Marcellus Drilling News

Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Range Resources Corp | Washington County | Wastewater

Range Resources to Begin Closing Yeager Impoundment on Monday
August 15, 2014August 15, 2014

As we promised two weeks ago, we have more news and developments on Range Resources’ Yeager Wastewater Impoundment in Amwell Township (Washington County), PA. Range will begin the process of decommissioning the impoundment (i.e. pond) starting Monday, August 18th. As they do so, a lawyer for the three families suing Range with charges of well water contamination will be at the site to take their own so-called “independent” soil samples, right alongside Range. What Range (and the lawyer) will be looking for is any evidence that the two rubber liners have, in the past, leaked wastewater and therefore salts or chlorides, into the ground. Below we have a brief backgrounder, a copy of the Range 98-page plan to close the Yeager impoundment, and the recommended tweaks to that plan by the state DEP…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Research

EIP Uses False Data to Smear Frackers, Inflated Claims of Diesel Use
August 15, 2014August 15, 2014

The anti-drilling Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) is having a little integrity issue of their own. EIP issued a false report on Wednesday that purports to “out” drilling companies that have, or continue, to use diesel fuel in their fracking fluids. It might make for interesting reading except 80% of the data used in the report is completely false. Let us back up our assertion that this so-called study, titled “Fracking Beyond the Law” (copy embedded below) is worthy of a first place award for false and misleading propaganda…
Read More “EIP Uses False Data to Smear Frackers, Inflated Claims of Diesel Use”
1st NRG | Energy Companies | Utica Shale

1st NRG Begins Pushing Dirt on First Utica Well Pad
August 15, 2014August 15, 2014

Going all the way back to 2012, MDN has chronicled, from time to time, the myriad press releases issued by a small driller headquartered in Denver called 1st NRG Corp. They’ve been saying since that time that they really really really really want to drill in the Utica Shale–on a small 7,000 acre leasehold they own (see our stories about 1st NRG here). Ever hear of the boy who cried wolf? Eventually the wolf does show up, but no one believes the boy. So, believe it or not, it appears the bulldozers are finally pushing the dirt around on 1st NRG’s very first Utica Shale well pad in Ohio–for a well that 1st NRG will own a 20% stake in…
Read More “1st NRG Begins Pushing Dirt on First Utica Well Pad”
Accidents | Energy Services | HalenHardy | Huntingdon County (PA) | Industrywide Issues | Meetings | Pennsylvania | RETTEW

HalenHardy & RETTEW Offer Oil & Gas Safety Day on Aug 19
August 15, 2014August 15, 2014

Next Tuesday, August 19th, HalenHardy and RETTEW are offering a free program focusing on how workers and their companies can create a proactive culture of safety. Called the Oil & Gas Safety Day, the half-day program (either morning or afternoon) will sport an expert safety panel and attendees will have the opportunity to participate in live demonstrations of the latest safety innovations available to reduce slip, trip and fall accidents on the work site. The event will be held at the HomeWaters facility in Spruce Creek–so while you’re there, you can also enjoy some of the world’s best fly fishing, and try your hand at shooting clay pigeons. Here’s the details…
Read More “HalenHardy & RETTEW Offer Oil & Gas Safety Day on Aug 19”
About MDN

A Wedding Made Possible by the Marcellus Shale
August 15, 2014August 25, 2014

Perhaps this is a bit tongue-in-cheek, but not by much. Next week I will have the awesome responsibility of giving away my daughter’s hand in marriage. And I credit the Marcellus Shale, in part, for providing the money (lots of money!) it takes to host a wedding these days.

In an unusual move, MDN editor Jim Willis (me) will take a hiatus next week. No new posts will be made during the week–unless monumental circumstances warrant it. I will attend and participate in my daughter’s wedding, and following that, take a brief break. As you know, I hardly ever take time off. I don’t believe I’ve taken an entire week off since I began charging for MDN in 2012, so thanks in advance for your understanding. I’ll be back on Monday, August 25th to catch you up on the news.

A huge thank you to my faithful subscribers who have helped to underwrite my daughter’s wedding with your subscription dollars to MDN. I am eternally grateful and take your trust in me (as evidenced by the money you spend with me) very seriously. I try hard to exceed your expectations.

