Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Tue, Dec 3, 2013
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading:
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Carroll County | Economic Impact | Harrison County | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale
Meet Ohio’s New Utica Millionaires – Hundreds of Them
As part of a story about the Morgan County (OH) Landowner Group, or MCLG (see our companion story today), near the end of the story we get this short mention which, although an “off-hand” comment, comes as a startling thunderclap to MDN about the sheer number of millionaires created by the Utica Shale (i.e. “shaleonaires”):
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Morgan County, OH Looks to Join the Utica Shale Well Club
So far Morgan County, OH (south of Muskingum County, west of Noble County) has been quiet with respect to Utica Shale drilling. We’ve heard nothing. However, in November, Petroleum Development Corporation (PDC) obtained three Utica Shale permits in Center Township, Morgan County. Depending on the results of those three wells, more may be on the way.
In addition to the first three Utica wells to be drilled in Morgan by PDC, another surprise (to MDN): There’s a landowner group in Morgan County we were not aware of–the Morgan County Landowner Group (MCLG)–which incorporated as a non-profit in 2012 and already has 60,000+ acres…
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Coast Guard Wants Frack Wastewater Barges Tested – Every Load
In late October MDN told you the good news that the U.S. Coast Guard has green lighted barge shipments of frack wastewater–good news for GreenHunter and their multiple barge facilities along the Ohio River (see Coast Guard Green Lights Barge Transport of Frack Wastewater). At the time the Coast Guard published their draft rules for a 30-day comment period. Those 30 days have come and gone as of last Friday, but still no official date for when barge shipments for frack wastewater will begin.
However, from an article published by the reliably anti-drilling StateImpact Pennsylvania (NPR), we do find out that every shipment of frack wastewater via barge will first have to be analyzed by a state accredited laboratory before it can leave the dock. Why? Frack wastewater is not uniform–each batch varies in the chemical compounds found in that batch. The Coast Guard intends to keep a close eye on it. Of course analyzing every load will add a lot of time and expense to the process, but this precaution will reassure reasonable people that barge shipments of frack wastewater is safe…
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Lies, Damn Lies…and NY State Polls on Fracking
Last week MDN brought you the news that the Marist College poll shows a slight change of public opinion in New York State with respect to whether or not the state should allow shale drilling/fracking (see Latest Marist NY Poll Shows Slight Increase in Frack Opposition). The Marist poll showed, roughly, 37% favor fracking, 47% oppose it, and 16% are clueless. The day after the Marist poll was issued, Quinnipiac University issued their poll. Because the wording is slightly different, the Quinnipiac Poll found New Yorkers are more evenly split: 44% support fracking, 46% oppose it and just 10% are clueless.
Which just goes to show the immortal words of Mark Twain are as true today as they were more than 100 years ago. Here’s the detailed poll results from the latest Q poll…
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Economic Impact | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | NGLs | Pipelines | Processing Plants | Williams
Williams Spending $20B (!) on Marcellus/Utica Infrastructure Next 5 Years
MDN released Volume 2 of the 2013 Marcellus and Utica Shale Databook in October. Volume 2 contains one of MDN’s proudest achievements: a comprehensive list of midstream/infrastructure projects either on the boards or already under way in the Marcellus and Utica Shale region. Cumulatively the projects represent a mind-blowing $40 billion investment (see MDN’s 2013 Databook Vol 2 Finds Staggering $40B in NE Midstream Projects).
Although when we released Databook Vol. 2 we thought trumpeting our findings of $40 billion in investment may sound exaggerated and overblown to some, little did we know we may have underestimated the number! An article appearing in Tulsa World says a single company–Williams–has committed to spending $20 billion on Marcellus and Utica infrastructure (pipelines and processing plants) over the next five years. One company! Such numbers makes our jaw hit the floor…
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Some Icebergs are Flammable! Does Josh Fox Know?
