Marcellus Drilling News

Energy Companies | Energy Services | EQT Corp | Equitrans/EQT Midstream | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

EQT Midstream: 2 Major Pipeline Projects Advance, 1 Doesn’t
July 25, 2014July 25, 2014

In addition to yesterday’s big news that EQT has decided to “take the plunge” and drill what is thought to be the deepest Utica Shale well yet, in Greene County, PA (see MDN’s related story today), EQT also announced yesterday their plans for their midstream operations over the coming months. CEO David Porges said EQT Midstream will spend “over $350 million” on midstream projects in 2014. The company has three major pipeline/midstream projects on the books. Porges said two of those projects are advancing while one is going “on the back burner”…
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Energy Companies | EQT Corp

EQT Analyst Presentation: Acreage Maps, Decline Curves & More
July 25, 2014July 25, 2014

It’s “EQT Day” on MDN. In addition to two other stories on EQT–one about the company drilling their first-ever Utica well in SWPA, the other about which pipeline projects made the cut and will get built–we bring you the latest analyst presentation slide deck (below). Full of interesting charts and graphs from the July 24, 2014 analyst presentation given by EQT’s management team. Here’s a guide to our favorite slides (just about all of them are our favorites!)…
Read More “EQT Analyst Presentation: Acreage Maps, Decline Curves & More”
Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County

Cabot O&G: Afterburners Kick in on Rocket to the Moon
July 25, 2014July 25, 2014

MDN has an admitted soft spot for Cabot Oil & Gas. We know a number of Cabot personnel–all extremely talented and top-drawer professionals. Cabot has been (in our opinion) unfairly maligned for “causing Dimock” which is still a rallying cry for hacks like Josh Fox and his Gasland fictional movies. Even though we have an admitted crush on Cabot, the fact is, they are a stellar performer by everyone’s standards. Yesterday the company released second quarter results for 2014 and they report, among many interesting things, that the company produced an average 1.26 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day from their wells in Susquehanna County, PA. Folks, the entire country produces 70 Bcf/d (see U.S. Hits New Daily Production Record Thx to Marcellus/Utica). If you do the math, the amount of gas a single driller is producing from a single PA county (Cabot/Susquehanna County)–is nearly 2% of all gas produced in the U.S. every day. Simply astonishing…
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Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Susquehanna County | Williams

Cabot CEO Dinges Talks Marcellus, Midstream Challenges
July 25, 2014July 25, 2014

MDN brought you the Cabot Oil & Gas second quarter update today in a related post. The company released their update yesterday. They also held a call for analysts and investors in which CEO Dan Dinges talked pretty frankly about his frustrations with Williams over problems with pipelines in Susquehanna County, PA where Cabot has drilled all of their PA Marcellus wells–to date anyway. Seems that Williams had some difficulties during the harsh winter and those difficulties stretched into 2Q14 as well…
Read More “Cabot CEO Dinges Talks Marcellus, Midstream Challenges”
Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Williams

Constitution Pipeline Update from Cabot – Final EIS Due Any Day
July 25, 2014July 25, 2014

The Constitution Pipeline, as MDN has covered numerous times before, is a 30-inch, 124-mile pipeline from Susquehanna County, PA to Schoharie County, NY to carry cheap, abundant Marcellus Shale gas to markets that include New York City and New England (see Vicariously Attend FERC Scoping Hearing on Constitution Pipeline). The $683 million project will be built by Williams, although Cabot is also a partner in the project. In fact, the pipeline will carry mostly Cabot natural gas–another half billion cubic feet of Cabot gas per day will flow through it. So it was no surprise that Cabot CEO Dan Dinges took time to mention the Constitution in an analyst call yesterday. Here’s what he said about timing for the project:
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Energy Companies | Noble Energy

Noble Energy 2Q14: 249 Mmcf/d Marcellus Production, Up 120%
July 25, 2014July 25, 2014

Noble Energy is a big on- and off-shore driller with operations that span the world. A very successful single off-shore project in the Mediterranean, just off the coast of Israel, has essentially made Israel energy independent–no longer relying on Arab countries for natural gas. Noble also has a big presence in the Marcellus Shale–especially in West Virginia. Noble issued their second quarter 2014 update yesterday. MDN has extracted two sections from the update for MDN readers. The first is the general introductory overview, the second the operations update for the Marcellus with particulars on number of wells drilled, where, etc….
Read More “Noble Energy 2Q14: 249 Mmcf/d Marcellus Production, Up 120%”
Anadarko | Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Bradford County | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Lycoming County | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Southwestern Energy | Sullivan County

Save the Loyalsock Coalition Attempts a New Spin Job Against DCNR
July 25, 2014July 25, 2014

Another anti-drilling spin job by the partisan, biased “reporters” at PBS’ StateImpact Pennsyvlania. The reliably anti-drilling Marie Cusick–who (going by her previous articles) hasn’t encountered a fossil fuel she likes–is once again trying to stir the anti-drilling pot against legitimate, legal and ethical drilling in the Loyalsock State Forest in central Pennsylvania. Anadarko Petroleum owns mineral rights for 25,000 acres of the Forest. Anadarko presented a plan in March 2012 (!) to drill there, a plan that STILL has not been approved by the Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources (see PA DCNR Blocks Drilling in Loyalsock State Forest – For Now). Finally, there have been some baby steps toward granting Anadarko access to what they legally have a right to do…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Cuyahoga County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Regulation

OH City Ban on Drilling Heads to Court – Implications for Utica?
July 25, 2014July 25, 2014

Last week two Ohio drillers filed a lawsuit against Broadview Heights, OH, a suburb of Cleveland, for the city’s recently passed ban on drilling oil and gas wells. According to the lawsuit, only the state (via the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources) has the sole legal right to allow or deny a given oil/gas well from being drilled. That is, this is yet another so-called “home rule” court case. This particular case is interesting on a lot of levels. Number one, contrary to the understanding of those commenting on a story about the case in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the oil and gas wells that have been drilled and those that may be drilled in the future in Broadview Heights–are not fracked shale wells. They are conventional shallow wells. Even so, the case could have implications for Utica (unconventional fracked) drilling…
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Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | M&A | Talisman Energy

Repsol Eyes Talisman Energy for “Assets” – Takeover Target?
July 24, 2014July 24, 2014

MDN told you last October that evil corporate raider Carl Icahn had begun to sink his claws into his next shale victim. Like he had done at Chesapeake Energy, Icahn started snapping up stock in Canadian company Talisman Energy (see Carl Icahn Snaps Up 6% of His Next E&P Victim: Talisman Energy). Icahn quickly became the puppet master pulling the strings, forcing the company to begin selling assets (see Icahn Now Throwing His Weight Around at Talisman, Like Chesapeake). You knew what was coming when he scored two seats on the board of the directors just a few months later, in December 2013 (see Carl Icahn’s Claws Go Deeper into Talisman – 2 New Board Members). Indeed, what we feared is now coming true. Talisman is now actively considering a buyout/takover from Spanish oil company Repsol…
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Energy Companies | EQT Corp

EQT 2Q14 Update: Profit & Production Way Up
July 24, 2014July 24, 2014

EQT posted their second quarter update today, and wow, what an update! Profit for the company is up 28% and production increased by double digits–thanks to the Marcellus Shale. Gas production was up 17% and the company’s midstream division saw a whopping 33% increase in revenue. The company says they’re still on track to produce 465-480 billion cubic feet of natural gas equivalent this year…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Health Impacts | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

The Supreme Arrogance of SWPA Environmental Health Project
July 24, 2014July 24, 2014

You may recall an anti-drilling group that calls itself the Southwest Pennsylvania Environmental Health Project (SWPA-EHP) is trying to prove Marcellus drilling makes people sick (see Health “Study” of Whopping 27 People Blames Drilling for Symptoms and more recently, Anti-Drilling Group Distributes Air Monitors, Calls it Research). In an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer, a media spokesman for SWPA-EHP makes the breathtakingly arrogant statement that his organization is the public health organization representing people affected by shale drilling in the U.S….
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Research | Statewide PA

Former DEP Sec. Krancer Skewers Auditor General “Report”
July 24, 2014July 24, 2014

Yesterday MDN brought you the news of Pennsylvania Auditor General Eugene DePasquale’s politically-motivated critical report of the state’s Dept. of Environmental Protection (see Anti-Drilling PA Auditor General Criticizes DEP in “Report”). We pointed out the huge conflict of interest on the part of DePasquale (he supports a renewable energy agenda). Today we have reaction from Michael Krancer, a former Secretary of the DEP during 2012, secretary during one of the four year period covered in DePasquale’s report. In his frank style, Krancer skewers the report, while keeping a smile on his face…
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Health Impacts | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

PA’s Sec of Health Fires Back at Reckless Accusations Against Dept
July 24, 2014July 24, 2014

The latest anti-drilling push in Pennsylvania is to plant seeds of fear and doubt that Marcellus “may be” harming some people’s health. That tactic has worked wonders in liberal New York, so the anti-fossil fuel crowd in PA have also glommed onto. First to appear are stories planted by anti-drilling PBS “reporters” accusing the state’s Dept. of Health of muzzling its own employees (see StateImpact Pennsylvania’s story Former state health employees say they were silenced on drilling). That story about a so-called buzzword list that supposedly would trigger a “don’t talk about it” rule (which is utter nonsense) was picked up and endlessly repeated in the liberal mediasphere–over and over and over and over again. That’s how yellow journalism works. Michael Wolf, secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Health, has had enough and is now pushing back…
Read More “PA’s Sec of Health Fires Back at Reckless Accusations Against Dept”
Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Research | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Benesch Shale Report 2Q14: Ohio’s New Top Utica Well
July 24, 2014July 24, 2014

Each quarter the Ohio law firm of Benesch Friedlander Coplan & Aronoff LLP produces an Ohio shale update. MDN often shares their updates–well worth your time to read. The latest edition, covering Utica Shale activity in the second quarter of 2014, is embedded below. This issue highlights Ohio’s new top producing Utica Shale well–drilled by recent upstart Rice Energy in Belmont County. They also talk about the likely forthcoming increase in Ohio’s Utica Shale severance tax–from 1% to 2.5%. It’s less than what Gov. John “foreigner hunter” Kasich wants, but something that apparently Ohio’s squishy Republicans can live with. Take time to read this well-crafted summary (will only take you a few minutes)…
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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

Where Do Things Stand with NY Fracking? ProPublica “Explainer”
July 24, 2014July 24, 2014

The ProPublica website bills itself as “Journalism in the Public Interest.” Although the editors and writers on ProPublica tilt to the left of the political spectrum, we’ve found over the past year or two that most of the time their articles on fracking are pretty balanced–a surprising (and welcomed) aberration in the world of mainstream media. Such is the case with their latest article, a roundup on where things stand in the state of New York with respect to fracking. The writer (an intern!) does a good job of informing casual readers who may not follow the issue closely of just where things stand at this point. We liked the article and thought you might too…
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Accidents | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Equinor/Statoil | Halliburton | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Monroe County (NY) | New York | Regulation

OH Rep Hagan Doesn’t Let A Good Frack Accident Go to Waste
July 24, 2014July 24, 2014

Anti-drilling Ohio State Rep. Robert Hagan (Democrat, Youngstown) sent out a press release yesterday that says, essentially, “Na na na na na, told ya so, told ya so.” In just about that childish tone. Hagan has seized on a report that MDN and others highlighted yesterday from the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that alleges Halliburton, following the well pad fire in Monroe County on June 28, took five days to provide a list of chemicals at the site to the EPA (see EPA Reports on Enviro Damage from Statoil Well Fire in OH). What Hagan conveniently leaves out of his childish screed is that Halliburton promptly provided that list to the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources and local firefighters, the two agencies stipulated under Ohio law. The EPA is not stipulated to get a fast copy of the chemicals list–they’re not first responders to the accident. The EPA is there to watch, observe, assess and level hefty fines…
Read More “OH Rep Hagan Doesn’t Let A Good Frack Accident Go to Waste”