Marcellus Drilling News

Broome County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

NY Rally Fires Up Landowners to Fight Cuomo Frack Ban
January 6, 2015January 6, 2015

New York landowners assembled in downtown Binghamton, NY at the Holiday Inn yesterday to attend a protest rally organized by the 70,000-member Joint Landowners Coalition of New York (JLCNY). The crowd at the rally was enormous–at least 500 people (perhaps more) who filled a banquet hall and spilled out into the corridor. The crowd was fired up and ready to do something to counter Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s decision to ban fracking in the Empire State. MDN editor Jim Willis was there and witnessed something he has not previously witnessed: conservative, quiet, “salt of the earth” farmers and landowners were mad and loud and noisy and they wanted Gov. Cuomo to hear it. It seems Gov. Cuomo has stirred up a sleeping giant and that giant is now on the move. The one question on everyone’s mind at the meeting, What can we do now?…
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American Energy Partners | Energy Companies

McClendon Utica/Marcellus Subsidiaries Combine & Form New Company
January 6, 2015January 6, 2015

After getting the unceremonious boot out the door from Chesapeake Energy in early 2013, the company he co-founded 24 years earlier, it only took a few months for Aubrey McClendon to form a new company and raise billions of dollars of new capital investment (see He’s Baaaack! Aubrey McClendon is Back in OH Shale Country). The new company is called American Energy Partners (AEP). Since AEP’s founding, McClendon has done what he always does–create a plethora of subsidiary companies on paper for tax purposes, or to (temporarily) hide his ownership interest. McClendon has put the pedal down and has aggressively formed companies and attracted, at last count, nearly $9 billion (see Aubrey McClendon Raises Huge $8.7B for Shale Drilling…So Far). Part of McClendon’s strategy has been to spin off his new empire into “pure play” subsidiaries (see Another Brilliant McClendon Move: ‘Pure Play’ Public Companies). Yesterday, AEP announced that two of Aubrey’s biggest pure play subsidiaries, American Energy – Utica and American Energy – Marcellus, will combine to form a new pure play company called American Energy Appalachia Holdings…
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Earthquakes | Energy Companies | Hilcorp Energy | Industrywide Issues | Mahoning County | Ohio | Research

OH Researchers Confirm Hilcorp Fracking Caused Low-Level Quakes
January 6, 2015January 6, 2015

According to one graduate student and two professors at Miami University of Ohio, the fracking done by Hilcorp in the Youngstown area DID cause some low-level earthquakes (see ODNR Says Youngstown Earthquakes “Probably” Caused by Fracking). The three researchers are set to publish an article titled “Earthquakes Induced by Hydraulic fracturing in Poland Township, Ohio” in the February/March issue of the peer-reviewed Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America. Using a technique called “template matching” the researchers say they could identify 77 earthquakes, all except one that could not even be felt at the surface (and the one was barely felt) and matched those quakes to fracking activities by Hilcorp. The researchers stressed that the only reason the quakes happened was because Hilcorp was fracking directly over top of a previously unknown underground fault. They also said it was a very small portion of the frack operations that led to the quakes…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Lancaster County | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Transco | Williams

Lancaster, PA Antis Request United Nations Interfere in Pipeline
January 6, 2015January 6, 2015

Anti-drillers and anti-pipeliners (typically one and the same) will do just about anything to further their cause–including asking a foreign power to intervene to stop the activity they don’t want. Eight people were arrested yesterday for trespassing as part of an anti-Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline protest in Lancaster County, PA. The eight were part of a group of 30 or so antis who showed up with the intention to stop Williams from breaking ground on the pipeline in that area. One of the eight arrested was Carlos Rivera, chief of the Northern Arawak Tribal Nation. Rivera says Williams should not be allowed to lay pipeline across Native America (i.e. Indian) land located in Lancaster County. So Rivera is filing a request with the United Nations, claiming the land is protected by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Good luck Carlos…
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Forced Pooling | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

PA Forced Pooling for Utica Wells Remains Unclear, Confusing
January 6, 2015January 6, 2015

As MDN previously reported, the single most productive Utica Shale well ever (to date) was drilled by Range Resources–in Pennsylvania (see Range Resources Drills Highest-Ever Initial Producing Utica Well). Because of the way PA’s laws are written, producers cannot use forced pooling for Marcellus layer wells they want to drill–but they can use PA law to file forced pooling requests for Utica layer wells. Given the success of Range (and others) with drilling Utica wells in PA, it’s a sure bet that sooner or later such a request will be filed. Problem is, the forced pooling law was written in 1961 and was designed for conventional/vertical wells, not unconventional/horizontal wells. The law was due to have a test by Hilcorp, but Hilcorp abandoned their request in September 2014 (see Hilcorp Drops Forced Pooling Request in W PA). With that case gone, forced pooling for Utica wells remains a muddled mess in PA…
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Lebanon County | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Sunoco Logistics

Mariner East Pipeline Passes Test in Lebanon, PA
January 6, 2015January 6, 2015

Sunoco Logistics’ Mariner East 1 pipeline that runs from southwest Pennsylvania all the way to a refinery near Philadelphia continues to make progress on beginning to flow both propane and ethane. We’ve written numerous stories on the project (see the list here). Almost all of the pipeline is already in the ground–has been for decades–and will be repurposed from transporting oil to transporting natural gas liquids. The current situation is this: Sunoco Logistics is still fighting a legal battle to build 18 pump and 17 valve stations in 31 municipalities along the route. We don’t have any update on the legal battle, but we do have an update on testing of the pipeline. In October we told you that a section of the pipeline near Lebanon, PA was being tested (see Mariner East NGL Pipeline Begins Tests in Lebanon, PA). Good news, the test is complete and the pipeline, in that area, passed with flying colors…
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Electrical Generation | Industrywide Issues | Lackawanna County | Pennsylvania

Public Hearing on NEPA Proposed Marcellus-Powered Electric Plant
January 6, 2015January 7, 2015

In August 2013, MDN told you about plans by Invenergy to build a combined-cycle electric generating plant near Scranton, PA that would be powered by locally extracted Marcellus Shale gas (see Marcellus Gas to Power Combined-Cycle Electricity Plant in NE PA). In October 2014, Invenergy purchased the 80-acre parcel where they plan to build the plant (see Invenergy Buys Land in NEPA for Natgas Electric Generating Plant). These things, however, take time. A lot of time. Years, according to Invenergy. Last night residents from the township where the plant would be built, Jessup, attended a standing-room only meeting. Press accounts indicate the room was divided with some in favor and others opposed to the project…
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Industrywide Issues | M&A

Will Some Marcellus/Utica Drillers be Takover Targets in 2015?
January 6, 2015January 6, 2015

Even though oil prices set one foot over the price cliff starting last year (both feet are now over the cliff), top flight research firm IHS reports that mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the energy sector, particularly in the “upstream” (drilling) area, were brisk in 2014. Upstream M&A rose 23%, to $173 billion, according to IHS. Year over year, M&A activity in the Marcellus/Utica region doubled, going up by 16%. Not surprisingly if you’re an oil & gas company with debt up to the neck and low or no hedging on the prices you receive for your oil & gas, you’ll be in the cross-hairs for a takeover in 2015, according to IHS…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines

LOL: Anti-Fossil Fueler Says Pipelines are Like ‘Parasitic Worms’
January 6, 2015January 6, 2015

We noticed a letter to the editor, published by the increasingly anti-drilling Pittsburgh Post Gazette, in which the author says pipelines, like the proposed $5 billion Atlantic Coast Pipeline that will run from West Virginia to North Carolina, are “parasitic worms” traveling under the surface. Obviously it’s another case of FDS–Fracking Derangement Syndrome–which has metastasized in the head of someone who grew up watching Captain Planet cartoons. Fossil fuels are evil, don’t ever cut down a single tree, throw away your flyswatter–you get the idea. Rather than pipelines “worming” their way under the ground like parasites that eventually kill its host, we’d say a better metaphor is that pipelines carrying natural gas and oil are like the veins and arteries in your body–delivering life-giving nourishment (energy) to every part of the body. Without them, you’d die. In fact, counter to the notions of this silly letter writer, without natural gas and oil and the pipelines they run through, many millions of Americans would die…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Butler County | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Rex Energy

Martian Update: Principal Doesn’t want Rex Drilling Near his Home
January 5, 2015January 5, 2015

Between Christmas and New Year, Middlesex Township (Butler County), PA held the second of what may be up to five hearings on the already-granted permits for Rex Energy to drill five wells on a single well pad in the township. You may recall that two agitating “environmental” groups–headquartered on the other side of the state, in the Philadelphia area–along with four parents from the Mars School District, filed an appeal of the legal and legitimate permits granted by the state Dept. of Environmental Protection to Rex in September (see Rex Drilling Operation Near Mars School Put on Hold). The first hearing was held in November and the antis (as they always do) droned on for more than four hours (see Martians & Enviro Groups Continue to Block Rex Drilling in W PA). They continued their whine-fest on Dec. 29th with another five hours of mind-numbing sameness–drilling will kill us, drilling will pollute Mother Earth, yada yada yada. The main excuse is that drilling 3/4 of a mile from a local school will harm the kiddies. No mention that at least two school districts in the state, one close to Mars, has allowed drilling ON SCHOOL PROPERTY with no harm to the kiddies in those districts. At the hearing on the 29th, we get the REAL story behind the (ab)using of children as an excuse. One of the Mars School District principals lives near the drill pad and he opposes drilling near his expensive new home…
Read More “Martian Update: Principal Doesn’t want Rex Drilling Near his Home”
Axiall | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Gastar Exploration | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Marshall County | West Virginia

