Marcellus Drilling News

Industrywide Issues | Regulation

Obama EPA & BLM will Launch Methane Regs After Nov. Election
October 17, 2014October 17, 2014

In April MDN warned you that the Obama EPA is coming for natural gas–i.e. “methane”–as part of Obama’s so-called Climate Action Plan. We warned you that the oil and gas sector are about to be bloodied (see Rogue Obama EPA Goes on Methane Witch Hunt). We hate it when we’re right about such things, but we were. MDN received an email alert from the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) about this very issue. The EPA (and the Bureau of Land Management), according to the IPAA, will unveil devastating new regulations AFTER the November elections…
Read More “Obama EPA & BLM will Launch Methane Regs After Nov. Election”
Anadarko | Energy Companies | EOG Resources | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

More on NY AG Schneiderman’s Bullying of Anadarko & EOG Resources
October 17, 2014October 17, 2014

If a mafia boss walks into a business owner’s store and “informs” that owner that the owner will start doing things the good fellas way (pay money, say 10% of all revenue) in return for “protection” from the “bad guys” that otherwise may make a visit to that place of business, it’s called a shake down. If we substitute “New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman” for mafia boss and “oil/gas company” for business owner, you’d have what’s just happened in New York State–and it’s called “good government.” Schneiderman isn’t personally getting rich from the deal he’s just forced down the throats of two major o&g companies (we don’t think, anyway). But make no mistake–the businesses Schneiderman targets would lose massive amounts of money in lower stock valuations if they don’t agree to Schneiderman’s “offer.” Schneiderman held the gun of his office to the collective heads of Anadarko Petroleum and EOG Resouces over the issue of fracking (something not even happening in NY), and they agreed to dance and sing his tune. They’ve just been shaken down. Here are the details…
Read More “More on NY AG Schneiderman’s Bullying of Anadarko & EOG Resources”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues

Anti-Drilling Former Mayor of DISH, TX Gives FrackNation the Slip!
October 17, 2014October 17, 2014

One of the earliest anti-drilling rallies MDN editor Jim Willis covered by personally attending was held at a Binghamton public school in February 2012. We had a visiting “dignitary”–former Mayor of DISH, TX, Calvin Tillman (see DISH, Texas Mayor Calvin Tillman Visits Binghamton – Marcellus Drilling News was There). It was at that meeting that Jim’s eyes were opened to the fact that many in the anti-drilling movement are ’60s hippies–or hippie wannabes. We weren’t all that impressed with Mayor Tillman’s ramblings. Recently one of our favorite people, Phelim McAleer (producer and star of the FrackNation documentary) caught up with Mayor Tillman, to ask him some tough questions about the “science” Tillman uses in his talks about DISH. Tillman, obviously outclassed by McAleer, slipped out the back door…
Read More “Anti-Drilling Former Mayor of DISH, TX Gives FrackNation the Slip!”
Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Fri, Oct 17, 2014
October 17, 2014October 17, 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, Oct 17, 2014”
Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Lease & Royalty Payments | Pennsylvania | Southwestern Energy | Statewide WV | Washington County | West Virginia

Chesapeake Sells Close to 25% of Marcellus/Utica Operation
October 16, 2014October 16, 2014

The Chesapeake Energy fire sale continues–and this time it’s cut right into the bone and sinew of the company. The beneficiary of Chesapeake’s ongoing divestiture, this time, is Southwestern Energy. Southwestern has signed a deal to pick up 413,000 (!) Marcellus/Utica acres, most of it in West Virginia with some of it in Washington County, PA. Much of the land is in prime wet gas areas (see the map below). The deal includes 256 (!) operating and producing Marcellus and Utica Shale wells and another 179 (!) non-operated, non-producing wells–a total of 435 drilled wells. Southwestern is paying Chesapeake $5.375 BILLION for the deal–which will make Chesapeake’s real boss, corporate raider Carl Icahn, very happy…
Read More “Chesapeake Sells Close to 25% of Marcellus/Utica Operation”
Energy Companies | Keystone Mountaineer | Mountaineer Keystone | PDC Mountaineer | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Major New Player in the Marcellus Emerges: Mountaineer Keystone
October 16, 2014November 19, 2015

Earlier this week Mountaineer Keystone, a shale driller headquartered in Pittsburgh, announced it had bought out PDC Mountaineer for half a billion dollars ($500 million). Who are these two players? Mountaineer Keystone is backed by the money of investment firm First Reserve. PDC Mountaineer is a joint venture between PDC Energy and investment firm Lime Rock Partners. The deal means Mountaineer Keystone picks up a huge 131,000 net acres in the Marcellus/Utica region, boosting the company’s position to a new 181,000 net acres. Also part of the deal is a small gathering pipeline operation. Here’s the details…
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Earthquakes | Harrison County | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Research | Utica Shale

Study Says Series of Unfelt Earthquakes in OH from Utica Fracking
October 16, 2014October 16, 2014

Another day, another “study” that says fracking causes earthquakes–this time in Ohio’s Utica Shale. In typical and now predictable fashion, mainstream media does a “drive-by” with the information–like a drive-by shooting–and then continues on its merry way. Here at MDN we’ll break it down and explain it so you have ALL the facts and not anti-drilling “impressions” of what the data says. First off, an admission that we don’t (yet) have a full copy of the newly published study, which has reportedly been published in the journal Seismological Research Letters (but which we can’t find on their website). We’ve requested a full copy of the paper and are awaiting it and hope to share it with you when we get it. The study is titled, “Characterization of an earthquake sequence triggered by hydraulic fracturing in Harrison County Ohio” and looks at a series of “400 earthquakes” that were so tiny as to be unfelt by anyone–but detectable by finely tuned equipment. The earthquakes happened in Harrison County, OH and are thought (but not proven) to be the result of fracking several Utica wells over top of a previously unknown geologic fault. The author of the study himself says the earthquakes couldn’t even be felt by anyone…
Read More “Study Says Series of Unfelt Earthquakes in OH from Utica Fracking”
Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide PA | Taxation

New PA Legislation SB 1499 Would Stop Many Pipeline Projects
October 16, 2014October 16, 2014

In a cleverly disguised move to stop Marcellus drilling, two Philadelphia-area state senators–Andy Dinniman (Democrat, Chester) and John Rafferty (RINO, Montgomery)–have teamed up to introduce legislation, Senate Bill (SB) 1499 (full copy below) that would assess an “impact fee” on new pipelines and possibly existing pipelines re-purposed for a different use. The pipelines getting this new fee are pipelines that specifically carry natural gas, NGLs or oil (other pipelines don’t count). The fee would only be assessed on pipelines in what they define as “high-consequence areas” like, you know, the Philly area. Places with lots of residences and businesses. You live in the sticks? They don’t care. You don’t get nuthin. You live someplace “important” like Philly? Soak ’em. Similar to the current drilling impact fee part of Act 13 (this is what’s clever), the money raised stays local–50% of it to the county, 40% to the town/city where the pipeline runs, and 10% to the state Public Utility Commission. How much of this new “impact fee” does the landowner get–the people who are most inconvenienced by having the pipeline? 0%…
Read More “New PA Legislation SB 1499 Would Stop Many Pipeline Projects”
Allegheny County | Beaver County | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Odebrecht | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | Shell | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia | Wood County

Odebrect Cracker Aims to Attract Chemical/Plastics Manufacturing
October 16, 2014October 16, 2014

David Peebles, Odebrecht’s vice president of business development and the guy working to make the $4 billion ethane cracker and petrochemical plant project in Parkersburg, WV a reality, gave some great insights into just how vast and complex a process building that plant is. Speaking yesterday at the Penn State Natural Gas Utilization Conference in Southpointe, PA, Peebles said…
Read More “Odebrect Cracker Aims to Attract Chemical/Plastics Manufacturing”
Energy Services | Kinder Morgan

Kinder Morgan 3Q14 Update: NED and UTOPIA, Etc.
October 16, 2014October 16, 2014

Yesterday the largest pipeline company in America, Kinder Morgan, issued its third quarter 2014 update. The big news during 3Q14 was, of course, that Kinder has decided to shed its MLP (master limited partner) structure whereby the company is carved into different pieces for the sake of investors–and rejoin all of the pieces into one. Also bubbling along at Kinder is the massive Tennessee Gas Pipeline through Massachusetts, called the Northeast Energy Direct (NED) project, that will bring abundant supplies of Marcellus Shale gas to New England; and the Utica to Ontario Pipeline Access (UTOPIA) project that will pipe ethane to Canada. The Kinder press release with the update was massively long with teeny tiny type. We’ve waded through it to pull out just those bits that will be of most interest for those of us in the northeast…
Read More “Kinder Morgan 3Q14 Update: NED and UTOPIA, Etc.”
CNG/LNG | Dominion Energy | Energy Services | Exporting | Industrywide Issues | Maryland | Statewide MD

