Seneca Resources, a subsidiary of National Fuel Gas focused on drilling in the Marcellus Shale, issued an update yesterday on its Marcellus drilling operations. Sometimes these press releases are just fluff without much information. Not so with this one. It contains a lot of very interesting information.
First the statement by Seneca/National Fuel Gas, then MDN’s analysis of it.
Noble Energy is a big driller with operations in many locations, including offshore. They released their second quarter results today. Even though their operations are spread around the world, the Marcellus Shale plays in increasingly important role in Noble’s drilling activities.
Noble reports drilling a Marcellus well in the second quarter with a lateral of 8,500 feet (over a mile and a half!). That well produced an initial rate of 17.9 million cubic feet of gas per day (MMcfd).
Below is the Noble press release. MDN highlights (in yellow) the portions relevant to their Marcellus operations.
Read More “Noble Energy’s 2Q12 Results – Marcellus Well Produces 17.9 MMcfd”
The odious Food & Water Watch, based in Washington, D.C., has joined up with a Democrat Maryland state delegate, Shane Robinson, in calling for a statewide ban on fracking in Maryland. News flash: There is no fracking in Maryland there won’t be until 2014 at the earliest, and if they did start drilling, the Marcellus Shale is only found in two counties in Maryland! But that makes no difference to F&WW.
F&WW are the same people circulating a “ban fracking” petition in rich neighborhoods in Rhode Island, where there is no shale to frack, in a pathetically transparent fundraising attempt (see this MDN story). Yeah, same organization. Makes you wonder if this latest call to ban fracking is yet more fundraising on the part of F&WW.
Read More “Food & Water Watch Pushes for Fracking Ban in Maryland”
Every Marcellus Shale well drilled has a heavy-duty plastic liner. When the well is finished being drilled, that plastic liner is usually disposed in a landfill. An interesting new joint venture between two Pennsylvania companies, WellSpring Environmental Services and Ultra-Poly Corporation, aims to recycle those pad liners. According to the companies, they will remove 20 million pounds of plastic well pad liner each year from the waste stream and ultimately turn it into products like composite railroad ties and building materials. The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection has already granted the two companies their blessing (and permission) for the plan.
Once again capitalism and the free market (not government regulation) solves the problem. From the WellSpring news release:
The anger-challenged actor Alec Baldwin writes an anti-fracking blog post for the Huffington Post. It’s meant to bring pressure on one person: NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
The post is incoherent (and narcissistic), as is usual for Baldwin. MDN only mentions and links to it for entertainment value, since you know, Alec is an entertainer (the one job he’s good at—when he’s not in an out-of-control rage).
Read More “Alec Baldwin’s Anti-Fracking (and Entertaining) Blog Post”
The Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) is complaining that Dominion East Ohio is building a pipeline in Harrison County, Ohio using workers from West Virginia (two counties away).
Union members protested on Tuesday at a Dominion pipeline construction site in Stock Township. It wasn’t their first protest against “out of state workers.”
Read More “Union Protests Dominion Pipeline Work in Eastern Ohio”
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, Jul 26, 2012”
Gov. Cuomo’s rumored plan to begin horizontal hydraulic fracturing of shale for oil and gas (mostly gas) in New York State is an important issue that threatens to fracture the alliance of those of us on the pro-drilling side of the debate. Many people (including MDN) are rightly outraged that not all landowners in all areas of the state will be given the opportunity to participate in drilling—at lease initially (if you believe the rumors about the governor’s plan).
But a highly placed source with knowledge of both the landowners’ plight and the governor’s thinking recently spoke to MDN to let us know we’re viewing this issue through the wrong end of the telescope and that landowners outside of select counties have not been left out. Let me explain…
Read More “Surprising Revelations about Cuomo’s Fracking Plan [FREE]”
Cabot Oil & Gas released their second quarter results yesterday. Cabot’s gas production rose an impressive 40% over the second quarter of last year. But because the commodity price of gas has been so low, Cabot’s profitability took a hit. Net income for Cabot from April through June was $35.9 million (17 cents per share), compared to $54.7 million last year at this time (26 cents per share).
Cabot issued two press releases covering second quarter results. The first covers finances and adds useful high level production numbers:
Read More “Cabot Oil & Gas Production Up, Profits Down for 2Q12”
The Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry keeps track of jobs and job growth in the Commonwealth. And according to their latest jobs report, direct jobs in the Marcellus Shale went up by 18,000 jobs over the past four years (159%). The report also says total employment related (generated by) shale gas drilling in the state has grown a whopping 238,000 jobs since 2008.
So all those articles and letters to the editor that have cropped up lately questioning whether the shale industry actually creates jobs are nothing but hot air? Yeah.
Yesterday MDN reported on the Bloomberg Businessweek story that France is reconsidering its ban on fracking (see this MDN story). It seems the Businessweek story created a bit of a stir because the French government has assured everyone the ban remains. Except if new technology comes out, then they might reconsider. All of which is driving Greenpeace bonkers (which is always a good thing).
Let’s try to sort it out.
Chesapeake Midstream Partners, a pipeline and processing plant company formerly owned by Chesapeake Energy but recently sold to Global Infrastructure Partners to generate cash, is changing its name. It will now be known as Access Midstream Partners.
In addition to the name change, the new entity also announced new members of the board. From the Access Midstream Partners press release:
Read More “Chesapeake Midstream Changes Name to Access Midstream”
A landowner in Carroll County, OH who had sued to stop Chesapeake Energy from installing a pipeline to a well on his property lost the court battle last Friday. Joseph Coniglio had leased his land for drilling to Anschutz, which later assigned the lease to Chesapeake, but he had not signed an agreement for pipelines to be built connecting to wells drilled on his property. Coniglio says the lease specifically prohibits pipelines without a special agreement. Landowners often will receive extra compensation for any pipelines installed to a well, and Coniglio wanted to do a deal with Chesapeake for the well on his property.
Chesapeake says the original agreement allows them to hook up the well to a pipeline. Coniglio went to court earlier in July and won a restraining order. A judge overturned it on Friday and the pipeline is now almost complete.
Read More “OH Landowner Loses in Court, Chesapeake Builds Pipeline”
Drilling companies like to know, as much as possible, where they stand the best chance of drilling. Horizontal hydraulic fracturing means every hole drilled is much more likely to produce gas (and oil) than a conventional vertical hole, but it’s still no guarantee. Not every hole produces. So to help eliminate as much guesswork as possible, drillers often purchase seismic test data.
Big trucks roll along roadways with large vibrators that emit ultrasonic waves into the ground (or in some cases “thump” the ground) and then record the echoes to draw a picture of the underground rock structure. Ever wonder what it looks like? Just watch the video below of ultrasonic trucks doing their work in Coshocton County, Ohio.
Read More “Ultrasonic Trucks Map Underground in Coshocton County, OH”
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 25, 2012”
Yesterday the PA Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) announced a one-year study that will look at impacts on air quality from Marcellus drilling and the infrastructure (pipelines and compressor plants) that comes with shale gas drilling. The study will focus on Washington County in western PA, primarily in and around Chartiers Township, home of a gas processing plant.
The DEP plans to use this initial study and its results to guide them on whether, and where, to conduct other air quality studies.
Read More “PA DEP Announces 1 Year Study on Air Quality in Marcellus”