Marcellus Drilling News

Beaver County | Energy Companies | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | Shell

PA Ethane Cracker – On Again, Off Again…Now On Again?
November 13, 2013November 13, 2013

MDN recently brought you rumors (evidence?) that the prospects of Shell building a multi-billion dollar ethane cracker plant in western Pennsylvania were seriously dimming (see Rumor Mill: PA Ethane Cracker Plant on Shell Chopping Block?). The most ominous two pieces of evidence against Shell moving forward was doubt cast by industry expert Rusty Braziel and the statements from Shell’s outgoing CEO Peter Voser who said that Shell would not be able to build all three major projects they now have on the books (one of the three being the PA cracker plant). Delays in committing to the project, negative speak from the CEO and numerous NGL and ethane pipelines coming online seem to cast doubt on Shell building the cracker.

But wait, what’s this? We have a new, happier rumor to share with you. According to a reliable source, Shell has hired Linde and Bechtel to perform front end engineering and design (FEED) work on the PA cracker plant! It seems to us if the cracker were truly dead Shell would not spend big bucks to design it (although we may be wrong on that score). Here’s the latest rumor courtesy Gas Business Briefing:
Read More “PA Ethane Cracker – On Again, Off Again…Now On Again?”
Economic Impact | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Research

EIA Drilling Report Nov 2013: Marcellus Ready to Blow by 13 Bcf/d
November 13, 2013November 13, 2013

Last month the U.S. Energy Information Administration launched a fabulous new Drilling Productivity Report (DPR) that covers six of the key shale formations producing oil and gas in the U.S. Last month we learned that the Marcellus had just blown by an astonishing 12 billion cubic feet of natural gas production per day, and if the Marcellus were its own country, it would be the eighth largest producing natgas country in the world (see New EIA Drilling Productivity Report: Marcellus Passes 12 Bcf/d!).

The November DPR from EIA came out yesterday. What do we learn from it? The Marcellus is on the cusp of passing 13 Bcf/d in natural gas production! The numbers just continue to astonish and amaze everyone, and confound anti-drilling critics who keep saying “it won’t last–not long from now it’ll all just peter out and decline.” Yeah right, you keep telling yourself that one. Here’s the latest full DPR from the EIA:
Read More “EIA Drilling Report Nov 2013: Marcellus Ready to Blow by 13 Bcf/d”
Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | MarkWest Energy | Pipelines | Processing Plants

The Marcellus/Utica Games: MarkWest Catching Fire
November 13, 2013November 13, 2013

With more infrastructure projects than you can shake a stick at (22 under construction right now, most of them in the Marcellus and Utica Shale region), and with revenue up, pumping capacity up–with everything up that should be up–you’ll pardon our pun on the forthcoming Hunger Games movie by saying that MarkWest Energy is truly catching fire in the Marcellus and Utica Shale!

Yesterday MarkWest released their third quarter 2013 operations and financial update, and there’s a LOT in there about the Marcellus/Utica:
Read More “The Marcellus/Utica Games: MarkWest Catching Fire”
Industrywide Issues | NG Vehicles | Research

MDN Digs FC’s NatGas Vehicle Whitepaper – You Will Too
November 13, 2013November 13, 2013

Need to get a really good handle on what’s happening right now in the natural gas vehicles (NGV) market? Oh, and please throw in your best thinking on what will happen over the next 12 months? We have the answer. FC Business Intelligence, a UK-based conference and events company–knows a thing or two about the natural gas market. They’ve been hosting must-attend natgas industry events for quite a while, including a yearly event on NGV. In advance of next year’s event, the 3rd Natural Gas Vehicles USA (June 11-13 in Houston, TX), FC Business Intelligence has authored a 44-page white paper on NGVs in the US–a sort of “state of play” for the NGV market.

MDN downloaded the white paper (see it below). It’s chock-full of great information. This is not a generic-lightly-gloss-over-warmed-up-rehash-of-other-information treatment. There’s meat in this paper–serious research–and it’s well worth your time to read it if you have an interest in NGVs and what will be one of the most important sources of demand for natural gas in the coming years. MDN has chronicled how fleets, like that of UPS, are dumping diesel and changing to LNG (liquefied natural gas) and CNG (compressed natural gas). Problem is, where do NGVs fill up on either CNG or LNG? Where are there plants (supply) in the US that create LNG? It’s all in this white paper, and more…
Read More “MDN Digs FC’s NatGas Vehicle Whitepaper – You Will Too”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | New York | Property Value | Tompkins County

Ithaca, NY Bank Won’t Grant Mortgage on Land with Drilling Lease
November 13, 2013November 13, 2013

New York landowners who are pro-drilling may want to consider whether or not to continue doing business with Tompkins Financial Corporation, a bank/wealth management/insurance firm based in Ithaca, NY. Why? They refuse to give a mortgage on any property under lease with a drilling company. They’re attempting to blame federal guidelines from Fannie Mae as their excuse. Sorry Charlie, that doesn’t fly. It’s anti-drilling prejudice plain and simple.

Two other banks you may want to reconsider doing business with: Spain’s Santander Bank and State Employees’ Credit Union in Raleigh, N.C. Same reason…
Read More “Ithaca, NY Bank Won’t Grant Mortgage on Land with Drilling Lease”
Blair County | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Marcellus GTL | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants

Altoona’s Marcellus Gas-to-Liquids Plant Slightly Delayed
November 13, 2013November 13, 2013

An update on a gas-to-liquids (GTL) plant to be built near Altoona, PA that will convert abundant and cheap Marcellus Shale gas produced in the area into diesel fuel. MDN told you in March that Marcellus GTL announced they will build a new GTL plant in the area (see Altoona Area Getting $200M Marcellus Gas-to-Liquids Plant). Plans called for construction to begin on the new facility by the end of this year.

The bad news is that construction on the new GTL plant will not begin by the end of this year. “Typical project optimism” is the explanation offered by Marcellus GTL’s executive VP Paul Hamilton. The good news? The project is still on and construction is now estimated to begin somewhere between April and June 2014…
Read More “Altoona’s Marcellus Gas-to-Liquids Plant Slightly Delayed”
About MDN | MDN Sponsor | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

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…
Read More “Northeast Oil & Gas Awards – Time to Nominate is NOW”
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”