Marcellus Drilling News

Energy Companies | Greene County (PA) | Lease & Royalty Payments | Marshall County | Ohio County | Pennsylvania | Tug Hill Operating | Utica Shale | West Virginia

Still Time for WV/PA Landowners to Participate in $100M Deal
November 24, 2014November 24, 2014

Landowner coalitions are certainly not new. They began in the Marcellus region around seven years ago when landowners in Pennsylvania banded together to get rates and conditions more favorably than they otherwise could on their own. Smart idea. What is new is that landowners in West Virginia are now banding together because, although Marcellus drilling takes place in the state and much of that land has been leased, the Utica Shale that underlies the state is just now getting started. So landowners, like those in Marshall and Ohio counties (in the panhandle of WV) and Greene County (in southwest PA) are forming new groups to negotiate new leases for the Utica Shale. The Marshall/Ohio/Greene landowner group did just that, recently signing a $100 million deal (see Panhandle WV Landowners Broker $100M Deal with Tug Hill Operating). A few more details about the group and the deal…
Read More “Still Time for WV/PA Landowners to Participate in $100M Deal”
Energy Companies | Guest Post | Lease & Royalty Payments | Olympus/Huntley & Huntley

Guest Viewpoint: Best to Lease ALL Rock Layers at One Time
November 24, 2014November 24, 2014

Last week MDN told you about possibility that a rock layer some 20,000 feet below the surface may one day be an important player in natural gas and oil for the northeast (see Trenton-Black River: New Natgas Rock Layer in Your Future?). As part of that story, we wrote the following: “Landowners listen up. When you lease, ALWAYS specify the layer(s) in the lease that you will allow an energy company to drill. That way, in future years when yet other layers are “discovered” to have natural gas or oil deposits, you can re-lease for the new layer. Energy companies will understandably want to negotiate a lease for all layers. Landowners (and their lawyers) need to watch for and construct leases that favor the landowner. A word to the wise…” An MDN subscriber wrote us to take issue with that statement, to point out potential weaknesses in our argument. We are happy (with permission) to bring you the following guest post from Paul David Burke, VP & General Counsel for Huntley & Huntley, Inc…
Read More “Guest Viewpoint: Best to Lease ALL Rock Layers at One Time”
Energy Services | Ergon | Lawrence County (OH) | Ohio

New (Utica?) Oil Terminal Operation Coming to Lawrence County, OH
November 24, 2014November 24, 2014

Ergon, a privately-held company headquartered in Mississippi, owns an oil refinery in Newell, West Virginia (since 1997). Earlier this month Ergon reported purchasing a petroleum storage facility/terminal located in Ironton, Ohio. The stated purpose is to increase their capacity to purchase and transport crude oil in the Ohio River Valley region. What is that news?…
Read More “New (Utica?) Oil Terminal Operation Coming to Lawrence County, OH”
Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Processing Plants | Regency Energy Partners | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | Sunoco Logistics | West Virginia

Sunoco Logistics, Regency Energy Presentations from Analyst Day
November 24, 2014November 24, 2014

Last week both Regency Energy Partners, which purchased PVR Partners a little over a year ago (PVR having a major footprint in the Marcellus/Utica), along with Sunoco Logistics, another major midstream player in the northeast, participated in an analyst day last week at Ritz-Carlton in Dallas. While we don’t have a transcript, we do have the PowerPoint slide decks from both companies. And what we find on some of those slides is illuminating…
Read More “Sunoco Logistics, Regency Energy Presentations from Analyst Day”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Crestwood Midstream | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | New York | Schuyler County

Steingraber, 2 Others Sent to Jail for Refusing to Pay Fine
November 24, 2014November 24, 2014

The increasingly shrill (and irrational) Sandra Steingraber, a so-called “scholar in residence” who’s paid to gallivant and protest shale drilling and related fossil fuel issues by Ithaca College, was (once again) arrested, refused to pay her fine, and carted off to jail for refusing to pay a fine because she illegally blocked the entrance to a legally running business that one day hopes to house underground storage of natural gas. The facility is a depleted salt cavern along the shore of Seneca Lake (near Watkins Glen, NY). Steingraber has pulled this stunt before (see NY Anti-Drilling Protesters Jailed After Refusing to Pay Fine). Since she gets no media attention and you wouldn’t know about it otherwise, we thought we’d share the news with you…
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About MDN | Calendar

