Marcellus Drilling News

Allegheny County | Meetings | Pennsylvania

MDN Goes to NAPE East in Pittsburgh (Pictures!)
April 16, 2013April 16, 2013

Sooner or later, all energy roads in the Marcellus and Utica Shale lead to Pittsburgh. In many ways, because of the huge impact of the Marcellus (and now Utica) Shale, Pittsburgh has become the new Houston–the center of the energy universe. At least in the northeast. Last week the North American Prospect Expo (NAPE) brought its franchise event to Pittsburgh. NAPE usually runs twice a year–in Houston. This year they’ve added Pittsburgh to the lineup, calling it NAPE East.

MDN editor Jim Willis attended and hung out at the NGI Shale Daily booth for most of the event, chatting with passersby. We already brought you links to stories about the event from several Pittsburgh media outlets (see Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Fri, Apr 12, 2013). Below, Jim provides his thoughts on the event, and the comments (gossip!) he heard at the event. More importantly, he took pictures! We’ve created a “virtual tour” of the event, so you get a feel for what such an event looks like, and what happens…

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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Statewide NY

PBS ‘Innovation Trail’ Does Sloppy (Lazy?) Reporting on JLCNY
April 16, 2013April 16, 2013

Although it’s often maddening, to MDN, it’s sad to have to report on the bias (or laziness) in the mainstream media with regard to the drilling issue. Today we bring you one of the many examples we could have—and we bring it because of its particularly egregious nature. Innovation Trail is a collaboration between six upstate New York public media outlets. A reporter from the Buffalo PBS station, WBFO, posted an article yesterday that makes a factually wrong statement about the Joint Landowners Coalition of New York (JLCNY). If the reporter, Ashley Hassett, had bothered to check with the JLCNY instead of dutifully regurgitating propaganda from a radical group like Food & Water Watch, she might have preserved a bit of journalistic integrity with this story.

Using the ultra-radical Food & Water Watch (FWW) as her only source, Hassett posted a story with the theme that farmers and "foodies" (foodies being the radicals at FWW) are getting together to encourage Gov. Cuomo to adopt a ban on fracking. It was in the context of this so-called story she unknowingly (our preferred view) or perhaps knowingly made a statement about the JLCNY and their position that is an outright lie…

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Industrywide Issues | NG Vehicles

T. Boone Pickens Let’s the "F" Word Fly Re NatGas & DC
April 16, 2013April 16, 2013

Boone Pickens is worked up about the lack of vision and foresight on the part of Washington, D.C. politicians—when it comes to converting trucking fleets to run on natural gas. He’s so worked up, in fact, that he let the "f" word fly in referring to said politicians during a recent conversation with a Bloomberg Businessweek reporter.

In Boone’s own words…

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Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Bloomberg Says Ohio Utica Shale is Gassy, Not Oily
April 16, 2013April 16, 2013

Even though the 2012 production numbers for Ohio have still not been released, Bloomberg has declared Ohio’s dreams of producing large quantities of crude oil now dead and buried. Bloomberg says the Utica Shale play has turned out much more "gassy" than "oily". As their evidence, Bloomberg points to Ohio Utica asset sales now offered by some of the state’s biggest drillers, along with the opinions of a few analysts:

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Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies

Chesapeake Investor Presentation – Interesting Slides/Maps
April 16, 2013April 16, 2013

Thanks to intrepid MDN contributor Chris Acker for sending along a link for the latest PowerPoint slide deck published by Chesapeake Energy (see it below). Jammed with useful information, we particularly like map on Slide 13 showing the location of natural gas processing plants in the Utica/Marcellus (with Chesapeake’s leasehold acreage colored in); the map on Slide 14 showing new pipeline "take away" capacity coming online soon; and Slides 27 & 28 showing, respectively, a Utica Shale and Marcellus Shale summary for Chesapeake’s holdings in each of those plays (how many rigs they operate, etc.).

There’s some really great stuff in this slide deck. Check it out…

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Blue Ridge Mtn Res/Magnum Hunter | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Eureka Midstream

Magnum Hunter 1Q13 Update: More Drilling in Marcellus/Utica
April 16, 2013April 16, 2013

This morning Magnum Hunter Resources, a drilling and midstream (pipeline) company issued an update for their first quarter 2013 operations. According to CEO Gary Evans, Magnum Hunter is due to close on the sale of their Eagle Ford Shale assets to Penn Virginia for $401 later this month. They plan to reinvest the proceeds in drilling in the Marcellus and Utica Shale region, along with more drilling in North Dakota’s Williston Basin (Bakken Shale play).

Here are the sections from today’s announcement dealing with the Marcellus/Utica:

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Energy Services | Harrison County | Industrywide Issues | MarkWest Energy | NGLs | Ohio | Pipelines | Processing Plants

Good Progress on MarkWest’s Cadiz, OH Processing Plant
April 16, 2013April 16, 2013

MarkWest’s Cadiz, Ohio natural gas processing plant has been online since last year and currently separates handles 60 million cubic feet of gas per day (Mmcf/d), separating out gas liquids like ethane, propane, butane and pentane. MarkWest is busy building an expansion of the plant that, when done, will add an additional 125 Mmcf/d of capacity.

