Marcellus Drilling News

Brooke County | Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Equinor/Statoil | Industrywide Issues | Lease & Royalty Payments | Litigation | Range Resources Corp | West Virginia

WV Couple Challenges Chesapeake Lease Renewal
June 13, 2012June 13, 2012

A husband and wife in Brooke County, West Virginia are suing to have their 5 year-old lease, which is now expired and up for renewal, nullified so Chesapeake (now the owner of the lease) cannot automatically renew it as they are attempting to do.

Increasingly landowners who signed leases that are now expiring after a customary 5 year period face the same issue—and drillers are trying to lock them in under the terms of lease for a new period of time.

Here’s the story of Ramon and Lois Bowen:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Maryland | Statewide MD

Maryland Commission’s Deadline for Fracking Report Extended
June 13, 2012June 13, 2012

The Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission appointed by Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley to “study” natural gas drilling and produce a set of “best practices” for hydraulic fracturing needs more time. An initial draft report was due this August, but the good governor has extended the deadline to the end of the year instead. (yawn)

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Energy Services | Smart Sand

Smart Sand Lands Big Name for Board of Directors
June 13, 2012June 13, 2012

Smart Sand Inc., headquartered in Fairless Hills, PA, is a supplier of industrial sand, primarily serving customers in the oil and gas industry including drillers in the Marcellus and Utica Shale region. Sand—the right kind of sand which is crystalline—is a critical part of the hydraulic fracturing process. Most of the frack sand mined in the U.S. comes from the Midwestern states of Wisconsin, Minnesota and Illinois. Smart Sand owns and operates a facility in Oakdale, WI.

What’s the big deal about Smart Sand? They’ve just landed former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty as a new board member, raising their visibility in the industry considerably. You may recall that Pawlenty ran for the Republican nomination for president not all that long ago.

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Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Wed, Jun 13, 2012
June 13, 2012June 13, 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

NETL Study of Faults & Fracking, Are We Being Set Up?
June 12, 2012June 12, 2012

Using Greene County, Pennsylvania as a living laboratory, the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) is testing whether or not faults, or large cracks that sometimes exist through multiple rock layers, can create a pathway for hydraulic fracturing fluids to migrate to aquifers.

That is, they’re testing whether or not fracking can pollute groundwater supplies under certain conditions.

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New York | Statewide NY

NY Women’s Pro-Drilling Group Rallies in Albany Today
June 12, 2012June 12, 2012

In what is sure to rankle the anti-drilling movement, a new group of women have formed a pro-drilling group called “The Women’s Energy Leadership Coalition.” The new Coalition is holding a rally in Albany today to bring legislators the message that natural gas drilling can be done responsibly and safely, and New York desperately needs it—now.

The Coalition’s leader is Uni Blake, an environmental toxicologist and mother of five. Other leaders in the new coalition group are women of distinction with degrees in engineering and environmental sciences. One of the highlights of today’s meeting? A showing of Truthland, a movie made refuting Josh Fox’s fiction Gasland.

From the press release:

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

Anti-Drillers Show Their True Colors in DEC/EPA Email Fracas
June 12, 2012June 12, 2012

Apparently the anti-drillers found comments they did not like in the back and forth email correspondence between the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). MDN reported yesterday on a story by Gannett about emails between the two agencies they acquired under the Freedom of Information Law (see this MDN story). MDN noted there are some interesting tidbits in the emails, but nothing earth-shattering. No new revelations.

But apparently the anti-drillers disagree. They found things they definitely did not like, and they’re making noise about it. Here’s a statement issued by the anti-drilling group Frack Action:

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

Albany County, NY Bans Fracking for 2 Years
June 12, 2012June 12, 2012

Ever so gradually the “body count” continues to rise in New York. No, not that body count. The body count of municipalities that enact bans against fracking.