Calendar of Events for Nov 24-Dec 7, 2014 [Free]
November 24, 2014November 24, 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 Nov 24-Dec 7, 2014 [Free]”
Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Mon, Nov 24, 2014
November 24, 2014November 24, 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, Nov 24, 2014”
New York | Statewide NY | Trenton-Black River

Details on Trenton-Black River Horizontal Drilling in NY State
November 21, 2014November 21, 2014

It often surprises us which daily stories we write that will catch the most attention/be read the most. Yesterday, our most-read story was the fourth story down the page, about the prospects for horizontal drilling in yet another rock layer (see Trenton-Black River: New Natgas Rock Layer in Your Future?). We mentioned in passing the following: “The Trenton-Black River has been drilled in places like New York State (of all places!) for decades. However, NY’s Trenton drilling has been vertical-only, not horizontal drilling.” That statement was partially incorrect. While the Trenton and/or the Black River has been drilled in NY since 1985 (nearly 30 years) and the majority of the wells have been vertical, there are a number of horizontal wells drilled in the Trenton/BR in NY. We have more details on who’s done the drilling, and where…
Read More “Details on Trenton-Black River Horizontal Drilling in NY State”
Energy Companies | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | WPX Energy

Flip Flop: All of WPX’s Marcellus Wells on the Auction Block
November 21, 2014November 21, 2014

A bit of news we find troubling. MDN has told you, since February of this year, that WPX would not be drilling any new wells in the Marcellus and in fact would be selling their undrilled leases (see WPX Marcellus Assets Being Shopped in “Controlled Auction”). However, we were contacted by WPX spokesperson Susan Oliver to assure us that they were not selling their already-drilled 100+ wells (see WPX Gives MDN an Update on Their 2014 Marcellus Plans). We figured some of those wells may be sold if there was, say, one or two wells on a pad adjacent to undrilled acreage with the opportunity to drill more wells. But for those wells already drilled and fully developed? Those wells, we were told, would remain in the WPX portfolio. However, an article appearing in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review on Wednesday contradicts that previous assertion…
Read More “Flip Flop: All of WPX’s Marcellus Wells on the Auction Block”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Butler County | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Rex Energy

Martians & Enviro Groups Continue to Block Rex Drilling in W PA
November 21, 2014November 21, 2014

Martians have successfully delayed Rex Energy from continuing to drill a series of five Marcellus wells on a single pad in Middlesex Township (western Pennsylvania). You may recall that two so-called environmental groups (front groups for rigid anti-drillers)–THE Delaware Riverkeeper and the Clean Air Council, both based on the other side of the state in the Philadelphia area–along with four parents from the Mars school district, filed an appeal of the decision to allow the drilling to occur in Middlesex Township (see Rex Drilling Operation Near Mars School Put on Hold). The Mars school district is some 3/4 of a mile from the drilling site–never mind at least two other schools in PA, one near Mars, allows drilling ON SCHOOL PROPERTY! Nope. The Martians are insistent that Rex not be allowed to drill those wells because it will endanger the kiddies. So a zoning board hearing was held Tuesday night and “continued” until another meeting at the end of December. Town officials say they may end up holding five hearings total on the matter (one for each well?) before it’s concluded. Meanwhile, no more drilling for Rex at that site…
Read More “Martians & Enviro Groups Continue to Block Rex Drilling in W PA”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Companies | Indiana County | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Pennsylvania General Energy | Wastewater

Little Mahoning Watershed to Testify in Court Case (??)
November 21, 2014November 21, 2014

You have to give the silly anti-fossil fuel nutters one thing–they sure are creative. The latest nonsense to come from the extreme left is that artificial constructs like watersheds now have “rights” and can somehow speak for itself. At least that’s what’s being claimed in a “first of its kind” motion by–yes–the Little Mahoning Watershed (Indiana County, PA). We wonder, what does the Watershed’s voice sound like? And where, precisely, did the Watershed scribble down its statement that was recently delivered to the court? We’d like to see that place and behold that miracle. This would all be rolling-on-the-floor funny if extremists weren’t so hellbent on bastardizing our laws and the U.S. Constitution–to the point our legal system becomes meaningless. The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF), which hangs its hat in Mercersburg, PA, says Little Mahoning Watershed spoke to it and whispered it doesn’t want to be polluted by nasty frack wastewater…
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Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Lackawanna County | Luzerne County | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Susquehanna County | UGI Energy Services | Wyoming County (PA)

UGI Turns on New Pipeline for Cabot in NEPA
November 21, 2014November 21, 2014

In May MDN told you that UGI Energy Services, a subsidiary of UGI (a utility company in northeast PA) would build two new pipelines in northeast PA for $80 million that will allow them to transport cheap, abundant, locally mined natural gas from Cabot Oil & Gas in Susquehanna County to residents in the greater Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area (see UGI Energy Building 2 New Pipelines in NEPA for Cabot O&G). Today UGI announced one of those pipelines is now completed and flowing cheap Marcellus Shale gas to NEPA residents, which will result in lower rates. The other will be completed in the spring of next year. Now what was that about the “lucky few landowners” who are the only ones to benefit from Marcellus Shale gas?…
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Access Midstream Partners | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | M&A | Williams

Access Midstream CEO Replaced by COO Under Williams Ownership
November 21, 2014November 21, 2014

Mike Stice is the current CEO of Access Midstream, which used to be the old Chesapeake Midstream before it was spun off into its own company. Access has a large footprint in the Marcellus/Utica region. In June, Williams announced a deal to buy Access Midstream and fold it into their own operation (see Big News: Williams Partners Buying Access Midstream for $6B). The deal is now done and all that’s left are some regulatory approvals and lawyers generating mountains of paperwork back and forth (see Deal Details for Williams/Access Midstream Merger – TTV of $50B!). Williams expects to put its own name plate on the Access door “by early 2015.” So what does that mean for Access CEO Mike Stice? Sayonara, apparently. Williams issued an innocent-looking personnel press release yesterday that says Stice’s #2 man, the current Chief Operating Officer, Robert Purgason, will take over running the Access Midstream division of Williams…
Read More “Access Midstream CEO Replaced by COO Under Williams Ownership”
Energy Services | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | UIL Holdings

PGW Sale Still on Life Support – Will City Council Pull the Plug?
November 21, 2014November 21, 2014

The corrupt Philadelphia City Council continues to be, well, corrupt. Although UIL Holdings, the Connecticut utility company doing its darnedest to purchase the municipal owned Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW), has told City Council that they are willing to amend the terms of sale originally worked out by Philly’s Mayor Michael Nutter–to address Council’s so-called “concerns.” UIL is bending over backwards, forwards, sideways–any way it can to make the deal happen. And the response from the corrupt City Council? Crickets. The deal expires Dec. 31 and it looks, as of right now, as if it’s dead…
Read More “PGW Sale Still on Life Support – Will City Council Pull the Plug?”
Industrywide Issues | Supply Chain | Wastewater

New Report: Water is a $6.4B Part of the U.S. Shale Industry
November 21, 2014November 21, 2014

How much water is used, and how much is generated that needs to be disposed of (or recycled) in oil and gas drilling–particularly in U.S. shale plays? A new report by Bluefield Research says the U.S. fracking industry consumes over 1 billion barrels of water annually, producing 450-500 million barrels of wastewater for disposal. According to Bluefield, the U.S. shale industry will spend $6.38 billion (!) in 2014 on water management: supply, transport, storage, treatment, and disposal. Water is a big deal in shale drilling. The following article by Bluefield sheds interesting light on the topic. Among the things that caught our interest is the breakdown of which shale plays use the most water (how does the Marcellus and Utica stack up? see the graphic below), and the section at the end which talks about new opportunities for supply chain companies in the water space…
Read More “New Report: Water is a $6.4B Part of the U.S. Shale Industry”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Landfills | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA | Wastewater

PA Dem Congressman Cartwright Continues to Bash DEP
November 21, 2014November 21, 2014

An anti-drilling Democrat Congressman from Pennsylvania’s 17th Congressional District (eastern part of the state), U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright, continues a campaign of smearing the Marcellus Shale industry with a so-called investigation into how frack wastes in PA get handled and disposed. In October Cartwright demanded information from the new acting Secretary of the Dept. of Environmental Protection (see PA Dem Congressman Demands Info from DEP on Frack Waste). Cartwright’s latest media stunt is to send demand letters to WV and OH to ask them how they dispose frack waste in their states…
Read More “PA Dem Congressman Cartwright Continues to Bash DEP”