Marcellus Drilling News

Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

EPA Study: Marcellus Fracking Does NOT Impact Drinking Water
May 30, 2012May 30, 2012

This is big news folks. You may recall that the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is conducting a multi-year study of hydraulic fracturing in a transparent attempt to seize control of oil and gas drilling in the U.S.—grabbing that control away from the individual states who are empowered under the U.S. Constitution to regulate drilling in their own states. As part of the EPA study, they are analyzing water samples in locations where there has been a lot of shale gas fracking (see this MDN story for a copy of the EPA’s study plan).

Chesapeake Energy participated shoulder to shoulder with the EPA by taking water samples at the same time and from the same locations in Bradford County, PA. They then had those water samples analyzed by accredited laboratories, and the results analyzed by an independent specialist. Here’s what they found…

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

IEA Releases “Golden Rules” for Shale Gas Drilling
May 30, 2012May 30, 2012

The International Energy Agency (IEA), an independent organization formed in the early 1970s in response to the oil shortage and composed of 28 member countries including the U.S., released a shale gas report report yesterday they call “Golden Rules for a Golden Age of Gas” (a copy of the full report is embedded below). The new Golden Rules report is the IEA’s attempt at encouraging the growth of the natural gas industry. Their “expert” opinion and prescription? Drillers need to behave themselves, countries and local governments need to highly regulate shale gas drilling, and if those two things happen, the general population will accept it.

Saying that drillers need to “earn and maintain their social license to operate,” the report’s chief author maintains that without public trust the very new and in many ways infant shale gas industry will die. She also admits the prescriptions they outline will increase the cost of drilling by at least 7 percent, but she maintains without these measures, that 7 percent will be better than no drilling at all.

Read More “IEA Releases “Golden Rules” for Shale Gas Drilling”
Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | New York | Statewide NY

NYS Comptroller DiNapoli Letter: Chesapeake Needs New Board
May 30, 2012May 30, 2012

Anti-drilling New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli is once again going after Chesapeake Energy. Like many Democrats, he’s not one to waste a good crisis. You may recall that DiNapoli previously scolded Chesapeake over its Founders Well Participation Program (FWPP) that allowed CEO Aubrey McClendon, the guy who founded the company, to participate in each well drilled, with up to 2.5 percent ownership (see this MDN story).

Now that the board has rescinded the FWPP program after next year, DiNapoli needs something else to target, so he’s lobbying to have a new board of directors installed and sent an open letter to shareholders calling for just that (see the letter embedded below).

Read More “NYS Comptroller DiNapoli Letter: Chesapeake Needs New Board”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA | Taxation

PA Political Left Believes Marcellus Compact is DOA
May 30, 2012May 30, 2012

Lest you think that MDN is just so much right-wing, Tea Party-spouting bilge when we make quips about the politics of drilling, we offer the following into evidence that our views and opinions are dead-on accurate.

Yesterday MDN wrote an article about the so-called Marcellus Compact, a set of six bills that have been introduced by left-wing PA Democrats in what MDN considers an attempt to have an issue to run on in the next election (see this MDN story). MDN pointed out the bills have no chance of passage.

It seems the left shares the same view as MDN about the Marcellus Compact. To wit:

Read More “PA Political Left Believes Marcellus Compact is DOA”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

PA Bill Makes Using Acid Mine Water More Likely
May 30, 2012May 30, 2012

One of the more intriguing developments over the past year or so is that drillers in Pennsylvania have considered using acid mine drainage as a source of water for hydraulic fracturing. Water that flows from abandoned coal mines creates acidic water, some 300 million gallons of it per day, destroying plants and fish in some 5,000 miles of Pennsylvania’s waterways. If drillers were to use it, it would address two issues: cleaning up acid mine drainage, and reducing the need for fresh water needed for fracking. Everyone wins, right? Life is never that easy.

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Carroll County | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Lawrence County | MarkWest Energy | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Rex Energy | Utica Shale

Rex Energy Drills First Utica Well, Sells Keystone Midstream
May 30, 2012May 30, 2012

Rex Energy announced yesterday that it has closed on a previously announced deal to sell its subsidiary Keystone Midstream to MarkWest Energy for $512 million (see this MDN story for the original announcement). Rex also announced that their Bluestone cryogenic processing plant, part of the sale, has just gone online and will begin selling gas by June 1st.

But perhaps the biggest news yesterday from Rex, at least for landowners, is that Rex has completed drilling its first Ohio Utica well, in Carroll County. Fracking of the well begins in June, and Rex is now moving the rig back to PA where they will drill their second Utica well—in Lawrence County.

