Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Wed, Jul 30, 2014
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading:
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JLCNY Appeals Article 78 Case to Higher NY Court
Yesterday the 70,000-member Joint Landowners Coalition of New York (JLCNY) along with several individual landowners filed an appeal in their Article 78 lawsuit that was dismissed by a lower court in Albany County, NY earlier this month. You may recall that the JLCNY sued NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Dept. of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Joe Martens, and state Health Dept. Commissioner Nirav Shah over their refusal to deliver fracking regulations (see D-Day: JLCNY Files Lawsuit Today Against Cuomo, Martens, Shah). Albany County Supreme Court, a lower level court in New York, said the JLCNY and others who filed the lawsuit had no “standing” to bring the suit (see (see NY Pro-Drillers Lose 2nd Important Shale Drilling Court Case). Not true, according to JLCNY president Dan Fitzsimmons…
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Cameron County | Elk County | Energy Companies | Lycoming County | McKean County | Pennsylvania | Seneca Resources
Seneca Resources 3Q14: Drilling Moves Away from Lycoming County
Seneca Resources, the Marcellus Shale drilling division of midstream and utility company National Fuel Gas headquartered in Buffalo, NY, issued their fiscal third quarter (everyone else’s calendar second quarter) update yesterday. Among the interesting items: Seneca has shifted its focus on new drilling away from Lycoming County, PA (Williamsport area) westward to Elk, McKean and Cameron counties. The shift in focus will remain until Williams completes its recently announced Atlantic Sunrise Expansion pipeline project. Also of note was the increase in Seneca’s production and where it came from…
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Range CEO Says Path to Producing 3 Bcf/d in Company Sights
By all accounts, Range Resources had a busy second quarter 2014. The company increased production by 21% over the same period last year–to 1.1 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas–most of it coming from the Marcellus. And that was despite the problems with a MarkWest processing plant going offline from late May to mid-July following a lightening strike (see MarkWest Re-Opens Chartiers, PA Plant, New Plant in OH) and despite unplanned downtime for the Mariner West pipeline which carts Range’s ethane to Canada. Even so, production (and profits) were at record highs for Range in 2Q14…
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Energy Companies | EQT Corp | Forced Pooling | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA
EQT’s (Mis)Use of 2013 Royalty Law Creates Forced Pooling
A Pittsburgh-based attorney who, it appears (from his byline) sues shale drillers for a living, nevertheless offers up an excellent article in the Harrisburg Patriot-News that helps us understand the ill-advised royalty bill signed into law one year ago this month (see PA Gov Corbett Signs Back-Door Forced Pooling Bill into Law). The bill was meant to help landowners receive better, more transparent information in their royalty statements, but at the last minute a provision was added that allows leased properties to be pooled for horizontal drilling. Immediately after the royalty bill passed, EQT used the eleventh hour provision, called Secton 2.1 of the law, to sue 70 landowners (see Bad News: EQT Sues 70 Landowners Using New PA Forced Pooling Law). As with all things legal, this is complicated, but thanks to the lawyer’s article, we now have a better understanding of it…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Regulation | Transco | Williams
Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline Will Get Environmental Impact Statement
Last week regulators at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) announced they will perform a full blown environmental impact statement (EIS) on Williams’ proposed $3 billion Atlantic Sunrise Expansion pipeline project that will expand the Transco pipeline in Pennsylvania in order to feed cheap, abundant Marcellus Shale gas into a pipeline running to southern states. MDN has a copy of the FERC “Notice of Intent” to conduct an EIS. As part of the review process, FERC will hold four public hearings throughout PA next week to get feedback on the project…
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MSC Releases Annual Workforce Survey: Marcellus Continues to Hum
Another 2,000 new Marcellus jobs are being added this yes–in 2014–by Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC) members according to the latest annual Marcellus Workforce Survey conducted by the MSC. The latest survey (full copy of results below) is increasingly hiring skilled workers in engineering and construction. High-paying skilled jobs accounted for 26.5% of all new hires last year in the Marcellus Shale. And there’s lots more where that came from…
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Partisan GAO Report Says EPA Falling Down with Injection Wells
The partisan and biased so-called Government Accountability Office (GAO), populated with liberal activists, issued a 103-page report yesterday telling the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to get off it’s rear and get more aggressive about regulating shale wastewater injection wells. The GAO was asked by Congressional Democrats to “review” EPA’s stewardship and oversight of injection wells related to shale drilling and this “report” is the result…
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PA Lt Gov Candidate Supports Raiding Drillers for Big Education
Democrat Mike Stack, a PA State Senator from Philadelphia, is his party’s nominee for Lt. Governor this fall. Stack has close ties to big education and is a tool of teacher unions who want to raid another industry–shale gas drilling–to feed their addiction to ever-higher salaries while turning in ever-lower education standards for their students. So it’s no surprise that Stack is one of the toadies that introduced legislation to enact a sky-high severance tax on Marcellus Shale drilling…
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12 US Companies Commit to Pay Sky High Rates for Renewable Energy
