Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Tue, Sep 2, 2014
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading:
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PA DEP Releases List of Water Wells Impacted by Shale Drilling
Here comes the next media smear campaign. This time the meme is “You know that lie we’ve been telling about how shale drilling contaminates water wells? Well it was true all along. Here’s the proof!” Case in point: The Associate Press has a single, breathless story of a new list just released by the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) of 243 water wells “contaminated” by Marcellus Shale drilling. We’ve included the list below. These 243 are wells DEP officials believe have been affected by shale drilling after conducting an investigation. Some of the cases are still under investigation but included on the list because the DEP thinks they were likely contaminated by drilling. Is this the smoking gun? Is Marcellus drilling a threat to water after all? As always, MDN is here to provide some much needed perspective…
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Report: Marcellus Worth Another $90 Billion, 25K Wells Thru 2035
Wood Mackenzie (WM) is a global energy, metals and mining research and consulting company based in Edinburgh, Scotland with 25 offices around the world, including Houston, TX. The company has just released a new report on the Marcellus Shale. The report, titled “Marcellus Key Play Analysis,” contains some interesting findings. Among them: WM analysts say there is $90 billion left in the Marcellus Shale. That number is calculated as how much revenue drillers will derive from selling the gas they mine from the play minus development costs. The report estimates that the top 20 drillers in the Marcellus will drill 25,000 wells in the play through 2035. Improved efficiency has lowered drilling costs according to WM. But the real secret, according to WM, to unlocking value in both the Marcellus and other shale plays is…
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Marshall County Votes to Accept Gas-Powered Electric Plant
In April MDN told you about a plan from a Buffalo, NY company to build an electric generating power plant in Marshall County, WV that will use Marcellus Shale gas to power it (see Marcellus-Powered Electric Plant Coming to Marshall County, WV). The plan is a bit complicated, as we’ve previously outlined. In essence, Moundsville Power, the name of the company, will build the plant and then turn over the deed to the plant to the county. Since it will be county-owned, on paper, the company will not pay any property taxes. Instead, they will pay annual “rental” payments to the county in lieu of property taxes (see Complicated Deal for Proposed WV Gas-Powered Electric Plant). It makes the project affordable and doable. County officials recently approved the plan…
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Anti-Drillers Send PA DEP Letter: You’re Falling Down on the Job
A group of virulently anti-drilling (and anti-fossil fuel) groups sent a nasty-gram letter to Pennsylvania Secretary of the Dept. of Environmental Protection, Chris Abruzzo, essentially telling him he’s not doing is job. The groups, sprearheaded by the wacky Sierra Club, THE Delaware Riverkeeper (the haughty and arrogant Maya van Rossum), and PennEnvironment, cite a completely discredited “report” from the politically-motivated Auditor General, Eugene DePasquale (see Anti-Drilling PA Auditor General Criticizes DEP in “Report”), along with other so-called reports from groups like the half-baked Earthworks, to accuse the DEP of being sloppy, neglectful, obstructionist, or all three. Mainstream media spins this as “environment groups send a letter to the DEP with their concerns.” It’s nothing of the sort. It’s pure horse manure and frankly, meaningless…
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PA Spending $6M on Program to Convert Vehicles to Natgas
The Pennsylvania Marcellus is a gift that keeps on giving. Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett announced yesterday that the third round of funding from Act 13 funds to convert vehicles to run on natural gas will open tomorrow–August 30th. So far PA has collected over $600 million in “impact fees” from Marcellus drillers under the Act 13 law passed by Corbett early in his administration. Most (60%) of impact fee revenue goes back to the local communities where drilling occurs–to compensate them for the hassles or “impacts” that come with drilling. But 40% of the impact fee money goes to communities (or programs) with no active drilling. We uncharitably call it political walking around money. Necessary to grease the hands of greedy politicians. Some of that walking around money goes to fund the conversion of cars and trucks to run on compressed natural gas–a worthy cause in our opinion. This time around $6 million of impact fee money will go to fund natgas vehicle conversions. Who can apply? Just about anyone–except individuals. It must be a company, non-profit or government agency/entity…
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PA PUC Appeals Act 13 Case to Supreme Court One More Time
