Marcellus Drilling News

Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

MDN Goes to See Gasland 2 & Josh Fox at Binghamton Screening
June 10, 2013June 10, 2013

MDN editor Jim Willis attended a screening of Gasland 2 in Binghamton last Wednesday night. This article is my impressions of the movie, of Josh Fox (who was there) and of the crowd of 300 or so assembled to watch it. Let me start with a review of the movie itself, which runs about 2 hours long. When the movie was over I had to leave before the Q&A with Fox got underway–off to pick up my 16 year-old son from a late after-school activity. On the way home he asked me about the movie and I told him about the opening 10 minutes:

Fox somehow, secretly hired a helicopter to give him a ride over the BP oil spill from the Deepwater Horizon platform in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. Fox talked about the spill and showed stunning pictures of oil stretching for miles on top of the waves. He then interviewed local government officials from Louisiana who claimed BP was putting nasty chemicals on the oil in order to “sink it down” to the bottom of the ocean, where it would, according to Fox, accumulate into some sort of sludge laying barren that part of the ocean and its ecosystem.

My son stopped me: “What does that have to do with gas drilling, dad?” My response: “Exactly son. You asked the exact right question–a question that 295 of the 300 people in that audience tonight will never ask themselves.”
Read More “MDN Goes to See Gasland 2 & Josh Fox at Binghamton Screening”
Carroll County | Ohio | Utica Shale

Ohio’s #1 Township for Most Utica Shale Drilling is…
June 10, 2013June 10, 2013

Where is the #1 township for Utica Shale drilling in all of Ohio? According to someone who would know, Rick Simmers, chief of the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources’ Division of Oil & Gas Resources Management, the #1 township for Utica Shale drilling is…
Read More “Ohio’s #1 Township for Most Utica Shale Drilling is…”
DTE Energy | Enbridge | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pipelines | Spectra Energy | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

OH Route of Proposed NEXUS Gas Pipeline Revealed
June 10, 2013June 10, 2013

Last September MDN told you about a new $1.5 billion Utica Shale natural gas pipeline that would run from Ohio through Michigan and eventually into Canada, delivering Utica Shale gas to Midwestern markets (see New Utica Shale Pipeline to Midwest Announced). The project is called the NEXUS Gas Transmission (NGT) pipeline and is being built by DTE Energy, Enbridge amd Spectra Energy. Since the pipeline was announced, we’ve had precious few details on the proposed route. Until now…
Read More “OH Route of Proposed NEXUS Gas Pipeline Revealed”
Energy Services | Harrison County | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Rockford | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | Susquehanna County | Washington County | West Virginia

Rockford/Primoris Lands $92M in Marcellus Pipeline Contracts
June 10, 2013June 10, 2013

Pipeliner company Rockford Corporation, a subsidiary of Primoris Services Corporation, announced last week they’ve landed five projects in the PA and WV Marcellus Shale to construct new pipelines–some of them wet gas, some dry gas–work totaling $91.9 million.

The Primoris press release details the specs for each project, including where they will be built:
Read More “Rockford/Primoris Lands $92M in Marcellus Pipeline Contracts”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Berks County | Chester County | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Research | UGI Energy Services

PA Anti-Drillers Beat a Dead Horse with New Anti-Pipeline Report
June 10, 2013June 10, 2013

Recipe for the perfect anti-drilling, anti-pipeline “meatless” report: Start with anti-drilling politicians in six southeastern Pennsylvania towns who hypocritically use fossil fuels themselves but demand others not use them; add in a few environmental-sounding names from surrounding areas like “Big Woods” and “French Creek”; talk about the breeding habits of bog turtles; use a lot of pretty pictures of wilderness landscapes, flowers, plants and even a few predatory animals; throw in some pictures of humans walking in said pristine landscapes; and sprinkle phrases like “exceptional value” or “high quality” throughout. The result? A so-called report titled “Important Resources of the Hopewell Big Woods and the Potential Impacts of Pipeline Development on the Landscape” (full copy embedded below).

The report is so devoid of any real analysis and science one of the (obviously carnivorous) anti-drillers who commissioned it said it was too light on substance and he wants to see a report “with some meat on it”…
Read More “PA Anti-Drillers Beat a Dead Horse with New Anti-Pipeline Report”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Wayne County

Impotent DRBC Killing Farmers in Wayne County, PA with Moratorium
June 10, 2013June 10, 2013

Sadly, there’s a large swath of land in northeastern Pennsylvania, in Wayne and surrounding counties (see map below), that has the same disease as all of New York State. It’s called a shale drilling moratorium. Why is there a moratorium in Wayne County? Most of Wayne, all of Pike County and parts of a few other NE PA counties are located within the Delaware River Basin Commission’s jurisdiction, which has had a ban in place since 2010. The DRBC is controlled by five voting members: the governors of Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware and New Jersey, plus a member of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. It’s hard enough to get one state government to sign off on drilling–but four? Including NY?? Good luck with that.

An article in yesterday’s Wilkes-Barre Citizens’ Voice looks at how the impotent DRBC is killing farmers in NE PA with their moratorium…
Read More “Impotent DRBC Killing Farmers in Wayne County, PA with Moratorium”
Energy Companies | EQT Corp | Industrywide Issues | Supply Chain

EQT Clamps Down on Supply Chain Partners, Requires ISN Cert
June 10, 2013June 10, 2013

Listen up companies that want to be part of Marcellus/Utica driller EQT Corporation’s supply chain: You now need to be ISN (ISNetWorld) certified…
Read More “EQT Clamps Down on Supply Chain Partners, Requires ISN Cert”
Education | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Grads: Want a High-Paying Job? Look in the Marcellus/Utica
June 10, 2013June 10, 2013

Not that we haven’t already covered the topic of “get a job in the gas industry if you want to make really really good money” many times before. At this time of year with high school graduations aplenty, it doesn’t hurt to remind new graduates about the facts one more time.

