Marcellus Drilling News

Allegany County | Garrett County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Maryland | Regulation | Statewide MD

Maryland Releases 2nd Report on Shale Drilling: “Best Practices”
July 14, 2014July 14, 2014

Maryland finally released their “Internal Final Best Practices” (Part II) study on Friday. The behemoth 255-page study (full copy below) appears to be an exercise in how to stifle Marcellus Shale drilling in the two western Maryland counties where it’s found. This is the second of three reports being produced by a joint effort of the Maryland Dept. of the Environment (MDE) and the Maryland Dept. of Natural Resources (DNR), as required under an executive order from outgoing Gov. Martin O’Malley (see Maryland Marcellus Shale Commission to Have First Meeting This Week – One Meeting Down, Three More Years of Meetings to Go). There’s lots to like in this so-called best practices (more like “no practices”) report–if you’re anti-drilling…
Read More “Maryland Releases 2nd Report on Shale Drilling: “Best Practices””
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

Is PA’s Act 13 Law on Last Legs with Passage of PA Budget?
July 14, 2014July 14, 2014

It’s early days yet–but here’s a developing and potentially disturbing story for drillers (and landowners, and supply chain companies) in Pennsylvania. As MDN reported, last week PA Gov. Tom Corbett signed a $29.1 billion budget bill (see PA Budget Signed by Gov. Corbett – No Severance Tax This Year). The good news is there will be no jobs-and-drilling killing severance tax–this year. The bad news is that regulations that should have been standalone–to separate conventional and unconventional drilling–were slipped into the budget bill. Why is that bad? Because, as StateImpact Pennsylvania is reporting, it may lead to the total gutting of the Act 13 law…
Read More “Is PA’s Act 13 Law on Last Legs with Passage of PA Budget?”
About MDN | MDN Resources | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Baker Hughes Announces 2Q14 Well Count – What is a Well Count?
July 14, 2014July 14, 2014

No doubt you’ve heard of the Baker Hughes rig count–the number of drilling rigs currently in use to drill oil and gas wells. Baker Hughes has provided that data for, like, forever! Used to be you could lay a ruler down and determine whether supplies of natural gas would increase or decrease based on the number of drilling rigs in use. That went out the door a few years ago with shale wells. Production numbers are no longer closely tied to the rig count. So Baker Hughes invented a new metric to help: well counts. They reported last week that well counts are up 5% in the second quarter of 2014 over 2013. Wait, what’s a well count? And why is it important?…
Read More “Baker Hughes Announces 2Q14 Well Count – What is a Well Count?”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Anti-Drilling Group Sues PA over Budget and $ from State Leases
July 14, 2014July 14, 2014

The litigious anti-drilling group Pennsylvania Environmental Defense Foundation (PEDF) waited all of about two hours after PA Gov. Tom Corbett signed the 2014 PA budget before filing a lawsuit to prevent the use of money from leasing more state forestland and parks for drilling under (not on). Gov. Corbett originally requested $75 million in new revenue from the effort. As we pointed out, that $75M represents exactly 0.00255 of the budget (see PA Dems: No Leg to Stand on Criticizing $75M Forest Drilling Plan). In other words, a rounding error. Never mind that Ed “fast Eddie” Rendell sold $444 million worth of leases that drill on as well as under, when he was governor. House and Senate Republicans upped the number to $95M and Corbett signed the budget, so the PEDF is trying to make legal mischief, once again…
Read More “Anti-Drilling Group Sues PA over Budget and $ from State Leases”
Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Statewide OH | Violence

Ohio Keeps Oil Train Shipment Timing Secret – Media Complains
July 14, 2014July 14, 2014

Last week MDN told you that eight so-called environmental groups are attempting to use a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request to force New York State to divulge when large shipments of oil are crossing the state by railroad–making a perfect target for terrorists (see NY Enviro Groups Seek to Use Oil Trains to Their Advantage). A number of other states are facing the same issue–whether or not to divulge the timing of rail shipments of Bakken light crude oil. One of those states is Ohio, and fortunately for Ohioans, the state has decided to keep the timing of oil shipments secret, to avoid (as MDN has pointed out) making shipments an easy target for terrorists…
Read More “Ohio Keeps Oil Train Shipment Timing Secret – Media Complains”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | CNG/LNG | Industrywide Issues

