Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Wed, Aug 15, 2012
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading:
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Drilling Opponents Use AP to Smear PA Gov. Corbett
Once again opponents of Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett are using the Associated Press to try and smear him over the issue of drilling. The latest “hit piece” against the governor comes over the issue of a recent Executive Order (EO) he issued which a) requires drillers and others requiring permits—pipelines, compressors, etc.—to supply fully completed paperwork, and b) if they do, encourages DEP employees to process that paperwork and respond in a timely manner.So the AP is going after Gov. Corbett for his desire to provide good customer service. You just have to shake your head. Here’s the background and details:
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Town of Caroline, NY Prepares to Strip Away Landowner Rights
Landowners in the Town of Caroline (Tompkins County, NY) are about to have their constitutionally protected property rights stripped away by the anti-drilling town board. Elections do have consequences, and last November two level-headed pro-drilling board members were tossed in favor of anti-drillers. What follows? Citizens are denied their constitutional rights.
Thursday night the town board will hold a freak show public hearing on their proposed fracking ban:
Read More “Town of Caroline, NY Prepares to Strip Away Landowner Rights”
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New Day/New Bloomberg Frack Attack on Shale Drillers
Bloomberg, perhaps the most anti-drilling large media company aside from Reuters, targets FracFocus.org in an elaborately long negative article. FracFocus is a website sponsored by the drilling industry where companies either voluntarily, or by state mandate, list the chemical composition of the fracking fluids they use for individual wells they drill. The public can find out what chemicals are used in well drilling nearby.
Bloomberg wants you to believe the website is just a sham, a pretense offered by the drilling industry in an attempt to cover up the dirty, filthy drilling they really do. And while Bloomberg is driving their anti-drilling message down the highway at 120 mph attempting to run over FracFocus, they swerve into the other lane and try to hit as many drilling companies head-on as they can along the way, just for good measure.
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AP Says Shale Drilling Provides Too Many High Paying Jobs
A new story from the AP is just so bizarre, it’s actually funny. The theme of the story? The shale energy industry is providing too many good paying jobs. Yep—you read that right. At a time when both Republicans and Democrats talk about jobs, jobs, jobs, the AP says if an industry provides too many jobs, and they pay too well, that’s actually a bad thing. What kind of mental gymnastics do you have to go through to arrive at that conclusion?
Here’s how the AP “story” starts—the setting is Woodward, Oklahoma:
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Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Newfield Exploration | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Wayne County
Newfield Plugs 3 Exploratory Wells in Wayne County, PA
Newfield Exploration is plugging three exploratory wells they drilled in Wayne County, PA in 2010. Why? They won’t comment on what they found in the wells, but the fact is, the Delaware River Basin Commission controls drilling in most of Wayne County and the DRBC has so far not allowed drilling in the Marcellus Shale. They currently have an ongoing review process for new rules to allow drilling, but the sitting members of the Commission have not voted to release the rules.
So to comply with PA Dept. of Environmental Protection rules, Newfield is plugging the wells—at least for now.
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Fracking Battle Heats Up in…Virginia?
The Marcellus and Utica Shale formations only just skirt the outer edge of the State of Virginia—almost following a path along it’s western border with West Virginia and Kentucky. So the great debate over drilling and fracking has not really touched Virginia in a significant way—until now.
The Roanoke Times reports there is now a “battle” over fracking in The Old Dominion state:
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U.S. Driller Sitting on Big Canadian Utica Shale Reserve
The Utica Shale underlies part of the Canadian province of Quebec. But development of the Utica is currently on hold while a government panel studies and reviews the miracle of hydraulic fracturing, just to be sure it’s safe.
In the meantime, drillers like Lone Pine Resources, with leased acreage in Quebec’s Utica Shale, wait. While they’re waiting, they’ve sized up the potential reserves they own in the Utica, and for Lone Pine, it’s big.
Read More “U.S. Driller Sitting on Big Canadian Utica Shale Reserve”
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WV Energy Exec Says Marcellus Will Last 100+ Years
David Drennon is marketing and transportation manager with H.G. Energy LLC in Parkersburg, West Virginia. He spoke yesterday at the Parkersburg Rotary Club weekly meeting about development of natural gas from Marcellus Shale deposits and oil from Utica Shale deposits. He offered these observations and predictions about shale development in WV:
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Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Tue, Aug 14, 2012
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: Tue, Aug 14, 2012”
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Bombshell: NY DEC Head Martens Started Anti-Fracking Group
Well well. Jon Campbell from the Gannett News Service wrote an article yesterday about New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Joe Martens. It has a surprising revelation in it.If you’ve read MDN for any length of time, you no doubt will know we have said we believe Joe Martens to be the fox in the henhouse—that is, the man put in charge of hydraulic fracturing in the state is a committed opponent of it (see this MDN story). Were we wrong?
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Antero 2Q12 Update: More Marcellus/Utica Drilling Ahead
Antero Resource released their 2Q12 financial and operating update this morning. Among the highlights: They’re operating 10 drilling rigs in the Marcellus, all of them in northern West Virginia. They plan to add two more rigs in the near future to the 10 already there. To date, Antero has drilled and completed 88 Marcellus Shale gas wells. They’ve completed two Utica Shale wells in eastern Ohio and are right now drilling a third.
Below are the relevant portions from the update for this very active Marcellus/Utica driller:
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Ohio Drought: Does Fracking Use Too Much Water?
Like Pennsylvania, Ohio is experiencing drought conditions this summer. With drought conditions comes concerns that drilling companies use too much water from local rivers and streams (and other sources) for fracking. But also like PA, the amount of water used for fracking in Ohio is truly miniscule compared with other uses.
Until the recent passage of Senate Bill 315, Ohio could not control access to how much water is used by drilling companies. That’s now changed:
Read More “Ohio Drought: Does Fracking Use Too Much Water?”
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Would Drillers be Interested in a Half Acre? Yep
You may not get rich as a landowner of a small plot of ground by leasing it for gas drilling, but depending on where you live, even if you own just a half acre of land, you may be able to participate in Marcellus or Utica Shale drilling. That’s what happened with Belmont County when they recently discovered the county owns a half acre plot of land they previously didn’t know they owned. Gulfport Energy made them an offer they couldn’t refuse.
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PA Fish & Boat Commission: Why They Lease for Gas Drilling
The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission recently entered into leases for drilling to occur underneath several lakes it owns. The executive director of the Commission, John Arway, said that two years ago he couldn’t imagine “siding with the natural gas industry regard drilling.” So what changed his mind?
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Armstrong County | Energy Services | Indiana County | Industrywide Issues | Ion GX Technology | Pennsylvania | Seismic Testing | Westmoreland County
Seismic Testing for Shale Coming to Armstrong County, PA
Ion GX Technology is in the process of contacting landowners and filing the necessary paperwork to begin seismic testing in Armstrong County, PA along with some portions of Westmoreland and Indiana counties. Landowners do not have to grant permission for seismic testing and cannot be forced to do so.
Read More “Seismic Testing for Shale Coming to Armstrong County, PA”
Once again opponents of Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett are using the Associated Press to try and smear him over the issue of drilling. The latest “hit piece” against the governor comes over the issue of a recent Executive Order (EO) he issued which a) requires drillers and others requiring permits—pipelines, compressors, etc.—to supply fully completed paperwork, and b) if they do, encourages DEP employees to process that paperwork and respond in a timely manner.
Well well. Jon Campbell from the Gannett News Service wrote an article yesterday about New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Joe Martens. It has a surprising revelation in it.