Marcellus Drilling News

Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Statewide OH | Statewide PA

How Many Jobs will Utica Shale Drilling Create in Ohio?
August 9, 2012August 9, 2012

How many jobs can Ohio expect from Utica Shale drilling? If it follows the same general path of Pennsylvania—and there’s no reason to expect it would not—for every job created in the oil and gas industry, two jobs are created in other industries to support it. It’s a 1:2 ratio.

Every new well drilled in PA created 30 jobs (in 2009) and $4 million in economic activity in the local economy. That is, shale gas drilling is hugely beneficial for both job creation and economic activity.

Read More “How Many Jobs will Utica Shale Drilling Create in Ohio?”
Energy Companies | Gulfport Energy | Rhino Resource Partners | Utica Shale

Rhino Resource Ups Investment in Utica Shale JV
August 9, 2012August 9, 2012

Rhino Resource Partners produces metallurgical and steam coal in a variety of basins throughout the United States. It also owns oil and gas acreage in the Utica and Cana Woodford plays. Rhino previously invested in an 80,000 Utica Shale acre joint venture with Gulfport Energy and Wexford Capital. Rhino’s investment gives them a 10.8% interest. Since that initial investment, Gulfport and Wexford have continued to buy up Utica Shale acreage and now have leases for 125,000 acres (including the original 80,000). The partners have extended an offer to Rhino to get a piece of the bigger action, which Rhino is doing.

From Rhino’s press release announcing a new deal with Wexford:

Read More “Rhino Resource Ups Investment in Utica Shale JV”
Energy Companies | Energy Corporation of America | Greene County (PA) | Pennsylvania

ECA 2Q12 Update: Wells & Pipelines Now Complete
August 9, 2012August 9, 2012

Energy Corporation of America (ECA) and the Trust they use to distribute profit to investors issued their second quarter update yesterday. Among ECA news: They have completed the last of 52 wells as well as completing the expansion of a gathering system expansion project in Greene County, PA. Three of the wells they’ve completed had an initial production of 10 million cubic feet of gas per day (Mmcf/d). All of their projects have been completed well ahead of schedule.

From the ECA update:

Read More “ECA 2Q12 Update: Wells & Pipelines Now Complete”
Carrizo Oil & Gas | Energy Companies

Carrizo 2Q12 Update: Marcellus Picks up Slack from Barnett
August 9, 2012August 9, 2012

Carrizo Oil & Gas reported their second quarter earnings and operations on Tuesday. Their statement shows the company’s profit nearly quadrupled because of their focus on oil production. They expect oil production to continue rising.

Carrizo is a driller in the Marcellus Shale, but the Marcellus did not play a big part in their quarterly statement. Here’s the couple of mentions it did get:

Read More “Carrizo 2Q12 Update: Marcellus Picks up Slack from Barnett”
Commodity Price | Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Statewide WV | West Virginia

WV Gas Utility Lowers NatGas Rate by 11.59%
August 9, 2012August 9, 2012

Bluefield Gas, a gas utility company based in Bluefield, West Viriginia, is lowering their rates for natural gas by 11.59%, effective November 1. Why? Marcellus Shale, of course.

Read More “WV Gas Utility Lowers NatGas Rate by 11.59%”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Wastewater

Penn State Paper on Water Usage in the Marcellus
August 9, 2012August 9, 2012

One of the concerns raised by anti-drillers, in an attempt to scare people, is that shale gas fracking will a) use up too much of our precious fresh water supplies, and b) wastewater from drilling will pollute fresh water supplies. The problem with those allegations is lack of evidence. If water supplies are in danger, then why have we not seen such shortages or contamination after 40,000 or so horizontal natural gas wells have been drilled since the early 2000s?

Every now and again a university will publish the facts on drilling, including it’s impacts on water. In May, Penn State University’s Extension program published such a paper, titled “Water’s Journey Through the Shale Gas Drilling and Production Processes in the Mid-Atlantic Region” (embedded below). It takes a look at how much and where water is used in the drilling process, and also deals with how wastewater is handled.

Read More “Penn State Paper on Water Usage in the Marcellus”
Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Thu, Aug 9, 2012
August 9, 2012August 9, 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: Thu, Aug 9, 2012”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

NY to Release New Fracking Regulations by Labor Day
August 8, 2012August 8, 2012

A major announcement is on the way in New York State about fracking and and the now four year-old moratorium on horizontal drilling: The fracking ban is about to end. According to a commentary published in the Albany Times Union last Saturday, top officials from the Cuomo administration are briefing “selected environmental groups” about his plan to allow fracking in New York State—a plan which he’ll release before Labor Day.

Here’s what’s being reported:

Read More “NY to Release New Fracking Regulations by Labor Day”
Industrywide Issues | Landfills | New York | Steuben County

Steuben County, NY Landfill Ready to Accept Shale Cuttings
August 8, 2012August 8, 2012

The Steuben County landfill in Bath, NY is now approved and ready to accept “shale cuttings,” or leftover soil and rock that comes from shale gas drilling. They join neighboring Chemung County that has accepted shale cuttings for over a year now, and Allegany County.

