Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Wed, Dec 19, 2012
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading:
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Energy Companies | Gulfport Energy | Lease & Royalty Payments | Ohio | Rhino Resource Partners | Statewide OH
Gulfport Adds Another 30K Utica Net Acres, Pays $10K/Acre
Gulfport Energy announced yesterday they have purchased another 30,000 Utica Shale acres in eastern Ohio for $300 million—or $10,000 per acre. That brings Gulfport’s grand total to 137,000 gross Utica Shale acres (99,000 net acres). Gulfport bought the acreage from its Utica Shale joint venture partner Wexford Capital. Perhaps a better way of phrasing it: Gulfport increased its ownership interest in acreage in which they’ve already invested.Gulfport and Wexford, along with Rhino Resources, have previously invested in both two and three-way Utica Shale jv’s together (see this MDN story). So far, Gulfport has drilled the top producing wells in Ohio (see this MDN story for the secret to their success).
Read More “Gulfport Adds Another 30K Utica Net Acres, Pays $10K/Acre”
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BP | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pipelines | Processing Plants | Trumbull County | Utica Shale
BP: Trumbull County Needs More Pipelines, Processing Plants
Yesterday at a press conference in Youngstown, OH, BP announced plans to move into a new office and warehouse space in the Youngstown Commerce Park (see this MDN story). At the same event, BP officials spoke about their concerns that pipeline and processing plant infrastructure in Trumbull and surrounding counties may be quickly overwhelmed once BP’s drilling program is in full swing.
What do BP’s public comments mean? More pipelines and processing plants are likely on the way in Trumbull County:
Read More “BP: Trumbull County Needs More Pipelines, Processing Plants”
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BP | Economic Impact | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Mahoning County | Ohio | Trumbull County | Utica Shale
BP Moves into New Utica Shale Digs, Drilling Starts January
Important Update: BP will not start drilling test wells until April 2013, not January as indicated in the headline (and as quoted in the story below). The news source quoted by MDN was inaccurate! Many thanks (and a hat tip) to MDN friend Andrea Wood, Publisher of the Youngstown Business Journal, for taking the time to notify us of the error.
BP announced yesterday they have begun moving into the company’s new “Utica Operations Center,” a 5,000 square foot office space with 38,000 sq ft of warehouse/storage space located in the Youngstown Commerce Park in North Jackson (Mahoning County), Ohio. BP aggressively leased Ohio Utica Shale acreage during 2012—signing up some 100,000 acres of leases this year. Of the Ohio acreage leased by BP, the vast majority (84,000 acres) is in Trumbull County, close to the new office space.
Ohio landowners who signed with BP, and businesses interested in supplying BP with products and services, will be interested to know BP plans to start drilling their first Utica Shale test wells in January 2013 (more details below).
Read More “BP Moves into New Utica Shale Digs, Drilling Starts January”
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EV Energy Partners About to Shed Utica Acreage
Landowners in the Utica Shale who signed with EV Energy Partners, take note: Your lease may soon be reassigned.
An article on the Seeking Alpha website takes a close look at EV Energy Partners (EVEP) and their large Utica Shale investments. EVEP is structured as a “master limited partnership” or MLP. The focus for an MLP is distributing (via quarterly payments called distributions) most of the profit made by the company to its partners/shareholders. Because of its MLP structure, long-term development of “speculative” plays like the Utica is not in line with the company’s mission, so EVEP is looking to shed most of it’s Utica Shale leases—and they’re doing it soon…
Read More “EV Energy Partners About to Shed Utica Acreage”
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Forbes Exposes Who’s Behind Newest Anti-Drilling Group
The Forbes magazine website pries open the lid to reveal who’s really behind a new organization called Physicians, Scientists and Engineers for Healthy Energy (PSEHE). PSEHE was formed specifically to oppose shale drilling. And guess who’s behind it? The Ithaca, NY-based Park Foundation (funder of Gasland, Earthworks, Earth Justice and other rabidly anti-drilling causes), and Cornell professor Tony Ingraffea (co-author of a discredited anti-fracking study). In other words, PSEHE is a sham—a useful tool for mainstream media to use in creating the illusion that scores of “smart people” are opposed to fracking.
The Forbes exposé begins this way:
Read More “Forbes Exposes Who’s Behind Newest Anti-Drilling Group”
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Maryland Shale Commission Misses Second Deadline for Report
The “Keystone Cops” Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission appointed by Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley to study natural gas drilling and produce a set of best practices for hydraulic fracturing will miss their second deadline to produce a draft report. The first deadline was August 1, 2012 (see this MDN story). At that time, they said “we’ll get ‘er done by end of the year.” Oops. That won’t happen either. Now they’re saying they need extra time and will produce the report “sometime this spring.” Anyone up for a betting pool on when?
