Yesterday MDN reported on a Tuesday gathering of anti-drillers in West Virginia calling for no further Marcellus Shale drilling permits to be issued until certain conditions are met (see this MDN story). Jim Sconyers, chairman of the WV Sierra Club, wrote to MDN, taking us to task over our characterization of that meeting.
Here’s Mr. Sconyer’s email:
Anti-drilling organizations like PennFuture can make all sorts of wild accusations against the drilling industry in Pennsylvania and the media simply nods its collective head up and down like bobble heads, never questioning, always regurgitating what they’re fed. But when someone in the industry hits back, the media (and the anti-drillers) squeal like little girls.
PIOGA, the Pennsylvania Independent Oil & Gas Association, sponsored a couple of billboards along the PA Turnpike about 35 miles from Pittsburgh a few days ago hitting back (see the picture below). What does PennFuture and the Associated Press do? Because “PIOGA” is not emblazoned across the billboard as the sponsor, they try to gin up a controversy that somehow “the industry” is trying to “hide the fact they sponsored it.” You can tell something is effective when you receive a reaction like this one.
Started by the George Soros-funded Public Accountability Initiative, the witch hunt at University at Buffalo—the university that dared to establish a Shale Resources Institute—continues full force (see this MDN story for background). Now the State University of New York (SUNY) Board of Trustees is “ordering” UB to report back to them details about the Institute. Interesting the kind of influence money can buy.
Here’s what’s being reported:
Read More “SUNY Bd of Trustees Orders UB to Report on Shale Institute”
Joe Eddy, president and CEO of Eagle Manufacturing in Wellsburg, WV made a presentation to the Wellsburg City Council on Tuesday. During his presentation, he made a mysterious reference to news that an ethane cracker plant may “come to the region in the next six months” and then said he could not elaborate any further. This is a synopsis of what he said:
A regular and ongoing Quinnipiac University poll of New York residents, the latest version which was released yesterday, finds that Upstate NY voters have tipped in favor of fracking. A majority of Upstaters, 45%, support fracking, while 41% oppose it. And it’s no surprise that 72% of Republicans are in favor of fracking while 54% of Democrats oppose it. Like it or not, fracking is a political issue.
The questions from the poll dealing with shale gas drilling in New York are embedded below so you can see the breakout by groups. Here’s a summary of the findings as reported by Quinnipiac:
Read More “New Poll Finds Most Upstate NYers Favor Fracking”
Safety Management Systems (SMS) is partnering with Mansfield University (in Pennsylvania) to launch a new degree program focusing on the expanding shale gas industry. The new Safety Management Bachelor of Science is part of the health sciences department at Mansfield. SMS is a division of Acadian, one of the nation’s largest providers of ground and air emergency and non-emergency medical transportation, EMT training and safety training.
From the SMS press release:
Read More “Mansfield Univ. Offers New BS in Safety for Shale Industry”
It’s full speed ahead for the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) when it comes to evaluating whether (or not) local zoning ordinances violate portions of the new Act 13 drilling law, thereby making those local municipalities ineligible to receive impact fees.
But wait, isn’t there a case in PA Supreme Court that will be heard in October about the constitutionality of the zoning provisions of Act 13? Indeed there is. So how can the PUC push forward with evaluating zoning ordinances that have been ruled unconstitutional by lower courts? Good question.
Read More “PA PUC Issues more Advisories for Act 13 Zoning Violations”
It was grassroots, a phenomenon of social media sites like Facebook. The word went out to the anti-fracking faithful, and yesterday (trumpets blaring) was ta da da da: Freedom from Toxic Fracking Waste National Rally Day – a day when the masses would rise up and protest against the nasty, dirty, polluting practice of fracking. Wait, what? You didn’t know? You didn’t see any protests “across the nation” or even in your own city or town? That’s right—Freedom from Toxic Fracking Waste National Rally Day was a massive flop because no one protested.
Well, almost no one protested. We did find one media reference that “at least 30 protestors” gathered in Youngstown, Ohio (an area with a population of over a half million people). The keynote headliner for the rally? Former president of Pittsburgh City Council (and rabid anti-driller) Doug Shields, peddling his view that fracking should be banned everywhere and for everyone. He said he’s pursuing legal means to try and do just that:
Read More ““Nationwide” Day of Fracking Protest a Gigantic Flop”
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 13, 2012”
The Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) releases updates on Utica Shale permits and drilling each week. The numbers for August permits, along with cumulative totals for all permits issued and wells fracked and drilled, is shown in the handy table below. What do the latest numbers say? Of the 21 counties where there either has been or is permitting and drilling, the hot spot is Carroll County. Last month Carroll County saw 25 new permits issued for Utica wells, all of them issued to Chesapeake Energy.
Here’s a rundown on the latest numbers, telling you where, and how much, Utica Shale drilling is happening in Ohio:
Read More “Utica Shale Permits/Drilling Update for Ohio – August 2012”
Although we’ve known for a while that the embattled Chesapeake Energy has been shopping some of it’s shale basin and other assets in order to pay down debt, they’ve made a huge announcement today. Chesapeake has sold most of its Permian Basin acreage along with “substantially all of its midstream” assets for $6.9 billion. The buyers for the Permian were Shell, Chevron and EnerVest. Most of Chesapeake’s remaining midstream assets were sold to Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP).
Chesapeake previously announced they would sell off assets in areas where they were not number one or two in an attempt to repay loans and concentrate their drilling in core areas. Two of the core areas where Chesapeake is sticking around are the Marcellus and Utica Shale.
From the Chesapeake Energy press release:
Read More “Chesapeake Sells Permian Basin, Midstream Assets for $6.9B”
The Village of Barnesville, OH (Belmont County) just signed a lease with Antero Resources to allow shale drilling on 1,047 village-owned acres. The village now has an additional $6 million in revenue because of it.
Here’s the details about the deal, including the per-acre price and royalty percentage (some of the highest we’ve seen):
Read More “Barnesville, OH Signs Lease with Antero, Receives $6M”
GASFRAC, a Canadian company with a patented fracking technology that uses liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) instead of water, announced a major shakeup yesterday. The company’s board of directors has tossed CEO Zeke Zeringue and COO Steve Batchelor overboard in a management shakeup.
From the GASFRAC press release:
Read More “Waterless LPG Fracking Company GASFRAC Fires its CEO, COO”
Gale Force Petroleum issued an operations update today about their Marcellus drilling activities in Wetzel and Marshall counties in West Virginia. Gale Force says the wells they’ve drilled, in wet gas areas, are producing in excess of 60 barrels of oil equivalent per day (BOEPD) of natural gas liquids in the Marcellus. They expect that number to grow.
Gale Force also says they’ve drilled 15 wells to date and have plans to drill another 50-100 wells on the 10,000 acres they’ve leased over the next three years. From the Gale Force press release:
Read More “Gale Force Petroleum Marcellus Update for 2 WV Counties”
The Wheeling-Ohio County Health Department is working with West Virginia University researchers in a new study to measure possible effects of drilling on air pollution:
Read More “New Study to Measure Drilling Effects on Air Quality in WV”
Each month the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) publishes a Short-Term Energy Outlook. EIA researchers crunch the numbers, analyze the trends, and haul out the EIA crystal ball to predict what will happen in the next 12 months.
Here’s the section where they talk about natural gas supply, demand and prices they expect over the next year:
Read More “EIA Short-Term Prediction for 2013: NatGas Avg $3.34 Mmbtu”