Marcellus Drilling News

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

“Real” Deadline for NY DEC to Decide Fracking Issue: Feb 13
January 14, 2013January 14, 2013

The magic date by which the New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) must release new rules to allow fracking is and has been Feb. 27—which is the end of the 90-day extension period we’re currently in. However, there’s a closer, more important date to watch for those who support fracking and want to see it go forward, and for those who don’t. That date? Feb. 13.

Here’s why is Feb. 13 is a critical date and likely the “real” deadline for the DEC to decide yes or no…

Read More ““Real” Deadline for NY DEC to Decide Fracking Issue: Feb 13”
Industrywide Issues | Jobs

Starting Salary for Petroleum Engineer Nears 6 Figures
January 14, 2013January 14, 2013

In a story that thanks Schulmberger for its generous donations to West Virginia University ($18 million and counting), we learn about the astonishing starting salaries for petroleum engineers coming out of WVU and across the country. How astonishing?

According to PayScale, starting salaries for petroleum engineers fresh out of school: $98,000 a year. That’s 50% higher than the #2 highest paid job: aerospace engineer.

Read More “Starting Salary for Petroleum Engineer Nears 6 Figures”
CONSOL Energy | Energy Companies

CONSOL Energy’s 2013 Plan: Spend Lots on Marcellus & Utica Shale
January 14, 2013January 14, 2013

CONSOL Energy today released it’s spending and operations plans for 2013. Among them: They will spend $600 million to continue developing their Marcellus Shale operations, of which $415 million will go for drilling new wells. They plan to drill 126 new Marcellus wells this year, 90 of them in the liquids-rich portion of the play. CONSOL also plans to spend $122 million on their joint venture with Hess to drill 27 new wells in the Utica Shale.

Today’s CONSOL announcement:

Read More “CONSOL Energy’s 2013 Plan: Spend Lots on Marcellus & Utica Shale”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

What Do Fracking, Coffee & Secret Reports have in Common?
January 14, 2013January 14, 2013

Hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas is an economic, technological miracle—hands down. There are some negatives associated with the practice, but fracking in no way pollutes ground water aquifers as claimed by people who simply hate all fossil fuels (and must justify their hatred with specious arguments like “it pollutes water”).

A recent column in the New York Post does a stellar job of putting the miracle of fracking—and New York’s angst over it—in context by using a little known story of actual events that happened in Sweden during the 1700s—events that had to do with one of MDN’s favorite addictions: coffee. It’s the kind of column we wish we had written…

Read More “What Do Fracking, Coffee & Secret Reports have in Common?”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Statewide NY

NY Anti-Frackers Take Pledge, Vow Civil Disobedience
January 14, 2013January 14, 2013

It’s certainly not the first time this has happened… But we thought you’d want to know that if you’re a New York landowner, if/when the NY Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) moves forward with a plan to allow fracking in the state, some of your fellow New Yorkers (mostly from New York City), will try to deny you your right to allow drilling on and under your land—by use of what they call “nonviolent civil disobedience.”

At last Wednesday’s anti-fracking rally in Albany, NY during Gov. Cuomo’s State of the State address, the 800-1,000 anti-frackers in attendance “with fists in the air” took the following Pledge to Resist Fracking in New York:

Read More “NY Anti-Frackers Take Pledge, Vow Civil Disobedience”
Centre County | Industrywide Issues | NG Vehicles | Pennsylvania

More CNG Vehicles on the Way in Centre County, PA
January 14, 2013January 14, 2013

More evidence that compressed natural gas vehicles (CNG) are taking off comes from Centre County, PA where local elected officials are applying for a grant to help purchase CNG vehicles for the county and local towns.

Aside from the cost to convert vehicles to CNG (which state and federal grants help with), the only thing that really holds back local municipalities from adopting CNG technology are fueling stations:

Read More “More CNG Vehicles on the Way in Centre County, PA”
Industrywide Issues | Jefferson County (OH) | Ohio | Roads | Trucking

OH Congressman “Tickled” by Road Improvements from Shale Drillers
January 14, 2013January 14, 2013

Ohio Congressman Bill Johnson (Republican, 6th District) visited Jefferson County, OH last Thursday to get an update on the impacts on area roadways from truck traffic related to Utica Shale drilling. Thousands of truck trips over rural roads take their toll.

So what did Congressman Johnson find? The roads are now in better shape than they were before drilling began:

Read More “OH Congressman “Tickled” by Road Improvements from Shale Drillers”
Chesapeake Energy | Columbiana County | Energy Companies | Lease & Royalty Payments | Ohio | Utica Shale

Utica Shale Drilling Heats up in Middleton Twp, OH
January 14, 2013January 14, 2013

Utica Shale drilling is heating up in Middleton Township (Columbiana County), Ohio.

Here’s the details on the one Utica Shale well now drilled in Middleton, the four coming soon, and how much the town was paid by Chesapeake Energy to lease six acres of town land:

Read More “Utica Shale Drilling Heats up in Middleton Twp, OH”
About MDN | Calendar

Calendar of Events for Jan 14-27, 2013 [Free]
January 14, 2013January 14, 2013

Below are upcoming events for this week and next.

