A surprisingly balanced article in the New York Times yesterday takes a look at the anti-drilling movement in New York State. The article, written by Peter Applebome, focuses on the “divide” in the anti-drilling movement between those who want strict drilling laws in New York versus those who want to ban drilling outright.
Read More “NYT: Kerfuffle Among Anti-Drilling Groups in New York”
CONSOL Energy is increasing its capital projects budget by 21 percent in 2012, including a ramp-up in their commitment to both the Marcellus and Utica Shale plays. CONSOL says they will spend $395 million to drill 122 new Marcellus Shale wells in 2012 (their portion of a joint venture with Noble Energy), 39 of those wells will be in the liquids-rich portion of the Marcellus. They will invest $50 million in Utica Shale drilling for the year.
From the CONSOL press release:
Read More “CONSOL Increases 2012 Capital Spending in Marcellus/Utica”
Talisman Energy announced yesterday that it plans to spend 11 percent less on capital projects in 2012 than it did in 2011. They also announced they would reduce the number of Marcellus drilling rigs from 11 in use during 2011 down to between five and seven for 2012.The reason? Low natural gas prices. Talisman expects natural gas prices in North America to remain low for the foreseeable future. Although they are decreasing overall spending, Talisman will increase spending, and shifting their focus, to shale gas liquids.
From the Talisman press release:
Read More “Talisman to Reduce Spending, Rig Count in Marcellus for 2012”
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Friday declined to hear a four-year-old case over how much leeway local municipalities have in regulating drilling within their borders. Does the court’s refusal to hear the case mean local governments will have more, or less, latitude than they do now? Depends on who you ask.
Read More “PA Supreme Court’s Indecision on Local Regulation of Drilling”
It looks as though the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has a data problem: They’ve been undercounting the number of Marcellus Shale gas wells in the state by a significant number. It’s especially a problem for legislators who are trying to calculate how much money new impact fees might generate.
Read More “PA DEP Undercounting Marcellus Gas Wells – By 12%”
The news out of Dimock, PA is coming so fast and furious, it’s hard to keep track of it all. First, a brief background on the situation in Dimock, the context you almost never read in the mainstream media:
In 2008, Cabot Oil & Gas drilled a number of Marcellus Shale gas wells in Dimock Township in Pennsylvania, a rural area in the northeastern part of the state, in Susquehanna County. Homeowners located along the Carter Road area noticed high levels of methane in their drinking water. After an investigation by the PA Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), the DEP fined Cabot in 2009 stating that Cabot’s operations in the area caused methane to migrate into a local water aquifer serving anywhere from 13 to 19 houses, depending on the changing storyline.
Read More “EPA Promises Water for Dimock PA, Reneges 24 Hours Later”
Exxon Mobil, through it’s subsidiary XTO Energy, recently acquired just over 13,200 acres of Utica Shale leases from Beck Energy Corp. in Monroe County, Ohio. A copy of the Bill of Sale, dated Dec. 20, 2011, is embedded below, containing a list of all the parcels in the transaction. Terms of the purchase are not disclosed in the document. Neither Exxon Mobil nor Beck Energy have disclosed the price and terms of the deal.
Read More “Exxon Buys 13,200 Acres of Utica Shale Leases in Ohio”
Three private water wells in Lenox Township (Susquehanna County), PA have been contaminated with methane from nearby Marcellus Shale drilling done by Cabot Oil & Gas according to the PA Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). Cabot has installed methane detection alarms in the three homes and has vented the affected wells.
Read More “New Cases of Methane Water Well Contamination by Cabot in PA”
Norse Energy, with substantial leases in New York State, clings to the hope that New York will soon allow shale gas drilling. In the meantime, they continue to try and hold on. Last week they sold some of their NY acreage along with a slice of the royalty rights on acreage they retain for $26.7 million (see this MDN story). Today we learn that Norse is converting $3.5 million worth of debt they owe into equity. That is, they’ve sold off another slice of the company by swapping bonds for stocks.
Read More “Norse Energy Converts $3.5M in Bonds into Stock Ownership”
An interesting comment from Southwestern Energy. According to Southwestern’s CEO Steven Mueller, it’s more expensive to drill for shale gas in the Fayetteville Shale than in the Marcellus Shale, and if prices for natural gas remain as low as they are now, Southwestern will elect to reduce spending and drilling in the Fayetteville, but not the Marcellus.
