Marcellus Drilling News

Air Quality | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Research

New Western Study IDs Drill Site Equipment that Pollutes Most
October 23, 2014October 23, 2014

An ongoing issue for shale drilling is the seeming conundrum that although we’re burning more natural gas and therefore the air, on average, is cleaner–the air is not cleaner in heavily drilled counties. We’ve seen studies in Pennsylvania (see PA DEP Report: Counties with Fracking Have More Air Pollution), West Virginia (see Did WVDEP Ignore It’s Own Research on Shale Well Air Pollution?) and now Ohio (see UC Hints Air Problems Near Drill Sites in Carroll County Research) that tell us where there’s drilling, there’s far more air pollution. This is an important issue that isn’t going away. Two days ago researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) say they’ve identified what, precisely, is doing the polluting at drilling sites…
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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

New Law: PA Monthly Production Reports Starting in 2015
October 23, 2014October 23, 2014

On Tuesday MDN told you about two new bills passed in the Pennsylvania legislature–one that will move oil and gas reporting from every six months to every month, the other that requires drillers who have leases expire to issue a “surrender document” as proof the lease has ended (see 2 Bills on PA Gov’s Desk: Monthly Production #s, Lease Termination). Both bills where authored and sponsored by Rep. Tina Pickett (Republican, Bradford/Sullivan/Susquehanna). Good news for landowners–Gov. Tom Corbett signed both bills into law yesterday. Beginning next year (March 31, 2015), PA will move from semi-annual to monthly production reports…
Read More “New Law: PA Monthly Production Reports Starting in 2015”
Industrywide Issues | Regulation

EPA Inspector General’s Response to Sen. Inhofe: Screw You
October 23, 2014October 23, 2014

As MDN has previously pointed out, the Inspector General of the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Arthur A. Elkins, is a man who marches to the beat of his own drum (see EPA Inspector General: Bring Out the Jackboots on Methane). Sen. James Inhofe (R-Oklahoma) sent Elkins a letter on Oct. 2 asking that the IG’s office to not proceed with a review of the EPA and the individual states and their ability to manage threats to water resources from hydraulic fracturing. That is, don’t open the can of worms that the feds should begin regulating oil and gas drilling by abusing laws like the federal Clean Water Act. Elkins just responded back three weeks later (see his letter below). He politely said to Inhofe, screw you…
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Blue Ridge Mtn Res/Magnum Hunter | Energy Companies | Tyler County | Utica Shale | West Virginia

More Details on Magnum Hunter Super Utica Well Pad in WV
October 23, 2014October 23, 2014

We now have more details on the ginormous Utica Shale well drilled by Magnum Hunter Resources in Tyler County, WV. MH confirms that the Stewart Winland 1300U (Utica well) tested at a peak rate of 46.5 million cubic feet per day (Mmcf/d). The entire 4-well pad together has a combined flow test of 97.4 Mmcf/d. The Winland 1300U is the single most productive Utica Shale well every drilled–at least so far! Here’s more details on all four Stewart Winland wells…
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Blue Ridge Mtn Res/Magnum Hunter | Energy Companies

Magnum Hunter Loan Reshuffling Continues
October 23, 2014October 23, 2014

The loan reshuffling continues at Magnum Hunter Resources. Yesterday the company reported they’ve just received $390 million in new loans and have used it to pay off $241 million in old loans. This is not the first time this has happened (see Magnum Hunter Shops for New Loans to Pay Old Loans + New Slides). Here’s the latest loan reshuffling at MH…
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Pipelines | Tennessee Gas Pipeline

Both Mass. Senators Oppose TGP Northeast Energy Direct Pipeline
October 23, 2014October 23, 2014

Looks like Kinder Morgan will continue to have an uphill battle to get permission to build an extension to the Tennessee Gas Pipeline that crosses the state of Massachusetts to bring cheap Marcellus gas to New England. When the $6 billion project that would upgrade TGP in many states and build 177 miles of new pipe across Massachusetts was announced earlier this year, we were mystified that the response was muted to mildly positive (see Reaction to TGP’s Planned Pipeline Across Massachusetts). It took a few months, but the anti-drillers eventually crawled out of the woodwork to begin bashing away at the project (see NIMBYism Becomes NOMEism in MA Over Kinder Gas Pipeline). Now, both U.S. Senators from Massachusetts, along with other leading state Democrat politicians, are lining up against what is now called the TGP Northeast Energy Direct project…
Read More “Both Mass. Senators Oppose TGP Northeast Energy Direct Pipeline”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Research

NRDC Says Efficiency, Not Fracking, Reason for Energy Security
October 23, 2014October 23, 2014

The U.S. has drastically reduced its dependence on foreign oil in the just the past 3-4 years. Electricity prices keep going down for many Americans too. The price of natural gas keeps falling. The air is getting cleaner. Why? Because of shale drilling, of course. But if you shake the snow globe real hard, tap your heals together three times and enter into the alternate universe of the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the reason for all of that good news not because of nasty, filthy shale–it’s because of (wait for it)…….energy efficiency. Instead of acknowledging that the miracle of fracking is the cause of this good news, the NRDC is attempting to simply rewrite history in an attempt to make cutting back–energy efficiency–the prime reason why things are looking up. Nice try NRDC, but no cigar…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | New York | Statewide NY

Stop That (Bakken Oil) Train!
October 23, 2014October 23, 2014

The wackos at Earthjustice, along with the nutty Sierra Clubbers and a few other anti-fossil fuel groups have sent a petition to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the NY Dept. of Environmental Conservation essentially calling crude oil trains carrying Bakken light crude over tracks in New York rolling bombs. The so-called environmental groups are calling on Cuomo to stop shipments of Bakken crude that traverse the state on the way to the Port of Albany where the oil is loaded onto ships and moved to refineries in the Gulf. Here’s the latest diatribe sent to Gov. Can’t-Make-a-Decision:
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Energy Companies | Total

French Supermajor Total CEO Killed in Freak Runway Accident
October 23, 2014October 23, 2014

Tragedy has struck Total, a French multinational integrated oil and gas company and one of the six “Supermajor” oil companies in the world. Total has a small presence in the Marcellus and Utica Shale. Late Monday night, Total’s colorful CEO, Christophe de Margerie, was killed in a tragic airplane accident in Moscow, Russia. The plane that de Margerie was traveling in was taking off and a drunk snowplow driver cut across the path of the plane. The plane hit the snowplow and burst into flames. Everyone aboard (four people in all) were killed. The drunk idiot driving the snowplow wasn’t hurt–go figure…
Read More “French Supermajor Total CEO Killed in Freak Runway Accident”
Air Quality | Industrywide Issues | Research

Abioitic (Non-Organic) Methane Not as Rare as Once Thought
October 23, 2014October 23, 2014

Everything you thought you knew about methane (or natural gas) is about to change. Until know you (and we) thought methane is solely a byproduct of organic things that have died (or living things that smell like they’ve died!). Methane coming from rocks like shale? That shale rock is full of what was once living things that died long ago–that’s where the methane in shale comes from. Except, there are times, albeit rare, that methane in nature comes from non-organic (non-dead) sources. It comes from a chemical reaction. It’s called abiotic methane and some recent finds by an Italian geophysicist may give anti-fossil fuelers heartburn…
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Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Thu, Oct 23, 2014
October 23, 2014October 23, 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: Thu, Oct 23, 2014”
Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Lycoming County | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | PVR Partners | Regency Energy Partners | Regulation | Tioga County (PA)

PA DEP Fines Regency/PVR $306K for Sloppy Pipeline Work in 2012/13
October 22, 2014October 22, 2014

It’s old news, but is just now hitting the public domain. PVR Midstream, which is now part of Regency Energy Partners (see Marcellus/Utica Midstreamer PVR Bought by Regency Energy for $5.6B), did some sloppy installation work with pipelines in Lycoming and Tioga counties in Pennsylvania in 2012 & 2013. So says the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP). According to the DEP, PVR had multiple violations of the Clean Streams Law, Dam Safety and Encroachment Act and state regulations while building two pipelines. PVR, at the time of the citations, quickly corrected everything wrong. Regency, the new owner of PVR, had to pay the fine. Oh, the fine (paid in August by Regency) was $306,570. Ouch…
Read More “PA DEP Fines Regency/PVR $306K for Sloppy Pipeline Work in 2012/13”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation | Research

EPA Draft Frack Study Coming March 2015, Peer Reviewed Papers Soon
October 22, 2014October 22, 2014

So what’s happening with federal Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) long awaited report on fracking? Back in 2010 an activist Congress “ordered” the EPA (funny, the legislative branch ordering the executive branch) to study fracking and its affects (or lack thereof) on water supplies. Congress wanted to give EPA a big, fat open door to control and regulate fracking at the federal level–something that’s supposed to be done by Congress itself. Of course such laws, if passed by Congress, might fail since they contravene the U.S. Constitution–you never know with our Supreme Court. Easier to get the executive branch to create new laws via “regulations.” The study was originally due by the end of this year. But in June of 2013, EPA said they would need an extra two years (see Big News: EPA Fracking Study Delayed 2 Years – Now Due 2016). However, some great investigative reporting by NGI’s Shale Daily has discovered the EPA will release a draft report in March 2015…
Read More “EPA Draft Frack Study Coming March 2015, Peer Reviewed Papers Soon”
Elk County | Industrywide Issues | Jefferson County (PA) | Mercer County | Pennsylvania | Potter County | Taxation | Tioga County (PA)

PA Republican Senator Hands Out $2M+ in Impact Fee Money
October 22, 2014October 22, 2014

Being President Pro Tempore of the Pennsylvania State Senate has its privileges–like handing out $2,086,132 in grants for six energy, trail and water and sewer projects in your district–just two weeks before the election. Senator Joe Scarnati (R-Jefferson) announced awards yesterday to fund projects including $150K for a recreation trail in Elk County, nearly half a mil for a flood mitigation project in Senator’s home county of Jefferson, and $546K to buy some sort of biogas contraption for a pig farm in Tioga County (something that turns pig crap into electricity). All of these projects are funded by PA shale drillers through the Act 13 law and the impact fee collected…
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Doddridge County | Dominion Energy | Energy Services | Harrison County | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | West Virginia | Wetzel County

Smaller Dominion Pipeline Coming in WV – Part of Atlantic Coast?
October 22, 2014October 22, 2014

Dominion plans to build a 550-mile, $5 BILLION pipeline that will carry Marcellus and Utica Shale gas from West Virginia into Virginia and eventually to North Carolina (see Dominion Commits to Major New Marcellus/Utica Pipeline Project). As part of that project, or perhaps in addition to it, they plan to build a smaller diameter 34-mile pipeline, called the Supply Header project, from Wetzel County through Doddridge County and into Harrison County, where it will connect to the new Atlantic Coast pipeline…
Read More “Smaller Dominion Pipeline Coming in WV – Part of Atlantic Coast?”
Industrywide Issues | Landfills | Regulation | Statewide WV | West Virginia

WV Legislature Closes Loophole for Drill Cuttings in Landfills
October 22, 2014October 22, 2014

Earlier this year, the West Virginia legislature passed a bill allowing the state’s landfills to create a special cell with special monitoring to accept shale cuttings–leftover rock and dirt–as much as they want and can handle (see WV Drill Cuttings in Landfill Bill Passes in Record Time). That is, with one important exception: The new law disallows a special cell for drill cuttings to be built in landfills that sit over top a “karst” topography (where there are a lot of underground caves, sinkholes, cracks and fast-moving underground streams). However, there was a loophole, an oversight, in the new law: If landfills above a karst topography area are happy with maintaining their current lower cap of 9,999 tons per day of solid waste, they can accept shale drill cuttings in the regular part of the landfill (see Loophole in WV Landfill Law for Drill Cuttings Raises Concern). Oops. The loophole has now been closed…
Read More “WV Legislature Closes Loophole for Drill Cuttings in Landfills”