Marcellus Drilling News

Penn State Extension Announces New Webinar Series

August 28, 2012August 28, 2012

The Penn State Extension Marcellus Education Team has just announced a new monthly shale webinar series, which begins on Thursday, Sept. 13 from 1:00-2:00 pm. The topic of the first session is a general overview of the Marcellus Shale with latest trends and updates. MDN has attended previous Penn State Extension webinars—they’re well worth your time.

Here’s the press release announcing the series along with the list of topics for future sessions:

Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Energy in Depth Gives Josh Fox Advice for Gasland 2

August 28, 2012August 28, 2012

Lee Fuller, executive director of Energy in Depth (EID), an industry-backed public relations firm, recently sent along some free advice to Josh Fox about his forthcoming ficpic Gasland 2. In the form of an open letter, Fuller provides a devastating rebuttal of the lies Fox aired in the original Gasland.

What lies? The lie about the water supply in Dimock, PA being contaminated by chemicals from fracking (it wasn’t, as proven by the EPA). The lie that areas where fracking exists have higher rates of breast cancer (they don’t, as proven by breast cancer organizations). The lie that fracking caused methane in a water well in Colorado, the famous flaming faucet (the methane in that well was not caused by fracking, admitted to by Fox himself). The list goes on.

We embed the full letter below for your edification and education. Well done Lee!

Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Tue, Aug 28, 2012

August 28, 2012August 28, 2012

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

Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Gulfport Energy | Harrison County | Ohio

Gulfport’s “Alpha Dog” Utica Shale Well Upstages Chesapeake Well

August 27, 2012September 5, 2012

There’s a new “alpha dog” of Utica Shale wells in Ohio that’s upstaging Chesapeake Energy’s Buell well. The Gulfport Energy Wagner 1-28H well in Harrison County is producing an enormous amount of natural gas—record-breaking in fact.

Gulfport reports the Wagner well is “by far the strongest well” ever produced by Gulfport.

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

One More Time: When Will NY Release New Fracking Regs?

August 27, 2012August 27, 2012

The one question MDN editor Jim Willis gets asked most often is, “When will New York release rules to allow fracking?” We’ve addressed this question before and no doubt will again. But this time, we thought we would let someone else address it for a change. Here’s a roundup of who’s said what on the topic of “when NY” as offered by Steve Israel in the Middletown Times Herald-Record:

Energy Companies | Lease & Royalty Payments | Pennsylvania | Range Resources Corp | Washington County

Some Landowners Find Waiting Too Long to Lease Doesn’t Pay

August 27, 2012August 27, 2012

Hopewell Township in Washington County, Pennsylvania is the state’s single most densely drilled township. Leases in Hopewell go back to the 2005, the dawn of the modern shale gas drilling age in PA, and the driller who holds almost all of the leases in Hopewell is Range Resources, the company that sank the very first Marcellus Shale well which happened to be in Mt. Pleasant Township, which borders Hopewell (drilled in 2004).

Most of the residents of Hopewell have a tie to the shale drilling industry—either as landowners with leases or with jobs working directly or indirectly with the drilling industry. But that doesn’t mean landowners in Hopewell are getting top dollar for leasing their property. Quite the contrary. This is a cautionary tale about waiting too long to lease in hopes of getting a better price…

Hilcorp & NiSource Approach OH Landowners About Pipeline

August 27, 2012

In July, Hilcorp Energy and NiSource announced a joint venture to combine their Utica shale acreage with Hilcorp doing the drilling. The jv also will build wet gas gathering pipelines in Ohio and Pennsylvania (see this MDN story). It looks like the pipeline part has begun. A Youngstown television station reported over the weekend that reps from Hilcorp and NiSource were going door to door in parts of Mahoning County asking landowners to sign waivers to allow the pipeline.

Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Statewide OH

OH Muskingum Watershed Votes to Lease Land, Allow Pipeline

August 27, 2012August 27, 2012

MDN reported in early June that the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District (MWCD) board had caved to pressure from enviro-bullies and pulled back from selling water from its vast supply to Utica Shale drillers (see this MDN story).

The MWCD said at the time they would wait for the results of a study they commissioned with the U.S. Geological Survey to look at water sales from three of their reservoirs: Clendening, Atwood and Leesville (see this MDN story). The MWCD has not decided to sell more water (yet), but they did decide on Friday to lease some of their land for drilling. They also approved a right-of-way to extend a drilling pipeline. Both decisions have anti-drillers ticked off.

Columbiana County | Lease & Royalty Payments | Ohio

Columbiana County, OH Sees Slowdown in Leasing – Good or Bad?

August 27, 2012August 27, 2012

Leasing activity in Columbiana County, Ohio is slowing down. Is that a bad thing? Or a good thing?

Energy Companies | Rex Energy

Rex Energy Begins 2nd Utica Well, Keeps Testing in OH & PA

August 27, 2012August 27, 2012

Rex Energy continues to test the Utica and Marcellus Shale. A quick update on their progress:

New OH/WV “Shale Play” Publication Debuts

August 27, 2012August 27, 2012

For those living in eastern Ohio and along the border in West Virginia, be on the lookout for a new free publication called Shale Play, published by the Warren (OH) Tribune Chronicle and its sister publications.

Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Regulation | Statewide OH

Energy Group Says U.S. Can be Off Foreign Oil by 2020

August 27, 2012August 27, 2012

The Consumer Energy Alliance says if legal and regulatory roadblocks were removed, the United States could be producing and meeting 95% of it’s own energy needs in the next eight years—by 2020. The Marcellus and Utica Shale play a role in such a plan.

Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Mon, Aug 27, 2012

August 27, 2012August 27, 2012

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

About MDN | Calendar

Calendar of Events for Aug 27 – Sep 9, 2012 [Free]

August 27, 2012August 27, 2012

Below are upcoming events for this week and next.

Energy Companies | Exxon Mobil | XTO

Will Exxon’s Lack of Marcellus Drilling Lead to Expired Leases?

August 24, 2012August 24, 2012

slipping away An energy industry consultant and investment analyst writes an interesting article on Seeking Alpha about Exxon Mobil’s commitment to dry shale shale (“methane only”). Richard Zeits characterizes Exxon’s shift away from dry to wet gas (oil and natural gas liquids) as “radical,” citing Exxon’s onshore rig count decline from 71 to 50 rigs (a 30% drop) since the beginning of this year as evidence of the change. He estimates they use less than 10 of the remaining 50 rigs for drilling in dry gas areas.

Zeits says that Exxon may not be able to hold a sizable amount of leased acreage they hold in dry gas areas of the Marcellus and Fayetteville Shale basins because of the reduced rig count. That is, they won’t be able to drill on the leased acreage by the time the leases expire—especially in the Marcellus where they’re only operating four rigs on 660,000 acres of holdings.

Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Statewide NY

NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg Supports Fracking

August 24, 2012August 24, 2012

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, along with the “father” of hydraulic fracturing, George Mitchell, jointly published an opinion piece in yesterday’s Washington Post that supports fracking. Or rather offers qualified support, provided fracking is done they way they want it done.

Bloomberg and Mitchell offer four reasons why fracking is good, and then say their individual foundations will work together to “encourage better state regulation of fracking around five key principles.” Here are those five principles: