Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Tue, Jul 8, 2014
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading:
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Accidents | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Wastewater | Westmoreland County | WPX Energy
WPX Wastewater Impoundment Source of Water Contamination in W PA?
Three families near a WPX Energy wastewater impoundment near Ligonier (Westmoreland County), PA say their well water has been contamined by wastewater leaking from the impoundment. The case is just coming to light (at least for MDN) although the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) has known and has investigated the “leaky impoundment” for going on two years now…
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EQT Offers Neighbors Near Finleyville Drill Pad $50K for Nuisance
ProPublica has a new story claiming that Marcellus driller (and midstream company) EQT has done something really unusual in Washington County, PA. The company, last year, was in the process of drilling 12 wells on a single pad. With all of the trucks and noise and dust, it didn’t take the neighbors long to start complaining. EQT attempted to address those concerns, meeting with neighbors and conducting air tests, etc. However, after apparently growing tired of the hassles, EQT finally just offered each household/neighbor near the pad $50,000–if those neighbors would sign a “nuisance easement” that pretty much says the neighbors absolve EQT from any damages for anything related to their drilling and pipeline operations…
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Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | M&A | Pennsylvania | Warren Resources | Wyoming County (PA)
Warren Resources Buys Marcellus Acreage/Wells from Citrus Energy
The Marcellus Shale has a new driller in town. This morning, New York City-based Warren Resources announced they have acquired essentially all of the Marcellus assets owned by Colorado-based Citrus Energy for $352.5 million. Warren immediately takes title to several working Marcellus wells currently producing 82 million cubic feet of gas per day…
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Allegheny County | Energy Services | Fluid Delivery Solutions (FDS) | Industrywide Issues | M&A | Pennsylvania
3 Investment Cos Buy Fluid Delivery Solutions – Terms Not Disclosed
Three private equity companies (investment firms) announced last week they have acquired a majority interest in Fluid Delivery Solutions (FDS), an oilfield water management company that provides fresh water transfer and storage for drillers in the Marcellus, Utica and other shale plays. Terms of the buyout were not disclosed, however, FDS’ management and staff will remain in place. Essentially FDS has transferred ownership to investors with deep pockets but have kept the keys to the company…
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Marcellus Driller Vantage Energy Files for $400M IPO
Colorado-based Vantage Energy, with a major operation in the Marcellus Shale, has filed paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering (IPO) in which they hope to sell $400 million worth of stock. Vantage owns 48,000 acres in the Marcellus Shale–in Greene County, PA. They also have a sizable stake in the Barnett Shale (in Texas)…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Energy Transfer Partners | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines
Opposition from Anti Drillers to ET Rover Pipeline in Michigan
Why is it reporters, when writing about proposed pipelines, and talking about the gas that flow through them, always seem to use the same pejorative phrasing. Word for word out of the reporter anti-drilling stylebook it’s usually something like “gas extracted through the controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking,” as Gannett reporter Keith Matheny writes in the Detroit Free Press when talking about the recently announced ET Rover pipeline from Energy Transfer Partners that will cross Michigan (see Big News: ETP “Rover” Marcellus/Utica Pipeline to Midwest/Canada). For their part, anti-drillers quoted in such stories always seem to use the same phraseology too…
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OH Makes $150K Grant to Union to Train Utica/Marcellus Welders
More highly skilled (and highly paid) welders will be on the way soon in the Utica and Marcellus Shale thanks to a $150,000 training grant by the State of Ohio to the Plumbers & Pipefitters Local 396. The grant, from the Governor’s Office of Appalachia, will train (or retrain) 40 union welders over the next one year. The money will put Ohioans back to work by working in the gas fields (no “foreigners” need apply). Here’s the official announcement:
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Some So-Called Churches Vote to Divest from Fossil Fuel Companies
Once again so-called church denominations, including the United Church of Christ and more recently the Unitarian Universalist Association (they’re “so-called” because they’re about as far you can get from being a church in the classic sense of that word) are divesting their considerable investments from any company they deem to promote the use of fossil fuels. No more ExxonMobil stocks in their portfolios–eventually. They won’t divest all at once because that may cost them their precious filthy lucre…
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Branding Squabble Among Sunoco Siblings over Mariner East Project
