Marcellus Drilling News

Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

NRDC Publishes Recycled Scare Tatics on Fracking & Water
July 18, 2012July 18, 2012

The National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), which once-upon-a-time was at least partially open minded to drilling for natural gas, has been subsumed by the anti-fracking mania that seems to inhabit those on the political left. NRDC has left the realm of reasonable and thoughtful awareness on issues concerning the environment and has descended into political hucksterism (which is no doubt more profitable for fundraising).

A few days ago the NRDC published a “fact sheet” on water and hydraulic fracturing. It’s recycled no-thought-necessary-stoke-the-wacko-left-faithful pabulum. But MDN brings it to you because you need to “know thine enemy” and what they’re saying. A copy of “Water Facts” is embedded below.

Read More “NRDC Publishes Recycled Scare Tatics on Fracking & Water”
Crawford County | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Range Resources Corp | Utica Shale

Crawford County, PA First Utica Shale Well Fracked
July 18, 2012July 18, 2012

Crawford County, PA, a county in the northwest corner of the state bordering Ohio, is about to have its first Utica Shale well (in fact, its first shale well of any kind) fracked by the driller who started the shale revolution in the Marcellus: Range Resources.

Read More “Crawford County, PA First Utica Shale Well Fracked”
Energy Services | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Smart Sand

Wisconsin Frack Sand Heading to Marcellus/Utica Shale
July 18, 2012July 18, 2012

Wisconsin frack sand is on the way to the Utica and Marcellus Shale region, thanks to a new long-term partnership between Smart Sand and Canadian Pacific Railway. The partners announced their first initiative will be to build a new frack sand transloading facility in Makoti, North Dakota.

Canadian Pacific is the only railroad in North America that services both the Bakken formation and the Marcellus Shale.

From the joint press release issued today:

Read More “Wisconsin Frack Sand Heading to Marcellus/Utica Shale”
Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Wed, Jul 18, 2012
July 18, 2012July 18, 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: Wed, Jul 18, 2012”
Industrywide Issues | Processing Plants | Statewide WV | West Virginia

4 Companies Consider WV for Ethane Cracker Plant
July 17, 2012July 17, 2012

West Virginia’s intrepid State Commerce Secretary, Keith Burdette, is once again talking up ethane cracker plants. He says there are now four possible companies interested in building crackers in West Virginia—and that does not include Shell (which announced they would build across the border in PA).

We know about two of the four: Aither Chemicals (see this MDN story), and Brazilian company Braskem (see this MDN story). But who are the other two?

Read More “4 Companies Consider WV for Ethane Cracker Plant”
Energy Companies | Hilcorp Energy | Lease & Royalty Payments | Mahoning County | Ohio

Campbell, OH Leases Town Land for $5K/20% to Hilcorp
July 17, 2012July 17, 2012

The Campbell, Ohio council voted Monday to lease 167 owned by the town to Hilcorp Energy for $5,000 per acre and 20% royalties on any gas produced.

Read More “Campbell, OH Leases Town Land for $5K/20% to Hilcorp”
Energy Companies | Penn Virginia Corporation | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Penn Virginia Sells Appalachian Drilling, Closes Office
July 17, 2012July 17, 2012

Penn Virginia announced today it’s selling off all of its Appalachian drilling operations—except for its Marcellus Shale drilling operations—for $100 million. They are also closing their Canonsburg, PA regional office. Why the sale? They want to get out of debt and plow the proceeds into drilling in the Marcellus and in the oily parts of the Eagle Ford Shale play.

Reading between the lines it sounds like a move away from dry gas and toward wet gas areas.

Read More “Penn Virginia Sells Appalachian Drilling, Closes Office”
Chemung County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

SRBC Restricts Fracking Water Withdrawals in 64 Locations
July 17, 2012July 17, 2012

The Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC), charged with overseeing the rivers and streams that flow into the Susquehanna River, which in turn runs all the way to the Chesapeake Bay, is responsible for issuing permits in their jurisdiction that allow Marcellus Shale drillers to withdraw water for use in hydraulic fracturing. The SRBC takes its job seriously and closely monitors streamflow levels. When the levels get too low due to drought conditions, the water withdrawals stop.

Such was the case yesterday when the SRBC suspended water withdrawals for 64 companies—the vast majority related the shale industry. That’s the most withdrawal restrictions issued by the SRBC since they started permitting for shale water withdrawals in 2008. (The full list, detailed by driller and county, is embedded below).

Read More “SRBC Restricts Fracking Water Withdrawals in 64 Locations”
Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Pennsylvania | Westmoreland County

The Shale Multiplier Effect – One Company’s Success Story
July 17, 2012July 17, 2012

Mitt Romney will make a campaign stop later this week in North Huntingdon (Westmoreland County), PA. The “news” about that stop for MDN is not Romney’s visit, but the company he’s visiting—Horizontal Wireline Services. It’s news because it’s a shale services company that didn’t exist prior to 2010, but today employs over 100 people at starting salaries of $60,000-$80,000. The company was started with no government assistance, and financed by a private investor (the banks wouldn’t touch it).

The company’s 35 year-old founder, Joseph Sites, graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a degree in chemical engineering in 2000, but he left PA because of no job prospects. He returned in 2010 to found Horizontal Wireline which runs wires into gas and oil wells to help with extraction.

Read More “The Shale Multiplier Effect – One Company’s Success Story”
Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

PA Companies Expanding Because of the Marcellus
July 17, 2012July 17, 2012

Many small and medium-sized businesses are looking to become suppliers to the Marcellus and Utica Shale drilling industry—in business it’s called becoming part of the “supply chain.” One of the organizations dedicated to making that happen is the Pittsburgh-based Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC), headed by Kathryn “Katie” Klaber. MSC recently released supply chain recommended practices for businesses who want to participate (see this page on the MSC website).

As part of their supply chain initiative, MSC released a list of business testimonials—short descriptions and statements from companies that participate in the Marcellus Shale supply chain—how they participate and how it’s led to an expansion of revenue and jobs. The companies on this short list have collectively invested and generated hundreds of millions of dollars for the PA economy, and produced thousands of jobs. Their stories are embedded below.

On the list are engineering firms, consultants, manufacturers, law firms and more. Perhaps this list, and the success stories from these companies, will spark ideas for your company and how you can plug in to the Mighty Marcellus supply chain.

Read More “PA Companies Expanding Because of the Marcellus”
Energy Services | GreenHunter Resources | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Washington County (OH) | Wastewater

GreenHunter’s New Water Facility on Ohio River Goes Live
July 17, 2012July 17, 2012

GreenHunter Water’s new water and wastewater handing facility on the Ohio River in Washington County, Ohio has just gone operational. It is a bulk water storage facility, handling both fresh water used for fracking, and flowback or the salty wastewater that comes out of the ground after fracking.

From the GreenHunter press release:

Read More “GreenHunter’s New Water Facility on Ohio River Goes Live”
Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Ohio’s Utica Shale Attracts Japanese Companies to Region
July 17, 2012July 17, 2012

Kuninori Matsuda, consul-general of Japan for Detroit, spoke to the Findlay, OH Rotary Club yesterday. His speech touted Ohio as a business-friendly state and he said that Japanese companies are interested in Ohio in part because of the Utica Shale and the cheap energy it produces.

Read More “Ohio’s Utica Shale Attracts Japanese Companies to Region”
Broome County | Guest Post | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York

Guest Post: Media Ignores Major NY Pro-Drilling Event (FREE)
July 17, 2012July 17, 2012

MDN note: The following guest post was submitted by Victor Furman, head of the Sapbush Road Group, a New York landowner coalition in northern Broome and southern Chenango counties. He writes about a major landowner rally in Broome County called Vote4Energy, held at the Broome-Tioga Sports Park near Whitney Point on Sunday, July 15. The rally turned out thousands, dwarfing recent anti-drilling rallies held in the area. The media was invited, but they were a no-show. Vic does a great job of pointing out the hypocrisy.

Read More “Guest Post: Media Ignores Major NY Pro-Drilling Event (FREE)”
Arrowhead Utica Pipelines | Columbiana County | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Marathon Petroleum | Ohio | Trucking

Columbiana Port Authority Helps Shale Industry
July 17, 2012July 17, 2012

The Columbiana County (OH) Port Authority on Monday passed a measure stating they intend to sell 3.6 acres in Wellsville, OH to Marathon Petroleum for $2.4 million. The property is part of the Port Authority’s riverfront industrial park and sits adjacent to Marathon’s storage tank/transfer facility. Marathon will use the property for trucks transporting oil and gas produced from local shale drilling.

Read More “Columbiana Port Authority Helps Shale Industry”
Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Tue, Jul 17, 2012
July 17, 2012July 17, 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, Jul 17, 2012”
Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Lease & Royalty Payments | Ohio | Statewide OH

Chesapeake Seeks to Change Terms of OH Leases Already Signed
July 16, 2012July 16, 2012

According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, Chesapeake Energy is attempting to change the terms of leases with Ohio landowners—after the leases were signed. One of the issues faced by Chesapeake is that they have signed, or purchased, a lot of leases in Ohio’s Utica Shale (and other shale plays for that matter). In Ohio, it amounts to leases for about 5% of Ohio’s total land area.

In order to fulfill their end of the bargain, Chesapeake must drill wells on all that land within a certain period of time—usually within five years. At least one well must be drilled on a “unit,” usually defined as 640 acres of land, or one square mile. Multiple landowner properties are usually part of a single unit.

But Chesapeake has a problem: cash. They don’t have enough of it right now to drill all of those units to “hold” them. So they’re redefining the unit—they now want a unit to be two square miles in stead of one square mile.

Read More “Chesapeake Seeks to Change Terms of OH Leases Already Signed”