Marcellus Drilling News

NY DEC Commissioner Signals Drilling May Not Begin in 2012

October 26, 2011October 26, 2011

In what is surely a blow to landowners in New York, the Commissioner of the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), Joe Martens, signaled yesterday that drilling permits may not be issued in 2012 as previously hoped. The delay this time comes from the Hydraulic Fracturing Advisory Panel appointed by Martens and stacked with anti-drilling members who supposedly are there to advise Martens on implementing new regulations to allow shale gas drilling (see this MDN story for background on the panel).

It looks like Martens’ strategy of stacking the panel with anti-drillers has paid off and will now delay shale gas drilling beyond 2012. Martens clearly does not want shale gas drilling to proceed in New York. Will this be the final tipping point before landowners take the state to court to demand their property rights stop being violated?

Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Onondaga County

Syracuse Bans Fracking Inside City Limits

October 26, 2011October 26, 2011

In a purely symbolic gesture, the Syracuse (NY) Common Council yesterday voted to ban the use of hydraulic fracturing inside city limits to drill for natural gas. It’s symbolic because new drilling rules, if ever released in New York, specifically prohibit drilling in the Syracuse watershed area. But politicians like Democrat Kathleen Joy, the driving force for getting the ban adopted, don’t let facts get in the way of political grandstanding.

Centre County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation

Rush Township PA Attempts Drilling Ban with Novel Ordinance

October 26, 2011March 24, 2012

Those opposed to Marcellus Shale gas drilling in Rush Township (Centre County), PA, including a majority of the supervisors in the township, believe they have found a new and novel way to ban drilling that will skirt state law which says only the state has the right to regulate oil and gas drilling. This new way is to introduce an ordinance that prohibits drilling in any location that is a source for public drinking water supplies on the theory that drilling activity near those sources is a threat to the public.

It’s a stretch, but Rush officials are gambling this new ordinance may succeed where an outright ban on drilling would likely be overturned in court. The end result of an outright ban or this new ordinance will be the same: An almost total ban on shale gas drilling in the township, denying landowners their property rights.

Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Monroe County | Pennsylvania

Mt Airy PA City Council Sues DRBC to Prevent Fracking

October 26, 2011October 26, 2011

Mt. Airy City Council voted on Oct. 13 to sue the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) to prevent the Commission from allowing hydraulic fracturing to move forward in Mt. Airy.

Economic Impact | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Huge Shale Find in UK, Marcellus x 10?

October 26, 2011October 26, 2011

An interesting tidbit those of us in the U.S. can only salivate over… There is a shale formation in the U.K. that spreads all the way from North Wales (in the south of England) to near the Scottish border in Cumbria (in the north) and well over into Yorkshire as well. That is, it sits under most of the country. But here’s the unique thing about that shale deposit: A couple of exploratory wells drilled by British Gas found the thickness of the shale layer to be 3,000 feet! That is ginormous. By comparison, the Marcellus Shale layer is an average 300 feet thick. The UK shale layer is 10 times that amount. Meaning it holds perhaps 10 times the amount of shale gas as an equivalent section of the Marcellus.

Energy Companies | Pennsylvania | Range Resources Corp | Statewide PA

Range Completes 56 New PA Marcellus Wells in Q311

October 26, 2011October 26, 2011

Range Resources, one of the largest drillers in the Marcellus Shale, reports in its third quarter operations update that the company is on track to produce 400 million cubic feet of shale gas per day from its Marcellus Shale gas wells. During the third quarter, Range drilled 56 new wells in the Marcellus region of PA with a total of 229 producing wells across the state, most of them in the southwest part of the state.

From the Range quarterly operations update:

Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Wednesday, Oct 26, 2011

October 26, 2011

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

Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

Citizens Marcellus Shale Commission Issues Recommendations

October 25, 2011October 25, 2011

$no fracking$ As mentioned yesterday by MDN, the self-appointed Citizens Marcellus Shale Commission—a group made up of liberal and left-leaning environmental and labor groups including the Sierra Club of PA, Penn Environment, Keystone Progress, Clean Water Action and the League of Women Voters—has released a list of recommendations for regulating shale gas drilling in the state. A copy of the 89-page report is embedded below.

Morgantown Gas Wells Fracked, No Air Pollution

October 25, 2011October 25, 2011

MDN has chronicled the attempt by Morgantown, WV to ban drilling up to one mile outside of the city line—a saga that spanned many months. In the end, a judge struck down the ban and two wells were drilled and fracked. The main concern was that fracking might somehow contaminate the city’s water supply, which comes from the nearby Monongahela River (something that did not happen). But another concern was that the fracking process might cause air pollution that would affect a nearby elementary school. It seems that fear was also unfounded:

CONSOL Completes Joint Venture with Hess for Ohio Utica Shale

October 25, 2011October 25, 2011

A second joint venture that CONSOL has announced in recent months has just been completed. Yesterday, CONSOL received an initial $60 million of a total $594 million from Hess to develop 200,000 Utica Shale acres in Ohio. Previously, CONSOL entered another joint venture with Noble Energy for $3.4 billion to develop 663,350 acres in western Pennsylvania and West Virginia (see this MDN story). Why all the joint ventures? Money! CONSOL needs cash to develop its Marcellus and Utica Shale acreage, and in order to get the cash, they have cut (so far) two deals, granting their partners a 50 percent interest in each case.

Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Monongalia County | West Virginia

Drilling Heats Up in Monongalia County, WV

October 25, 2011October 25, 2011

Shale gas drilling in Monongalia County, WV is heating up with two new well permits requested and more on the way:

Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

PA Report Recommends Gas Drilling Near Colleges & Prisons

October 25, 2011October 25, 2011

Last week a PA joint legislative committee issued a report recommended that the state consider leasing land around state universities and state prisons for shale gas drilling:

Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Tuesday, Oct 25, 2011

October 25, 2011

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

Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

New PA Study: No Link Between Fracking & Water Contamination

October 24, 2011October 24, 2011

broken link The Center for Rural Pennsylvania is a bipartisan legislative agency serving as a resource and research arm for rural policy in the Pennsylvania Assembly and Senate. The Center has just released the results of a study conducted in 2010 and 2011 analyzing the impacts of Marcellus Shale gas drilling on rural drinking water supplies. This was an unbiased, large scale study of water quality in 233 private water wells in rural Pennsylvania before and after the drilling of nearby Marcellus Shale gas wells. The study results are embedded below.

The study found that dissolved methane exists in about 20 percent of private water wells—before drilling begins. In the executive summary, the study concludes:

Energy Companies | New York | Norse Energy | Statewide NY

Norse Energy Fire Sale of 130K Acres in NY

October 24, 2011October 24, 2011

Norse Energy’s big gamble that New York would allow shale gas drilling sooner than now has not paid off and they are throwing in the towel, attempting to find a buyer for their 130,000-acre leasehold in the state.

Carroll County | Lease & Royalty Payments | Ohio | Utica Shale

Companies Offer to Buy Royalty Rights from Ohio Landowners

October 24, 2011October 24, 2011

Carroll County, Ohio is in the midst of a shale gas whirlwind. Signing bonus offers are being made to landowners in the $3,000-$5,000 range. But that’s not all. For landowners who previously signed, several years ago, some companies are offering to purchase royalty rights from landowners, even for wells that are not drilled and may never be drilled. Here’s the story from one such landowner: