Marcellus Drilling News

American Energy Partners | Doddridge County | East Resources | Energy Companies | Harrison County | Marion County | Monroe County | Ohio | Shell | SWEPI | Tyler County | West Virginia | Wetzel County

McClendon Buys 48K WV Marcellus Acres, 27K More OH Utica Acres
June 10, 2014June 10, 2014

Yet another major announcement yesterday from Aubrey McClendon, former CEO of Chesapeake Energy and current CEO of a new company he founded, American Energy Partners (AEP). Aubrey is spending another $1.75 billion to buy more acreage (and functioning wells) in both the Ohio Utica and now, for the first time, in the West Virginia Marcellus Shale. The WV acreage is in the wet gas areas of the state. According to the AEP press announcement, East Resources is the seller. Which is interesting to MDN since Shell bought all (or nearly all) of East’s northeast shale acreage in 2010 (see East Resources Sells to Royal Dutch Shell for $4.7 Billion, Deal Includes All of East’s Marcellus Shale Operations). So was the deal actually with Shell using the East name on paper? Or leftover vestiges of the old East Resources?…
Read More “McClendon Buys 48K WV Marcellus Acres, 27K More OH Utica Acres”
Crime | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Minuteman Environmental Services | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA | Wastewater

Minuteman Enviro Says PA AG Office “Terrorized” Family Members, Filing Lawsuit
June 10, 2014June 10, 2014

Yesterday MDN brought you the news that Pennsylvania’s anti-drilling Attorney General, Kathleen Kane, had spearheaded an “investigation” against Minuteman Environmental Services, a PA company that serves the shale industry with several different businesses (see PA’s Anti-Drilling AG Charges Minuteman with Enviro Crimes). It now appears it was less investigation and more witch hunt. Minuteman sent MDN a press release yesterday in which they make very strong allegations against the AG’s office, stating members of the family-owned business have been “terrorized” and its employees “abused” by the AG and her cadre of witch hunters. Minuteman states they are about to file a lawsuit against the AG and her office for abuses suffered at their hands…
Read More “Minuteman Enviro Says PA AG Office “Terrorized” Family Members, Filing Lawsuit”
Belmont County | Energy Companies | Lease & Royalty Payments | Ohio | Rice Energy | Utica Shale

More Sightings of “Bigfoot” (Well) in Belmont County, OH
June 10, 2014June 10, 2014

Rice Energy’s “monster” well in Belmont County, OH, called the Bigfoot 9H, is still making waves (see Rice Energy’s Bigfoot New Reigning Utica Well Champ – 42 Mmcf/d!). After five days of production, the well settled in at an initial production flow rate of 42 million cubic feet per day (Mmcf/d)–the best ever IP for a Utica Shale well. MDN told you what Dan Rice IV, CEO of Rice Energy, said is the secret to their success with Bigfoot (see The Secret of Rice Energy’s Success with the Utica Bigfoot Well). Now comes word that Rice is drilling another well very close to Bigfoot. And we’ve found a second secret to Bigfoot’s success…
Read More “More Sightings of “Bigfoot” (Well) in Belmont County, OH”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide PA | Tennessee Gas Pipeline

Federal Court Slaps FERC Over TGP Northeast Pipeline Approvals
June 10, 2014June 10, 2014

Even though Kinder Morgan’s Tennessee Gas Pipeline is thousands of miles long, and even though upgrades to a 200-mile section in the northeast are now complete, a federal appeals court last Friday faulted the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) oversight of those upgrades. In 2012 FERC approved construction of five pipeline “loop” (or extra lines laid near existing lines) segments in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The projects included upgrades at two PA compressor stations. The total project cost was $500 million and the projects together were/are badly needed to boost pipeline capacity for new quantities of Marcellus Shale gas. But that makes no difference to the ideologues at the petulant Delaware River Keeper, the New Jersey Highlands Coalition and the New Jersey Sierra Club. They sued when FERC wouldn’t re-hear their bleating and blatting. So the enviro groups took it to federal court and judges ruled last week that FERC should not have treated the projects individually when considering an approval…
Read More “Federal Court Slaps FERC Over TGP Northeast Pipeline Approvals”
Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Taxation