Although they don’t expect to receive much in the way of cuttings this year from Pennsylvania drillers because of a slowdown in drilling, Steuben officials want to be ready “just in case” Marcellus drilling in New York ramps up.

Read More “Steuben County, NY Landfill Ready to Accept Shale Cuttings”
Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies

Chesapeake Stock Jumps After McClendon Earnings Call
August 8, 2012August 8, 2012

Investors were positively giddy after Chesapeake Energy’s CEO, Aubrey McClendon, said on an earnings call yesterday that the company plans to sell three Permian Basin packages in the third quarter, which he expects to bring in another $7 billion. McClendon’s new expected total haul from asset sales for 2012 is $13-$14 billion. That sent stocks more than 10% higher (up $1.67 to $19.37), making corporate raider Carl Icahn a whole lot richer. Oh sorry! Forgot. We don’t call him a corporate raider nowadays, we euphemistically call him an “activist investor.” Yeah, got my PC hat on now. Won’t slip up again.

But is it all peaches and cream now for Chesapeake?

Read More “Chesapeake Stock Jumps After McClendon Earnings Call”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Why Has Fracking Become a Political Issue?
August 8, 2012August 8, 2012

An excellent article in Industrial Heating magazine tackles the issue of hydraulic fracturing and the pot shots being taken by anti-drillers, based not on science, but on scare tactics. The author says the fracking issue has largely become political (where have you heard that before?!). Here is a paragraph from the article that could have been written by MDN:

Read More “Why Has Fracking Become a Political Issue?”
Ashland County | Devon Energy | Energy Companies | Medina County | Ohio | Utica Shale

Devon Reports Disappointing Results in 2 NW OH Utica Wells
August 8, 2012August 8, 2012

Devon Energy reports “not encouraging” results from two wells in Ohio’s Utica Shale, one in Ashland County, the other in neighboring Medina County—both in the northwestern corner of the Utica Shale in Ohio. Although Devon is not saying whether or not they will drill more wells in that area, they have indicated they will drill more wells to the east.

Read More “Devon Reports Disappointing Results in 2 NW OH Utica Wells”
Energy Companies | Gulfport Energy | Utica Shale

Gulfport Energy 2Q12 Update: First Utica Well Comes Online
August 8, 2012August 8, 2012

Gulfport Energy Corporation has released their second quarter earnings and operations update. Gulfport is a Utica Shale driller (among other basins across the U.S. and Canada). In the news for Gulfport for 2Q12: They drilled four new Utica Shale wells, three of which were completed and waiting to go online. Their first horizontal well in the Utica, drilled in February of this year, came online and at its peak was producing 17.1 million cubic feet of gas per day (Mmcf/d), along with 432 barrels of condensate per day and 1,881 barrels of natural gas liquids per day.

The relevant sections of the update dealing with Utica Shale operations:

Read More “Gulfport Energy 2Q12 Update: First Utica Well Comes Online”
Energy Companies | Gastar Exploration | Marshall County | West Virginia

Gastar 2Q12 Update: Production Up 87% Mostly from WV Marcellus
August 8, 2012August 8, 2012

Gastar Exploration released their second quarter earnings and operations update yesterday. They report production increased 87% from second quarter 2011—to 34.8 MMcfe per day. Most of the increase comes from drilling in the Marcellus Shale in Marshall County, WV. Gastar says it would have been even better were it not for problems with processing capacity and pipeline issues.

Here are the relevant sections from the Gastar update dealing with the Marcellus Shale:

Read More “Gastar 2Q12 Update: Production Up 87% Mostly from WV Marcellus”
Energy Companies | Epsilon Energy

Epsilon Energy 2Q12 Update: Scaling Back in the Marcellus
August 8, 2012August 8, 2012

Canadian independent driller Epsilon Energy has released its 2Q12 update. Epsilon focuses on the Pennsylvania Marcellus Shale, the Bakken Shale and Midale Dolomite in Saskatchewan, and the Brown Dense Limestone in Mississippi. Epsilon significantly scaled back its drilling activity in the Marcellus during the second quarter because of low natural gas prices. Instead, they are concentrating on oil drilling in the Bakken Shale region of Canada.

Epsilon also owns a 35% interest in the Auburn gas gathering system, located in the PA Marcellus. Relevant sections of the update pertaining to the Marcellus:

Read More “Epsilon Energy 2Q12 Update: Scaling Back in the Marcellus”
Access Midstream Partners | Energy Companies | Energy Services

Access Midstream 2Q12 Update: Pipeline Throughput up 33.5%
August 8, 2012August 8, 2012

The quarterly reports keep coming in. This one is from Access Midstream Partners, the newly named and former Chesapeake Midstream Partners. Access is a large pipeline company with major operations in the Marcellus Shale. The Marcellus, in fact, is largely responsible for an increase of 33.5% in throughput, or the amount of gas handled each day, by Access for the second quarter (over the second quarter of last year). Access reports hooking up 179 new wells to its gathering systems in 2Q12.

Here is the quarterly update press release:

Read More “Access Midstream 2Q12 Update: Pipeline Throughput up 33.5%”