Marcellus Drilling News

Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Athens County | Energy Services | GreenHunter Resources | Industrywide Issues | Meigs County | Ohio | Regulation | Wastewater

Athens County, OH Anti-Drillers Try to Delay GreenHunter Dock
July 11, 2014July 11, 2014

The anti-drilling nutters of Athens, OH are at it again. They’ve just discovered what MDN told you on Tuesday–that GreenHunter Water has filed an application with the U.S. Coast Guard to get permission to build a barge facility in Meigs County (see GreenHunter Seeks Approval for Barge Facility in Meigs County, OH). The Athens nutters (see Break the Law in OH, Get an Award – Anti-Drilling Nuttery on Display) are now accusing the Coast Guard of undue secrecy because they didn’t beat the drums and sound the gongs that a private company had filed an application with them…
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Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Fri, Jul 11, 2014
July 11, 2014July 11, 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, Jul 11, 2014”
Accidents | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Wastewater | Westmoreland County | WPX Energy

Important Update on WPX Energy Leaking Impoundment in SWPA
July 10, 2014July 10, 2014

On Monday MDN told you about three families near a WPX Energy wastewater impoundment near Ligonier (Westmoreland County), PA who say their well water has been contamined by frack wastewater leaking from the impoundment (see WPX Wastewater Impoundment Source of Water Contamination in W PA?). We have an important update on that story. WPX spokesperson Susan Oliver contacted MDN and provided details of their strong response to the situation, and new information that we don’t believe anyone else has bothered to publish…
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | MarkWest Energy | NGLs | Pipelines

Kinder Morgan Y-Grade NGL Pipeline from NE to SW Still Alive
July 10, 2014July 10, 2014

In August of last year, Kinder Morgan and MarkWest Energy announced a new natural gas liquids (NGL) pipeline from Ohio to the Gulf Coast (see 2 New OH Projects: Cryo Processing Plant & NGL Pipeline to Gulf). The pipeline will convert some 900 miles of existing Tennessee Gas Pipeline system and build another 200 miles of new pipeline in Texas and/or Louisiana. The project eventually got a nickname–the “Y-Grade Pipeline”–and conducted an open season from last November into December (see Kinder Morgan/MarkWest Proposed NGL Pipeline Gets a Nickname, Map). A sharp MDN reader wrote in to ask, what the heck is going on? Is this project still in the works? So MDN went nosing around…
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Industrywide Issues | Public Opinion

API Issues New Standards for Drillers for “Community Engagement”
July 10, 2014March 14, 2017

With echoes of Fred Rogers singing, “Won’t you be my neighbor?,” yesterday the American Petroleum Institute issued a first-of-its-kind industry standard for how shale drillers should treat the neighbors. The API’s new Community Engagement Guidelines is a template for neighborly etiquette. The API wants their outline to become the “gold standard for good neighbor policies that address community concerns, enhance the long-term benefits of local development, and ensure a two-way conversation regarding mutual goals for community growth,” according to an API director of standards David Miller. Below we have the press announcement and a full copy of the new standard/template for how drillers should treat the neighbors…
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | TC Energy/TransCanada

TransCanada to Enter Marcellus/Utica with ANR Pipeline Expansion
July 10, 2014July 10, 2014

TransCanada Corporation, the company perhaps most known (and reviled by the anti-drilling left) for their proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline, is making moves to grab a piece of the action in the Marcellus/Utica Shale. Last week TransCanada announced a non-binding open season until July 28 for shippers to grab capacity on a proposed expansion of their ANR pipeline–something they call the ANR East Project. The Project will provide Marcellus and Utica drillers with options to ship their gas out of the northeast to the Midwest, Gulf Coast, and even to Ontario, Canada. As part of the project, new pipeline would be built…
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Pipelines | Tennessee Gas Pipeline

Survey Work Already Begun on Kinder Morgan TGP Expansion Thru MA
July 10, 2014July 10, 2014

MDN has chronicled Kinder Morgan’s Tennessee Gas Pipeline expansion through Massachusetts to bring badly needed new natural gas supplies to New England. The governors of six New England states (5 Democrats, 1 Republican) want that pipeline–bad (see Blue State Blues: 6 New England States Want New Natgas Pipeline). In fact, the Democrat governor of Massachusetts wants it bad. But some MA communities, like that run by the mob-like town manager of Andover, MA, aren’t thrilled with the plan (see Lib MA Town Tells Tenn. Gas Pipeline: Stay Outta Town!). Seems that Kinder reps were rumored to be contacting landowners around Andover for permission to come on the property to survey. A town meeting in Erving, MA on Tuesday brings us new news about the Kinder TGP project–surveying has already begun…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Statewide OH

Liberal “Churches” Tell OH to Dump Fracking, Embrace Renewables
July 10, 2014July 10, 2014

Churches pretending to be apolitical, but very much political, are once again in the news with regard to the fracking issue. On Monday MDN told you of the repugnant efforts by so-called churches who claim they will divest from a blacklist of 200 companies (like ExxonMobil) that produce evil, vile, nasty fossil fuels (see Some So-Called Churches Vote to Divest from Fossil Fuel Companies). The United Church of Christ and the Unitarian Universalist denominations are two of the so-called churches behind the move. Those two are back in the news in Ohio, trying to (irrationally) tell state legislators to move as quickly as possible to so-called renewable forms of energy and leave fracking for Utica Shale gas behind…
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Lease & Royalty Payments | Ohio | Statewide OH