PA Budget & Policy Center Issues Repeated Call for High Drill Tax
June 10, 2014June 10, 2014

The extremely partisan, left-wing Democrat Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center has once again issued ~~more toilet paper~~, er, yet another report saying PA drillers don’t pay enough taxes, even though with the impact fee combined with state corporate taxes (something other states like Texas don’t have) combined represent already high tax rates on PA drillers. You may recall that MDN has covered this group’s self-serving “reports” in the past (see Partisan PA Budget & Policy Center Pushes Extreme Tax on Marcellus). Well, they’re at it again, and every time they issue one of these so-called reports, the PA media laps it up like the pusillanimous libs they are…
Read More “PA Budget & Policy Center Issues Repeated Call for High Drill Tax”
Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies

Chesapeake Oilfield Services Birth Date: June 17, 2014
June 10, 2014June 10, 2014

Since February we’ve been hearing for Chesapeake Energy that they would either sell or spin-off the Chesapeake Oilfield Services division (see Chesapeake Energy Looks to Dump Oilfield Services Division). In March they decided to spin it off rather than sell it (see Chesapeake Rushes to Spin Off Oilfield Services into New Company). So we’ve heard for quite a while, “it’s coming.” But it hasn’t. Until now. Yesterday Chessy said the date when the new company, which has been renamed to Seventy Seven Energy Inc., will be born on or about June 19th…
Read More “Chesapeake Oilfield Services Birth Date: June 17, 2014”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues

Earthworks Lies About Fracking Yet Again (No Surprise There)
June 10, 2014June 10, 2014

Earthworks–a radical environmentalist group–plays fast and loose with language and the truth. Nothing new there–they always have. (Yes, we’re calling them liars.) The latest instance is a press release that is being picked up by some doltish news outlets that makes this claim: “…a Texas TV station broke the news that new independent analysis refutes the oft-repeated claim by the oil and gas industry that ‘there’s never been a confirmed case of fracking polluting drinking water’.” The release goes on to explain the so-called pollution is methane migration. Which, of course, is not pollution. Methane may make the water distasteful, but the water is still drinkable and the presence of methane can be mitigated and usually fixed. Completely. You can drink water with methane from sunup to sundown and it won’t kill you (although it may give you gas)…
Read More “Earthworks Lies About Fracking Yet Again (No Surprise There)”
Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Tue, Jun 10, 2014
June 10, 2014June 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: Tue, Jun 10, 2014”
Belmont County | Energy Companies | Ohio | Rice Energy | Utica Shale

The Secret of Rice Energy’s Success with the Utica Bigfoot Well
June 9, 2014June 9, 2014

Rice Energy’s young CEO Dan Rice IV addressed the DUG East conference last week in Pittsburgh. Dan said while he can’t categorically say that Rice drills faster/cheaper/better wells than the competition, he did offer up his company’s secret to success in drilling the single most productive well (so far) to be drilled in the Utica. And it was their very first Utica well!

And what, exactly, is that secret?…
Read More “The Secret of Rice Energy’s Success with the Utica Bigfoot Well”
Beaver County | Energy Companies | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | Shell

Shell Takes a Few More Baby Steps Toward PA Ethane Cracker Plant
June 9, 2014June 9, 2014

A small bit of progress to report on the Shell ethane cracker plant planned for Monaca (Beaver County), PA. According to comments made by Shell Chemicals Executive Vice President Graham van’t Hoff at the American Chemistry Council’s Annual Meeting last week in Colorado, Shell has made a few more baby steps toward making the cracker plant a reality–but they still aren’t committed to it just yet. Here’s the steps recently taken…
Read More “Shell Takes a Few More Baby Steps Toward PA Ethane Cracker Plant”
Crime | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Minuteman Environmental Services | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Wastewater

PA’s Anti-Drilling AG Charges Minuteman with Enviro Crimes
June 9, 2014June 9, 2014

It only took PA’s anti-drilling Attorney General, Kathleen Kane, 13 months to investigate Minuteman Environmental Services for alleged crimes against the environment. MDN told you about a raid on Minuteman’s headquarters in May 2013 by the PA Attorney General’s office, along with agents from the PA DEP, FBI and IRS (see Shale Environmental Services Company Raided by PA AG’s Office). At the time Kane would not say why they were raided–what the alleged charges were. Last week she finally charged not only CEO Brain Bolus, but even his father and mother (wow is Kane vicious)…
Read More “PA’s Anti-Drilling AG Charges Minuteman with Enviro Crimes”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Athens County | Crime | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Wastewater

Anti-Drilling Protesters Shut Down OH Injection Well – 1 Arrested
June 9, 2014June 9, 2014

Two protesters from the lawless (and radical) Appalachian Resist! organization in Athens County, OH blocked trucks from entering a law-abiding injection well transfer station last week, effectively shutting down the K&H injection well in that area for most of one day. Lawless protester 42 year-old Crissa Cummings and lawless protester 71 year-old Peggy Gish (old hippies?) prove that stupid is no respecter of age. Cummings chained herself to a fence and was arrested. Gish was slapped on the wrist and sent home to make tea and cookies for the grandkids (but should have been jailed). Here’s how the lawless Appalachian Resist! reported it, followed by an adult analysis of what really happened…
Read More “Anti-Drilling Protesters Shut Down OH Injection Well – 1 Arrested”
Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Lease & Royalty Payments | Litigation | Michigan | Statewide MI

Michigan AG (Unbelievably) Files More Charges Against Chesapeake
June 9, 2014June 9, 2014

Dang if the Attorney General Bill Schuette from Michigan isn’t determined to shake down Chesapeake Energy for a boatload of money. Apparently Schuette’s political future rests on being able to get something out of Chesapeake, who so far has been unwilling to bend over and take it. We’re referring, of course, to Michigan’s use of illegally obtained emails that allegedly show some sort of collusion between Chesapeake and Encana to obtain state land leases for drilling at a low price. AG Schuette has filed yet more charges in the case. The feds investigated and found nothing (see Feds Clear Chesapeake & Encana in Collusion Case, Michigan Next?). Usually a state will go along with a finding by the federal Justice Department. But not Schuette from Michigan. He has his heart set on grabbing a few hundred million from the “deep pockets” of oil and gas companies…
Read More “Michigan AG (Unbelievably) Files More Charges Against Chesapeake”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Landfills | Statewide WV | Wastewater | West Virginia

WV Reporter’s Dictation from Anti-Drilling Senator is Radioactive
June 9, 2014June 9, 2014

We’ve come to expect reporters from the mainstream media to lie and endlessly repeat debunked myths in an effort to throw as much “stuff” against the proverbial wall to see what will stick, and to confuse readers. But it’s not often a reporter from a smaller West Virginia newspaper turns in an “article” so completely wrong it’s breathtaking, as John Sheely from the Martinsburg Journal News has just done. But then Sheely was just “reporting” (cheerleading? snookered by?) the load of bull being offered by WV Senator Donald Cookman (D-Hamshire)…
Read More “WV Reporter’s Dictation from Anti-Drilling Senator is Radioactive”
Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide OH | Statewide PA

OH Schools Save $60M, PA Schools Save $45.5M Last Year from Shale
June 9, 2014June 9, 2014

The American Petroleum Institute released a new study at the end of May titled, “The Unconventional Energy Revolution: Estimated Energy Savings for Public School Districts and State and Local Governments” (full copy embedded below). The study shows school districts and government offices have saved a boatload of money thanks to the ongoing shale revolution. BIG money. To further drive the point home and make it understandable, the API has released a number of press releases breaking down the numbers state by state. For example, the study says schools in Ohio saved $60 million on their utility bills last year thanks to shale, and Pennsylvania schools saved $45.5 million on utility bills last year thanks to shale…
Read More “OH Schools Save $60M, PA Schools Save $45.5M Last Year from Shale”
Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies

Chesapeake Dumps More Assets: Crude Truck Fleet & 200 Employees
June 9, 2014June 9, 2014

Chesapeake continues to sell off bits and pieces of the company, in order to raise capital, reduce debt, and make boss man Carl Icahn even more rich than he already is. The latest thing to go is a fleet of trucks used to haul crude oil, ANOTHER 200 employees gone (along with the trucks), and a contract with the company buying both, which happens to be Rose Rock Midstream…
Read More “Chesapeake Dumps More Assets: Crude Truck Fleet & 200 Employees”