Marcellus Drilling News

PA DCNR Wants Money for Drilling Under Public Streams/Rivers

June 4, 2012June 4, 2012

The Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR)—not to be confused with the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP)—has found a new and novel way of extracting money from natural gas drillers in the state. If drillers have horizontally drilled underneath a public stream or river, the DCNR is going to ask those drillers to pony up with lease and royalty payments to the DCNR’s coffers. This one is going to be a lawyer’s delight.

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

AP Story: NY Should Give Up on Drilling Before It’s Begun

June 4, 2012June 4, 2012

An AP story that appeared over the weekend attempts to make the case that Pennsylvania is so far ahead in the natural gas game that New York shouldn’t even make an attempt to allow fracking. The opening paragraph compares the situation to a runner with a huge lead in a foot race—PA will dominate natural gas for years to come.

The logic of the AP writer goes like this:

Columbiana County | Lease & Royalty Payments | Ohio | Statewide OH

The Value of Land for One Eastern Ohio Landowner

June 4, 2012June 4, 2012

How much are your lease rights worth? It all depends on where your land is located. Right now, eastern Ohio seems to be commanding the best lease and royalty deals. PBS station WVIZ in Cleveland aired a story yesterday about an 82 year-old woman, Jackie Pendleton, who lives by herself on 62 acres of land in Columbiana County, OH. The offers she’s received for both her mineral rights and the outright purchase of her entire property have made her head swim.

Lease & Royalty Payments | Statewide WV | West Virginia | Wetzel County

Royalty & Production Figures from WV Northern Panhandle

June 4, 2012June 4, 2012

An excellent article in Sunday’s The Intelligencer/Wheeling News-Register takes a look at production numbers for a sampling of natural gas and oil wells in the northern panhandle of West Virginia. Chock full of numbers, some of the gems include:

Antero Resources | Energy Companies

Antero Sells Assets in Arkoma Basin, Expands Utica/Marcellus

June 4, 2012June 4, 2012

Antero Resources is selling off natural assets in both the Woodford Shale and Fayetteville Shale to Vanguard Natural Resources for $445 million in cash. Antero plans to use the money to grow it’s operations in the Marcellus and Utica Shale region.

MarkWest/EMG Finalize Deal with Gulfport Energy in OH Utica

June 4, 2012June 4, 2012

MarkWest’s joint venture with EMG, called MarkWest Utica, has finalized their deal with Gulfport Energy to provide midstream infrastructure services (pipelines and gas processing) in Harrison, Guernsey and Belmont counties in Ohio. The deal was initially announced in early March (see this MDN story). No word on the price tag for the deal.

About MDN | Calendar

Calendar of Events for Jun 4-17, 2012 [Free Access]

June 4, 2012June 4, 2012

Below are upcoming events for this week and next. Read More “Calendar of Events for Jun 4-17, 2012 [Free Access]”

Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Mon, Jun 4, 2012

June 4, 2012June 4, 2012

The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading:

Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Ohio | Stark County | Statewide OH

Chesapeake’s Ohio Utica Drilling Program: Full Speed Ahead

June 1, 2012June 1, 2012

full speed ahead An update on Chesapeake Energy’s Ohio drilling program: They just received approval for two more Utica Shale horizontal wells at sites in eastern Stark County, brining their total to 10 permits for Stark.

Chesapeake has drilled four of the 10 permitted wells in Stark, although none are yet in production.

BP’s Big Plans for Ohio Utica Shale

June 1, 2012June 1, 2012

BP, which signed a leases with some 2,000 landowners representing 85,000 acres in Trumbull County (worth $331 million) just a few months ago, will start drilling early in 2013. But in the meantime, they want to sign up even more acreage in Ohio:

Carroll County | Energy Services | Ohio | Select Energy Services

Select Energy Reneges on Deal with Carroll County, OH

June 1, 2012June 1, 2012

Select Energy Services provides water solutions and wellsite services in every major shale play in the U.S. With $1 billion in revenues and some 5,000 employees, Select Energy is a major player in both the Marcellus and Utica Shale. They also just jilted Carroll County, Ohio.

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

Horseheads, NY Still Considering a Ban on Fracking

June 1, 2012June 1, 2012

As MDN previously reported, the Town of Horseheads (NY) continues to flirt with the idea of enacting a fracking ban (see this MDN story). What makes Horseheads different from the other 90 or so towns that have enacted bans in New York different is that it’s located in prime Marcellus and Utica Shale development territory—in Chemung County, just across the border from the super-hot drilling area of Bradford County, PA. If Horseheads does ban fracking, it would be the second such municipality in the Marcellus “zone” to do so, after the City of Binghamton in nearby Broome County.

Town Supervisor Michael Edwards floated the idea of a fracking ban at a recent Town Board meeting—and he’s still pursuing it:

Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Cornell Prof Testifies Before Congress on Evils of Fracking

June 1, 2012June 1, 2012

Cornell professors Robert Howarth and Tony Ingraffea have made a cottage industry (and have become minor celebrities) of bashing shale gas drilling. The two of them collaborated on a now discredited article in a so-called “peer reviewed” journal that claimed, fantastically, that burning coal is actually better for the environment than burning natural gas (see this MDN story). Yeah, if they didn’t have “Cornell” next to their names, Howarth and Ingraffea would be laughed out of the room.

Such are the mental gymnastics those who hate all fossil fuels will perform in order to do anything to slow down shale gas drilling. They pedal junk science and try to dress it up. You know the old saw about putting lipstick on a pig…

Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

Senate Bill Would Empower States (Alone) to Regulate Fracking

June 1, 2012June 1, 2012

Recognizing the federal government’s voracious appetite to usurp and seize control of rights that Constitutionally belong to the states—and in an effort to curb those tendencies in the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Interior, and Department of Energy—Senator Jim Inhofe (R-OK) introduced new legislation on March 28th that will ensure oversight of hydraulic fracturing is done by the states and not the federal government.

Madison County | New York

Local Groups Discuss Gas Drilling in Madison County, NY

June 1, 2012June 1, 2012

Citizens for Safe Energy of Madison County (NY) and The Madison County Natural Gas Development Working Group held a joint public information session on Wednesday evening to reveal findings of the Working Group’s research. One of the loud and clear messages of the evening was this advice for landowners who are contemplating leasing their land for drilling: get a lawyer first.

Working Group Chairman and Town of Nelson Supervisor Roger Bradstreet explained the geology of Madison County. The Marcellus is too shallow—too near the surface in Madison to be commercially viable—at least in most of the county. However, the Utica Shale is a viable layer to drill in the county. He also had this to say about current drilling and leasing activity in the county:

Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies

Moody’s Warns Chesapeake Must Sell $7B in Assets This Year

June 1, 2012June 1, 2012

The venerable U.S. credit rating service Moody’s Investor Service said yesterday that Chesapeake will need to sell a minimum of $7 billion in assets this year in order to avoid a credit rating downgrade by their service—and even $7 billion may not be enough.

Moody’s current credit rating for Chesapeake is Ba2, which is considered “speculative grade” (not investment grade) and “judged to have speculative elements and a significant credit risk.” The lower a company’s credit rating goes, the harder (and more expensive) it is to borrow money.