Marcellus Drilling News

Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Sierra Club’s $26M in Secret Natural Gas Money
November 26, 2012November 26, 2012

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):

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Lackawanna County | Pennsylvania

SRBC to Consider Water Sale from NEPA Reservoir for Fracking
November 26, 2012November 26, 2012

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:

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Energy Companies | Ohio | PDC Mountaineer | Washington County (OH)

PDC Energy Expands Utica Drilling to Washington County, OH
November 26, 2012November 26, 2012

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:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

Anti-Drillers’ Perspective on Where Things Stand in NY
November 26, 2012November 26, 2012

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…

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Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Housing | Industrywide Issues | Ohio County | Regulation | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Chesapeake Energy Receives First ‘Labor Camp’ Permits in WV
November 26, 2012November 26, 2012

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:

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Industrywide Issues | Key Energy | Muskingum County | Ohio

Edge Oilfield Services Closes Zanesville, OH Office
November 26, 2012November 26, 2012

An oilfield services business that opened a branch office in Zanesville (Muskingum County), Ohio in January to service Utica Shale drilling in the area has now closed the office. Why?

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Industrywide Issues | Wealth Management

Tips for Estate Planning for Landowners with Leases
November 26, 2012November 26, 2012

The shale drilling boom in the Marcellus and Utica Shale region is one of the best things to happen for trust and estate lawyers in years. Landowners need help in planning how they will pass on royalty income from their property to avoid a huge tax hit in the process. Greedy politicians are always looking for a way to relieve citizens of wealth, to, you know, spread it a round a little bit. Landowners who have signed leases need a plan to reduce the government’s bite as much as possible.

However, simply giving away the royalty rights early in the process, to help you and your heirs, is not always the first and best option, according to experts like attorney R. Douglas DeNardo—a partner at Rothman Gordon in Pittsburgh, chairman of the firm’s estates, trusts and taxation department:

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Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | NG Vehicles

Waste Management, Others Converting Fleets to Run on NatGas
November 26, 2012November 26, 2012

When Waste Management, the country’s biggest trash hauler, commits to converting 80% of its truck fleet with trucks powered by natural gas—that’s a big deal. Other fleet managers are taking notice and doing the same. Why? The price of natural gas is half the cost of gasoline and diesel:

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About MDN | Calendar

Calendar of Events for Nov 26-Dec 9, 2012 [Free]
November 26, 2012November 26, 2012

Below are upcoming events for this week and next.

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Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Mon, Nov 26, 2012
November 26, 2012November 26, 2012

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

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

A Glimmer of Hope in NY: Health Review Deadline Now Dec 3
November 23, 2012November 23, 2012

Finally, a bit of good news for New Yorkers who want to see fracking come to the Empire State. As MDN has pointed out many times, the situation in New York State (will they or won’t they allow fracking?) is like a protracted death scene in an opera. Die already!

We have a new twist in the drama, as reported by Gannett yesterday. MDN recently told you that one of the three outside experts hired to review the Dept. of Environmental Conservation’s draft drilling regulations from the perspective of impacts on public health—Lynn Goldman of George Washington University—said she was given a mid-February deadline (see this MDN story). She’s since revised her comments and now says her real deadline is December 3rd, although she’ll be on retainer (paid) through mid-February, presumably to provide more consulting or any follow-up work from the report she’ll help write and file by December 3.

Here’s how it was reported yesterday:

Read More “A Glimmer of Hope in NY: Health Review Deadline Now Dec 3”
Columbia Pipeline Group | Columbiana County | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Hilcorp Energy | Lease & Royalty Payments | NiSource | Ohio

Some Brinker Field (OH) Leases Revised, Others in Lawsuit
November 23, 2012November 23, 2012

Hilcorp Energy was hired by Columbia Gas’ parent company NiSouce to drill Utica Shale wells in the Brinker Storage Field, a 35,000 acre area in Columbiana County, Ohio that Columbia has used to store natural gas going back more than 50 years. The original leases with landowners in the Brinker, leases passed down to new landowners over the decades, mean that landowners get zippo from any drilling—no lease payments and no royalties (see this MDN story for background).

Since the MDN story that first appeared in September, about 100 landowners have signed on to a lawsuit against Columbia and Hilcorp over the lease issue. But also since September, Columbia and Hilcorp have cut new leases with landowners not party to the lawsuit. We get the details of the lease terms from a story that talks about Hilcorp setting up a new office in Columbiana to work on land deals:

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CNX Resources | Columbiana County | CONSOL Energy | Energy Companies | Ohio

CONSOL/CNX Expands Presence in Ohio Utica Shale
November 23, 2012November 23, 2012

CONSOL Energy’s CNX Gas subsidiary is expanding its presence at the Columbiana County Port Authority’s industrial park in Leetonia, Ohio. It’s an indicator of CNX/CONSOL’s commitment to the Ohio Utica Shale.

Although headline stories usually talk about the 1.3 million acres owned by Chesapeake in the Utica Shale, you don’t often hear about the large and growing stake owned by CNX:

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Alternative Energy | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Global Warming Expert Promotes Shale Gas to Cut Carbon
November 23, 2012November 23, 2012

Oxford economist and a big-time proponent that man causes global warming, Dieter Helm, has a brand new book out called The Carbon Crunch. He believes, as many people do, that earth faces an urgent need to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide being emitted into the atmosphere (we’ll save our global warming skepticism for another day). Here’s the surprise: In Helm’s new book, he argues, strongly, that global warmists should support shale gas as the best, most practical option to help cut carbon emissions in the short-term. He also says expensive and poorly performing wind turbines and solar panels have done more harm than good.

From a review of his new book by New Scientist magazine:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

Energy Expert: Obama Would be “Insane” to Stop Fracking
November 23, 2012November 23, 2012

A Washington Times article talks about how the fracking industry waits with baited breath for the EPA’s draft report on fracking, due in December, as an indicator of how aggressively (or not) the Obama administration will target fossil fuels in the second term. The article contains some interesting quotes, one from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and another from an energy scholar at the Manhattan Institute. Here’s select portions from the article:

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Broome County | Guest Post | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

Binghamton Resident to Gov. Cuomo: Thanks for Nothing [Free]
November 23, 2012November 23, 2012

Binghamton-area landowner Bill Owen has written numerous times to Gov. Andrew Cuomo to encourage the governor to allow fracking in New York State. His reward? To end up on Cuomo’s feckless email list. Earlier this week Bill recently received a “Happy Thanksgiving” email from Cuomo, so Bill thought he would respond. His excellent letter back to Cuomo (who will likely never read it, but hey, you never know!) is reprinted below:

Read More “Binghamton Resident to Gov. Cuomo: Thanks for Nothing [Free]”