Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Tue, Jan 22, 2013
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading:
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Insider Look at Gastar’s WV Marcellus Operations, Changes in 2013
Gastar Exploration Ltd. is a Houston-based independent company engaged in exploration and production of natural gas, natural gas liquids, condensate and oil. Their current focus is on the Marcellus Shale play—specifically in West Virginia’s northern panhandle.A recent interview with Gastar’s vice president of northeast operations, Michael McCown, pulled the curtain back on the company’s WV Marcellus results in 2012, and revealed their plans to change drilling locations in 2013:
Read More “Insider Look at Gastar’s WV Marcellus Operations, Changes in 2013”
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Antero Resources | Energy Companies | Guernsey County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Lease & Royalty Payments | Noble County | Ohio
OH Muskingum Watershed District to Sign Drilling Lease in Feb.
Last November, MDN told you that the Ohio Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District (MWCD), the largest watershed district in the state covering about 20% of Ohio’s landmass, had entered negotiations with Antero Resources to allow drilling and fracking under MWCD land around Seneca Lake (see OH Muskingum Watershed District Seeks Lease with Antero). Everything but the final price is now done, and the proposed lease (copy embedded below) will be voted on at the next board meeting of the MWCD on Feb. 15.
The lease, as written, will allow drilling under but not on 6,700 acres of property in Guernsey and Noble counties. Antero will have to drill from adjacent properties to reach the land—no disturbance of the surface will be permitted. How much will the MWCD get for a signing bonus and royalties?
Read More “OH Muskingum Watershed District to Sign Drilling Lease in Feb.”
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Carrizo Oil & Gas | Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Energy Services | EV Energy Partners | Gulfport Energy | Hess | MarkWest Energy | Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale
More than $1.2B & Counting on New Utica Drilling for 2013
So far, more than $1.2 billion (that we know of) has been budgeted by Ohio’s Utica Shale drillers for 2013. A whopping $7 billion has been allocated for pipelines and processing plants over the next several years.
Here’s a quick rundown on the plans for a few of the Utica’s major drillers and what they plan to spend on drilling in the Utica in 2013:
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Broome County | Chenango County | Delaware County | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | New York | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Schoharie County | Susquehanna County | Williams
New Marcellus Constitution Pipeline Announces “Final” Route
After more than a year of work, Williams has finalized the route for the new Marcellus Shale Constitution Pipeline that will run from the heavily-producing Marcellus Shale gas fields of Susquehanna County, PA all the way up to Schoharie County, NY, where the pipeline will connect with two large interstate pipelines: the Iroquois and the Tennessee. A copy of the map showing the “final” route is embedded below.
Read More “New Marcellus Constitution Pipeline Announces “Final” Route”
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA
PA Auditor General Targets State’s Marcellus Drilling Industry
Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP): Prepare for a painful anal exam, coming courtesy the newly elected PA Auditor General Eugene DePasquale. That was the gist of a letter sent by DePasquale to Michael Krancer, Secretary of the DEP, on DePasquale’s first day on the job (a copy of the full letter is embedded below).
The DEP’s response to DePasquale? Bring it on…
Read More “PA Auditor General Targets State’s Marcellus Drilling Industry”
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Energy Companies | Energy Services | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pennsylvania General Energy | Statewide PA | Universal Well
PA Frack Pumps Converting to Use LNG for Fuel
EQT was the first driller in the Marcellus Shale to convert a drilling rig to run on electricity produced by engines using an LNG/diesel mix (see this MDN story). CONSOL was next to experiment with converting some of their rigs to use LNG/diesel (see this MDN story). Then Seneca Resources, the gas drilling arm of National Fuel Gas Company, announced two of their drilling rigs will use 100% LNG as fuel (see this MDN story).
What started as a trickle is turning into a flood in Pennsylvania and throughout the Marcellus/Utica region and beyond. More companies are in the process of converting fleets to run on LNG or a mix of LNG/diesel. These new conversions will not only power initial drilling, but will also power the massive pump engines and heavy equipment used in the fracking process itself…
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Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Mon, Jan 21, 2013
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading:
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BP Cancels Deal for 7% of ALOV Leases in Trumbull County, OH
In March 2012, BP signed a huge deal with landowners belonging to the Associated Landowners of the Ohio Valley (ALOV) group to lease 84,000 acres in Trumbull County, OH (see BP’s Big Utica Shale Deal, Leases 84K Acres in Ohio). The terms of that deal were $3,900 per acre as a signing bonus and 17.5% in royalties. Very sweet indeed.Part of the process when signing a lease deal is “due diligence” in researching property deeds to be sure the driller will have a clear right to drill on or under the property. About 180 landowners with a collective 4,203 acres didn’t make the cut for the ALOV deal, and their contracts, according to the terms of the lease, were “released” this week by BP:
Read More “BP Cancels Deal for 7% of ALOV Leases in Trumbull County, OH”
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Allegheny County | CONSOL Energy | Energy Companies | EQT Corp | Lease & Royalty Payments | Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh Airport Wants More $ from CONSOL…After Accepting Bid
The story of the Pittsburgh International Airport’s acceptance of a bid from natural gas driller CONSOL Energy to drill on and under airport property, a bid that would provide less than half the money that a bid from EQT would have provided, continues to get curiouser and curiouser (see Inside Job? Pittsburgh Airport Leases Land to CONSOL for background and MDN’s original comments).
