Marcellus Drilling News

Beaver County | Cardinal Gas Services | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation

Beaver County Organic Farm vs Cardinal Midstream Compressor Plant
July 31, 2014July 31, 2014

A drama playing out in Beaver County, PA that first came to public attention last week pits a midstream company against an organic farmer. Don and Becky Kretschmann operate one of (perhaps the) largest Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) organic farms in western Pennsylvania. The vegetables, fruits and herbs they produce on the farm are sold to some 1,000 customers throughout the area. Cardinal Midstream plans to build a pipeline compressor station with first four compressors, and eventually eight compressors, at a location about 1/3 of a mile (2,000 feet) from the Kretschmann’s organic farm. The Kretschmanns say the compressor station threatens the existence of their farm and organic certification…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

Towns that Ban Fracking Could be Bankrupted by Takings Lawsuits
July 31, 2014July 31, 2014

New York townships that recently won the right to outright ban shale drilling with a 3-2 majority vote by a town board may want to rethink their ill-advised votes. Due to a tip from a sharp MDN reader, we bring you a press release from the National Association of Royalty Owners (NARO) about recent court decisions in Colorado. Similar to the New York case, some municipalities in CO have attempted outright bans of fracking–and those cases, contrary to what happened in NY–are being lost. (Certainly not the first time NY has been out of step on important issues.) One study mentioned in the NARO announcement says that bans and moratoria in Boulder County, CO could result in more than one billion dollars of “takings” lawsuits by landowners. In other words, the lawsuits will bankrupt the towns and villages stupid enough to enact a ban. Are you listening Dryden and Middlefield? You won round one in NY–but the battle is far from over and taxpayers in your towns may one day rue your decision to act foolishly to ban fracking…
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Guernsey County | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Supply Chain | Utica Shale

Engineering Services Firm “Quietly” Opens Utica Office in SE Ohio
July 31, 2014July 31, 2014

Fenstermaker, an environmental engineering and consulting firm with 300 employees companywide in the U.S., says they “quietly” opened their latest branch office in Cambridge, OH in March in order to better serve their customers in the Utica Shale. They’re no-so-quietly trumpeting their presence now. Although the company’s announcement doesn’t say how many are employed at the new location, it does say Jarrod Hughes, a Project Manager experienced in both field and office supervision, has stepped into the role of Northeast Operations Leader. According to his LinkedIn profile, Mr. Hughes most recently has worked for Fenstermaker as a senior environmental specialist in the Montrose (Susquehanna County), PA area–i.e. the Marcellus Shale…
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Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Research

Fact: Unemployment Lower in States with Fracking
July 31, 2014July 31, 2014

Bernard Weinstein is a researcher and the associate director of the Maguire Energy Institute at Southern Methodist University’s Cox School of Business (in Texas). According to new research being touted by Weinstein, it’s a proven fact that states with active shale drilling–like Texas and Pennsylvania–saw faster economic turnarounds after the recession in 2008 when compared to those who have no drilling activity, like New York. In fact, the unemployment rate in Texas is the lowest of any large state–5.1%–while New York’s unemployment statewide remains stubbornly high–at 6.7%. The unemployment rate is even higher in Upstate New York, where Marcellus Shale is abundant and would be an economic miracle if allowed to proceed…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Broome County | Industrywide Issues | New York

Anti-Drillers to Push Their Message at Binghamton Spiedie Fest
July 31, 2014July 31, 2014

Anti-drillers will infest, er, attend the Binghamton Spiedie Fest that runs from tomorrow, August 1st, through the weekend. They will, as they have in past years, have an “information” (i.e. lying propaganda) table at the event. They’re desperately trying to get volunteers to show up and “man” the table–by offering them a free pass to enter the event. For those outside of the Southern Tier region, the Spiedie Fest and Balloon Rally is the biggest such regional fair each summer–drawing in around 100,000 visitors. Anti-frackers are using it to spread their lies…
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Energy Companies | EQT Corp | Forced Pooling | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Revisiting the EQT “Forced Pooling” Lawsuit
July 30, 2014July 30, 2014