Here’s the latest (sad) news from Maryland:
Read More “Maryland Shale Commission Misses Second Deadline for Report”
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Energy Services | Fayette County | Industrywide Issues | Laurel Mountain Midstream | Pennsylvania | Violence | Williams
Farmer Does Jail Time After Confrontation with Pipeline Co
A western PA cattle farmer claims workers from Williams/Laurel Mountain Midstream pumped acid mine drainage onto his farm and damaged his fences while drilling a ditch for a pipeline across his property. The farmer was ordered to stay away from the workers last month after confronting them about damage done to his fences. He violated a court order and confronted them a second time when he saw what he thought was acid mine drainage being pumped onto his land from the ditches being dug. This time he got four days in the local clink.
Here’s what we know of the story:
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Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Tue, Dec 18, 2012
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading:
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Allegheny County | CONSOL Energy | Energy Companies | EQT Corp | Lease & Royalty Payments | Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh Airport Leases Land to CONSOL
We have to wonder, was the fix in at the Pittsburgh Airport? MDN told you two weeks ago about the opening for two bids to drill on and under property owned by the Allgheny County Airport Authority (see this MDN story). EQT offered more than twice the per-acre signing bonus of CONSOL Energy. EQT’s bid to drill on 9,263 acres was $44 million!On Friday, the Airport Authority announced that after two weeks of “very, very careful review” it has accepted CONSOL’s bid of $20.8 million as the representing the “best value.” Huh?
Read More “Pittsburgh Airport Leases Land to CONSOL”
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The Secret to Gulfport’s OH Utica Drilling Success
An excellent article on the Youngstown Business Journal website from Saturday delves into the question of why Gulfport Energy has (so far) turned in the most impressive results of all Utica Shale drilling in Ohio (see this MDN story for background on their success). Gulfport CEO Jim Palms credits better science and a little of luck for their astonishing success.
The real secret as to why Gulfport’s wells in Harrison and Belmont counties are doing so much better than counties farther north, like Carroll and Columbiana? It has to do with pressure…
Read More “The Secret to Gulfport’s OH Utica Drilling Success”
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Chesapeake Offers Buyout to 275 Older Employees
Calling it a potential “benefit” for longer-term employees to cash in on their years of service, Chesapeake Energy on Friday announced a “voluntary separation program” to get rid of 275 older employees by February 2013. At least that’s MDN’s understanding after reading the official company announcement:
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More Drilling on the Way in Portage County, OH?
There hasn’t been much in the way of Utica Shale permits or drilling in Portage County, Ohio—yet. At least compared to other Ohio counties. At last official tally, Portage has seen 14 permits so far (see this MDN story).
That may about to change. Why would we think so? Because of orange cables strung along roadways throughout the county…
Read More “More Drilling on the Way in Portage County, OH?”
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NY Officials Make Plans to Use More Natural Gas
MDN friend Andy Leahy, who writes excellent posts on his NYShaleGasNow.com blog, has done it again. He’s sniffed out documentation from the New York Public Service Commission which maps out a plan for the state to use more natural gas. You read that right! While NY is in the throes of debating whether or not to allow fracking, state officials are making official plans to use more of the very thing fracking would produce—abundantly and cheaply.
Andy points out the following on this quiet-but-profound policy shift:
Read More “NY Officials Make Plans to Use More Natural Gas”
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GreenHunter’s Plans to Move Wastewater by Barge Delayed
The U.S. Coast Guard must decide whether or not to allow fracking wastewater to be transported by barge along rivers and lakes in the U.S.—so says Cmdr. Michael Roldan, chief of the Coast Guard’s Hazardous Material Division. If the Coast Guard decides transporting fracking wastewater is not allowed, that would be a huge problem for GreenHunter Water. They’ve already invested in five barge terminals in Pennsylvania and West Virginia to do precisely that—move Marcellus and Utica fracking wastewater to facilities that can treat and dispose of it. They’ve made those investments with the understanding it would be allowed. Their understanding may have been misplaced.
Read More “GreenHunter’s Plans to Move Wastewater by Barge Delayed”
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Chesapeake Energy | Columbiana County | Energy Companies | Energy Services | EnerVest | Industrywide Issues | M3 Midstream | NGLs | Ohio | Processing Plants
Columbiana County NGL Plant On Track for May Opening
An update on the excellent progress being made with the construction of a new $400 million natural gas liquids collection and processing plant being built in Hanoverton (Columbiana County), Ohio by M3 Midstream:
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