So, how much money can you make working in the gas industry? A lot…
Read More “Grads: Want a High-Paying Job? Look in the Marcellus/Utica”
About MDN | Calendar

Calendar of Events for Jun 10-23, 2013 [Free]
June 10, 2013June 10, 2013

Below are upcoming events for this week and next.
Read More “Calendar of Events for Jun 10-23, 2013 [Free]”
Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Mon, Jun 10, 2013
June 10, 2013June 10, 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: Mon, Jun 10, 2013”
Energy Services | GreenHunter Resources | Industrywide Issues | Meigs County | Ohio | Regulation | Wastewater

GreenHunter Opens Brine Injection Well in Meigs County, OH
June 7, 2013June 7, 2013

GreenHunter Water’s newest brine injection well has begun operation in Meigs County, Ohio. The well is located close to the Ohio River and GreenHunter hopes to, at some point, receive brine wastewater via barge and pump it directly from barges to the well for disposal, reducing truck trips. GreenHunter now has eight active saltwater (brine) injection wells in the Utica/Marcellus region, five of which are located in Ohio.

Management says they are excited to “be the first to implement a barging program…” However, as far as we know, the Coast Guard (and the White House and a variety of other agencies) have still not given the green light for barge shipments of fracking wastewater, which includes brine (see The Long (Federal) Road to Approve GreenHunter’s Barge Terminals).
Read More “GreenHunter Opens Brine Injection Well in Meigs County, OH”
Boardwalk Pipeline Partners | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | NGLs | Ohio | Pipelines | Statewide OH | Williams

Bluegrass Pipeline – Possible Map & Route Through Ohio ID’d
June 7, 2013June 7, 2013

We’re now narrowing in on the proposed route for the Bluegrass Pipeline–a natural gas liquids pipeline coming from Williams and Boardwalk Pipeline Partners that will repurpose some existing pipelines and build new sections. The pipeline will run from the Marcellus/Utica region all the way to the Gulf Coast–to carry NGLs to the Gulf for processing (see Williams, Boardwalk Announce Marcellus-to-Gulf Coast NGL Pipeline).

Williams and Boardwalk have not released a map of the proposed official route, but using several recent articles and a site set up by lawyers who want to represent landowners whose property the pipeline will cross, we’ve got a map of the proposed route through Ohio and a pretty good idea of where, in certain counties, the pipeline will cross…
Read More “Bluegrass Pipeline – Possible Map & Route Through Ohio ID’d”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Public Opinion | Statewide NY

Latest Q Poll Results – NY Support for Fracking Trends Up
June 7, 2013June 7, 2013

It’s been a while since MDN has covered the polls numbers in New York State–how many NYers are for or against shale gas drilling and fracking. The latest Quinnipiac University statewide poll numbers were released yesterday and show that while the state remains fairly evenly divided as a whole (46% in favor, 44% against), if you look at the trend information, you notice the number of those who favor drilling are trending up, and the number against is trending down. Which will no doubt cause more angst among the hippie protester crowd who thought they were winning the debate by using lies and fear tactics.
Read More “Latest Q Poll Results – NY Support for Fracking Trends Up”
Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Statewide OH | Taxation

OH Gov Kasich Latest Frack Tax Plan – Third Time’s the Charm?
June 7, 2013June 7, 2013

Ohio Gov. John Kasich is trying to make his plan to hike severance taxes on oil and gas drilling in the fledgling Utica Shale a little more palatable with a ~~bribe~~ plan to kick back 25% of the taxes raised to the eastern Ohio counties most affected by drilling. The other 75% would, of course, be spent on lowering everyone else’s income taxes a tiny fraction–instead of making the tough choices of cutting obscene government spending. Typical political sleaze–and shameful coming from a so-called conservative Republican.

This is the third such tax increase plan Kasich has tried to push through. Here’s the details of the latest plan, such that they are, being floated by Kasich’s office:
Read More “OH Gov Kasich Latest Frack Tax Plan – Third Time’s the Charm?”
Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Regulation

EPA to Investigate Itself on Methane Leaks from Pipelines
June 7, 2013June 7, 2013

The federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) just keeps trying to do what they Constitutionally are not allowed to do: regulate oil and gas drilling. Their latest effort to do so comes from the EPA’s Inspector General office, which announced plans to investigate whether the EPA is taking enough action to reduce methane leaks from natural gas pipelines. Kind of like a person kicking himself in his own rear-end…
Read More “EPA to Investigate Itself on Methane Leaks from Pipelines”
Accidents | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Lycoming County | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | PVR Midstream | PVR Partners

PA DEP Slaps PVR Gathering with $150K Fine for Illegal Discharges
June 7, 2013June 7, 2013

PVR Marcellus Gas Gathering, a PA-based midstream company, was fined $150,000 this week by the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection for four episodes of “discharge violations” that happened while PVR was constructing the Coal Mountain pipeline in Lycoming County, PA in 2011. The DEP slapped them hard because, says the DEP, the company kept repeating the same violation–discharging bentonite (impure clay) into a local creek. PVR Marcellus Gas Gathering is a subsidiary of PVR Partners (formerly Penn Virginia Resource Partners).

The DEP announcement:
Read More “PA DEP Slaps PVR Gathering with $150K Fine for Illegal Discharges”