With the support of anti-drilling group Food & Water Watch, Maryland House of Delegates member Shane Robinson (representing the DC suburb of Montgomery County) has introduced a bill into the Maryland legislature that would ban importing fracking wastewater for treatment in the state.
Read More “New Maryland Bill Would Ban Imports of Fracking Wastewater”
MarkWest Energy Partners, a major midstream player in the Marcellus and Utica Shales, just announced major expansion plans that will add an additional 600 million cubic feet per day (mmcf/d) of natural gas processing capacity which includes natural gas liquids (NGLs). Most of the new capacity will come from expansion of its Majorsville, WV plant. The expansion is made possible by new long-term agreements MarkWest signed with CONSOL Energy, Noble Energy and Range Resources to process NGLs.
MarkWest also announced they will build two new processing plants in Ohio’s Utica Shale—in Harrison and Monroe counties.
Read More “MarkWest to Expand/Build NGL Plants on New Agreements”
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: Wed, Feb 1, 2012”
The talk coming from the largest drillers in the Marcellus Shale is that they will scale back drilling activities in the dry (methane only) portions of the Marcellus Shale play and instead focus on the wet (liquids-rich) portion.
Ever wonder where, exactly, the liquids-rich area can be found? We now know where it is for Range Resources, one of the largest drillers in Pennsylvania. We also have an estimate of how long drilling in the dry gas portion of the Marcellus may be pushed back for Range due to low prices for natural gas.
Read More “Range’s Wet Gas Drilling Location & Dry Gas Drilling Timeline”
Increasingly, you will read on MDN and in press accounts about natural gas liquids (NGLs), and how major energy companies are now focused on drilling in the “liquids-rich” portion of the Marcellus and Utica Shales. The geography of where NGLs are found is typically western Pennsylvania, the West Virginia panhandle and eastern Ohio. But, just what are NGLs anyway? A helpful article on The Motley Fool website provides an excellent summary:
Dr. Gary G. Lash, Department of Geosciences Professor at SUNY Fredonia and Director of the SUNY Fredonia Shale Research Institute, doesn’t often grant interviews. But he recently opened up with reporter from the Dunkirk (NY) Observer about the science, and politics, of hydraulic fracturing. Dr. Lash is an international authority on the Marcellus, so when he talks, people listen!
Commenting on the fracking debate in New York State, he said:
Read More “SUNY Prof Dr. Gary Lash Discusses the Science of Fracking”
In the complicated, ongoing story of fracking wastewater treatment in Warren, Ohio, the existing permit that allows the Warren Water Pollution Control Facility (sewage treatment plant) to dispose of treated brine water in the Mahoning River expires today. But because the renewal of the permit is something that has been appealed, according to Ohio EPA rules, the facility can continue to accept brine water from fracking.
Read More “Warren, OH Frack Wastewater Treatment Continues…for Now”
Pipelines are a necessary part of drilling for and transporting shale gas. But they can also be one of the most contentious parts—especially when the government confers the power of eminent domain to a pipeline company who then can force landowners to accept the pipeline, weakening their bargaining position. A recent example is the MARC 1 in northeast Pennsylvania, a key piece of infrastructure for the Marcellus Shale. The MARC 1 is a high-pressure 30 inch steel pipeline that will connect to major interstate pipelines and to a gas storage facility in southern New York state.
Read More “PA Landowners Fight MARC 1 Pipeline Eminent Domain”
Magnum Hunter, a Houston, TX-based independent exploration and production company, issued an operational update for Q4 2011 yesterday. Following is the section reporting on their drilling operations in the Appalachian/Marcellus region:
Read More “Magnum Hunter Completes Four Marcellus Wells in WV Q411”
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, Jan 31, 2012”
Last September, Dominion Resources filed an application with the Department of Energy (DOE) to begin exporting liquefied natural gas from its Cove Point terminal in Maryland—up to 1 billion cubic feet of gas per day (see this MDN story). Dominion Resources CEO Thomas Farrell said last Friday he believes the permit will be issued later this year.
Read More “Dominion Expects to Receive Shale Gas Export Permit in 2012”
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and their Office of Oil and Gas Management released a new website two weeks ago that makes it easier for the public to to access Marcellus Shale drilling permit records, drilling dates, inspections and enforcement information.
Read More “PA DEP Debuts New Website for Easy Marcellus Drilling Info”
It looks like a $520 million Marcellus Lateral Project pipeline that Kinder Morgan wanted to build spanning 240 miles from the West Virginia panhandle to Toledo, Ohio, and the 2,500 jobs it would have provided, is dead.
Read More “Kinder Morgan OH Marcellus Lateral Pipeline Project Dead?”
