Marcellus Drilling News

Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Herkimer County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation

Manheim Latest NY Town to Pass Illegal Fracking Moratorium
June 13, 2013June 13, 2013

Yet another New York town has foolishly voted to extend a moratorium on drilling. Why foolish? A judge threw out a similar moratorium in Binghamton, NY last year (see NY Judge Throws Out Binghamton Fracking Moratorium). Depending on the language used and general circumstances, moratoriums in New York are illegal. Outright bans, for now, are still legal–although a pair of cases is (hopefully) headed to the state’s highest court which may overturn the right of towns to ban fracking (i.e. stop them from stripping away the rights of property owners).

The latest NY town to pass a moratorium and announce to the world it’s closed for business is Manheim (Herkimer County), NY. Note to Manheim taxpayers: Get ready to open your wallets to defend an expensive lawsuit…
Read More “Manheim Latest NY Town to Pass Illegal Fracking Moratorium”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide PA

Heinz Endowments President Owns $1.2M in Kinder Morgan Stock
June 13, 2013June 13, 2013

The innocent-sounding Public Accountability Initiative (PAI), whose stated mission is “investigating power and corruption at the heights of business and government,” delights in “outing” connections between individuals and/or organizations and what they consider the dirty, nasty fossil fuel industry. Yet PAI refuses to admit that they themselves are funded (and corrupted) by George Soros, convicted insider trader and financier of a myriad of leftist causes (see Soros-backed PAI Makes University of Texas Look Foolish).

PAI is back with another sham report. But this one has a somewhat startling revelation: One of the primary individuals behind the Center for Sustainable Shale Development (CSSD), Heinz Endowments president Robert F. Vagt, has “undisclosed ties” to the natural gas industry…
Read More “Heinz Endowments President Owns $1.2M in Kinder Morgan Stock”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Berkeley County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Intelligence to be Sacrificed at WV Stop the Kaboom Festival
June 13, 2013June 13, 2013

The crazies are at it again. Radical anti-fossil fuel activists, calling fracking “extreme resource extraction” that is “destroying the planet,” are organizing a hippie-fest in Hedgesville (Berkeley County), WV this Friday through Sunday to raise money to agitate against fossil fuels–the very same fossil fuels the people organizing and attending use every day of their lives. The so-called “Stop the Kaboom Music and Arts Festival” (bring your own pot) is now in its third year and hopes to be bigger and better than ever…
Read More “Intelligence to be Sacrificed at WV Stop the Kaboom Festival”
Century Midstream | Energy Services

New Midstream Company – Coming to Marcellus/Utica?
June 13, 2013June 13, 2013

Will a new Houston, TX-based midstream (pipelines & processing plants) company enter the Marcellus/Utica region soon? Maybe. Yesterday, Century Midstream LLC formally launched, formed by a seasoned team of midstream executives and backed by the deep pockets of investment firm First Reserve. Some of the executive team most recently worked on projects in the Marcellus/Utica, leading to our speculation that this new company may well be getting ready to enter the region…
Read More “New Midstream Company – Coming to Marcellus/Utica?”
Anadarko | ConocoPhillips | Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Talisman Energy

Will Investor Pressure Force Some Drillers to Split Company?
June 13, 2013June 13, 2013

Are we about to see large oil and gas companies begin to split U.S. and foreign operations? An interesting theory is put forth in an article on the Investors Business Daily website that a plan by Occidental Petroleum to split its U.S. and foreign businesses may lead to other oil companies doing the same. Why? Investors want to drive up the per-share price of the companies, and by shedding more risky, less profitable international operations, they may be able to do it.

What caught MDN’s eye about the article is that the author uses Cabot Oil & Gas as an example of how a small domestic David-type company’s stock price can run rings around a much larger Goliath-type. MDN pointed this out in early March when we noted that Cabot’s market capitalization soared past Chesapeake Energy, a company at least 10 times the size of Cabot (see Guest Post: Corporate Hubris Humbles Chesapeake – Cabot Soars Sure & Steady). Also of interest is that the article names several large multi-nationals with drilling operations in the Marcellus/Utica (ConocoPhillips, Anadarko Petroleum and Talisman Energy) as being pressured to consider splitting their companies…
Read More “Will Investor Pressure Force Some Drillers to Split Company?”
Economic Impact | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Mahoning County | Ohio | Pipelines | Supply Chain | V&M Star Steel | Vallourec

French Company Christens New Pipe Facility/350 Jobs in Youngstown
June 13, 2013June 13, 2013

French pipe manufacturer Vallourec cut the ribbon yesterday on a new facility at their Youngstown, OH location. The former V&M Star facility (now renamed to Vallourec Star) manufacturers pipe for the oil and gas industry–in particular the rapidly expanding Marcellus and Utica Shale drilling industry. The pipe manufactured at the new plant will not only service the northeast but will be shipped around the world.

Vallourec invested $1.5 billion in the new plant where there are now 350 employees, many of them formerly out of work pipe workers from the Mahoning and Shenango Valley area. In addition to 350 employees at the pipe plant, Vallourec employs another 350 at their adjacent steel mill. Coming soon, another 100 jobs at a new threading plant in the same compound…
Read More “French Company Christens New Pipe Facility/350 Jobs in Youngstown”
Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Thu, Jun 13, 2013
June 13, 2013June 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: Thu, Jun 13, 2013”
Economic Impact | Erie County (NY) | Industrywide Issues | New York

Natural Flame Near Buffalo May Change World Shale Gas Estimates
June 12, 2013June 12, 2013

An “eternal flame,” a naturally occurring flame that burns from a source of underground natural gas just outside of Buffalo, NY (see video below) may have profound implications for energy worldwide. The source of fuel for that flame, not yet fully understood, may mean everything we thought about how much natural gas is available in shale deposits is wrong–grossly wrong. And way, way too low…
Read More “Natural Flame Near Buffalo May Change World Shale Gas Estimates”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Onondaga County | Regulation

Pompey, NY Votes to Ban Drilling, Bullies 2 Board Members
June 12, 2013June 12, 2013

The Town of Pompey (Onondaga County), NY, near Syracuse, voted on June 3 to ban all fracking and shale drilling in the town. We’d like to take this opportunity to once again deliver a brief history lesson of how and why this is nothing short of mob rule and not classic democracy in action.