Anti-Cove Point LNG Protest in DC Flops Bigtime
July 14, 2014July 14, 2014

Well that certainly went bust. Last week MDN told you that anti-drillers would protest yesterday (Sunday) on the Mall in Washington, DC against the already approved Cove Point, MD LNG export facility (see Anti-Drilling Rally Against Cove Point LNG Plant in DC on Sunday). We found one blog site that covered the rally. The only “news” site we could find that ran a story was the terrorist-loving Al Jazeera America (formerly Al Gore’s network). Why no coverage? Because a max of maybe 200 people even bothered to show up. In the same philosophical vein of “If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” We ask: “If a protest rally is held in Washington and no reporters show up, did it really happen?”…
Read More “Anti-Cove Point LNG Protest in DC Flops Bigtime”
Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide OH | Statewide PA

Commerce Dept Slaps Foreign Countries for Steel Pipe Dumping
July 14, 2014July 14, 2014

MDN has kept an eye on the developing story of foreign countries–particular South Korea–“dumping” cheap steel pipes in the U.S., pipes used in the shale drilling industry (see US Senators Join Chorus: “Illegal” Steel Pipe Dumping by S Korea and “Dumping” Leads to 177 Jobs Lost at PA Marcellus Pipeline Plant). Seems that the Obama Commerce Department agrees and has taken decisive action to put an end to it. Last Friday the Commerce Department slapped a stiff tariff (i.e. tax) on tubular goods (steel pipes) coming in to the U.S. from South Korea and eight other countries…
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Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Mon, Jul 14, 2014
July 14, 2014July 14, 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, Jul 14, 2014”
Broome County | Lease & Royalty Payments | New York

Hope for NY Landowners? Kirkwood Coalition Gets Lease Offer
July 11, 2014July 11, 2014

Back in March, MDN started to hear rumors that the Kirkwood, NY Gas Coalition (outskirts of Binghamton, NY, in Broome County) would soon call for an all-hands meeting of coalition members to consider an offer to lease coalition land for drilling (see Kirkwood NY Landowner Group Actively Negotiating Lease Deal). Then all of the wheels fell off the wagon when NY’s highest court decided 3 of 5 town members can, at a whim, decide to ban shale drilling town-wide (see Shale Drilling in NY is Over – High Court Upholds Town Bans). We figured after that debacle the Kirkwood deal and any other pending deals would likely disappear like a summer morning fog when the sun rises. But what’s this? An offer has been made to members of the Kirkwood Coalition–and it appears to be a pretty good one…
Read More “Hope for NY Landowners? Kirkwood Coalition Gets Lease Offer”
Appalachian Oilfield Services | Crime | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Statewide OH

Feds Slap Appalachian Oilfield Svcs with $129,802 for Back Wages
July 11, 2014July 11, 2014

The federal government has slapped Appalachian Oilfield Services with a hefty fine. The U.S. Dept. of Labor investigated the company and found they were shorting employees by not paying them overtime. So 25 Appalachian employees working in Ohio will be given $129,802 in back wages/overtime according to an announcement by the DOL. Appalachian Oilfield Services is based in Lafayette, LA but as the name suggests, they focus on northeast drilling–providing equipment and personnel to assist with fracking operations. The company has an office in New Matamoras, OH. Here’s the feds tooting their own horn…
Read More “Feds Slap Appalachian Oilfield Svcs with $129,802 for Back Wages”
Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA | Taxation

PA Budget Signed by Gov. Corbett – No Severance Tax This Year
July 11, 2014July 11, 2014

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett, a Republican, signed a Republican-passed budget for the state yesterday. The budget, thankfully, does not include a Marcellus Shale severance tax. It does, however, include new regulations that separate drilling standards between conventional (vertical only) and unconventional (shale) drilling. MDN has long chronicled the battle by PA’s Democrats to transfer wealth from the drilling industry to PA schools, and in the process kill the goose laying the golden eggs in PA (see PPG Op-Ed: Don’t Kill the Marcellus Goose Laying the Golden Eggs). In signing the budget, Corbett axed a bunch of money from the legislature’s budget, which has led to a Republican civil war in Harrisburg…
Read More “PA Budget Signed by Gov. Corbett – No Severance Tax This Year”
Blue Ridge Mtn Res/Magnum Hunter | Energy Companies | Monroe County | Ohio | West Virginia | Wetzel County

