Marcellus Drilling News

About MDN | Meetings

Come Meet MDN at O&G Awards in Dallas & OKC in October
October 13, 2014October 13, 2014

MDN editor Jim Willis is pleased to participate in a series of Oil & Gas Awards events later this month. Jim has been asked to moderate two panel discussions at both the Southwest Oil & Gas Awards event being held in Dallas, TX on Oct. 23, and two panel discussions at the Midcontinent Oil & Gas Awards event in Oklahoma City, OK on Oct. 29. Although MDN readers are located mostly in the northeast, we have quite a few in both the Dallas and OKC areas. We’ve worked out a very special deal for MDN subscribers. Attend the one-day conference at either event (or at the third event in Bakersfield, CA on Oct. 21) for FREE. This is a golden opportunity for me to get to meet you, and for you to hear industry leaders from both the upstream and midstream discuss the most important regional issues affecting the oil and gas industry. Just head on over to this special page to register (seating is limited, register now): //www.oilandgasawards.com/mdn/. Here’s what you’ll hear at each event…
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Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Updated List of Shale-Related Infrastructure/Econ Projects in OH
October 13, 2014October 13, 2014

The sharp researchers at law firm Bricker & Eckler continue a winning streak with a special report they issue twice a year. “Shale Economic Development Overview (Fall 2014)” is a list of projects details, by county in Ohio, of those projects started or planned because of shale drilling (full copy below). The first edition of this list was published in October 2013 and showed projects worth $12.2 billion. This October? A staggering $21.5 billion. Just one more piece of irrefutable proof of the enormous economic benefits from shale development…
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Accidents | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Range Resources Corp | Regulation | Statewide PA | Tioga County (PA) | Washington County | Wastewater

Second Generation Wastewater Impoundments – Truly Safe?
October 13, 2014October 13, 2014

Little did we know it at the time, but former PA Dept. of Environmental Protection Chris Abruzzo’s last public interview was granted to MDN editor, Jim Willis, just three weeks ago before Abruzzo resigned (see PA DEP Sec. Abruzzo’s Last Public Interview…with MDN). Topic A that Jim asked Sec. Abruzzo was about the recent record fine of Range Resources ($4.15 million) for a series of leaky wastewater impoundments. Abruzzo stated during that interview, several times, that newer “next generation” impoudments have come along that are much safer. What are these “next generation” impoundments and are they really safer?…
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Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Lease & Royalty Payments | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Susquehanna County

Important Landowner/Driller Case Heads to PA Supreme Court
October 13, 2014October 13, 2014

A Pennsylvania landowner signed a lease with Cabot Oil & Gas in 2007. Part of the way through the lease, before Cabot initiated drilling, the landowner sued Cabot to dissolve the lease, citing certain reasons that they believe justified that action. The case went to court and the court eventually threw out the landowner’s case, meaning the lease is still in effect. Cabot then filed a counterclaim to have the lease term extended, something called an “equitable extension of lease terms.” In other words, once sued, the lease term should go on pause, and because they won, Cabot should then be able to un-pause the lease term and continue (which would otherwise have expired due to the long time it takes for court cases to play out). The court did not grant Cabot’s request and the case has now been appealed all the way to the PA Supreme Court. The decision will set an important precedent for both landowners and drillers…
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CNG/LNG | Dominion Energy | Energy Services | Exporting | Industrywide Issues | Lease & Royalty Payments | Maryland | Statewide MD

Will Cove Point LNG Plant Goose Royalties for Landowners?
October 13, 2014October 13, 2014

With the final recent approval for Dominion’s Cove Point, Maryland LNG export facility, the plant should go online sometime in 2017 (see Dominion Gets Final Fed Approval to Build Cove Point LNG Plant). Question: Will that one, single plant sop up enough Marcellus (and Utica) methane to raise the price of shale gas in the northeast and correspondingly raise the amount of royalties received by landowners? According to the executive director of the West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association, that answer would be “yes”…
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Dominion Energy | Economic Impact | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Pipelines | Statewide VA | Virginia

Enormous Benefits for All Virginians from Atlantic Coast Pipeline
October 13, 2014October 13, 2014

The typical low information person (someone who reads headlines only, never bothers to think deeply about economics or politics) assumes when a new pipeline project is announced that the only entity to benefit is the pipeline company and maybe gas drillers who will sell their commodity by moving it through that pipeline. Such people could not be more wrong. Take the recently announced 550-mile, $5 billion Atlantic Coast Pipeline project from Dominion (see Dominion Commits to Major New Marcellus/Utica Pipeline Project). Most of that pipeline will travel through Virginia. What, precisely, will be the economic impact of that project on ALL Virginians? Glad you asked…
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Air Quality | Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Research

WRI Plan to Save the World from Carbon & Methane in 5 Easy Steps
October 13, 2014October 13, 2014

Another save the world fantasy report has just been released by the World Resource Institute (WRI). According to a new “study” titled “Seeing is Believing: Creating a New Climate Economy in the United States” (full copy embedded below), if you just wave the magic wand of government and create regulations to restrict carbon and methane, the world will be a better (cleaner) place, and it will cost us all a lot less. That’s the theme of the report. Complete fiction and fantasy–but then, we all like a good story, right? One helpful recommendation: capping so-called emissions of carbon (the stuff you breathe out with every breath) in 9 northeast/mid-Atlantic states will create 16,000 jobs and pump $1.6 billion into the economy. Only in liberal la la land do these kinds of statements get taken seriously. Another one: “Cost-saving” measures can reduce “waste” in existing natural gas systems, saving 25% of the methane that gets “leaked” into the atmosphere. Just adopt the EPA’s draconian rules that call for dry-seal centrifugal compressors, low-bleed pneumatic devices, and install infrared cameras everywhere to detect and repair leaks. Price tag? According to WRI, just a few measly pennies per thousand cubic feet of natural gas. No sweat. Again, only in liberal la la land do these conditions exist…
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Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Mon, Oct 13, 2014
October 13, 2014October 13, 2014

The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading:
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Baker Hughes | Energy Services | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Liberal Group Calls Baker Hughes Breast Cancer Effort “Pink Sh*t”
October 10, 2014October 10, 2014

Baker Hughes is the world’s fifth largest oilfield services company. Schlumberger and Halliburton are numbers one and two, respectively. Oilfield services companies provide drilling equipment and yes, even fracking equipment (and fracking fluids) that power the shale revolution. Baker Hughes, with a large presence in the Marcellus/Utica, has just donated (for the second year in a row) $100,000 to Susan G. Komen®, the world’s leading breast cancer organization, to help in the effort to find a cure for breast cancer. Anyone alive over the age of 30 almost certainly has a relative or friend who is or has been afflicted by this disease. Doing what we can to fight it is something we all can get behind. But because some wacko anti-drillers make wild claims that fracking fluids “cause cancer”–even though fracking fluids contain many of the same chemicals in the stuff under your kitchen sink–some lib groups (incredibly) oppose the donation and efforts by Baker Hughes, saying it is blood money and “pink washing” the fracking industry…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Minuteman Environmental Services | Northumberland County | Pennsylvania

Minuteman Sues AG Kane’s Office for $20M + Punitive Damages
October 10, 2014October 10, 2014

What a sad story. In May 2013, Pennsylvania’s anti-drilling Attorney General, Kathleen Kane, had the offices of Minuteman Environmental Services in Milton (Northumberland County) raided using the FBI, IRS and the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) agents, in addition to agents from the AG’s office (see Shale Environmental Services Company Raided by PA AG’s Office). After conducting a witch hunt of Minuteman for 13 months following that raid, Kane finally charged them (see PA’s Anti-Drilling AG Charges Minuteman with Enviro Crimes). During that 13 months and following, Kane’s office terrorized the family and drove the company–that employed over 100 people with $49 million in revenues–into bankruptcy (see Minuteman Enviro Says PA AG Office “Terrorized” Family Members, Filing Lawsuit). Minuteman’s owners threatened to sue the AG’s office and they followed through. We have an exclusive copy of the lawsuit…
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Energy Services | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Odebrecht | Processing Plants

Odebrect Signs Deal for Polyethylene Tech for WV Cracker Plant
October 10, 2014October 10, 2014

Odebrecht continues to advance the ball toward building a world-class ethane cracker plant near Parkersburg, WV. MDN editor Jim Willis had the pleasure of meeting and talking with David Peebles, Odebrecht VP of business development and the guy working to make this project happen, at this year’s Shale Insight conference in Pittsburgh. Peebles said Odebrecht is still in the evaluation stage but that things are looking positive so far. Here’s another positive sign: INEOS Technologies, which licenses the technologies used in large petrochemical plants, announced they have just signed an agreement with Odebrect to provide polyethylene tech for the WV cracker plant…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Dominion Energy | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Statewide VA | Statewide WV | Virginia | West Virginia

Where is Real Opposition to Dominion SE Pipeline? Hint: Not WV
October 10, 2014October 10, 2014

Opposition to Dominion’s 550-mile, $5 billion Atlantic Coast Pipeline project (formerly called the Southeast Reliability Project) continues, but not much of it is located in West Virginia. You may recall there is an anti-pipeline group called West Virginia Wilderness Lovers, which is, from what we can tell, two people who have opposed the pipeline from the beginning (see Hula Hoops & Tall Tales from WV Anti-Drillers Opposed to Pipeline). At least one of the two Wilderness Lovers still opposes it…
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East Resources | Energy Companies | Erie County (NY) | New York

Buffalo “Marcellus” Bills – Team Sold to Fracker for $1.4B
October 10, 2014October 10, 2014

As MDN previously told you, Marcellus money has just purchased the Buffalo Bills NFL team (see Buffalo Bills Stay in Buffalo, Thanks to $1.4B of Marcellus Money). Yesterday NFL owners, who had gathered to vote, took all of about 15 seconds to approve the $1.4 BILLION purchase of the Bills team by East Resources (and former Marcellus Shale driller) Terry Pegula and his wife Kim. The vote was 32-0 in favor of the sale. We think in honor of this momentous occasion the team should be renamed to be the Buffalo Marcellus Bills. Maybe we can just call them the “MarBills” for short?…
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Cameron County | Elk County | Industrywide Issues | McKean County | Pennsylvania | Wildlife

Marcellus Drilling Helps Local Elk Population Flourish
October 10, 2014October 10, 2014

One of the potential problems raised by those who oppose shale drilling is how it impacts wildlife. They maintain when you carve up forests with clear spots for drill pads, and carve up pathways for pipelines, and have trucks traveling in and out around the clock, it damages the wildlife (see USGS Study: Marcellus Drilling Fragmenting Forests in PA. Who’s not for being kind to the wild critters around us? At MDN HQ we faithfully maintain our bird feeder in the front yard and go out of our way to avoid hitting squirrels (just so you know our enviro creds). It certainly sounds reasonable that “fragmenting” forests may impact wild species. So let’s have a look at a real example. How about the wild elk that roam around Elk, McKean and Cameron counties in northcentral Pennsylvania? In 2008, at the dawn of the shale revolution in PA when there were no wells, there were about 500 wild elk roaming those three counties. Today, with more than 100 wells drilled in those three counties, the elk population has almost doubled. Say what? Yep–drilling has helped the local wildlife in northcentral PA…
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Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies

Carl Icahn Has Lost $633 Million on Chesapeake Gamble…So Far
October 10, 2014October 10, 2014

The firings will continue until morale improves! Or at least until Carl Icahn makes money. Once upon a time corporate raider Carl Icahn was Chesapeake Energy’s second largest investor. Today, he’s the company’s largest investor. Ichan has certainly made his presence know. Using his proxy (we call him a toady) Doug Lawler, the CEO Icahn installed after he ousted founder Aubrey McClendon from that position, Doug “the ax” Lawler went to work (see Chesapeake’s CEO Celebrates Axing 1,200 People Making Carl More $). To hear Chessy people talk (the few that are left) it’s been all butterflies and unicorns. Everything is looking up–except Ichan’s investment. With the downturn in oil and natgas prices, Ichan’s Chesapeake stocks have tanked and his big gamble on Chesapeake isn’t looking so rosy anymore…
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Industrywide Issues | Research

US Natgas Production Smashes New Record in September
October 10, 2014October 10, 2014

According to Platts’ Bentek Energy analytics division, September was a record-breaking month for natural gas production in the lower 48 states. In fact, it was an all-time record high. In September, the U.S. produced an average 69.1 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of natural gas. That’s up 7.4% from a year ago September. Contrary to the naysayers and “peak oil/gas” theorists, there’s no end in sight…
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