Marcellus Drilling News

Energy Companies | Gastar Exploration | Marshall County | Utica Shale | West Virginia

Gastar’s First Utica Well Shines – Nearly 30 Mmcf/d
September 8, 2014September 8, 2014

Gastar Exploration is out today with an operations update for their Utica drilling program. The company reports initial production on their first-ever Utica Shale well, drilled in Marshall County, WV, is flowing at a rate of 29.4 million cubic feet of gas per day. Those numbers easily put Gastar’s first Utica well among some of the top performers. According to Gastar CEO Russell Porter, they plan to drill “one or two” more Utica wells later this year/early 2015, get the results, ans then make a decision on how aggressively they’ll roll out their full Utica drilling program. Here’s the details on Gastar’s first Utica well…
Read More “Gastar’s First Utica Well Shines – Nearly 30 Mmcf/d”
Beaver County | Energy Companies | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | Regulation | Shell

Shell Files Permit to Build Barge Facility at Cracker Plant Site
September 8, 2014September 8, 2014

Something just coming to light now. In February of this year, Shell applied for a permit with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to build a barge facility on the Ohio River in Beaver County, PA at the site of Shell’s proposed ethane cracker. Is this yet another sign that Shell is finally getting serious about building the multi-billion dollar cracker plant in PA?…
Read More “Shell Files Permit to Build Barge Facility at Cracker Plant Site”
Energy Services | GE Oil & Gas | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Supply Chain

GE/Accenture Launch Internet Pipeline Software, Columbia 1st Cust
September 8, 2014September 8, 2014

GE’s Oil & Gas division has partnered with global management consulting firm Accenture to launch Intelligent Pipeline Solution, which they describe as “the first-ever Industrial Internet offering to help pipeline operators make better decisions concerning the condition of their critical machines and assets in the oil and gas pipeline industry.” Looks to us like it’s software in the cloud–software that will help companies keep track of their pipelines and equipment and help them make better/faster/safer decisions on when things need an upgrade, or an expansion. GE/Accenture, as part of announcing this new service, announced that Columbia Pipeline Group (division of Columbia Gas) is their flagship first customer–and Columbia is using it to help manage (yes) their Marcellus/Utica Shale pipeline network…
Read More “GE/Accenture Launch Internet Pipeline Software, Columbia 1st Cust”
Columbia Pipeline Group | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Jackson County | Marshall County | Noble County | Ohio | Pipelines | West Virginia

3 Big Compressors Coming with Columbia’s OH Pipeline Project
September 8, 2014September 8, 2014

Representatives for Columbia Gas Pipeline are making the rounds and talking with officials in various communities where the planned expansion of their pipeline will happen. Columbia, as MDN previously reported, is spending $1.75 billion on two pipeline projects that will help move Marcellus Shale gas to the Gulf Coast (see Columbia Gas: $1.75B for 2 Projects to Send Marcellus Gas to Gulf). One of those projects is called the Leach Express–starting in Marshall County, WV and ending up in Leach, KY (hence the name). Along the way three new compressor stations will need to be built, which is the focus of this story…
Read More “3 Big Compressors Coming with Columbia’s OH Pipeline Project”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | New York | Statewide NY

JLCNY “David” Goes Up Against Park Foundation “Goliath”
September 8, 2014September 8, 2014

MDN recently received the following fundraising letter from the 70,000-member Joint Landowners Coalition of New York (JLCNY). The JLCNY runs on a shoestring budget. Although many landowners belong to the JLCNY “umbrella” organization through local landowner groups, most of them do not contribute money to the JLCNY. The JLCNY has been on the front lines of the fight to get shale drilling authorized in New York. As they point out in the letter, it’s a real David and Goliath kind of struggle–with mom and pop landowners as David and Park Foundation-backed liberal enviro groups (and their minions) as Goliath. The happy thought we had in reading the letter below is that we know how the original David & Goliath story turns out–the one from 3,000 years ago. Let’s hope we get a repeat with the shale drilling struggle, which right now seems hopeless, in New York State…
Read More “JLCNY “David” Goes Up Against Park Foundation “Goliath””
Industrywide Issues | Research

Shale 101: EIA Explains the Basics, Why Marcellus is So Important
September 8, 2014September 8, 2014

Last week the U.S. Energy Information Administration, our favorite government agency, released an updated Energy in Brief article called “Shale in the United States.” Think of it (as Columbus Business First reporter Tom Knox called it), a “Shale 101” short course in what’s what in shale drilling and production. What’s the difference between shale, “tight gas” and “tight oil”? The EIA explains it. Our favorite part of this short and enlightening article are the graphs–which illustrate the out-sized importance of the Marcellus Shale and growing importance of the Utica Shale. Here’s the full EIA article:
Read More “Shale 101: EIA Explains the Basics, Why Marcellus is So Important”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues

The Intellectual Incest of Anti-Drilling Groups
September 8, 2014September 8, 2014

The anti-drilling world is fairly small and intellectually incestuous. Members of virulent anti-drilling groups who irrationally hate fossil fuels–groups like Damascus Citizens for Sustainability (DCS) and the Sierra Club–send emissaries from one group to the other to gripe and complain and tell each other “if only” all of us dumb bumpkins would get with the program we could have so-called alternative energy nirvana right now. They also tell each other how evil and nasty fossil fuels are and how horrible shale drilling is. Looks like it’s time for another gripefest. The DCS is sending one of their own to a local chapter of the New Jersey Sierra Club (some of the nuttiest of the nuts) to commiserate on the evils of fossil fuels…
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About MDN | Calendar

Calendar of Events for Sep 8-21, 2014 [Free]
September 8, 2014September 8, 2014

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 Sep 8-21, 2014 [Free]”
Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Mon, Sep 8, 2014
September 8, 2014September 8, 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: Mon, Sep 8, 2014”
American Energy Partners | Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies

Another Brilliant McClendon Move: ‘Pure Play’ Public Companies
September 5, 2014September 5, 2014

Big news from MDN friend and Marcellus/Utica driller Aubrey McClendon. McClendon, now CEO of American Energy Partners (and former CEO of Chesapeake Energy), told a Hart Energy conference yesterday that the companies he’s started since leaving Chesapeake will soon go public–each of them individually. And he’ll start even more companies that will go public. McClendon is adopting a “pure play” approach in which each company will be independently run and focus on a single shale play. Once again McClendon has taken the road less traveled and is pioneering a brilliant strategy to dominate the plays which he chooses to target. MDN’s words when the Chesapeake board dismissed Aubrey (from April 1, 2013) were prophetic: “Why is it an error to show McClendon to the door even in light of his aggressive financial deals? You think McClendon will take his piles of money and sit on a Caribbean beach somewhere? In your dreams! He’ll be back, and he’ll start (or buy) another company that will directly compete with Chesapeake. You can bank on it.” (see McClendon Exits Chesapeake, Well-Bonused “Friends” Replace Him)…
Read More “Another Brilliant McClendon Move: ‘Pure Play’ Public Companies”
Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Transco | Williams

Yet Another Williams Transco Expansion: Western Marcellus Project
September 5, 2014September 5, 2014

Pipeline (infrastructure) projects keep getting announced fast and furiously–we can hardly keep up! Williams has announced yet another upgrade to their Transco Pipeline–this one called the Western Marcellus Pipeline Project. We get details about the new project from an open season announcement from Williams posted yesterday. The Transco is one of the country’s largest interstate natural gas pipelines–a 10,200-mile pipeline system that extends from South Texas to New York City. In February Williams announced an $2.1 billion expansion of the Transco to carry PA Marcellus gas to the Eastern seaboard, what they call the Atlantic Sunrise project (see Williams Plans $2.1B Transco Pipeline Expansion, 100% Sold Already). Last week we told you about another expansion of the Transco, called Diamond East, that will beef up capacity on the Transco from Lycoming and Luzerne counties in northeast PA all the way to Mercer County, NJ, a $500-$800 million project (see Williams to Expand Transco Pipeline Again, More Marcellus to NE). Yesterday Williams announced the Western Marcellus Pipeline project, a project that will give western PA Marcellus and eastern OH Utica producers a way to get their gas to markets in the southeast (Louisiana and Texas) and even to Florida…
Read More “Yet Another Williams Transco Expansion: Western Marcellus Project”
Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Luzerne County | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide PA | UGI Energy Services

Successful Open Season Concludes for Marcellus PennEast Pipeline
September 5, 2014September 5, 2014