The following public announcement is a complete and total exercise in public relations by some of America’s largest companies–not meant to be anything other than a bunch of hot air with no real results. Companies including Mars, Sprint, Walmart, GM and Facebook have allowed their brands and logos to be (ab)used by the WWF (no, not the World Wrestling Federation but the World Wildlife Fund, although they’re very similar) to say “ain’t enough renewable energy out they’a for us all to use, we need more.” Which is, of course, a lark. A sham. A scam. Renewables won’t be able to compete with fossil fuels for at least the next 50 years, maybe 100 years–and efforts to “demand” more of it are just so much hot air…
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Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Tue, Jul 29, 2014
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading:
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Industrywide Issues | Keystone Pure Water Tech | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Supply Chain | Wastewater
Exclusive: Breakthrough Tech Cleans Frack Wastewater <30 Minutes
What if you were convinced an invention IS the greatest thing since sliced bread–at least as it applies to the world of shale drilling? And what if that invention could clean thousands of gallons of frack wastewater right on site and turn it into DRINKABLE water–in less than 30 minutes? And what if this process uses no chemicals, and even eliminates radioactivity, producing inert minerals (like iron) that can be sold for profit? Oh, and what if your cost, as the driller, was only $3 per barrel to work this magic? Would you believe such a tall tale? You would if you were me…
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New LNG Plant in Nova Scotia Will Use Marcellus Gas
Earlier today Australian company Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd. (LNGL) announced they’re purchasing a 255-acre site from Anadarko Petroleum located in Richmond County, Nova Scotia (Canada) that was previously going to be an LNG import facility BSGR (Before the Shale Gas Revolution). Anadarko’s plans have evaporated and LNGL now plans to convert the site, where a lot of work has already been done, into an LNG export facility. To finish site prep and install the necessary equipment will set them back around $2.2 billion, about the same amount of money they’re already spending on a similar project in Lake Charles, Louisiana–the Magnolia LNG export facility. LNGL plans to use Canadian on- and off-shore natural gas supplies to feed the new export facility. However, also key to their plan is using Marcellus Shale gas. Get this: LNGL figures their Nova Scotia project, called Bear Head LNG, will go online before the U.S. project (even though the U.S. project has had a years head-start) because regulations in the U.S. are so onerous…
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eCORP Stimulation Technologies | Energy Services | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Research
ecorpStim Says New Manufacturing Process Lowers Non-Water Frack Cost
Every now and again eCORP Stimulation Technologies, or “ecorpStim” as they are known, pokes its head up to say, “Hey, we’re still here and we still have a great non-water-based fracking solution!” To which we always say, “Great!” However, non-water-based solutions have a common problem: they’re really expensive. ecorpStim’s technology uses non-flammable liquefied propane as the fluid for fracking. It has the benefit of turning back into a gas and coming back out of the hole–captured and sold at a profit (or captured and re-used). ecorpStim poked their head up again today with their latest press release to say they’ve figured out how to lower the cost of their technology…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Pipelines | Tennessee Gas Pipeline
What’s Really in the Crosshairs in New England?
The headline for a story in the Worcester (MA) Telegram & Gazette blares, “Natural gas pipeline expansion has Worcester and surrounding communities in crosshairs.” Yes, bet you didn’t know that those dastardly pipelines, like the Tennessee Gas Pipeline with its plan to deliver much-needed natural gas to New England, “targets” communities. You know, like a gun? Bang bang. That’s how environmentalist wacko editors write headlines. If you read far enough down in the Worcester story you’ll find a sad bit of news: comedian Bill Cosby is against the pipeline expansion (comes too close to his multi-million dollar estate, apparently). It’s not shocking that a celebrity is completely ignorant about such an issue–happens all the time (a la Susan Sarandon and Yoko Ono’s infamous fossil-fuel belching bus tour of Susquehanna County, PA, see Looney Toons Anti-Fracking Celebrities Visit Montrose, PA). What is shocking, however, is the massive willful ignorance of a former member of the Bolton Conservation Commission who says he doesn’t think natural gas is any cleaner than coal for generating electricity. Looks like he’s been “Howarthed” into believing a fairly tale…
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EPA Inspector General: Bring Out the Jackboots on Methane
What do you call it when the U.S. Attorney General won’t do his job to police an out-of-control president who tramples the Constitution? We’d call it political incest. What do you call it when a so-called independent division within the federal Environmental Protection Agency, the Inspector General for the EPA, “criticizes” the EPA and says they aren’t doing enough to stop leaky methane? We’d call it regulatory incest. If it weren’t so tragic and serious, we’d be laughing. But we’re not. Because a report issued by the IG of the EPA last Friday calls on the EPA to start bringing out the jackboots to force compliance with cockamamie and unrealistic standards for what they say is too much methane leaking from pipelines. They couch it in terms of how much money is lost every year, but of course their real motivation is to address “fugitive” methane’s contribution to mythical man-made global warming (that isn’t happening)…
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Yesterday the 70,000-member Joint Landowners Coalition of New York (JLCNY) along with several individual landowners filed an appeal in their Article 78 lawsuit that was dismissed by a lower court in Albany County, NY earlier this month. You may recall that the JLCNY sued NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Dept. of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Joe Martens, and state Health Dept. Commissioner Nirav Shah over their refusal to deliver fracking regulations (see 