Marcellus Drilling News

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”
Health Impacts | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA Doctor’s Act 13 Lawsuit Tossed Out, Judge Says No “Standing”
October 28, 2013October 28, 2013

Last Wednesday a Pennsylvania federal judge ruled against a doctor who sued the state over it’s new Act 13 law (passed in 2012). The new law requires doctors to sign a confidentiality agreement before discussing chemicals workers may have been exposed to as part of the drilling (specifically fracking) process in shale drilling.

U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo dismissed the lawsuit filed by Dr. Alfonso Rodriguez saying he hadn’t proven he had been harmed by the law (i.e., no “standing”)…
Read More “PA Doctor’s Act 13 Lawsuit Tossed Out, Judge Says No “Standing””
Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Ohio | Supply Chain | Trumbull County | Wastewater

3 More Wastewater Injection Wells on the Way in Trumbull County
October 28, 2013October 28, 2013

A small Ohio conventional natural gas drilling/excavating company is getting new life and expanding thanks to the Utica Shale. Kleese Development has applied to the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) to re-purpose several vertical wells to be injection wells. Three older conventional natural gas wells located in Trumbull County, OH–on U.S. Route 422 near Templeton Road–will be converted to shale frack wastewater injection wells if the ODNR approves the project.

If the ODNR does approve the project, frack wastewater won’t be the only thing injected in Trumbull County. The company is also injecting money and jobs into the local economy…

Read More “3 More Wastewater Injection Wells on the Way in Trumbull County”
Cambria County | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Wastewater

Work Resumes on Frack Wastewater Plant in Cambria County, PA
October 28, 2013October 28, 2013

Work is resuming on a new frack wastewater treatment facility in Johnstown (Cambria County), PA, according to the Aspen Fluid Logistics, the company building the plant. The project is expected to cost on the order of $100 million by the time it’s done, and create “hundreds of jobs.” However, the new plant has been plagued by delays due to permits and “financing.”

An update on the new plant and the latest guesstimate as to when it will be operational…
Read More “Work Resumes on Frack Wastewater Plant in Cambria County, PA”
Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County

Zeitsgeist: Is 20 Bcf per Well the New Marcellus Standard?
October 28, 2013October 28, 2013

Energy analyst and Seeking Alpha blogger Richard Zeits asks the question, is 20 billion cubic feet (Bcf) per well is the new operating standard for the Marcellus Shale? He asks the question based on the latest quarterly update issued by Cabot Oil & Gas last week for their operation in Susquehanna County, PA. Zeits says Cabot’s report is further proof that the “sweet spot” for dry gas in the Marcellus is northeastern PA.

Zeits starts his latest sterling analysis this way:
Read More “Zeitsgeist: Is 20 Bcf per Well the New Marcellus Standard?”
Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Regulation | Statewide WV | West Virginia

How Many New WV Jobs Go to Out-of-State Workers? We Can’t Know
October 28, 2013October 28, 2013

A developing issue in West Virginia is how many of the new jobs created in the state (which was up an astonishing 20% last year) are going to WV workers, and how many are going to out-of-state workers? According to WV’s 2011 Horizontal Well Control law, the annual report filed by the Dept. of Commerce’s Workforce West Virginia division is supposed to break it down. Problem is, both last year’s report and this year’s (recently issued, see Looking for a Job in the Marcellus? Think WV), does not provide the required in-state/out-of-state numbers.

Technically, Workforce WV is breaking the law by not providing the numbers–but not because it’s intentional. The one WV agency that could provide Worforce WV with the numbers they need for the report–the Revenue department–is prevented from doing so, by law. Talk about screwed up…
Read More “How Many New WV Jobs Go to Out-of-State Workers? We Can’t Know”
Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Regulation

FERC Warning to Lawmakers: Back Us in a Corner, You’ll be Sorry
October 28, 2013October 28, 2013

A U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) official warned last Wednesday that if House Republicans continue to push a bill that limits the amount of time FERC has to review pipeline projects, those Republicans (and their energy company constituents) will be sorry.

Jeff Wright, director of FERC’s Office of Energy Projects, told an Energy Bar Association conference in Washington that if backed into a “one year to approve a project or else” corner, FERC will start denying projects rather than let them go forward…
Read More “FERC Warning to Lawmakers: Back Us in a Corner, You’ll be Sorry”
Energy Companies | Harrison County | Hess | Lease & Royalty Payments | Ohio | Utica Shale

Harrison County: Busy Courthouse, Road Use & Lease Offer by Hess
October 28, 2013October 28, 2013

What’s going on in Harrison County, OH? When it comes to oil and gas drilling in the Utica Shale, quite a lot, including: a congested courthouse (where land records are kept); proposed road use agreements from Chesapeake Energy; and a plum offer by Hess for 21.7 acres west of the Harrison County Airport.

The details…
Read More “Harrison County: Busy Courthouse, Road Use & Lease Offer by Hess”