Speaking at last week’s Wall Street Journal ECO:nomics conference, Boone Pickens, chairman of BP Energy Management and a Texas oil billionaire going way back, says if you want to see whether or not hydraulic fracturing is safe, all you have to do is look where it’s been actively used, underneath aquifers, for decades:
Read More “Boone Pickens: Fracking’s Long History Proves it’s Safe”
Once again, a shining example of the obtuse philosophy that drives the anti-drilling crowd, on full display in a commentary in (where else?) the Ithaca Journal. This particular commentary is on the high price of gas and why that’s really a good thing:
Read More “Anti-Drilling Stupidity on Display for All to See”
Pennsylvania Rep. Mike Sturla, D-Lancaster, wants to assess a tax on rural municipalities in Marcellus Shale areas without a police department who rely on PA State Troopers to assist them, to help fund the expense of the troopers. Sturla, chairman of the House Democratic Policy Committee, says the money the state spends on troopers for some 1,300 municipalities is money not available to spend on other transportation-related purposes.
Read More “PA Dem Seeks to Tax Marcellus Towns to Cover Trooper Costs”
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, Mar 26, 2012”
The most read story on MDN over the past seven days was about estimates of how much natural gas the Marcellus contains—and for good reason.
Last year the New York Times started a riff about how evil natural gas is. One of themes from the Times has been that the amount of shale gas in general that is recoverable (“proven reserves”) has been vastly overstated by the energy industry (see this MDN story). The Times, and most recently Rolling Stone (see this MDN story), have tried to make the case that shale gas drillers know there’s not as much recoverable shale gas as they state on their balance sheets and that they intentionally overstate how much gas there is to attract more investment and drive up the stock price for their companies. The Times and Rolling Stone claim the situation is akin to a Ponzi scheme, a house of cards that will at some point come tumbling down.
There’s just one small problem with that particular bit of fiction: a glut of new natural gas that’s hit the market and has driven the commodity price of natural gas to 10-year price lows. If the gas really isn’t there, why is there so much of it flooding the market?
Which brings us to this week’s poll question: Are drillers intentionally overstating how much shale gas there is to drive up the value of their companies and attract investors? What’s your opinion? Head on over to the right side of any page and register your vote.
Last Week’s Poll Results
Last week MDN wanted to know if you were surprised that the EPA found no water problems caused by fracking in Dimock, PA. And no surprise here: Most MDN readers were not surprised.
Were you surprised the EPA found no water problems from drilling in Dimock?
No (82%, 197 Votes)
Yes (18%, 43 Votes)
Total Voters: 240
Marcellus and Utica Shale Databook 2012
Thank you to the many MDN readers who have already purchased the “Marcellus and Utica Shale Databook 2012.” The Databook is a 116-page comprehensive guide to drilling in the Marcellus and Utica Shale. Chock full of maps showing where permits have been issued, including details on drillers, pipelines and regulations, this new publication is indispensable if you have an interest in shale drilling in the Marcellus and Utica. For more details, including sample pages, visit: MarcellusDrilling.com/Databook.
Below are the most recent “top 5” lists and the calendar of Marcellus-related events for the next two weeks.
May the odds be ever in your favor,
Jim Willis, Editor
Read More “MDN Weekly Update – Mar 25, 2012: Inflated Reserve Estimates”
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report yesterday on the status of natural gas gathering pipelines (a copy of the full 41-page report is embedded below). We should note that the GAO issues a half dozen or more reports per day—i.e., they are a report-generating “mill” for the federal government, usually Congress—your tax dollars at work.
[Begin rant] Two Democrat Senators, Jay Rockefeller from WV and Frank Lautenberg from NJ, requested a report from the GAO on the safety or lack thereof for the estimated 240,000 miles of natural gas gathering pipelines now in use or under construction throughout the country. Sure seems like Congress is nosing around yet another federal takeover of what is properly a state’s Constitutional responsibility, and this report is designed to provide justification to do just that.
The report’s operating assumption is that all pipelines should be federally regulated—even small gathering lines. If a pipeline is not federally regulated, it’s an aberration, not normal, something is wrong—“Danger Will Robinson!” The further arrogant assumption is if pipelines are not regulated in the manner “we” say, they are not safe. Welcome to the nanny state where the federal government uses fear to manipulate public opinion: “Your pipelines will blow up or crack and leak nasty things if we don’t slap strict regulations on them right now.” Question: When was the last time you heard about a pipeline—any pipeline—exploding, breaking or leaking? [End rant]
Read More “GAO Setup for Federal Regulation of Gathering Pipelines?”
Here’s a prediction on the commodity price of natural gas from John Pinkerton, CEO of Range Resources, as delivered at the Wall Street Journal’s ECO:nomics conference this week:
Read More “Range CEO Predicts Long-Term Commodity Price of NatGas”
Dominion Transmission is investing nearly $1.2 billion in Marshall County, WV. Almost half of that—$500 million—will be spent on a new gas processing facility near Natrium (see this MDN story). Earlier this week, Dominion officials updated Marshall County commissioners on the progress of the new facility and other projects underway.
Read More “Property Values Up in Marshall, WV; Dominion Invests $1.2B”
At a conference in Charelston, WV on Thursday, Chesapeake vice president Scott Rotruck said the drilling industry needs to do a better job at reducing surface impacts from shale drilling.
Read More “Chesapeake: Shale Drillers Need to Reduce Surface Impacts”
Both pro- and anti-drillers addressed a Wall Street Journal conference this week called ECO:nomics—and the sparks flew. Chesapeake CEO Aubrey McClendon spear-headed the pro-drilling side with his address, and Paul Gallay, president of Riverkeeper, represented the anti-drilling side. Some of Gallay’s comments illustrate the nonsensical arguments from anti-drillers. He responded to McClendon’s vision of getting off foreign oil with U.S. shale drilling this way:
Want to know more about the recently passed Act 13 law in Pennsylvania? That’s the new law essentially removing the right of local municipalities to regulate or otherwise ban drilling within their borders. Some townships are up in arms and threatening a lawsuit. The state Department of Environmental Protection wants to educate local officials and the public and is conducting four one-hour webinars to do it.
From the DEP press release:
Magnum Hunter subsidiary Eureka Hunter announced yesterday they are buying TransTex Gas Services, a natural gas treatment company based in Houston, TX for $58.5 million. One of Eureka Hunter’s objectives in purchasing the company is to grow the TransTex business in the Marcellus and Utica Shale.
From the Magnum Hunter press release:
Read More “Eureka Hunter Buys TransTex Gas, Plans for Marcellus/Utica”
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: Fri, Mar 23, 2012”
In an update to a story from earlier this week about methane contamination of three water wells in Franklin Township, PA (see this MDN story), WPX Energy has now installed venting systems on those three homes per the request from the PA Department of Environmental Protection.
Read More “WPX Vents 3 Methane-Contaminated Water Wells in PA”
The question of how much recoverable gas there is in the Marcellus will likely be a topic of debate for some years. In 2009, Penn State geosciences professor Dr. Terry Engelder estimated there’s around 489 trillion cubic feet of gas—the largest amount of recoverable gas of any shale play in the U.S. But in January of this year, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the authoritative voice of the government for such data, estimated that the Marcellus has around 141 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas total.
Who’s right? We have two new reports presented at a research conference on Monday at Penn State University which confirm Dr. Engelder’s original estimate:
Read More “How Much Natural Gas Does the Marcellus Really Hold?”
Antero Resources released 2011 operating and financial results yesterday. Below are portions from their statement that are relevant to the Marcellus Shale: