Marcellus Drilling News

Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pipelines | Statewide OH

OH Landowners Outside Utica Get Piece of the Action via Pipelines
December 8, 2014December 8, 2014

You’d have to be living on the planet Mars (or perhaps Mars, PA) to not know that pipeline infrastructure has virtually taken over the spotlight from shale drilling in places like Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia. Contrary to the continuing tripe that “shale supplies of gas and oil will give out any day now” that we continue to hear from certain discredited sources, supplies (in the northeast) continue to increase. And along with those supplies comes a need for pipelines. The Ohio Farm Bureau is telling OH landowners that even if they aren’t in the Utica-rich eastern portion of the state, there’s still a chance they can cash in on the shale boom because of the pipelines coming their way…
Read More “OH Landowners Outside Utica Get Piece of the Action via Pipelines”
Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Regulation

Why Does it Take So Long to Build a Pipeline in the Northeast?
December 8, 2014December 8, 2014

Blaine Lucas, a lawyer with the Pittsburgh law firm of Babst Calland (one of the northeast’s top energy law firms) gives an overview of some of the difficulties and problems faced by midstream companies (pipelines and processing plants), along with insight into why it just takes so darned long to build pipelines–pipelines which are desperately needed to get the huge and growing supply of Marcellus Shale gas to market…
Read More “Why Does it Take So Long to Build a Pipeline in the Northeast?”
Allegheny County | Industrywide Issues | M&A | Pennsylvania | Supply Chain

Marcellus Supply Chain: Pittsburgh Hydraulic Hose Supplier Sold
December 8, 2014December 8, 2014

Powertrack International, a Pittsburgh-based company that sells hydraulic hoses and fittings to the oil and gas industry, has been bought out by F.N.B. Capital Partners, a $175 million investment fund also located in Pittsburgh. This is the twelfth such SBIC (federal Small Business Investment Company program) investment this year for F.N.B. Terms of the deal were not disclosed (private transaction, private company). Edward Condon, the owner of Powertrack, is cashing in his chips. He’ll hang around for some consulting work, but essentially he’s now out the door and a “long-time” employee of the company, Andrew Kuron, will take the helm as president…
Read More “Marcellus Supply Chain: Pittsburgh Hydraulic Hose Supplier Sold”
About MDN | Calendar

Calendar of Events for Dec 8-21, 2014 [Free]
December 8, 2014December 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 Dec 8-21, 2014 [Free]”
Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Mon, Dec 8, 2014
December 8, 2014December 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, Dec 8, 2014”
Energy Services | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | UIL Holdings

UIL Makes it Official: $1.86B Deal to Buy Phila. Gas Works is Dead
December 5, 2014December 5, 2014

Sensing that the corrupt Philadelphia City Council will not budget–will not even talk to UIL Holdings about their proposed $1.86 BILLION offer to purchase the municipal-owned Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW)–the company has pulled the plug on the deal. It’s now officially 100% dead. Even though UIL has assured and reassured anyone who would listen that they won’t come in and fire the union workers, and that they would accelerate an already-ambitious schedule of upgrading PGW’s failing pipeline infrastructure, City Council members are stuck in the pockets of powerful unions and shadowy others in the background who opposed the deal. UIL has been more than patient. Philly’s dream of being an “energy hub” in the northeast is also dead along with the deal…
Read More “UIL Makes it Official: $1.86B Deal to Buy Phila. Gas Works is Dead”
Antero Resources | CNG/LNG | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Exporting | Industrywide Issues | WGL Holdings

WGL & Antero to Provide Marcellus Gas to India via Cove Point
December 5, 2014December 5, 2014

An exciting announcement yesterday. You know that Dominion was given the green light in September and is now building an LNG (liquefied natural gas) export facility in Cove Point, Maryland (see Dominion Gets Final Fed Approval to Build Cove Point LNG Plant). Dominion has already lined up Japan and India to purchase all of the LNG the plant can produce. The question has remained, who will ship natural gas to the plant, and where will that gas come from? Stands to reason most of it (perhaps all of it) will come from the Marcellus and Utica. We previously told you that Cabot Oil & Gas is one of the suppliers–supplying 0.35 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of gas to Japan when the plant is up and operating (see Cabot Signs Deal to Export Gas via Cove Point, MD). We now know of the first official supplier for India: WGL Midstream, using Marcellus gas supplied by Antero Resources…
Read More “WGL & Antero to Provide Marcellus Gas to India via Cove Point”
Columbiana County | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Monroe County | Ohio | Pipelines | Regulation | Spectra Energy | Statewide OH

FERC Approves OPEN Pipeline in Eastern OH, Gas Goes to Gulf Coast
December 5, 2014December 5, 2014

Christmas continues to come a few weeks early for some of our biggest midstream (pipeline) companies. MDN told you earlier this week that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) had approved the Constitution Pipeline from NEPA up into NY. We now have word that FERC has approved Spectra Energy’s OPEN (Ohio Pipeline Energy Network) project in Ohio. Spectra originally announced the project in December 2011, a project that will build 76 miles of new pipeline from Columbiana County to Monroe County to connect to the Texas Eastern Pipeline, and then reverse the flow–make it bidirectional–on the Texas Eastern in order to carry Marcellus and Utica Shale gas from eastern Ohio to the Gulf Coast. Spectra finally filed a full, official application with FERC in February of this year (see Spectra Energy Files Formal Request with FERC for OPEN Pipeline). On Tuesday, FERC gave its final blessing for the OPEN project…
Read More “FERC Approves OPEN Pipeline in Eastern OH, Gas Goes to Gulf Coast”
Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Lease & Royalty Payments | Pipelines | Tennessee Gas Pipeline

Skeptical MA Farmers Hear From/Talk To Kinder about TGP Expansion
December 5, 2014December 5, 2014

The Massachusetts Farm Bureau Federation is holding its annual two-day convention yesterday and today at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. One of the talks yesterday was given by reps from Kinder Morgan, to talk about the proposed expansion of the Tennessee Gas Pipeline through (now) only part of Massachusetts. What can farmers expect if the Northeast Energy Direct (NED) project cuts across their land? Even though 90% of the pipeline will track with an existing power line right-of-way, how deep will the pipeline be buried? How much of a right-of-way will be required? What about trees? Those questions and more were addressed…
Read More “Skeptical MA Farmers Hear From/Talk To Kinder about TGP Expansion”
Industrywide Issues | Research | Reserves (Proved and Unproved)

EIA: Proved Reserves for Natgas Up 10% Last Year, Marcellus Leads
December 5, 2014December 5, 2014

If you knock around the oil and gas industry more than a day or two, you’re bound to hear industry veterans talking about (particularly in reports to investors) something called “proved reserves.” Proved reserves, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), “are those volumes of oil and natural gas that geological and engineering data demonstrate with reasonable certainty to be recoverable in future years from known reservoirs under existing economic and operating conditions.” That is, proved reserves are what’s in the ground now, can be gotten out, and we can prove it. A new report issued yesterday by the EIA says proved reserves for natural gas went up a huge 10% last year–to an all-time record high of 354 trillion cubic feet. And where did proved reserves go up the most? Yep, the Marcellus in PA and WV…
Read More “EIA: Proved Reserves for Natgas Up 10% Last Year, Marcellus Leads”
Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

NY’s “Progress” to Control Bakken Crude Trains Passing Through
December 5, 2014December 5, 2014

The issue of shipping Bakken crude oil on rail cars, many of which pass through New York State on the way to the Port of Albany, continues to be news in the Empire State. MDN told you in July that all New Yorkers are now less safe because of actions by the state government to disclose to the public (not just first responders) routes those shipments take through NY state (see New York Caves to Anti-Drillers Again: Discloses Oil Train Movements). Just coming to light for MDN, in January of this year Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued Executive Order (EO) 125 directing state agencies to conduct a “coordinated review” of NY’s crude oil incident prevention and response capacity. Earlier this week the agencies provided a status update to Cuomo (full copy embedded below). The upshot seems to be the state is pointing fingers at the railroad industry and the federal government, telling them to get their act together to protect NY residents…
Read More “NY’s “Progress” to Control Bakken Crude Trains Passing Through”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Nutjob Alert: Philly Rally Today to Protest Fossil Fuels
December 5, 2014December 5, 2014

A bunch of kooks and environmental radicals are gathering this morning in Philadelphia because, well, because they have nothing better to do. The rally is, unbelievably, against fossil fuels. And how will these nutters get there? By driving cars, taking trains and buses, etc. All of which use fossil fuels. That’s after getting up this morning in a home heated by fossil fuels and getting dressed with clothes that have fossil fuel fibers in them and shoes and sneakers manufactured from fossil fuels. And so the “we hate fossil fuelers” from 350 Philadelphia, Berks Gas Truth, Clean Air Council, Clean Water Action, THE Delaware Riverkeeper, Food & Water Watch, Keystone Catholics, Maypop Collective, North of Washington Avenue Coalition, Penn Environment, Pennsylvania Federation BMWED – Teamsters, Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign, Philadelphia Area Student Fossil Fuel Divestment Campaigns, Philadelphia Be the Change, Philadelphia Interfaith Power and Light, Protecting our Waters, Rising Tide Philly, Sierra Club, Beyond Natural Gas will gather this morning to protest against fossil fuels. How rich…
Read More “Nutjob Alert: Philly Rally Today to Protest Fossil Fuels”
Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Litigation | Supply Chain

Thorny Issues in Using Independent Contractors in Shale Drilling
December 5, 2014December 5, 2014

Most exploration & production (E&P) companies–the ones who risk the money to have oil and gas wells drilled–don’t actually DO the drilling themselves. They hire it done by using oilfield services companies like Schlumberger, Halliburton and Baker Hughes. In addition, they hire just about everyone done–from security at well pads to earth moving to water trucking to you name it. The shale drilling industry, particularly in the Marcellus and Utica, is a bonanza for local businesses or “independent contractors” that plug in to the industry supply chain. However, there are some negatives for E&Ps when it comes to using independent contractors rather than having employees on the payroll do the work. The sharp lawyers at Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease say lawsuits alleging violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act are now more common than employment discrimination cases for oil and gas companies. They’ve just issued an alert/advisory on the pros and cons of using independent contractors in the oil and gas industry…
Read More “Thorny Issues in Using Independent Contractors in Shale Drilling”
Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Fri, Dec 5, 2014
December 5, 2014December 5, 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: Fri, Dec 5, 2014”
Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Taxation

Time for Gov-Elect Wolf to Pay the Piper – Severance Tax High on List
December 4, 2014December 4, 2014

It’s payback time for newly elected Pennsylvania Democrat Gov. Tom Wolf. He took radical California environmentalist Tom Steyer’s money, millions of it, to get elected (see CA Anti-Driller Tom Steyer Purchasing Tom Wolf PA Governorship). Now that Wolf has been elected, the bill has come due. Time to pay the pied piper. The price? Get a Marcellus-killing severance tax passed. Right on cue that’s just what Wolf is doing–his master’s bidding…
Read More “Time for Gov-Elect Wolf to Pay the Piper – Severance Tax High on List”
Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Sand/Proppant | Wyoming County (PA)

Revisiting Frac Sand Facility Controversy in Tunkhannock, PA
December 4, 2014December 4, 2014

We’re happy to bring you another perspective on the controversy in Tunkhannock, PA over a proposed frac sand transfer station. In October we told you about residents around Tunkhannock who are pushing back against a facility being proposed by Hi-Crush/D&I Silica (see NEPA Town Residents Resist Frack Sand Transfer Station). What caught our eye was the antics of one of the locals who dressed up in a canary outfit to conjure the image of a canary in the mine shaft. Seemed to us that perhaps anti-drillers were opposing the project. We then referenced the D&I project when we wrote about another frac sand facility where the town and company worked out their problems like adults (see WV Sand Company & Community Work Together to Solve Problem). We were recently contacted by an MDN subscriber who lives in Tunkhannock to say, “Hold there Jim, there is another side to this story…”
Read More “Revisiting Frac Sand Facility Controversy in Tunkhannock, PA”