Apparently MDN isn’t, as we had thought, the only one who noticed this deal smells to high heaven. The latest news: PIA is negotiating with CONSOL to get them to raise the signing bonus, which is now rumored to be somewhere in the neighborhood of “$35 million to $40 million.” That’s certainly better, but still not has high as EQT’s offer of a $44 million bonus payment.
And what’s with “negotiating” after a bid has been accepted? A bid is a bid—you accept or reject it, especially if a public agency is involved. You don’t accept an offer and then promptly start negotiating to change it! Something is still very “off” about all of this…
Read More “Pittsburgh Airport Wants More $ from CONSOL…After Accepting Bid”
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Devon Energy Plugs Third Utica Well, Changes Strategy
Devon Energy, recently named by FORTUNE Magazine as one of the “100 Best Companies to Work For” in the U.S., has just plugged a third Utica Shale well in Ohio and is signaling a major change in strategy. They no longer plan to drill for natural gas in the Utica and will instead concentrate 100% of their time (and money) on drilling for oil.
A few weeks ago MDN told you about two Ohio Utica wells plugged and “abandoned” by Devon, one in Medina County and the other in Ashland County where they found disappointing results (see Flip Side: Some OH Utica Shale Wells Get Plugged/Abandoned). The third Utica well to be plugged and abandoned by Devon is located, ironically, in Utica, Ohio (Knox County):
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Another Milestone for Ohio: 500 Utica Shale Well Permits
One Rubicon was passed just a few weeks ago when Ohio had officially drilled more than 200 Utica Shale wells (see Ohio Passes 200 Drilled Utica Shale Wells, New Permits Keep Coming).
Another Rubicon is about to pass: Ohio had officially approved 498 Utica Shale drilling permits as of Jan. 12, so by now, Ohio has gone over the 500-mark.
Read More “Another Milestone for Ohio: 500 Utica Shale Well Permits”
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County
Looney Toons Anti-Fracking Celebrities Visit Montrose, PA
Yesterday John Lennon’s widow Yoko Ono and son Sean Lennon, along with reliably left movie star Susan Sarandon, boarded a Mercedes tour bus in New York City (burning gobs of diesel, a hated fossil fuel) and headed to the Montrose area of northeastern PA to “tour” drilling and compressor plant sites, visit with the commoners, and make pretentious pronouncements about how gas drilling is killing everyone and everything.
Ono and Lennon, in a bid to boost their non-existent public profiles, started a group last year called “Artists Against Fracking,” which is really kind of funny. Neither Ono nor Lennon can hold a tune in a bucket (see this hysterically funny video of them singing a song about fracking). But perhaps the “art” in “artists” comes from the pornography the 79 year-old Ono creates (see this story about her 2012 “fashion line for men”).
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CONSOL 4Q12 Operations Update: NatGas Up 5%, Coal Down 6%
CONSOL Energy, the country’s largest coal mining company, is an important (and big) driller in the Marcellus/Utica Shale region. Today CONSOL released an operations update which covers details from the fourth quarter of 2012 and looks forward to their plans for 2013. The update does a deep dive on their Marcellus/Utica drilling business, including details of their drilling activity with joint venture partners Noble Energy (in the Marcellus) and Hess (in the Utica). Although CONSOL drilled and completed fewer wells in 2012 than they did in 2011 (see the table below), the wells they did drill produced far more natural gas than previous wells. Each year they get better.
Here’s the update from CONSOL:
Read More “CONSOL 4Q12 Operations Update: NatGas Up 5%, Coal Down 6%”
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CNG Fueling Corridor for Motorists Comes to WV – Fill ’er Up!
IGS Energy, America’s largest independent supplier of retail natural gas, believes natural gas is no longer the “fuel of tomorrow” when it comes to vehicles, but instead is “the fuel of today.” One of the biggest issues for the adoption and use of natural gas-powered vehicles is lack of fueling stations. IGS announced yesterday they are building a string of CNG (compressed natural gas) fueling stations along Interstate 79 from Charleston, WV to Mount Morris, PA—an area they have dubbed the “CNG Fueling Corridor.”
IGS says this is just the beginning…
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Northeast PA Convenience Store Chain Installs CNG Pumps
In what seems to be a flood of news about CNG (compressed natural gas) filling stations popping up for vehicles, a convenience store chain in the Marcellus-rich area of northeastern PA is in the process of installing CNG filling pumps at three (so far) of it’s 70 stores in PA and NY.
One of the three locations—Towanda (Bradford County), PA—is having its “grand opening” today, but the new pump has already been operating for about month. Towanda is the very first public CNG filling location in northern PA:
Read More “Northeast PA Convenience Store Chain Installs CNG Pumps”
Gastar Exploration Ltd. is a Houston-based independent company engaged in exploration and production of natural gas, natural gas liquids, condensate and oil. Their current focus is on the Marcellus Shale play—specifically in West Virginia’s northern panhandle.
In March 2012, BP signed a huge deal with landowners belonging to the Associated Landowners of the Ohio Valley (ALOV) group to lease 84,000 acres in Trumbull County, OH (see