Marcellus Drilling News

Energy Companies | Halcon Resources | Ohio | Trumbull County | Utica Shale

Halcon CEO Says No More S***** Wells in Northern OH Utica
November 7, 2013November 7, 2013

Drillers are still figuring out the Utica Shale–the best places to drill, and the best places to not drill. Sometimes the “don’t drill here” lessons are tough because each well drilled costs a lot of money ($8 million or more, typically). On an analyst call Tuesday to discuss third quarter results, Halcon Resources Corp. CEO Floyd Wilson used some salty language to describe where they don’t intend to do more Utica drilling, which is in northern Trumbull County, OH. Instead, he said they’ll concentrate their efforts on the southern part of the county where they have more leased acreage that he believes will yield a better result.

Here’s a small portion of the phone transcript where Wilson talks about the Utica and where he definitely won’t be drilling again:
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1st NRG | Energy Companies | Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

1st NRG Inches Closer to Utica Drilling – Still Not There Yet
November 7, 2013November 7, 2013

1st NRG Corp. is a small-but-growing exploration and production company headquartered in Denver, CO. Their drilling program to date has been centered in Wyoming (coal bed methane drilling). For more than year 1st NRG has been saying “we’re gonna start drilling in the Utica, you wait and see” (our words). They issued a press release more than a year ago that said, essentially, they are interested in the Utica (see 1st NRG Corp Newest Entrant in OH Utica Shale). They then issued a release saying they had raised $7 million for Utica drilling (see 1st NRG Corp Gets $7M Loan to Begin Drilling in Utica, Other Plays), and another saying they were looking for more money to drill in the Utica (see 1st NRG Still Looking for $ to Drill 7K Acres in Utica Shale).

It’s November and has been eight long months since the last press release–so it must be time for another. Lookie here, we have one! This time, however, there’s been a change. 1st NRG says they have “signed an agreement with a private energy company to participate in the development of prospective acreage.” That still isn’t “we’re drilling our first well,” but we guess it’s a half step closer. Here’s the latest press release that’s short on details and long on puffery and descriptions of the Utica…
Read More “1st NRG Inches Closer to Utica Drilling – Still Not There Yet”
Energy Services | Sunoco Logistics

Sunoco Provides Brief Update on Mariner East/West Pipelines
November 7, 2013November 7, 2013

Sunoco Logistics is in the midst of spending over $1 billion on two pipelines to carry ethane (and propane) from the Marcellus/Utica region to markets where it can be processed and sold. One of those pipelines is the Mariner West pipeline, currently in testing and due to go online this month, which carries ethane all the way to Sarnia, Canada. The other is Mariner East which will carry first ethane and then propane to the Marcus Hook refinery in Philadelphia. Mariner East will go online in stages beginning in 2014.

Both pipelines are extremely important to the Marcellus/Utica region. We have a brief update on both projects from Mike Hennigan, President and CEO of Sunoco Logistics, as delivered yesterday on an analyst phone call reviewing the company’s third quarter numbers…
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Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

2014 Ben Franklin Shale Gas Contest – $100K in Cash Prizes!
November 7, 2013November 7, 2013

Calling all researchers, entrepreneurs and innovators working in the shale gas space in PA or WV: The Ben Franklin Shale Gas Innovation and Commercialization Center (SGICC) is back with another contest, this time with $100,000 in cash prizes to split between the four best shale gas-oriented innovations/new products/new service ideas. The “new” thing must be in development stage or recently launched to qualify. The 2014 contest will be the third year running that the SGICC has held this contest and is the largest purse so far (for the 2013 winners, see: Envelope Please: Winners of Shale Gas Innovation Contest are…).

On a personal note, MDN editor Jim Willis had the opportunity to meet Bill Hall, director of the SGICC at Shale Insight in September in Philadelphia. Bill helms a terrific organization and this contest, over the past several years, has done fabulous work in helping to shine a spotlight on worthy, up-and-coming businesses that have gone on to make a difference in shale drilling in the northeast and beyond. Think of the SGICC contest as a cross between Shark Tank and American Idol–only a whole lot easier! Here’s the details for this year’s contest…
Read More “2014 Ben Franklin Shale Gas Contest – $100K in Cash Prizes!”
Kanawha County | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Marcellus Companies Move Offices from Charleston to SW PA
November 7, 2013November 7, 2013

A few days ago MDN told you that county officials in some West Virginia counties, like Wood and Pleasants counties, believe drilling may be headed in their direction in the not-too-distant future (see Drilling Creeps Southward According to WV County Clerks). However, the reality on the ground right now is that there have been either no, or perhaps one or two, permits issued for horizontal (shale) drilling in Wood and Pleasants counties (stats come from the latest edition of the Marcellus and Utica Shale Databook).

Another county even further south is Kanawha County, home of the state capitol Charleston. Kanawha has also seen a few permits, but little or no shale drilling yet. In the ramp-up of Marcellus and Utica drilling, a number of drilling-related companies established administrative offices in Charleston. But that’s now changing. Why?…
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Belmont County | Energy Companies | Gulfport Energy | Ohio | Utica Shale

Gulfport’s New Record-Breaking Well in Belmont Cnty – 30.3 Mmcf/d
November 6, 2013November 6, 2013

Gulfport Energy, the #2 driller in the Ohio Utica Shale behind Chesapeake Energy, has drilled some of the most prolific wells in the Utica (see Gulfport’s New Utica Well Produces Mind-blowing 28.5 Mmcf/d!). According to Gulfport CEO James Palm on an investor call yesterday, the company continues their winning streak and has just bested their own record. Gulfport’s Irons 1-H well in Belmont County (Washington Township) is now officially their highest producing single gas well with an initial production (IP) of 30.3 million cubic feet of natural gas per day! These are astonishing numbers.

In a phone call with analysts to discuss 3Q13 results, Palm had the following to say:
Read More “Gulfport’s New Record-Breaking Well in Belmont Cnty – 30.3 Mmcf/d”
Energy Companies | Ethane | Gulfport Energy | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pipelines | Processing Plants | Shell | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Gulfport Signed Up to Ship Ethane to Shell Cracker, If…
November 6, 2013November 6, 2013

Gulfport wants to send the ethane it produces in Ohio’s Utica Shale to Shell’s ethane cracker plant, if that plant ever gets built. Gulfport announced on their 3Q13 analyst call yesterday that they are one of the companies who signed on during Shell’s cracker plant open season, pledging to provide ethane for the new cracker plant. Problem is, the prospects that the plant will actually get built are increasingly in doubt (see Rumor Mill: PA Ethane Cracker Plant on Shell Chopping Block?). Even so, we guess it’s a good plan to be first in line when/if that plant opens.

MDN friend Bob Downing from the Akron Beacon Journal chronicles a few more choice tidbits from the Gulfport 3Q13 analyst call yesterday, including Gulfport’s ethane yearnings, some smart strategies Gulfport is employing to sell their dry gas and wet gas, how pipeline locations influence their drilling decisions, and an inside look at how much it costs Gulfport to drill a single Utica Shale well…
Read More “Gulfport Signed Up to Ship Ethane to Shell Cracker, If…”
Energy Companies | Energy Services | Hilcorp Energy | Industrywide Issues | NiSource | Ohio | Pipelines | Statewide OH | Unity Pipeline

New Condensate Pipeline Proposed from Ohio to Western Canada
November 6, 2013November 6, 2013

Here’s a new one for the Marcellus/Utica region: Unity Pipeline Company (a joint venture between Harvest Pipeline, which is Hilcorp, Somerset Gas Transmission, and Crossroads Pipeline, which is NiSource) has just launched an open season (a time for drillers to sign up) for a condensate pipeline that will stretch from the Marcellus/Utica in Ohio across the state into Indiana, Michigan, and all the way to western Canada. Condensate, sometimes called natural gasoline, is a hydrocarbon produced from “raw natural gas” when the raw gas temperature is dropped to a certain point. Condensate in the northeast is mainly found in the wet gas areas of eastern Ohio, southwestern Pennsylvania and the northern panhandle of West Virginia.

Condensate is used to dilute (mix with) crude oil so the oil can more easily be pumped through pipelines. There’s plenty of condensate available in the Marcellus/Utica, and plenty of need in western Canada where they pump a lot of oil. It makes sense to get all that condensate from point A to point B–and that’s what the proposed Unity Pipeline aims to do. Here is the announcement from Unity about their plan to build a 380-mile “diluent” pipeline, a project they hope to have up and running by the middle of 2015…
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Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Range Resources Corp | Washington County

PA Judge Forces Range, Contractors to Provide Chemical List
November 6, 2013November 6, 2013

Three families who live near a drill site/frack wastewater impoundment (“pond”) in Cecil Township, PA have a long-running (since May 2012) lawsuit against Range Resources claiming Range’s drilling and wastewater impoundment has contaminated their well water. The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) investigated and found no contamination. Even the federal EPA looked at it last year and never filed any violation notices–meaning they didn’t find anything either (see EPA Investigating Range Drill Site in Western PA).

However, the families maintain they have been harmed by toxic chemicals used during drilling, and so a judge has ordered Range and all of their subcontractors to provide a list of every conceivable chemical compound used at the site since 2009–right down to the kind of oil used in the engines of vehicles visiting the site–and she’s giving them 30 days to do it…
Read More “PA Judge Forces Range, Contractors to Provide Chemical List”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

Andrew Cuomo: Hamlet on the Shale
November 6, 2013November 6, 2013

New York GOP Chairman Ed Cox makes a trip to Buffalo today to deliver the keynote address at the Independent Oil & Gas Association of New York’s annual conference. The title of his speech is, appropriately: “Andrew Cuomo: Hamlet on the Shale.” The title has echoes of his father, former governor of New York Mario Cuomo, who was known as Hamlet on the Hudson for his inability to make decisions on important issues. Apparently the apples does not fall far from the tree. Andy can’t make up his mind either–the mark of a weak leader.

Cox debuted a number of the points he will make in his speech last week in a New York Post column by Fred Dicker:
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Eclipse Resources | Energy Companies | Utica Shale

Utica Driller Eclipse Resources Talking IPO in 2014
November 6, 2013November 6, 2013

MDN has written several stories in the past about a small but rapidly growing driller in the Utica Shale–Eclipse Resources. In June we told you that Eclipse, headquartered in State College, PA, bought out Oxford Oil, adding to their Utica acreage portfolio (see Eclipse Resources buys Oxford Oil, Adds Another 49K Utica Acres). Eclipse currently has over 90,000 acres leased in the Utica and another 20,000 acres leased in the Marcellus Shale–all of the acreage located in Ohio.

Seeing the very successful Antero Resources initial public stock offering (Antero’s market capitalization as of today is $14.35 billion!), Eclipse wants some of that IPO action too. CEO Benjamin Hulburt, no stranger to running oil & gas companies (he co-founded Rex Energy), says Eclipse is looking at an IPO in the middle of 2014…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Lorain County | Mahoning County | Ohio | Wood County (OH)

Economic Suicide Avoided in 2 OH Cities but Oberlin Pulls Trigger
November 6, 2013November 6, 2013

A happy note about yesterday’s elections in Ohio. Two communities where a so-called “community bill of rights” (anti-drilling ban flying under a different name) was on the ballot was voted down. In Youngstown (Mahoning County) this was the second time anti-drillers have tried to convince voters to commit economic suicide, but fortunately they didn’t (see Economic Suicide Attempt #2: Youngstown to Vote Again on Frack Ban). The voters in Bowling Green (Wood County) also decided to vote down a ban–even though there is no recoverable Utica Shale under Bowling Green. Freedom is always a smart choice–good decision Bowling Green.

However, voters in a third OH community, Oberlin (Lorain County), where there likely is recoverable Utica Shale gas, sadly decided to pull the trigger and commit economic suicide…
Read More “Economic Suicide Avoided in 2 OH Cities but Oberlin Pulls Trigger”
Energy Companies | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County | Talisman Energy

Talisman 3Q13: Marcellus Production Up 4%, Avg 443 Mmcf/d
November 6, 2013November 6, 2013

Talisman Energy released their third quarter financial and operations update today. Talisman, a Canadian company, is a major driller in the Marcellus Shale, among other plays both here and around the world. In this update, Talisman CEO Hal Kvisle gives a big thumbs up to the Marcellus. In his opening remarks he comments: “We are achieving excellent results in the Marcellus, sustaining gas production rates through production optimization and a modest drilling program.”

In this really, really, really long 3Q13 update, Talisman says both production and cash flow are up company-wide for the quarter, and drilling costs are down. We’ve extracted out the information from the update on Talisman’s Marcellus drilling program, which is really, really short–but enlightening nonetheless:
Read More “Talisman 3Q13: Marcellus Production Up 4%, Avg 443 Mmcf/d”
Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Wed, Nov 6, 2013
November 6, 2013November 6, 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 6, 2013”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Research | Soil | Statewide PA | Wastewater

MSC/PIOGA Team Up to Study Radiation in Shale Drilling
November 5, 2013November 5, 2013

In January 2013, MDN brought you the news that the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) was launching a 12-14 month study of radiation in shale drilling (see PA DEP Announces New Study of Radiation in Shale Drilling).

Yesterday the Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC) and the Pennsylvania Independent Oil and Gas Association (PIOGA) announced a joint effort to conduct their own study of radiation in shale drilling. The two organizations say their study will “complement” the study now being done by the DEP. Yesterday’s announcement raises some important questions:

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Accidents | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Lycoming County | Pennsylvania | Wastewater | XTO

PA AG Pressures Judge to Step Aside in XTO Spill Case
November 5, 2013November 5, 2013

A quick update on the political persecution being shamefully conducted by Pennsylvania’s new Attorney General Kathleen Kane against XTO Energy (see PA AG Abuses Her Authority, Files Criminal Charges Against XTO). Kane is attempting to turn a 3 year-old accidental spill into a criminal case–beyond imagination.

Kane continues to abuse her power. She has pressured the judge who would have heard the XTO case to recuse himself because he has a share/interest in a gas lease. The judge’s lease is not with XTO, but that’s not good enough for anti-drilling Kane. She wanted him gone–so he’s gone…
Read More “PA AG Pressures Judge to Step Aside in XTO Spill Case”