For MDN, an interesting story in the Philadelphia Inquirer tackles the tricky issue of branding and the very visible brand of Sunoco. It seems Sunoco that sells you your gasoline at filling stations across the country is often confused with Sunoco Logistics, the company that builds pipelines, like the Mariner East pipeline. Mariner East would repurpose a pipeline that crosses the state of Pennsylvania from west to southeast and would deliver natural gas liquids, including propane, to the Marcus Hook refinery near Philadelphia. Mariner East has faced still opposition (see More Pushback from PA Residents on Proposed Mariner East Pipeline). Anti-drillers are trying to tarnish the Sunoco name and that has Sunoco the filling station company concerned…
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Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Mon, Jul 7, 2014
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading:
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OH Natgas Production Doubles from 2012 to 2013 Thx to the Utica
Yesterday the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) released production numbers for 2013 and the numbers were truly impressive. ODNR says all oil and gas wells (conventional and unconventional/shale) in Ohio produced 8 million barrels of oil and 171 billion cubic feet of gas in 2013. Compared to 2012, Ohio’s total oil production increased by 62% and natural gas production increased by 97%. The increase in natural gas is due almost entirely to the Utica Shale…
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Ohio Utica’s Top 10 Gas Wells & Top 10 Oil Wells 1Q14
The Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources not only released 2013 full year oil and gas production figures yesterday, they also released first quarter 2014 production figures. For 1Q14 the state’s Utica wells produced almost 2 million barrels of oil and 67 billion cubic feet of natural gas from 418 operating wells (out of 476 completed wells). Below MDN has assmebled the Top 10 natural gas producing wells for 1Q14, the top 10 oil wells, and stats by county and by driller. It paints a fascinating picture…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Lancaster County | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Transco | Williams
Chains & Old Ladies: Kinky Protest Talk in Lancaster County, PA
We’ve pointed out the hardened anti-drillers who oppose the Williams Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline project in Lebanon County, PA only number around 50 people–out of a population of 133,568 residents in that fine county (see Lebanon County Anti-Pipeline Meeting Yields a Surprise). When denied a public forum to spew and spout, they sit on the floor and behave like babies (see Williams’ Smart Open House in Lebanon County Confounds Antis). And when they still can’t get their way, they bring in lawyers (see Lebanon PA Anti-Drillers Plot Ordinance Against Williams Pipeline). In neighboring Lancaster County, they have a small anti-pipeline contingent too–but interestingly they were able to get 75 anti-drillers to turn out for a protest last weekend–a full 50% more than Lenanon County has been able to muster…
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MWCD Reinvesting $300M of Utica Shale Revenue over Next 10 Yrs
The Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District (MWCD) covers more than 8,000 square miles of rivers, reservoirs and creeks that drain into the Muskingum River. It is the largest wholly contained watershed in the state of Ohio, covering about 20% of the state. MWCD owns 54,000 acres of land. Early in the Utica Shale boom in Ohio the MWCD was scared off from participating (see Muskingum Watershed Reverses Decision to Sell Water to Drillers). But it wasn’t long before the MWCD board found their resolve and started to not only sell water for Utica fracking, they started leasing land like crazy (see Antero Pays $15K/Acre, 20% Royalties for MWCD Piedmont Lake Lease). All of those water sales and leases for drilling are now paying off for MWCD rate payers and indeed for all Ohioans…
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Why is Guernsey County Recorder’s Office Still Busy 4 Yrs Later?
MDN has long pointed out an early tip for where drilling is likely to happen is when the county recorder’s (or clerk’s) office gets really busy with landmen and abstractors researching deeds. Sometimes the traffic jam in those small offices can even turn contentious (see Patience Gone: OH County Recorder Threatens to Sue for More Space). The county recorder’s office in Guernsey County, OH was one such place where activity was at a fevered pitch. Drilling is happening in Guernsey–in a big way. However, the recorder’s office, four years later, still hasn’t slowed down–even though almost all property has been bought or leased. Why?…
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Three families near a WPX Energy wastewater impoundment near Ligonier (Westmoreland County), PA say their well water has been contamined by wastewater leaking from the impoundment. The case is just coming to light (at least for MDN) although the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) has known and has investigated the “leaky impoundment” for going on two years now…
Yesterday the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) released production numbers for 2013 and the numbers were truly impressive. ODNR says all oil and gas wells (conventional and unconventional/shale) in Ohio produced 8 million barrels of oil and 171 billion cubic feet of gas in 2013. Compared to 2012, Ohio’s total oil production increased by 62% and natural gas production increased by 97%. The increase in natural gas is due almost entirely to the Utica Shale…