Hey Josh, this one is sure to land you an Emmy… head on up to the North Pole and light an entire iceberg on fire! Quit faffing around with a little water tap and go for the thing that’s sure to put your fading name in lights forever. Just one problem Josh, you don’t have to frack the ice in order to get the methane out. Bummer, dude.
We’re referring, tongue-in-cheek, to the serious news that methane is hiding–it’s hiding inside ice crystals at the bottom of the ocean and under the Arctic permafrost. And wonder of wonders, in the next 5-10 years the technology will be available to retrieve that ice-bound methane–enough methane to make shale supplies look like a thimbleful. It likely will not be economically feasible for the U.S. to go after these “methane hydrates” in ice since we have cheap, abundant natural gas all around us that can be safely fracked, but for countries like Japan and India without their own sources of natural gas, this may be the answer to their energy prayers–especially since we seem to be reluctant to export any of our shale gas to them…
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Waterless Fracker ecorpStim (Mis)Uses Newsjacking for Attention
MDN has followed eCORP Stimulation Technologies (“ecorpStim”) for some time now with interest (see our previous stories about eCORP here). ecorpStim has pioneered a waterless fracking technology that uses pure propane–supposedly non-flammable and very safe. We applaud their inventiveness and their tenacity it trying to catch attention for their technology–a technology that costs a lot more than water-based fracking.
What we’re a bit unsettled by, though, is the way they’ve taken to newsjacking. What’s newsjacking, you say? It’s a recent trend in marketing of issuing a press release or otherwise injecting your company (or yourself) into a prominent news story not about you or your company in order to capture attention for you or your company. ecorpStim has been doing that lately. And the way they do it makes you think the big news story is perhaps about their company–when it isn’t. Two cases in point…
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Calendar of Events for Dec 2-15, 2013 [Free]
Below are upcoming events for this week and next.
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Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Mon, Dec 2, 2013
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading:
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Latest Marist NY Poll Shows Slight Increase in Frack Opposition
A new public opinion poll of New Yorkers was released yesterday by the Wall Street Journal/NBC 4 New York/Marist College. Among the questions asked was this one: “Hydrofracking is a process of splitting rocks underground to remove natural gas. From what you have read or heard, do you generally support or oppose hydrofracking in New York State at the Marcellus Shale?” For years the answers have been roughly even, about 40% for, 40% against and 20% clueless.This latest NY poll shows the following statewide average: 37% support fracking, 47% oppose it, and 16% are clueless/unsure. So, a few more of the unsure people have now become sure and it’s breaking against fracking, maybe a few who used to support it no longer do, and those who were against it remain ideologically rigid and impervious to overwhelming evidence that fracking is safe (i.e. willfully stupid). End result: a few more are now in the opposition column. However, it’s when you dig into the numbers and the breakdowns by party, political philosophy, gender and geography that it becomes interesting…
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P&G’s Only Energy Self-Sufficient Plant is Powered by Marcellus
Consumer goods behemoth Procter & Gamble (P&G) has 150 manufacturing plants worldwide that make things like Pampers diapers, Charmin toilet paper and Bounty paper towels. Only one of those 150 P&G manufacturing plants is 100% energy self-sufficient–providing all of its own massive energy needs without the need to tap into the local utility grid. Can you guess where it’s located? The 100% energy self-sufficient P&G plant is in Mehoopany (Wyoming County), PA, near Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. The P&G plant in Mehoopany is powered exclusively by Marcellus Shale gas drilled right on P&G’s own property! In fact, P&G is producing so much electricity by using Marcellus gas that they sell electricity back to the local utility grid–enough electricity to power 20,000 homes! What a tremendously proud, feel-good moment this is.
Northeast PA is showing the world how shale gas is making the U.S. energy independent. Bye bye tinpot dictators in the Middle East who hate our guts! Bye bye messy wars to keep oil flowing. Hello home-grown energy, home-grown jobs and home-grown economic prosperity. Here’s the P&G feel-good story that will keep you smiling while you eat turkey tomorrow…
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Ohio | Patriot Water Treatment | Regulation | Trumbull County | Wastewater
OH Court Tells ODNR: Turn Over Emails in Patriot Water Lawsuit
Patriot Water Treatment of Warren, OH has had a long-running feud with the Ohio EPA and Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR)–a feud that goes all the way back to 2011 (see MDN’s string of Patriot Water stories here). Patriot processes frack wastewater at it’s Warren plant and then disposes of the wastewater by using the local Warren municipal sewage treatment plant. That is, Patriot strips out all of the really nasty stuff, and then the sewage plant finishes off the process and the water is then released into the Mahoning River, near Youngstown.
The OH EPA and ODNR pulled Patriot’s permits to operate for a four-month period in 2012, but Patriot sued and won the right to continue operating (and sending their wastewater to the sewage plant). In relation to the shut-down, Patriot is suing for damages and the ODNR has not been altogether forthcoming with emails and paperwork requested by Patriot as part of the lawsuit. So the OH District Court of Appeals told the ODNR yesterday to comply, or else…
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Chief Oil & Gas | Clarion County | Electrical Generation | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Greene County (PA) | IMG Midstream | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide WV | Susquehanna County | West Virginia | Wyoming County (PA)
4 Electric Plants Coming to NE PA, Powered by Marcellus Gas
In August MDN told you the news that Chief Oil & Gas has struck up a deal with IMG Midstream (sort of misnamed, IMG is not a pipeline company) to provide IMG with Marcellus Shale gas to power several small regional, super efficient and low-polluting electric generation plants they plan to build in northeastern Pennsylvania (see Chief Strikes Deal to Provide Marcellus Gas for Electric Plants). We have good news: projects to build those plants are moving forward with all due speed.
We now know that there are four plants planned for Pennsylvania and one for West Virginia. We also know where those plants will be built…
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OH’s Largest School District Gets $1M+ from Lease Bonuses
Ohio’s largest school district (geographically speaking), the Switzerland of Ohio Local Schools in eastern Ohio, has raked in over $1 million so far from Marcellus/Utica Shale drilling deals. It’s located in some of the best drilling spots in the Ohio Utica (Monroe/Belmont/Noble counties). Even so, the school is headed for “devastating cuts” according to the school treasurer, due to a collapse in enrollment over the last 20 years.
The money received so far from shale deals is from lease payments, not royalties. Will the school district go on over the fiscal cliff? Or will shale royalties come along in time to save the day? School officials are not sure…
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Obama’s Warming Cultists Raise “Social Cost of Carbon” Number
Just boggles the mind. Make up some cockamamie, pretend number, call it the “social cost of carbon” and proceed to use it as if it’s real science with real data behind it so you can justify unilaterally implementing Communistic regulations to control every aspect of
slaves’citizens’ lives. That sums up the actions of the Obama administration and their so-called justification in raising the rate of the “social cost of carbon” from $21 per metric ton to $35 per ton. Oh, and issue a white paper with a bunch of fake numbers to give it the veneer of legitimacy (check! that’s now done too).Feels like Alice going through the Looking Glass. Are there no real scientists with the intestinal fortitude to stand up and tell Obama and his warmist cult followers, “You have no clothes on this issue, Mr. Emperor”? The Hill reports on this latest Obama scam/power grab:
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As part of a story about the Morgan County (OH) Landowner Group, or MCLG (see our companion story today), near the end of the story we get this short mention which, although an “off-hand” comment, comes as a startling thunderclap to MDN about the sheer number of millionaires created by the Utica Shale (i.e. “shaleonaires”):
A new public opinion poll of New Yorkers was released yesterday by the Wall Street Journal/NBC 4 New York/Marist College. Among the questions asked was this one: “Hydrofracking is a process of splitting rocks underground to remove natural gas. From what you have read or heard, do you generally support or oppose hydrofracking in New York State at the Marcellus Shale?” For years the answers have been roughly even, about 40% for, 40% against and 20% clueless.