Marcellus Drilling News

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…
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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”
Bucks County | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Taxation

Latest Tax Marcellus Bill from Rep Tina Davis: Effective Rate of 11%
February 13, 2015February 13, 2015

It’s another day, must be time for another liberal Pennsylvania Democrat to propose taxing the the Marcellus industry into oblivion, and right on cue PA Rep. Tina Davis (Bucks County, near Philadelphia) has introduced one. Her plan goes well beyond the plan offered earlier this week by PA Gov. Tom Wolf. Wolf’s plan is for a 7.5% tax, that taken with the existing state corporate income tax pushes an effective severance tax rate to well over 10%. That’s not enough for the tax ravenous Tina Davis: She not only wants a 5.2% severance tax with 4.6 cents per Mcf (effective rate of maybe 8% total), she wants to keep the current impact fee, which is another 3% (not the 1.9% claimed), creating an effective rate of somewhere around 11%. Let’s just save the Dems some time: Tax the Marcellus industry 99% and let those money-grubbing corporations keep 1%. That’s what PA Dems really want. What’s that? You say not all money earned by corporations (and citizens) belongs to the government? You silly goose. Of course it all belongs to the state…
Read More “Latest Tax Marcellus Bill from Rep Tina Davis: Effective Rate of 11%”
Energy Companies | WPX Energy

WPX CEO Riffs on Company Strategy Change from Gas to Oil Drilling
February 13, 2015February 13, 2015

Some people, and some companies, just have plain old bad luck and rotten timing. Like WPX Energy. WPX didn’t like the business it was in–drilling for natural gas in Pennsylvania, so they’ve sold off 46,700 acres and 63 operational wells in northeastern PA to Southwestern Energy for $300 million (see WPX Finalizes Sale of NEPA Marcellus Leases/Wells to Southwestern). They still have some acreage in southwest PA they’re trying to dump. What has WPX’s attention these days? What’s the all-fire hurry to get out of the northeast? They’re trying to convert the company from gas to oil drilling–just in time for oil prices to go as low as they’ve been in a generation. Talk about bad timing!…
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Carbon County | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Luzerne County | PennEast Pipeline | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation

More Silly Antics from Antis at FERC PennEast Pipeline Hearing
February 13, 2015February 13, 2015

We’ve been to a number of Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) scoping hearings, as well as hearings by the New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation. Whether it’s a hearing on pipelines, compressor stations or shale drilling, anti-fossil fuel nutters always show up and it seems as if they read from the same script every time. The latest example of that comes from Carbon County, PA where the silly antics of antis was on full display once again, this time at a FERC hearing on the PennEast Pipeline. Example: One anti-pipeline nutter used part of her 3 minutes of talk time to read the lyrics from a Disney movie (boggles the mind)…
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Williams

Williams CEO Says Pipeline Opposition Equals More Coal Use
February 13, 2015February 13, 2015

In a recent interview, the CEO of Williams, Alan Armstrong, was quite candid: The problem slowing natural gas pipeline development is not the low price of oil and gas–it’s politics. Armstrong says he would prefer federal oversight, by FERC, shutting out “local voices” that muck up the works. We’re not sure we totally agree with that viewpoint. Freedom and liberty are messy things, but we understand his sentiment. Armstrong points out there’s no one “who’s in charge” when it comes to pipelines, and process which makes for endless debates and trying to reconcile innumerable opinions…
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Baker Hughes | Energy Services | Halliburton | Industrywide Issues | Jobs

Halliburton Laying Off Up to 6,400, Says Baker Hughes Not a Factor
February 13, 2015February 13, 2015

Halliburton, the county’s second largest oilfield services company, announced earlier this week they’re laying off some 6.5% to 8% of their 80,000 employees, which translates to 5,000 to 6,500 jobs. The company Halliburton is buying, Baker Hughes, announced in January they are laying off 11% of their workforce (see Baker Hughes Announces 7,000 Layoffs Due to Low Oil Price). Also in January, the country’s (and world’s) largest oilfield services company, Schlumberger, laid of 9,000 workers (see Schlumberger Firing 9,000 to Reduce Head Count, “Low Oil Prices”). To which we say, it’s getting ugly out there…
Read More “Halliburton Laying Off Up to 6,400, Says Baker Hughes Not a Factor”
Energy Companies | EV Energy Partners