Barley three weeks ago a consortium of four companies announced a new pipeline project to carry Marcellus Shale gas from Luzerne County in northeastern Pennsylvania to Transco’s Trenton-Woodbury interconnection in New Jersey. The $1 billion PennEast Pipeline will be built by energy utility giant UGI, along with AGL Resources, NJR Pipeline Company (subsidiary of New Jersey Resources) and South Jersey Industries (see 3rd New NEPA Marcellus Pipeline Proposed, Connects to Trenton, NJ). The consortium announced yesterday the successful close of a very fast binding open season–a period of time when potential customers sign on the dotted line to take capacity in the new pipeline. Of course it didn’t hurt that the consortium itself had already reserved nearly half of the 1 billion cubic feet per day capacity for themselves! Still, the other half is now sold out too (a total of 965,000 dekatherms, or 936 million cubic feet, or .936 billion cubic feet)…
Read More “Successful Open Season Concludes for Marcellus PennEast Pipeline”
Energy Services | Ethane | Exporting | Harrison County | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Ohio | Pipelines

UTOPIA Open Season Begins Today – OH to MI NGL Pipeline
September 5, 2014September 5, 2014

Back in December MDN told you about Kinder Morgan’s new proposed new pipeline called the Utica To Ontario Pipeline Access, or UTOPIA (see UTOPIA is Coming! The UTOPIA Pipeline, that is…). The 240-mile natural gas liquids (NGL, specifically ethane and propane) pipeline will connect multiple fractionation facilities in Harrison County, OH, to Riga, MI. From Riga, the NGLs will hitch a ride via the KM Cochin Pipeline east to Windsor, Ontario, Canada where they will be delivered to NOVA Chemicals. The new $300 million, 10-inch pipeline from OH to MI is what is called UTOPIA. Yesterday KM announced a binding open season for UTOPIA…
Read More “UTOPIA Open Season Begins Today – OH to MI NGL Pipeline”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Lycoming County | Pennsylvania | Regulation

Philly Inquirer Exposes PennFuture Lies in Lycoming County Case
September 5, 2014September 5, 2014

Yesterday MDN brought you the news that the virulently anti-drilling PennFuture was crowing about another scalp their lawyers have claimed in preventing fracking in Lycoming County, PA (see Bad PA Supreme Court Act 13 Decision Comes Home to Roost). We’ve often told you about the lying propaganda pumped out by PennFuture. Our words certainly don’t bother them. But we bet the words of none other than the Philadelphia Inquirer do bother them. The Inquirer is also out with a story about the challenge by PennFuture and a couple of ninny nanny “neighbors” (more than 2/3 of a mile away) who abused the recent Supreme Court decision to force the town to not allow the drilling it wants to allow. The Inquirer skewers PennFuture, pointing out the lies they tell…
Read More “Philly Inquirer Exposes PennFuture Lies in Lycoming County Case”
Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide PA

MSC Launches Study on Water Sample Testing & Standards
September 5, 2014September 5, 2014

It’s relatively easy for so-called researchers with an agenda (and backed by Park Foundation money), to manufacture “proof” that shale drilling is evil and harms the environment. Duke University seems to be one hotbed of such so-called research (see Duke Study #2: Drilling Causes Methane Migration in Water Wells?). Cornell University is another Park Foundation funded source of so-called research (see Devastating Critique of New Ingraffea/Howarth Methane Study by EID). Much of that so-called research claims when shale drilling arrives, it causes methane to migrate into nearby water wells. That evil ole methane just can’t help itself! The highly respected trade organization, the Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC), is tired of waiting for the EPA and others to develop standards that can be used when determining whether or not methane in water was caused by drilling–or far more likely–was there all along…
Read More “MSC Launches Study on Water Sample Testing & Standards”
Alternative Energy | Industrywide Issues

Shale Gas vs Wind and Solar – A Few Sobering Facts
September 5, 2014September 5, 2014

We’re certainly not anti-wind or anti-solar. We believe those technologies hold promise for the future. But they simply can’t compete with natural gas as the most economical and even the most environmentally friendly way of supplying electricity here and now. Every form of energy has its advantages and disadvantages. The fact (not opinion) that natural gas beats so-called renewables here and now is not just our opinion. We spotted an excellent column–from an Indian professor–that points out some sobering facts in the shale gas vs wind and solar debate…
Read More “Shale Gas vs Wind and Solar – A Few Sobering Facts”