Marcellus Drilling News

Chesapeake Energy | Crime | Encana Energy | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Litigation

Feds Clear Chesapeake & Encana in Collusion Case, Michigan Next?
May 2, 2014May 2, 2014

An update on the Chesapeake/Encana “collusion” story in Michigan. Two years ago Reuters accused Chessy and Encana of colluding to keep prices low for Michigan state oil and gas leases coming up for auction (see Did Reuters Break the Law with Latest Chesapeake Story?). Either a low-life snitch gave Reuters private emails from the companies or Reuters engaged in breaking and entering, a la Watergate style, to get access to those emails. Either way, the emails didn’t really show anything damning. However, both the feds and the state of Michigan launched years-long, anal exam-type investigations. In March of this year the Michigan Attorney General decided to press charges (see Reuters Smiles: MI Criminal Court to Charge Chesapeake & Encana).

However, the feds have just sent a letter to Chessy and Encana exonerating them from any wrongdoing. Since “more often than not” the feds and the state attorneys reach the same conclusion, it’s quite possible that Michigan will drop its criminal case as early as next week…
Read More “Feds Clear Chesapeake & Encana in Collusion Case, Michigan Next?”
Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Ohio | Research | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Ohio Quarterly Shale Jobs Report – Shale Jobs Up 79% in 2 Years
May 2, 2014May 2, 2014

Each quarter the Ohio Dept. of Jobs and Family Services issues a report on how the Ohio shale industry is faring with respect economic impacts and the number of jobs. The April 2014 edition of that report was just released (see a full copy embedded below). What does the state’s own research show? In the two years from Q3 2011 to Q3 2013 core shale-related industry employment (like pipeline construction and well drilling) was up 5,763 (79.0 percent). Employees in core jobs had an average wage of $71,661. To which we say, that ought to make OH Gov. John “foreigner hunter” Kasich happy! He doesn’t like foreigners (people from Texas and Oklahoma) takin’ good Ohio jobs–so every now and again he prowls around on patrol (see OH Gov. Kasich Goes After Out-of-State Engineers/Surveyors).

The report contains a lot of great charts and maps and helpful information to understand the economics of shale in Ohio–we encourage you to take some time with it. Here’s a good overview of the report from Columbus Business First:
Read More “Ohio Quarterly Shale Jobs Report – Shale Jobs Up 79% in 2 Years”
Energy Companies | Southwestern Energy

Southwestern Energy 1Q14: Marcellus Production Hits Avg 800 MMcf/d
May 2, 2014May 2, 2014

Southwestern Energy, a very large Marcellus driller, released their first quarter operating and financial update yesterday. Although Southwestern has operations in other resource plays, the Marcellus is one of their most important. They reported yesterday their gross operated production reached 800 MMcf per day in the Marcellus (closing in on the 1 Bcf/Day Club!), and net production was up 147% compared to year-ago levels in the Marcellus.

Immediately below we’ve extracted out those sections of the update that talk about the Marcellus, and below that we’ve embedded a full copy of the mammoth 14-page update…
Read More “Southwestern Energy 1Q14: Marcellus Production Hits Avg 800 MMcf/d”
Butler County | Energy Companies | Pennsylvania | Rex Energy | Statewide PA

Rex Energy 1Q14: Record High Production, Stacked Plays & Long Laterals
May 2, 2014May 2, 2014

Rex Energy, our “little energy company that could (and is)” continues to chug along. And because of the Marcellus, Rex isn’t so little anymore. They release their first quarter operations and financial update earlier this week. The Rex update shows quarterly production has hit 122.2 MMcfe/d, a new record for the company. Rex is drilling stacked plays, targeting not only the Marcellus and Utica but the Upper Devonian layer too–and experimenting with different lateral lengths. Doing all the right things, and it’s paying off for Rex.

A a comprehensive update from the little energy company that’s doing it right…
Read More “Rex Energy 1Q14: Record High Production, Stacked Plays & Long Laterals”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Mahoning County | Ohio | Regulation | Utica Shale

20 Youngstown U Profs Attempt PR Stunt on Frack Ban – Goes Limp
May 2, 2014May 2, 2014

On Wednesday, 20 Democrat faculty members who teach at Youngstown University, most of whom (perhaps all) are *not* professors in the geosciences area (i.e. they’re clueless about fracking) attempted a PR stunt that well, went limp. They all endorsed a frack ban that’s coming around for the THIRD time on the ballot in Youngstown (voting happens May 8). Even the Democrat mayor of Youngstown knows that such a ban would be a “jobs killer” for the city and recommends a “no” vote next week (see Anti-Drillers Force 3rd Vote on Frack Ban in Youngstown).

Here’s the limp effort from 20 professors at a university you probably should not send your children to because people like those listed below mis-teach there:
Read More “20 Youngstown U Profs Attempt PR Stunt on Frack Ban – Goes Limp”
Dominion Energy | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines

Dominion Announces 2 New Pipeline Projects from Marcellus/Utica
May 2, 2014May 2, 2014

Dominion is a huge power and gas utility with customers spread across Virginia, North Carolina, West Virginia and Ohio. They also have a number of subsidiaries, including their proposed LNG export facility in Cove Point, Maryland (see Celebrate! Dominion Wins DOE Approval for MD LNG Export Facility), and midstream operations (see Dominion Announces Marcellus/Utica Shale Expansion).

We have a pair of new Marcellus/Utica-related projects coming from Dominion to share. On an analyst call yesterday, Dominion CEO Thomas Farrell II announced the Lebanon West II project that will provide 130,000 dekatherms per day of firm transportation service for 20 years to move Marcellus Shale production from Butler County, PA, to Lebanon, OH. In addition, two weeks ago Dominion Energy (subsidiary) announced an open season for the Dominion Southeast Reliability Project–a new pipeline that will extend from the Marcellus/Utica to markets in Virginia and North Carolina. An update from SNL Financial:
Read More “Dominion Announces 2 New Pipeline Projects from Marcellus/Utica”
CNG/LNG | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Taxation

Guess Why GDF Suez Doesn’t Want Marcellus Pipeline to New England
May 2, 2014May 2, 2014

As MDN reported back in January, the governors of six New England States want ISO New England (the regional cooperative transmission organization) to assess a tax on electric customers throughout New England so they can build a new natural gas pipeline to the region (see Blue State Blues: 6 New England States Want New Natgas Pipeline). The problem is not so much residential customers running low on natgas but electric generating plants. Obama’s war on coal is rapidly shuttering coal-powered electric generating plants in New England and so to keep up the electric demand, they’re turning to natural gas to fire the plants. And because natgas is in short supply in New England, particularly in the winter months, it makes the price of electricity skyrocket. Hence–tax electric rate customers to build a natgas pipeline.

However, Frank Katulak, the CEO of GDF Suez which operates a big LNG (liquefied natural gas) import terminal in Everett, MA, is trash-talking a tax on New England electric rate payers to build a natgas pipeline. If the pipeline gets built, that means less import business for GDF Suez. But Katulak says oh no, that’s not why he thinks a healthy tax hike is a bad idea (of course not!)…
Read More “Guess Why GDF Suez Doesn’t Want Marcellus Pipeline to New England”
Access Midstream Partners | Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines

Access Midstream 1Q14: Throughput Up in Marcellus/Utica
May 2, 2014May 2, 2014

Access Midstream, formerly known as Chesapeake Midstream, released their first quarter 2014 update earlier this week. Access has operations around the country, not just the northeast. However, both the Marcellus and Utica Shale is an important part of the Access picture. Among the interesting things in this update: Throughput (the amount of gas flowing through Access pipelines) was up for both the Marcellus and Utica in 1Q14; and, Chesapeake, via their subsidiary Midcon Compression, sold 103 compressor stations to Access located along gathering systems in the Marcellus and Utica region for $160 million (see Chesapeake Fire Sale Continues: Marcellus/Utica Compressor Plants).

Below is an extract from the Access Midstream update–the part most relevant for the Marcellus and Utica:
Read More “Access Midstream 1Q14: Throughput Up in Marcellus/Utica”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Boone Pickens Says Fracking Doesn’t Hurt Anybody–He Should Know
May 2, 2014May 2, 2014

You’ve gotta love the plain spoken, Texan, oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens. At a conference in California, Boone said fracking won’t hurt anybody.He also said environmentalists “moan and groan about it,” but at the end of the day fracking happens two miles below the surface. Boone says he’s fracked 2,000 wells during his life and none of them caused environmental damage.

Boone also talked about renewable energy and the one “insignificant” adverse effect that comes from fracking…
Read More “Boone Pickens Says Fracking Doesn’t Hurt Anybody–He Should Know”
About MDN | BP | Energy Companies | Ohio | Trumbull County | Utica Shale

MDN Quoted on WKSU Radio News Re BP Leaving the Utica
May 2, 2014May 2, 2014

Every now and again when MDN editor Jim Willis answers the phone, it’s a reporter on the other end of the line. Earlier this week he spoke to a reporter from Kent State University’s PBS affiliate WKSU. The topic was BP pulling out of the Utica Shale in Trumbull County (see BP Calls it Quits in the Utica Shale – Total Write-off). Jim told the nice reporter essentially what he said in that article: All is not lost for future drilling in Trumbull County–but it may take a few more years for things to pick up there. In the meantime, there’s plenty of ways for people in Trumbull to benefit from the shale drilling that’s happening south of them.

Here’s a transcript of the interview:
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Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Fri, May 2, 2014
May 2, 2014May 2, 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, May 2, 2014”
Energy Companies | EQT Corp | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Utica Shale

EQT: We’ll Let Range & Others Figure Out the Utica in SW PA
May 1, 2014May 1, 2014

Last Friday MDN told you that EQT is a bit wary and skeptical of the Utica Shale–at least in Ohio (see EQT Leaving the Utica? Maybe. Guernsey County Wells Disappoint). But what about the Utica in Pennsylvania? EQT CEO David Porges, in a Q&A with reporters yesterday, said the company is watching and waiting when it comes to the Utica in southwestern PA.

Porges said “the Utica’s potential is enormous,” but…
Read More “EQT: We’ll Let Range & Others Figure Out the Utica in SW PA”
Economic Impact | Electrical Generation | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Marshall County | Taxation | West Virginia

Complicated Deal for Proposed WV Gas-Powered Electric Plant
May 1, 2014May 1, 2014

Last week MDN told you about the proposed Marcellus gas-powered electrical generating plant proposed for Moundsville, WV (see Marcellus-Powered Electric Plant Coming to Marshall County, WV). To make the plant profitable to run, the owners have proposed a complicated deal whereby the county would end up owning the land and assets and lease them back to the operators (“owners”) thereby reducing what would have been hundreds of millions in property and school taxes to virtually nothing in taxes. For example, the local Moundsville school district would get something like $4 million instead of $181 million over 30 years, under the deal–if it’s approved.

Those numbers may seem out of kilter until you consider this: Currently the property is a contaminated EPA Superfund site with nothing on it–earning the school district and the county nothing in taxes. Zero. Under the deal proposed by Moundsville Power, the school would get $4 million, and the county would receive nearly $40 million in lease payments over the next 30 years. So let’s do the math: $0 or $44 million over the next 30 years, plus an added 30 permanent jobs at the plant and all of the economic stimulation the plant will bring to the local economy with purchases of goods and services. Pretty easy decision if you ask us. Here’s more on the complicated deal to build the power plant in Moundsville…
Read More “Complicated Deal for Proposed WV Gas-Powered Electric Plant”
Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide PA

U.S. Capital Advisers: PA Marcellus “Gift that Keeps on Giving”
May 1, 2014May 1, 2014

Investment firm U.S. Capital Advisers has just issued their third in a series of resource basin and infrastructure studies. Titled “Appalachia Infrastructure & Marcellus Basin Study Summary” (full copy embedded below), the new study begins this way: “Why Appalachia? It’s the biggest, baddest basin there is when it comes to gas production and the gift that keeps on giving, even in a $4 gas environment.” The study focuses exclusive on the Marcellus in Pennsylvania but the authors promise more studies are coming that will cover the West Virginia Marcellus and Ohio Utica Shale. Can’t wait!

Read on to learn more about pipelines, NGLs, and even which counties showed the most well productivity improvement…
Read More “U.S. Capital Advisers: PA Marcellus “Gift that Keeps on Giving””
Allegheny County | Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Washington County

PPG (Incredibly) Supports Discredited Dem Rep. Jesse White
May 1, 2014May 1, 2014

It’s no surprise to MDN that the left-leaning and increasingly anti-drilling Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editorial board published an editorial today supporting PA State Rep. (and Democrat) Jesse White, from Washington County, in a primary set for May 20. You may recall that Jesse himself is strongly anti-drilling, unethical, a fraud and should have been removed from office months ago. White used fake online IDs to attack and smear the reputation of some of his own pro-drilling constituents (see How the Mighty Have Fallen: PA Rep White Admits Guilt, Not Sorry). Incomprehensibly, the PA Democrat Party refused to remove him from office. Profound ethical lapses are nothing new for Dems, so this, apparently, was ho-hum for them. Stretching the bounds of incredulity, White is running once again–for a fifth term. But this time he has a challenger (see PA Rep. White (He of Fake Online IDs) Gets a Primary Challenger). Constituents from White’s district have written to MDN to tell us how hard they are working to get rid of the anti-drilling, unethical White. We endorse their efforts.

We have to ask–who in their right minds would vote for a fraud like White? Do ethics and standards mean nothing anymore? Shame on the editors of the PPG for their endorsement of someone who should have been removed from office months ago…
Read More “PPG (Incredibly) Supports Discredited Dem Rep. Jesse White”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide PA | Sunoco Logistics

PA Reporter Gets Law Firm to Withdraw from Sunoco Pipeline Case
May 1, 2014May 1, 2014

Since we’re tracking the progress of Sunoco Logistics’ Mariner East pipeline, and since this (minor) story has a potential impact on it, we’ll bring it to your attention. On Monday the anti-drilling PBS “reporter” Marie Cusick, who never misses a chance to trash-talk the Marcellus Shale industry, published an article on the reliably anti-drilling StateImpact Pennsylvania website highlighting what theoretically could be considered a conflict of interest for the law firm representing Sunoco Logistics. The law firm of McNees, Wallace and Nurick representing Sunoco Logistics is an associate member of the (hated) Marcellus Shale Coalition and they regularly represent (evil) gas industry companies. However, over the past two years McNees has also been used as outside (not inside, but outside) counsel for the state Public Utility Commission (PUC).

The potential conflict is that the Mariner East case requesting Sunoco Logistics be classified as a public utility corporation with right of eminent domain is right now before the PUC and it is the PUC that will make a decision. Although different attorneys work for Sunoco case than for the PUC, the surface appearance of a conflict still exists (it’s the same law firm)–that we have to admit. A day after the story ran McNees filed paperwork removing themselves from the case. Now Marie can do a happy dance and put a feather in her cap. Atta girl, Marie! Not that it will make one fig of a difference in the end…
Read More “PA Reporter Gets Law Firm to Withdraw from Sunoco Pipeline Case”