Yesterday MDN wrote a summary and interpretation of an article appearing in the Harrisburg Patriot-News about the recent court decision known as EQT Production v. Opatkiewicz, et al (see EQT’s (Mis)Use of 2013 Royalty Law Creates Forced Pooling). MDN friend and one of our legal idols–Dr. Michael Joy (with top law firm Reed Smith, holder of advanced degrees in both geology and the law) wrote to tell us–you’re wrong about your opinion of that case! When someone of Michael’s stature tells you you’re wrong, you step back and do some reflecting to see where you came off the tracks…
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New York | Statewide NY

Revisiting the Bakken Crude Shipment Through NY Debate
July 30, 2014July 30, 2014

Let’s revisit the issue of Bakken Shale oil traveling on down the train tracks. MDN has written to criticize New York anti-drillers who fought to get train movement information released–not so people could be safer but so they could use the information in their PR offensive against shale drilling. In the process they’ve made New Yorkers less safe (see New York Caves to Anti-Drillers Again: Discloses Oil Train Movements). Is there, however, another side to this story? A North Dakota resident sent out an op-ed to a number of media outlets, including MDN. In it he calls out his own state government for their unwillingness to force Bakken drillers to first separate out natural gas liquids from the light sweet crude produced in the Bakken–chemicals that make train shipments much more volatile and explosive. He says he supports drilling and simply wants the output from Bakken drilling cleaned up before shipping–to make it safer. Is it really that simple?…
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CONSOL Energy | Energy Companies

CONSOL Energy 2Q14: Production Up, Margins Up, Costs Down
July 30, 2014July 30, 2014

CONSOL Energy issued their second quarter update yesterday. Although the company lost $25 million for the quarter due to accounting this and write-down that, the shale drilling division of the company performed like a star. Production was 51.9 billion cubic feet equivalent, up 34% over the same period a year ago. That converts to an average of 576 million cubic feet per day. Although the update contains a lot of information about the Marcellus/Utica, most of it relates to the financial aspects and not to operations. Here’s the brief couple of paragraphs of most interest to MDN:
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Braskem | CNG/LNG | Economic Impact | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Odebrecht | Processing Plants | Supply Chain | West Virginia | Wood County

Odebrecht Cracker Plant Will be Magnet for Downstream Development
July 30, 2014July 30, 2014

David Peebles, VP of business development for Odebrecht, presented a plan for downstream development related to his company’s proposed ethane cracker plant in Parkersburg, WV at the Department of Energy Quadrennial Energy Review Public Meeting held at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh on July 21st. The presentation shows how the proposed Odebrecht $2B+ ethane cracker plant is just the beginning of “clusters” of downstream manufacturing facilities that will be built. The cracker plant will act as a magnet for other businesses. Peebles presented the plan to DOE Sec. Ernest Moniz. And, we happen to have a copy!…
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Allegheny County | Chevron | Energy Companies | Pennsylvania

Chevron Puts Moon Twp, PA Office Building Project on Hold
July 30, 2014July 30, 2014

In February 2011 Chevron completed the purchase/buyout of Atlas Energy and with it, some 622,000 acres of Marcellus Shale leases. Atlas was located in Moon Township, PA (Allegheny County, near Pittsburgh). In September 2011, Chevron picked up another 228,000 acres–this time from Chief Oil & Gas (see Chevron Continues Aggressive Expansion into Marcellus Shale in PA – Buys Leases for Additional 228K Acres from Chief Oil & Gas). In May 2013 it was rumored that Chevron would build a new, massive 350,000 square foot headquarters in Moon Twp, a rumor that was confirmed when Chevron gained initial approval for the new facility in September 2013 (see Chevron Wins 1st Approval for New Regional HQ Near Pittsburgh). Chevron has just put those plans on hold…
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Air Quality | Industrywide Issues | Regulation | Research

