On Monday, July 1, new drilling rules for horizontal shale drillers went fully into effect in West Virginia after being developed over the past two years. WV law firm Lewis Glasser Casey & Rollins, PLLC provides this handy summary of the new and more important provisions:
Read More “New Rules for WV Horizontal Drilling Now in Effect”
The West Virginia Natural Gas Horizontal Well Control Act, passed and signed into law in December 2011, directed the WV Dept. of Environment Protection (WVDEP) to conduct three studies. The third and final study was recently released, titled “Air Quality Impacts Occurring from Horizontal Well Drilling and Related Activities” (full copy embedded below).
According to the cover letter from the WVDEP, based on the findings in the study, no new regulations are required to control air pollution around drilling sites…
Read More “WVDEP Releases Study on Air Quality Impacts of Shale Drilling”
Most people would view this as good news: The Pennsylvania Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) is within striking distance of becoming self-funding. Only $30 million (out of a $136.5 million budget) comes out of PA taxpayer pockets–just 22%. We’d call a self-funding government agency nothing short of a miracle! What would PA’s elected Democrats call it? A problem–because the self-funding comes from lease and royalty payments to the DCNR from Marcellus Shale wells drilled on state-owned land, and not from Democrat shell games in moving money around in Harrisburg to derive political power.
Currently about one-third of all state-owned land is leased for potential drilling with a voluntary moratorium on the rest first started by Gov. Rendell and later upheld under Gov. Corbett. Nearly 900 wells have been permitted on state-owned land, of which only 325 are drilled and producing (providing royalties)–so the DCNR may hit total self-funding at some point in the next few years when the other 575 wells get drilled. If partial self-funding has led to the current apoplexy in Harrisburg, total self-funding may lead to a full brain hemorrhage in PA’s elected Democrats…
Read More “PA DCNR Nears Total Self-Funding from Marcellus Leases/Royalties”
An excellent article on the Ohio Gas & Oil website takes a look at the critical role of compressors. In case you don’t know, compressors are needed at various points along natural gas pipelines to pressurize and keep the gas moving. The article uses the metaphor of compressors as the “heart” of natural gas production.
Let’s check out the old ticker for a better understanding of natural gas gathering and pipelining…
Read More “Deep Dive: Compressors are the ‘Heart’ of Shale NatGas Production”
According to an article titled “Hydraulic Fracturing and Information Forcing,” published in the latest issue of the online publication Ohio State Law Journal Furthermore, widespread shale drilling and fracking has begun to “force the systematic production and recording of data, which could lead to broad information forcing efforts.” Those information forcing efforts (information that government might “force” drillers and others to collect) includes baseline contamination data, requirements for better disclosure during drilling, and post-drilling sampling and impact studies. The article was written by Hannah J. Wiseman, assistant professor at the Florida State University College of Law.
Read the full article below:
Read More “Will Fracking Create “Information Forcing”? What is it Anyway?”
Once again, the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is interfering with a state’s right to regulate oil and gas drilling. The latest trespass is the EPA leaning on Ohio about an Ohio law that allows drillers to shield information about some of the proprietary chemicals they use:
Read More “EPA Interferes with OH Regulation of Oil & Gas Chemical Reporting”
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, Jul 3, 2013”
Magnum Hunter Resources announced today they have begun shale drilling at a second Ohio location–this one in Monroe County, OH. While the fact that Magnum is now ramping up their Utica drilling program is interesting–that’s not the “new news” in the announcement. The new news is this:
The Monroe County wells are the first wells Magnum Hunter will drill using their new robotic drilling rig, a Schramm T500XD. Furthermore, they plan to drill an astonishing 18 wells at this one location–10 of them Marcellus wells, and 8 of them Utica wells. In addition, Magnum is keeping it “all in the family,” by using subsidiary Triad Hunter to operate the wells and subsidiary Eureka Hunter to pipeline the gas from the wells…
Read More “Magnum Hunter Drills 2nd OH Location – Plans 18 Wells on 1 Pad!”
Pennsylvania landowners listen up: The PA legislature has just passed a new bill (SB259) that will provide for better reporting on royalty statements. Better reporting would normally be something supported by the National Association of Royalty Owners (NARO). However, NARO is advising PA Gov. Tom Corbett to NOT sign this new bill into law as passed because at the last minute a provision was inserted that can weaken the bargaining position of landowners who have older drilling leases (pre-shale drilling) who want to renegotiate those leases to allow shale drilling. We concur. This bill, as it is, would not be favorable to some landowners.
A copy of Senate Bill 259 is included below. Here’s our analysis of it…
Read More “New PA Royalty Bill SB259 Faces Opposition from NARO”
We’re now at the halfway mark of 2013 (wow is this year going fast!), so The Motley Fool investor’s website performed an analysis of the “top 10” midstream (pipelines and processing plants) companies and their stock prices–to see which companies are providing the best returns. The thing that caught MDN’s eye about the Motley Fool list is that 4 of the 10–in fact the top 4–are major operators in the Marcellus/Utica Shale region.
Here’s who made the top 10 midstream list, and surprisingly, who didn’t…
Read More “Top 4 of Top 10 Midstream Companies Operate in Marcellus/Utica”
MDN told you yesterday about PA Gov. Tom Corbett using strong and direct language with the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC)–to get them to approve drilling rules that will allow several PA counties under a now-three-year-old DRBC moratorium to begin drilling (see PA Gov. Lights into DRBC Over Failure to Act on Drilling Rules). Apparently the DRBC has acknowledged Gov. Corbett’s letter with a response of their own, although unhelpfully they haven’t posted it on their website, nor is it available from any of the press release services. So we don’t know exactly what all of it says.
However, at least one reporter has seen it. Here’s a very brief AP story that quotes from the DRBC statement:
Read More “DRBC Responds to PA Gov. Corbett – Still No Timetable to Lift Ban”
What are the biggest legal challenges faced by drillers that operate in shale plays? Energy law firm Steptoe & Johnson knows–and they know because they commissioned a survey of 96 legal services buyers at 56 companies. The result is a new report titled, “Below The Surface: The Legal Challenges of Shale Gas Production” (full copy embedded below).
Those who responded to the survey primarily have operations in four U.S. shale plays. Guess which two shale plays are at the top? Yep–the Marcellus (81% of respondents operate there) and the Utica (76% operate there). The next closest is the Eagle Ford Shale in Texas (33% operate there). The top legal issue faced by drillers? Real estate…
Read More “New Report Details Top Legal Issues for Shale Drillers”
Attention truck drivers who want an excellent job making short runs in the Marcellus Shale industry, and who want to make $60,000 per year (no, this is not an infomercial). Schneider National, an oilfield trucking company based in Wisconsin, is looking to hire 60 new drivers to work out of one of two northeast PA locations: Mansfield or Wilkes-Barre. In addition to a well-paying job, Schneider is offering a $5,000 signing bonus and money for relocation.
Here’s the Schneider National press release with details on how to apply:
Read More “Schneider National Hiring 60 New Marcellus Truck Drivers in NE PA”
The Washington County Watershed Alliance (WCWA) and Southwest PA Environmental Health Project (SWPA-EHP), with an assist from Carnegie Mellon University’s (CMU) CREATE lab, are conducting a large-scale project in Washington County, PA to see if Marcellus Shale drilling is affecting water wells in the county. MCWA wants both landowners who live near drilling, and landowners who do not live near drilling, to participate. The program is free and volunteers get a neat little device created by the CMU CREATE lab called a CATTFish that inserts in the back of your toilet–simple and quick.
Here’s more information about how (and why) to participate in the program, along with a flier from WCWA about the program:
Read More “SW PA Well Water Testing Project Needs Volunteers”
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, Jul 2, 2013”
You probably could have seen this one coming: Last Friday, Shell signed a second six-month extension with Horsehead Corp. on a 300-acre site in Beaver County, PA. Shell continues to evaluate the site’s suitability to build a $2 billion ethane cracker plant–a plant that will convert ethane recovered during shale gas drilling in “wet gas” areas into (among other things) ethylene–the raw material used to make plastics. The land deal was supposed to be signed, sealed and delivered by the end of 2012, but that changed when Shell and Horsehead signed their first six-month extension (see Gov Tom Corbett: Shell Cracker Plant in PA Not “Off the Rails”).
In April 2013, PA Gov. Tom Corbett, under “badgering” by the Pittsburgh Business Times (according to Corbett’s office), said he believed the deal would not be signed until 2014 (see Corbett Story Changes: Decision on PA Cracker Plant Delayed Again). It appears his prediction was accurate:
Read More “Shell Delays Buying Site for PA Cracker for 2nd Six-Month Period”