Marcellus Drilling News

Broome County | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | New York | Property Value | Statewide NY | Tioga County (NY)

Important Decision in Court Case Affects all NY Landowners
January 17, 2013January 17, 2013

A very important legal decision in New York potentially affects all New York landowners with and without drilling leases who have seen a sharp jump in their property assessments. A Broome County, NY Supreme Court judge has just ruled in favor of four Tioga County, NY landowners who sued to have their property assessments reduced, believing their assessments were unfairly raised because of the perceived increase in land value from the possibility (i.e. “speculation”) that the land may one day see Marcellus Shale drilling.

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Chesapeake Energy | Devon Energy | Energy Companies | Hilcorp Energy

Top 3 Best Energy Companies to Work for in the U.S.
January 17, 2013January 17, 2013

Want to work for a great company in the energy industry? Hilcorp, Chesapeake Energy and Devon Energy (all three drillers in either the Marcellus or Utica Shale plays) should be on your short list of prospective employers, at least according to FORTUNE Magazine and their just-released annual list of ‘100 Best Companies to Work For’…

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Accidents | Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Harrison County | Industrywide Issues | Ohio

Chesapeake Well Pad Likely Source of Water “Contamination” in OH
January 17, 2013January 17, 2013

One of the charges leveled against shale drilling by anti-drillers is that chemicals used during drilling—in greatly diluted quantities—will somehow rise up from a mile or more below the surface and contaminate groundwater sources like water wells and springs. However, in over 50,000 horizontally drilled and fracked shale oil and gas wells across the country, and in over two million vertically fracked wells, groundwater contamination from deep drilling has never happened. Nada. Not once.

That’s not to say activities related to drilling have not affected (i.e., “contaminated”) groundwater supplies. Groundwater is affected from time to time, but it’s rare and when it happens, it’s fixable. Case in point: Harrison County, Ohio. Limestone used in a drill pad constructed by Chesapeake Energy at their Dodson well site is likely the cause of discolored (“contaminated”) storm water discharging into a local stream and lake, the source of water for some area residents…

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Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Pipelines | Processing Plants

Part 3 Chamber’s Shale Study: “Mind Blowing” for Jobs, Economy
January 17, 2013January 17, 2013

In an interview with the Charleston Daily Mail, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s vice president for policy, Christopher Guith, called the soon-to-be-released third part of a study looking at the impact of the Marcellus and other shales “mind blowing” when it comes to the economic impact from midstream (pipelines) and downstream (petrochemicals) as they heat up in the coming years. In other words, you ain’t seen nothing yet…

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

Maryland Gov Finally Allocates Money for Fracking Study in Budget
January 17, 2013January 17, 2013

The stumbling, bumbling governor of Maryland, Socialist/Democrat Martin O’Malley, finally figured out that if the fracking study he himself ordered back in 2011 is ever going to get done by 2014, he’ll need to find money in the budget to do it. So in a blinding acknowledgement of the obvious, he included $1.5 million in the proposed budget he delivered to the legislature yesterday.

Of course, $1.5 million in Maryland is a rounding error in the state budget, but until now anti-drillers in the state have used lack of funding for the study as a convenient excuse to continue a moratorium on drilling. Look for the state’s Dems to neuter out the $1.5 million and then throw up their hands and say “no funding, no study, no drilling.” Typical.

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

Maryland Shale Drilling Moratorium to be Debated in Legislature
January 17, 2013January 17, 2013

Want to kill something? Just keep studying it. So says a very perceptive Maryland State Delegate, Wendell Beitzel, who represents Garrett County, MD. Beitzel wants to move forward with Marcellus drilling in Maryland. He faces an uphill battle. There’s a movement on right now to delay drilling by studying it to death (apparently Maryland is taking their cue from New York in that regard)…

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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Processing Plants | Spectra Energy

Spectra Energy Makes $4B Investment in Marcellus/Utica Infrastructure
January 17, 2013January 17, 2013

Spectra Energy, a U.S. midstream (transmission and storage) company is excited about the possibilities of the Marcellus and Utica Shale and shipping shale gas from the northeast to the south and southwest U.S. They’re so excited, in fact, they’re hard at work and spending more than $4 billion on infrastructure projects in the northeast to do just that, according to Spectra president Bill Yardley…

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Energy Services | Kinder Morgan

KM Pushing Forward with Tennessee Gas Pipeline Projects in 2013
January 17, 2013January 17, 2013

Kinder Morgan, a powerhouse midstream (pipeline) company, issued their fourth quarter 2012 earnings report yesterday. It included a great amount of detail on the financials for the company, including stock price, dividends and such like. Of interest to MDN is, of course, what KM is saying about their investments and plans for the Marcellus/Utica region, including their expansion plans for the Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP). KM plans to spend a whopping $2.7 billion on major pipeline projects throughout the U.S. this year, some of which has been allocated for completing TGP projects in the Marcellus/Utica region.

