Marcellus Drilling News

Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Regulation | Transco

Anti-Drillers Try to Slow New Transco Pipeline Near Princeton, NJ
October 30, 2013October 30, 2013

Several so-called environmental groups, including the odious Food & Water Watch, have filed a notice of intervention with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in an attempt to stop Transco from building 1.3 miles of new natural gas pipeline near Princeton, NJ.

FERC now has to review the objection and render a decision, a process that will further delay the project, which of course is the intent…
Read More “Anti-Drillers Try to Slow New Transco Pipeline Near Princeton, NJ”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation | Research

Congressional Research Service Issues Updated Report on Fracking
October 30, 2013October 30, 2013

From time to time our brilliant leaders in Washington need an update on a given topic, a “Cliff Notes” summary they can scan to supposedly bring themselves up to date on a given weighty and pressing issue. Where do they turn? To their very own Congressional Research Service, of course. The CRS has been producing reports for, well, as long as there’s been a CRS (predating MDN’s Jim Willis’ time on Capitol Hill in the 1980s). Last week an updated report was issued by the CRS titled “Hydraulic Fracturing: Selected Legal Issues” (full copy embedded below). The previous version of the very same report, R43152, was issued in July (see New Congressional Report: How Federal Laws Govern Fracking).

Since these reports only get created and issued when requested by a member of Congress, we’re guessing someone requested an update. Which makes us nervous because the federal government should have NO role in the regulation of fracking (Constitutionally it belongs to the individual states, not the federal government). We don’t know what may have changed between July and today, but we include the new version of the report below for your reading and scanning pleasure…
Read More “Congressional Research Service Issues Updated Report on Fracking”
Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Wed, Oct 30, 2013
October 30, 2013October 31, 2013

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: Wed, Oct 30, 2013”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

When Will We Know if NY Will See Fracking? June 2014
October 29, 2013

A question MDN is frequently asked… Q: When will the issue of fracking in New York State really and truly be decided–and by whom? A: June 2014, by the NY Court of Appeals. “Not by Gov. Cuomo?” you ask. Nope. He’ll come around, eventually. The real issue has always been whether or not entire towns can ban fracking based on the vote of 3 or 4 people who sit on a town board–a vote that denies every citizen in that town their Constitutional private property rights. Two cases now before the New York Court of Appeals will decide the issue once and for all.

Thanks to the lead attorney for one of those cases–Scott Kurkoski, attorney for the “Middlefield” case–we now have insight into how and when this will all progress from now through June of next year. It started yesterday when briefs were filed by Kurkoski (for Middlefield) and by Albany-area attorney Tom West (for the “Dryden” case) with the Court of Appeals…
Read More “When Will We Know if NY Will See Fracking? June 2014”
CONSOL Energy | Economic Impact | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

CONSOL Sells More Coal Mines, Investing $24B(!) in Shale Drilling
October 29, 2013October 29, 2013

CONSOL Energy continues what seems to be its inevitable transformation from being a coal mining company to being a natural gas drilling company. The federal government (EPA) is killing the coal industry by killing electric power generating plants that run on coal with onerous new “pollution” standards. It is intentional–Obama’s EPA wants to kill coal. CONSOL is feeling the heat–losing more and more customers for their coal. And so CONSOL has announced they’re selling five more of their coal mines located in West Virginia and Pennsylvania and using the money to expand their natural gas drilling operation.

In fact, CONSOL says it plans to invest an eye-popping $24 billion in West Virginia and Pennsylvania natural gas drilling over the next 10 years. By comparison, MDN found in the most recent volume of the Marcellus and Utica Shale Databook that announced midstream infrastructure projects in the northeast add up to a $40 billion investment. CONSOL, a single driller, will spend more than half that amount on new drilling alone! These are truly staggering numbers and very good news for the states involved. Too bad New York (where MDN is located) is seeing NONE of this investment…
Read More “CONSOL Sells More Coal Mines, Investing $24B(!) in Shale Drilling”
Economic Impact | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Hilcorp Energy | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Mahoning County | NGLs | NiSource | Ohio | Pennant Midstream | Pipelines | Processing Plants | Utica Shale

OH Gov. Kasich Dedicates Hickory Bend Plant, No Foreigners Found
October 29, 2013October 29, 2013

Ohio Gov. John Kasich was on hand yesterday for a ceremonial ribbon cutting for the Hickory Bend cryogenic processing plant in Mahoning County, OH. Pennant Midstream, a joint venture of NiSource and Hilcorp’s Harvest Pipeline subsidiary, dedicated the plant by inviting Kasich and a number of state and local officials. The Hickory Bend processing plant separates natural gas liquids (NGLs or “wet gas”) from methane (or “dry gas”). It has been up and running since summer, however, it won’t begin shipping separated NGLs to the M3 Momentum fractionation plant in Kensington until December. Hickory Bend is also a network of 55 miles of wet gas gathering pipelines in the region.

