Marcellus Drilling News

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

Oil & Gas Drilling in NY: 15K Active Conventional Wells
March 7, 2013March 7, 2013

Pop quiz: Which northeastern state has used hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) in vertical oil and gas wells since the 1950s? Which northeastern state has used horizontal drilling for oil and gas wells since the 1980s? Which state (so far) has refused to allow the combination of the two—fracking + horizontal drilling? The answer to all three questions: New York.

What’s that? You didn’t know fracking (in vertical wells) has been going on in NY since the 1950s? Welcome to the club. Most people either don’t know it, or upon reading it in a publication like MDN, refuse to believe it. If you don’t believe us, just ask the state DEC for confirmation.

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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Supply Chain | Washington County

Western PA Company’s “2 Keys to Success” in Selling to Drillers
March 7, 2013March 7, 2013

A Washington County, PA manufacturer of parts used in drilling oil and gas wells is highlighted in an article in today’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. It’s an interesting story that focuses mostly on two sisters who have taken over and successfully expanded the family business. We enjoy these kinds of “human interest” stories. However, buried deep down in the story is a short section that reveals two things the sisters did that may benefit other businesses in the Marcellus and Utica Shale supply chain.

If you work for or own a business interested in selling to the drilling industry—especially to the larger companies—you’ll be interested in these two “keys to success” for Washington Rotating Control Heads Inc.:

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Coshocton County | Landowner Coalition News | Muskingum County | Ohio

SE OH Landowner Group Meets, Looking for New Members
March 7, 2013March 7, 2013

The Southwest Coshocton and Muskingum County Landowner’s Association in southeastern Ohio met last night in Dresden, OH to hear from experts and lawyers about progress with a lease for association members.

The group is still actively seeking new landowners to join…

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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide PA

Childish Protesters Berate DRBC Officials at NJ Meeting
March 7, 2013March 7, 2013

About 70 hippie protesters, led by the extremist group Delaware Riverkeeper, “packed” a dinky meeting room in Trenton, NJ where the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) held their regular meeting. The protesters were there to express their desire the DRBC put the breaks on any further natural gas pipelines to carry much-needed gas to New York City, Philadelphia and other East Coast urban areas where the DRBC has jurisdiction.

What seemed to escape the reasoning power of the protesters is that the DRBC has no jurisdiction in approving pipelines—and only a very limited role in the process. The protesters behaved badly at the meeting, as they usually do. They “took over” the meeting and refused to be orderly and wait their turn to speak, disrupting the meeting with their petulant, white-liberal-spoiled-rich-kid tantrums of “mommy listen to me!” If only their parents had raised them right…

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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Maryland | Regulation | Statewide MD

Maryland Fracking Ban Bill Dies in Senate
March 7, 2013March 7, 2013

Good news in the state of Maryland, a state (like New York) considering legislation to delay or outright ban hydraulic fracturing (fracking). Each year the Maryland legislature meets for just 90 days to consider new legislation. During the current session now under way, a bill was introduced in the Senate that would outright ban the miracle of hydraulic fracturing. That bill has, thankfully, died in committee.

However, a moratorium (temporary ban) bill in the General Assembly is still very much alive…

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Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Thu, Mar 7, 2013
March 7, 2013March 7, 2013

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

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

Lights Out on NY Fracking? Senate, Assembly Dems Push 2-Year Ban
March 6, 2013March 6, 2013

Is New York doomed when it comes to the issue of fracking? Maybe. In addition to Cuomo being the ditherer-in-chief and failing to lead on the issue of fracking, an important group of state senators—the Independent Democrat Conference (they share control of the Senate with Republicans)—yesterday proposed a two-year further delay in fracking. Previously the state Assembly, which is heavily Democrat and is led by the nefarious Sheldon Silver, has pushed legislation to kill fracking. Sliver is supposed to be make yet another announcement today (Wednesday) along those lines.

It all adds up to a huge mess and an ongoing hardship for New York landowners. The 77,000-member Joint Landowners Coalition of New York is none too happy about it and issued a blistering statement in response to the IDC yesterday…

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Boardwalk Pipeline Partners | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Williams

Williams, Boardwalk Announce Marcellus-to-Gulf Coast NGL Pipeline
March 6, 2013March 6, 2013

Williams and Boardwalk Pipeline Partners, two midstream (pipeline) companies today announced a bold new project to build and repurpose some existing pipelines into a new natural gas liquids (NGL) pipeline that will run from the Marcellus and Utica Shale region all the way to the Gulf Coast. The new project, dubbed the Bluegrass Pipeline, would provide an initial 200,000 barrels of NGL capacity per day, expandable to 400,000 barrels. If all goes according to plan, Williams and Boardwalk would like to have the new pipeline online by late 2015.

The JV partners maintain the pipeline is needed because in just a few years the northeast will have too much NGLs and not enough processing capacity to handle it all. MDN heard that argument and its opposite argued at the recent Utica Shale event we attended in Columbus. More analysis about the Williams announcement (and a quick NGL processing primer) from MDN below. First, here’s the press announcement today from Williams and Boardwalk, including a rough map of the route:

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Brooke County | Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Lease & Royalty Payments | Litigation | West Virginia

WV Landowners *with* Lease Sue Chesapeake for Drilling Next Door
March 6, 2013March 6, 2013

A mother and son have filed a lawsuit against Chesapeake Energy in Brooke County, WV charging them with illegal trespass under their property and taking some of the natural gas that exists in the Marcellus Shale from under their property. West Virginia does not have a pooling law—the right of drillers to “force pool” parcels of land into a drilling unit if a majority of surrounding neighbors have agreed to allow it.