Magnum Hunter Buys Ormet Property in OH/WV, More Wells Coming?
July 11, 2014July 11, 2014

MDN has chronicled the sad story of the Ormet aluminum smelting plant in Monroe County, OH. The short version is that the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) played a high-stakes game of chicken with Ormet and denied them permission to continuing burning coal to produce their own electricity while they got three Utica Shale wells on their property up and running (Magnum Hunter is the driller). Then PUCO denied Ormet’s request to get a reduced electric rate from the local utility company. Bottom line, more than 900 people are out of work (see Final Chapter of Ormet Plant Closing – Utica Could have Saved It). A reporter from NGI’s Shale Daily has a sharp eye and discovered that Magnum Hunter, the driller of the three Utica wells still operating on the Ormet property, has just purchased Ormet’s property in OH and WV…
Read More “Magnum Hunter Buys Ormet Property in OH/WV, More Wells Coming?”
Energy Companies | Gulfport Energy

Top Management at Gulfport Energy Continues to Change – New CFO
July 11, 2014July 11, 2014

In January Gulfport Energy announced the sudden retirement of then-CEO James Palm. In April, interim CEO (formerly the CFO) Michael Moore, a numbers guy, was promoted to the top spot as CEO and Ross Kirtley, formerly COO for Ohio operations, was promoted to COO for the entire company (see New Top Management at Utica Driller Gulfport Energy). The vacant CFO position has now been filled. Gulfport reports that Aaron Gaydosik, most recently VP of Finance at Kodiak Oil & Gas Corp, will become the new CFO. Kodiak is a Bakken driller…
Read More “Top Management at Gulfport Energy Continues to Change – New CFO”
Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Range Resources Corp | Regulation | Trucking | Washington County

Range’s Next Battle in Robinson Twp: Water Tank Facility
July 11, 2014July 11, 2014

In May MDN told you that after a two-year intentional delay by Robinson Township (Washington County), PA, Range Resources finally won the right to move forward with drilling two wells (see Range Resources Finally Wins Case to Drill 2 Wells in Robinson Twp). Robinson is one of the seven selfish towns that sued Pennsylvania over zoning provisions in the Act 13 law–a case they eventually won. Robinson tries to block drilling as much as they can–but the court has goosed them and told them they can’t stop all of it. Range’s next battle is whether or not Robinson will allow them to build a “tank pad”–a pad with tanks to store fresh water used in drilling and fracking operations…
Read More “Range’s Next Battle in Robinson Twp: Water Tank Facility”
Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Lycoming County | Pennsylvania | Wastewater | XTO

XTO Seeks Documents to Prove PA AG Kane Targeted Company
July 11, 2014July 11, 2014

It was obvious from the beginning when Kathleen Kane was elected as Pennsylvania’s Attorney General in 2012 that she had a huge Marcellus Shale chip on her shoulder and that she would go after the drilling industry (see Will New PA AG Go After the Marcellus Drilling Industry?). She’s done just that–targeting the shale drilling industry in several high profile cases. One of those cases–a three-year old accidental spill by XTO in Lycoming County, PA–she reopened after it had been closed. Why? To make an example of XTO (see PA AG Abuses Her Authority, Files Criminal Charges Against XTO). That case is back in the news with a new twist…
Read More “XTO Seeks Documents to Prove PA AG Kane Targeted Company”
Industrywide Issues | Lease & Royalty Payments | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Court: PA’s Landlord & Tenant Act Doesn’t Apply to Oil/Gas Leases
July 11, 2014July 11, 2014

A Pennsylvania landowner signed an oil and gas lease on 98 acres and later sold part of that acreage to someone else. The someone else promptly filed a “quiet title action” making the argument that the lease is invalid because of the Landlord and Tenant Act of 1951. The quiet title action put a cloud on the title to the property and the whole thing ended up in court. PA Superior Court recently ruled that “no,” the lease is not invalid and not under the purview of the Landlord and Tenant Act. Our friends at top law firm Babst Calland break it down for us…
Read More “Court: PA’s Landlord & Tenant Act Doesn’t Apply to Oil/Gas Leases”