Marcellus Drilling News

Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Statewide OH | Statewide PA

Phelim McAleer Storms Across PA with FrackNation Screenings
April 1, 2013April 1, 2013

Phelim McAleer, the creator, director and producer of the phenomenal documentary FrackNation, is storming across Pennsylvania starting later this week with personal appearances at a number of PA screenings for his film. MDN has each screening listed on our Calendar page (check for times and locations). FrackNation is also being shown across Ohio during the month of April, although Phelim is not appearing at those screenings.

Here’s the complete list of upcoming cities where Phelim will attend a screening to answering questions from the audience:
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About MDN | Calendar

Calendar of Events for Apr 1-14, 2013 [Free]
April 1, 2013April 1, 2013

Below are upcoming events for this week and next.
Read More “Calendar of Events for Apr 1-14, 2013 [Free]”
Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Mon, Apr 1, 2013
April 1, 2013April 1, 2013

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: Mon, Apr 1, 2013”
About MDN

MDN Takes a Brief Pause for Good Friday & Easter
March 29, 2013March 29, 2013

Marcellus Drilling News is taking today (Friday) off in observance of Good Friday and the Easter holiday. We wish you a blessed Easter, Happy Passover, or just a “best wishes and have a great holiday weekend.” We’ll be back with all of the Marcellus and Utica Shale news on Monday!

Jim Willis, Editor, MDN
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Crime | Harrison County | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Statewide OH

OH State Police Put Extreme Enviro Groups Under Surveillance
March 28, 2013March 28, 2013

Saying that “so far” Ohio has not seen any violence from extremist anti-drilling environmentalist groups—but that they do expect violence—the Ohio State Highway Patrol’s (OSHP) Central Intelligence Unit is now monitoring groups like Earth First! and Appalachian Resist. The OSHP says: “…some of these groups are considered domestic terrorists or vandals.”

At a monthly meeting of first responders in Harrison County, OH who gather to discuss and plan for health and safety emergencies related to shale drilling, Sgt. Greg McCutcheon of the OSHP said the following:

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BP | Energy Companies | Ohio | Trumbull County | Utica Shale

Better Late than Never: BP Gets First Permit for OH Utica
March 28, 2013March 28, 2013

From MDN’s bedtime stories…Once upon a time (in April 2012), a huge international oil and gas company (BP) leased 84,000 acres all at once with landowners in Trumbull County, OH (see BP’s Big Utica Shale Deal, Leases 84K Acres in Ohio). They later tossed out some of the deals (see BP Cancels Deal for 7% of ALOV Leases in Trumbull County, OH). The end.

Whoops! Not much of story—but that’s been the entire story for a year now. After leasing all of that land in Trumbull County, BP has done no Utica Shale drilling. Zip, zero, nada. Earlier this year BP said, in essence, they’re taking their sweet time, but they do intend to drill a few initial wells this year, perhaps starting in April (see BP in OH Utica Shale: The Prospectivity of Producibility). Looks like the wait may be over…

Read More “Better Late than Never: BP Gets First Permit for OH Utica”
Forced Pooling | Industrywide Issues | Statewide WV | West Virginia

WV Legislation Would Create Forced Pooling – with a Twist
March 28, 2013March 28, 2013

A bill just introduced into the West Virginia legislature would allow for “forced pooling” in very specific cases. Forced pooling laws, in case you’re unfamiliar with the term, require or “force” landowners who have not signed a lease to allow drilling because their neighbors have all signed a lease and drilling under the holdout’s property is required in order to access the other leased properties. However, the WV bill adds a big twist: It will allow forced pooling only in cases where the owner of the mineral rights can’t be determined, or the owner can be determined but can’t be found.

Supporters of the bill, introduced by Sen. Brooks McCabe (D-Kanawha), are careful to point out the new bill (unlike previous failed forced pooling bills) does not force known, unwilling landowners to be placed into a “unit” for drilling…

Read More “WV Legislation Would Create Forced Pooling – with a Twist”
Allegheny County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrialization | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Research | Susquehanna County | Wildlife

USGS Study: Marcellus Drilling Fragmenting Forests in PA
March 28, 2013March 28, 2013

The U.S. Geological Survey earlier this week released a new report raising concerns about Marcellus Shale drilling in the Allegheny Plateau (pretty much the entire Marcellus region). The 38-page report (full copy embedded below) looks at two counties in particular: Susquehanna County in northeastern PA, and Allegheny County in southwestern PA.