The strange thing about this case is that the mother and son have a signed lease with Chesapeake—a lease which they renewed for an additional 5-year term. For some reason they don’t want their property pooled with their neighbors into a unit for Marcellus drilling—they refused it. So Chesapeake drilled next door to their property, essentially ignoring them. The landowners say Chesapeake’s close-by drilling has caused them economic harm. It’s now a case in federal court…

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Crosstex Energy | E2 | Energy Services | Enerven Compression Services | Industrywide Issues | Monroe County | Noble County | Ohio | Pipelines | Processing Plants | Utica Shale

Crosstex Energy to Build New Compressors, Processing Plant in OH
March 6, 2013March 6, 2013

Crosstex Energy has formed a joint venture with Enerven Compression Services called E2 to build and operate new compressor stations and a condensate processing plant in the Ohio Utica Shale. In their announcement today, Crosstex says the company has set up a new $75 million line of credit and will invest an initial $50 million from it in the new JV. First up is building two compressor stations in Noble and Monroe counties in Ohio—they already have an unnamed customer lined up for those. After that, they’ll build a condensate (“natural gasoline”) processing plant. Crosstex will own 93% of the JV and Enerven will own the other 7%.

The Crosstex announcement from this morning:

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Carroll County | Columbiana County | Guernsey County | Harrison County | Monroe County | Ohio | Utica Shale

Another 20 Utica Shale Permits Issued Last Week in OH
March 6, 2013March 6, 2013

The latest permit numbers released from the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources shows 20 new permits for the week ending March 2nd.

Here’s where the latest round of permits were issued, along with an update on how many wells have been drilled and are now in production in Ohio:

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1st NRG | Energy Companies | Utica Shale

1st NRG Still Looking for $ to Drill 7K Acres in Utica Shale
March 6, 2013March 6, 2013

1st NRG Corp. is one of the newer “players” in the Ohio Utica Shale. MDN previously pointed out their press statements seem to be heavy on fluff and light on specifics for how and when they’ll begin drilling (see 1st NRG Corp Gets $7M Loan to Begin Drilling in Utica, Other Plays). They issued a press release last week almost identical to the one from last November. Instead of saying we’re about to finalize an agreement for the Utica, they changed it to say we have finalized an agreement for the Utica. Again, no further specifics, other than they have their hand out looking for money (i.e. investors).

Here’s the latest slightly-tweaked and re-worked version of their previous press release:

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Energy Companies | Energy Corporation of America | Kanawha County | West Virginia

ECA Moving/Expanding NE Headquarters to Charleston, WV
March 6, 2013March 6, 2013

Energy Corporation of America (ECA) will unveil plans today to move its eastern regional headquarters from “over the river” in Kanawha City, WV into Charleston, WV proper—at the Northgate Business Park. The new 60,000 square-foot facility is a good sign that ECA will continue to expand its presence in the Marcellus Shale. Headquartered in Denver, CO, ECA owns over 1 million acres of leases from New York to Tennessee, and operates over 4,600 wells (mostly conventional) and over 5,000 miles of pipeline. Most of their northeast operations are in West Virginia.

More on the new office building:

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Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

PA Leads NE in Corporate Facilities Expansion – TY Shale!
March 6, 2013March 6, 2013

What does Pennsylvania have that New York doesn’t? For one thing, fewer welfare deadbeats sucking off the public teat. For another, PA has shale gas drilling and NY does not. Shale gas drilling has propelled PA, for the second year in a row, to third place in the entire country for the number of new and expanded corporate facilities built. PA is #1 for new corporate facilities in the Northeast—thanks to Marcellus drilling. Too bad NY is missing out—the very real cost of not drilling is loss of infrastructure projects like these.

PA had 430 new or expanded corporate facilities built in 2012 with a minimum investment of at least $1 million and with each facility adding at least 50 new jobs. Translation: On the low end, PA had $430 million in new investment and 21,500 new jobs—most of which came from the shale industry. The actual number for new investment/jobs was more like double…

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Economic Impact | Energy Services | Harrison County | Industrywide Issues | MarkWest Energy | Ohio | Pipelines | Processing Plants | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

MarkWest’s Multi-Billion Dollar Investment in Utica/Marcellus
March 6, 2013March 6, 2013

As we’ve been hearing for some time now, midstream (pipelines and processing plants) will be the dominant theme and focus of the Marcellus and Utica Shale for 2013 and likely beyond. A lot of wells have been and continue to be drilled in the Utica and Marcellus. Those wells now require pipelines to carry the gas and gas liquids to market, and processing plants to get the gas and gas liquids ready for market. MarkWest Energy is one of the midstream companies answering the call.

MarkWest plans to invest $1.8 billion in new infrastructure this year in the Utica Shale region, after investing nearly $2 billion last year:

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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Taxation

Self-Serving Sierra Club Wants PA to Raise Taxes on Shale Drillers
March 6, 2013March 6, 2013

People like the Sierra Club have an interesting concept of what “fair” means. When it comes to other people’s money (OPM), the Sierra Club is only too ready to spend it—especially if they didn’t earn it. But that’s the way it is with socialists who like (their words) “spreading it around.”

The Pennsylvania Chapter of the extremist environmental group Sierra Club isn’t happy with “only” $200 million in impact fees/taxes. Oh no…they think a severance tax could easily more than double that amount—so it can be “spread around” among the enviro faithful—most particularly for themselves:

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