• | | |

    PA Rural Residents Burn Marcellus Gas, Save Big Bucks on Heating

    One of the conundrums of shale gas drilling in the Marcellus and Utica Shale is that the places where the gas is drilled and extracted are largely rural–places like Susquehanna County, PA, in the northeastern part of the state. The entire county has 43,000 residents (11,700 families). The largest “city” in Susquehanna County is the county seat of Montrose, population 1,600 (750 households). It’s just not all that economical to run natural gas pipelines to homes around the county–even though residents live atop an embarrassing riches of natural gas. One company, Leatherstocking Natural Gas, changed all that last year when they started to run pipelines to residences and businesses around Montrose.

    This winter, one local business owner (an auto mechanic’s shop) now heating with natural gas, responded to his new fuel source this way: “Before when you were here, you asked if I was going to save money [by heating with natural gas]. I said ‘I sure as hell hope so.’ Well, I sure as hell am, let me tell you.” That about sums up the change from heating with oil to heating with home-grown, cheap and abundant Marcellus shale gas…
    Read More “PA Rural Residents Burn Marcellus Gas, Save Big Bucks on Heating”

  • | |

    Important Conference on Clean Fracking…in Houston

    MDN does not usually promote events outside of the northeast because our focus is on the Marcellus and Utica Shale. But sometimes an event comes along outside of the Marcellus/Utica orbit that’s worth promoting and calling attention to. The Clean Frac’ing Conference 2 being held in Houston, TX next week (Feb. 17-18) is one of those events. MDN is happy to partner with the organizers of Clean Frac’ing 2 to put the word out. We have many faithful readers in the Houston area–so we want to make them aware of this top notch event which addresses the timely topic of making fracking cleaner and greener. Yes, there is room for improvement with fracking technology, and yes, it’s rapidly becoming even better than it was yesteryear. We applaud conferences like this one for tackling a tough issue head-on.

    Incidentally, one of MDN’s favorite industry friends–George Stark from Cabot Oil & Gas (a big Marcellus driller in northeast PA)–will be presenting at Clean Frac’ing 2. Tell George MDN says hello if you spot him. Below is a press release from the conference organizer which gives you a good overview of the event…
    Read More “Important Conference on Clean Fracking…in Houston”

  • |

    Ben Franklin Shale Gas Center Wins a Prize Itself – $750K

    For the third year running, the Ben Franklin Technology Partners Shale Gas Innovation & Commercialization Center (SGICC) holds a contest for newly-launched small businesses with innovative products or services for the Marcellus Shale drilling industry (see 2014 Ben Franklin Shale Gas Contest – $100K in Cash Prizes!). The deadline to apply for this year was Feb. 1, and after an extensive review process, four winners of $25,000 prizes will be announced on May 15 in Pittsburgh. You might say four awards totaling $100K isn’t much, but thanks to a grant from the State of Pennsylvania, the SGICC is about to help far more than four companies at a time.

    Yesterday the Secretary of the PA Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) visited State College, PA to confer a $750,000 grant on the SGICC. There are many worthy upstart companies each year that can use a small economic boost to bring their new idea/technology to market. The SGICC will use the new grant money to do just that by in turn making small grants themselves–with an important string attached. The recipient company must match the grant with their own 1-to-1 matching investment. If the SGICC awards a grant of $20,000, the company receiving it must match it with their own $20,000. SGICC has already made their first grant, in Punxsutawney…
    Read More “Ben Franklin Shale Gas Center Wins a Prize Itself – $750K”

  • |

    Are Exports to Blame for High Propane Prices?

    what's the dealWhat’s the deal with propane prices? MDN previously pointed out lack of storage in the northeast because of NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s dallying on a decision to allow a new storage facility near Seneca Lake has contributed to rising propane prices (see Northeast Propane Shortage – Andrew Cuomo Partially to Blame). Although Gov. Can’t-Make-a-Decision is partially to blame, so too is the brutally cold (and long) winter we’re experiencing–a winter that casts serious doubt on the notion of man-made global warming.

    But there is a possible third reason why propane prices have gone up: exports. U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) data shows both a record volume of propane being produced, and a record volume being exported out of the country…
    Read More “Are Exports to Blame for High Propane Prices?”

  • | | | | |

    Village in Belmont County Signs Lease with Gulfport: $7250/Acre

    Bellaire is a small village in Belmont County, OH, near the border with West Virginia. Although Bellaire is small (population 4,300), as the old saying goes, location is everything. It just so happens Bellaire sits atop wet gas Utica Shale deposits and drillers in the area want to lease. So Bellaire officials last week signed a contract with Gulfport Energy for a “piddly” 66 acres of village-owned land scattered throughout the town. Just like another deal recently signed by Gulfport with the Shadyside Local School District, Bellaire is getting $7,250 per acre signing bonus and 20% royalties (see School in Belmont County, OH Gets $7,250/Acre from Gulfport).

    The taxpayers of Bellaire will appreciate a $478,500 bonus check coming their way for the village coffers…
    Read More “Village in Belmont County Signs Lease with Gulfport: $7250/Acre”

  • |

    Antero’s Utica Numbers Mostly Peaches & Cream, Except Condensate

    Last week MDN told you about the steep increase in proved and unproved reserves for Antero Resources–particularly in the Utica Shale (see Antero 2013: 124 Marcellus/Utica Wells Drilled, Reserves Skyrocket). While the news for Antero has been fabulous over the past year or more (including a very successful IPO last year), there is one bit of not-so-good news for the company. The eagle eye of energy analyst Richard Zeits noticed that one metric for Antero went down, not up–the EUR numbers for Utica condensate. EUR is, of course, Estimated Ultimate Recovery–the amount of gas (or in this case condensate or “natural gasoline”) that will ultimately be recovered from their wells.

    In his inimitable style, Zeits analyzes the recent announcement by Antero, providing us with a balanced perspective on this fast-growing Marcellus/Utica driller and the dip in their EUR numbers for condensate:
    Read More “Antero’s Utica Numbers Mostly Peaches & Cream, Except Condensate”

  • | | | | | |

    CSSD’s Andrew Place Talks About 3-Leg Approaches & Firehoses

    Eckert Seamans, the Pittsburgh, PA energy law firm that employs the former PA Sec. of Environmental Protection (and pot smoking proponent running for governor) John Hanger, hosted a morning breakfast meeting last Friday in Southpointe to discuss “responsible shale development.” Er, has it been *irresponsible* thus far? At any rate, three speakers were on the agenda for the breakfast conclave, one of whom was EQT’s Andrew Place–the interim and outgoing director of the Center for Sustainable Shale Development, or CSSD (see Center for Sustainable Shale Comes Roaring Back (to Life)).

    According to Place, the CSSD takes a “three-leg approach” to the shale drilling issue. And although the public has heard virtually nothing from the CSSD since it’s founding until a few weeks ago when it came roaring back, Place said it’s been a nonstop “firehose” of activity over at CSSD HQ. From the breakfast meeting (that curiously didn’t include Hanger on the speaker’s dias), here’s more on Andrew Place’s comments:
    Read More “CSSD’s Andrew Place Talks About 3-Leg Approaches & Firehoses”

  • | | | | | |

    ‘Noise Solutions’ for Drilling/Compressor Plants Locates in NWPA

    Here’s a feel good supply chain story. A privately held Canadian company that in 1997 innovated a way to make industrial operations–like noisy compressor plants–quieter, wanted to build a manufacturing plant here in the U.S.–near the oil and gas industry that will use their innovative products. So where did Scott MacDonald, president and CEO of Noise Solutions, look? The northeast of course–Marcellus and Utica territory. He considered New York, but the taxes are way too high and the shale drilling non-existent. He also considered West Virginia and Ohio, which were good choices. But MacDonald settled on Sharon (Mercer County), PA as the new home for a plant that already employs 35 people and is on it’s way to employing 125 or more.

    MacDonald and Noise Solutions will spend $5 million to renovate the former Winner International warehouse where the company chose to set up shop. That investment along with the ripple effect of full-time employees paying local and state taxes (and spending much of their paychecks in the local community) gives Sharon a big “economic stimulus” courtesy of this Canadian company. Here’s more about Noise Solutions and their new operation in Sharon, PA…
    Read More “‘Noise Solutions’ for Drilling/Compressor Plants Locates in NWPA”

  • | | | | | | |

    PA’s Long-Lived Marcellus Renaissance Can’t be Denied, Even by NY

    Judging by the stories we’re now seeing, must be Gov. Cuomo’s internal poll numbers are a lot worse than we thought. So bad that his buddies at Gannett need to try and prop him up by rewriting current history. Get this, the headline for a story in the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin actually attempts to make the claim that the economic miracle happening right across our border in PA…isn’t actually happening! Talk about chutzpah. “Pay no attention to all of those jobs–all of that money–all of the new tax revenue. None of it’s real. It’s all a flash in the pan. Here today, gone tomorrow.”

    Wow. We guess you can fool some of the people all of the time, going by the PSB’s propaganda…
    Read More “PA’s Long-Lived Marcellus Renaissance Can’t be Denied, Even by NY”

  • | |

    In the Year 2020, if the Utica Shale is Still Alive…

    Remember the classic Zager & Evans hit song from 1969, “In the Year 2525“? Yeah, brings back memories. (Our headline is a nod to that classic hit.) Let’s dial those numbers back just a bit to say, 2020. A conference organized by the Tuscarawas (OH) Oil and Gas Association, recently held on the Tuscarawas campus of Kent State University, tackled the question: What will the Utica shale region look like by the year 2020?

    Some interesting opinions were shared about Ohio’s Utica future by local and state officials along with representatives from the business sector. Energy in Depth’s Shawn Bennett served as moderator:
    Read More “In the Year 2020, if the Utica Shale is Still Alive…”

  • | | | | | | |

    Utica Shale Bails Monroe County out of Potential Hole

    Ormet, an aluminum plant in Hannibal (Monroe County), OH is the county’s largest employer with 700 people working at the plant. Ormet officials shut the plant down last October claiming they couldn’t get a reasonable agreement on reducing high electric rates for the plant. That’s 700 people out on the street, looking for jobs (see Ormet Workers Rally At AEP). But what’s this? Monroe County Auditor Pandora Neuhart and County Treasurer Judy Gramlich are not worried about sales tax revenues in the county taking a hit from all of those unemployed workers. Why? Because Utica Shale drilling has taken off in the county and tax revenues from drilling are starting to flow in.

    New Utica drilling revenue is not jump-up-and-down good news for the displaced Ormet workers (that situation needs urgent attention by Gov. Kasich), but the new Utica revenue is a good sign that regular county operations will not be adversely affected by the Ormet layoffs. Thank you Utica Shale! An update on Utica drilling in Monroe County, and how the now bankrupt Ormet is profiting from it (with wells on their property)…
    Read More “Utica Shale Bails Monroe County out of Potential Hole”

  • | | | |

    Chesapeake: My Rig’s Better than Your Rig, Cuts Capex Another 20%

    My Dog's Bigger than Your DogThe executives at Chesapeake are channeling the boastful ghost of Aubrey McClendon. Yesterday Chesapeake released its 2014 Outlook and capital program. The big news is they will spend 20% less on drilling and related activities this year. The Utica Shale remains one of the most important plays in their portfolio. Apparently in an attempt to dress up the 20% decrease in spending as a good thing, unnamed Chesapeake executives made this boast: “Chesapeake said it expects to operate seven to nine drilling rigs in its Utica shale properties this year, saying that is the equivalent of a 20-rig operation by competitors.” Which made us laugh out loud. “Hey, our 7-9 rigs are worth 20 of anybody else’s.” OK. Must be nice to have an inside track on how to repeal the laws of physics over at Chessy HQ. Maybe they should patent it! Anywho…

    Below is the Chesapeake announcement from yesterday with some fairly detailed information about where they plan to drill in 2014, and how much they think they’ll produce. Liquids (NGLs in the Utica, oil in other plays) are a big focus for Chessy this year. There’s a lot more money in liquids–and boss man Carl Icahn likes that. Below the Chesapeake announcement is a bit of analysis from the Akron Beacon Journal, from which we took the “our rigs are better than your rigs” quote…
    Read More “Chesapeake: My Rig’s Better than Your Rig, Cuts Capex Another 20%”

  • | | | |

    NPGA Asks FERC to Reverse Flow of ATEX Pipeline & Pump Propane

    There is a serious, some would say “dangerous” shortage of propane in the northeast, for a number of reasons. The ongoing, brutally cold winter is partially to blame (oh global warming, where are thou? we need thee now!). In what appears to MDN to be a case of sour grapes, the National Propane Gas Association (NPGA), representing some 3,200 propane companies, has asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to force the brand new Appalachia to Texas (ATEX) pipeline to quite pumping ethane from the Utica/Marcellus to Gulf Coast and instead reverse the flow and pump propane from the Gulf to the northeast citing the propane shortage as the reason.

    Well, it is an emergency, right? Why do we say sour grapes? Because part of the newly online ATEX was an existing pipeline that used to flow south to north and carry (you guessed it)–propane. The NPGA and its members opposed losing that capacity and challenged Enterprise Product Partners, the builder of the ATEX, in court. They lost. So it appears they’re using the current “crisis,” which is partially brought on by high demand from the cold and partially lack of storage capacity, which is the fault of NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo, as an excuse to get the pipeline turned around, at least for a period of time…
    Read More “NPGA Asks FERC to Reverse Flow of ATEX Pipeline & Pump Propane”