Marcellus Drilling News

Anadarko | Energy Companies

Anadarko 3Q12 Update: Lowered Marcellus Well Cost by $1.5M
October 31, 2012October 31, 2012

Anadarko Petroleum reported third quarter results on Monday. Anadarko is an independent exploration and production (E&P) company—a very large one—with a good deal of drilling in the Marcellus Shale. Third quarter revenues were $3.33 billion for the company, up 4.2% on the year.

In their operations update (MDN has extracted the Marcellus/Utica Shale portion below), Anadarko reports they’ve lowered drilling costs by $1.5 million per well since 2011. It now costs them an average $2.3 million to drill a Marcellus Shale well. They also report encouraging results in targeting the shallower Geneseo Shale with plans for drilling the Geneseo in 2013.

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Economic Impact | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Sandy’s Affect on Drillers in the Marcellus & Utica Shale
October 31, 2012October 31, 2012

Although Hurricane turned Super Storm Sandy gave New York City, Delaware and New Jersey a big, black eye (and we grieve for their losses), further inland Marcellus and Utica Shale drillers prepared for and appear to have avoided any major impacts from the storm. Some production was and still is shut in to avoid potential problems, but given the storm is now mostly gone from the Marcellus and Utica Shale region, shut in production should quickly come back online.

Here’s a Sandy report from four of the largest drillers in the Marcellus:

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Antero Resources | Doddridge County | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | MarkWest Energy | Pipelines | Processing Plants | Statewide WV | West Virginia

MarkWest Opens Sherwood I Wet Gas Processing Facility in WV
October 31, 2012October 31, 2012

MarkWest, a huge midstream (pipeline & processing facilities) company and Antero Resources, a Marcellus Shale driller, inked a deal in May 2012 for MarkWest to gather and process Antero’s wet gas, or natural gas liquids in West Virginia (see this MDN story).

MarkWest announced today the first phase of that deal is now online with the commencement of operations at the Sherwood I facility in Doddridge County, WV. The Sherwood I facility has the capacity to process 200 million cubic feet per day of wet gas. MarkWest is building Sherwood II now, which would add an additional 200 Mmcf/d of capacity. Eventually a third Sherwood facility may be built for a total capacity of 600 Mmcf/d.

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Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Ohio | Statewide OH | Supply Chain

Plugging in to the Marcellus & Utica Shale Supply Chain
October 31, 2012October 31, 2012

Although some of the initial frenzy of activity has subsided, drilling in Ohio’s Utica Shale continues, and along with it comes a growth in business, jobs and economic impact.

Here are a few stories of Ohio businesses that have seen a major impact from plugging in to the Marcellus and Utica Shale “supply chain”:

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Energy Companies | Talisman Energy

Talisman Energy’s Big 3Q12 Loss, Treads Water in Marcellus
October 31, 2012October 31, 2012

There’s no way to sugarcoat the dreadful third quarter results Talisman Energy reported yesterday—and they don’t try. The Canadian company, one of the larger drillers in the Marcellus Shale, announced a $731-million loss for the third quarter yesterday, which included $443-million of charges tied to exiting from Peru and setbacks with their operations in Norway and Quebec. Talisman’s stock dropped nearly 5% on the news.

The new president & CEO, Hal Kvisle, gave a sobering and frank review of the company and charted out four key priorities moving forward. One of those priorities is where they will focus their operations in the months and years ahead.

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Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Wed, Oct 31, 2012
October 31, 2012October 31, 2012

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

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Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Sandy’s Effect on Marcellus/Utica Shale Drilling & Production
October 30, 2012October 30, 2012

It seems the entire country watched with morbid fascination as Hurricane-now-Super Storm Sandy slammed into the northeast yesterday. The exceptionally large and powerful storm—some 1,000 miles across—lingers over what is essentially the Marcellus and Utica Shale region of the U.S. As of early Tuesday more than 5 million people are without power due to storm damage. New York was heavily hit with the highest storm surge to hit Manhattan in over 200 years, flooding subway tunnels and covering some city streets. The New York Stock Exchange is closed for two consecutive days for the first time since 1888. Truly history in the making.

How will Sandy affect drilling, production and refining in the Marcellus? Reports came in yesterday that refineries were shutting down in advance of the storm. Production coming from the field likely will not be affected all that much, but drilling is another matter. Some drilling operators reported they would lay down rig masts until the storm passes.

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Energy Companies | EXCO Resources

EXCO Resources Posts 3Q12 Loss, Marcellus Production Up
October 30, 2012October 30, 2012

EXCO Resources released their third quarter financials and operational update yesterday. The company lost $346 million ($1.62 per share) in 3Q12, mostly because of an accounting “write-down” on the value of some of their oil and gas properties.

With most of their Marcellus drilling activity concentrated in Lycoming County, PA, EXCO reports year-over-year production for their Marcellus operation increased 35% from 3Q11. EXCO currently operates one drilling rig in the Marcellus and says although they previously committed to drill 49 wells this year, they “continue to evaluate” their 2012 drilling program. Translation: Don’t count on a full 49 wells being drilled this year.

