The Daily Digger

The Harrison Hub From the Herald Star: The Harrison Hub hosted a "turn the valves" ceremonial opening Monday afternoon, attended by Ohio Gov. John Kasich, state Sen. Lou Gentile, D-Steubenville, various Harrison, Columbiana, and Carroll county elected officials and leaders of Utica East Ohio Buckeye. UEO is a combination of three companies: Access Midstream, M3 Midstream and EV Energy Partners. The Harrison Hub facility is Ohio's first integrated natural gas processing and fractionation complex serving producers operating in the Utica shale region. The plant processes 45,000 barrels per day and also has significant space for storage and a rail transportation system. Fractionation is a process different from fracking, meaning the Harrison Hub serves as a distillery for product that comes from a cryogenic processing plant near Kensington. The crude product can be separated into more valuable products like butane, propane and methane. The Kensington plant processe...

From the Cleveland Plain Dealer: Bridge Industries, LLC  of Chagrin Falls has acquired controlling interest in TransTech Energy, a North Carolina company that builds, installs and services liquefied petroleum gas and natural gas liquids equipment.   Bridge is a 10-year-old holding company.  TransTech  is the third energy-related business it has acquired. Terms were not disclosed.   Jeff Berlin, president of Bridge Industries, said his company would partner with TransTech's management to support TransTech's growth. The company's headquarters will remain in North Carolina. Read the entire article here.  Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog

From The Morning Journal: The scale of the Mahoning Valley's shale boom extended its powerful economic reach into Springfield Township with the dedication of the $150 million Hickory Bend Cryogenic Processing Plant on Monday. Gov. John Kasich assisted officials of Pennant Midstream, a joint venture between NiSource Midstream Services and Harvest Pipeline, with a symbolic ribbon-cutting. Harvest Pipeline is an affiliate of Hilcorp Energy Co. More than 100 people, including state, county and township officials, attended the dedication. The plant separates dry gas from natural liquid gas (NLGs) and is expected to begin shipping the first of its 200 million cubic feet per day capability to the M3 Momentum fractionation plant in Kensington in December. Read the whole article here.  Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog

The latest weekly update on permitting from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources shows that 14 new permits were issued last week for horizontal drilling in the Utica shale. Harrison and Noble counties were the busiest spots last week, with 3 permits issued for each of them.  Carroll, Belmont, and Columbiana counties were the locations of 2 permits each, and Guernsey and Mahoning counties rounded out the report with 1 permit a piece. The new round of permitting brings the total number of horizontal drilling permits to 953.  597 wells have now been drilled, while the number of producing wells remained at 169.  The Utica rig count is 34. Click here to view the report. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog

Forbes:   The Weekly Oil & Gas Follies Susquehanna Independent Weekender:   Fractivist barred from Cabot sites The Intelligencer/Wheeling News-Register:   Valley Grove Home Destroyed by Drilling Mud Columbus Business First:   Bricker & Eckler shale project list finds more than $12.2 billion in projects Washington Examiner:   "Fractivists" caught in flood of Colorado lies Energy in Depth:   Ingraffea's Copy and Paste Op-Ed for the Casper Star-Tribune Columbus Business First:   Consol Energy, Blue Racer join together to build pipelines, processing facilities in Utica shale play Akron Beacon Journal:   EQT drills three Utica shale wells, five more planned in 2013 Bloomberg News:   XTO fined $648,000 for failure to permit federal audit Akron Beacon Journal:   Open season begins Oct. 29 for Bluegrass Pipeline Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog

From the Tribune Chronicle: The company this month applied to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources for permission to convert an old production well on U.S. Route 422 near Templeton Road to a waste disposal well. If approved, the company would operate three injection wells at the property along with several others in Vienna. If the Warren Township well wins approval, Kleese said he expects to add another 10 or 12 labor positions "I was the first Kleese in over four generations to buy two brand new trucks for the business. We have never been able to do that, and I bought them locally," Kleese, company operations manager, said recently. "We are offering health benefits to our employees for their families and their kids. We do everything legitimately and pay a competitive wage. "We had two employees before we started. We have 20 employees now and I just hired two more," he said. Employees Kevin Kot and Marvin Ball were among those hired, or more accurate...