Gov. Kasich had plenty to say as he dedicated the plant. In typical fashion he was there sniffing out “foreigners” and was happy to pronounce he didn’t find any. (For an example of Kasich’s obsession with “foreigners”–i.e. out of state workers–see OH Gov. Kasich Goes Foreigner-Hunting in Strasburg.) Kasich also dissed Pennsylvania in his comments. A handful of protesters were on hand for the ceremony, bleating about methane migration, but they were far enough away that nobody heard them…
Read More “OH Gov. Kasich Dedicates Hickory Bend Plant, No Foreigners Found”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Warren County | Wastewater

CWA Sues/Accuses Waste Treatment Corp of Continued Shale Pollution
October 29, 2013October 29, 2013

Is a municipal waste treatment facility in Warren County, PA (northwestern part of the state) still accepting and treating Marcellus Shale frack wastewater that is polluting the Allegheny River? That is the very serious charge made in a federal lawsuit filed yesterday by the radical anti-drilling organization Clean Water Action (CWA). Waste Treatment Corporation’s facility near Warren was supposed to have stopped receiving frack wastewater from Marcellus Shale drilling in May 2011, after a deal was made with then-Dept. of Environmental Protection Secretary Michael Krancer (see PA DEP, Marcellus Shale Coalition Admit Drilling Wastewater Likely Contaminating Drinking Water). According to CWA, Waste Treatment continues to accept Marcellus frack wastewater, process it and dump it into the Allegheny, thereby polluting it. The Allegheny is the source of drinking water for Pittsburgh and other municipalities.

The CWA also charges that the PA DEP knows about said dumping and is sitting on its hands, attempting to work out a new deal rather than shut the plant down or otherwise pull their permits to get them to stop…
Read More “CWA Sues/Accuses Waste Treatment Corp of Continued Shale Pollution”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Cornell Prof Tony Ingraffea Learns a New Skill: Cut & Paste
October 29, 2013October 29, 2013

Cornell professor Anthony (Tony) Ingraffea is very talented. Ingraffea is not only an erstwhile stand-up comic (see Cornell Hydraulic Fracturing Expert Headlines First Meeting of New York Residents Against Drilling (NYRAD) in Vestal, NY) and fictional report writer (see Howarth, Ingraffea Shale Gas Study on Global Warming Discredited by U.S. Department of Energy), he’s now added another new skill to his towering intellectual quiver. Tony has learned how to cut & paste in Microsoft Word! Yes, it’s a real resume enhancer.

Our entertaining Cornell prof thought he would get away with cutting and pasting his own previously published “exclusive” editorial for the New York Times by sending it off to flyover country where he didn’t think the hicks would notice. Tony sent essentially the same column to Wyoming previously published in the NYT. However, the hicks noticed…
Read More “Cornell Prof Tony Ingraffea Learns a New Skill: Cut & Paste”
Accidents | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | MarkWest Energy | Ohio County | Pipelines | West Virginia

MarkWest Pipeline Construction in WV Destroys Nearby House
October 29, 2013October 29, 2013

Sad and unusual: MarkWest Energy was drilling near a home in Valley Grove (Ohio County), WV to install a pipeline when drilling mud and water found its way into an abandoned water well and then up into the basement of the home of Becky and John Wieczorkowski. The drilling mud/water damaged the home, likely beyond repair, by moving it off its foundation.

Apparently MarkWest was not aware of the uncased, abandoned well that sat beneath the Wieczorkowski’s home. It does not appear to be a case of negligence on the part of MarkWest, but of ignorance. MarkWest is making it right for the homeowners and investigating to see what went wrong…
Read More “MarkWest Pipeline Construction in WV Destroys Nearby House”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Research

EIA Admission: Rig Counts No Longer Predict Production
October 29, 2013October 29, 2013

Last week the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released their very first Drilling Productivity Report, or DPR (for a copy, see New EIA Drilling Productivity Report: Marcellus Passes 12 Bcf/d!). Yesterday the EIA posted on their Today in Energy blog a bit more of their thinking/rationale for developing the DPR.

And what, you may ask, is the reason the EIA developed yet another report like the DPR for the energy information-addicted (like MDN) to consume? They developed it precisely for the same reason MDN has been trumpeting for nearly two years now: Rig counts are no longer a reliable predictor of production, as they once were. Here’s yesterday’s EIA post that talks about “rethinking” rig counts, and the new DPR…
Read More “EIA Admission: Rig Counts No Longer Predict Production”
Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Tue, Oct 29, 2013
October 29, 2013October 29, 2013

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: Tue, Oct 29, 2013”
Allegheny County | Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

She Speaks! Teresa Heinz Kerry Talks re Endowments Firings, CSSD
October 28, 2013October 28, 2013

The autocratic tendencies of liberals are amusing (and scary) to watch. Case in point: Teresa Heinz Kerry, chairwoman of the Heinz Endowments. Kerry finally addressed the issue of the Heinz Endowments firing three high profile employees, including the Endowments’ president Bobby Vagt (see Bobby Vagt Out as Pres of Heinz Endowments – Fracking Connection?).

While refusing to be completely forthcoming, Kerry was forthcoming enough to confirm what we already suspected: the Heinz boys and mommy dearest didn’t like the Endowments getting into bed with the Center for Sustainable Shale Development (CSSD). Pay close attention to what Kerry does and does not say in the following article. MDN snarky commentary included [in brackets]…
Read More “She Speaks! Teresa Heinz Kerry Talks re Endowments Firings, CSSD”
Chesapeake Energy | Chevron | Energy Companies | Ohio County | West Virginia

Chevron Transfers 1,500 Acres of Leases to Chesapeake in WV
October 28, 2013October 28, 2013

The wheeling and dealing with gas leases in the Utica (and Marcellus) seems to be far from over. Last week MDN broke the news that Aubrey McClendon’s new company had picked up 24,650 acres from from SWEPI (Shell) in the Utica Shale in Guernsey County, OH (see Exclusive: McClendon Buys 24K Acres of SWEPI Leases in OH Utica). Now comes news that Chevron has sold 1,500 acres of leases in Ohio County, WV to Chesapeake Energy.

Here are the details, including the names of landowners whose leases were transferred…
Read More “Chevron Transfers 1,500 Acres of Leases to Chesapeake in WV”
Economic Impact | Guest Post | Industrywide Issues

Marcellus in Perspective – 5th Largest Natgas Producing “Country”
October 28, 2013October 28, 2013

Last week MDN told you about the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s finding that Marcellus Shale production had passed 12 billion cubic per day (Bcf/d), a full two years ahead of predictions made by Penn State’s Terry Engelder (see New EIA Drilling Productivity Report: Marcellus Passes 12 Bcf/d!). MDN friend and prolific story idea/link contributor Chris Acker, a geological engineer with an MBA who grew up in the oil fields of Venezuela where his dad was a petroleum engineer, offers the following helpful perspective on just how much 12 Bcf/d really is…
Read More “Marcellus in Perspective – 5th Largest Natgas Producing “Country””
Anadarko | Bradford County | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Lycoming County | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Southwestern Energy | Sullivan County

PA DCNR Blocks Drilling in Loyalsock State Forest – For Now
October 28, 2013October 28, 2013

Back in April, MDN told you about a ginned-up “controversy” over Anadarko Petroleum’s plan to drill in the Loyalsock State Forest that covers parts of Lycoming, Sullivan and Bradford counties in PA (see Manufactured Controversy over Drilling in Loyalsock State Forest). Anadarko owns the lease rights to 25,000 acres underneath the Loyalsock. Even though Anadarko provided the state with their plan to drill (as requested, in March 2012), the state Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) last week temporarily refused their application to begin drilling. Why? Not because of any problems with the proposed plan, but because another driller, Southwestern Energy, owns the rights to about the same amount of acreage and has not submitted a plan to drill on their acreage.

Is it fair that Anadarko be held back because Southwestern isn’t ready to drill yet? Did the DCNR stipulate that all drillers must supply a drilling plan first, when Anadarko submitted their plan back in March 2012? Why did it take until October 2013 for the DCNR to tell Anadarko that Southwestern has to file too? Troubling questions…
Read More “PA DCNR Blocks Drilling in Loyalsock State Forest – For Now”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Crime | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County

NE PA Anti-Driller Slapped with Trespassing Injunction
October 28, 2013October 28, 2013

Vera Scroggins is a minor celebrity in Susquehanna County, PA–perhaps even beyond. Josh Fox of Gasland fame knows her and loves her. She certainly knows how to harass people she disagrees with (see “The Final Ploy of the Desperate” Natural Gas Opponents for one shining example of her charm). Scroggins has, until now, created a cottage industry of taking “tour groups” around to fracking sites in Susquehanna County–trespassing and pushing her ever-present camera into the face of private landowners (who have asked her to leave) and into the face of gas workers.

Cabot Oil & Gas, the company leasing many of the sites targeted by Scroggins, finally went to court to keep her from harassing private landowners and their workers. That is, Cabot asked the court to stop Scroggins from breaking the law. And the court has now done so by issuing a temporary injunction against Scroggins which will remain in force until a hearing for a permanent injunction is held…
Read More “NE PA Anti-Driller Slapped with Trespassing Injunction”