Read More “Calendar of Events for Jan 14-27, 2013 [Free]”
Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Mon, Jan 14, 2013
January 14, 2013January 14, 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, Jan 14, 2013”
Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Why More Ohioans Don’t Work in Utica Shale Industry? Drugs
January 11, 2013January 11, 2013

Er, um, we’re not exactly sure how to broach this delicate topic without offending a great many residents of Ohio, including Ohio Gov. John Kasich who keeps saying he doesn’t want “foreign” workers in Ohio’s oil and gas fields (meaning he wants Ohioans only, not workers from Texas and Oklahoma), but, well, Gov. Kasich? Maybe you don’t have more Ohioans working in those gas fields because 50-60% of the Ohioans applying for those jobs are druggies. Yeah, you read that right. Half or more are strung out on drugs—both illegal and/or prescription.

In a recent interview, the head of the Ohio Oil and Gas Energy Education Program, Rhonda Reda, said that 50-60% of those applying for jobs in eastern Ohio’s shale industry are rejected because of the presence of illegal drugs or the “wrong” kind of prescription drugs (like Vicodin) found in the pee test. Note: we did not say half of all Ohioans use drugs! It’s half of all Ohioans applying for these jobs.

Read More “Why More Ohioans Don’t Work in Utica Shale Industry? Drugs”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Crude Oil | Industrywide Issues

Al Gore’s Price to Sell Out the Environment? $500 Million
January 11, 2013January 11, 2013

Perhaps no one on the planet is more identified with the cause of “going green” and dumping fossil fuels than former Vice President (under Bill Clinton), and later presidential candidate, Al Gore. He even wrote a book in 1992 called “Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit” in which he said, among other outrageous and silly things, that one of the greatest threats to humanity is the invention of the internal combustion engine. He also tried to gin up support for selling “carbon credits,” a scam to tax the global energy industry. We already know the man is crackers. Now we know he’s a hypocrite too…

Read More “Al Gore’s Price to Sell Out the Environment? $500 Million”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

Who Did & Didn’t Attend NYS Assembly Hearing on Fracking
January 11, 2013January 11, 2013

Today, Friday, Jan. 11, 2013, is the final day of a new 30-day comment period from the New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) required under law so the DEC would not have to restart the entire process of approving new drilling regulations, including regulations for hydraulic fracturing (fracking). Anti-drilling groups are trying to derail the inevitable approval of the new rules by a) dumping 200,000 new comments on the DEC, which we’re sure the DEC really appreciates, and b) by holding a joint hearing in the NYS Assembly yesterday.

The Assembly joint hearing, spearheaded by three anti-drilling Assembly Democrats (see NY Assemblyman Try to Stop the Clock on Fracking Comment Period), was supposed to hear from more than 50 people who signed up in advance to address the hearing. Almost all of the speakers signed up were anti-drilling, no surprise given who was hosting the hearing. But not all got to speak because one brave pro-drilling soul went on the hot seat for nearly two hours…

Read More “Who Did & Didn’t Attend NYS Assembly Hearing on Fracking”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

NY Energy Lawyer Tom West Says Latest DEC Revisions Go Too Far
January 11, 2013January 11, 2013

One item of note in the news generated around today’s deadline to provide comments to the New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) about their latest revisions to proposed fracking regulations…

MDN picked up on the published comments from energy industry lawyer Tom West who said he was filing comments on behalf of landowners and drillers. His comments about this latest round of changes by the DEC of their proposed fracking rules were decidedly pessimistic:

Read More “NY Energy Lawyer Tom West Says Latest DEC Revisions Go Too Far”
Accidents | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

EPA Keeps Investigating Fracking/Water Contamination in WY
January 11, 2013January 11, 2013

In a desperate attempt to save face and prove there’s at least one lone, solitary instance where fracking can be “proven” to have contaminated a groundwater aquifer (out of the hundreds of thousands of times it’s been done), the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has, for the third time, moved the goal posts in Pavillion, Wyoming. Yesterday the EPA announced they were extending a public comment period a third time, extending it to Sept. 30, 2013.

For a quick backgrounder on the non-controversy in Pavillion, see 3 Things to Know about Pavillion, Fracking & Water Contamination and API Says EPA Botched Pavillion, WY Fracking Tests. Here’s the latest:

Read More “EPA Keeps Investigating Fracking/Water Contamination in WY”
Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Utica Shale Potpourri: from Names to Production to Multiple Wells
January 11, 2013January 11, 2013

Akron Beacon Journal reporter Bob Downing—in our opinion Bob is one of the best reporters covering the Utica Shale story in Ohio—brings us the following six “tidbits” that didn’t make it into a larger story he wrote looking back at 2012 and ahead to 2013 with respect to Utica Shale drilling.

There’s some interesting factoids below, along with MDN’s own (snarky) thoughts interspersed, including how one Ohio official wants to rename the Utica Shale! Forthwith:

Read More “Utica Shale Potpourri: from Names to Production to Multiple Wells”