It seems that MDN is not the only skeptic when it comes to President Obama’s election year conversion to supporting shale gas and fracking. An article in yesterday’s Washington Times asks the question, “Is the natural gas sector set up by Obama to be sabotaged?” Some industry observers believe the administration is publicly supporting fracking and drilling, while behind the scenes they are attempting to sabotage it:
Read More “Washington Times: Is Obama Setting NG Up for a Fall?”
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 30, 2012”
Last week’s MDN poll asked about the hot button question of whether or not you think the EPA should have a role in investigating water contamination in Dimock, PA. Although our weekly MDN polls often get criticized by anti-drillers, the MDN audience does not always think the way editor Jim Willis does! This week’s poll is evidence. More of you think the EPA has a role than those of us who don’t think so (including Jim). Here are the results:
Should the federal EPA investigate the Dimock, PA water contamination case?
Yes (52%, 142 Votes)
No (44%, 120 Votes)
Not sure (4%, 11 Votes)
Total Voters: 273
This Week’s Poll: Is President Obama Now a Fracking Shale Gas Supporter?
Just last week MDN wrote a “rant” about the out-of-control Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and their latest attempt to smear hydraulic fracturing by inserting themselves into an investigation at Dimock, PA (see this MDN Weekly Update). EPA wants to control oil and gas drilling in this country, and their illicit ticket to ride is by trying to find at least one case where fracking has resulted in chemical contamination of ground water supplies. They’re looking for just a single case (of out an estimated 19,000 wells that will be fracked this year). Just a single, solitary case out of the hundreds of thousands of wells that have been fracked going back 50 years. Anything! Of course even if the EPA were to find a single case, it would still be statistically zero, but oh what a hatchet job the environmental extremists and media could do with a single case!
So MDN found it amusing, and we’re sure the EPA was apoplectic, when President Obama essentially said in his State of the Union address this past week that fracking is good and will result in 600,000 jobs (see this MDN story). But MDN is also suspicious of election year conversions. Most pro-drilling organizations and landowner coalitions have hailed Obama’s words in his speech, and since, as turning a corner. It’s given new hope to landowners in New York State that perhaps Gov. Andrew Cuomo will now have enough political cover to move forward with lifting the moratorium in that state (“hey, Obama says it’s OK).
MDN remains a hardened skeptic. “Show me the money!” Or in this case, “Show me you’re serious!” How can the President prove he is serious about shale gas drilling and his stated support of fracking? The first thing he can do is tell the EPA to butt out of Dimock. It is his EPA. The EPA, like it or not, is an arm of the presidency. It is an agency in the Executive branch of government. That means Obama is the boss. If he wanted to, he could tell Lisa Jackson to quit fiddling around in Dimock. Second, while he’s at it, he could tell Lisa to end the multi-year study of fracking the EPA is currently conducting. Fracking has been studied to death already—the EPA will learn nothing new. But the not-so-subtle threat is that the EPA will gin up enough suspect data to make a grab at regulating oil and gas drilling through the back door by controlling fracking. And where there’s a threat of government interference, there’s uncertainty, and where’s there’s uncertainty, companies are slow to invest and move forward. And when companies are slow to invest and move forward, less business is done and fewer jobs are created. Fracking is already heavily regulated in the individual states where it’s used. We don’t need the EPA usurping the states and adding yet another layer of regulation, smothering the industry.
Although oil is not natural gas, the two are closely tied together. Fracking has resulted in an unprecedented renaissance of oil drilling in our own country—witness the miracle of the Bakken fields of North Dakota. ND now has the lowest unemployment rate in the country and has had the lowest unemployment for what, going on two years now? Why? Fracking. ND is producing boatloads of oil. One of the ways to get oil from where it’s drilled to where it needs to be processed and sold is via pipeline. Obama effectively killed the Keystone XL pipeline that would have come from Canada, and along the way, would have gone through the Bakken and taken that oil, along with cheap Canadian oil, and transported it to the Midwest and the Gulf Coast. Want to prove your serious about fracking Mr. Obama? Reverse course and grant the permits to allow the Keystone pipeline to be built. That would be a huge way to show you’re serious about fracking and energy production in this country.
Saying something and doing something are two different things. We’ll take Obama’s statements supporting shale gas drilling and fracking, but it would be so much better if his actions backed up his words. Don’t hold your breath.
What do you think? Is Obama now a genuine convert and supporter of fracking and shale gas? Or is this just an election year stunt to get votes? Register your vote in this week’s poll along the right 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
P.S. MDN is working on a new permits report that will be published soon (in February). Keep watching MDN for details in the coming weeks. This new report is better than the last by orders of magnitude!
Read More “MDN Weekly Update – Jan 29, 2012: Are You Serious Mr. President?”