Ohio is just a few permits short of 600 Utica Shale permits for drilling, and just a few wells short of having drilled 300 Utica Shale wells. And no signs of letting up.
Here’s the latest numbers provided by the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources, updated through April 6:
Read More “Utica Whisker Away from 600 Utica Permits, 300 Wells Drilled”
The ongoing grudge match between western PA Rep. Jesse White (from Cecil) and Range Resources continues and has grown. Last week White made a formal “Right to Know” request with the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (another favorite target of White) over the alleged leakage of 30 gallons of…fresh water? frack wastewater?…it’s not clear to MDN which it is–from a Range impoundment located in Cecil Township.
Regardless of the tiny amount of whatever leaked, the DEP has not responded to White, yet, so he’s turning up the pressure by going to his favorite media stenographer, Canon-McMillanPatch:
Read More “Tag Team Grudge Match: Jesse White/Patch v Range Resources/DEP”
The heavy hand of the federal Environmental Protection Agency continues to insert itself into regulating oil and gas drilling (contrary to the U.S. Constitution that grants that right to the states). The latest example is an “agreement” from two midstream companies–MarkWest Liberty Midstream and Laurel Mountain Midstream–to implement expensive new measures to comply with EPA’s air regulations. Neither MarkWest nor Laurel Mountain have done anything wrong. Neither has had an accident or pumped too much nasty stuff into the air. The EPA wants them to install equipment that will (in their opinion) help prevent an accident or the possibility of too much air pollution in the future.
When the howitzer cannon of the federal EPA is pointed at your head, you nod up and down politely…
Read More “EPA Makes MarkWest, Laurel Mountain an Offer They Couldn’t Refuse”
Times Square in New York City is always a favorite place to visit for MDN editor Jim Willis. He gets there at least 3-4 times a year, passing through on business. For those who have never been, the first time you visit, it’s sensory overload. So many lights, so many people–all in an organized chaos. It’s fun!
We’re not sure if Jim Palm, CEO of Gulfport Energy (a rising drilling star in the Ohio Utica Shale) has previously visited Times Square, but he was there yesterday–ringing the closing bell for the NASDAQ MarketSite.*
Read More “Utica Shale Darling: Gulfport Rings the Closing Bell for NASDAQ”
Although (sadly) MDN does not have access to the American Petroleum Institute’s (API) Quarterly Well Completion Report, we do have the high level takeaway from the first quarter 2013 edition: oil well completions are up 20%, and natural gas well completions are down 26%.
There’s a pretty simple equation at work: Low commodity price = less drilling = fewer completions. When the commodity price of natural gas is low, drillers slow down or stop drilling (as reflected by lower rig counts), and the the less drilling they do, the fewer wells get drilled and completed. The (very) brief press release from API which contains a few interesting numbers:
Read More “API’s 1Q13 Well Completions Report: NatGas Wells Down 26%”
MDN has long chronicled the antics of anti-drilling groups like the Sierra Club, an organization that once-upon-a-time embraced natural gas as a bridge fuel, but lately has started lying about the benefits of clean-burning natural gas because it threatens their rather twisted view of an alternative energy nirvana “if only”…if only natural gas wasn’t so darned cheap and getting in the way of more windmills and solar panels.
Energy in Depth’s California chapter penned an excellent article pointing out the outright lies of the California chapter of the Sierra Club in their efforts to persuade residents to reject fracking in that state. Listen up CA: Don’t make the same mistakes we’ve made here in NY. Even Gov. Jerry “Moonbeam” Brown likes fracking! Here’s the excellent EID-CA article:
Read More “Sierra Club Lies (Yet Again) and Hits Rock Bottom”
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: Wed, Apr 17, 2013”
It was pretty easy to predict (and MDN predicted it), that a very youthful Aubrey McClendon would not just sit on his hands and lick his wounds after being unceremoniously tossed aside by corporate raider Carl Icahn and other Chessy investors. MDN said this on April 1:
Why is it an error to show McClendon to the door even in light of his aggressive financial deals? You think McClendon will take his piles of money and sit on a Caribbean beach somewhere? In your dreams! He’ll be back, and he’ll start (or buy) another company that will directly compete with Chesapeake. You can bank on it. (McClendon Exits Chesapeake, Well-Bonused “Friends” Replace Him)
And what’s this? Just two weeks after exiting stage left, Aubrey has registered three new company names, set up an office, and hung out his shingle. Stetson hats off to the man:
Read More “Chesapeake 2.0? Aubrey McClendon is Back – in the Energy Business”
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…
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…
Read More “PBS ‘Innovation Trail’ Does Sloppy (Lazy?) Reporting on JLCNY”
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…
Read More “T. Boone Pickens Let’s the "F" Word Fly Re NatGas & DC”
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:
Read More “Bloomberg Says Ohio Utica Shale is Gassy, Not Oily”
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…
Read More “Chesapeake Investor Presentation – Interesting Slides/Maps”
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:
Read More “Magnum Hunter 1Q13 Update: More Drilling in Marcellus/Utica”
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:
Read More “Good Progress on MarkWest’s Cadiz, OH Processing Plant”
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…
Read More “The Nutty Antics of Anti-Drilling Kids – Pittsburgh Edition”