Marcellus Drilling News

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

NY Elected Politicians Make Another Try to Stall Fracking
December 31, 2012December 31, 2012

Once again, anti-fracking elected political leaders in New York (people who need to be voted out of office, see their names below) are trying to pressure the waffling Gov. Andrew Cuomo into extending the new public comment period from 30 days to 90 days. A group of them sent a letter to Cuomo and DEC Commissioner Joe Martens requesting the extension (dated Dec. 21, copy of the letter embedded below).

Why do they want to extend it from 30 to 90 days? To force the restart of the entire process of approving new fracking regulations. If the comment period is extended to 90 days, it will go beyond the end of February forcing the restart of the entire process to evaluate and approve new fracking regulations. Restarting the process would effectively kill any fracking in the state—most likely forever.

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Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies

Probe into Chesapeake’s CEO Aubrey McClendon Nears End
December 31, 2012December 31, 2012

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the probe into the financial dealings of Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey McClendon, which started in April 2012 and was supposed to be wrapped up in “weeks not months” has still not concluded, but will do so by mid-January. When it does, don’t expect McClendon to step down as CEO…

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Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Regulation | Statewide OH

Checking Up: Did ODNR Meet Goal of 90 Well Inspectors?
December 31, 2012December 31, 2012

In May 2012, the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR), the state agency that oversees the permitting and drilling of oil and gas wells, set a goal of tripling the number of well inspectors by the end of 2012—which would mean having 90 inspectors on staff. The agency has struggled with a heavy load of inspections due to a ramp up in Utica Shale drilling.

So, did ODNR meet its goal?

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Belmont County | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Ohio Gathering | Pipelines

New Pipeline/Compressor Plant Coming in Belmont County, OH
December 31, 2012December 31, 2012

Ohio Gathering Co. has posted a $5 million bond in Belmont County, OH to cover the cost of potential road repairs and maintenance in connection with a pipeline and compressor plant project they have under way in the county.

Here’s where (in the county) the pipeline and compressor plant is being built, along with the roads that will be affected by truck and heavy equipment traffic:

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Industrywide Issues | Jefferson County (OH) | NGLs | Ohio

New NGL Barge Shipping Operation to Open in Toronto, OH
December 31, 2012December 31, 2012

MDN recently told you about a natural gas liquids (NGLs) “tank farm” located at Half Moon Industrial Park in Weirton, WV (along the Ohio River) that started shipping NGLs by river barge to be processed in Houston, TX (see this MDN story). An initial shipment of one million gallons of NGLs were floated by barge first down the Ohio River, then the Mississippi River.

Toronto, OH, which sits just a few miles up the river from Weirton on the opposite bank of the Ohio River, is about to get in on the NGL barge-shipping business too. A 40-acre site in Toronto’s port was just sold to a company that will set up a tank farm and start shipping NGLs to the Gulf Coast for processing:

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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Columbiana County | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Statewide OH

OH Land Conservancies Try to Prevent Utica Drilling
December 31, 2012December 31, 2012

In an article about the merger of a local land conservancy group with a larger, regional conservancy group in Ohio—the Western Reserve Land Conservancy (WRLC)—MDN spotted remarks that indicate land conservancies have an anti-drilling philosophy, which raises the issue of whether or not you should support them or sign an agreement with them if you’re a landowner.

Remarks from the president of Little Beaver Creek Land Foundation (LBCLF), the local land conservancy group that merged with the WRLC:

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Energy Companies | Halcon Resources | Ohio | Trumbull County | Utica Shale

Trumbull County’s First Utica Shale Well Now in Process
December 31, 2012December 31, 2012

Although BP is the largest leaseholder for Utica Shale drilling in Trumbull County, OH with 84,000 acres under lease, Halcon Resources, which purchased 15,000 acres of leases from Carrizo Oil & Gas in October (see this MDN story), is the first to put drill bit to earth and is currently drilling the county’s very first horizontal Utica Shale well:

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Belmont County | Ohio

Belmont County, OH Deed Research Impacts Local Library Too
December 31, 2012December 31, 2012

In November, MDN pointed out you can always tell where drilling will soon begin in earnest by the how busy the local county clerk/deed recorder office is. We predicted that Belmont County, OH would soon see a ramp up in drilling based on the frenzy of activity at the county recorder’s office (see this MDN story).

The activity at the Belmont recorder’s office is as busy as ever, even over the holiday period. It’s standing room only at the office, and that’s now spilled over to the public library across the street. Abstractors have taken to snapping digital photographs of deed books and then relocating to the more spacious facility of the public library. But now that’s creating a problem…

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Crawford County | Pennsylvania

Crawford County: Drilling Recap for 2012, Ahead for 2013
December 31, 2012December 31, 2012

The Meadville Tribune (Crawford County, PA), like many local papers, is counting down their top stories from 2012. Their number 3 top story for the year? Shale gas drilling comes to Crawford County.

