Marcellus Drilling News

Energy Companies | Rex Energy

Rex Energy Reduces 2015 Marcellus/Utica Drilling Budget by 44%
December 24, 2014December 24, 2014

Rex Energy, the little energy company that could (and does) successfully drill in the Marcellus and Utica Shale, earlier this week released their 2015 operational budget. Rex is reducing spending on drilling in the Marcellus and Utica in 2015 by 44% over what they spent in 2014. Rex will spend between $180-$220 million on new drilling, broken down as $115-$140 million in the Marcellus and $45-$60 million in the Utica. According to Tom Stabley, Rex’s CEO, the company is taking a breather in this low commodity price environment. Production will actually increase next year, even though drilling will decrease. That allows the company to perform better financially, for investors, according to Stabley…
Read More “Rex Energy Reduces 2015 Marcellus/Utica Drilling Budget by 44%”
Accidents | Blue Ridge Mtn Res/Magnum Hunter | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Monroe County | Ohio | Triad Hunter

Triad Hunter Well Blowout in Ohio Fixed, Residents Go Home
December 24, 2014December 24, 2014

On Monday we noted that it had been 10 days since a well blowout at a Triad Hunter Utica Shale well pad in Monroe County, OH with some 50 area residents still displaced from their homes (see Residents Near Leaking Triad Hunter Well in OH Still Displaced). Good news: residents near the well pad will be home for Christmas. Magnum Hunter (parent of Triad Hunter) reports as of yesterday Wild Well Control has successfully replaced the well head and temporarily capped the well. Residents are now home, just in time for the holidays. We sense a new Hallmark Christmas movie coming…
Read More “Triad Hunter Well Blowout in Ohio Fixed, Residents Go Home”
Economic Impact | Energy Services | Ethane | Housing | Industrialization | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Odebrecht | Ohio | Processing Plants | Washington County (OH) | West Virginia | Wood County

WV/OH Officials Going on Field Trip to Prepare for Cracker Plant
December 24, 2014December 24, 2014

The Odebrecht ethane cracker plant planned for the Parkersburg, WV area continues to walk/smell/act/behave like it’s the real deal. The latest evidence: Odebrecht has told area officials around Parkersburg, you need to be prepared for when the 100% official announcement comes, cause at that point, things will happen fast. So area officials are boning up now to be prepared for an influx of people and jobs–both a good thing, and a challenge. Area officials from Wood County, WV and neighboring Washington County, OH will head to the bitter-cold north country–Minot, North Dakota–in January (!) to see how that community has dealt with a rapidly expanding population and influx of new jobs due to the Bakken Shale…
Read More “WV/OH Officials Going on Field Trip to Prepare for Cracker Plant”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Regulation | Statewide OH | Wastewater

OH Anti Group Wants EPA to Suspend ODNR Injection Well Oversight
December 24, 2014December 24, 2014

Whenever anti-drillers in a given state don’t like how the state environmental authority is doing its job, they run to the federal government like a petulant child clinging to its mother’s skirt. “Mommy, mommy! Johnny hurt my feelings!” Such is the case with Ohio Citizen Action (OCA), an anti-drilling group that is accusing the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) of falling down on the job when it comes to regulating injection wells–wells used to dispose of frack wastewater. OCA’s demand? That the federal EPA suspend ODNR’s oversight of the injection well program in Ohio and that the feds move in and take over. OCA used 16 untrained volunteers (activists), gave them mountains of official paperwork from the ODNR archive, and armed each of them with yellow highlighters. The 16 untrained volunteer activists found every reference they could of what they say is incompetence and malfeasance by the ODNR, stitched it all together in a “report” (full copy below), and are now calling on Mommy EPA to “do something” about it…
Read More “OH Anti Group Wants EPA to Suspend ODNR Injection Well Oversight”
Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pipelines | Supply Chain | Wayne County (OH)

OH Company Innovates Spray Foam Barriers to Lay Pipelines
December 24, 2014December 24, 2014

Ask anyone who’s ever worked on laying pipelines and you’ll find it can be back-breaking work. First you dig a trench, then you lay the pipeline. However, while digging the trench and laying the pipeline, you also need to install a barrier every 50 feet or so to stop water from running down the trench, leading to soil erosion. Most of the time sandbags are used. Stacking 30-50 pound sandbags around a pipe in a single location typically takes a couple of people an hour or more. However, Ohio entrepreneurs have come to the rescue. Dalton’s Spray Foam Solutions in Dalton, OH now offers a much faster and easier way, using spray foam. Spray it in, the foam hardens–clinging to the pipe and the soil–and in about 15 minutes (1/4 the time) a much easier solution is in place, protecting the environment, saving time, and reducing the need for Icy Hot Patches for the workers…
Read More “OH Company Innovates Spray Foam Barriers to Lay Pipelines”
Air Quality | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

