Marcellus Drilling News

Air Quality | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

EPA Power Grab Continues: 813-page Proposed Rule for Refineries
May 16, 2014May 16, 2014

Like an athlete overdosing on steroids to pump up his body mass, the EPA is injecting the Clean Air Act with an equivalent of steroids in order to make itself the regulator of oil and gas in the U.S., countermanding the U.S. Constitution. The latest egregious attempt at a federal takeover comes from EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy who announced yesterday a “proposed” new rule for air monitoring around “refineries”. The proposed new rule (full copy below) is 813 pages long. You know when it’s 813 pages long, it’s going to cost a lot of people a lot of money…
Read More “EPA Power Grab Continues: 813-page Proposed Rule for Refineries”
1st NRG | Energy Companies | Utica Shale

Latest 1st NRG Corp Press Release – Still Want to Drill the Utica
May 16, 2014May 16, 2014

1st NRG Corporation has been saying since October 2012 they want to drill in the Utica Shale, if only they could get a little investor love (see 1st NRG Corp Newest Entrant in OH Utica Shale). At one point they got a $7 million loan to drill in the Utica and other plays. The Utica part never materialized. But 1st NRG is back with a another press release hawking Utica drilling…
Read More “Latest 1st NRG Corp Press Release – Still Want to Drill the Utica”
Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Fri, May 16, 2014
May 16, 2014May 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: Fri, May 16, 2014”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA | Taxation

Act 13 Goes Back to Lower Court, Disturbing Comments from Judge
May 15, 2014May 15, 2014

Yesterday the seven selfish townships who sued to overturn Pennsylvania’s Act 13 oil and gas law–and won (before the PA Supreme Court)–were back in the lower appellate court at the direction of the Supreme Court, arguing some of the fine points in their attempts to drive the last nail in the coffin to bury Act 13 (see Act 13 Case Goes Back to Court, Drillers Petition to Join Lawsuit)…
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Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Statewide OH | Taxation | Utica Shale

OH House Passes 2.5% Severance Tax Bill, Where to Now?
May 15, 2014May 15, 2014

As predicted, yesterday afternoon the Ohio House of Representatives passed a bill that will assess a 2.5% severance tax on Utica Shale drilling in the state–raising it from current levels (under 1%). As MDN previously wrote, Ohio’s Republicans caved (see OH Repubs Sell Out on Severance Tax, Kasich Wants Even More!)…
Read More “OH House Passes 2.5% Severance Tax Bill, Where to Now?”
Accidents | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Morgan County | Ohio | PDC Energy

Blowout Preventer Failed at Morgan County, OH Utica Well Site
May 15, 2014May 15, 2014

We now have a few more bits of information about the drilling accident last week in Morgan County, OH (for background, see PDC Accident: Drilling Mud Spills into Creek in Morgan County, OH). At least two safety measures, including the well blowout preventer, failed to contain the gas and drilling mud from coming back out of the borehole after PDC Energy hit a pocket of natural gas while drilling…
Read More “Blowout Preventer Failed at Morgan County, OH Utica Well Site”
Braskem | Energy Services | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Odebrecht | Processing Plants | West Virginia | Wood County

More Evidence the Odebrect WV Ethane Cracker Will Happen
May 15, 2014May 15, 2014

MDN continues to be encouraged by what we see happening with Odebrecht and their plans to build a multi-billion dollar ethane cracker plant and petrochemical complex near Parkersburg, WV, the state’s third largest city (see WV Announces Brazilian Company to Build Ethane Cracker Complex). As we previously commented, the WV ethane cracker just feels like it’s going to happen (see Odebrecht’s WV Ethane Cracker has The Big Mo–Momentum). The evidence that it will happen continued this week…
Read More “More Evidence the Odebrect WV Ethane Cracker Will Happen”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Landfills | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

NY Dem Senators Admit Hearing on Landfills Meant to Scare
May 15, 2014May 15, 2014

New York’s anti-drilling (and stupid) Democrat State Senators have admitted (more or less) why they held a hearing on Tuesday about frack waste from Pennsylvania coming to NY landfills–to scare the $#%@ out of people (see NY Dem Senators Want to Ban PA Drill Cuttings from NY Landfills). Not only do they not want drilling in the state, they don’t want upstate communities to benefit from drilling in PA either. So pathetically small…
Read More “NY Dem Senators Admit Hearing on Landfills Meant to Scare”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Lebanon County | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Williams

Lebanon County Anti-Pipeline Meeting Yields a Surprise
May 15, 2014May 15, 2014

A group of shrill anti-drillers organized an informational meeting last night at Lebanon Valley College to try and scare landowners into rejecting a proposed Williams Central Penn South pipeline through Lebanon County. Funny thing is, of the 50 or so that showed up, quite a few think it will be built–and if it is, it may not be such a bad thing…
Read More “Lebanon County Anti-Pipeline Meeting Yields a Surprise”
Health Impacts | Industrywide Issues | Research

Yet Another Fundraiser, er, Health Impacts from Fracking Study
May 15, 2014May 15, 2014

The Boston-based non-profit Health Effects Institute has announced they will a) draw together all of the “knowledge” we currently have about health impacts from shale drilling, by late 2014, and b) figure out a plan to research what we don’t know and have the proposed framework for more study sometime in 2015. That is, they’re about to launch a study of how they should study. Er, sort of circular, but that’s what they said…
Read More “Yet Another Fundraiser, er, Health Impacts from Fracking Study”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

CSSD Thrown a Lifeline from Richard King Mellon Foundation
May 15, 2014May 15, 2014

The Richard King Mellon Foundation has just awarded a two-year grant (no specific amount mentioned) to the Center for Sustainable Shale Development (CSSD). The Mellon folks apparently like what they see with the CSSD certification program and want to see more of it. So they’re lending a (financial) hand to ensure that happens…
Read More “CSSD Thrown a Lifeline from Richard King Mellon Foundation”
Industrywide Issues | Lycoming County | Pennsylvania | Seismic Testing

Fracking Killed the Rabbits!
May 15, 2014May 15, 2014

Proving anyone can sue anyone else for anything in our litigious society, here’s one we’ve never heard of before: Fracking killed the rabbits. Or rather, helicopters being used for seismic testing flew too low over a rabbit farm and the owners claim the noise essentially scared the rabbits to death. Some 168 (out of 300) rabbits supposedly keeled over after hearing a helicopter. Boo! Whoops. There goes another one!…
Read More “Fracking Killed the Rabbits!”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Landfills | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

NY Dem Senators Want to Ban PA Drill Cuttings from NY Landfills
May 14, 2014May 14, 2014

Not only do the anti-drilling Democrats in in the New York Senate want to keep shale drilling banned in the state (lack of drilling is destroying the upstate economy), now they also want to ban drill cuttings (leftover rock and dirt) from Pennsylvania from coming into the state for disposal in NY landfills. This has real implications. Currently, we’re aware of at least one landfill–in Chemung County–that accepts safe drill cuttings (see Radiation Testing Shows Marcellus Shale Drill Cuttings are Safe for Chemung County, NY Landfill). According to the Chemung County Executive Tom Santulli, “a lot of landfills” in upstate NY accept drill cuttings. The landfilling of drill cuttings (mined before fracking takes place and perfectly safe–it’s dirt and rock for heaven’s sake!) benefits all county residents by keeping landfill operating costs lower than they otherwise would be.

Now the radical, vicious anti-drilling Dems in the Senate want to take even that meager revenue away from upstate communities. The only conclusion you can draw is that they intentionally want to harm the residents of upstate NY…
Read More “NY Dem Senators Want to Ban PA Drill Cuttings from NY Landfills”
Energy Companies | Rice Energy

Rice Energy 1Q14: 41 Wells Online Producing 209 Mmcf/d Average
May 14, 2014May 14, 2014

Rice Energy, one of the newest Marcellus/Utica drillers, issued their first quarter 2014 financial and operational update yesterday. Rice, you may recall, went public and issued stocks in January of this year, raising $924 million (see Rice Energy IPO Soars, Brings in $84M More Than Expected). Looks like they put it to good use.

In 1Q14 Rice produced an average 209 million cubic feet of natural gas per day–a 135% increase over 1Q13 and a 36% increase over the previous quarter (4Q13). Impressive, especially when you consider the company has only has 41 wells online and producing since it began in 2011. Below is yesterday’s update from Rice, along with the official company PowerPoint (lots of interesting slides) issued by Rice in April…
Read More “Rice Energy 1Q14: 41 Wells Online Producing 209 Mmcf/d Average”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | CNG/LNG | Exporting | Industrywide Issues

OH Sen. Brown, 21 Others Send Anti-LNG Export Letter to Obama
May 14, 2014May 14, 2014

Some 21 Democrat U.S. Senators and 1 RINO Republican (Susan Collins from Maine) signed a letter to President Obama on Monday asking him to hold up on exporting LNG because, they claim, it will lead to higher natural gas prices here at home. Such loving, caring people those Democrats–always concerned for “the little guy.” What utter horse manure. The entire lot of them, including the shameful Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown are either stupid or (more likely) have an ulterior political motive–something that involves money and perhaps kickbacks to their campaign coffers. What else can explain such collective lunacy by Democrats and Democrat-lite Collins?

Below is the press release from the shameful OH Sen. Sherrod Brown, a copy of the letter sent by this cabal, and the entire list of who signed…
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Delaware County (PA) | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Lycoming County | Pennsylvania | PVR Midstream

Happy Ending? ULS Awarded $24.3M from PVR for Unpaid Invoices
May 14, 2014May 14, 2014

In March MDN brought you the story that Utility Line Services Inc. (ULS), a construction company that works for utility companies–like digging trenches and laying pipeline–sued PVR Marcellus Gas Gathering in a Delaware County, PA court (see ULS Says PVR Marcellus Bankrupted Their Company by Not Paying). ULS says PVR owes them more than $17.7 million in unpaid invoices and another $7.8 million in lost profits–and that the unpaid invoices caused the company to declare bankruptcy, closing their doors. A sad story.

Good news (?) for ULS. In what is believed to be the biggest jury award of its kind in PA, the court ruled in favor of ULS and awarded them $24.3 million to be paid by PVR. The problem remains that ULS had to go out of business and 600 jobs were lost and they had to liquidate their equipment. So although this is good news, it’s small consolation after the company had to declare bankruptcy…
Read More “Happy Ending? ULS Awarded $24.3M from PVR for Unpaid Invoices”