Marcellus Drilling News

Economic Impact | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Stantec | Stark County | Washington County

Canadian Firm Buys PA Marcellus Survey/Mapping Company
December 17, 2012December 17, 2012

Canadian firm Stantec, which provides consulting service in engineering, surveying and environmental sciences, announced on Friday that they have bought out Landmark Survey and Mapping. Landmark, with 24 employees in both Washington, PA and North Canton, OH, specializes in surveying and mapping oil and gas pipelines—a growing area of focus for Stantec.

From the announcement:

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Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Mahoning County | Ohio

Road Trip! Youngstown, OH Chamber Goes to Houston, TX
December 17, 2012December 17, 2012

The Youngstown-Warren (OH) Regional Chamber of Commerce went on a road trip last week—to Houston, TX. The Regional Chamber is aggressively marketing the Mahoning Valley area as the supply chain hub for the Utica and Marcellus Shale—encouraging Houston companies to open operations in their area to leverage an abundance of low-cost natural gas and natural gas liquids.

Chambers of Commerce and economic development agencies from other locales would do well to follow their example:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Gas Drilling Lingo: Pumpjacks, Yellow Dogs & Gushers, Oh My!
December 17, 2012December 17, 2012

If you stop by a diner along Route 29 in Susquehanna County, PA on any given day, you may hear the patrons using words you’re not familiar with. Words like pumpjack, yellow dog, and kick down. You may also hear them talking about a Christmas tree—but it’s probably not the one you’re thinking about that stands in your living room this time of year.

Time for a vocabulary update, to define some of the terminology you may hear next time you go out to eat in a community where there’s active shale drilling:

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

WV’s Burdette Still in Hunt for Ethane Cracker Plant
December 17, 2012December 17, 2012

West Virginia’s Commerce Secretary Keith Burdette, who has been in the hunt for an ethane cracker plant for several years now, is still upbeat on both Marcellus/Utica Shale drilling in the state, and on upbeat on the state’s chances to land an ethane cracker:

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Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Mon, Dec 17, 2012
December 17, 2012December 17, 2012

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

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Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Gulfport Energy | Ohio | Statewide OH

Chesapeake Admits Misjudging Ohio Utica Sweet Spot
December 14, 2012December 14, 2012

The Utica Shale is still in its infancy and drillers are still trying to get a fix on the “sweet spots” that will produce the most natural gas, gas liquids and even oil. Rendering an opinion on the best places to drill can be a career-ender, like it was for one long-time ODNR employee (see this MDN story).

Chesapeake was the early mover in Ohio’s Utica Shale, and it’s still the biggest driller in Ohio. However, we have an interesting admission from Chesapeake this week: They’ve misjudged the “emerging fairway” of the Utica in Ohio. While Chesapeake is concentrating most of their drilling in Carroll and Columbiana counties in the northern part of the state, Gulfport has drilled the four highest-producing wells in the Utica in counties to the south.

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Carroll County | Columbiana County | Industrywide Issues | Lease & Royalty Payments | Litigation | Ohio

Judge Tells Ohio Landowners They Can’t Break Lease
December 14, 2012December 14, 2012

A lawsuit filed by 95 landowners in Carroll and Columbiana counties (Ohio) has been decided in favor of Chesapeake Energy and against the landowners. Last month, Judge Richard Markus (Common Pleas Court) issued his decision that the landowners in the case could not break their lease if they received a better offer—something they thought they could do according to a provision in the lease.

Here’s the details of the case and the decision:

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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Mahoning County | Ohio | Wastewater

Anti-Driller Attempts Fraud at Youngstown, OH Meeting
December 14, 2012December 14, 2012

A loud-mouthed anti-driller tried to disrupt a recent “Oil & Gas 101” meeting being held in Youngstown, Ohio. The 30-year old woman started screaming over top of speaker Rhonda Rheda. She claimed to have a jar of fracking fluid with her, which she left on the table when she was arrested and removed from the meeting. The anti-driller then called 911 to report there was “hazardous material” at the meeting. Thing is, it was all a fraud. Wastewater is not hazardous material, but more to the point, Rheda had the contents of the jar tested and found it to be cider vinegar with chewing tobacco mixed in. A complete fraud and hoax by the anti-driller.

Welcome to a debate where the other side doesn’t play by anyone’s rules and will lie, cheat and commit fraud in the name of their “cause”—the elimination of all fossil fuels as a source of energy.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Public Opinion | Statewide NY

Drill in NY? Republicans Say Yes, Democrats Say No
December 14, 2012December 14, 2012

Quinnipiac University has been busy polling. First they released a new poll of Ohioans and their attitudes toward higher taxes for drilling in that state (see this MDN story), and a day later, they released a poll of New Yorkers asking them whether or not drilling should even be allowed in that state. The results (full copy embedded below) provide the most striking example yet that the entire drilling issue has become politicized in New York.

