The owner of a golf course in North Braddock, PA (Allegheny County, near Pittsburgh) has leased the golf course for Marcellus Shale drilling and he wants drilling on or near the course. And because of it, he’s taking a lot of heat from some local residents…
Read More “Pittsburgh-area Golf Course Faces Uphill Battle to Allow Drilling”
The 70,000-member strong Joint Landowners Coalition of New York (JLCNY) is circulating a poignant 1-page flyer (see it below). The flyer lists three prominent Democrats on the left side who have publicly voiced support for shale drilling and natural gas. Along the right side are two prominent Democrats and a Communist who don’t support American shale drilling, although one of them may support it if given a swift kick in the pants. Can you guess who the mystery fence-sitter, man-child, equivocating, non-leader is? (Hint: His last name begins with a “C”)…
Read More “Poignant JLCNY Flyer Shows Dems Who Do/Don’t Support Drilling”
Listen up companies in the northeast shale supply chain–or those who hope to be. A good resource for you is the online ShaleDirectories.com, a sort of “yellow pages” for companies who want to sell to the shale industry. Until now, ShaleDirectories.com has served the Marcellus and Utica region. However, they’ve just announced a major expansion to several other key U.S. shale plays…
Read More “Supply Chain Companies – Exposure Beyond the Marcellus/Utica”
Each year the Ben Franklin Shale Gas Innovation and Commercialization Center (SGICC) conducts a contest for researchers, entrepreneurs and innovators working in the shale gas space in PA or WV (see 2014 Ben Franklin Shale Gas Contest – $100K in Cash Prizes!). They award four $25,000 prizes to those companies or people they believe have unique products and services that will benefit the shale industry. This year’s winners have just been announced! Envelope please…
Read More “Shale Innovation Winners of $100K in Prize Money Named”
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, May 20, 2014”
Today we give you an update about the ongoing forced pooling case by Hilcorp in Lawrence County, PA (see Hilcorp Uses PA Forced Pooling Law Against Lawrence Cty Landowner). We have new information, we break the issue down and explain it in detail, and we offer our own opinion on potential outcomes…
Read More “Hilcorp Lawrence County, PA Forced Pooling Case Update”
Perhaps all is not lost in PA with regard to an insane severance tax on Marcellus Shale drilling. On Friday we reported that PA Gov. Tom Corbett’s spokesperson seemed to be waffling about whether or not Gov. Corbett would consider or even support a severance tax, something he’s been opposed to for over three years (see Is PA Gov Corbett Considering a Severance Tax?!). That report caused us some angst. However, also last week, the highest ranking Republican in the House said “no” to a severance tax for this year’s budget…
Read More “Glimmer of Hope that PA Won’t Enact Severance Tax This Year”
Apparently Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette wants his pound of flesh out of Chesapeake Energy. You may recall the case of Chesapeake and Encana being accused of colluding to suppress the price of land being auctioned for drilling leases in Michigan. Reuters claimed private, internal company emails with possibly damning information somehow landed in their lap from the email fairy (see Did Reuters Break the Law with Latest Chesapeake Story?)…
Read More “Michigan AG Continues Case Against Chesapeake for Lease Collusion”
Robert Howarth, professor of ecology and environmental biology (not geology) is a self-proclaimed expert on shale drilling and its impact on Mother Earth. Howarth is a man-causes-global-warming true believer, along with his sidekick Tony Infraffea (also a Cornell prof). Both together have issued a string of “research reports” saying outrageously silly things like burning natural gas is worse for the environment than burning coal. Their research is constantly refuted by real experts, but that doesn’t keep Howarth from attempting to peddle his theories. And “oops, I did it again”–there goes Howarth with another “natural gas is worse that your darkest nightmare” study, just published in yet another obscure so-called “peer reviewed” journal…
Read More “Oops, I Did it Again: Another Howarth Sham Paper on Evil Methane”
There are a variety of conferences where drillers “pitch” investors on how great their company is, and the enormous promise of how well it will do in the future (hint hint–buy our stock and drive the price up). Citibank hosts a variety of these conferences. One of them was last week and Cabot Oil & Gas was there to present. We got a copy of their presentation, which has a lot of great information. If you want to know what a company is planning, and where they’ve been recently, you could do worse that pour over these investor conference presentations. Below we’ve embedded the Cabot presentation along with a list of our favorite slides…
Read More “Cabot Presentation in Boston Yields Some Interesting Tidbits”
Below are upcoming events for this week and next.
Read More “Calendar of Events for May 19 – Jun 1, 2014 [Free]”
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, May 19, 2014”
A disturbing article by the Associated Press hints that PA Gov. Tom Corbett may be about to cave and endorse a severance tax. Never in our wildest dreams would we believe it–we don’t want to believe it. But Corbett spokeswoman Lynn Lawson has “declined to say if Corbett still rules out an extraction tax” that would be used to meet a budget short-fall, particularly in education…
Read More “Is PA Gov Corbett Considering a Severance Tax?!”
Back in March MDN told you that Doug “the ax” Lawler and his boss corporate raider Carl Icahn had decided to spin off Chesapeake Oilfield Operating (COO), the oilfield division of the company (see Chesapeake Rushes to Spin Off Oilfield Services into New Company). Today Chesapeake reiterated that COO will be spun off by the end of June. Not only that, but Chessy is dumping a bunch of other assets in order to work down their debt…
Read More “Latest Slash and Burn Asset Sales from Chesapeake”
The news keeps rolling in with respect to the Center for Sustainable Shale Development (CSSD). Yesterday MDN told you about a new grant to the organization (see CSSD Thrown a Lifeline from Richard King Mellon Foundation). Today we know how much the unspecified grant was for, and more importantly, why it was so important. We also have news that after 14 months of existence, the CSSD has it’s very first application for certification…
Read More “Heinz & William Penn Cut Ties with CSSD; 1st Application for Cert”
Once upon a time there was a Kung Fu Panda…er, no, wrong story. Once upon a time there was a Moxie, as in Moxie Energy, that got the bright idea to build an electric generating plant in the middle of the most abundant and cheap natural gas supply in the world–in the Marcellus of Bradford County, PA. They named it Liberty, as in Moxie Liberty. However, Moxie decided to sell their idea (and the authorizations/permits to proceed) to someone else. That’s where the Panda comes in–as in Panda Power Funds (see Moxie Liberty Sells PA Electric Plant Project to Panda Power). The renamed Panda Liberty officially broke ground yesterday on a project that will create 600 jobs and pump an estimated $6 billion into the local economy…
Read More “Panda Liberty Breaks Ground on Bradford, PA Electric Plant”