EQT has received federal approval to construct a new natural gas pipeline that will reach from West Virginia into Pennsylvania, and will begin construction immediately:
Read More “EQT Starts Construction on New Pipeline in WV/PA”
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, Sep 22, 2011”
Early today, Norse Energy, a Norwegian company with gas drilling operations in New York State, issued an interesting press release about laying off half of their employees (see the full release below). Norse holds some 180,000 net acres of natural gas leases in New York, of which 130,000 are in the Marcellus and Utica Shale zones.
Until recently, Norse was using conventional vertical methods of drilling for natural gas in Upstate New York counties like Chenango and Madison. But Norse announced in early August that they are “betting the farm” that New York will adopt new regulations to allow shale gas drilling, and so they have focused the company on that prize. So much so they have filed the very first permits to drill in the Utica Shale in New York and have ceased all other kinds of gas drilling until it happens (see this MDN story).
Arguing that existing federal and state regulations are sufficient, a diverse group of organizations sent a letter to President Obama yesterday asking him to not impose new regulations on hydraulic fracturing and instead to support it. The 119 organizations signing the letter included bankers, bowlers, grocers, the energy industry and many others. The full text of the letter and the groups signing is embedded below.
A conservation official in Pike County, PA is “fed up” with the Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company and their project to expand their 300 Line pipeline by adding seven looping segments in Pennsylvania and New Jersey totaling 127 miles of 30-inch pipeline. Pike County Conservation District Executive Director Susan Beecher is asking the state DEP to assess a fine sooner rather than later, to send a message and encourage Tennessee to tighten up its operations.
Read More “Tennessee Pipeline Construction Racks up 45 Violations in 3 Months”
Aqua America Inc. and Penn Virginia Resource Partners (PVR) announced they have formed a joint venture, Aqua – PVR Water Services, to construct and operate a private pipeline system to supply fresh water to natural gas producers drilling in the Marcellus Shale in north-central Pennsylvania. The 12-inch diameter steel pipeline will largely parallel the trunkline of PVR’s gathering system in Lycoming County and will share PVR’s existing rights-of-way.
Read More “New Water Pipeline Coming for Drillers in Northeast PA”
Dave McCurdy is president and CEO of the American Gas Association. He’s also a former congressman (Democrat) from Oklahoma. In an interview with the Washington Times, he minces no words and says what MDN has been saying all along: Those opposed to shale gas drilling are motivated by an ideology, a preference for renewable energy. McCurdy points out what they really fear is that renewables can’t compete with natural gas based on economics. So that ideology and fear leads them to oppose natural gas.
Yet more evidence of the importance, and the interconnectedness, of the shale gas industry and the plastics industry in the U.S. comes from none other than the American Chemistry Council. The ACC says that shale gas,
…will yield so much ethylene — the basic building block of plastics — that the United States will become the world’s lowest-cost source of feedstock in the world outside of the Persian Gulf.(1)
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, Sep 21, 2011”
Chevron is the latest large energy company to purchase leases in the Ohio Valley for shale gas drilling. Recently, Hess paid $1.34 billion to acquire acreage in eastern Ohio, and Exxon Mobil subsidiary XTO Energy is now signing up landowners in Belmont County, OH for Utica Shale drilling (see this MDN story). Just across the border, Chevron is investing in Ohio County, WV and now controls 4,400 acres there.
Read More “Chevron Acquires Leases to 4,400 Acres in Ohio County, WV”
The Pennsylvania Independent Oil and Gas Association has filed a lawsuit against Columbus Township in Warren County, PA challenging an ordinance that prohibits disposal of fracking fluids in the township. The fracking fluid ban was passed after the federal EPA approved permits for two underground injection wells to be operated within the township.
Read More “PA Township Sued to Allow Injection Wells for Fracking Fluids”
Dominion will build a huge, new 1,300-megawatt power plant in Virginia—and it will be powered by Marcellus Shale gas. Final regulatory approval for the plant will come sometime in 2012, and the construction will be completed by 2014. The fact that power generating companies are constructing new power plants that use natural gas as the sole fuel source signals an important shift in the energy picture for the U.S.
Read More “Marcellus is “Game Changer” for New Electric Power Plants”
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is reorganizing, largely in an effort to better handle Marcellus Shale gas drilling in the state. According to DEP Secretary Michael Krancer, the new structure will make it easier to catch and punish the “cheaters.”
Read More “PA DEP Reorganizes to Better Handle Marcellus Drilling”
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, Sep 20, 2011”
A number of landowners from Belmont County, Ohio made the trip to Wheeling, WV last week to sign leases to allow drilling in the Utica Shale on their property. The leases were signed with XTO Energy, now a subsidiary of Exxon Mobil. The price landowners got for Utica leases rivals the highest prices MDN has heard of for any Marcellus Shale lease, in no small part because of Chesapeake Energy’s recent discovery of natural gas liquids and even oil in the Utica Shale in Ohio.
Read More “Belmont County, OH Landowners Sign Utica Shale Leases”
Recently released data on drilling violations from the PA Department of Environmental Protection show that problems continue with the cemented steel casings that are designed to protect groundwater from methane and the fluids used to frack wells. The violations do not mean methane or fluids escaped into local groundwater aquifers—but the potential exists when a well is not cased properly. So far in 2011, 65 wells have been cited for faulty casing and cementing. Out of the many thousands of wells drilled and fracked each year in Pennsylvania, that’s not a bad ratio, but it’s certainly nowhere near acceptable. As DEP Secretary Michael Krancer has said, “One case of methane migration or well contamination is one case too many.” The industry needs to do better.
Read More “65 Marcellus Well Casing Violations in PA So Far in 2011”