About the half the landowners in Mercer County, Pennsylvania who signed leases with Halcon Resources (via CX Energy) to allow shale gas drilling on their property found out Monday night that Halcon is not exercising their lease options. The other half found out Halcon will go forward with drilling on their property.
What happened?
Read More “Halcon Says No Drilling for Half of Mercer County Landowners”
The cost of water used in fracking Marcellus Shale wells was a topic of conversation at the World Shale Oil & Gas Summit in Houston this week.
Southwestern Energy CEO Steven Mueller had this to say about how much it costs to move (truck) the water for a single Marcellus well, on average:
Read More “How Much of $6M Cost to Drill a Well is Water for Fracking?”
Youngstown, Ohio City Council members have delayed a vote to move forward with leasing city-owned land for natural gas drilling. A vote was planned for Wednesday, but council would not take a final vote, partly at the urging of state Rep. Bob Hagan (D). As frequently happens at government meetings when drilling is discussed, loud-mouthed protesters showed up to cheer, boo and in general make noise. One of the protesters was dragged out by police and charged with disorderly conduct.
Hagan and Democrat council members want the city to wait until the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) completes a study on fracking—which won’t be done until 2014—before moving forward with leasing.
Read More “Youngstown, OH Delays Vote to Lease City Land for Drilling”
RebuildNYnow, a group of businesses across New York State joining forces to raise awareness about the state’s crumbling infrastructure (roads, bridges and more), is weighing in on the fight to allow fracking.
The group has just launched a new ad campaign designed to pressure Gov. Cuomo to allow drilling:
Read More “NY Biz Group Launches Ad Campaign to Convince Cuomo to Frack”
Twelve applications have been made to the federal government requesting permission to set up export facilities for liquefied natural gas (LNG), some of those for Marcellus and Utica shale gas. Japan desperately needs natural gas in the wake of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster which is shutting down all of Japan’s nuclear power industry. Most of Europe is impotent to begin fracking their own shale deposits (thanks to the iron grip of extreme environmentalism).
The U.S. has plenty of gas and other countries want it. But one thing stands in the way of exporting it—the Obama Dept. of Energy and a study they are conducting to evaluate how much natural gas prices will go up here at home if we start exporting it. The study was due to be completed early this year. Then “by end of summer.” And now? End of the year. Kind of sounds like the DEC in New York with their “study” of drilling!
Read More “Will Marcellus & Utica Shale Gas be Exported Any Time Soon?”
As MDN reported in early July, Sunoco (about to be purchased by Energy Transfer Partners), signed a joint venture deal with the Carlyle Group, a Washington, D.C. private equity firm, to keep Sunoco’s Philadelphia oil refinery open (see this MDN story). The deal will save 850 jobs. The reason the deal happened at all? The Marcellus Shale.
On Wednesday, Sunoco handed over the ceremonial keys to the plant to Carlyle. Sunoco maintains a one-third interest in the refinery, and Carlyle will be the new operator.
Read More “Sunoco Hands over Keys to Philly Refinery after 146 Years”
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, Sep 20, 2012”
PDC announced today they will “go it alone” and develop 45,000 acres of Utica Shale leases they own in southeastern Ohio without a joint venture partner. Apparently the offers they received weren’t good enough, so they’re committing $50 million to drilling efforts in the Utica in their 2013 budget.
Early results for PDC have been promising. They report drilling two wells in Guernsey County, OH. They plan to drill a third Utica well later this year in Washington County. Here’s the press release outlining early results, and their Utica plans for the next 12 months:
Read More “PDC Energy will Go-it-Alone with Utica Shale Drilling”
MDN editor Jim Willis will attend Shale Gas Insight 2012 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, PA on Thursday and Friday, Sept. 20 & 21. He’ll be hanging out at the NGI Shale Daily booth (#433). If you’re an MDN reader, please stop by to say hello in person! Jim would like to meet you.
It seems, however, that more than just luminaries like Jack Welch (former CEO of GE), Tom Corbett (Governor of PA), Ted Koppel (former Nightline host) and the CEOs of Range, XTO and MarkWest will be there. Anti-drillers will also converge on the Convention Center in a spectacle they call Shale Gas Outrage, featuring minor celebrities like Josh Fox (of Gasland infamy), Bill McKibben (350.org), Sandra Steingraber (ecologist), and Doug Shields (former president of Pittsburgh City Council). Hey, it ought to be a real party!
Here’s what the Philadelphia Inquirer says about the upcoming event:
Read More “MDN to Attend Shale Gas Insight in Philly this Thu/Fri [Free]”
For some time there have been rumblings of how drilling activity is moving from “dry gas” (methane only) to “wet gas” (methane plus natural gas liquids like ethane, pentane and butane) areas. It seemed you couldn’t read a quarterly financial update from an energy company that didn’t mention such a move. And while slowdowns were apparent in some isolated areas, frankly, the actions just didn’t seem to match the words.
Here’s a bit of news that provides tangible evidence of the change from dry to wet gas drilling. Great Plains Oilfield Rentals, a company that employs 120 people in and around Buckhannon in Upshur County, WV (center of the state), is moving—to the upper panhandle area of West Virginia. Why? Wet gas drilling.
Read More “Tangible Evidence of the Change from Dry to Wet Gas Drilling”
Some New York State elected officials—particularly those outside of the Southern Tier where drilling may someday, possibly, perhaps, after numerous lawsuits, see a teeny tiny bit of drilling—are anti-drilling and attempting to get themselves noticed. Fortunately, they’ve given us a handy list of who they are—so you can either vote for or against them, depending on your viewpoint, in the next election (see the complete list of anti-drilling elected officials below).
Yesterday a group of elected officials held a presser in Utica, NY to announce the Utica Shale may be a “target” for fracking:
Read More “List of Upstate NY Elected Officials who Oppose Drilling”
Talk about an ill-advised strategy… Even though New York Gov. Cuomo’s office and the state Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has been holding secret meetings with anti-drillers, asking for their opinions and advice on how to proceed with fracking in New York State, some of those same groups have turned around and sued Gov. Cuomo and the state claiming a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request they made earlier this year for the records about meetings between the governor, the DEC and the drilling industry have not been fully disclosed.
Hello anti-drillers! This is not how you win friends and influence people (like Andy) to your cause. The topper? The group suing isn’t even from New York.
Read More “Anti-Fracking Group Sues NY Gov. Cuomo & DEC over FOIL Request”
Yesterday, a group of the usual suspects of radical “environmentalist” groups, including 350.org, Catskill Mountainkeeper, Delaware Riverkeeper, et al, sent a letter to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo urging him to permanently ban fracking and instead pursue the fantasy of alternative energy for the state (letter embedded below). The signatories claim that clean-burning natural gas is not a bridge to their so-called clean energy nirvana future. Different day, same old stuff.
Read More “Environmental Groups Ask Cuomo to Ban Fracking Permanently”
Although there’s plenty of conventional, shallow gas wells in Crawford County (in the northwestern corner of Pennsylvania), the very first unconventional, horizontal well has just been drilled in the Utica Shale in Crawford County. Starting as soon as today, it will be fracked.
Here’s the details:
Read More “Crawford County, PA Sees First Utica Shale Well Drilled”
Pennsylvania’s Act 13 shale drilling law, passed earlier this year, is facing a stiff legal challenge to a key provision in the law. The only part of the law challenged in court is the part replacing the ability of local municipalities to enact zoning ordinances to control where, and if, drilling happens within their borders. Act 13 substitutes a common set of zoning restrictions—drilling must be at least X feet from water wells, schools, etc. Seven brave townships in PA sued to have that provision overturned. MDN says “brave” not because we necessarily support their effort, but in contrast to the cowardly towns and cities and organizations who haven’t put up their own money and time but instead have issued press releases to support the seven who have.
Who are the cowardly towns and organizations? Let’s name some names, shall we?
Read More “Cowardly “Me Too” Towns Support Act 13 Lawsuit in 11th Hour”
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: Wed, Sep 19, 2012”