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Columbia Pipeline Group | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | NiSource | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide PA

NiSource Announces Pipeline Expansion Project for Marcellus
October 30, 2012October 30, 2012

NiSource has announced plans for what they call the East Side Expansion project—a project to expand and extend pipelines on the east side of the Columbia Gas Transmission system to pipe natural gas from northern PA to the East Coast and mid-Atlantic region (see the map below). NiSource previously announced they would spend $4 billion to upgrade and build new pipeline infrastructure throughout the Marcellus and Utica Shale (see this MDN story). The newly named East Side Expansion project appears to be one (large) component of that effort.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Mother Jones Fingers the Country’s Biggest Frackers
October 30, 2012October 30, 2012

Sometimes anti-drillers, especially those in the media, behave like prepubescent teen boys who have just started to swear and like to show off new words to their friends. Case in point: Mother Jones. The so-called news magazine/website Mother Jones (on the way way wacky left fringe of the political spectrum) regularly bashes the energy industry. Their latest hit piece is called “Meet the Frackers.” My how those editors at MJ are so clever. Wonder who thought that one up?

The post on the MJ website is intended to be a “hall of shame” displaying photos and quotes from CEOs of top energy companies that use the miracle of hydraulic fracturing to provide low-cost, clean-burning natural gas here in the U.S. But what MJ means as a hall of shame MDN considers a “hall of fame.” And so we celebrate the country’s biggest frackers:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Statewide NY

Robert Redford Anti-Fracking Commercial: Bald-Faced Lie
October 30, 2012

Sadly, but predictably, movie star Robert Redford is lending his star power to the anti-fracking movement in New York, no doubt because his long-time friend Debra Winger (Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy) asked him to. Redford has cut five radio commercials misrepresenting the miracle of hydraulic fracturing, encouraging New Yorkers to contact and tell Gov. Andrew Cuomo “fracking is a bad deal for New York.”

Unfortunately, either knowingly (or perhaps ignorantly) Redford repeats the lie that fracking is somehow responsible for the contamination of drinking water “all across the country.” That statement is 100% false. Give this latest anti-fracking lie a listen (below).

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Commodity Price | Energy Companies | Equinor/Statoil | Exporting | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines

Statoil Starts Shipping NatGas to Canada, Plans NYC Pipeline
October 30, 2012October 30, 2012

In a bid to get more money for its natural gas, Statoil, a Norwegian company with major operations in the Marcellus Shale, said late last week they will start shipping gas to Canada effective Nov. 1. They also plan to build a new natural gas pipeline to Manhattan, NY.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Brits Visit PA Marcellus to Learn about Fracking
October 30, 2012October 30, 2012

America’s good friends the Brits are in Pennsylvania taking a look at how we’re fracking the Marcellus Shale as an example they may want to follow. Britain has its own shale deposits in the northern part of the country. They also have their own dedicated anti-drilling crowd, preventing them from moving forward (see this MDN story on Europe’s energy suicide).

British Consulate General Danny Lopez arrived in Pittsburgh yesterday just ahead of Super Storm Sandy:

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Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Tue, Oct 30, 2012
October 30, 2012October 30, 2012

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

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Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA Judge to PUC: Cease & Desist Act 13 Zoning Reviews
October 29, 2012October 29, 2012

On Friday, Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court Judge Keith Quigley issued a “cease and desist” order to the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) telling them they can no longer review PA towns’ zoning ordinances for compliance with the new Act 13 drilling law (a copy of his order is embedded below). MDN has chronicled the ongoing fight between seven PA towns and the state over the state’s new standardized “one size fits all” zoning ordinance for oil and gas drilling (see this MDN story for background).

The lawsuit brought by the seven towns is now before the state Supreme Court waiting for a decision. In advance of that, the PUC said there are some zoning provisions not challenged in the lawsuit and they are evaluating those kinds of cases. The PUC has ruled that some of the seven towns in the lawsuit are not in compliance and the PUC is withholding their impact fee checks pending a decision from the Supreme Court—it’s a lot of money. Judge Quigley has said “no more” and now the attorney for those towns is demanding the PUC cut the checks for the impact fees owed to the towns.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines

Radon Debate: USGS Responds to Marvin Resnikoff Accusation
October 29, 2012October 29, 2012

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is none too happy with Dr. Marvin Resnikoff and his accusations that the USGS has been “co-opted” by big fracking. MDN has written previously about “the sky is falling” – or in this case, “the radon is coming” Resnikoff. Dr. R says Marcellus Shale gas contains high levels of radon that will find its way into the kitchen stoves of New York City if we continue to allow hydraulic fracturing of shale for natural gas (see this MDN story).

In Dr. R’s zeal to crush any opposing viewpoint or research that disproves his theories, he’s recently taken to bashing the USGS as a “tool” of industry in covering up the so-called “fact” that high levels of radon exist in Marcellus Shale gas. The Akron Beacon Journal ran one of his screeds. A few days later the USGS fired back in response to set the record straight.

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