Marcellus Drilling News

Energy Companies | New York | Norse Energy | Statewide NY

Norse Energy: We’re Still Here, We Still Need Money & We Have Gas
February 14, 2013February 14, 2013

In a pair of press releases issued yesterday, the now bankrupt Norse Energy Corp. wanted to let the market know “we’re still here, we’re still looking for investors, and we’re still hanging on by a thread hoping that New York allows us to start drilling any time now.” That’s about the sum total of what was said.

If New York does begin to issue shale drilling permits (a really big “if”), Norse is likely to be one of the first companies to receive permission to drill because they are one of the first companies to file permit applications for drilling in the Marcellus/Utica in New York.

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Anadarko | Athens County | Encore Energy | Energy Companies | Guernsey County | Lease & Royalty Payments | Meigs County | Monroe County | Morgan County | Noble County | Ohio | Utica Shale | Washington County (OH)

Encore Energy to Anadarko: We’ve Got OH Land for You
February 14, 2013February 14, 2013

A for-profit company that pools acreage from both landowners that want to lease their land, and from energy companies with leases who want to re-sell those leases, is trying to get the attention of Anadarko and other drillers in the Ohio Utica Shale. Encore Energy issued a press release yesterday announcing they have land available for lease. They specifically tap Anadarko on the shoulder to tell them they have 1,300 Utica Shale acres “just 3 miles” from land they’re already drilling on in Washington County, OH.

Encore is shopping more than 18,000 acres across a number of Ohio counties, including Morgan, Washington, Noble, Guernsey, Monroe, Athens and Meigs. Here’s their “hey Anadarko, pay attention” press release:

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Accidents | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | MarkWest Energy | Soil | West Virginia | Wetzel County

MarkWest Fined for Soil Erosion/Creek Damage Near WV Plant
February 14, 2013February 14, 2013

MarkWest Energy has been slapped with a $306,000 fine by the West Virginia Dept. of Environmental Protection for polluting a small stream near its new Mobley processing plant in Wetzel County. The plant just went online in December (see MarkWest’s Mobley, WV Wet Gas Processing Plant Goes Online). During construction of the plant, the DEP says MarkWest’s work caused landslides of dirt, trees and other debris into a nearby creek.

MarkWest has agreed to pay the fine and “accepts responsibility” for the damage, yet they officially admit no wrongdoing under the proposed settlement order. Hmmm.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

MSC Disagrees with MDN’s Take on Obama Speech
February 14, 2013February 14, 2013

Not everyone on the pro-drilling side of the isle agrees with MDN when it comes to the tragedy that is the Obama Administration. We told you our opinion of the president’s State of the Union Speech yesterday (see The Great and Powerful BHOz Threatens Edict on Global Warming).

The Marcellus Shale Coalition—a Pittsburgh-based industry organization that is tops in our book—doesn’t see it the same way. They think there were good things resulting from the speech. Here is their take on what Obama said on Tuesday:

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Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Thu, Feb 14, 2013
February 14, 2013February 14, 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: Thu, Feb 14, 2013”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

Deadline for NY Fracking Regs Slips Again…Or Does It?
February 13, 2013February 13, 2013

This is without a doubt the most difficult article MDN has had to author—on many levels. Yesterday, New York’s Commissioner of the Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC), Joe Martens, announced he would not release the Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS) today, Feb. 13, because of a delay he’s blaming on the state health department. We previously reported that if the SGEIS was not released today, final regulations would not be adopted by Feb. 27 to allow fracking to move forward. In a statement yesterday, Martens seemed to say that’s not necessarily the case. His statement is confusing and contradictory, and frankly no one fully understands it.

MDN will break this all down and tell you what we know, what we don’t know, and what we think will happen. We have statements from State Health Commissioner Shah and DEC Commissioner Martens along with comments from various organizations with their interpretation of what it means. We will take you through the process chapter and verse—so this is a long post. We won’t keep you in suspense: We don’t know exactly what to make of Martens’ comments. It’s muddled, we believe intentionally so. The real person to keep your eye on in this theatre of the absurd is Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who seems to want to have his cake and eat it too…

Read More “Deadline for NY Fracking Regs Slips Again…Or Does It?”
Air Quality | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

“Thank You for Fracking” – Air Pollution Goes Down in PA
February 13, 2013February 13, 2013

Because of miracle of hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) and the natural gas it generates, and because that abundant new source of natural gas burns cleaner than any other fossil fuel, air pollution in Pennsylvania declined—significantly—from 2008 to 2011. So we tip our hat and say a big, “Thank you for fracking.”

Some of the stats recently reported by PA to the federal EPA in a report on air pollution (required every three years):

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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Broome County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | New York

NRDC & CCSE Sue Sanford, NY over No-Frackspeak Resolution
February 13, 2013February 13, 2013

Not since the Viet Nam protests have hippie and hippie wannabes been so fired up over an issue as they are about fracking. The fracking fight has injected meaning and purpose back in to their pathetic lives. When hippies get fired up, they need an audience to listen to them. What better audience than the local (captive) monthly town board meeting? Hippies attend these meetings as a form of harassment to endlessly recycle the same pabulum that fracking kills, fracking pollutes, fracking yada yada yada—month in and month out.

Council members for the Town of Sanford, NY, tucked in the outer edge of Broome County, had heard enough yammering from a select few local residents on the topic of fracking, so they passed a resolution that there would be no more lecturing on fracking (either for or against) during public comment periods at board meetings. Whoops! That’s like waving a red flag at a bull. You just don’t deny a hippie their three minutes of freak-show time before the microphones…

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Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Processing Plants | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Ethane Cracker Plant Question Prompts Smile from WV Gov. Tomblin
February 13, 2013February 13, 2013

MDN has been reporting about West Virginia’s prospects to get an ethane cracker plant, like, forever. Every few months we hear a rumor of “we’re talking with companies about a cracker plant.” But a deal to actually build a cracker plant in WV never seems to materialize. Two days ago we reported on the first really solid, possible cracker deal we’ve heard of in some time (see “Small” Ethane Cracker Plant Coming to Wheeling, WV). As we stated in the article, we’re cautiously optimistic, but still a tad skeptical.

However, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin and his big smile may know something we don’t:

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Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | RETTEW | Roads | Statewide PA

Engineering Firm Receives Award for Road Project in Marcellus
February 13, 2013February 13, 2013

Engineering firm RETTEW, a firm that does a lot of work in the Marcellus and Utica Shale drilling industry, has just received an award for their work on a Chesapeake Energy project to reconstruct more than 400 miles of rural roads in Pennsylvania at no cost to the public while reducing waste by nearly 100 percent. A hearty congratulations to RETTEW for their innovative approach, and to Chesapeake for their proactive program to preserve rural roads in active drilling areas.

From the press announcement:

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Alternative Energy | Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues

The Great and Powerful BHOz Threatens Edict on Global Warming
February 13, 2013February 13, 2013

Apologies in advance to MDN subscribers who voted for and/or support our petulant man-child president with tyrannical tendencies, Barack H. Obama. You’re excused from reading this post. It may give you a stroke.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

MDN Reviews New Documentary FrackNation
February 12, 2013February 12, 2013

We won’t keep you in suspense. Run!—don’t walk—to attend a screening, watch on cable television or purchase a DVD of the new documentary FrackNation. This is hands down the most important documentary on an environmental topic made in the last decade or more. It exposes the fabrications found in the documentary Gasland, and tells the truth about what MDN calls the miracle of hydraulic fracturing.

Phelim McAleer is an investigative journalist and documentary filmmaker—someone who speaks truth to power. In Phelim’s case, he’s made a career of challenging accepted environmentalist orthodoxy. He delights in laying bare the misstatements and outright lies told by the so-called green movement. His newest documentary, FrackNation, tackles the hottest environmental topic currently being debated not only in the U.S., but around the world—hydraulic fracturing for oil and natural gas.

Phelim is originally from Ireland, but he’s a citizen of the world having worked for The London Sunday Times, the Financial Times and the Economist. For the past decade or so he’s been a freelance journalist and filmmaker. So how did an Irishman living in Los Angeles come to make a documentary about fracking in Pennsylvania? In the beginning was Gasland…

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Crime | Industrywide Issues | Mahoning County | Ohio | Wastewater

Youngstown Business Dumped >200K Gal of Untreated Wastewater
February 12, 2013February 12, 2013

The case of a company dumping shale drilling wastewater down a sewer drain in Youngstown, OH—wastewater that has made it’s way to the Mahoning River—keeps getting worse. The owner of Hardrock Excavating (part of D&L Energy) says he thought he was “doing the right thing” by having his employees dump the wastewater at nighttime—to prevent an uproar. Little did he know the uproar he would create.

The owner, Ben Lupo, now admits his company dumped wastewater on at least six occasions, meaning the amount of untreated wastewater entering the water system in the Youngstown area exceeded 200,000 gallons—not the previously reported 40,000 gallons.

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Energy Companies | Gulfport Energy | Lease & Royalty Payments | Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Gulfport Purchases More Utica Shale Leases for $10K/Acre
February 12, 2013February 12, 2013

$10,000 per acre seems to be the price Gulfport is willing to pay other energy companies to take over their acreage in the Ohio Utica Shale. Last December Gulfport paid $10K/acre for 30,000 acres (see Gulfport Adds Another 30K Utica Net Acres, Pays $10K/Acre). Yesterday Gulfport announced they’ve purchased another 22,000 acres from the same company, Windsor Ohio (a division of Wexford Capital), also for $10K/acre. This new acreage bumps Gulfport’s Utica Shale lease holdings to 137,000 acres.

Yesterday’s Gulfport announcement about their latest Utica purchase:

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

NY Groups Want Cuomo Aide with “Ties” to Fracking Investigated
February 12, 2013February 12, 2013

Seven anti-drilling groups held yet another press conference yesterday in Albany, which is like saying the sun came up in Albany yesterday. This time the groups went a tad too far on the bizarro spectrum—even for other anti-drillers. Breathless in their charge, the assembled anti-drilling groups claimed (trumpet fanfare, ta da da da)…that Lawrence Schwartz, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s chief of staff, has $3,000-$4,000 invested in the stock market in oil and gas companies. (Gasp!)

Yes ladies and gentlemen, that puny investment means Schwartz has run a mind-fake on Cuomo, and like Svengali of old, he’s hypnotized Cuomo into allowing fracking which will poison the good citizens of New York in order to boost the value of oil and gas companies and thus his personal holdings by what, maybe $500? The price of a single bottle of fine wine at one of Cuomo’s power lunches? But hey, this is “a really serious charge,” so these fine, upstanding groups—with no conflicts of interest of their own (*cough*)—are calling on the Albany County District Attorney General’s office to investigate…

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Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Regulation | Statewide OH | Wastewater

OH Agencies Propose New Law for Disposing “Radioactive” Shale Waste
February 12, 2013February 12, 2013

Three Ohio government agencies—the Dept. of Health, Environmental Protection Agency and Dept. of Natural Resources—have cooperated to produce proposed legislation that will tighten regulations around low-level radioactive waste from shale drilling. The three agencies released their proposal yesterday:

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