Marcellus Drilling News

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Northeast Oil & Gas Awards – Time to Nominate is NOW
November 13, 2013November 13, 2013

A few weeks ago MDN told you about a fast-approaching deadline to be considered for the Northeast Oil & Gas Awards (see Deadline Approaching for 2013 Northeast Oil & Gas Awards). The deadline has been extended by a few weeks. The new deadline to be nominated in one of 25 categories is now December 12–so you have a month from today. MDN is proud to be working with the great people who host the Northeast Oil & Gas Awards. In fact, MDN editor Jim Willis will be involved in a conference program and attending the award ceremony in Pittsburgh in March 2014 (more on that in coming months).

However, right now it’s time to nominate and be nominated for an award! The Oil & Gas Awards celebrate the success and excellence of companies working in the upstream and midstream oil & gas industry in the Northeast region. Below are links to the criteria used for evaluating entrants in each of the 25 different categories. Click on a link to find out what it takes to be considered for a prestigious award in that category…
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Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Wed, Nov 13, 2013
November 13, 2013November 13, 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, Nov 13, 2013”
Clay County | Cunningham Energy | Energy Companies | West Virginia

The Injuns are Coming! Injun Formation Drilling, that is
November 12, 2013November 12, 2013

Sorry, but we can’t avoid using a politically incorrect term in this report: “Injun.” As in the Big Injun Formation, a layer of tightly-packed sandstone that lies above the Marcellus Shale layer in several West Virginia counties. Apparently there’s natural gas in the Big Injun in Clay County, WV, and Cunningham Energy (of Charleston) is going to drill three horizontal/fracked wells to try and get that gas. Fracking the Big Injun has been talked about for a long time (here’s a Society of Petroleum Engineers conference paper that specifically addresses that very topic from 1988!). However, combining horizontal drilling with fracking is relatively new and didn’t happen in the northeast until Range Resources drilled the first Marcellus Shale well in 2004 in western PA.

Until now, we’ve heard of the horizontal drilling/fracking combination being used in the Marcellus, the Utica and the Upper Devonian. Looks like we can now add a fourth formation to that illustrious list: the Big Injun. Good luck to Cunningham Energy as they go Big Injun hunting for natural gas…
Read More “The Injuns are Coming! Injun Formation Drilling, that is”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Ohio | Statewide OH | Wastewater

OH Energy Co Sues 2 Anti-Drillers for Defamation – and Wins!
November 12, 2013November 12, 2013

Finally! An energy-related company in the Utica Shale with a backbone. A couple of anti-drillers thought they would get away with defaming the good name of Duck Creek Energy, a company that manufactures a road deicer and dust suppressant from processed brine water produced from oil and gas wells. Brine is not frack wastewater but naturally occurring water from the depths that has a lot of minerals it (saltier than sea water). Brine comes out long after frack wastewater has been removed. When processed, brine is perfectly safe and can be used for productive things like deicer and dust suppression on roadways. Duck Creek Energy has been manufacturing their deicer for 10 years now.

The defaming anti-drillers claimed the substance being sold by Duck Energy was leftover frack wastewater and contained dangerous chemicals and radiation. Duck Creek Energy sued them and won, shutting them up from telling the outrageous lies they had been spinning…
Read More “OH Energy Co Sues 2 Anti-Drillers for Defamation – and Wins!”
Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | MarkWest Energy | NGLs | Pipelines

KM & MarkWest Announce Open Season for NE to Gulf NGL Pipeline
November 12, 2013November 12, 2013

Last Friday MarkWest Energy began an open season, or time when drillers can commit to take pipeline capacity, for it’s “little” 30-mile ethane pipeline that will run from Majorsville, PA to Houston, PA where the ethane can then hitch a ride west/north to Canada via the Mariner West pipeline, east to Philly via the down-the-road Mariner East pipeline, or south to the Gulf Coast via the ATEX pipeline (see MarkWest Open Season for “Little” Ethane Pipeline).

MarkWest is also in a partnership with the country’s largest midstream company, Kinder Morgan, to build a natural gas liquids (NGL) pipeline from the Utica/Marcellus to the Gulf Coast, a project announced this past August (see 2 New OH Projects: Cryo Processing Plant & NGL Pipeline to Gulf). Plans are to have the new and (as yet) unnamed pipeline up and running by the second quarter of 2016. Anticipating a 2016 start-up, Kinder Morgan and MarkWest yesterday announced a binding open season–starting now until Dec. 20–for the NGL pipeline. Their joint announcement from yesterday:
Read More “KM & MarkWest Announce Open Season for NE to Gulf NGL Pipeline”
Air Quality | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

US Senate Convenes Hearing on a Dangerous Fugitive: “Methane”
November 12, 2013November 12, 2013

Be careful out there–there’s a fugitive on the loose. He’s dangerous and if you’re not careful, he’ll sneak in and turn up the temperature on the earth’s thermostat by 1/1000000000000000000000 of a degree. His name? Methane (“Meth” for short). He’s wicked. He’s evil. And he’s out to escape capture any way he can. In fact, he’s trying to get to the ozone even as we speak. Quick! Turn around! He may be behind you right now. You never know with Methane. He’s just so invisible. And wouldn’t you know it–that evil fugitive Meth is first cousins with that other evil ne’er-do-well: Carbon Dioxide–sometimes known by his gang name, CO2. “Meth.” “CO2.” Their very names make one shudder with fear.

And so goes another U.S. Senate hearing on the topic of so-called “fugitive methane”…
Read More “US Senate Convenes Hearing on a Dangerous Fugitive: “Methane””
Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Soil | Statewide PA | Wastewater

More on MSC/PIOGA and PA DEP Dueling Radiation Studies
November 12, 2013November 12, 2013

Last week MDN told you that two somewhat competitive drilling industry organizations in Pennsylvania–the Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC) and the Pennsylvania Independent Oil and Gas Association (PIOGA)–announced they would launch their own study of the “does drilling create radioactive waste” issue (see MSC/PIOGA Team Up to Study Radiation in Shale Drilling). Since the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection is currently conducting a 12-14 month study of its own on that topic (see PA DEP Announces New Study of Radiation in Shale Drilling), we wondered why the MSC & PIOGA would launch their own study.

Additional information has come to light. According to an interview with Acting (soon to be full) Sec. of the DEP, Chris Abruzzo, the DEP views radioactivity in drilling waste as the possible “next frontier” of the agency’s oversight of the industry. No wonder the industry is concerned. Also, back in August, the MSC & PIOGA jointly issued a lengthy document (copy embedded below) challenging the structure and scope of the DEP study. The view of the MSC/PIOGA seems to be the DEP study as outlined is flawed (our words) and therefore will produce flawed results. Hence, they’re launching their own study to “do it right” (our words). An update on this developing story…
Read More “More on MSC/PIOGA and PA DEP Dueling Radiation Studies”
Industrywide Issues | Property Value | Statewide WV | West Virginia | Wetzel County

Property Values/Taxes in WV Counties with Drilling Go….Up!
November 12, 2013November 12, 2013

Landowners who lease their land, drillers and the industry that comes along to get the gas out of the ground and to market, and community members who get jobs at those companies doing the extracting/moving are not the only ones who benefit from the Marcellus and Utica Shale industry. The entire community benefits.

A false allegation (i.e. lie) trotted out frequently by anti-drillers is that property values will tank and tax revenues will go down when drilling comes to town. A study of West Virginia property tax revenues shows just the opposite happens. The state overall–and those areas with the most shale drilling in particular–have seen property tax revenues increase rather dramatically since 2005 when drilling began. An analysis (objective proof) from the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy that drilling is good for property values and property taxes:
Read More “Property Values/Taxes in WV Counties with Drilling Go….Up!”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Eco-Nut Investor Groups Trot Out Faux Report on Fracking “Risks”
November 12, 2013November 12, 2013

Last week four anti-drilling groups, who also happen to have gobs of money (investor groups), issued an anti-drilling “report” and “scorecard” titled Disclosing the Facts: Transparency and Risk in Hydraulic Fracturing Operations. The so-called “report” supposedly shows drillers, many of them active in the Marcellus and Utica Shale, are not fully disclosing the nebulous “impacts” of fracking on communities near where they drill. The aim of the four organizations issuing the report–As You Sow, Boston Common Asset Management, Green Century Capital Management, and the Investor Environmental Health Network (IEHN)–is to get investors to stop investing in oil and gas companies and instead invest in their companies (i.e. mutual funds) because they back “renewable” and “sustainable” energy. Anyone else see a big, fat conflict of interest here?

Of course mainstream media (like Bloomberg) dutifully and unquestioningly regurgitates the press release and so-called “report” from these anti-drillers as real news. Below is the press release and the “report” itself, in case you care. We bring it to you to show you a glittering example of what charlatan propaganda looks like…
Read More “Eco-Nut Investor Groups Trot Out Faux Report on Fracking “Risks””
Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Tue, Nov 12, 2013
November 12, 2013November 12, 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, Nov 12, 2013”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Erie County (NY) | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

NY Dems’ Testy Response to Criticism of Andy’s Fracking Indecision
November 11, 2013November 11, 2013

This is rich. The head of the Republican Party in New York State, Ed Cox, criticizes Democrat Gov. Andrew Cuomo over the issue of his impotency on the fracking issue (see Andrew Cuomo: Hamlet on the Shale), and the Democrats are so thin-skinned they immediately call for an investigation of Cox for “unethical or potentially illegal” actions. You can tell how vulnerable Andy and the Dems are on this issue by the way they misuse their power to try and obliterate all dissenting views.

Democrat State Sen. Timothy Kennedy of Buffalo is the latest shill to rise up and defend his boy Andy, calling for an investigation of Cox…
Read More “NY Dems’ Testy Response to Criticism of Andy’s Fracking Indecision”
Energy Companies | Talisman Energy

Icahn Now Throwing His Weight Around at Talisman, Like Chesapeake
November 11, 2013

What a shame. Carl Icahn is now the evil puppet master behind the curtain pulling the strings at Talisman Energy the same way he’s done at Chesapeake Energy. MDN recently told you that Icahn–a corporate raider whose sole purpose is to swoop in, dismember parts of a company so its stock price goes up and then cash out his stock at a profit–has his claws in Talisman (see Carl Icahn Snaps Up 6% of His Next E&P Victim: Talisman Energy). His meddling at Chesapeake has led to a loss of 1,200 jobs in that company over the past six months or so.

Now Icahn is at it with Talisman, forcing them to sell off part of their Montney Shale acreage in northeast British Columbia. On the plus side the sale likely means more drilling emphasis on the Marcellus. However, if we worked at Talisman, we’d be looking over our shoulder wondering when the pink slip will arrive. Talisman CEO Hal Kvisle is trying to put on a brave face about being micromanaged by Icahn, but you know he hates it…
Read More “Icahn Now Throwing His Weight Around at Talisman, Like Chesapeake”
Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | MarkWest Energy | Marshall County | NGLs | Noble County | Ohio | Processing Plants | West Virginia

MarkWest Hits 2.2 Bcf/d in Processing, 2 New Plants Go Live
November 11, 2013November 11, 2013

Marcellus midstream (pipelines and processing plants) heavyweight MarkWest Energy issued an operations update last week to trumpet the fact that two new cryogenic processing plants–to separate wet gas compounds from methane–have now started operations in the Marcellus/Utica. With the additional capacity of these new plants, MarkWest’s total processing capacity is now 2.2 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of natural gas processing in the Marcellus/Utica. It is an impressive number and will only grow in the months and years ahead.

MarkWest announced they have begun operations at their fifth Majorsville (Marshall County), WV cryogenic processing plant and at their first Seneca (Noble County), OH cryogenic processing plant. Here’s the justifiably proud announcement from MarkWest on reaching the 2.2 Bcf/d milestone, on their way to 4 Bcf/d by the end of next year:
Read More “MarkWest Hits 2.2 Bcf/d in Processing, 2 New Plants Go Live”
Crawford County | Pennsylvania

Titusville, PA Tells Shale Drilling Industry: We Want YOU
November 11, 2013November 11, 2013

What a refreshing change! Titusville (Crawford County), PA, a small city in northwestern PA where this country’s first-ever commercial oil well was drilled (the Drake well), wants to market itself as the perfect place for those involved in the shale drilling industry to set up offices and operations. Titusville sits between active Marcellus and Utica Shale drilling on either side of it and will someday likely see its own drilling. City officials figure with a bit of marketing they can be a destination for the industry in NW PA. Smart.

Officials are spending $33,000 to get a plan developed that will assist them in knowing how and where to market their community. They’re even talking about using old wells in the area as (gasp) injection wells for frack wastewater! Right now the city is shopping for someone to help them develop a comprehensive plan…
Read More “Titusville, PA Tells Shale Drilling Industry: We Want YOU”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pipelines | Processing Plants | Regulation | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Cheat Sheet: Which Agencies Regulate OH Drilling/Pipelines
November 11, 2013November 11, 2013

Last week MDN told you of a new change in how natural gas gathering pipelines are regulated in Ohio. Until last week, the safety of gathering pipelines was fuzzy–really no one in charge of ensuring safety for gathering lines. That changed when the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) took over as lead agency for regulating that particular type of pipeline (see PUCO Now Regulates Gathering Pipelines in Ohio). But there are a few different kinds of pipelines and depending on which kind, a mish mash of federal and state (and even local) agencies are in charge of permitting and inspecting said pipelines.

The reality of who regulates what when it comes to pipelines and other aspects of shale drilling is complex. PUCO decided it was a good idea to issue a press release/update to clear it all up. Apparently their office was flooded with requests for explanations, so they developed a handy chart to indicate who regulates what in Ohio’s shale drilling industry. It’s a very helpful update (and chart) for not only understanding who regulates pipelines in Ohio, but also who permits and regulates wells, compressor plants, processing plants–the whole enchilada…
Read More “Cheat Sheet: Which Agencies Regulate OH Drilling/Pipelines”
Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Ohio | Supply Chain | Trumbull County

Drilling-Related Manufacturer Brings 150 Jobs to Trumbull County
November 11, 2013November 11, 2013

Another huge positive economic impact from Marcellus/Utica Shale drilling is coming to eastern Ohio. Legacy Measurement Solutions Inc. of Addison, TX, a manufacturer of measurement equipment used in the oil and natural gas industry, is setting up a new 73,000 square foot plant in Trumbull County, OH early next year. The plant will “ramp up slowly” but will eventually employ 150 people. This is seriously good news for Brookfield, where the plant will be located, and Trumbull County in general.

More jobs, more tax revenues–it’s an economic boomlet from just one company…
Read More “Drilling-Related Manufacturer Brings 150 Jobs to Trumbull County”