Using a series of maps and data, the authors raise concerns that Marcellus drilling, along with drilling for gas in coalbed methane (a similar process), is leading to “forest fragmentation”—a situation where forested areas get “carved up” with roadways and drill pads that lead to limiting the geographic habitat area for some species of animals:

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Ohio | Statewide OH

More Angst Over OH Utica’s Oil Prospects
March 28, 2013March 28, 2013

Just a few days ago MDN highlighted a story by Reuters that raises the question of the Ohio Utica Shale’s oil producing potential (see Will OH Utica Turn Out to be Steak, or Just Sizzle? Eye on April). A writer on The Motley Fool website picks up on that theme and makes these observations about the Utica’s oil prospects:

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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Electrical Generation | Industrywide Issues | New York | Tompkins County

NatGas vs Coal for Electricity, What’s an Anti-Driller Do?
March 28, 2013March 28, 2013

An electrical generating power plant located in the most anti-drilling part of Upstate New York—Ithaca and Tompkins County—has filed with the state Public Service Commission to convert the plant from burning coal to burning clean natural gas. This puts anti-drillers like Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton (Democrat from Ithaca) in a quandary. If she supports it, it points out her rank hypocrisy on the drilling issue. If she opposes it and the plant shuts down, she screws a whole bunch of people out of jobs. Not to mention that burning natural gas is a LOT cleaner than burning coal—so opposing it would put her on the side of more air pollution.

Yeah, it’s a real quandary for Ms. Lifton…

Read More “NatGas vs Coal for Electricity, What’s an Anti-Driller Do?”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Health Impacts | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

NY Anti-Drillers Send Letter to Cuomo: Stop the Health Review Now
March 28, 2013March 28, 2013

In yet another public relations stunt, Walter Hang from the Ithaca-based Toxics Targeting group, along with several of his anti-drilling, eco-nut buddies (like failed Binghamton Mayor Matt Ryan), sent Gov. Andrew “Ditherer” Cuomo a rambling 4-page letter on Tuesday requesting that he instruct NY State Health Commissioner Nirav Shah to abandon his current review of fracking rules with an eye on health impacts. Why? Because the current review is “fatally flawed” and “an exercise in futility.”

Instead of the current review, Hang & Co. “request” the Dept. of Health perform a full, years-long public health impact study…

Read More “NY Anti-Drillers Send Letter to Cuomo: Stop the Health Review Now”
Bradford County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Pennsylvania | Statewide NY | Statewide PA

Support from 2 Prominent Pennsylvanians for Fracking in NY
March 28, 2013March 28, 2013

MDN wasn’t the only one to note the very loud, in-your-face editorial by former PA Gov. Ed Rendell printed in yesterday’s New York Daily News (see Former PA Gov. Rendell to Gov. Cuomo: Get Fracking). Karen Moreau, executive director of the NY State Petroleum Council, released the following statement yesterday noting Rendell’s support for fracking in New York, along with the support from a hospital administrator of a hospital that sits in the middle of the most-drilled county in PA (Bradford):

Read More “Support from 2 Prominent Pennsylvanians for Fracking in NY”
Carbon County | Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Pennsylvania | Trucking

Help Wanted: PA Fire Truck Co. Retools to Build Marcellus Tankers
March 28, 2013March 28, 2013

More positive impacts from the Marcellus drilling industry in Pennsylvania. A major employer in Carbon County, PA, Kovatch Mobile Equipment Corporation (in Nesquehoning), a company that previously manufactured mostly fire trucks, is hiring 40 new workers to help with a new business line: water hauling tankers used by the Marcellus Shale industry. Kovatch’s increase in employment is rippling throughout the entire local economy…

Read More “Help Wanted: PA Fire Truck Co. Retools to Build Marcellus Tankers”
Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Thu, Mar 28, 2013
March 28, 2013March 28, 2013

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: Thu, Mar 28, 2013”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide NY | Statewide PA

Former PA Gov. Rendell to Gov. Cuomo: Get Fracking
March 27, 2013March 27, 2013

$frack baby frack$ Interesting. Former PA Gov. Ed Rendell (“Fast Eddie” as he’s know around here) has penned a huge editorial printed in today’s New York Daily News, a left-leaning newspaper, aimed at one person: NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Eddie’s words of advice to his fellow Democrat? Frack Andy Frack!

Here’s Rendell’s op-ed:

Read More “Former PA Gov. Rendell to Gov. Cuomo: Get Fracking”
Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County

Cabot Spins Gold from Hay with Low Cost Drilling
March 27, 2013March 27, 2013

Cabot Oil & Gas is, so far, the only driller to attain 1 billion cubic feet per day of natural production in the Marcellus Shale (see Who’s a Member of the Marcellus “1 Bcf/d” Club?). Perhaps the most astonishing part of their story is that all of Cabot’s drilling happens in rural northeastern Susquehanna County, PA. Although Cabot is some 10 times smaller than Chesapeake Energy, the value of their stock (market capitalization) recently surpassed Chesapeake (see Guest Post: Corporate Hubris Humbles Chesapeake – Cabot Soars Sure & Steady).

Cabot’s ability to spin gold from hay is in no small part because of their Marcellus operation in Susquehanna County…

At a recent conference, Cabot made an investor presentation (full copy below) that shows, in part, why they’re so profitable—even in a low commodity price environment. As we’re writing this story, the commodity price of natural gas is exactly $4 per thousand cubic feet. Depending on geography, the cost to produce natural gas approaches $4/Mcf for many drillers. But for Cabot? Their average cost per Mcf in 2012 was $1.67, and for 2013 they estimate it will go even lower (see slide 10 below).

Read More “Cabot Spins Gold from Hay with Low Cost Drilling”