NJ Residents Breathing Easier Thanks to PA Marcellus Shale
December 24, 2014December 24, 2014

New Jersey has, for decades, not met federal air quality standards. And although NJ continues to not meet some of those standards, they have just been told by the feds they now pass for one very important air standard: the standard for particulates in the air. Particulates are tiny bits of solid and liquid droplets in the air that come from soot, pollen and other sources. Gov. Chris Christie (Rhino, er, a, RINO) has pulled a muscle in his arm patting himself on the back taking credit for the news. The truth is, NJ’s lower particulate count has virtually nothing to do with NJ itself and is mostly due to, yes, the Pennsylvania Marcellus Shale…
Read More “NJ Residents Breathing Easier Thanks to PA Marcellus Shale”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

Let’s Use Anti-Drillers’ Road Map to Win the Fracking War in NY
December 24, 2014December 24, 2014

The preening and pretentious Chip Northrup has weighed in on how and why a “rag tag” band of hippies “won” in New York’s battle to ban fracking. Chip pretends to be Somebody in the oil and gas world, implying that he’s run oil/gas operations, when all he has done is invest in oil wells with his trust fund money. Chip has a summer home in Cooperstown, NY where he likes to attend local lib cocktail parties–so he became a minor anti-fracking celebrity due to his “oil and gas connections”–a kind of “whistleblower” from “the industry” who appeared on anti-fracking television stations (in Albany) and gave interviews to anti-fracking “reporters” (in Albany) to talk about the horrors of fracking. He’s a real legend in his own mind. Anywho, Chip outlines for us on his No Fracking Way blog how his side won this round. We found this graf interesting and instructive, where he describes his side’s “stalking” (their word) of Gov. Andrew Cuomo…
Read More “Let’s Use Anti-Drillers’ Road Map to Win the Fracking War in NY”
Air Quality | Energy Companies | Exxon Mobil | Industrywide Issues

ExxonMobil to EPA: We Don’t Need New Methane Regulations
December 24, 2014December 24, 2014

The oil and gas industry, including shale drillers, continue to wait on pins and needles for the jack boots of the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to come down on their necks with new “rules” (i.e. laws from the Executive Branch, never sanctioned by a vote in the Legislative Branch) on methane emissions that supposedly come from oil and gas drilling. The EPA is desperately trying to regulate that which Constitutionally belongs to the states to regulate: oil and gas drilling. The latest word from nameless/faceless “sources” at the EPA is that they will wait until “after the holidays” to release these onerous new rules. Meanwhile, ExxonMobil, on their Perspectives blog site, points out shale drilling has already led to some of the lowest methane emissions in decades. They say shale drilling is “delivering in spades” when it comes to reducing methane emissions–so why are new rules from the EPA needed at all? It’s a great question from the largest oil and gas company in the U.S….
Read More “ExxonMobil to EPA: We Don’t Need New Methane Regulations”
Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Wed, Dec 24, 2014
December 24, 2014December 24, 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, Dec 24, 2014”
About MDN

Merry Christmas – MDN Off Until Monday
December 24, 2014December 24, 2014

We sincerely wish our readers a Merry Christmas! Thank you for your support (moral and financial). We will take the next two days off and be right back on Monday, Dec. 29 to catch you up on all of the latest Marcellus and Utica Shale news. Now go have some eggnog!
Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Equinor/Statoil | Pennsylvania | Southwestern Energy | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Statoil Reduces Marcellus Holdings in $394M Deal with Southwestern
December 23, 2014December 23, 2014

Time to follow the bouncing ball–this is a tad complicated, but we’ll do our best to explain it. In 2008, Chesapeake Energy (under then-CEO Aubrey McClendon) took on a “silent” investing partner for 600,000 net acres in the Marcellus of West Virginia and southwest Pennsylvania. The non-operating partner for the acreage was Norwegian company Statoil, with a 32.5% interest in the acreage. Statoil put up buckets of money and Chessy did the drilling. Fast forward to October of this year. Chesapeake cut a deal to sell most of that acreage–some 413,000 acres with 435 drilled wells (see Chesapeake Sells Close to 25% of Marcellus/Utica Operation). The buyer is Southwestern Energy. In order for the deal to close, Statoil has to sign on. Today, Statoil announced they have cut a deal with Southwestern to reduce Statoil’s now 29% interest in the acreage down to a 23% interest, in return for a $394 million check from Southwestern…
Read More “Statoil Reduces Marcellus Holdings in $394M Deal with Southwestern”
Energy Companies | Harrison County | Industrywide Issues | Marion County | Regulation | Upshur County | West Virginia | XTO

