States, Industry Attorneys Reaffirm States’ ‘Strong Track Record’ of Stringent Oil & Gas Regulations A federal district court hearing in Denver yesterday put the spotlight back on the question of whether the federal government has the authority to regulate hydraulic fracturing, with attorneys representing several states and industry groups reaffirming the effective role that states…
The benefits of the shale energy revolution continue to be felt far and wide across the United States. Abundant domestic natural gas production has made the commodity more affordable than ever, leading more communities to use it as a source of energy. At this point, even far-flung rural communities are able to invest in natural…
Yesterday the Pennsylvania Senate voted 26-24 to pass a so-called compromise budget bill that adopts a Marcellus-killing severance tax. What’s most distressing about the situation is the betrayal of Senators like Gene Yaw, of northeastern PA. The bill not only raises taxes on drillers, slapping a severance tax on top of the existing impact fee,…
As part of the horrible severance tax bill the Pennsylvania Senate passed yesterday (see today’s companion story), Republican Senators placed into the bill what they hope is “an olive branch” (more like a withered twig) by including reforms to the regulatory process they say the drilling industry has been asking for. Senators included a provision…
Kentucky is an interesting state with respect to the oil and gas industry. Historically there has been a fair amount of conventional (vertical only) drilling for oil and gas in the state. Over the past few years there have been a number of gas and petrochemical projects in the state (see our Kentucky stories here)….
In June, a group of radical “environmental” organizations filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit against the West Virginia Dept. of Environmental Protection–for doing their job (see Radicals File Lawsuit Against WV DEP for Approving MV Pipeline). Sierra Club, West Virginia Rivers Coalition, Indian Creek Watershed Association, Appalachian Voices…
My how times change. Just last October EQT indicated that in the not-too-distant future the company would be primarily a Utica Shale driller (see EQT 3Q16: Company will Soon be Primarily a Utica Driller). The company had experimented with experimented with Utica wells in Greene County, PA and Wetzel County, WV–with good results. Earlier this…
Each month MDN tracks how many rigs oilfield services company Patterson-UTI Energy reports operating–as a proxy for when/if the drop in rig counts for the Marcellus/Utica turns around. Patterson operates a number of rigs in the northeast, as well as other areas of the continental United States (and Canada). Patterson’s rig count kept sinking month…
MDN previously reported about problems experienced in Chester County, PA (suburb of Philadelphia) with underground horizontal directional drilling (HDD) by Sunoco Logistics Partners for its Mariner East 2 Pipeline project (see ME2 Pipe Work in Chester County Creates Water Well Issue for Some). Sunoco accepted the blame for fouling a dozen private water wells in…
In January 2016, MDN told you about a $130 million, 30-mile natural gas pipeline proposed by New Jersey Natural Gas (NJNG) to connect NJNG’s distribution system serving customers in Ocean, Burlington and Monmouth counties (in NJ) and the interstate pipeline system adjacent to the New Jersey Turnpike. The idea came about after Superstorm Sandy. How…
According to one of the top accounting/consulting firms in the world, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), mergers & acquisitions (M&A) activity in the oil and gas sector in the U.S. went from being red hot in 1Q17 ($73.04 billion) to just hot in 2Q17 ($37.01 billion). While some in the financial (and oil/gas community) may view the weaker…
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: Youngstown spent $187K so far on 6 failed anti-fracking ballot measures; PA mystery – where’s the fracking pollution?; outside interest in Wheeling WV picks up, thx to shale; battle rages for Atlantic Coast Pipeline in Virginia; pipeline…
Tom Shepstone Natural Gas NOW … … The Pennsylvania Senate, out of the blue, has decided it ought to dance with Governor Wolf on a severance tax that would punish landowners and help drive one of the Commonwealth’s few success stories elsewhere. The Pennsylvania Senate is apparently run by Republicans with strong suicidal tendencies. They imagine…
K.J. Rodgers Crownsville, Maryland …. …. Renewable energies have been subsidized heavily to be attractive, but by doing so the Energy Return on Energy Invested is lowered. Anyone who has any business acumen will understand the law of ROI (Return on Investment). You need to know if money is well spent and if that opportunity…
Chesapeake Energy Corp. and Anadarko Petroleum Corp. asked a Bradford County judge to alter or throw out the Pennsylvania attorney general’s lawsuit against them. The post Gas companies want Pa. attorney general to toss royalty case appeared first on Shale Gas Reporter. Continue Reading: Shale Gas Reporter