Yesterday, U.S. oil and gas exploration firm Endeavour International Corp announced they were bailing out of a deal to buy the Marcellus holdings of SM Energy (no stated reason for abandoning the deal). This was the single-sentence press release they issued:
Read More “Endeavour Leaves SM Energy at the Altar, SM Ready to Sue”
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: Thursday, Dec 15, 2011”
Last Friday, Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board Judge Bernard Labuskes, Jr. denied an appeal from 11 families in the Carter Road area of Dimock Township, PA who were asking that water shipments from Cabot Oil & Gas be restored. The 11 families, from an original group of 19 families, decided to not accept a remediation solution ordered by the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) that directed Cabot to pay the families up to twice the value of their homes and to install filtration systems that would remove all methane from their water supplies.
Because of their ongoing refusal to accept the remediation solution offered, preferring instead to pursue litigation with Cabot, the DEP finally told Cabot they could end water deliveries to those families as of Nov. 30—deliveries that have been ongoing for more than two years.
Read More “Judge Denies Request to Restart Water Deliveries in Dimock PA”
Just how much money would be generated in taxes by a single Marcellus Shale gas well in New York State? The Independent Oil and Gas Association of New York (IOGA of NY) wants you to know, and has created a calculator on their website that will tell you. You can find it here.
Read More “NY Frack Calculator Shows Tax Revenue from Just One Well”
Leaders from 44 Pennsylvania municipalities in seven counties met Tuesday night to express their concern over state legislation nearing passage that would strip away most local control of shale gas drilling. PA Gov. Tom Corbett believes most control for drilling should be handled at the state level, something the drilling industry also favors, giving drillers an even, consistent playing field across the state instead of a patchwork of regulations that differ from area to area and even from township to township.
But local municipal leaders maintain a “one size fits all” is not the answer—that local leaders and the citizens they represent should have a say on which areas in their locales should be industrialized and which should not, and what restrictions they want to place on drilling activities. Their point: Who knows better the local character and conditions than municipal leaders, who answer to local voters?
Read More “PA Municipal Leaders Say “No” to Proposed Drilling Law”
On Tuesday, the Pennsylvania State Senate have approved a bill that would direct PA utility inspectors to use federal safety standards with most new shale gas gathering pipelines in the state. The measure now goes to the PA House for consideration.
Read More “PA Senate Passes Bill Enforcing Fed Standards on Pipelines”
North Strabane Township (Washington County), PA reports that Range Resources has lowered its offer to lease 141 acres of township-owned land.
Read More “Range Resources Reduces Lease Offer to North Strabane Twp”
Houston-based Crestwood Midstream yesterday announced they will construct a new 16” inch Marcellus gathering pipeline that will run 42 miles through Preston, Taylor and Barbour counties in northeast West Virginia, connecting to Columbia Gas Transmission’s WB Pipeline in Randolph County, WV. By connecting to the WB Pipeline the new gathering pipeline will have access to the Washington, DC and Baltimore markets.
The new pipeline will be completed by this time next year and already has a long term “anchor” contract with Mountaineer Keystone, a Pittsburgh-based drilling company that will commence their horizontal drilling program in the area in the middle of 2012.
Read More “Crestwood to Build New Marcellus Pipeline in NE WV”
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: Wednesday, Dec 14, 2011”
Does fracking cause earthquakes? MDN has covered various stories in the past on this topic. It seems likely that injection wells (not hydraulic fracturing, but the wastewater from fracking being injected deeply in disposal wells) in some locations have been tied to earthquakes in some areas. Notably, when injection wells in Arkansas stopped pumping pressurized liquids into the wells, earthquakes in the area all but stopped (see this MDN story). It certainly seems there is a cause and effect situation.
But what about fracking a single well? Is there a danger that fracking can cause earthquakes? Arthur McGarr, a geologist at the US Geological Survey in Menlo Park, California has worked out a formula for predicting how large an earthquake can result from pumping/injecting fluids underground, including fracking fluids. He recently presented his formula at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco, CA. McGarr subsequently spoke to the journal Nature about his formula:
Read More “Does Fracking Cause Earthquakes? Formula Calcs Quake Size”
The number of shale gas drilling permits in Ohio has rocketed from virtually none in 2009 and 2010, to 141 in 2011—the vast majority of that in the Utica Shale.
Read More “OH Shale Drilling Permits See Dramatic Increase in 2011”
Kent Moors, writing on the Seeking Alpha website, comments on his observation from Baker Hughes well rig data for the U.S. that the number of rigs used to drill for natural gas has gone down over the same period last year, but that the number of rigs drilling for oil has skyrocketed.
Read More “Natural Gas Rig Numbers Down, Oil Rig Numbers Up in U.S.”
MarkWest Energy announced yesterday it will pay $1 billion in cash and 19.95 million new Class B MarkWest units (worth an estimated $750 million to $850 million) to buy out joint venture partner Energy and Minerals Group’s (EMG) 49 percent interest in MarkWest Liberty Midstream. The Liberty Midstream joint venture was formed in May 2009 to focus on construction and operation of midstream services in support of Marcellus shale gas production, including pipelines to gather natural gas, facilities to process it, and transportation to get it to market.
Although MarkWest is buying out EMG’s interest in the Liberty joint venture, the two companies will create a new Utica Shale midstream joint venture in eastern Ohio in 2012 as part of the deal.
Read More “MarkWest Pays $1.8B to Buy Out JV Partner in Liberty Midstream”
Magnum Hunter Resources and Stone Energy yesterday announced a joint venture combining their leased Marcellus acreage in Wetzel County, WV, some 1,925 acres, with the stated objective of drilling 19 new horizontal Marcellus Shale wells in the next two years.
From the press release:
Read More “Magnum Hunter, Stone Energy JV to Drill in Wetzel County WV”
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: Tuesday, Dec 13, 2011”
In a surprise move, two West Virginians have announced their intention to build an ethane cracker plant in the state. Former state Supreme Court Justice Richard Neely and Ryan Cunningham, owner of Charleston-based Cunningham Energy have formed a partnership with a few others and will try to get the necessary permits and financing to build an ethane cracker plant on a 1,500-acre plot near Montgomery, WV.
Two large energy companies, Shell and an unidentified company, have said they will make announcements in January of 2012 on where they will build ethane cracker plants. West Virginia was hopeful that Shell or the other company would select their state. But Neely and Cunningham don’t want to leave it to chance—so they plan to move forward.
Read More “Surprise Announcement of Ethane Cracker Plant in WV”