Marcellus Drilling News

Ohio finally released 2012 Utica Shale production numbers for oil and gas yesterday. It’s tough to summarize those numbers in a simple statement, but if we had to, we’d say “disappointing.” The total production numbers are quite a bit lower than we had expected–12.8 billion cubic feet of natural gas & NGLs produced for the year, and almost 636,000 barrels of oil, from 87 producing wells. The question is, why was it not more? The short answer, we believe, is “lack of infrastructure.” It was not from “lack of performance” by the wells themselves, some of which turned in very good numbers.

MDN has embedded a copy of the numbers below as reported by the ODNR (with two extra rows in the data provided by MDN). We’ll report what the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources said about the numbers, what others have had to say, and then give you our take on the numbers. Buckle up!
Read More “OH 2012 Utica Production: A Slow Start, but Still Hopeful”

About MDN

MDN Editorial Note: Just One Story Today

May 17, 2013

Dear MDN Readers:

Today we have a single story–about the newly released numbers from the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources detailing the Utica Shale production numbers for 2012. It’s a big and important story. We’ll catch up the other news of the day on Monday.

Jim Willis, Editor
Marcellus Drilling News

Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

OH Utica Production Numbers for 2012 Coming TODAY

May 16, 2013

The Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources will release the long-awaited Utica Shale production numbers for 2012 at 2:00 pm today, Thursday, May 16.

The Youngstown Business Journal issued this bulletin about the forthcoming numbers:
Read More “OH Utica Production Numbers for 2012 Coming TODAY”

Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Research

New Duke/USGS Study: Fracking Does Not Contaminate Well Water

May 16, 2013May 16, 2013

A new study by Duke University researchers and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) finds “no evidence of groundwater contamination from shale gas production in Arkansas.” The study, published in the peer-reviewed journal Applied Geochemistry (full copy embedded below), looked at samples from 127 water wells across the state. In those few cases where they found methane, it wasn’t methane from deep below (i.e. drilling) but rather naturally occurring methane from near the surface. No fracking chemicals were found in well water.

This study is yet another nail in the coffin of shrill, anti-drilling blathering that shale drilling “contaminates water supplies.” The science clearly says it does not.
Read More “New Duke/USGS Study: Fracking Does Not Contaminate Well Water”

Ohio | Statewide OH

OH Landowners May be Able to Reclaim Severed Mineral Rights

May 16, 2013May 16, 2013

Are you an Ohio landowner who doesn’t own the mineral rights under your property (those rights being previously separated or “severed”), but you want to? According to Ohio’s Dormant Minerals Act, if the mineral rights owner has not “used” those rights in 20 years, you may be able to reclaim the mineral rights as the surface landowner.

The law firm of Bricker & Eclker LLP explain:
Read More “OH Landowners May be Able to Reclaim Severed Mineral Rights”

“Wheeling Water Warriors” Oppose GreenHunter Wastewater Facility

May 16, 2013May 16, 2013

You just have to marvel at the creativity of anti-drillers. Get a half dozen of them in a room and they’ll name themselves something funny and then pretend to have hundreds of followers. The media laps it up and amplifies it. Latest example: Anti-drillers who oppose a new fracking wastewater facility GreenHunter Water is proposing for Wheeling, WV. The “Wheeling Water Warriors” have formed to oppose the project. (We wonder if they have spandex uniforms with superhero capes to go along with the name?)
Read More ““Wheeling Water Warriors” Oppose GreenHunter Wastewater Facility”

Columbia Gas Seeks Approval for 2 PA Marcellus Pipeline Projects

May 16, 2013May 16, 2013

Columbia Gas Transmission submitted applications to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last Friday to get approval for two pipeline upgrade projects to take advantage of the huge production coming from the Marcellus. In the case of one of the projects (Smithfield III Expansion), Columbia wants to reverse the flow of the pipeline and start sending gas from north to south. That includes replacing certain fittings and building a new compressor station in Washington County, PA. The other proposed new project (Line 1570) includes replacing 18.5 miles of pipeline in southwest PA and upgrading an existing compressor station.
Read More “Columbia Gas Seeks Approval for 2 PA Marcellus Pipeline Projects”

Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

ODNR Approves 22 More Utica Permits, Grand Total Now 660

May 16, 2013May 16, 2013

The new grand total for permits to drill in the Ohio Utica Shale has hit 660 as of the latest Dept. of Natural Resources report. Another 22 new permits were issued as of last week. Here’s the rundown of where they were issued:
Read More “ODNR Approves 22 More Utica Permits, Grand Total Now 660”

Cincinnati City Council Wants to Ban OH Wastewater Injection Wells

May 16, 2013May 16, 2013

Agitated for by the odious anti-drilling group Food & Water Watch and supported by elected Democrats, the Cincinnati City Council yesterday passed a resolution calling for a statewide ban on disposing shale wastewater and brine via injection wells. City Council disingenuously says the substances being disposed of (injected in the wells) is hazardous to human health, which is true enough in high concentrations, but they fail to also call for the banning of all such injection wells throughout the state.

Other injection wells in Ohio dispose of far more toxic substances than fracking wastewater. Injection wells are made to hold such substances–yet, no resolution to ban these far more “dangerous” injection wells. How come Cincy? Sauce for the goose…
Read More “Cincinnati City Council Wants to Ban OH Wastewater Injection Wells”

New Pipeline Construction Coming to Broome County, NY

May 16, 2013May 16, 2013

Last week MDN told you that one of New York State’s largest natural gas transmission pipelines, the Millennium, is planning to build a couple of new connectors to other pipelines running through upstate New York (see The Irony: Millennium Pipeline Expanding in NY for More Shale Gas). We now know a bit more about those plans. Several towns in eastern Broome County, NY have received notices from the Millennium that they sit along the proposed pathway where new construction would occur…
Read More “New Pipeline Construction Coming to Broome County, NY”

Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Taxation

Hanger, O-R Support Redistribution of Drilling Wealth in PA

May 16, 2013May 16, 2013

Apparently John Hanger, former Secretary of the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection under Gov. Ed Rendell, wants to tax the successful Marcellus drilling industry in his state into being far less successful. He’ll do just that if he wins his bid to become PA’s next governor. The Washington, PA Oberver-Reporter supports his nutty philosophy as well. The “looking-through-the-wrong-end-of-the-telescope” argument Hanger and other liberal Democrats try to make is that PA is leaving money on the table that could be used to fund a plethora of social programs (programs that create voters to keep Dems in office). Because PA doesn’t tax the drilling industry as much as Texas and other drilling states by using a severance tax, PA is somehow behind the Eight Ball. There’s just one problem with that argument:
Read More “Hanger, O-R Support Redistribution of Drilling Wealth in PA”

Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Thu, May 16, 2013

May 16, 2013May 16, 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, May 16, 2013”

Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Public Opinion | Statewide PA

Poll: PA Residents Support Fracking & Moratorium Too…Say What?

May 15, 2013May 15, 2013

Huh. Talk about schizophrenia… A poll of Pennsylvania residents conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan and Muhlenberg College last fall Read More “Poll: PA Residents Support Fracking & Moratorium Too…Say What?”

Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

New EPA Rule Regulates Fracking via Back Door of Chemical Reporting

May 15, 2013May 15, 2013

It appears that once again the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is making a play at regulating oil and gas drilling, an activity specifically left to Read More “New EPA Rule Regulates Fracking via Back Door of Chemical Reporting”