Marcellus Drilling News

Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Patriot Water Treatment | Regulation | Trumbull County | Wastewater

Ohio DNR Visits Patriot Water Facility in Warren, OH
July 12, 2012December 19, 2012

Patriot Water in Warren, Ohio is fighting a battle on both the legal and publicity fronts. Yesterday they scored some points in the publicity column by (finally) getting a representative from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) to tour their facility.

Brief background: Patriot’s facility processes wastewater from hydraulic fracturing, removing the nasty stuff so the water is clean and able to be disposed of through the local Warren municipal wastewater processing plant. But the Ohio Attorney General, Mike DeWine, and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency rescinded Warren’s permit to accept the wastewater from Patriot, saying Patriot’s technology is not up to scratch (see this MDN story for more background on Patriot’s legal squabble with the OEPA).

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Delaware County (PA) | Economic Impact | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | Sunoco Logistics

Marcellus to the Rescue: Marcus Hook Refinery to Reopen
July 12, 2012December 19, 2012

The Marcus Hook Refinery in the Philadelphia, PA area was closed down in April. Owned by Sunoco, it is one of three refineries in the greater Philly area. A few weeks ago MDN told you about a study that Marcus Hook and Delaware County spent $100,000 on detailing potential uses and markets for the refinery (see this MDN story).

At the time, MDN asked the question if the Marcellus Shale would save the Marcus Hook refinery. Looks like it did. Yesterday, PA Gov. Tom Corbett’s office announced that some of the Marcus Hook Refinery assets have been purchased by Braskem America. Braskem will use it to manufacture polypropylene plastics. The press release says Braskem will secure feedstocks (raw materials) from “multiple sources,” without naming those sources. You can be sure natural gas liquids from the Marcellus and Utica Shale will be a big source—perhaps the main source—for the refinery.

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Energy Companies | Norse Energy

Norse Energy Continues Stock Sales to Generate Cash
July 12, 2012December 19, 2012

Norse Energy is an interesting company. MDN has written plenty about them. They have 130,000 acres of leases in, of all places, New York State. And they’ve been waiting, along with everyone else, four long years to begin drilling. And they’ve done whatever they can to stay in business, selling off assets, selling ownership slices of the company, floating bonds (debt), obtaining loans—whatever they can.

On one hand you have to have tremendous respect for a company that hangs tough. On the other hand, you want to ask them if they need their heads examined for betting the ranch on the vagaries of New York politicians.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Sullivan County

Sullivan County, NY Township Votes to Ban Fracking
July 12, 2012December 19, 2012

Another one bites the dust. A township in Sullivan County—the Catskill region of New York State—has voted to ban hydraulic fracturing ahead of the state allowing it (if they allow it). The Town of Highland board voted 5-0 to ban fracking Tuesday night.

What you don’t hear about so often in the press are all of the towns voting in favor of drilling—or at least in favor of letting the DEC do it’s job and not prejudging the outcome. Anecdotal evidence MDN has heard is that something over 100 townships have voted to ban fracking (most of them not in the Marcellus Shale region), while perhaps 50 have voted to allow the DEC to do it’s job—what anti-drillers view as being supportive of drilling. Most of those are in the Marcellus Shale region.

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Industrywide Issues | NG Vehicles | Statewide WV | West Virginia

WV Gov. Tomblin Appoints Members to NatGas Vehicle Task Force
July 12, 2012December 19, 2012

West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin yesterday announced the members of his Natural Gas Vehicle Task Force. Tomblin announced the formation of the Task Force a month ago with the mission of investigating if, and how, the state can convert all of it’s state-owned vehicles to run on natural gas (see this MDN story).

Yesterday’s announcement names the members of the new Task Force. It’s all all-star cast from some of the country’s biggest drillers and pipeline companies.

From the Governor’s press release:

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Accidents | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Trumbull County | Wastewater

Concerns about Small Wastewater Spill on OH Roadway
July 12, 2012December 19, 2012

There was a small spill of brine (Utica Shale wastewater) from a tanker truck in Trumbull County, Ohio last weekend. An estimated 100-150 gallons leaked from the back of the truck along a roadway for about 5 miles. The county engineer is concerned about it—the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency says there’s nothing to worry about.

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Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Thu, Jul 12, 2012
July 12, 2012December 19, 2012

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

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

New Report Says EPA Fracking Study Methods Need Help
July 11, 2012December 19, 2012

A major new report was released yesterday from the Battelle Memorial Institute that reviews the Environmental Protection Agency’s stated plan to study hydraulic fracturing and its impacts on water. The 166-page report (embedded below) says the EPA has it wrong with how they are proceeding.

The report was funded by the American Petroleum Institute (API) and America’s Natural Gas Alliance (ANGA), perhaps the two largest energy-related associations in the U.S. (ranked by funding). So the obligatory “but it was funded by the industry!” arguments will come out, to be sure. But you can’t argue with the findings in this report. Battelle is an independent non-profit, science and technology research and development organization with an excellent reputation—a reputation they want to keep.