Keep the faith, and keep fracking!
Jim Willis, Editor, MDN
Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Fri, Aug 15, 2014
August 15, 2014August 15, 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: Fri, Aug 15, 2014”
Butler County | East Resources | Energy Companies | Pennsylvania | Rex Energy | Shell

Rex Energy Takes Shell to the Cleaners – Picks up 208K Acres
August 14, 2014August 14, 2014

What is it about the oil majors that they can’t seem to turn a profit in America’s shale plays? Somehow the smaller, leaner independents keep beating the majors, time and again. Latest example: Shell. In 2010, Shell paid a whopping $4.7 billion to buy East Resources (see East Resources Sells to Royal Dutch Shell for $4.7 Billion, Deal Includes All of East’s Marcellus Shale Operations). The deal included 650,000 acres of Marcellus Shale leases in PA, WV and NY. Shell is now starting to divest itself from that acreage. They just sold 208,000 acres in the Butler, PA area to Rex Energy for $120 million in cash. Talk about a fire sale! In very rough numbers, Rex just picked up nearly 1/3 of Shell’s acreage for chump change–for 2.5% of the money Shell paid back in 2010…
Read More “Rex Energy Takes Shell to the Cleaners – Picks up 208K Acres”
Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA | Taxation

PA Rep White Introduces Bill to Double-Tax Marcellus Drilling
August 14, 2014August 14, 2014

What is it with politicians like PA Rep. Jesse White (Democrat, Washington County) and their need to suck taxes out of any and every business and person they can? White, you may recall, was caught using fake online IDs, pretending to be some of his own constituents, using anonymity to attack his own constituents who disagree with his anti-drilling positions (see How the Mighty Have Fallen: PA Rep White Admits Guilt, Not Sorry). PA legislators (mostly Republican) who crafted the state’s update to oil and gas drilling laws, called Act 13, wisely (presciently) included a clause in the Act 13 law that says if greedy politicians (like White) pass a severance tax on drilling in the state, the current impact fee will end. The intent was to have an impact fee instead of a severance tax. White has just introduced a bill (DOA of course) that will strip out the sunset clause and keep the impact fee even if a severance tax is passed. That is, White and others of his ilk want to double-tax the Marcellus industry in PA, with the end result of killing it…
Read More “PA Rep White Introduces Bill to Double-Tax Marcellus Drilling”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

Cornell Prof Asks Gov. Cuomo to Lift Drilling Ban, Uses Real Science
August 14, 2014August 14, 2014

Not all of the professors who work at Cornell University (Ithaca, NY) are out there ranging like Robert Howarth and Tony Ingraffea, who have made a cottage industry for themselves (and collected big bucks from the Park Foundation) bashing away at shale drilling. Their most infamous anti-drilling work claims burning coal is better for the environment than burning natural gas (see New Cornell University Study Says Shale Gas Extraction Worse for Global Warming Than Coal). And yet they still have jobs at Cornell. Gotta love tenure. Fortunately there’s a counterbalance at Cornell. A group of Cornell professors, including Dr. Larry Cathles, previously pointed out the gaping holes in Howarth & Ingraffea’s “research” (see New Cornell Study Says Coal is Not Cleaner than Natural Gas). Dr. Cathles recently sent an outstanding letter to NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo urging him to lift the shale drilling moratorium, giving Cuomo a Cliff Notes version of the real science that proves natural gas benefits the environment, rather than the reverse…
Read More “Cornell Prof Asks Gov. Cuomo to Lift Drilling Ban, Uses Real Science”
Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | McKean County | Pennsylvania | Seneca Resources

Seneca No Longer Interested in Buying Sewer Water for Fracking
August 14, 2014August 14, 2014

MDN told you 4 1/2 (!) years ago about a plan by the Kane Borough Sewer Authority in McKean County, PA to sell sewer effluent to Seneca Resources for drilling gas wells. Seneca is the oil and gas drilling division of National Fuel Gas Company (see Kane Borough Sewer Authority Making Money from Selling Effluent to Marcellus Shale Driller). Effluent is the treated water discharged from sewage treatment plants. In an update to that story, it seems Seneca and other drillers are no longer interested in Kane’s sewer water…
Read More “Seneca No Longer Interested in Buying Sewer Water for Fracking”
Electrical Generation | Industrywide Issues | Lycoming County | Pennsylvania

Panda Breaks Ground for 2nd PA Marcellus-Fueled Electric Plant
August 14, 2014August 14, 2014