First, the news from Pompey and how three town board members (Carol Marsh, Greg Herlhy and Victor Lafrenz) bullied two other board members (Carl Dennis and Craig Smithgall) into not voting, and how those three individuals unilaterally snatched away the property rights of 15-20 landowners in the town who already have gas leases, with a single vote…
Read More “Pompey, NY Votes to Ban Drilling, Bullies 2 Board Members”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

Bloomberg: NY Dead Last in Business Because of Fracking Moratorium
June 12, 2013June 12, 2013

An article appearing on, of all places, the ultra-liberal Bloomberg news service, compares both California and New York and their neck-and-neck race to be dead last in business friendliness. Although both states have ineffective governors and shoot themselves in the head on a number of issues, the article concludes that New York wins the dubious distinction of being “dead last” for business climate primarily because of one deciding factor: fracking.

California, even with Gov. Jerry “Moonbeam” Brown and its pot-smoking, granola-head legislature has embraced (or at least not rejected) fracking, while New York’s Gov. Andrew “Ditherer” Cuomo, frightened of his loony left, has continued to block fracking. New York is entering a fifth year of a de facto moratorium on drilling and it has killed the upstate economy.

From the article:
Read More “Bloomberg: NY Dead Last in Business Because of Fracking Moratorium”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Litigation

The Thorny Issue of Proving Water Contamination from Fracking
June 12, 2013June 12, 2013

Does fracking cause water contamination? Anti-drillers have repeated the claim so often, and the claim has been picked up and repeated and amplified by the mainstream media so often, that it’s now almost an article of faith. Axiomatic. Self-evident. At a minimum, a wide swath of Americans who don’t know much about oil and gas drilling have their suspicions that fracking may indeed contaminate water–primarily because of the negative media coverage they’ve heard.

Keith Hall, director of the Louisiana Mineral Law Institute and an assistant professor of law at Louisiana State University has written an excellent article appearing in the online Ohio State Law Journal Furthermore. The article is titled, “Hydraulic Fracturing Contamination Claims: Problems of Proof” (full copy embedded below). In the article, Hall addresses the problems of landowners in attempting to prove that fracking (or oil and gas drilling) has contaminated their water. He concludes it this way:
Read More “The Thorny Issue of Proving Water Contamination from Fracking”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

NY Fracking Moratorium Bill in Senate Still Stalled, TY Repubs
June 12, 2013June 12, 2013

Thank God for the Republicans in the New York State Senate. Because of the leadership (and opposition) of people like Sen. Tom Libous (Binghamton, NY) and Senate Co-Majority Leader Dean Skelos, a bill in the Senate to extend a fracking moratorium statewide until next May is still stalled and likely will not come to a vote. A similar bill has already passed the Democrat-dominated NY Assembly…
Read More “NY Fracking Moratorium Bill in Senate Still Stalled, TY Repubs”
Encana Energy | Energy Companies

Encana Appoints BP’s COO Doug Suttles as their New CEO
June 12, 2013June 12, 2013

Encana, Canada’s largest drilling company and a big driller in the Marcellus Shale, has had a rough 12 months. It was almost one year ago in June 2012 that Encana was accused of colluding with Chesapeake Energy to keep the prices of oil and gas leases being auctioned by Michigan artificially low. Reuters, using pirated emails, said Encana and Chesapeake had some sort of deal not to bid against each other (see Did Reuters Break the Law with Latest Chesapeake Story?). Then in January, Encana CEO Randy Eresman suddenly and unexpectedly resigned and left the company, prompting speculation that the company may be on the market (see Encana Interim CEO Says Company is Not For Sale).

Apparently that speculation was wrong. Yesterday, Encana’s board of directors appointed a new CEO, Doug Suttles, formerly COO of BP. Suttles and the board are now in the honeymoon stage…
Read More “Encana Appoints BP’s COO Doug Suttles as their New CEO”
Fayette County | Industrywide Issues | Wastewater | West Virginia

Possible Problem at WV Frack Wastewater Injection Well
June 12, 2013June 12, 2013

West Virginia regulators are investigating whether or not an injection well in Fayette County used for fracking wastewater is discharging some of that wastewater into Wolf Creek. Apparently there have been past issues with the well…
Read More “Possible Problem at WV Frack Wastewater Injection Well”
Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Equinor/Statoil | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Marshall County | West Virginia

WV Landowners Settle with Chesapeake Out of Court
June 12, 2013June 12, 2013

A lawsuit in Marshall County, WV that previously escaped our notice has just been settled. Landowners David and Sharon Hall, owners of 116 acres, sued Chesapeake Energy and Statoil alleging damage to their surface property. The lawsuit also says Chesapeake did sloppy work on the drill pad, destroyed crops and destroyed timber on seven acres of the Hall’s land.

Last Friday the judge dismissed the case because it was settled out of court…
Read More “WV Landowners Settle with Chesapeake Out of Court”
Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Wed, Jun 12, 2013
June 12, 2013June 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, Jun 12, 2013”