This is not an industry shill report, but a serious look at how the EPA might better conduct a serious scientific investigation, rather than a sham pretense for an activist government bent on phasing out fossil fuels.

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Chesapeake Energy | Encana Energy | Energy Companies

Reuters Continues Vendetta Against Chesapeake Energy
July 11, 2012December 19, 2012

Reuters news service continues to use what MDN assumes are illegally obtained emails to try and bring down Chesapeake Energy and its CEO Aubrey McClendon. Their latest breathless “they colluded! they colluded!” story starts this way:

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Caiman Energy | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Processing Plants | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Williams

Williams Does Second Midstream Deal with Caiman Energy
July 11, 2012December 19, 2012

Midstream giant Williams Partners continues an aggressive push into the Marcellus and Utica Shale and continues to cozy up with Caiman Energy as well. Yesterday Williams announced it will contribute $380 million toward a new $800 million joint venture with Caiman and several other partners to develop pipelines and processing facilities for natural gas, natural gas liquids and oil in the Utica Shale region of northeast Ohio and northwest Pennsylvania.

Earlier this year Williams spent $2.5 billion to purchase Caiman subsidiary Caiman Eastern Midstream, giving Williams a major midstream presence in the Marcellus/Utica region in northern West Virginia, southwestern Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio (see this MDN story). The recurring theme for Williams’ latest jv and acquisitions seems to be, “Get thee to the wet gas.”

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Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Williams

NY Constitution Pipeline Route Change?
July 11, 2012December 19, 2012

Cabot Oil & Gas and Williams are partnering to build a new $750 million, 120-mile “Constitution Pipeline” to bring Marcellus Shale gas all the way from Susquehanna County, PA to Schoharie County, NY where it would connect to the Iroquois Gas Transmission pipeline and the Tennessee Gas pipeline (see this MDN story).

But the route the new pipeline takes through New York (see the map below) is being opposed by some area residents and by two Republican state legislators: Assemblyman Pete Lopez and Sen. James Seward. They want the pipeline to “hug” the Interstate 88 corridor instead.

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Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Statewide OH | Wastewater

Gov. Kasich Signs Order Tightening Rules on Injection Wells
July 11, 2012December 19, 2012

Ohio Gov. John Kasich signed an “emergency” executive order (EO) yesterday granting the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) authority to implement a list of new rules for proposed deep injection wells, used to dispose of drilling wastewater from Marcellus and Utica Shale drilling (a copy of the signed EO is embedded below).

The EO will expire in 90 days—enough time for the Ohio legislature to make the new rules permanent.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Statewide NY

NY Anti-Frackers are Getting Desperate, and it Shows
July 11, 2012December 19, 2012

Organized opposition to hydraulic fracturing in New York—mostly located in New York City—is getting desperate, and it shows in the shrill tenor of their rallies. They sense that the state Department of Environment Conservation (DEC) is about to release the final final final final version of New York’s drilling rules, called the SGEIS (Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement). And so to turn up the heat, they rally and protest.

Their latest target/tactic? Demand that Gov. Andrew Cuomo withdraw the SGEIS and send it to someone else for an “independent review.” Why?

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Clearfield County | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Wastewater

Opposed to Proposed Injection Well in Clearfield County, PA
July 11, 2012December 19, 2012

Windfall Oil & Gas Company wants to build an injection well to dispose of Marcellus Shale wastewater in Brady Township (Clearfield County), PA. They’ve submitted an application to the federal Environmental Protection Agency, which oversees permitting and regulation of injection wells nationwide. The PA Department of Environmental Protection would also need to approve such a well.

Currently there are only eight injection wells in the entire state, two of them in Clearfield County. There is a movement by local politicians and residents to oppose the new injection well, and depending on the news account you read, there will be either an open or a mostly closed-door meeting on July 23 with the EPA present to discuss the proposed well.

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Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Wed, Jul 11, 2012
July 11, 2012December 19, 2012

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

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

MDN In-depth: New Duke Study on Brine Migration into Aquifers
July 10, 2012December 19, 2012

Grad students at Duke University have issued a new “peer-reviewed” paper/study/report, this time addressing the question of whether or not fluids from thousands of feet down in the Marcellus Shale layer can actually migrate upward through thousands of feet of solid rock and contaminate groundwater aquifer supplies. The new study is titled, “Geochemical evidence for possible natural migration of Marcellus Formation brine to shallow aquifers in Pennsylvania.” A full copy is embedded below for MDN subscribers.

You may recall more than a year ago the same Duke department issued a study looking at whether or not methane migrates from natural gas drilling to local groundwater supplies and concluded that where’s there’s drilling, there’s an increase in methane migration (see this MDN story).

So is this “the other shoe dropping” from Duke? The final nail in the coffin that proves anti-drillers have been right all along?

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