Marcellus Drilling News

Economic Impact | Education | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

The Economic Impact of Marcellus Drilling on PA Schools
April 11, 2012April 11, 2012

Penn State Cooperative Extension and Penn State University researchers continue their research into how the Marcellus Shale gas drilling boom affects the state. Recently they issued findings from a survey of 940 school districts across PA (see this MDN story). Earlier this week, they issued another report in their Marcellus Education Fact Sheet series, titled: “Marcellus Shale Gas Development and Pennsylvania School Districts: What Are the Implications for School Expenditures and Tax Revenues?” (full report embedded below).

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Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Wed, Apr 11, 2012
April 11, 2012April 11, 2012

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, Apr 11, 2012”
Chesapeake Energy | Commodity Price | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues

At What Commodity Price Does NatGas Drilling Stop?
April 10, 2012April 10, 2012

How low might the commodity price of natural gas go before drillers really will quit drilling and wait for the price to go up? We’ll give you “the magic number” in a moment. But first, the (rather sketchy) rationale for how we calculate that number.

It seems almost every day we hear in the mainstream news that the low commodity price of natural gas is forcing drillers to suspend or slow drilling operations—especially in the “dry gas” areas of the Marcellus Shale. Contrary to what “everyone” seems to be doing, Shell, Chevron and others have said they will continue drilling regardless of the low price of natural gas. And more than one analyst has said announcements of drilling cutbacks by Chesapeake and others is so much hot air and that they will believe it when they see it.

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Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies

Chesapeake Asset Sale Raises Another $2.6B
April 10, 2012April 10, 2012

After the trading markets in the U.S. closed yesterday, Chesapeake Energy announced three deals that will convert some of their considerable assets into $2.6 billion of cash to help fund development and cut down on debt. In a climate of continuing low commodity natural gas prices, Chesapeake has adopted a strategy of selling “non-strategic” assets to keep the momentum going.

Yesterday’s announcement included:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

The EPA and Pavillion: Sloppy or Criminal?
April 10, 2012April 10, 2012

An exceptionally well written article about the EPA and their backpedaling on their own tests in Pavillion, Wyoming appears on today’s American Thinker blog. You may recall that the EPA tried to say there is a direct link between chemical contamination of ground water supplies around Pavillion and hydraulic fracturing of gas wells in the area. MDN pointed out early on that even if such a link is eventually made, the geology where those wells were drilled is sandstone (not shale), and the wells are shallow (not deep, like the Marcellus). In other words, the EPA was trying to gin up hysteria by using an apples and oranges comparison (see this MDN story).

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Commodity Price | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Pennsylvania | Statewide NY | Statewide PA | Steuben County

NY Customers See 50% Price Decrease from PA Marcellus Gas
April 10, 2012April 10, 2012

Utility customers of Corning Natural Gas Corp. in New York State’s Finger Lakes region can thank their neighbors south of the border in Pennsylvania that they are now paying 50 percent less for their natural gas than they paid just one year ago. And they can also thank the energy companies who use hydraulic fracturing in the Marcellus Shale.

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Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA Act 13 Lawsuit and its “Supporters”
April 10, 2012April 10, 2012

The Pittsburgh newspapers want us to believe there is a huge surge of support behind a lawsuit recently filed against what is known as Act 13—a new law passed just a few months ago in Pennsylvania that updates Marcellus oil and gas drilling rules in the state. Although the law brought much-needed new regulations to the Commonwealth, it also contained two measures that have particularly irked those who oppose drilling: an impact fee instead of a severance tax, and preemption of local oil and gas zoning ordinances with a “one size fits all” set of ordinances from the state. MDN will not recount the arguments for and against, you can read them by doing a search for “Act 13 lawsuit” in our search box (upper right corner).

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Chief Gathering | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | PVR Partners | Statewide PA

PVR Buys Chief Gathering/Marcellus Pipelines for $1B
April 10, 2012April 10, 2012

Calling it a “transformational transaction” for the company, Penn Virginia Resource Partners (PVR) today announced they are buying Chief Gathering for $1 billion in cash and stock. Chief Gathering is a midstream pipeline company with assets (pipelines) located mostly in northeastern Pennsylvania in the Marcellus Shale. The deal includes existing pipeline agreements with drilling heavyweights like Chesapeake, Anadarko, Statoil, Exxon Mobil and others. PVR CEO William Shea says the new combined pipeline operation for PVR will represent 75 percent of its business by the end of next year (it’s currently 40-45 percent of their business).