DOE Releases “New Initiatives” to Cut Fugitive Methane
July 30, 2014July 30, 2014

The Department of Energy (DOE) under the guidance of Secretary Ernest “Hair” Moniz, at the direction of the White House, has been on a fools errand to cut down on methane emissions, claiming such emissions are a “potent greenhouse gas” (although the earth isn’t actually warming). Still, when the boss says jump, you say, “How high?” So the DOE has been conducting methane round tables with various environmental and industry participants to try and figure out how they can regulate methane emissions to cut them down to size. The fifth and final round table was held and yesterday Sec. Moniz and the DOE issued several new initiatives to help cut down on methane emissions, part of the larger Obama Administration “Strategy to Reduce Methane Emissions”…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Butler County | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Rex Energy

Martians Still Trying to Invade Neighbors to Prevent Drilling
July 30, 2014July 30, 2014

Nasty, and frankly loony, anti-drillers in Mars, PA want to exceed their constitutional authority. They want a 2 mile exclusion zone around the school to deny landowners the right to allow Marcellus Shale drilling on or under their land. State law already prohibits drilling within 500 feet of a school. As we frequently point out, the Elk Lake School District in Susquehanna County, PA has a couple of wells right on school property (see Rural NE PA School Nets $1.7M in Royalties from 2 Marcellus Wells). The Elk Lake wells totally debunk any arguments from Mars parents that their little Martian crumb-crunchers would be damaged by drilling…
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Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Wed, Jul 30, 2014
July 30, 2014July 30, 2014

The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading:
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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

JLCNY Appeals Article 78 Case to Higher NY Court
July 29, 2014July 29, 2014

Yesterday the 70,000-member Joint Landowners Coalition of New York (JLCNY) along with several individual landowners filed an appeal in their Article 78 lawsuit that was dismissed by a lower court in Albany County, NY earlier this month. You may recall that the JLCNY sued NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Dept. of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Joe Martens, and state Health Dept. Commissioner Nirav Shah over their refusal to deliver fracking regulations (see D-Day: JLCNY Files Lawsuit Today Against Cuomo, Martens, Shah). Albany County Supreme Court, a lower level court in New York, said the JLCNY and others who filed the lawsuit had no “standing” to bring the suit (see (see NY Pro-Drillers Lose 2nd Important Shale Drilling Court Case). Not true, according to JLCNY president Dan Fitzsimmons…
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Cameron County | Elk County | Energy Companies | Lycoming County | McKean County | Pennsylvania | Seneca Resources

Seneca Resources 3Q14: Drilling Moves Away from Lycoming County
July 29, 2014July 29, 2014

Seneca Resources, the Marcellus Shale drilling division of midstream and utility company National Fuel Gas headquartered in Buffalo, NY, issued their fiscal third quarter (everyone else’s calendar second quarter) update yesterday. Among the interesting items: Seneca has shifted its focus on new drilling away from Lycoming County, PA (Williamsport area) westward to Elk, McKean and Cameron counties. The shift in focus will remain until Williams completes its recently announced Atlantic Sunrise Expansion pipeline project. Also of note was the increase in Seneca’s production and where it came from…
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Energy Companies | Range Resources Corp

Range CEO Says Path to Producing 3 Bcf/d in Company Sights
July 29, 2014July 29, 2014

By all accounts, Range Resources had a busy second quarter 2014. The company increased production by 21% over the same period last year–to 1.1 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas–most of it coming from the Marcellus. And that was despite the problems with a MarkWest processing plant going offline from late May to mid-July following a lightening strike (see MarkWest Re-Opens Chartiers, PA Plant, New Plant in OH) and despite unplanned downtime for the Mariner West pipeline which carts Range’s ethane to Canada. Even so, production (and profits) were at record highs for Range in 2Q14…
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