Marcellus Drilling News

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

NY Fracking Advisory Panel Work Grinds to Halt
February 6, 2012February 6, 2012

As part of the process to enact new drilling regulations in New York State, Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Joe Martens appointed a Hydraulic Fracturing Advisory Panel last July to make recommendations to the DEC on how to oversee, monitor and enforce new shale drilling regulations in the state (see this MDN story for background). An important part of the panel’s duty is to craft a new fee structure to generate state revenue from a potential gas-drilling boom. But the work of the panel has now ground to halt.

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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Taxation

New Deal on Marcellus Shale Well Impact Fee in PA
February 6, 2012February 6, 2012

Pennsylvania legislators in both the PA House and Senate have debated for months on passage of new Marcellus drilling legislation. The main sticking point has been a local impact fee. Last week, Gov. Tom Corbett, a Republican now in his second year in office, sent the Republican-controlled legislature a “hurry up and get it done” letter. Legislators were busy finalizing details over the weekend and a plan has now emerged. Likely to be voted on this week, the plan calls for the amount of the fee to vary depending on the rate of inflation and the commodity price of natural gas.

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Broome County | New York

Binghamton Mayor Ryan Working Hard on City’s Top Priority
February 6, 2012February 6, 2012

Binghamton, NY’s anti-drilling mayor, Matt Ryan, is hard at work on the city’s top priority. There’s the mundane “usual stuff” a mayor does. You know, trying to attract new business to the area, generate jobs, lower taxes, ensure the city attracts more welfare recipients…all of the things you would expect from a hard-working mayor like Matt. But then there’s the “top priority” really really important stuff that takes up the majority of this great man’s time. Like organizing anti-fracking concerts featuring singers you’ve never heard of. Yessiree, that’s good ole Matt hard at work, doing the people’s business:

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Industrywide Issues | Lackawanna County | Landfills | Pennsylvania

Scranton Landfill Applies for Permit to Mill Marcellus Cuttings
February 6, 2012February 6, 2012

For years, the Keystone Sanitary Landfill, a privately owned and operated municipal solid waste landfill located in Dunmore, PA (a Scranton suburb) has accepted already-processed cuttings, or rock waste, from Marcellus Shale drillers. The landfill filed a permit application in December with the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) that would allow it to accept unprocessed cuttings—cuttings in a non-solid form—and mix it with a lime-based material to solidify it. The process of mixing it is called milling.

The landfill uses milled cuttings as a soil replacement to cover the landfill at the end of each day.

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Carrizo Oil & Gas | Energy Companies | Rockingham County | Virginia

Virginia Community Tells Carrizo to Go Drill Somewhere Else
February 6, 2012February 6, 2012

Unfortunately, it looks like Virginia is joining Maryland in hanging out the “do not drill here” sign for Marcellus Shale gas drillers.

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Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Mon, Feb 6, 2012
February 6, 2012February 6, 2012

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

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About MDN | MDN Weekly Update

MDN Weekly Update – Feb 5, 2012: Josh Fox – Truth-teller or Propagandist?
February 5, 2012February 5, 2012

Last week’s MDN poll asked whether or not you believe that President Obama is now genuinely a supporter of hydraulic fracturing and shale gas drilling. Seems there are quite a few skeptics in the MDN audience. Here are the results:

Concerning President Obama’s statements supporting fracking & shale gas drilling, is he:

Genuine/Now in Favor (20%, 53 Votes)
Fake/Election Year Stunt (70%, 187 Votes)
I’m Not Sure (10%, 26 Votes)

Total Voters: 266

This Week’s Poll: Is Gasland a truthful documentary, or propaganda?

This past week, the U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee on Science, Space and Technology held a hearing on hydraulic fracturing. Specifically, the Republicans on the committee wanted to challenge the out-of-control Obama Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and their attempt, via questionable research, to tie fracking to chemical contamination of well water in Pavillion, Wyoming.

There was plenty of press on hand to cover the hearing. Josh Fox, the filmmaker who created the “documentary” Gasland was there too. No doubt Josh needs some new footage for Gasland Deux. But it seems Josh didn’t have the proper press credentials, so the camera crew working for him, which was properly credentialed, was not allowed to film the proceedings. And Mr. Fox, refusing to leave, was arrested and escorted from the room (see this MDN story). Democrats were “outraged” and tried to pass a resolution letting him stay, and when that didn’t work, pass a resolution suspending the hearing for an entire week to allow Mr. Fox time to do what he should have done in the first place, get the proper credentials.

After the side show with Josh Fox was over, the Republicans got down to business and questioned EPA Regional Administrator James Martin who did some serious backpedalling on the topic of fracking (see this MDN story).

Josh Fox’s arrest may seem like so much hullabaloo, but his arrest is headline-worthy because of his documentary, Gasland. Wait, what? You haven’t watched it? Perhaps now is a good time! I’ve watched it, and I have to say, for all my criticism of Josh Fox, he is a talented filmmaker. The film is very slick, very polished. I won’t run a full critique here and now—I’ll do that in the future. What I would like to know for this week’s poll is whether or not you’ve actually watched the film, and if you have, what do you think? Do you consider it to be mostly trustworthy and accurate, or hogwash? Register your vote in this week’s poll along the right side of any page.

Below are the most recent “top 5” lists and the calendar of Marcellus-related events for the next two weeks.

Go Giants!
Jim Willis, Editor

P.S. Watch for more details on the new MDN permits report this week.

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Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | Shell | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Waiting Game: Cracker Plants Talk to Property Owners
February 3, 2012February 3, 2012

West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio are all in the hunt to land an ethane cracker plant in their respective states (see the long list of MDN stories on a potential cracker plant in the Marcellus/Utica Shale region). According to WV Commerce Secretary Keith Burdette, Shell and another unnamed company are now in talks with private property owners. That is, the deals are now being negotiated, and it’s a waiting game to see the outcome.

All three states have offered huge tax incentives to land the plant. Shell originally set January for an announcement, but changed it a few weeks ago to be February.

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Economic Impact | Energy Services | Harrison County | Industrywide Issues | MarkWest Energy | Monroe County | Ohio | Processing Plants

More on MarkWest’s New Investment in Ohio’s Utica Shale
February 3, 2012February 3, 2012

Yesterday, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and others provided more details about MarkWest’s Tuesday announcement that they will build two new natural gas liquids (NGL) processing plants and a new fractionation plant in Ohio’s Utica Shale (see MDN’s story on the original announcement here).

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Energy Companies | Seneca Resources

Seneca Resources Marcellus Well Output up 91.5% in Q1 2012
February 3, 2012February 3, 2012

Seneca Resources, the exploration and production division of National Fuel Gas Company, just reported their first quarter earnings for 2012. As part of the report, we get the following operational update which shows a 91.5 percent increase in production in Seneca’s Marcellus Shale wells.

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Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | New York | Pennsylvania | Steuben County | Tioga County (PA)

RailAmerica Buys Wellsboro & Corning Short Line Railroad
February 3, 2012February 3, 2012

One of the interesting but often-overlooked stories of the rapid growth of Marcellus and Utica Shale drilling is the revival of short line railroads. As drillers enter an area, equipment and materials need to be shipped to that area. Sand, especially, is used in large quantities, and short lines are the most economical way of getting sand to an active drilling area.

One of the short line railroads to came roaring back to life not so long ago is the Wellsboro and Corning Railroad (WCOR), running from Wellsboro in northeastern PA to just across the border connecting to Corning, NY.

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Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Fri, Feb 3, 2012
February 3, 2012February 3, 2012

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

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Gasland Creator Josh Fox Arrested at House Hearing
February 2, 2012February 2, 2012

Funny how those who oppose drilling want there to be plenty of rules (i.e. regulations) that would govern every aspect of drilling, but when it comes to following rules themselves, they don’t want to. Witness the arrest yesterday of Josh Fox, so-called documentary film maker and creator of the anti-fracking propaganda film Gasland when he tried to film a House Science, Space and Technology subcommittee hearing without proper credentials:

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Accidents | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

EPA Backpedals on Pavillion Fracking Contamination
February 2, 2012February 2, 2012

In a U.S. House subcommittee hearing yesterday, EPA Regional Administrator James Martin backed off EPA’s previous stance that fracking causes groundwater contamination—at least not anywhere outside of Pavillion, Wyoming. You may recall the hubbub when the EPA released a preliminary report in December that “theorized” hydraulic fracturing in the Pavillion, WY area “may have” caused chemical contamination of “some” water wells in the Pavillion area (see this MDN story).

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Commodity Price | Industrywide Issues

Predicting the Price (and Production) of Natural Gas
February 2, 2012February 2, 2012

According to David Sterman, a 20-year investment analyst writing on the Seeking Alpha website, the commodity price for natural gas has likely bottomed out in the U.S. and will now slowly rebound. Natural gas is currently trading around $2.45 per thousand cubic feet (mcf). Goldman Sachs believes by the end of this year prices should be around $3.75 mcf, moving to $4.25 in 2013, and $5.50 in 2014.

How does the commodity price of natural gas affect landowners? It costs drillers roughly $2.30 mcf to drill, pipeline and sell natural gas, so if prices hit that level, production stops. As the price falls into the sub $3.00 range, drillers slow production, stop production, or shift production from dry gas (methane-only) areas to more lucrative wet gas (natural gas liquids) areas.

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Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Range Resources Corp

Flaring of Gas Wells – Still Used, But Not as Much Anymore
February 2, 2012February 2, 2012

In areas where there is active drilling, like northeast and southwest Pennsylvania, near the end of completing a gas well is a process called flaring—when some of the gas and other impurities are burned off. Sometimes flaring a well, which results in a large flame coming out of the well, can be seen up to 10 miles away, which catches neighbors by surprise. Tony Gaudlip from Range Resources explains the flaring process, and why it’s not used as much as it once was.

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