An update on the latest drilling permits (issued the past two weeks) for the Utica Shale in both western PA and eastern Ohio, by driller and county:
Crestwood Marcellus Midstream announced yesterday they have purchased four compression/dehydration stations from Enerven Compression for $95 million. The stations service Crestwood’s own gathering pipelines in Harrison and Doddridge counties in West Virginia. Antero Resources is the driller in the area using the Crestwood pipeline system. Crestwood’s CEO calls it a “bolt-on acquisition” for the company.
From the Crestwood press release, which includes an update on their Marcellus-related business with Antero:
Read More “Crestwood Midstream Buys 4 Compressor Stations in WV”
MDN has highlighted plenty of stories about companies and governments hopping on the bandwagon to convert vehicle fleets to run clean-burning natural gas. Why wouldn’t you? It’s half the cost of gasoline! There are, of course, some hurdles along the way—namely finding filling stations. But ever-so-gradually more filling stations are appearing. But in addition to the problem of lack of filling stations, there are federal, and often state, regulatory hurdles to consider as well.
A new white paper from the Ben Franklin Shale Gas Innovation and Commercialization Center takes a look at both Pennsylvania and federal regulations when it comes to converting vehicles to run on natural gas (a copy of the white paper is embedded below). Here’s the press release announcing the white paper, which provides a good overview of what’s in it:
Read More “Regulatory Hurdles in Converting Vehicles to NatGas”
The federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved new rules earlier this year (that is, created new laws by fiat that no one has the guts to oppose) requiring all oil and gas drillers nationwide to use so-called “green completions” by the year 2015. What are green completions?
Read More “Marcellus Drillers Drop Flaring, Adopt “Green Completions””
An opinion-editorial piece in today’s Harrisburg Patriot-News co-written by PA Dept. of Environmental Protection Sec. Michael Krancer and Gov. Tom Corbett’s energy executive Patrick Henderson touts Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale as the “global superstar of natural gas formations.” Referring to recently released reports from the IEA and S&P, here’s what else they said about the mighty Marcellus:
Read More “PA Marcellus is “Global Superstar” of NatGas Plays”
For the past five years one of the key indicators that the Marcellus Shale has been red hot is the level of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity among energy companies. That is, companies doing deals to work together, or to buy outright, leased acreage, drilling operations or pipelines and other infrastructure. For the first time in several years, there was no significant M&A activity for an entire 3-month period (third quarter 2012) in the Marcellus, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers, a consulting and research firm that tracks it.
What, exactly, does that mean?
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: Tue, Nov 27, 2012”
Binghamton, NY’s failed mayor, Matt Ryan, now has the answer to his question direct from the laboratory he hired (with taxpayer money) to test Binghamton’s water: Drilling in Pennsylvania has had zero impact on Binghamton’s water supplies which come from the Susquehanna River.
Even with irrefutable scientific evidence that drilling doesn’t pollute the Susquehanna, don’t expect Ryan, an ideologically-driven leftist, to shut up on the topic of fracking. He won’t let something like science get in the way of a good political issue.
Read More “Tests Show No Impact from PA Drilling on Binghamton Water”
Someone beside Norse Energy is holding out hope that New York will soon allow fracking of the Marcellus and Utica Shale—and they’re willing to spend money on that gamble. EmKey Gathering has just purchased a 75-mile right-of-way from Norse Energy that stretches from Madison County through Chenango County and into Broome County—all of those counties in New York State’s Southern Tier region.
EmKey hopes to hook up local shale gas wells, once they’re drilled, to the Millennium Pipeline, an interstate pipeline that runs through Broome County.
Read More “New Marcellus/Utica Pipeline Planned for NY Southern Tier”
Want to know where drilling is set to rapidly expand? One of the indicators is how busy the county clerk or county recorder’s office is. Before you drill you have to lease, and in order to lease, you have to perform title searches to be sure the landowner has free and clear title to enter into a lease. Busyness at the county recorder’s office is a good signal for what will soon follow.
Using the metric of how busy the recorder’s office is, Belmont County, Ohio is due for a lot of drilling activity in the not-too-distant future:
A recent article touches on the touchy issue of environmental groups accepting donations from the drilling industry. Specifically, the article focuses on the Audubon Society and their decision to run a series of meetings in Pennsylvania earlier this year with the Marcellus Shale Coalition and the Ruffed Grouse Society for birdwatchers, anglers, hunters and hikers to ask questions about drilling. What did Audubon learn? If you even think about talking with “the other side” your rabid enviro-brethren will turn on you in a heartbeat.
Near the end of the article we spotted this interesting paragraph on the true motivation of the Sierra Club and their recent attacks on natural gas (changing their position after they had been in favor of it for years):
Local developers who own the decommissioned Falling Springs Reservoir in Lackawanna County, PA (near Scranton) have made application with the Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC) to sell water from the reservoir to area shale gas drillers for use in fracking. The SRBC will consider the request at their Dec. 14 business meeting:
Read More “SRBC to Consider Water Sale from NEPA Reservoir for Fracking”
PDC Energy plans to drill it’s first Washington County, OH Utica Shale well in April of next year. The company previously drilled two Utica wells, both in Guernsey County, OH.
The details from the Akron Beacon Journal:
Read More “PDC Energy Expands Utica Drilling to Washington County, OH”
New York Residents Against Drilling (NYRAD) recently issued an email containing a letter from Walter Hang of Toxics Targeting (based in where else? Ithaca, NY). Hang issued a Thanksgiving message (forwarded by NYRAD) celebrating another year without fracking in New York, and updating the faithful on where things stand with the current moratorium. Hang does a pretty fair job of representing the complex situation as it stands in New York, and what may/may not happen next.
MDN is reprinting his entire message below (no changes, no comments, formatting as originally received) to offer those interested in what’s happening with fracking in NY a chance to see the issue through the eyes of anti-drillers. Sometimes it’s useful to walk in the other guy’s shoes to gain perspective…
Read More “Anti-Drillers’ Perspective on Where Things Stand in NY”
Some people call them “man camps.” Others call them “labor camps.” Whatever you call them, small groups of people (usually men) working on location and living in trailers—like what happens at drill pad sites—are now officially called labor camps in West Virginia. If a site in WV has 10 or more people living and working on location, you need a special permit according to a new state law.
Chesapeake Energy has become the first driller in WV (Ohio County) to apply for and receive a labor camp permit:
Read More “Chesapeake Energy Receives First ‘Labor Camp’ Permits in WV”