Sunoco is getting out of the refinery business by July of next year and is instead looking to expand its investment in midstream businesses, including pipelines, terminals and storage, in addition to its retail outlets. Sunoco is particularly interested in opportunities in the Marcellus and Utica Shales.
Read More “Sunoco Looking to Invest in Marcellus & Utica Midstream”
Residents of Charleston, WV want large energy companies looking to locate an ethane cracker plant in the Marcellus region to know that residents of Charleston want it and welcome it with open arms. An online letter-writing campaign has been launched to show community support for the project, which is estimated to bring more than 12,000 new jobs and some $7 billion in economic activity to the region where it’s built.
Read More “Charleston WV Shows Community Support for Cracker Plant”
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: Friday, Nov 4, 2011”
The top oil and gas regulator in West Virginia said at a conference on Wednesday that he has not seen any confirmed cases of groundwater contamination from fracking in West Virginia.
Read More “WV Official: No Cases of Water Contamination from Fracking”
Pennsylvania lawmakers are getting close to passage of legislation that would adopt many of the recommendations from Gov. Tom Corbett’s Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission, including an impact fee on wells and including a measure that would supersede some local drilling ordinances.
Read More “PA Lawmakers Close to Passing New Drilling Rules, Impact Fee”
Mercyhurst College recently completed a statewide poll in Pennsylvania covering several issues, one of which is Marcellus Shale drilling in the state. A copy of the full questions and responses is embedded below. On the straightforward question, “Do you favor or oppose extracting natural gas through fracking in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus shale region?” the results were: Favor 55%; Oppose 27%; Depends 9%; Don’t Know 9%. A very clear and convincing majority of Pennsylvanians support fracking.
From the Mercyhurst press announcement summarizing the results:
Read More “Mercyhurst Poll: Majority of PA Residents Support Fracking”
Enterprise Products Partners L.P. is planning to build a major new pipeline to transport ethane from the Marcellus and Utica Shale regions in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio to the U.S. Gulf Coast.
The second largest component (by volume) to come out of the ground in shale gas drilling is the chemical ethane. Somewhere between one and six percent of natural gas coming from the ground is ethane, which can be converted to the hydrocarbon ethylene. Ethylene is the “feedstock” (or raw material) used to make most plastics, including polyethylene and PVC. Enterprise wants to provide a way for ethane to reach the ethylene processing plants along the Gulf Coast.
Read More “Enterprise Wants to Build Ethane Pipeline to Gulf Coast”
Rather than pay legal fees to defend their legislation, the supervisors in Benton Township (Lackawanna County), PA voted Wednesday to change the language of their legislation restricting the drilling of an exploratory well by Southwestern Energy. The supervisors voted to grant Southwestern the right to drill the exploratory well back in June, but slapped 18 specific (and costly) conditions on the project, making it unfeasible according to Southwestern who challenged 11 of the 18 conditions. The supervisors changed 9 of those 11 yesterday.
Read More “Benton Twp Supervisors Back Down on Exploratory Well”
Edmond Seifried is professor emeritus of economics at Lafayette College in Easton, PA. He says that fiscal and monetary policy used by the Federal Reserve has not and will not work. He says that natural gas is not just the best, but the only way for the U.S. to recover from the current economic malaise.
Seifried points out the obvious: The less money we spend on foreign oil and invest in our own energy sources (in particular natural gas), the more the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will increase, meaning more jobs here at home, and more money that stays here in our country.
Read More “PA Economist Says Shale Gas Only Way to Economic Recovery”
The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is asking for public comments on a draft permit that controls air emission standards for shale gas drilling. The new standards do not affect the actual drilling and fracking activities because those are regulated by federal rules. The Ohio permit would regulate emissions from generators, dehydration systems and other “peripheral” activities that go on in the drilling process. A copy of the draft permit can be downloaded here.
From the Ohio EPA press release about the new air permit:
Read More “Ohio EPA Seeks Public Comment on New Air Permit for 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: Thursday, Nov 3, 2011”
Rex Energy has just completed drilling and fracking its first horizontal Utica Shale well in western Pennsylvania and plans to bring it online once a gathering pipeline to the well is completed in January.
Read More “Rex Energy Completes its First Utica Well in Western PA”
A roundtable discussion at Lakeland Community College in Kirtland, OH brings us this update about Utica Shale drilling in Ohio:
Read More “Chesapeake Energy Seeks OH Refiner for Oil from Utica Shale”
In July, New York Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Joe Martens announced the formation of a Hydraulic Fracturing Advisory Panel to make recommendations to the DEC on how to oversee, monitor and enforce new shale drilling regulations in the state (see this MDN story). The initial panel of 13 members was heavily tilted to anti-drillers, with a few pro-drillers thrown on to make it look good. In August, Martens appointed an additional five members (all pro-drilling) to the panel, to provide balance and give landowners a voice. Those new members include:
Read More “NY Hydraulic Fracturing Advisory Panel Member Speaks Out”
Jack Kelly had an excellent column in Sunday’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. It starts out with a brief history of the discovery of oil in the U.S. and moves to shale gas and points out that shale gas is an even bigger game changer than oil was. Did you know that natural gas is now the cheapest way of generating electricity?! Renewable sources like wind cost 1.5 times more, and solar costs 3.3 times more to produce the same megawatt of electricity as natural gas.
Among Jack’s observations:
Read More “Natural Gas Now Least Expensive Way to Generate Electricity”
It seems more and more that anti-drillers who need bodies for protests are turning to the Occupy malcontents, who seem to be willing to protest anything, especially things they don’t understand. That is, if you can get them out of bed…
Read More “Occupy Pittsburgh Protests Marcellus Shale…All 12 of Them”