From the PVR press release:

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Energy Services | GASFRAC

GASFRAC 1Q12 Revenues/Profits Down 25% from 4Q11
April 10, 2012April 10, 2012

GASFRAC Energy Services, the Canadian company who pioneered and holds a patent on waterless LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) fracking technology, reports that revenues and profits for the first quarter of 2012 were disappointing. GASFRAC, you may recall, will be the vendor of choice when/if the Tioga County Landowners Group, in New York State, starts drilling on their collective 135,000 acres (see this MDN story).

Read More “GASFRAC 1Q12 Revenues/Profits Down 25% from 4Q11”
Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Tue, Apr 10, 2012
April 10, 2012April 10, 2012

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, Apr 10, 2012”
Accidents | Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County

EPA Says Another 20 Dimock Wells Tested are Fine
April 9, 2012April 9, 2012

$fracking is safe - an incovenient truth$ WARNING: This post contains snide and snarky comments. Anti-drillers are encouraged to not read this post. Proceed at your own risk.

Sometimes MDN thinks the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is more of a public relations press release-generating agency rather than an agency to protect the environment. They issue a multitude of press releases—every day. But when they find that another 20 wells in Dimock, PA are fine and have not been (never were) chemically contaminated by hydraulic fracturing, not a single public press release on it. Oh it gets reported, but the EPA slips a short message to the government’s “other” PR agency, the Associated Press. And the good ole AP will warp and spin it in just the right way to please the government overlords.

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Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA Drillers, Industry Groups File to Join Act 13 Lawsuit
April 9, 2012April 9, 2012

The oil and gas industry in Pennsylvania is not sitting on the sidelines idly while a group of municipalities attempts to temporarily halt, and eventually overturn the new Act 13 drilling legislation passed earlier this year. Seven municipalities along with an enviro-leftist group and a doctor are suing the state to stop Act 13 (see this MDN story for background, and this guest post from one of the litigants).

The Pennsylvania Oil and Gas Association and the Marcellus Shale Coalition have filed a petition seeking to join the lawsuit—on the other side, trying to stop the lawsuit by the municipalities.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

Industry Reacts to Interior Sec. Salazar Fracking Statement
April 9, 2012April 9, 2012

Last week, MDN reported the comments made by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar as he toured a drilling “man camp” in the Bakken Shale of North Dakota (see this MDN story). Salazar made the comment that his Interior department is working on new rules for hydraulic fracturing, which seems premature given that the Environmental Protection Agency, another federal agency, is working on a multi-year study of fracking. We now know that the rules Salazar was referring to are for fracking on federal lands that come under the jurisdiction of Bureau of Land Management, an Interior sub-agency. We also now have industry reaction to his statement.

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Education | Industrywide Issues | New York | Statewide NY

SUNY’s First Shale Institute to be Located in…Buffalo?
April 9, 2012April 9, 2012

The State University of New York (SUNY) system with 64 campuses across the state has its first bona fide shale institute, but it’s not located in the hotbed of where shale drilling will happen, when it happens. Drilling will likely be prevalent in what is known as the Southern Tier of New York, counties like Broome, Tioga, Chemung, Steuben, and perhaps northward into Tompkins, Cortland and Chenango, and east to Otsego, and Delaware. That’s likely where you’ll see the first permits and the first wells drilled.

But the first SUNY shale institute will be located at the University of Buffalo. From the UB press release:

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CONSOL Energy | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Wildlife

Drillers, Ecologists Work Together to Protect Wildlife
April 9, 2012April 9, 2012

An interesting article in yesterday’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette explores how drilling firms and wildlife groups are working together to protect endangered species and reviving long-gone habitats for other species. It begins this way:

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Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Mon, Apr 9, 2012
April 9, 2012April 9, 2012

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, Apr 9, 2012”