Gastar Wins WV Lawsuit to Keep Fracking, Completes 10 New Wells
January 5, 2015January 6, 2015

In November we told you that Chemical manufacturer Axiall, with a plant in Natrium (Marshall County), WV, had successfully stopped Gastar from fracking several drilled shale wells located near the chemical plant (see Gastar Fracking Near WV Chemical Plant Halted Pending Court Review). Axiall was afraid that fracking the wells would release fugitive methane into their nearby brine wells. Axiall says something similar happened previously with some of their brine wells near a Triad Hunter fracking operation. But Gastar fought back and today announced a WV court has thrown out the lawsuit brought by Axiall and that Gastar is now free to frack. According to Gastar, Axiall tried to stop them in PA with a similar kind of lawsuit which was also dismissed…
Read More “Gastar Wins WV Lawsuit to Keep Fracking, Completes 10 New Wells”
Energy Services | Energy Transfer Partners | Industrywide Issues | Lease & Royalty Payments | Pipelines | Tyler County | West Virginia

What’s a Fair Price for Running Pipelines Through Your Property?
January 5, 2015January 5, 2015

The landowners in Tyler County, WV who sit along the proposed route of Energy Transfer Partners 800-mile, $4.4 billion pipeline, called Rover, to connect the Marcellus/Utica region with the Midwest and Canada are asking for one thing: a fair price. According to one landowner, they’ve received an offer from ETP that’s about 1/3 of where it should be. Problem is, if landowners don’t accept ETP’s offer, once the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approves the pipeline, ETP can then use eminent domain to simply take the land it needs and pay the price it wants to pay. Landowners’ only recourse at that point is to ask a court to arbitrate a price. No, we’re not fans of eminent domain–it’s an imperfect concept for an imperfect situation in which some hold-out landowners remain unreasonable. But that doesn’t excuse lack of a fair price. So what price has been offered and what do landowners think is a fair price to receive?…
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Commodity Price | Industrywide Issues

Marcellus Gas Price Got as Low as $0.53/Mcf on Friday in PA
January 5, 2015January 5, 2015

An article in the Financial Times (yes, THE Finanical Times, published in London) says even though the weather has turned colder and snowier in the northeast U.S., natural gas prices are still in the basement. And boy are they right. According to the FT article trading from last Friday at the Leidy hub in Pennsylvania traded for 80 cents per Mcf (or the equivalent, 80 cents per million British thermal units). It’s actually worse than that at the Tennessee Gas Pipeline Zone 4 Marcellus trading point. Last Friday the price got as low as 53 cents per Mcf. The average for all trades last Friday at Zone 4 Marcellus was 67 cents per Mcf. Talk about prices going into and through the basement!…
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Allegheny County | Housing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Washington County

Home Values in Heavily Drilled Western PA Go Up, Not Down
January 5, 2015January 5, 2015

Yet another anti-drilling lie is put to rest–again. You often here that “the value of my house, my property, will decrease if drilling comes to the area.” Not so. Take the uber-drilled area of Allegheny and Washington counties, essentially the Pittsburgh, PA area. Housing values there have gone up–and it’s a “seller’s market” according to real estate professionals. Why? The Marcellus Shale, of course…
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Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Regulation

Feds Eye Regulating Local Natgas Gathering Pipelines
January 5, 2015January 5, 2015

Is it a good idea for the federal government to start regulating local natural gas gathering pipelines? We can debate whether or not it’s good to have more federal encroachment on the states, but at the end of the day, it may be academic because the feds intend to do it. The federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) has been studying the issue of local gathering line regulations since 2011 and will, later this year, propose new regulations (i.e. un-legislated laws). Although new regulations may be coming from the PHMSA, it’s not clear to us who (which agency, federal or state) would enforce those new regulations. Likely state regulators would enforce the new regulations…
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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

Obama Sec of Interior Says Frack Bans ‘Wrong Way to Go’
January 5, 2015January 5, 2015

President Obama’s Secretary of the Interior, Sally Jewell, told a PBS reporter she thinks fracking bans, like those passed by several California towns and by the state of New York, are “the wrong way to go.” She says, in so many words, that fear-mongering results in bad laws, like frack bans. Needless to say, anti-drilling zealots are not pleased that Jewell, who happens to be a former petroleum engineer (someone with a brain who knows what she’s talking about), has popped their pretentious bubble and questioned their fear-mongering tactics…
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