Dominion Midstream IPO Blows by Best Expectations
October 16, 2014October 16, 2014

On Tuesday MDN told you that Dominion was looking to raise $350 million with an initial public offering (IPO) for its new Dominion Midstream subsidiary (see Dominion Midstream IPO Seeks $350M for Cove Point Work). Today we’re happy to report the numbers are in–and Dominion surpassed their goal…
Read More “Dominion Midstream IPO Blows by Best Expectations”
Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Research

IL Study Finds Marcellus Shale Created 45K Construction Jobs
October 16, 2014October 16, 2014

The director of the labor education program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Dr. Robert Bruno, recently published recently published a new study titled, “Study of Construction Employment in Marcellus Shale Related Oil and Gas Industry” (full copy embedded below). The study looks at natural gas/Marcellus Shale employment data from 2008-2014 for parts of OH, PA, and WV. The study found that the number of jobs for electricians, plumbers, welders, equipment operators and laborers–skilled people who work with their hands–went through the roof because of the Marcellus Shale. Over 45,000 new construction jobs linked to the Marcellus were created. In one year, from 2012-2013, spending in the Marcellus area on construction and maintenance grew over 60%!…
Read More “IL Study Finds Marcellus Shale Created 45K Construction Jobs”
Commodity Price | Industrywide Issues

EIA Says Marcellus Prices Often Swing $1 Mcf Below Henry Hub
October 16, 2014October 16, 2014

An article published by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) on their online Today in Energy publication from yesterday highlights the ongoing struggle for prices in the Marcellus Shale region to keep pace with the benchmark Henry Hub in southern Louisiana. As MDN pointed out just a few weeks ago, it’s not inconceivable that a delivery point in the Marcellus will one day replace the venerated Henry Hub as the new benchmark price (see Will ‘Dominion South’ Replace ‘Henry Hub’ for Natgas Pricing?). The EIA story points out an obvious truth that bears repeating: When you have more production than you have in pipeline capacity to get that production to markets that want it–you get a surplus of supply and much lower prices. Sometimes those prices can, on a dime, swing to a dollar or more lower than the Henry Hub price…
Read More “EIA Says Marcellus Prices Often Swing $1 Mcf Below Henry Hub”
Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Thu, Oct 16, 2014
October 16, 2014October 16, 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, Oct 16, 2014”
Crime | Greene County (PA) | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Wastewater

Illegal Wastewater Dumping in Greene County, PA?
October 15, 2014October 15, 2014

A disturbing bit of news. Officials in Waynesburg, PA (county seat of Greene County, in the very southwestern tip of PA) say about 4,000 gallons of a “gray, milky substance” flowed through the local sewage treatment plant and that the plant’s flow meters spiked up when it happened. In other words, someone, somewhere dumped something down a manhole and that something got processed by the plant and ultimately discharged into Ten Mile Creek. The disturbing bit is that the plant’s operators, along with the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), think the substance dumped may have been frack wastewater…
Read More “Illegal Wastewater Dumping in Greene County, PA?”
Energy Companies | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | WPX Energy

WPX Marcellus Assets Being Shopped in “Controlled Auction”
October 15, 2014October 15, 2014

As MDN has pointed out for some time now, Elvis, er um, WPX has left the building. Meaning WPX, although finishing up wells already permitted and started in the Marcellus–will not drill any new wells in the Marcellus. Does that mean landowners should be concerned that WPX will sell their already-drilled (and producing) wells in the Marcellus? In February, WPX spokeswoman Susan Oliver told MDN the company is definitely not selling their already drilled wells–100 of them or so (see WPX Gives MDN an Update on Their 2014 Marcellus Plans). However, an analysis by a trusted energy analyst has us wondering…
Read More “WPX Marcellus Assets Being Shopped in “Controlled Auction””