Albany County (with a high concentration of liberal Democrats, so it comes as no surprise) is the latest municipality to ban fracking—but at least this ban is confined to county-owned land:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Regulation | Statewide OH | Taxation

OH Gov. Kasich Signs New Drilling Law – Now, Back to Taxes
June 12, 2012June 12, 2012

Yesterday Ohio Gov. John Kasich signed new oil and gas legislation into law that will impact shale gas drilling in his state. For a summary of what’s in the new law, see this previous MDN story. Kasich said during the signing ceremony: "We were not going to develop shale gas at the expense of the environment…we have contained in this bill the most aggressive, clearest, fairest and strongest fracking regulations that you can find anywhere in the country." He later claimed that Ohio’s new law is, “the toughest law on fracking fluid in America.”

What happens next? Kasich has promised to return to pushing his plan to tax the shale drilling industry and pass along the proceeds as a small income tax cut to Ohioans:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

“Dallas” Remake is Anti-Drilling, Anti-Fracking Propaganda
June 12, 2012June 12, 2012

Remember J.R. and Bobby and Sue Ellen and Pam? As in, the Ewings? For those of us who came of age during the 70s and 80s, watching Dallas on CBS Friday nights was a given. The original series ran from 1978-1991. Well tomorrow night, Dallas is back. The 80s primetime soap is being remade and will debut on the TNT network.

Here’s the interesting thing about the new series: it pits J.R.’s son as the bad boy who (gasp) likes to drill for oil, and Bobby’s son (adopted) is the good boy who wants to use alternative renewable sources of energy. Oh, and fracking is evil, of course! Pluezz. Talk about a Hollywood, hackneyed caricature that employs all the stereotypes.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Will Natural Gas Replace Gasoline?
June 12, 2012June 12, 2012

Oilprice.com conducted a wide-ranging interview of energy trader and author Raymond Learsy ostensibly about his new book, Oil and Finance: The Epic Corruption Continues, which looks at corruption within the oil sector. But the interview turned in an interesting direction: a discussion about how natural gas could conceivably replace gasoline.

During the interview, Learsy takes the New York Times to task for their yellow journalism against the natural gas industry. On the topic of fracking, Learsy said this:

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Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Tue, Jun 12, 2012
June 12, 2012June 12, 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, Jun 12, 2012”
Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies

The Day Chesapeake CEO McClendon Would Rather Forget
June 11, 2012June 11, 2012

Aubrey McClendon, CEO of Chesapeake Energy, had a tough day last Friday at the annual shareholder’s meeting at Chesapeake’s headquarters in Oklahoma City . Shareholders passed a number of votes against the sitting board and against McClendon. McClendon had previously announced that Chesapeake’s two largest shareholders, Southeastern Asset Management and Carl Ichan will be allowed to nominate four new board members and a new chairperson, replacing more than half of the board. The new members are slated to begin later this month. Still, shareholders withheld approval of two sitting board members up for re-election. They both promptly offered their resignations.

A number of large shareholders addressed McClendon and the current board. Some were rather blunt about McClendon’s doubtful future with the company he founded in 1989:

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

NY DEC and EPA Emails – Interesting, Not Earth Shattering
June 11, 2012June 11, 2012

Over the weekend, the Gannett News Service ran a story in several of its newspapers and TV stations in New York State detailing the contents of emails that have flown back and forth between the NY State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on the topic of hydraulic fracturing in New York over the past four years. A copy of the emails is embedded below.

There’s really nothing earth shatteringly new in the emails. Some interesting tidbits perhaps, but all of it now ancient history and not worth being hot and bothered about.

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Economic Impact | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | Shell | Statewide PA | Taxation

More Details about Proposed Ethane Cracker Tax Break
June 11, 2012June 11, 2012

Some more details about how the tax break would work that Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett is planning to offer Shell to build it’s ethane cracker plant in PA:

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Accidents | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Range Resources Corp | Washington County

EPA Investigating Range Drill Site in Western PA
June 11, 2012June 11, 2012

The federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is investigating whether or not drilling activity by Range Resources at their Yeager Marcellus Shale site in Washington County, PA is causing air pollution and groundwater contamination. Range operates a wastewater pond and a drill cuttings pit at the site.

Several families living close to the site filed a personal injury lawsuit last month against Range.

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