It seems there’s still a bit of unfinished business with the ongoing, never-ending lawsuits around the Act 13 oil and gas drilling law in Pennsylvania. At least one final bit of unfinished business. You will recall that seven selfish towns sued the state over the Act 13 law and it’s provision that would substitute a statewide, uniform and fair set of zoning ordinances for drilling in place of a patchwork, crazy quilt system of local ordinances for oil and gas drilling. These seven selfish towns wanted their own ordinances and sued, ultimately winning at the Supreme Court (see PA Supreme Court Rules Against State/Drillers in Act 13 Case). The PA Supremes couldn’t, however, be bothered with deciding every tiny bit of nuance and sent some items back to the lower Commonwealth Court for final decisions. One of those decisions was about whether or not the PA Public Utility Commission (PUC) has the right to review any local oil and gas ordinances for compliance with state standards, making the award of impact fee money to a town based on such compliance. The Commonwealth Court gutted that right, taking it away from the PUC in a July decision (see PA Court Says 7 Towns Can Keep Marcellus Money & Ban Drilling Too). The PUC has appealed that decision back up to the Supremes…
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Enviro Emergency: 570 Methane Plumes Discovered Along East Coast
You know how dangerous that filty, vile fugitive is, fugitive methane, right? “Learned” professors like Cornell’s Robert Howarth and Tony Ingraffea have used all sorts of money from the Park Foundation to spin out “studies” to try and convince us that too much methane from natural gas drilling is escaping into the atmosphere where it’s baking Mother Earth with global warming (even though the forecast for the next year is cooler than normal, ahem). So imagine our surprise when we saw a newly released study that says researchers have noticed more than 570 (!) methane “seeps”–places where methane is leaking pell-mell into the atmosphere–from the ocean floor along the East Coast. And just where are Howarth and Ingraffea now, when there’s a five alarm methane emergency coming from Mother Earth?…
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Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Fri, Aug 29, 2014
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading:
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USGS Study: Pike County Water has Methane, Radon – No Drilling
In the summer of 2012, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) began a groundwater survey in Pike County, PA. Pike, located in northeastern PA, is one of the counties with the dubious distinction of being under the regulatory purview of the Delaware River Basin Commission which has, so far, refused to allow any Marcellus Shale drilling. The survey’s purpose is to provide baseline numbers prior to any Marcellus drilling activity. So, just to be clear, there has been NO drilling thus far in Pike nor anywhere near Pike. And yet, what did the USGS survey, published in July 2014 (full copy below) show? Some 80% of the water wells tested in Pike have “detectable concentrations of methane” and 10% of the wells (2 of the 20 tested) have high levels of methane. Not only that, 85% (!) of the wells tested have (gasp) really high radon levels–over the proposed safe limit of 300 picocuries per liter. One well was as high as 4,500 picocuries! But it gets worse–there’s also measurable quantities of nasty stuff like barium, strontium, and the dreaded chloride (salt). And yet, not a Marcellus Shale well in sight. Now how can that be?…
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MDN Welcomes Antero Resources to the 1 Bcf/d Club
Earlier this month Antero Resources, a large and growing driller in the Marcellus and Utica Shale, provided their second quarter financial and operations update. At the time, MDN observed they are getting close to a very exclusive milestone–the 1 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas production–or the “1 Bcf/d Club”. So far only Cabot Oil & Gas, Range Resources and EQT are in the club. Earlier this week Antero issued a guidance update declaring they will hit the 1 Bcf/d level in the second half of this year. Antero has revised UP their “guidance” by another 5%–saying they expect to be at 990 – 1,010 MMcfe/d for the entire year, and well beyond the 1 Bcf/d level (1,160 MMcfe/d) during the second half of the year. So, MDN officially says to Antero: Welcome to the club! Here’s Antero’s extensive guidance update issued Tuesday:
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Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Lease & Royalty Payments | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA
PA AG Kane Goes on Witch Hunt of Drilling Industry over Royalties
You can’t say we didn’t warn you. In April MDN warned you that by inviting Pennsylvania’s avowed anti-drilling Attorney General Kathleen Kane (Democrat) to investigate Chesapeake Energy for shorting landowners on royalties, an invitation extended by PA Gov. Tom Corbett and PA Sen. Gene Yaw (both Republicans), they would unleash something far worse than they expected (see PA AG Kathleen “Anti-Driller” Kane Probes Chessy Royalty Issue). We were right. Word has filtered down that Kane is expanding the scope of her investigation “throughout the energy industry” in PA. Translation: the witch hunt has begun…
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Blue Racer Midstream | Caiman Energy | Dominion Energy | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Mahoning County | Ohio | Processing Plants | Supply Chain | Utica Shale
Blue Racer to Build New Wet Gas Plant in Mahoning County, OH
Listen up supply chain companies who want to get involved with a big new project coming in the Ohio Utica Shale. Blue Racer Midstream, the $1.5 billion joint venture between Caiman Energy II, LLC and Dominion formed in December of 2012, plans to build a new wet gas processing facility in Mahoning County by June 2016. The new facility, located near Petersburg in Springfield Township appears to be “back on track” according to an article in the Youngstown Business Journal…
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CONSOL Energy | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Greene County (PA) | Halliburton | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania
Frack It Again – CONSOL’s Experiment in Refracking a Success
Frack and refrack? Yep. CONSOL Energy started drilling Marcellus Shale wells in 2009. In fact, they drilled half a dozen wells in Greene County at the time. Five years ago is an eternity in the shale drilling business. Knowledge and experience has expanded maybe a hundred-fold since that time. With every new well CONSOL and other drillers learn what does and what does not work. So CONSOL had an interesting idea: what would happen if we went back and refracked some of those early wells, which were not good producers? CONSOL hired Halliburton to refrack and the results were so good, they’re going to refrack another 200 wells…
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Obama Back Door Climate Plan: Use UN to Police US Global Warming
President Barack Obama intends to once again act illegally and unlawfully–in contravention to the U.S. Constitution and it’s separation of powers. Obama’s flouting of the Constitution has been breathtaking during his ignominious presidency–and it’s about to get worse. On Tuesday the New York Times reported a story that Obama and his global warming cronies are concocting a plan to sign a binding agreement, in essence a new treaty–without consent of two-thirds of the Senate as required by the Constitution–that would commit the U.S. to arbitrary and punitive emissions standards to be enforced by the United Nations. Talk about chutzpah…
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Deal to Purchase Site for Nova Scotia LNG Plant Advances Quickly
One month ago MDN brought you the news that Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (LNGL) was in the process of purchasing a 255-acre site in Nova Scotia, Canada from Anadarko Petroleum to be used as an LNG export facility (see New LNG Plant in Nova Scotia Will Use Marcellus Gas). The reason that’s news for MDN is because some of the gas that will feed the facility is slated to be Marcellus Shale gas, piped up to Nova Scotia. Today LNGL announced the purchase of what they call the Bear Head LNG site is now complete, ahead of schedule. LNGL paid a drop in the bucket–$11 million–for the site. If they move forward with building an LNG export facility, they’ll invest something like $2.2 billion…
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Here comes the next media smear campaign. This time the meme is “You know that lie we’ve been telling about how shale drilling contaminates water wells? Well it was true all along. Here’s the proof!” Case in point: The Associate Press has a single, breathless story of a new list just released by the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) of 243 water wells “contaminated” by Marcellus Shale drilling. We’ve included the list below. These 243 are wells DEP officials believe have been affected by shale drilling after conducting an investigation. Some of the cases are still under investigation but included on the list because the DEP thinks they were likely contaminated by drilling. Is this the smoking gun? Is Marcellus drilling a threat to water after all? As always, MDN is here to provide some much needed perspective…
In the summer of 2012, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) began a groundwater survey in Pike County, PA. Pike, located in northeastern PA, is one of the counties with the dubious distinction of being under the regulatory purview of the Delaware River Basin Commission which has, so far, refused to allow any Marcellus Shale drilling. The survey’s purpose is to provide baseline numbers prior to any Marcellus drilling activity. So, just to be clear, there has been NO drilling thus far in Pike nor anywhere near Pike. And yet, what did the USGS survey, published in July 2014 (full copy below) show? Some 80% of the water wells tested in Pike have “detectable concentrations of methane” and 10% of the wells (2 of the 20 tested) have high levels of methane. Not only that, 85% (!) of the wells tested have (gasp) really high radon levels–over the proposed safe limit of 300 picocuries per liter. One well was as high as 4,500 picocuries! But it gets worse–there’s also measurable quantities of nasty stuff like barium, strontium, and the dreaded chloride (salt). And yet, not a Marcellus Shale well in sight. Now how can that be?…
Earlier this month Antero Resources, a large and growing driller in the Marcellus and Utica Shale, provided their second quarter financial and operations update. At the time, MDN observed they are getting close to a very exclusive milestone–the 1 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas production–or the “1 Bcf/d Club”. So far only Cabot Oil & Gas, Range Resources and EQT are in the club. Earlier this week Antero issued a guidance update declaring they will hit the 1 Bcf/d level in the second half of this year. Antero has revised UP their “guidance” by another 5%–saying they expect to be at 990 – 1,010 MMcfe/d for the entire year, and well beyond the 1 Bcf/d level (1,160 MMcfe/d) during the second half of the year. So, MDN officially says to Antero: Welcome to the club! Here’s Antero’s extensive guidance update issued Tuesday: