Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Thu, Jan 16, 2014
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading:
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Delaware County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY
NY Judge Tosses Out Sidney Moratorium Law for Procedural Issues
It was a good day for New York landowners and pro-drillers yesterday. MDN told you on Monday that we had confirmed a decision had been made in the lawsuit brought by landowners in Delaware County against the Town of Sidney, NY for passing a moratorium on fracking (see Breaking: NY Court Decisions in Binghamton & Sidney Cases). We knew there had been a decision by Supreme Court Judge John F. Lambert–we just didn’t know what the decision was.MDN received a copy of the decision yesterday (full copy embedded below) and it’s good news for landowners. The moratorium law was ruled “invalid”–but not because it was a moratorium. The law was tossed out because of the way it was enacted–for procedural issues. In fact, Judge Lambert was careful in his decision to point out that, “…the court has not addressed the moratorium issue.” So although this was a good decision and a reason to be happy, it wasn’t a jump-up-and-down-let’s-celebrate decision that seals of the fate of fracking moratoriums in NY. It occupies the middle ground on the happy face scale for us…
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Broome County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY
Binghamton’s New Mayor Fesses Up to Withdrawing Moratorium Appeal
Yesterday MDN told you the great news that the City of Binghamton had withdrawn its appeal of a court decision overturning the moratorium passed by an all-Democrat City Council and mayor at the eleventh hour in 2011 (see Breaking: NY Court Decisions in Binghamton & Sidney Cases). As we said yesterday, the interesting aspect of the Binghamton development is the timing–coming so close to a new mayor taking office. We said it sure looks like new Republican Mayor Rich David played an important role in the decision to withdraw the appeal. We were right.
MDN contacted the mayor’s office and we were told he’s traveling at the moment and would respond upon his return. However, a few hours later his office issued the following statement in which Mayor David lays out the timeline and his role in ending the long, drawn-out process. David came down on the side of landowners and pro-drillers–so three cheers for Mayor David! Here’s the statement issued by his office midday yesterday:
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Accidents | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Jay-Bee Oil & Gas | Tyler County | West Virginia
Frack Tank Explosion in Tyler County Shuts Down Jay-Bee Pad
Try as we might, sometimes an important news story slips by our otherwise keen eye on the Marcellus and Utica. Case in point: On Jan. 2 there was a rare accident at a shale drilling site in Tyler County, WV, a drill site operated by WV-based Jay-Bee Oil & Gas. A flow-back tank on the drill pad exploded, injuring a worker at the site and causing the spill of a “black sludge” onto a neighboring field. The West Virginia Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) shut down the Lisby drill pad operation, which is located along Big Run Road, roughly 6 miles southeast of Middlebourne, WV, and issued Jay-Bee a citation over the incident.
Jay-Bee was supposed to have provided a report to the DEP by yesterday outlining what happened and why. The DEP is also requiring Jay-Bee to provide a best management practices plan for flow-back tank systems at all of its operations in WV. In other words, Jay-Bee is now on the hot seat and needs to prove to the DEP that they can operate safely. Here’s what we can so far find about the accident, including the WVDEP’s statement about it…
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Allegheny County | Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation
Bobby Vagt Leaves Heinz, Will Become Chairman of Rice Energy
Looks like Bobby Vagt, current and soon to be former president of the Heinz Endowments, will get the last laugh. Vagt, you may recall, announced his “retirement” as president of the Heinz Endowments in October of last year. It has never been confirmed, but there’s plenty of anecdotal evidence to suggest mommie dearest Teresa Heinz Kerry bounced him out for his participation in helping to form the Center for Sustainable Shale Development (see Bobby Vagt Out as Pres of Heinz Endowments – Fracking Connection?). Momma Teresa never gave Bobby permission to get that cozy with the drilling industry, and that, dear friends, was a no-no for Bobby.
So Bobby is taking off. And where is he going? To become chairman of the board at Rice Energy, once they complete their IPO (see Rice Energy Launches IPO, Hopes to Raise $840M). Bobby is already a wealthy man, but helping to steer the direction of Rice Energy will no doubt make him a lot wealthier. Which is amusing to MDN. You see, Bobby is making his money the old-fashioned way–he’s earning it. Momma Teresa made her money the liberal way–she married it. Here’s the story about Bobby saying bye-bye to Teresa and heading off to (much) greener pastures…
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Crosstex Energy | Devon Energy | Energy Companies | Energy Services | EnLink Midstream | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Processing Plants
Crosstex Energy Gets a Name Change, Merger with Devon Proceeds
In October, Devon Energy (a major shale driller in several plays with midstream assets) and Crosstex Energy (a sizable midstream company) announced they will merge their midstream operations into a new company (see Devon Energy & Crosstex Energy Form New Midstream Company in JV). Both companies have major operations in the Marcellus/Utica. At the time of the announcement the new company was unnamed. No longer. Yesterday Devon and Crosstex announced that Crosstex would change its name to the name of the newly combined venture (which is majority owned by Devon). The new name is EnLink Midstream. Barry Davis, CEO of Crosstex will become (or remain) CEO of EnLink.
May we net-net this? Essentially Devon has purchased Crosstex and turned it into a semi-autonomous subsidiary, keeping the Crosstex management team in place. Here’s the statement issued yesterday with details of the legal structure for the new company, which on paper will be two companies for investment purposes–an LLC and an LP (master limited partnership)…
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Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Range Resources Corp | Regulation | Washington County
Mt. Pleasant Zoning Bd Says Range Water Impoundments in Violation
Starting last August, Range Resources has been in a battle with the board of supervisors for Mt. Pleasant Township in Washington County, PA. The issue, the bone of contention, has been four water impoundments–three of which are for fresh water, essentially ponds (see Range Resources Argues with Mt Pleasant over Water Impoundment). The impoundments were originally used to drill nearby Marcellus Shale wells, several years ago. Since then, Range has continued using them, but now uses them to drill wells that are not nearby, in Mt. Pleasant Township. And the supervisors object.
In December it appeared there was a sliver of good news when the township said Range could proceed with converting one of the impoundments to an above ground enclosed tank impoundment for recycled waste water, subject to certain terms and conditions (see Range Strikes Deal with Mt Pleasant for 1 of 4 Water Impoundments). It now seems that was a bit too optimistic. On Monday the Mt. Pleasant Zoning Hearing Board (different group of people from the board of supervisors) voted unanimously to uphold notices of violation issued by the township’s zoning officer against the four Range impoundments, so here we go again…
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Reminder: Ben Franklin Shale Gas Contest Deadline is Feb 1
MDN previously told you about the Ben Franklin Shale Gas Innovation and Commercialization Center’s $100,000 contest (see 2014 Ben Franklin Shale Gas Contest – $100K in Cash Prizes!). A gentle reminder that the Institute’s deadline to apply to receive one of four $25K prizes for an up-and-coming innovator is quickly approaching–February 1st. Here’s more details from the Institute:
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Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Wed, Jan 15, 2014
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading:
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Broome County | Delaware County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY
Breaking: NY Court Decisions in Binghamton & Sidney Cases
An important development in two New York court cases that potentially impacts shale drilling in the state–and no, neither is (directly) about the Dryden or Middlefield town ban cases currently before New York’s highest court, the Court of Appeals. The two cases we’re referring to are (1) the City of Binghamton and their ill-fated “moratorium” thrown out by a lower court judge in 2012 and subsequently appealed, and (2) a similar moratorium in the Town of Sidney, NY.In the Binghamton case, the appeal of the tossed-out fracking moratorium authored by anti-drilling husband and wife team of David and Helen Slottje has been withdrawn–so that case is now officially ended and the moratorium remains tossed and unenforceable. This is big news with big implications. In the case of Sidney, the judge in that case (different judge from the Binghamton case) issued a decision yesterday, but as of the time we wrote and posted this story, we still do not have a copy of the decision. We’ll post it as soon as we get it. Let’s dive deeper into both cases…
(Important update at the end of this article)
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Rice Energy Launches IPO, Hopes to Raise $840M
MDN told you last month that Marcellus and Utica Shale driller Rice Energy would soon launch an initial public offering (IPO) and start to trade publicly listed stocks (see Impending Rice Energy IPO Creating a Buzz). Rice Energy launched their IPO yesterday. Previous chatter was that the company would receive a valuation of $2.5 billion. That’s not how much the stock offering would generate–but the overall value the market would give to the company (market capitalization, or “market cap”).
Rice, in a statement issued yesterday (see below), announced they have now floated 40 million shares of common stock and hope to get $19-$21 per share (30 million of that for the company, 10 million for an unnamed “selling stockholder”). If that happens, the company and the selling stockholder together will receive $840 million. For comparison, a larger Marcellus/Utica driller, Antero Resources, went public last October and sold over 35 million shares with their IPO and raked in $1.57 billion ($44 per share)! The Antero IPO valued the company at $11 billion. Antero’s IPO did much better than they hoped. Will Rice’s?…
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Bradford County | Energy Services | Greene County (PA) | Industrywide Issues | Lycoming County | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Preston County | PVR Midstream | PVR Partners | West Virginia | Wyoming County (PA)
PVR Partners Marcellus Pipeline Flows Increase 60% in 1 Year
Midstream company PVR Partners issued an update yesterday to brag about their Marcellus operations–and well they should. Average throughput on the PVR “Eastern Midstream Systems” increased 60%, from 1.1 billion cubic feet per day average in December 2012 to 1.8 Bcf/d in December 2013. They also completed a total of 101 well connections in 2013 for the Eastern Midstream area.
PVR’s Eastern Midstream includes operations in Lycoming, Wyoming, Bradford and Greene counties in Pennsylvania, and Preston County in West Virginia. Here’s the full PVR update with more details:
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA
PA Democrat Gov Candidates Support Partial/Full Moratorium
Last night, eight Democrat candidates participated in a forum in Philadelphia, all of them seeking the Democrat nomination for governor to run this November. Pay close attention: Seven of the eight support a shale drilling moratorium–either statewide or in certain parts of the state. This is profoundly bad news if the good citizens of PA are unwise enough to elect one of them to the governorship.
If you want a good idea of the calamity that awaits PA in choosing a Democrat governor, House and Senate, PLEASE read (or re-read) MDN contributor Chris Acker’s article here: Guest Post: Pennsylvania Drilling Moratorium – Good or Bad?. Here’s how it played out last night in Philly with regard to Democrat support for a moratorium on shale drilling:
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2013 Northeast Oil & Gas Award Finalists Announced
Envelope please! And the winners are… sorry, but you’ll have to wait to find out. However, we do have a list of the finalists for the 2013 Northeast Oil & Gas Awards.
Below are the names of the finalists, and details about the awards ceremony being held on March 20 in Pittsburgh (MDN will be there!)…
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Belmont County | Blue Racer Midstream | Economic Impact | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Marshall County | Ohio | Ohio County | Pipelines | Processing Plants | West Virginia | Williams
Utica/Marcellus Construction Spending Rockets in Wheeling Area
According to McGraw Hill Construction, the Wheeling, WV Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes Ohio and Marshall counties in WV and Belmont County in Ohio, saw construction explode from $60.3 million in 2012 to $1.57 billion in 2013–a 29-fold increase. The vast majority of that explosion in construction came from–you guessed it–the Marcellus and Utica Shale. Midstream companies Williams and Blue Racer spent the majority of that on new processing plants and pipelines in the area.
This is incredibly good news for that area of the Ohio Valley. The even better news? Ironworkers Local No. 549 predicts this kind of spending by the drilling industry will go on for at least another 5-10 years. Wow!…
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Fracking Finally on the Way in Virginia? Maybe Yes, Maybe No
An article out of Virginia caught our eye, about the potential for drilling and fracking in Virginia, which has so far been pretty devoid of horizontal drilling and high volume fracking. In reading the article it was like rewinding the tape and hearing the same concerns and arguments we heard 2-3 years ago in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia. Funny how the same things keep coming around again and again. Folks who watch HBO and Gasland get stirred up and are understandably concerned, afraid their water supplies will become contaminated with nasty chemicals from fracking–which of course has never happened…anywhere. But still, people have to read and understand and become comfortable with an unfamiliar-to-them process.
The article from Virginia was about potential drilling perhaps a year off–in an area that’s not the Marcellus Shale. The focus of the article–and the potential drilling that will take place–is the Taylorsville Basin along the eastern/central part of the state, around Caroline County, VA. Even though there’s no Marcellus or Utica anywhere in that area, the article still has implications for shale drilling that may one day happen along the western edges of Virginia where there is Marcellus acreage. The implications? Republican state lawmakers seem a bit too eager to introduce legislation that bans fracking in water aquifers–legislation that may have a spillover effect in other areas of the state, including the Marcellus…
Read More “Fracking Finally on the Way in Virginia? Maybe Yes, Maybe No”
An important development in two New York court cases that potentially impacts shale drilling in the state–and no, neither is (directly) about the Dryden or Middlefield town ban cases currently before New York’s highest court, the Court of Appeals. The two cases we’re referring to are (1) the City of Binghamton and their ill-fated “moratorium” thrown out by a lower court judge in 2012 and subsequently appealed, and (2) a similar moratorium in the Town of Sidney, NY.