Marcellus Drilling News

Statoil Shifts it Focus from Marcellus to Bakken

June 21, 2012June 21, 2012

Norwegian company Statoil continues to change its focus away from the Marcellus Shale region and instead concentrate on “oily” shale areas of the country, like the Bakken Shale in North Dakota. Why? Natural gas prices continue to bump around at historically low prices, making it a challenge to be profitable.

Statoil has cut the number of drilling rigs in the Marcellus nearly in half from one year ago and the wells they’re drilling now are simply to hold acreage. That is, they drill on acreage for which leases are about to expire to hold that acreage.

According to Bill Maloney, president of Statoil North America:

Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Thu, Jun 21, 2012

June 21, 2012June 21, 2012

The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading:

Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Monroe County (NY) | New York | Regulation

Rochester, NY Votes to Ban Fracking for 1 Year

June 20, 2012June 20, 2012

Et tu Brute Et tu Rochester? Rochester, NY is the latest New York municipality to ban hydraulic fracturing. Their ban is for one year.

Seems Cuomo’s trial balloon to allow fracking (nowhere near Rochester) and the soon-to-be-released new drilling rules from the state DEC have scared some uninformed politicians, like those in Rochester, into acting rashly.

Just How Big Will Shale Oil/Gas Drilling Get in Ohio?

June 20, 2012June 20, 2012

The Tuscarawas Oil and Gas Alliance (TOGA) Summit was held on Tuesday, June 19 at the Performing Arts Center at Kent State Tuscarawas, Ohio. One of the speakers was Rhonda Reda, executive director of the Ohio Oil and Gas Energy Education Program (OOGEEP). She said in 2011 there were 33 shale wells drilled with 5 in production, and by 2015 eastern Ohio will see some 4,000 new shale wells, mostly in the Utica Shale.

Reda had a number of statistics and predictions for how large the drilling boom will get in Ohio. Among the statistics she highlighted:

Energy Companies | Rice Energy

BlackRock’s Screw-up with Dan Rice & Rice Energy

June 20, 2012June 20, 2012

Time for a brief distraction from the troubles Chesapeake has had of late—so let’s focus on a new “problem.” That would be the public relations kerfuffle Rice Energy and its founder Dan Rice are facing in the press.

Dan has been the single most successful mutual fund manager in the United States over the past 10 years. He is co-manager of five energy-related funds for BlackRock. But not any more.

Chenango County | Delaware County | Landowner Coalition News | New York | Otsego County

Large Combined Upstate NY Landowner Meeting June 21

June 20, 2012June 20, 2012

MDN received the following announcement about a combined landowner coalition meeting happening tomorrow night (Thursday night) in Otego, NY. Two coalitions will meet together: The Central New York Landowner Coalition and the Unatego Land Coalition. MDN knows from previous meetings that we’ve attended that the CNY coalition is quite large, perhaps the single largest New York coalition with thousands of active members. The meeting will feature a screening of the new Truthland movie along with a presentation by former NY DEC Commissioner Mike Zagata.

Combined Coalition Meeting (With the Unatego Land Coalition)
June 21, 2012 – 7PM – Unatego Jr/Sr High School – Otego, NY
Full Length "Truthland" Movie starts at 6:40PM

Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Ohio | Statewide OH

OH AG Mike DeWine Targets Chesapeake for Fraud

June 20, 2012June 20, 2012

Ohio’s attorney general, Mike DeWine, has Chesapeake Energy in his crosshairs. He’s investigating them for “fraud” because their stock price went down. Good luck with that.

Here’s what the Columbus Dispatch is reporting:

Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Wed, Jun 20, 2012

June 20, 2012June 20, 2012

The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading:

Alternative Energy | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Iconic Environmentalist James Lovelock Loves Fracking

June 19, 2012June 18, 2012

I love it. One of the biggest environmentalist gurus of the past 40 years has been British scientist (formerly with NASA) James Lovelock. It seems Dr. Lovelock has had a change of heart. He’s in favor of fracking and says Britain should be “going mad on it.” He also says the modern green movement has turned into a religion and its theories are “meaningless drivel.”

From a story in the UK Daily Mail:

Air Quality | Devon Energy | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

EPA Air Pollution Rules Targeted at Senate Hearing Today

June 19, 2012June 18, 2012

Today, Devon Energy Corp.’s environmental manager Darren Smith will testify before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee in Washington, D.C. about the Environmental Protection Agency’s badly overestimated data on the amount of so-called fugitive emissions that escape from a natural gas well when it’s drilled (a copy of his full testimony is embedded below).

Industrywide Issues | Regulation | Statewide WV | West Virginia

EPA’s Aggressive Actions Against Marcellus Drillers

June 19, 2012June 18, 2012

An attorney writing on the JD Supra legal website says it’s not just the imagination of oil and gas drillers in the Marcellus Shale region—the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) really is out to get them. He proceeds to use statistics to show the rapid escalation in citations coming from the EPA since 2010.

Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Wall Street Big Money Targets Companies that Frack

June 19, 2012June 18, 2012

Three activist investor groups, all of them anti-drilling, are trying to use the influence of that money to shut down oil and gas drilling. If you have money invested with the members of any of these groups, you should consider removing your money and investing it elsewhere.

The groups are: The North American Investor Network on Climate Risk, the European Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change, and the Australia/New Zealand Investor Group on Climate Change. Collectively they represent over 200 members with total assets under management of $20 trillion.

Their target for now? The discredited concept that oil and gas drilling which uses hydraulic fracturing (just about all oil and gas drilling) leads to an increase in methane in the atmosphere—so called “fugitive emissions.”

Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | PVR Midstream | PVR Partners

PVR Sells Pipeline in East Texas, Concentrating on Marcellus

June 19, 2012June 18, 2012

Penn Virginia Resource Partners (PVR), a midstream company, yesterday announced it’s selling off a small natural gas gathering system and processing plant in east Texas to DCP Midstream Partners for $63 million. The reason? To concentrate more on the Marcellus Shale region (and to focus more on PVR’s other area of focus—the panhandle of Texas and Oklahoma).

From the PVR press release:

Commonwealth Pipeline Open Season Exceeds Expectations

June 19, 2012June 18, 2012

Inergy Midstream, UGI Energy and Capitol Energy Ventures are partnering to build a new 200-mile natural gas pipeline from Lycoming County, PA all the way to Rockville, MD (see this MDN story). Called the Commonwealth Pipeline, the new $1 billion pipeline will connect with several major interstate pipelines along its route.

Yesterday, Inergy et al reported that their non-binding open season to sign up customers to use the pipeline went better than expected. From the Inergy press release:

Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Tue, Jun 19, 2012

June 19, 2012June 18, 2012

The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading:

Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Statewide NY

Albany Times Union Announces Support for Fracking

June 18, 2012June 19, 2012

for real Whoa, wait a minute. The editorial board of the very liberal Albany Times Union is (gasp) in favor of limited fracking in New York State as a test. Really? Really.

But of course, they condition it all on prior assurances of safety from DEC and EPA, and they want all sorts of ands, ifs and buts inserted to conduct such a test.

Here’s what they said in a recent editorial (and below, why this is politically significant):