Here is the relevant section of their report dealing with TGP plans for the Northeast:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Research

Elsevier Launches New Journal for Unconventional Oil & Gas
January 17, 2013January 17, 2013

Elsevier, perhaps the world’s biggest publisher of scientific journals, is launching a new journal in 2013 called, Journal of Unconventional Oil and Gas Resources—that is, a journal about fracking.The new scholarly journal will be published quarterly and edited by a professor from Penn State.

Here’s the announcement:

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Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Thu, Jan 17, 2013
January 17, 2013January 17, 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 | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

Newly Elected PA Auditor General Targets DEP First Day on Job
January 16, 2013January 16, 2013

Keeping a campaign pledge—because it’s always good to keep a pledge if you’re an anti-drilling Democrat, but it’s OK to conveniently forget all the other pledges you made—the newly sworn-in Auditor General for Pennsylvania, Eugene DePasquale, has targeted the state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) in what can only be described as a political attack in his very first day on the job:

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Antero Resources | Chesapeake Energy | CNX Resources | Energy Companies | Gulfport Energy | Hess | Hilcorp Energy | Ohio | Statewide OH

ODNR Issues 17 New Permits for Utica Drilling…Last Week
January 16, 2013January 16, 2013

The permits to allow Utica Shale drilling in eastern Ohio continue to roll out from the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR). Here are the details on the 17 new permits issued in Ohio last week:

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Energy Companies | Range Resources Corp

Range Resources 4Q12 Results: NatGas up 35%, NGLs up 41%
January 16, 2013January 16, 2013

Range Resources today issued an update stating the company’s natural gas production for the fourth quarter of 2012 was an average 844 million cubic feet per day—an increase of 35% over the same period in 2011 and 7% higher than the third quarter of 2012. Natural gas liquids production rose an astonishing 41% over the same period in 2011.

Range is one of the largest drillers in the Marcellus Shale and much of their production comes from the Marcellus—particularly southwestern PA. Today’s Range announcement:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar Leaving in March
January 16, 2013January 16, 2013

An interesting twist…MDN has followed, with some interest, the future of three federal officials (besides Lord Obama Himself) who potentially have the most influence over oil and gas drilling in the U.S. In case you don’t know, regulation and oversight for oil and gas drilling is specifically left to the individual states under the U.S. Constitution—something the lefties in this country are desperately trying to circumvent by claiming aspects of it come under federal laws like the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act.

The three federal officials who have been complicit in attempting to overthrow states’ rights in regulating oil and gas drilling are…

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Accidents | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Marion County | Omni Energy Services | West Virginia

Accident Kills Marcellus Shale Rig Worker in Fairview, WV
January 16, 2013January 16, 2013

Monday night, an Omni Energy Services Corp. worker died when a rig being used to drill shallow exploratory holes for Marcellus Shale seismic testing overturned and crushed him. The accident happened at the Loveridge Mine preparation plant property owned by CONSOL Energy in Fairview (Marion County), WV. The accident was not related to CONSOL’s coal mining operations at the property.

The few details that we know thus far:

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Economic Impact | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Jobs

Study Says NE States with Fracking Have Better Credit Ratings
January 16, 2013January 16, 2013

The Kroll Bond Rating Agency has just released an update to a report they originally authored in January of last year titled, Fracking the Marcellus and Utica Basins: Potential Credit Implications. While not taking a position on whether or not fracking in the Marcellus and Utica Shale is good or bad per se, they do say their analysis shows fracking in the Marcellus and Utica Shale is very good for the credit ratings of municipal and state governments where fracking is allowed. Fracking is also jobs-creating engine according to the independent report.

From the Kroll announcement:

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