Marcellus Drilling News

Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Pipelines | Statewide NY

Does Marcellus Shale Gas have Cancer-Causing Radon?
August 2, 2012August 2, 2012

MDN has previously written about anti-drillers who try to use the scare tactic that “there’s radon in Marcellus gas” and the radon is going to cause lots of new cases of lung cancer in New York City (see this MDN story). No one in the mainstream press is picking up on this latest anti-drilling meme, so the same groups have issued a new press release hoping to keep the issue alive (see their press release below).

In a nutshell, they argue that Marcellus Shale gas is extracted in areas of the northeast where there’s lots of naturally occurring radon, and because the gas gets to market so quickly (Pennsylvania Marcellus gas fields are “right next door” to NYC), the radon has no chance to naturally dissipate. When radon hits the air, it dissipates and becomes harmless. Radon has a half life of 3.5 days—breaking down and becoming harmless at that point. The concern, apparently, is that the gas will get to market and used in under 3.5 days.

Read More “Does Marcellus Shale Gas have Cancer-Causing Radon?”
Broome County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY | Tompkins County

NY Anti-Drillers Target Cuomo Big Money Supporters
August 2, 2012August 2, 2012

Anti-drilling groups from the Southern Tier of New York State sent a letter to the top 1,000 big money contributors to Gov. Andrew Cuomo yesterday asking them to pressure Cuomo to ban fracking in the state. The letter was a joint effort of New York Residents Against Drilling (NYRAD), Walter Hang from Toxics Targeting, and the Mayor of Binghamton, Matt Ryan.

Read More “NY Anti-Drillers Target Cuomo Big Money Supporters”
Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide PA | Transco | Williams

Williams Plans Marcellus Expansion of Transco Leidy Pipeline
August 2, 2012August 2, 2012

As the pace of drilling continues (but slows) in the Marcellus, the next major phase of work begins: completing wells and getting all that shale gas to market. That’s why pipelines, compressor stations and processing plants are important. Williams Partners, one of the largest pipeline operators in the country, announced yesterday they plan to expand their existing Transco Leidy Line in northern PA to accommodate new demands for shipping Marcellus Shale gas.

They expect to make a pre-filing with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in early 2013, and hope to have the expansion complete by late 2015.

Read More “Williams Plans Marcellus Expansion of Transco Leidy Pipeline”
Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Transco

Transco Northeast Pipeline Extension Gets Boost from FERC
August 2, 2012August 2, 2012

Transcontinental Gas Pipeline Company (or “Transco”) received a significant boost from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) yesterday. FERC issued a “finding” that Transco’s proposed pipeline extension in the northeast, called the Northeast Supply Link Project, does not pose a threat to the environment. The finding clears the way for full FERC approval of the project.

The project will run new pipeline and expand existing pipeline from Transco’s Leidy Line in Pennsylvania and New Jersey to existing delivery points in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York City, brining with it new quantities of Marcellus Shale gas to metropolitan population centers in the northeast, including New Jersey and New York City. The FERC finding means the project will likely now receive a green light to move forward. FERC is the federal agency charged with evaluating and approving new pipeline projects in the U.S.

Read More “Transco Northeast Pipeline Extension Gets Boost from FERC”
Energy Companies | WPX Energy

WPX Energy 2Q12 Results – Marcellus Production Up 21%
August 2, 2012August 2, 2012

WPX Energy, the former upstream drilling arm of Williams spun out into its own company last year, has just reported their second quarter financial and operating results. WPX reports second quarter gas production from the Marcellus Shale is up 21% from the first quarter and continues to rise, although many of their drilled wells in the Marcellus are currently not producing because they’re waiting to be hooked up to pipelines.

Read More “WPX Energy 2Q12 Results – Marcellus Production Up 21%”
Energy Companies | PDC Mountaineer

PDC Energy 2Q12 Results – Drilling in Marcellus & Utica
August 2, 2012August 2, 2012

Drilling company PDC Energy has released its second quarter operating and financial results. The company reports completing three wells in the Marcellus in West Virginia during the first half of this year, as well as two Utica Shale wells in Ohio. They are now drilling their first Guernsey County, OH Utica well.

Read More “PDC Energy 2Q12 Results – Drilling in Marcellus & Utica”
Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Thu, Aug 2, 2012
August 2, 2012August 2, 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 2, 2012”
Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Lenape Resources | Litigation | Livingston County | New York | Regulation

NY Driller Threatens DEC with Lawsuit over Town Bans
August 1, 2012August 1, 2012

In the misguided attempt to ban hydraulic fracturing in New York, one town took their ban vote too far. MDN reported about the bone-headed vote by the Town of Avon (Livingston County, NY) on June 28 to ban drilling activity in the town with a broadly worded zoning ordinance (see this MDN story).

A local driller with wells in Avon, Lenape Resources, warned Avon that the broad language they intended to use in their zoning ordinance would cause Lenape to shut down 16 existing conventional (vertical-only) gas wells they operate in the town along with a gas pipeline. Avon town board members didn’t listen and passed the new ordinance. Lenape president John Holko promptly shut down all of his wells in the town, ending free gas for some local residents, and low cost gas for the town itself. A really dumb move on the part of Avon.

There is a new development in this ongoing situation.

Read More “NY Driller Threatens DEC with Lawsuit over Town Bans”
Chesapeake Energy | Columbiana County | Energy Companies | Lease & Royalty Payments | Mahoning County | Ohio | Statewide OH | Trumbull County | Utica Shale

Chesapeake Buys 28K Acres of OH Leases from Everflow
August 1, 2012August 1, 2012

MDN reported on Monday that Chesapeake Energy had purchased the rights to leases and had transferred ownership of those leases for more than 14,000 acres from two counties in Ohio—Trumbull and Mahoning (see this MDN story). We now know that’s only half of the number of acres they transferred. We now also know who they bought the rights from and how much they paid for those rights.

Read More “Chesapeake Buys 28K Acres of OH Leases from Everflow”
Aither Chemicals | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Processing Plants | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Aither: 5 Compounds Customers Want from a Cracker Plant
August 1, 2012August 1, 2012

Aither Chemicals remains committed to building an ethane cracker plant somewhere in the Marcellus/Utica Shale region, preferably in the Kanawha Valley region of West Virginia. An ethane cracker plant uses ethane (from wet gas) to “crack” it into other chemical compounds. Ethane is most commonly cracked to make ethylene, a raw material used in plastics.

Read More “Aither: 5 Compounds Customers Want from a Cracker Plant”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation | Statewide WV | West Virginia

WV Working on Another New Shale Drilling Law
August 1, 2012August 1, 2012

West Virginia passed a new oil and gas drilling law in December of last year. The “Horizontal Well Act” was overwhelmingly passed by both houses of the WV legislature and signed into law by Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin. The law contained a number of new provisions—and as happens many times, nobody was especially happy with it (see this MDN story). However, the new law, according to some, has provided predictability and uniformity across the state for the drilling industry.

Don’t look now, but the legislature and state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) is working on yet another new drilling law in advance of next year’s legislative session (sessions are held every two years in WV). At a meeting held last night about the proposed new law, anti-drilling environmentalist groups sounded off about proposed new rules and the changes they want, as well as a representative from the drilling industry.

Read More “WV Working on Another New Shale Drilling Law”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Public Opinion | Statewide OH

Poll: 63% of Ohioans Have Heard Little/Nothing on Fracking
August 1, 2012August 1, 2012

A new poll by University of Cincinnati researchers for the Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati asked 834 randomly selected Ohioans their opinions about fracking. A copy of the poll results is embedded below.

Perhaps most surprising is that a combined 63% of Ohioans claim they have heard little or nothing about hydraulic fracturing. Asked about whether or not they believe fracking poses a threat to health, respondents were evenly divided.

Read More “Poll: 63% of Ohioans Have Heard Little/Nothing on Fracking”
Butler County | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | MarkWest Energy | NGLs | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Processing Plants | XTO

MarkWest Signs Deal with XTO to Process NGLs in PA
August 1, 2012August 1, 2012

MarkWest has just signed a deal with XTO Energy (XTO is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Exxon Mobil) to extend MarkWest’s natural gas liquids (NGLs) gathering pipeline in Butler County, PA to XTO’s processing plant. Previously MarkWest announced plans to extend the same pipeline from its Houston, PA complex to the Bluestone complex in Butler County. With this announcement, MarkWest will further extend the pipeline from Bluestone to XTO’s plant.

This deal will grant MarkWest the right to fractionate and market NGLs from XTO. Adding this new pipeline to other recently announced pipelines by MarkWest, when everything is built and running, MarkWest will have 3 billion cubic feet of gas processing capacity and 270,000 barrels per day of fractionation capacity throughout the Marcellus and Utica Shale.

Read More “MarkWest Signs Deal with XTO to Process NGLs in PA”
Energy Companies | EXCO Resources

EXCO’s 2Q12 Results: Continues Commitment to the Marcellus
August 1, 2012August 1, 2012

EXCO Resources reported their second quarter results yesterday. Current production in the Marcellus for EXCO was 146 million cubic feet of gas per day, a 28% increase since the end of 2011. Their 2012 plan is to drill a total of 49 wells in the Marcellus, the majority of them in Lycoming County, PA where EXCO says it is “realizing our best returns in the Marcellus shale.” EXCO is currently using only one rig for Marcellus drilling.

Below are the Marcellus-related portions of yesterday’s announcement:

Read More “EXCO’s 2Q12 Results: Continues Commitment to the Marcellus”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Bet You Didn’t Know Fracking Causes STDs & Satanism ;-)
August 1, 2012August 1, 2012

A column in Philadelphia Weekly takes a somewhat tongue-in-cheek look at the claims anti-drillers make about fracking. Claims like fracking causes bird deaths, and fish deaths, and even human deaths. And fracking causes earthquakes, dontcha know. The column is clearly poking fun, but we can’t quite figure out if the author is also giving credence to some of the claims, hinting they might be true.

However, the final two claims he lists are laugh-out-loud funny and we though you would enjoy a smile. Grab a cross and read on…

Read More “Bet You Didn’t Know Fracking Causes STDs & Satanism ;-)”
Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Wed, Aug 1, 2012
August 1, 2012August 1, 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, Aug 1, 2012”