see WPX Energy Abandoning the Marcellus? Sure Looks That Way). We got clarification from WPX spokesperson Susan Oliver that although they would not drill any new wells, they will continue to operate at least some of the 100+ wells already drilled (see WPX Gives MDN an Update on Their 2014 Marcellus Plans). Over a month ago we told you that WPX is actively shopping their remaining undrilled acreage (see WPX Marcellus Assets Being Shopped in “Controlled Auction”). The Scranton Times-Tribune finally woke up (nine months later) and, shazam! They discovered that WPX is (can you believe it?) leaving PA…
Read More “Scranton Newspaper Discovers WPX is Leaving PA–9 Months Later”
Earthquakes | Energy Services | GASFRAC | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

GASFRAC Says LPG Waterless Fracking May Prevent Earthquakes
November 18, 2014November 18, 2014

Last week MDN was the first to bring you the news that Canadian company GASFRAC has (after two years) finally begun fracking an Ohio Utica Shale well using liquefied petroleum gas, or LPG (see GASFRAC Begins Waterless Fracking Job in OH Utica). GASFRAC’s senior management held an analyst call last week to discuss the company’s performance (the company’s financials are not good). As part of that call was a Q&A in which the Utica well they’re now working on was discussed. We found the banter interesting. One of the more interesting aspects was GASFRAC’s contention that LPG fracking used in places where earthquakes are a concern (like Ohio) may reduce the likelihood of a fracking-induced earthquake from occurring…
Read More “GASFRAC Says LPG Waterless Fracking May Prevent Earthquakes”
Electrical Generation | Industrywide Issues

NJ Utility to Provide Marcellus Gas to Virginia Power Plant
November 18, 2014November 18, 2014

Here’s one that will stretch your brain in new directions: A New Jersey utility, South Jersey Gas, has won the contract to provide Marcellus Shale gas to a new electric generation plant that will run on that gas, to be built in Loudoun County, Virginia by Panda Power. Panda, you may recall, is a Texas-based investment firm that invests in and operates electric plants, including two in northeast Pennsylvania (see Panda Power Buys Rights for 2nd Marcellus-Fueled Electric Plant). Although not located in the Marcellus region per se, the Loudon County, VA project, called the Stonewall Power Project, will be Panda’s third Marcellus gas-powered electric plant…
Read More “NJ Utility to Provide Marcellus Gas to Virginia Power Plant”
Energy Services | MarkWest Energy

MarkWest Energy Floats Notes to Raise 1/2 Billion in Cash
November 18, 2014November 18, 2014

MarkWest Energy needs some more cash–like a half a billion dollars of cash–so they’re floating pieces of paper (unsecured notes) that they promise to pay back by 2024. No word on the interest rate they’ll give you for your money. We’re assuming some (most?) of that money will be put to good use in the Marcellus/Utica…
Read More “MarkWest Energy Floats Notes to Raise 1/2 Billion in Cash”