Marcellus Drilling News

Alternative Energy | Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues

Solar Panels Can’t Compete with Cheap Shale Gas
January 5, 2012January 5, 2012

An article published today by NPR (no less) exposes the simple truth about solar energy: It just can’t compete with shale gas economically.

The article recounts the experience of a Pennsylvania family who installed 21 solar panels with government subsidies (that is, the government sliding their sticky fingers into your pockets to help pay for it). The end result? Even with taxpayer subsidies, the payback period for solar energy is 17 years—the lifetime of the system. At best it’s break-even, but in reality, it actually costs you more money than other forms of energy.

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Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County

Cabot is S&P 500’s Top Performer for 2011, Production Up 154%
January 5, 2012January 5, 2012

Cabot Oil & Gas finished 2011 as the S&P 500 top performer. The energy company’s stock value increased by a whopping 101% in 2011, despite falling natural gas prices. Cabot increased their dividend to shareholders by 33 percent and the company has declared a two-for-one stock split to be distributed later this month.

Cabot more than doubled natural gas production in the Marcellus Shale last year, largely due to their exceptionally productive wells in northeastern Pennsylvania, including Dimock, PA in Susquehanna County. Yesterday, Cabot released new numbers for just how productive their wells have become, passing the 600 million cubic feet (Mmcf) per day mark in combined output:

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Accidents | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Talisman Energy | Tioga County (PA)

Talisman Fined for Drilling Accident from January 2011
January 5, 2012January 5, 2012

Nearly a year after an accident which happened during hydraulic fracturing of a gas well in Tioga County, PA, the State Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has fined Talisman Energy $51,478. From a DEP press release issued yesterday:

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Delaware County (PA) | Economic Impact | Energy Services | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Pennsylvania | Preferred Sands

Philly Frack Sand Company Expands, Buys WI Company
January 5, 2012January 5, 2012

Preferred Sands, a privately-held company headquartered in the Philadelphia suburb of Radnor, PA, has just bought out another sand company—Winn Bay Sand, located in Blair, Wisconsin—for $200 million. Preferred Sands is a frack sand and proppant company launched in 2007. It’s the largest frack sand producer in Canada, and one of the top three in the U.S.

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Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Thu, Jan 5, 2012
January 5, 2012

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

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Industrywide Issues | Pipelines

Teamsters Marcellus Pipeline Workers Walk Out on Strike
January 4, 2012January 4, 2012

Some 200 hundred Teamsters union members working on Marcellus Shale gas pipeline construction have walked out on strike in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, and the strike could grow to more than 700 workers in the near future, according to a Teamsters press release (see below).

At issue is a contract up for renewal with the Pipe Line Contractors Association (PLCA). The PLCA wants to let workers provide for their retirement benefits using 401(k) plans instead of a traditional defined-benefit pension plan. A 401(k) provides for individual investments in stocks or mutual funds, and the Teamsters say that Wall Street investments are too risky for their members.

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Devon Energy | Energy Companies | Sinopec | Utica Shale

China Makes $2.2B Investment in U.S. Shale, Including Utica
January 4, 2012January 4, 2012

The Chinese government, through state-controlled Sinopec, yesterday signed a deal with Devon Energy to buy into five prospective new exploration areas in the U.S. One of those areas is the Ohio Utica Shale, where Devon has increased it’s position to 235,000 net acres. With a $2.2 billion cash infusion coming from Sinopec, Devon will have the money to develop all five plays, including the Utica.

From the Devon press release:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA | Taxation

Will New PA Drilling Law/Impact Fee Pass in 2012?
January 4, 2012January 4, 2012

Although the Pennsylvania House, Senate and governorship are all controlled by Republicans (for the first time in many years), they have not yet agreed on new legislation that puts stricter environmental controls in place over shale gas drilling in the state. The pending legislation, introduced last year after Gov. Tom Corbett appointed an advisory commission to propose new regulations, also includes an impact fee assessed on each new well drilled.