EV Energy Partners CEO Resigning, VP/CFO Promoted
February 13, 2015February 13, 2015

Changes are coming at the top of EV Energy Partners (EVEP). Mark Houser, current president and CEO, will resign at the end of February. Houser will remain on the board. In his place, EVEP is promoting Michael Mercer, senior VP and CFO, to the top post of president/CEO. EVEP says the move was planned. EVEP, you may recall, has been trying to unload a hoard of Utica Shale acreage (more than a half million acres) for the past three years–largely unsuccessfully (see EVEP’s Mark Houser Says More Utica Acreage Sales Ahead in 2014). They recently sold their interest in Cardinal Midstream to a pair of South Korean companies (see Total, EVEP Sell Interest in Cardinal Midstream to S Koreans for $612M). Perhaps Mercer will have more luck shopping their considerable inventory of Utica acreage?…
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Air Quality | Industrywide Issues | Regulation | Research

New Study: Most Natgas Processing Facilities Leak < 1% Methane
February 13, 2015February 13, 2015

The EPA is getting ready to drop draconian new regulations on the oil and gas industry claiming that methane is leaking out everywhere. A major field study led by Colorado State University and published this week in the peer reviewed journal Environmental Science & Technology examined 114 gathering facilities and 16 processing plants across 13 states looking for methane leaks. What did they find? The vast majority natural gas facilities had minuscule leak rates of less than 1%…
Read More “New Study: Most Natgas Processing Facilities Leak < 1% Methane"
Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Fri, Feb 13, 2015
February 13, 2015February 13, 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: Fri, Feb 13, 2015”
Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Taxation

PA Gov Wolf Proposes Marcellus-Killing 7.5% Severance Tax
February 12, 2015February 12, 2015

Newly elected Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf has turned out to be another tax and spend liberal. Surprise! If you’re a regular MDN reader, you’re not surprised. We warned you about this from day one. Wolf released his severance tax plan yesterday, and it’s even worse than what he talked about on the campaign trail. He’s proposing a 5% severance tax PLUS another 4.7 cents per thousand cubic feet of natural gas that flows from a well. PA’s House Majority Leader Dave Reed (Republican) says it works out to be roughly a 7.5% tax–one of the HIGHEST IN THE NATION. On top of low low gas prices and rigs beginning to idle and capital budgets slashed 30-50%. In other words, if this tax is passed, not only will it not bring in Wolf’s disingenuous promise of $1 billion “for the children” (i.e. teachers unions), it will KILL Marcellus drilling in the state–and that’s not a bluff. It’s now apparent that Wolf is a man completely out of his depth and not ready for a big job like governor…
Read More “PA Gov Wolf Proposes Marcellus-Killing 7.5% Severance Tax”
Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Taxation

PA Towns to Gov Wolf: Don’t Kill the Impact Fee with Your New Tax
February 12, 2015February 12, 2015

Yesterday Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (Democrat) proposed what amounts to a 7.5% severance tax on Marcellus and Utica Shale drilling in the state (see our lead story today). Wolf’s severance tax is being erroneously reported as a 5% severance tax PLUS 4.7 cents per thousand cubic feet of natural gas produced at the wellhead. When you work it out, it’s actually about 7.5%, NOT 5% as Wolf misleadingly implies. Coupled with PA’s high corporate income tax rate, the proposal, if passed, would put PA at the top of the list of states taxing the oil and gas industry, essentially killing future Marcellus Shale drilling in the state (not an idle threat). Some of those most opposed to this hare-brained plan are the townships where drilling actually happens–they stand to loose big-time because the impact fee money they get now will be traded away for a few table scraps. The impact fee will be converted into the severance tax–and given away to Philadelphia…
Read More “PA Towns to Gov Wolf: Don’t Kill the Impact Fee with Your New Tax”