An update on MarkWest’s $1.8 billion infrastructure projects under way in Ohio this year:

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Allegheny County | Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Education | Energy Companies | EQT Corp | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania

The Nutty Antics of Anti-Drilling Kids – Pittsburgh Edition
April 16, 2013April 16, 2013

Just a few days after MDN editor Jim Willis visited Pittsburgh, a small group of 15 anti-drillers made fools of themselves in front of EQT Plaza in downtown Pittsburgh. Their (latest) cause? They don’t like the new Center for Sustainable Shale Development (CSSD) and EQT’s participation in it. They believe the CSSD legitimizes "dirty" fossil fuels, like clean-burning natural gas, and since they (irrationally) hate all fossil fuels, any effort at ensuring mining of those fuels is done safely is tantamount to killing Mother Earth. Wackos.

To illustrate the "folly" of big, nasty drillers cooperating with eco-nut organizations like GASP and the Heinz Foundation, this small group of true believers (local college students with time on their hands, from a Fruit Loops organization called the Energy Action Coalition) staged a mock wedding in front of EQT…

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Allegheny County | Pennsylvania

Southwest Airlines Begins Daily Roundtrip Houston/Pittsburgh
April 16, 2013April 16, 2013

Makes sense that Houston, the reigning champ as "energy capital of the world" and Pittsburgh, the challenger and on the ascendancy to the title, would have a direct airline flight between them. Until last weekend, there was one–United. United is now joined by a second direct flight every day: Southwest Airlines.

Southwest announced on Sunday they have begun a daily flight from Pittsburgh to Houston and back.

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Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Tue, Apr 16, 2013
April 16, 2013April 16, 2013

The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading:

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Accidents | Blue Ridge Mtn Res/Magnum Hunter | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Eureka Midstream | Industrywide Issues | Tyler County | West Virginia

Flash Fire at Pipeline Station in WV Kills 1, Injures 3 Others
April 15, 2013April 15, 2013

A flash fire at a "pig receiving station" along a Eureka Hunter pipeline near Wick (Tyler County), WV last Thursday evening seriously injured three people requiring they be airlifted to Pittsburgh. A fourth person was taken to a local hospital. Sadly, one of the seriously injured workers, 56-year-old Bruce Phipps of Marietta, Ohio, died late Friday night. Pipeline Inspection Gauges (or Pigs) are used for pipeline cleaning, inspection and maintenance, and fluid batching in pipelines. A pig is pushed along the inside of a pipeline by the flow of liquid or gas. A pig launching station is used to insert the pig into a pipeline using a series of valves and hatches. The pig is pushed through the pipeline by the liquid or gas stream to the pig receiving station.

It was at such a receiving station where the flash fire occurred. According to news accounts, the flash fire was under control within 15 minutes…

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation | Statewide WV | West Virginia

WV Shale Drilling Bills that Failed in 2013 Legislative Session
April 15, 2013April 15, 2013

Whether it was from industry lobbying, landowner pushback, or just lack of interest, a number of bills introduced in the West Virginia legislature’s 60-day session for 2013 (which adjourned Saturday) failed to get enough traction for a vote and have died.

A short list of the measures that didn’t measure up:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

JLCNY Keeps up Letter Writing Pressure on NY Gov. Cuomo
April 15, 2013April 15, 2013

The 77,000-member Joint Landowners Coalition of New York issued another request from gas drilling supporters late last week to keep sending letters to Gov. Andrew Cuomo in an attempt to convince him to move forward with authorizing drilling. Saying that "we ARE winning in NY," and that this is now "a numbers game," JLCNY president Dan Fitzsimmons provided two more form letters for supporters to print out and send (both embedded below). MDN encourages you to do it…

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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA | Taxation

PA Fish & Boat Commission Wants to Charge Drillers for PA Water
April 15, 2013April 15, 2013

The executive director of the PA Fish and Boat Commission, John Arway, is "mad" and says the Marcellus drilling industry is "stealing" PA’s water and not paying for it, and that ticks him off. Solution? Make industry pay. Oh, it will also help close a shortfall in his department’s budget of $9 million too (starting in 2017).

Apparently both Republicans and Democrats are showing interest in the idea and have introduced a measure in the PA Senate to study the idea of slapping a surcharge on PA’s water:

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CNX Resources | CONSOL Energy | Energy Companies

CONSOL’s Detailed 1Q13 Operations Update for Marcellus/Utica
April 15, 2013April 15, 2013

On Friday, CONSOL Energy (CNX Gas) issued an operational update for the first quarter of 2013. CONSOL said they had a "strong" start to 2013 by drilling 14 new horizontal wells—12 of them in the Marcellus, and 2 in the Utica.

Here’s the portion of the update dealing their gas drilling operations which identifies not only what they did, but where they did and didn’t do it, and in the case of joint ventures, who they did it with:

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Blue Ridge Mtn Res/Magnum Hunter | Energy Companies | Ohio | Triad Hunter | Utica Shale | Washington County (OH)

Magnum Hunter Drills First OH Utica Shale Well
April 15, 2013April 15, 2013

Although Friday for Magnum Hunter Resources was marred by the sad news of the flash fire in Tyler County, WV, the company (earlier in the day) issued a good news press release, one of importance: Magnum Hunter, through it’s subsidiary Triad Hunter, has just started drilling it’s first Utica Shale well in Ohio—northern Washington County.

The press release identifying where it’s being drilled:

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