Last December MDN told you that Panda Power Funds, a private equity firm located in Dallas, TX, had purchased the rights from Moxie Energy to build a second electric generating plant that will run on Marcellus Shale gas (see Panda Power Buys Rights for 2nd Marcellus-Fueled Electric Plant). The first plant (Panda “Liberty”), in Bradford County, PA, is currently under construction. The second plant (Panda “Patriot”), in Lycoming County, PA (Williamsport area) officially broke ground earlier this week. PA’s Gov. Tom Corbett was on hand on Tuesday to help them celebrate…
Read More “Panda Breaks Ground for 2nd PA Marcellus-Fueled Electric Plant”
Energy Companies | Gastar Exploration

Gastar Gets a Bump Up in Bank Line of Credit
August 14, 2014August 14, 2014

Gastar Exploration, an important driller in the Marcellus and Utica Shale, reported very favorable numbers for their Marcellus and Utica Shale programs, as we told you earlier this week (see Gastar 2Q14: Liquids 48% of Production, 72% of Revenue). On the heels of Gastar’s good 2Q14 news, they announced yesterday that the bank has increased their line of credit by $25 million to $145 million, which, according to Gastar’s CFO, will help fund their “recently expanded 2014 capital expenditures budget” in the Marcellus/Utica…
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Industrywide Issues | Research

Bentek: U.S. Hits Record High for Natgas Production in July
August 14, 2014August 14, 2014

Energy analytics firm Bentek Energy, a division of Platts, has just published their estimates of U.S. Lower 48 natural gas production for July. The official word on production will come from the U.S. Energy Information Administration–but they won’t publish their numbers for July until sometime in September. Bentek always beats them by a month or more. And what do the sharp researchers at Bentek say? Natgas production for July rose 1/2 a billion cubic feet in July over June–a new all-time record high for the U.S–averaging 68.5 billion cubic feet per day. Almost one-quarter of that production came from a single shale play. Can you guess which one?…
Read More “Bentek: U.S. Hits Record High for Natgas Production in July”
Eclipse Resources | Energy Companies

Eclipse Resources Focus on Utica in 2Q14: Revenue & Production Up
August 14, 2014August 14, 2014

Eclipse Resources, a driller based in State College, PA and focused solely on the Marcellus and Utica Shale plays in the northeast, released their second quarter financial and operational update yesterday. Among the highlights: Eclipse drilled (or began drilling) 24 Utica Shale wells in 2Q14. From start to finish, they now average just 23 days to drill a well. The company now has nearly 100,000 acres under least–most of it with Utica potential, about a quarter of it with Marcellus potential. Revenue was up, production is up–things are looking up for Eclipse…
Read More “Eclipse Resources Focus on Utica in 2Q14: Revenue & Production Up”
Carrizo Oil & Gas | Energy Companies

Carrizo Gets a New CFO – Change in Direction?
August 14, 2014August 14, 2014

We don’t often talk about personnel changes at Marcellus and Utica Shale companies–unless they’re in the “C” suite: Chief Executive Officer, Chief Marketing Officer, Chief Financial Officer. It is that last one that has just had a changeover at Marcellus/Utica driller Carrizo Oil & Gas. CFO Paul Boling, who was Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Secretary, and Treasurer retired on Monday. He’s been replaced by David L. Pitts, Carrizo’s current Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer…
Read More “Carrizo Gets a New CFO – Change in Direction?”
Industrywide Issues | M&A | Research

Deloitte Mid-Year Report on M&A: Shale Continues to Dominate
August 14, 2014August 14, 2014

The sharp minds at consulting firm Deloitte have once again turned in a mid-year analysis of oil & gas company mergers and acquisitions for the first half of 2014. Titled “Oil & Gas Mergers and Acquisitions Report – Midyear 2014: The deal market may be poised for a rebound” (full copy below), the report is a high level view, analyzing 299 transactions across the spectrum from upstream (drilling) to midstream (pipelines & processing plants) to downstream (refining and marketing). While Deloitte doesn’t share a list of those 299 deals (disappointingly), they do roll it all up and take the bird’s eye view to let us know what the trends have been and will likely be for the balance of 2014. It’s no surprise that shale continues to dominate the energy picture for M&A activity. Here’s the highlights…
Read More “Deloitte Mid-Year Report on M&A: Shale Continues to Dominate”