PA Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati believes all parties to the discussion are very close to agreement and hopes the legislation will be passed by early February, before it can get bogged down in election-year politicking.

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Energy Services | Enterprise Products Partners | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Utica Shale

New Ethane Pipeline from Marcellus/Utica to TX Now Official
January 4, 2012January 4, 2012

In October 2011, Enterprise Products Partners announced they were considering building a 1,230 mile pipeline to transport ethane from the Marcellus and Utica Shale regions in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio to the U.S. Gulf Coast (see this MDN story). Shortly after the announcement, Chesapeake Energy signed on to be the first customer for the new pipeline, if it’s built (see this MDN story).

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Energy Companies | Williams Production | WPX Energy

Williams Gives Birth to WPX Energy
January 4, 2012January 4, 2012

In February of last year, Williams, one of the 10 largest natural gas producers in the U.S., announced that it would split the company and spin out the exploration & production (E&P) business into a new company (see this MDN story). True to their word, the split is now complete, and yesterday WPX Energy, the new company formed to take on the E&P division, began trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

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Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Wed, Jan 4, 2012
January 4, 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, Jan 4, 2012”
Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Total | Utica Shale

Chesapeake’s Utica Shale Mystery JV Partner Revealed
January 3, 2012January 3, 2012

In early November, Chesapeake Energy announced a major cash infusion into their Utica Shale exploration and production would come from a new joint venture with a mystery/unnamed “international major energy company” to the tune of $2.14 billion (see this MDN story). The amount turned out to be even higher: $2.32 billion, and we now know who the mystery company is: Total E&P USA, Inc., a subsidiary of Total S.A.

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About MDN | MDN Sponsor

Video: ShaleNavigator in Action
January 3, 2012January 3, 2012

MDN welcomes a new sponsor, ShaleNavigator. MDN editor Jim Willis recently interviewed Ed Camp, creator of ShaleNavigator, about his new online service. Watch and listen to the interview below as Ed walks us through his service with examples of how to use it, and why to use it. ShaleNavigator is perfect for landowners, drilling companies, law firms, businesses and others who need to know how and where shale gas drilling is happening.

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Accidents | Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County

EPA Says Gaps Exist in Dimock, PA Water Tests
January 3, 2012January 3, 2012

The federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is once again stirring up trouble in Dimock, PA by “reopening” a review of Dimock Township water supplies after recent tests from a private testing service hired by Cabot Oil & Gas turned up “gaps” in the data that the EPA wants to explore. This is less than a month after the EPA sent a letter to residents, on Dec. 2, telling them the same test results showed well water in the area “does not present an immediate health threat to users” (see this MDN story for a copy of the letter).

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

Anti-Frackers in NY Target Cuomo with Home Rule Legislation
January 3, 2012January 3, 2012

In the ongoing struggle to start gas drilling in New York State, those who oppose it, including State Senator James Seward of Oneonta (a RINO), are trying a new tactic. That new tactic is to take the fight local, in town by town, by using “home rule” laws. But they have a hurdle to jump first: New York State law currently does not permit local municipalities to regulate oil and gas drilling.

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Earthquakes | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Mahoning County | Ohio | Trumbull County | Wastewater

Youngstown Earthquake Update
January 3, 2012January 3, 2012

John Armbruster, a seismologist from Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, NY is one of the researchers investigating a string of 11 earthquakes near Youngstown, OH, the most recent of which occurred on New Year’s Eve in the afternoon. Armbruster says a local injection well, which injects wastewater from shale gas drilling under high pressure deep into the ground, is “almost certainly” the cause of the earthquakes.

As MDN pointed out yesterday, injection wells are not fracked gas wells (see this MDN story). But some politicians keep trying to tie the two together. A spokesman for Ohio Gov. John Kasich, Rob Nichols, does a great job in pointing out the difference:

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