Marcellus Drilling News

Energy Companies | Hess | Lease & Royalty Payments | Newfield Exploration | Pennsylvania | Wayne County

DRBC Delay Costs Wayne County Landowners $187.5M, Hess Pulls Out
July 16, 2013July 16, 2013

Thank you Carol Collier (Executive Director) and the other members of Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC): You’ve just cost Wayne County, PA landowners a collective $187.5 million by your continued inaction to allow drilling in Wayne County. Newfield Appalachia PA and Hess Corp. started sending notices last week to Wayne County landowners that they’ve decided to terminate the leases they made with them in 2009–on more than 100,000 acres.

Not wanting to tick off the DRBC and the member states of NY, NJ, PA and DE, the drillers blamed the lease terminations on a change in strategy–they want to drill in oily shale plays. But we know the real reason…
Read More “DRBC Delay Costs Wayne County Landowners $187.5M, Hess Pulls Out”
Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Taxation

PA Landowners with Marcellus Wells: The (Property) Tax Man Cometh
July 16, 2013July 16, 2013

A developing story for Pennsylvania landowners, as reported by WTAE Channel 4 (ABC) Pittsburgh: If you’re a PA landowner with over 10 acres of farmland or woodlands, it’s likely you pay a much lower tax rate on the land because of the “Clean and Green” Act–technically known as the Pennsylvania Farmland and Forest Land Assessment Act of 1974. Clean and Green is meant to keep taxes on farms and other agricultural-types of property lower, based on the land’s value for agriculture, rather than taxed on the land’s prevailing or “full market” value. When the land’s use changes, however, to something like an industrial use (i.e. used for a drill pad), the landowner is responsible for paying higher taxes on the prevailing market value for that portion of land used for that purpose.

If you haven’t been paying a higher tax rate for the portion of your land used for drilling (as we understand it, only the surface portion used–where there’s a drill pad), you may retroactively owe back taxes. It seems that the Clean and Green tax issue for landowners with Marcellus wells on their property is now heating up, and if you’re not paying the higher tax, it’s being spun that you’re “hurting ordinary taxpayers”…
Read More “PA Landowners with Marcellus Wells: The (Property) Tax Man Cometh”
Antero Resources | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Noble County | Ohio | Pipelines | Rockies Express Pipeline | Utica Shale

REX Reverses Pipeline Flow from OH for Mystery Utica Customer
July 16, 2013July 16, 2013

What a difference a year makes. Last August, RBN Energy President Rusty Braziel said the Rockies Express Pipeline (REX), which originates in Rio Blanco County, Colorado and sends gas to Monroe County, Ohio, was in danger of drying up because there’s so much shale gas coming from the Marcellus. His prescription? Turn it around and send gas the other way (see REX NatGas Pipeline Faces Stiff Competition from Marcellus). Looks like REX has taken Rusty’s advice.

In a press release issued yesterday, REX announced they have a binding agreement with an unnamed “large Utica Shale producer” who wants to use the pipeline to ship 200,000 decatherms of processed natural gas per day to the Midcontinent region of the country. That is, REX is reversing the flow for at least part of the pipeline. And who might the unnamed “mystery” producer be? We think we know…
Read More “REX Reverses Pipeline Flow from OH for Mystery Utica Customer”
Butler County | CONSOL Energy | Energy Companies | Greene County (PA) | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Upper Devonian Shale | Washington County

New Shale Layer Above the Marcellus Yields Positive Results
July 16, 2013July 16, 2013

What’s this? A new, third layer of shale a few hundred feet above the Marcellus is producing good quantities of shale gas? Yep. And CONSOL Energy reports they’ve successfully tapped it…
Read More “New Shale Layer Above the Marcellus Yields Positive Results”
CONSOL Energy | Energy Companies

CONSOL 2Q13: Drilled 17 Marcellus/Utica Wells, Completed 15
July 16, 2013July 16, 2013

Second quarter earnings and operational update season is upon us. Yesterday Pittsburgh-based CONSOL posted their 2Q13 update (below). CONSOL has traditionally been one of the country’s largest coal producing companies. In recent years, however, they’ve changed their focus to natural gas–specifically Marcellus and now Utica Shale natural gas. That ongoing changeover is quite evident by the amount of space in the update below devoted to gas vs that devoted to coal operations.

During 2Q13, CONSOL drilled 13 Marcellus Shale wells and 4 Utica Shale wells. They also completed 15 Marcellus Shale wells during that period. Overall, CONSOL produced 418 million cubic feet of natural gas per day on average during second quarter. However, perhaps the most exciting news in this update is CONSOL’s successful results for a new, third shale layer: the Upper Devonian layer. The full CONSOL update:
Read More “CONSOL 2Q13: Drilled 17 Marcellus/Utica Wells, Completed 15”
Tyler County | West Virginia

Title Researchers Camp Out at Tyler County (WV) Clerk’s Office
July 16, 2013July 16, 2013

There are at least two reliable ways to know where drilling is about to begin (or expand): One is to monitor where (and how many) permits for drilling have been issued. MDN covers that with our Marcellus and Utica Shale Databook series, each volume of which maps where permits were issued in the past four months. Drillers don’t pay for expensive permits unless they’re going to drill. But in order to get a permit, you already must have leased the land. So the other way to predict future drilling is by how busy the local county clerk’s office is–where the land records are kept. Case in point: Tyler County, WV.

According to MDN’s Databook 2013 – Vol. 1, Tyler County had 189 permits issued for 38 wells for January-April 2013. Going by the fevered activity at the county clerk’s office, however, predicts those numbers will soon go much higher. Title researchers are camping outside the county clerk’s office starting 6 pm the night before (!) in order to secure a spot in the clerk’s office the next day when the doors open. It’s becoming a problem for some residents…
Read More “Title Researchers Camp Out at Tyler County (WV) Clerk’s Office”
Accidents | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | MarkWest Energy | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | Washington County

Smoke at MarkWest Chartiers, PA Gas Processing Plant
July 16, 2013July 16, 2013

MarkWest operates a large natural gas processing plant in Chartiers Township (Washington County), PA. In the past few years they doubled the size of the plant. Apparently the installation of more new equipment due to go online yesterday didn’t go as planned. Characterizing it as “several events,” automated safety equipment kicked in and burned off (or flared) propane at the plant–resulting in smoke that could be seen for miles.

The (scant) known details of what happened yesterday at the Chariters processing plant:
Read More “Smoke at MarkWest Chartiers, PA Gas Processing Plant”
Energy Companies | Range Resources Corp

Range Resources 2Q13: Production Up 27% Due to Marcellus
July 16, 2013July 16, 2013

Last week Range Resources released its 2013 second quarter update. Range reports its production volumes hit record highs of 910 million cubic feet equivalent per day–of that, 79% was natural gas the rest liquids, oil and condensate. The company credits its continued success and the dramatic increase from last year (up 27%) to a single cause: the Marcellus Shale.

The report issued by Range last Thursday:
Read More “Range Resources 2Q13: Production Up 27% Due to Marcellus”
Energy Companies | Marion County | Marshall County | Trans Energy | Tyler County | West Virginia | Wetzel County

Trans Energy Presentation: Charts, Maps & More
July 16, 2013July 16, 2013

Trans Energy, Inc. is a “pure play” (single focus) driller in the Marcellus Shale–specifically in the northern panhandle region of West Virginia. Along with its joint venture partner Republic Energy, Trans Energy owns and operates on 62,000 acres in WV, primarily in Marshall, Wetzel, Tyler and Marion counties.

In April, Trans Energy issued a investors presentation full of very useful charts and maps and details about their operations (embedded below). We’ve just noticed that presentation and believe it’s worth passing along now, even though it’s now three months old. We especially like the “Competitive Market Position” map on slide 8…
Read More “Trans Energy Presentation: Charts, Maps & More”
Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Tue, Jul 16, 2013
July 16, 2013July 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: Tue, Jul 16, 2013”
Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Portage County | Statewide OH | Wastewater

Wastewater Injection Wells in Ohio – Comprehensive Update
July 15, 2013

On Sunday, the Akron Beacon Journal ran an excellent article on injection wells in Ohio. Their findings: Portage County disposed of more frack wastewater via injection wells than any other county in Ohio last year–disposing of 2.3 million barrels of brine and frack fluid wastewater. Brine, you may recall, is naturally occurring water from the depths that comes out of drilled wells long after the fracking fluid has been pumped out. Brine is very “salty” with a high concentration of minerals.

What may be a surprising statistic for some: Nearly two-thirds of the wastewater disposed of in Ohio wells was from out of state–most of that from Marcellus drilling in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Here’s part of the article, which details a list of Ohio counties and how much wastewater they disposed of via injection wells:
Read More “Wastewater Injection Wells in Ohio – Comprehensive Update”
Energy Companies | Epsilon Energy | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Shareholder Rebellion at Epsilon Energy – New Board as of Today
July 15, 2013July 15, 2013

Apparently there’s been a shareholder rebellion at Marcellus driller Epsilon Energy. MDN reported a year ago that Epsilon, headquartered in Ontario, Canada, was scaling back its focus on drilling in the Marcellus due to low natural gas prices, and instead concentrating on oil drilling in the Bakken Shale region of North Dakota (see Epsilon Energy 2Q12 Update: Scaling Back in the Marcellus). At that time (perhaps still), the company owned a 35% stake in the Auburn gas gathering system in the PA Marcellus.

The company released the following statement on Friday that virtually the entire board of directors will resign as of today, July 15, and be replaced by a new slate of board members:
Read More “Shareholder Rebellion at Epsilon Energy – New Board as of Today”
Energy Services | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | MarkWest Energy | NGLs | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Processing Plants | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

MarkWest: $2.2B in Marcellus/Utica, Bring on the Cracker Plants!
July 15, 2013July 15, 2013

MarkWest Energy, a major Marcellus and Utica midstream company, is investing $2.2 billion in the Marcellus/Utica region in pipelines, processing and fractionation plants. According to MarkWest, they have enough work in the northeast to keep them expanding for the next five years. One of the main services offered by MarkWest is removing ethane from raw natural gas. Their plan is to ship the ethane to either Canada or the Gulf Coast via pipelines. However, they’d love it if the region had “several cracker plants.” Here we go again with more cracker talk!

A good overview of MarkWest’s several billion dollar investment in the northeast, and their belief that the region needs its own cracker plant:
Read More “MarkWest: $2.2B in Marcellus/Utica, Bring on the Cracker Plants!”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

Cuomo and Fracking and Comments (Oh My!)
July 15, 2013July 15, 2013

Kind of a strange editorial in the Rochester, NY Democrat and Chronicle (D&C) newspaper last Friday. The gist of the editorial is that Gov. Cuomo has not distinguished himself by fence-sitting on the fracking issue (we agree with that point). However, the editorial writer(s) have angst that because Cuomo and his lieutenants at the Dept. of Environmental Conservation and State Dept. of Health have taken so long with their respective reviews, that the 200,000 comments from the public filed by a deadline earlier this year will go un-responded to and that the public’s input will be “dismissed” and not considered in the final decision.

Here’s what the D&C editorial says:
Read More “Cuomo and Fracking and Comments (Oh My!)”
Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

PA Landowner Issue: Title Washing & How it May Affect Your Lease
July 15, 2013July 15, 2013

Pennsylvania landowners entering into leases for oil and gas drilling on and under their property need to be aware of an issue exclusive to PA called “title washing.” Lawyer Ronald L. Hicks, Jr. from the firm Meyer, Unkovic & Scott writes about title washing in today’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

What is title washing? As Hicks explains, it is a now-dormant practice whereby landowners who owed back taxes on a property would let the property go to a tax sale and then buy it back themselves at a discount because the tax sale would be accepted as a payoff of the old tax debt (pennies on the dollar). This happened mostly from 1900-1950. As part of the “washing” process, title to both the surface and the subsurface was provided free and clear. But recent PA court decisions have said oil and gas rights were not a part of the subsurface “washing”. It’s a tangled, complicated mess. Bottom line, according to Hicks, landowners should have their titles researched before signing a lease–and make sure any tax sales in the history of the lease are examined very closely to see if title washing was involved…
Read More “PA Landowner Issue: Title Washing & How it May Affect Your Lease”
Energy Services | GreenHunter Resources | Industrywide Issues | Marshall County | Wastewater | West Virginia

Wheeling Delays Vote Again on GreenHunter Wastewater Facility
July 15, 2013July 15, 2013

It looks like the Wheeling Water Warriors will live to fight for another month. The Wheeling (WV) Planning Commission was due to finally vote to allow GreenHunter Water to build a frack wastewater recycling plant at a facility along the Ohio River in Wheeling. After some initial bumps, it seemed as if things were going along fine and that the Commission would vote last week (see GreenHunter’s Wheeling Frack Wastewater Plant Up for Vote July 8). However, the Commission has once again tabled the vote–this time until August 12th.

The latest machinations from Wheeling and what’s holding up the vote this time:
Read More “Wheeling Delays Vote Again on GreenHunter Wastewater Facility”