XTO Paying $5.3M for Violating Federal Clean Water Act in WV
December 23, 2014December 23, 2014

Pushing dirt around on drill pads can get very expensive if you don’t have a signed piece of paper in your hand that says, “Mother May I?” XTO Energy, the shale-drilling subsidiary of ExxonMobil, has just learned that the hard way. The federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) along with the U.S. Dept. of Justice announced a settlement yesterday with XTO–fining the company $2.3 million because “fill material” (i.e. dirt and rocks) got into nearby streams and swamps in several West Virginia counties when XTO pushed that dirt and rocks around to construct roads and well pads. Oh, and XTO has to “undo” the damage, spending another $3 million or so. Total price tag of $5.3 million for violating the “Mother May I?” Clean Water Act. If XTO had had the proper paperwork, they wouldn’t have been fined. The jack boots of the feds come down again…
Read More “XTO Paying $5.3M for Violating Federal Clean Water Act in WV”
Accidents | Energy Companies | Greene County (PA) | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Vantage Energy

Vantage Energy Fined $1M for Multiple Errors at Greene County Site
December 23, 2014December 23, 2014

The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection has just slapped Vantage Energy with a $1 million fine for “more than a dozen violations of environmental regulations stemming from a landslide and illegal waste disposal at their Porter Street well pad in Franklin Township, Greene County, earlier this year.” The landslide at the well pad covered over portions of two nearby creeks. Then, to add insult to injury, about six months later two truckloads of frack wastewater got dumped on the landslide area being repaired. The wastewater ended up in the streams. But wait, there’s more! Vantage constructed a new access road next to the streams adversely affected–but Vantage didn’t have a permit to construct the road. Oy vey! Did they do anything right? According to the DEP, Vantage, “to its credit,” is making improvements in their procedures to prevent a future comedy of errors…
Read More “Vantage Energy Fined $1M for Multiple Errors at Greene County Site”
Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Pennsylvania | Pike County | Potter County | Regulation | Susquehanna County | Tennessee Gas Pipeline | Wayne County

Tenn. Gas Pipeline Fined $800K for Violations, Illegal Dump Sites
December 23, 2014December 23, 2014

Seems that the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) has been busy clearing up outstanding cases of violations by both drillers and pipeline companies. In addition to a stiff $1 million fine against Vantage Energy yesterday (see our companion story), the DEP fined the Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) $800,000 for violations in four different counties during pipeline construction for the 300 Line Project. TGP will pay a penalty of $210,000 and will fund a $540,000 clean-up program of illegal dumpsites in Pike, Potter, Susquehanna and Wayne counties. The details…
Read More “Tenn. Gas Pipeline Fined $800K for Violations, Illegal Dump Sites”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

Do “Takings” Lawsuits Stand a Chance for NY Landowners?
December 23, 2014December 23, 2014

Last week MDN posed the question, In Light of NY Frack Ban, What Happens to Signed Leases? In that article, we also began to address the topic of lawsuits based on “takings”–the fact that New York has stripped away the right of a landowner to profit and use his or her land as he or she sees fit–including fracking under it–and those landowners are owed just compensation. Today we pick up that thread. What recourse do New York landowners have at this juncture, and what actions can they take next? Would a takings lawsuit have a prayer of a chance?…
Read More “Do “Takings” Lawsuits Stand a Chance for NY Landowners?”
Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Southwestern Energy

Chesapeake Using $1B from Southwestern Deal to Buy Back Stock
December 23, 2014December 23, 2014

A press release issued yesterday by Chesapeake Energy caught our interest. Chessy announced the closing of the deal we first announced back in October–a deal to sell some 413,000 Marcellus/Utica acres plus 435 already-drilled wells on that acreage to Southwestern Energy for $5.375 billion (see Chesapeake Sells Close to 25% of Marcellus/Utica Operation). Yesterday’s announcement says the deal is now done (see our related story today about Southwestern and Statoil), and that Chessy will use some of that money to buy back $1 billion worth of common stock, an effort to boost the company’s stock price. What’s interesting to us, aside from trying to make Carl Icahn’s stocks worth more, is how the details of the deal with Southwestern changed from October to now…
Read More “Chesapeake Using $1B from Southwestern Deal to Buy Back Stock”