Read More “Rex Energy Drills First Utica Well, Sells Keystone Midstream”
Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Wed, May 30, 2012
May 30, 2012May 30, 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, May 30, 2012”
Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies

Corporate Raider Carl Icahn Sets His Sights on Chesapeake
May 29, 2012May 29, 2012

Late last Friday, corporate raider Carl Icahn filed what’s known as a 13D with the Securities and Exchange Commission to disclose he has taken a rather large stake in Chesapeake Energy. Friday morning MDN posted a story outlining who owns how much of Chesapeake’s stock (at least for outside shareholders)—see this MDN story. At the time it was rumored that Icahn’s stake was around 4 percent.

We now know his stake is much higher than that.

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Brooke County | Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Lease & Royalty Payments | Ohio County | West Virginia

Brooke County WV Schools Get $661K in Lease Payments
May 29, 2012May 29, 2012

Brooke County Schools in West Virginia are eager to have Chesapeake Energy drill under school-owned property. But Ohio County Schools, also in WV, don’t want Chesapeake drilling near their schools. What’s the difference? One is getting a boatload of money in lease (and eventually royalty) payments. The other isn’t.

Read More “Brooke County WV Schools Get $661K in Lease Payments”
Accidents | Education | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

UB Backs Away from Own Shale Institute’s New Study
May 29, 2012May 29, 2012

A few weeks ago the new natural gas institute at SUNY University at Buffalo (UB) released a 52-page study that found environmental problems caused by Marcellus Shale gas drilling in Pennsylvania were isolated, mostly minor and on the decline (see this MDN story for a copy of the study). The high priests of the enviro-left could not let a study favorable to the drilling industry stand, so a fast and furious mud-slinging contest began to see if they could besmirch, ridicule, criticize and otherwise try to blunt the effect of such a study. Their concerted (and coordinated?) campaign is having an effect.

The University at Buffalo is now distancing itself from the study, even though the study was rigorous and academically sound. Such are the vagaries (and lack of intestinal fortitude) in academe.

Read More “UB Backs Away from Own Shale Institute’s New Study”
Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

PA Dems Blame Marcellus Drilling for Smallmouth Bass Problem
May 29, 2012May 29, 2012

Since 2005, smallmouth bass along a 100-mile stretch of the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania have been hit with “outbreaks” of bacterial infections. Because of it, the PA Fish and Boat Commission wants the PA Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to designate that part of the river as “impaired” which would free up money to conduct additional tests.

The DEP says there’s not enough evidence to put the river on the impaired list, yet. But what’s really happening is that a scientific issue is quickly becoming a political football. An all-too-familiar pattern is repeating itself with the smallmouth bass issue. Democrats, like Congressman Camille “Bud” George, want to blame it on Marcellus Shale drilling in the region, without any evidence.

Read More “PA Dems Blame Marcellus Drilling for Smallmouth Bass Problem”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA Dems Introduce 6 New Bills to “Fix” Act 13 Drilling Law
May 29, 2012May 29, 2012

Pennsylvania Democrats have introduced a series of six grandstanding bills into the state legislature called the “Marcellus Compact” that stand no chance of passage. But that’s not why they introduced them. The purpose is to have an issue they can demagogue as they try to win back control of one or both state houses in the next election.

According to the Dems and the sycophantic media that supports them:

Read More “PA Dems Introduce 6 New Bills to “Fix” Act 13 Drilling Law”
Commodity Price | Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Muskingum County | Ohio

New Gas-Fired Electric Power Plant in Ohio
May 29, 2012May 29, 2012

Another story about how electric generating plants are switching from coal to natural gas. This one comes from Ohio, where Appalachian Power brought a newly completed gas-fired plant in February near Dresden. Why switch from coal to gas? It’s all in the economics. The cost of coal has skyrocketed from $43.75 per ton in 2007 to $63.78 in 2011, an increase of 46 percent. At the same time, natural gas has gone from over $14 per million Btus to around $2.70 today. Need we say more?

But at what price is it more economical to use coal rather than natural gas? Thanks to Appalachian Power, we now know.

Read More “New Gas-Fired Electric Power Plant in Ohio”
Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

PA Engineering Firms Expand During U.S. Recession – Why?
May 29, 2012May 29, 2012

There’s one industry that’s been recession-proof over the past four years. Can you guess which one?

Read More “PA Engineering Firms Expand During U.S. Recession – Why?”
Bradford County | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide PA

PA Court Overturns Lower Court on Zoning Compressor Plants
May 29, 2012May 29, 2012

A new ruling in Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court will have far-reaching implications for municipalities that try to apply zoning regulations to a select part of the drilling process, like compressor stations. Compressor stations are necessary to move gas along pipelines—from the well to a point where the gas can be processed and eventually sold. A three judge panel has just overturned a lower court’s decision on whether or not townships can regulate compressors separately from other drilling activities.

Read More “PA Court Overturns Lower Court on Zoning Compressor Plants”
Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Tue, May 29, 2012
May 29, 2012May 29, 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, May 29, 2012”