Writing in the Financial Post, Vaclav Smil, a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and until 2011 a Distinguished Professor in the Faculty of Environment at the University of Manitoba gives some sage advice on the wild claims on both sides of the shale gas drilling isle:
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, May 22, 2012”
Last week Chesapeake transferred 90 percent ownership of their 9,000 Utica Shale leases in Columbiana County, Ohio to their French partner Total in return for $2.03 billion. Back in December Chesapeake did an initial deal with Total for a 25 percent ownership stake in Chesapeake’s Ohio Utica Shale leases for 10 Ohio counties. This latest deal does not grant Total 90 percent in all 10 counties, so the question is, why Columbiana in particular? In two words: headache relief.
Read More “Chesapeake Sells More of its Utica Leases to Total”
Chesapeake Energy is still battling a tidal wave of negative press in a bid to prop up the stock price and prevent a “significant liquidity event” (i.e., being forced to sell the company). Their latest move is to reduce reduce the pay of board members and take away their private airplane rights. Still, board members get $350K per year, even after the 20 percent reduction.
From the Chesapeake press release:
Read More “Chesapeake Reduces Board Compensation, Nips Private Jets”
Tired of New York municipalities passing ill-advised bans on fracking, and hoping to increase the chances that landowners will be “first in line” for permits when they are finally issued, a group of landowners in New York have launched a campaign to get municipalities to pass a non-binding resolution that they will not enact a ban on fracking—and it’s working.
Read More “NY Towns Pass Resolution They WON’T Ban Fracking”
The Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District has just signed a deal with Sierra Buckeye of Houston to allow Utica Shale drilling on 185 acres of District-controlled land—and it got some VERY favorable terms for the deal.
Read More “Muskingum Watershed District Signs New Deal for Utica Drilling”
Some high paying jobs are on the way to Marshall County, WV courtesy of a new natural gas processing plant being built by Dominion and opening in December. What’s good paying? How does $30 per hour sound?
Read More “High Paying Jobs Come to Marshall County, WV Processing Plant”
First announced back in early April, Penn Virginia Resource Partners (PVR) deal to buy Chief Gathering for $1 billion has officially closed on Friday. The deal creates a very large presence in the Marcellus Shale midstream space for PVR.
From the PVR press release:
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, May 21, 2012”
An unnamed driller in Ohio has asked Canadian company GASFRAC to use its waterless fracking technology to drill two trial wells in the Utica Shale. You may recall that a group of Tioga County, NY landowners with a collective 135,000 Marcellus Shale acres were set to use GASFRAC’s LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) technology to jump start drilling in New York, but the lease and royalty deal with the driller, eCORP, fell through (no fault of GASFRAC, see this MDN story).
Will GASFRAC’s innovative technology do the trick in Ohio’s Utica Shale? There’s some disagreement on that point.
Read More “GASFRAC Waterless Fracking Technology Debuts in Utica Shale”
Carrizo Oil & Gas has just received a permit for drilling in the Utica Shale in Trumbull County, Ohio. But the company says it’s not going to start its exploratory drilling for the foreseeable future, at least in Trumbull because Trumbull has more restrictive road repair demands, so instead Carrizo will drill its first Utica exploratory well in neighboring Mercer County, PA where the demands on road repair are not as restrictive.
Read More “Carrizo Gets Utica Permit for Trumbull County, OH”
Chesapeake Energy stockholders have seen the stock slide 44 percent in the past six months. Chesapeake’s largest outside investor, Southeastern Asset Management, recently encouraged the board to sell the company (see this MDN story). But who would buy?
A wide-ranging article in yesterday’s Financial Times about Chesapeake tosses out the names of a few companies that would be the likely buyers if Chesapeake were sold.
One of the more interesting stories (to MDN anyway) over the past several years has been that of how short line railroads are seeing a comeback because of shale gas drilling. Perhaps it’s the romanticism of a bygone era that appeals. Some of the uses for old short line railroad beds have been innovative—things like “dual use” corridors where rail trails and pipelines have been run together.
But there’s a very new and interesting twist on this story MDN has just noticed. In at least one Ohio location, an energy company wants to lease an abandoned rail line, but not for pipelines and not to run trains on it…
Read More “Ohio Driller Eyes Abandoned Railroad for Innovative Use”
Yesterday MDN wrote a story about a newly released study by Ernest & Young that purports to show that Ohio’s oil and gas taxes are the lowest in the country, and would remain the lowest even if Gov. John Kasich’s plan to boost those taxes were to be adopted (see this MDN story). MDN stated that we could not find a copy of that study to review the data. Thanks to two intrepid MDN readers, we now have a copy (embedded below).
Read More “Ernst & Young’s Analysis of Ohio Proposed Severance Tax”
Eureka Resources announced yesterday it will build a brand new “world-class” shale wastewater treatment facility in Bradford County, PA (near Towanda, PA). The first phase of the construction will be complete by the end of this year, and the second phase by the end of next year. According to Eureka, the facility will reduce the need to dispose of concentrated brine, or salty wastewater, that normally is disposed of via injection wells. When completed, the facility will operate 24/7 and employ 16 full-time employees.
From the Eureka press release:
Read More “Bradford County, PA Gets New Shale Wastewater Treatment Plant”
On March 1, a little over two months ago, UGI Penn Natural Gas, a utility which serves approximately 158,000 customers in 13 counties in northeastern and central Pennsylvania, announced it was immediately reducing natural gas rates for its customers by 4.5 percent (see this MDN story). UGI announced yesterday it would file its annual rate on June 1 and it will request yet another 4.5 percent rate reduction on its annual rate which would take effect December 1. That’s a total of 9 percent in one year—thanks to the abundance of PA’s Marcellus Shale gas.
Read More “PA Utility Announces Second NatGas Rate Cut This Year”