The article does a good job of recapping the drilling that happened this year in Crawford—both the who and the where—and makes some predictions about drilling for 2013:

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Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Mon, Dec 31, 2012
December 31, 2012December 31, 2012

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

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Industrywide Issues | Regulation

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson Resigns
December 28, 2012December 28, 2012

As MDN had previously speculated, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, under official investigation for using a private email account for official government business in order to avoid archiving requirements, is resigning from the agency she’s headed for the past four (dreadful) Obama years. Jackson has been the leader of what MDN considers to be a rogue government agency—willing to usurp the Constitution and grab power whenever, and wherever it can.

Not everyone on the pro-drilling side of the isle shares MDN’s opinion of Ms. Jackson—some fear a replacement will be even more aggressive—but we don’t see how it could be any worse than the past four years under Jackson.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation | Research

EPA’s Fracking Study Progress Report (Dec 2012)
December 28, 2012December 28, 2012

Early last week, the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a 278-page “progress report” on it’s multi-year study of hydraulic fracturing (full copy embedded below). The final report is due to be completed in late 2014. The purpose of the study? To try and figure out if there’s any conceivable way the EPA can get its hooks into regulating oil and gas drilling in the U.S.—something Constitutionally left to the individual states to do. The EPA is hoping to prove that fracking somehow, in some way, impacts groundwater, which would let them claim fracking comes under the purview of the Clean Water Act and empower them to regulate drilling.

The Dec. 2012 interim report was issued to keep everyone posted on their progress. It specifically details how the EPA is conducting its research—their methodology—but not any results…not yet. The results of the research and the conclusions/recommendations will come in late 2014. Unfortunately it seems the EPA held private meetings with prominent anti-frackers before releasing the progress report (see Energy in Depth’s excellent analysis here), casting doubt on the EPA’s ability to conduct impartial research.

Here’s the EPA’s press announcement from last week’s release of the progress report:

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Antero Resources | Carroll County | Chesapeake Energy | Columbiana County | Eclipse Resources | Energy Companies | Guernsey County | Monroe County | Ohio | PDC Energy | Utica Shale

11 New Utica Shale Drilling Permits in OH, as of Dec 12
December 28, 2012December 28, 2012

The latest round of permits to drill new Utica Shale wells from the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) includes 11 new permits, 8 of which went to Chesapeake Energy.

Here’s the latest Ohio Utica permit report (with grand totals by county) as of Dec. 12:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Monongalia County | Research | West Virginia

National Lab Looks for Industry to Fund “Extreme Drilling”
December 28, 2012December 28, 2012

Hey buddy, can you spare a few (million) dimes? The National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) is looking for someone in the oil and gas drilling industry to help get a now four year-old project off the ground. The NETL unveiled, to great fanfare, the Extreme Drilling Laboratory (XDL) in January 2009 in Morgantown, WV. It’s centerpiece of technology is the Ultra-Deep Single-Cutter Drilling Simulator (UDS), which they call their “rock star.” The UDS is an impressive device that can simulate drilling at 30,000 pounds of force per square inch and temperatures exceeding 480 °F – conditions that would be found at the bottom of very deep oil and gas wells.

Just one tiny problem: Industry isn’t using this marvelous technology to figure out better ways to drill. How come?

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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Anti-Frackers Energized with New Books
December 28, 2012December 28, 2012

The anti-drillers are having a heyday—when it comes to writing new books. First was The End of Country: Dispatches from the Frack Zone by Seamus McGraw, garnering high praise from Bobby Kennedy, Jr. and Tom Brokaw. Then came Under the Surface: Fracking, Fortunes, and the Fate of the Marcellus Shale by former Gannett reporter Tom Wilbur.

There’s now more anti-fracking books flowing than natural gas. There’s even an anti-fracking book for kids, written (appropriately) by a 12-year-old:

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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Anti-Drillers Disappointed with Promised Land
December 28, 2012December 28, 2012

The reviews are in and the new, somewhat anti-fracking movie Promised Land, starring Matt Damon, is being universally panned as a dud. At least, it’s a dud if you’re an anti-driller hoping this movie would change the public debate and sink fracking like the 1979 movie The China Syndrome (starring Hanoi Jane Fonda) sunk the nuclear power industry in this country. Promised Land is no China Syndrome—so says those on both the pro- and anti-drilling side of the debate.

The latest to weigh in with a two-thumbs-down on Promised Land is none other than the (very disappointed) New York Times:

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