Read More “Southwestern Says Marcellus Cheaper to Drill than Elsewhere”
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, Jan 9, 2012”
The most recent MDN poll has been active since Dec. 18th. We wanted to know more about the current audience who visits and reads MDN—thank you for voting! Here’s what we found out about the main purpose for your visits to MDN:
Which term best describes you and your *primary* reason for visiting MDN?
Landowner (56%, 344 Votes)
Work for energy/related company (16%, 97 Votes)
Other (10%, 62 Votes)
Job seeker (8%, 46 Votes)
Work for non-energy company (6%, 37 Votes)
Environmentalist (3%, 18 Votes)
Work for government (1%, 9 Votes)
Total Voters: 613
This Week’s Poll: Sue NY?
Word leaked this past week, via the Gannett news service, that new legislation is about to be introduced into the New York Assembly that would further delay the beginning of hydraulic fracturing until June 2013, another year and a half from now (see this MDN story). In case the casual observer thought New York was just being extra careful and doing lots of homework before allowing shale gas drilling, this latest initiative exposes these ongoing delay efforts for what they are: an attempt to stop horizontal drilling, forever. Extremists who oppose drilling will not change their minds—they will only accept no drilling. They aren’t interested in safe drilling. Another delay like this one further helps them marshal and organize to prevent fracking from ever happening in New York.
Also this past week, NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo was due to mention fracking in his State of the State speech. It was a short, bland, generic two paragraphs in his prepared remarks. But when he delivered the speech, he chose to leave it out (see this MDN story). A sign of the governor’s caving support for drilling?
MDN said the following at the end of the story on new legislation about to be introduced in the Assembly:
MDN’s view: As a New York resident, I am distressed at the ongoing delays. Fracking is safe when done right, and there’s no reason to further delay its introduction to New York. It’s obvious that Joe Martens, Commissioner of the DEC, is intentionally delaying its introduction so that opposition, like this new legislation, has time to organize and eventually kill drilling outright. Since new drilling rules will not be released any time soon, it’s time for landowners and non-landowners who support drilling to unite and litigate. If it’s going to take years anyway, better to start the process now using the law, which is on our side, to force the state to stop violating our property rights.
What do you think? Humor me here: Assume I am right and that the game plan is to delay drilling in NY long enough to kill it permanently. Should landowners who want to lease their land, and business owners who would see their business revenues increase, and job seekers who would get a job in the drilling industry, and government officials who would see boatloads of new tax revenue, and non-landowners (like MDN) who are tired of their neighbors’ property rights being violated, band together and sue the state to force the issue? Is it now time to litigate? Register your vote on the right-hand side of any page.
Below are the most recent “top 5” lists and the calendar of Marcellus related events for the next two weeks.
Happy reading,
Jim Willis, Editor
Read More “MDN Weekly Update – Jan 8, 2012: Time to Sue in NY?”
Earlier this week, MDN reported that the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), an agency prone to overstep its legal authority, is once again nosing around Dimock, PA (see this MDN story). After writing to tell Carter Road residents in the Dimock area that their drinking water was just fine on Dec. 2 of last year, they reversed course last week and expressed concerns over “gaps” in water testing data. Now it seems that the EPA themselves will conduct their own tests of water in Dimock.
Read More “EPA “May” Start Testing Dimock, PA Water in 2 Weeks”
Gannett reporter Jon Campbell reports that a bill to extend New York’s moratorium on hydraulic fracturing until June 2013 is now circulating in Albany and is expected to be introduced soon by the the Assembly environmental chairman:
Read More “New Fracking Moratorium Bill Coming in NY Legislature”
In December of 2011, West Virginia passed new Marcellus Shale drilling laws raising certain fees and putting new requirements in place (see this MDN story). The drilling industry, while saying it was not a perfect law, in the end supported it. But there was on thing the new law did not address that the industry wants to see: forced pooling. That issue is once again being discussed for possible action in the legislature this year.
Read More “WV Legislator Offers Forced Pooling for Higher Severance Tax”
A closed refinery in West Deptford Township (Gloucester County), NJ may soon reopen thanks to hydraulic fracturing. The refinery, owned by Sunoco, is looking at two possibilities: Refine oil from the Bakken Shale region of North Dakota; or convert the refinery into a processing plant to move and store ethane from the Marcellus Shale region.
Read More “Southern NJ Refinery May Reopen Thanks to Shale Fracking”