Energy in Depth – Ohio has just launched a new portal to connect job seekers with companies that have jobs working in the Marcellus and Utica Shale drilling industry in Ohio.
Read More “Want a Job in Ohio’s Utica Shale? There’s a Website for that! [Free]”
Stories about pipelines are not very glamorous, but when the pipeline in question is one of the major pipelines that carries Marcellus Shale gas—it’s important nonetheless. This story is sort of inside baseball. Kinder Morgan, the country’s largest pipeline company, recently concluded the acquisition of another huge pipeline company—El Paso (for $21 billion). As part of the deal, for regulatory reasons, they are required to sell the Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) and a half interest in the El Paso Natural Gas pipeline (EPNG). They just announced a deal to do so, selling it to Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, which is a subsidiary/related company to Kinder. So Kinder has sold a pipeline to itself, in essence.
Here’s the press release:
Read More “Kinder Morgan Sells Tennessee Pipeline to Itself”
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, Aug 7, 2012”
In four short years, the Marcellus Shale has gone from barley registering on national energy reports to becoming the number one most productive natural gas field in the United States, according to Powell Shale Digest and data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).
Read More “The Marcellus becomes No. 1 Shale for Natural Gas in U.S.”
MDN has observed that for weeks now news outlets have recycled the same story with variations on a common theme: Some university studies that have produced reports “favorable” to the drilling industry were partially funded by the drilling industry, or at some point a researcher worked for the industry, and that calls into question the findings of said studies. The latest example is on display in the left-leaning Buffalo News.
MDN is disturbed. Not because the energy industry—which by the way keeps your lights on, keeps your home warm in the winter and cool in the summer, keeps relatively cheap gas in your automobile’s tank, and has helped create the most prosperous country on earth—helps fund some of these scientific studies (who else will pay to defend them?). No, we’re disturbed because the same media so wholly devoted to picking apart anything to do with fossil fuels, willfully and (we would say) criminally ignores the other side of this debate.
Let us explain with a few examples from the latest Bloomberg article:
When you’re effective at your job and your enemies don’t like it, they call you mean. Case in point: Michael Krancer, Secretary of the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP). He’s very effective in his job as the state’s top regulator of oil and gas drilling. And anti-drillers just hate him.
The Philadelphia Inquirer published a story yesterday outlining just how mean he is (no doubt a badge of honor for Mr. Krancer). The story starts this way:
Read More “PA DEP Sec. Michael Krancer Takes the Gloves Off”
According to the owner of a Charleston, WV construction company, Marcellus Shale drilling has “saved our cookies.” He’s referring to the economic reality that Marcellus drilling has single-handedly revived the construction industry in the Mountain State.
Read More “WV Business Owner: Marcellus Drilling “Saved Our Cookies””
Thomas L. Friedman, columnist for The New York Times, penned a column for Sunday’s edition titled, “Get it Right on Gas.” It is an instructive column and is perhaps the best example yet of the things MDN has been saying (yelling, screaming) for the past two years: Those who oppose drilling do so because of their opposition to all fossil fuels and their embrace of a mythical alternative energy nirvana future.
Here’s a sampling:
Read More “NYT Columnist Says NatGas OK for Now, But Not for Long-Term”
When one of Australia’s leading environmentalist groups, committed to sustainable and alternative energy—the Conservation Council of Western Australia—says that hydraulic fracturing can be done safely and that they will support it, we take notice.
Read More “Australian Environmentalist Group Supports Fracking”
Below are upcoming events for this week and next.
Read More “Calendar of Events for Aug 6-Aug 19, 2012 [Free]”
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: Mon, Aug 6, 2012”
Hey, it’s not every day you get prominently mentioned in a Huffington Post article, so we thought we would bring it to your attention: A ‘War on Shale Gas’?
MDN editor Jim Willis has long admired the HuffPo and its founder Arianna Huffington. Certainly not for her (or its) political positions! But because Arianna had the moxie to pioneer a new form of media at a time when it was not easy to do so. We love free speech, we love a plucky attitude, and we love that the HuffPo has kicked the venerable New York Times’ derriere. The HuffPo passed the NYT in both traffic and revenue (for their web properties) a long time ago.
So when a contributor to the HuffPo takes a shot at MDN, you may find it weird or unusual that MDN would respond with accolades for the HuffPo. You shouldn’t. We just keep it honest and if you read this blog for any amount of time you already know that.
Read More “MDN is Called Out by the Huffington Post [Free Access]”
Bombshell: Halcon Resources Corp. is paying NCL Appalachian Partners $194 million (over $6,000 per acre) to take over land leases for drilling on 31,000 acres mostly in Trumbull County, OH (and about 3,000 acres in Mahoning County, OH). This is not money going to landowners but to the leaseholder, NCL. And it’s for old leases dating back to the 1960s.
By comparison, mass transfer of lease deals done by Chesapeake and others have been in the $1,000-$2,000 per acre range. But there is a difference: the lower-priced deals include a one or two percent royalty on anything produced going to the original leaseholder. Again, this is not landowner royalties, but leaseholder. It’s hard to follow the bouncing ball on this story.
The leases purchased by Halcon are not without potential problems (for Halcon) and opportunities (for landowners):
Read More “Halcon Resources Pays $194M for Old Leases in Trumbull County, OH”
Southwestern Energy released its second quarter earnings and operations update yesterday. The company lost $488 million dollars largely because of the low cost of natural gas. Interestingly, they report that their “all-in cash operating costs” for drilling shale gas wells averages $1.20 per 1,000 cubic feet equivalent (or Mcfe). One Mcfe is equivalent to one MMBtu, or “one million Btus”—the unit of measurement used to sell natural gas. The going price for natural gas on the NYMEX as of this morning is $2.90 MMBtu (or $2.90 Mcfe). Theoretically, Southwestern produces the gas for $1.20 per unit, and can sell it for $2.90 per unit (leaving hedging out of the equation). A bit simplistic, but useful nonetheless.
We learn from the update that so far Southwestern has drilled 120 wells in the Marcellus, 41 of which are currently producing. The holdup on many of the ones not producing? Lack of gathering pipelines—a recurring theme in a number of company quarterly updates for 2Q12.
Read More “Southwestern Energy 2Q12 Update IDs Cost to Produce Shale Gas”
Natural Gas Intelligence (NGI) reports the price of natural gas in the U.S. made impressive gains last month—all except for the price of Marcellus Shale natural gas, that is. According to a press release announcing the results of “bidweek,” the once a month pricing the industry uses to set prices that many buyers and sellers of natural use for the coming month, infrastructure constraints (lack of pipelines) in the Marcellus are pushing prices lower as gas supplies bottleneck in the region. More supply sitting around, lower prices. Simple economics.
Below is the press release from NGI talking about the latest price news. Near the bottom is a link to a video where you’ll find the voice of a certain MDN blogger interviewing price expert Pat Rau. Give it a watch/listen.
Read More “U.S. NatGas Prices Go Up, Except for the Marcellus”
Ohio Gov. John Kasich has stated that an energy company executive told him (in 2010) that they would eventually recover $1 trillion worth of oil and gas from Ohio’s Utica Shale. Kasich has repeated that remark many times since then—using it as a justification for his plan to increase severance taxes in the state to spread some of that wealth around to all Ohioans.
The Associated Press takes aim at the $1 trillion claim (and at Kasich) with a new story saying Kasich and the unnamed energy exec are way off base:
Read More “AP Questions OH Gov’s Mathematical Skills on Utica Shale”