Let’s Play Lease Poker – Calling the Lease Agent’s Bluff
July 10, 2014July 10, 2014

Psst, hey buddy, want to play some poker? A landman with inside knowledge sheds light on how drillers time their lease filings–particularly in Ohio. Bill Dannley writing in Ohio Oil & Gas likens the process to playing poker–knowing when to hold ’em and when to fold ’em. Before landowners are approached to sign a lease, a lot of work has already been done, according to Dannley. Expensive seismic surveys have been conducted and deeds have been researched. When a landowner signs on the dotted line, you might expect the landman to hustle on down to the courthouse to file the lease–but that’s not what usually happens…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | CNG/LNG | Industrywide Issues

Anti-Drilling Rally Against Cove Point LNG Plant in DC on Sunday
July 10, 2014July 10, 2014

Come one, call all, to the greatest anti-drilling show on earth! We’re referring to an anti-drilling rally planned on Sunday, July 13 in Washington, DC. The rally is to oppose the planned LNG export facility in Cove Point, Maryland. Even though it’s already been approved by the Dept. of Energy, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), and even by the State of Maryland. Hey, it’s summertime and the antis have an itch to rally and they intend to scratch that itch this weekend…
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Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Thu, Jul 10, 2014
July 10, 2014July 10, 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: Thu, Jul 10, 2014”
Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Mid-Year Update for OH Utica – Who’s Drilling Where & How Much?
July 9, 2014July 9, 2014

Time for an update on the rapidly expanding Utica Shale region. Below MDN outlines the most active drillers in the Utica, indicating their acreage positions and how many wells they have permitted, drilled or producing (so far). Information on acreage positions was gleaned from company websites, the 2014 Marcellus and Utica Shale Databook, Vol. 1 and NGI’s Shale Plays Fact Book…
Read More “Mid-Year Update for OH Utica – Who’s Drilling Where & How Much?”
Electrical Generation | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | NRG Energy

The Future of Natgas – Personal Electric Generators?!
July 9, 2014July 9, 2014

Last December MDN editor Jim Willis attended and reported on the Platts Global Energy Outlook Forum in New York City (see Energy Industry Leaders Gather at Platts Forum in NYC). One of the most interesting speakers at that event was David Crane, CEO of electricity-generating giant NRG Energy. At that event Crane touted a pretty radical idea: About 1/3 of all U.S. homes have natural gas pipelines running to them. Crane believes technology exists to allow those homeowners to produce their own electricity with small units powered by natural gas, thereby cutting out the local electric utility. A recent article in Forbes magazine details why Crane’s idea isn’t just idle speculation…
Read More “The Future of Natgas – Personal Electric Generators?!”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

NY Enviro Groups Seek to Use Oil Trains to Their Advantage
July 9, 2014July 9, 2014

Spurred on by several accidents of trains transporting light crude oil from the Bakken Shale, one month ago the federal government ordered railroads to share more details about those shipments with the states through which they pass. One of those states is New York. Some (a lot) of Bakken crude goes to the Port of Albany, where terminals store the oil and transfer it to ships and barges heading down the Hudson River. New York State is still deciding what information, and how much, to share with the public. The information, according to railroad CSX, is supposed to be shared with first responders (and not the general public). That’s just not good enough for virulent anti-drilling groups like Earthjustice, the Sierra Clubers and THE Riverkeeper…
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Housing | Industrialization | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Research | Statewide OH

OSU Extension Says Shale Boom Towns Don’t Have to Go Bust
July 9, 2014July 9, 2014

Are communities that see a boom from shale drilling destined to experience a bust sometime down the road? MDN recalls that was one of the main reasons Cornell “professor” Tony Ingraffea offered for why he doesn’t like shale drilling at a meeting he addressed back in 2010 (see Cornell Hydraulic Fracturing Expert Headlines First Meeting of New York Residents Against Drilling (NYRAD) in Vestal, NY). However, a new project being launched by Ohio State University’s Extension program says boom then bust “isn’t inescapable” and they aim to help communities avoid that fate…
Read More “OSU Extension Says Shale Boom Towns Don’t Have to Go Bust”
Industrywide Issues | Lackawanna County | Landfills | Pennsylvania | Regulation

DEP Delays Scranton Landfill Expansion; Requires Study
July 9, 2014July 9, 2014

The third busiest landfill in Pennsylvania is the Keystone Sanitary Landfill, located on the outskirts of Scranton. The Keystone Landfill accepts a great deal of drill cuttings–leftover dirt and rock from Marcellus drilling. MDN has long chronicled Keystone’s fight to first accept and then expand the landfill (see Scranton Landfill Request for More Shale Cuttings Approved and Scranton Landfill Wants to Double (Again) Shale Cuttings). Local officials objected to the expansion but eventually gave up (see Scranton Suburb Ends Objection to Shale Cuttings at Landfill). The Keystone Landfill is back with another request. But it’s not to expand outward–this time they want to expand skyward…
Read More “DEP Delays Scranton Landfill Expansion; Requires Study”