The poll results, released yesterday, show that 70% of New York’s Republicans support drilling for shale gas and oil (17% are opposed), while only 29% of Democrats support drilling (and 55% are opposed). Overall, the state remains pretty evenly split with 44% supporting drilling and 42% opposed to it.

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Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Public Opinion | Statewide OH | Taxation

OH Poll Shows Support for Higher Drilling Tax is Slipping
December 14, 2012December 14, 2012

A new Quinnipiac University Poll shows a majority of Ohioans continue to support a higher severance tax (what they term a “new tax” when asking the question) on the shale drilling industry—especially if it would cut their income taxes. But the simple headline does not reveal the whole picture.

When you look at the internals of the poll (full copy of the questions and results is embedded below), you find that (a) support for the tax is slipping, and (b) it’s Ohio Democrats who support the tax in large numbers, while Republicans only tip to the support side when it comes to the question of lowering income taxes.

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Accidents | Dominion Energy | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pipelines | Statewide OH

PUCO Fines Dominion East Ohio $500K for Pipeline Accident
December 14, 2012December 14, 2012

The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) has fined Dominion East Ohio $500,000 over a natural gas explosion and fire at a pipeline regulator station in January 2011 in Fairport Harbor, Ohio. The resulting fires severely damaged 11 homes and another 150 homes required repair or maintenance of their gas-powered appliances because of the mishap.

From the PUCO press release:

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Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Ohio | Regulation | Statewide OH

Ohio Dems Accuse Gov. Kasich of Hypocrisy on “Foreign” Workers
December 14, 2012December 14, 2012

Ohio Democrat politicians, like Ohio Gov. John Kasich (a Republican) want to limit the number of “foreigners” working in the oil and gas fields of the state. Foreigners means hard-working, experienced oilfield workers from Louisiana, Texas and Oklahoma (traditional oil and gas states).

Ohio Dems think Kasich is not doing enough to keep them thar darned foreigners out:

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Housing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Taxation

PA Housing Approves $7.6M in Spending from Impact Fee Fund
December 14, 2012December 14, 2012

Part of the Pennsylvania “impact fee” assessed on Marcellus drillers in the state (collected by the state’s Public Utility Commission) was set aside for a special Housing Affordability and Rehabilitation Enhancement fund. In addition, local municipalities also set aside some of their own impact fee revenue for housing projects.

Yesterday, the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency (PHFA) approved using more than $2 million from a total pot of $7.6 million on a list of housing projects in northeast PA. The projects include new housing for senior citizens and low-income residents, help for landlords to rehabilitate rental properties, and aide to low-income individuals for rent. Here’s a list of some of the projects in NEPA funded by the impact fee money:

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Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Fri, Dec 14, 2012
December 14, 2012December 14, 2012

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: Fri, Dec 14, 2012”
Broome County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Statewide NY

NY Attorney General Investigates Towns Who Won’t Ban Fracking
December 13, 2012December 13, 2012

The out-of-control New York State Attorney General’s office (Eric Schneiderman, AG) continues to be, well, out-of-control. We’ve just learned that in October Schneiderman’s office launched an ethics investigation against board members of several townships in Broome County, NY—board members who voted on a resolution that says, in essence, “We’ll wait for the DEC before we make any decisions about whether or not to allow fracking in the town.” Those resolutions are widely seen as pro-drilling, even though the language is neither pro- nor anti-drilling.

What makes the actions of AG Schneiderman’s office so outrageous is that he has not launched any investigations of board members for towns who have voted to illegally ban fracking, even though those board members have “conflicts of interest” by siding with the environmental groups who have contributed money and manpower to their campaigns! This action by Schneiderman’s office in targeting pro-drillers is detestable, arrogant, and (MDN would argue) an abuse of power. More details…

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Carroll County | Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Harrison County | Hilcorp Energy | Lawrence County | Noble Energy | Ohio | Pennsylvania | R.E. Gas Development

Latest Round of Drilling Permits Along PA/OH Border
December 13, 2012

Hilcorp received a permit last week from the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) to drill its 18th Utica Shale well in Lawrence County, PA. Meanwhile, Chesapeake, Noble and R.E. Gas Development received permits last week from the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) to drill six new shale wells in Carroll and Harrison counties.

The details of who is drilling and where:

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