From the Times Leader: Courthouse space was a topic of discussion at Wednesday's Harrison County commissioners' meeting. County Recorder Tracy Boyer brought up the issue, stating that employees from outside companies (namely oil and gas) use the courthouse as a workspace, with tables and chairs set up in the hallways. The commissioners' office had asked one such table of workers to move elsewhere, because they were blocking access to the handicapped elevator. Boyer stated it is one of few courthouses left that even allow outside workers to conduct business in their building, and Commissioner Don Bethel said that it is not the courthouse's responsibility to give outside workers a desk to use. Bethel and Boyer agreed a letter should be written to present to the judge about the issue. Read more in the article by clicking on this link.  Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog

From The Intelligencer/Wheeling News-Register: "They want me to sign a gag order, but I am not going to do it. They should not get away with this," she said. She and attorney Grace Hoffman are still trying to reach an agreement with Global. Putorek believes she owns both the mineral rights and surface rights to the land, as she said several natural gas companies have contacted her about signing a lease. Despite the chance to gain thousands of dollars from signing a deal, Putorek said she is not interested in leasing. She also signed no agreement to allow the company to test on her land. Putorek said she contacted the Belmont County Sheriff's Department, the Ohio attorney general's office, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and local fire department officials to see what could be done when she found the charges Aug. 7. "Nobody knows what to do about it. It does not seem to be under anyone's jurisdiction," she said. Read the entire ar...

by Shawn Bennett, Energy in Depth The Global Letdown – also known as the  Global Frackdown , sponsored by Food and Water Watch – continued yesterday in Ohio with another disappointing turnout.  In a continuation from this weekend’s non-events , the group decided to protest the  Utica Shale Summit 2014  at the Canton Civic Center in downtown Canton. Well, they  tried  to protest it, at least. The Utica Shale Summit 2014, sponsored by the  Canton Area Chamber of Commerce  and the Canton Repository , drew a crowd of roughly 300 attendees who came to learn more about how Utica Shale development is revolutionizing Ohio.  The event hosted speakers focusing on many topics, ranging from how shale development is boosting manufacturing to the potential of compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles. The crowd was excited to learn that Utica and Marcellus development may  produce  about 1.5 million barrels a day of natural-gas liquids and...

From Columbus - Business First: Some startling strong natural gas production numbers from the Marcellus shale play likely will be encouraging news to boosters of the adjoining Utica play in eastern Ohio. A new report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates the Marcellus play will produce 12.65 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day in November. That’s roughly 20 percent more than peak production in 2012 and more than six times higher than in 2009. “Everyone has been a little surprised, even the people who have predicted really high production levels,” said  Sam Gorgen , an analyst at the federal energy agency. “It seems like the wells have gotten a lot better and infrastructure (problems) continue to be dealt with better.” Read that entire article here.  Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog

From the Akron Beacon Journal: Veteran shale observer Jim Willis of the Marcellus Drilling News has more news about Aubrey McClendon and his developing plans in Ohio's Utica shale. Willis reports today that McClendon, the colorful one-time CEO of Chesapeake Energy Corp., has acquired 24,000 acres in Guernsey County. Read the post here.  Here is a copy of the signed lease showing the transfer of leases from Shell to McClendon's company, America Energy - Utica: Lease Transfer Document between SWEPI and American Energy - Utica for Guernsey, OH from Marcellus Drilling News Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog

From The Salem News: Jerry Stoneburner was in the right place at the right time when he bought 95 acres along Esterly Drive at a bankruptcy auction in 2004, Terry McCoy, Columbiana Chamber Director, said. McCoy recognized Stoneburner and his business, Buckeye Transfer Realty, LLC at the Chamber's annual Fall Showcase Thursday evening. Stoneburner is president and CEO of the company near state Route 11 that is a hub for the transportation and storage of sand used in the hydraulic fracturing process. Further: Just last month the company sent out 16 truck loads of frack sand, for a total weight of 72 million pounds, or 32,000 tons. "It's quite an operation," he said. He also said the company can handle growth in the industry and is prepared to store and transport more sand as it comes in, as there is space available at the facility west of town where the former Kaiser Refractory operated.   Read the rest of the story here. Connect with us on Facebook an...

From Energy in Depth: Is science a method toward improved understanding or merely a means toward an activist end? Last month, researchers from the University of Texas – in coordination with the Environmental Defense Fund and participants from industry – released a  bombshell study  on methane emissions from natural gas production. The findings suggested a leakage rate in line with  EPA’s estimate , or roughly 1.5 percent. The study was  widely acknowledged  as good news, which is also why activist opponents of shale immediately tried to marginalize it with their typical talking points. One of those activists was Tony Ingraffea, the Cornell professor who co-authored an infamous 2011 study  on the same topic that used many unwarranted assumptions in order to arrive at a high methane leakage rate for shale gas development. Indeed, the assumptions were so bad they seemed consciously misleading.  Ingraffea’s  response  to the EDF study (w...

From the Youngstown Vindicator: Gov. John Kasich will attend Monday’s dedication of the $375 million Hickory Bend Cryogenic Processing Plant on South State Line Road in New Middletown.   NiSource Midstream Services formed a partnership with the exploration and production company Hilcorp Energy last year to construct the facility. The project is nearly complete. The whole brief article can be viewed here.  Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog

From Fuel Fix: In a rousing speech Thursday that included a Steve Martin impression and more than a couple colorful analogies, former Vice President Al Gore insisted that the proposed Keystone XL pipeline is an “atrocity” that must be rejected.   Speaking to a summit in Washington D.C. by the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, Gore suggested that the decision on whether to permit the cross-border pipeline tests President Barack Obama’s climate change legacy.   “I hope, as he gets down to the lick-log and the decision on this XL pipeline, that he really understands very clearly what is at stake here,” Gore said. “This should be vetoed. It is an atrocity — a threat to our future.” Read the entire story by clicking here. C onnect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog

From The Morning Journal: With another gas gathering line in the works, Columbiana County commissioners on Wednesday approved a Road Use Maintenance Agreement for roads north and east of Guilford Lake. This RUMA with Cardinal Gas Services LLC of North Canton covers 5.7 miles of the roadways in both Butler and Salem townships. Two miles of the roads are on Winona Road, beginning at Whinnery Road traveling east to Depot Road. Another 2.7 miles travel Depot Road south from Winona Road to state Route 172. The covered roadway also includes a one-mile portion Teegarden Road, from Depot to Vincent Road. According to a map attached to the RUMA, the roadway goes to the Salem Reservoir. You can read the whole article by clicking here.  Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog

From The Raw Story: According  to the Associated Press, the nation’s second largest oil-producing state, North Dakota, failed to inform the public of almost 300 oil pipeline spills in the last two years. Even though many of the spills were small, “[t]he public really should know about these,” Don Morrison, the director of the  Dakota Resource Council , told the AP. “If there is a spill, sometimes a landowner may not even know about it. And if they do, people think it’s an isolated incident that’s only happening to them.” Reporting such spills is significant, because even a barrel of oil could ruin water supplies, which would ruin countless acres of arable soil. Read the whole article here. Does this make you uneasy about the practices of oil and gas companies in our area?  Or is it much ado about nothing? Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog

The latest report from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources shows 8 new permits issued last week for horizontal drilling in the Utica shale. 3 permits were issued for Noble County, 2 for Carroll County, and 1 each for Belmont, Columbiana and Guernsey counties. The total number of horizontal permits now stands at 935.  583 wells have been drilled and 169 are now producing.  The Utica rig count is 32. View the full report here. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog

Energy in Depth:   Stanford Report Shows Hydraulic Fracturing Opponents Are Still Wrong The Marietta Times:   Downtown facelift, thanks to Triad Hunter's shale operations Farm and Dairy:   Belmont County: Judge rules in favor of landowners Business Journal Daily:   Columbiana Port Authority Grants Pipeline Easements Washington Post:   The shale-gas boom won't do much for climate change. But it will make us richer. Ohio Oil & Gas Association:   Not Another Witch Hunt Natural Gas Intelligence:   EIA Launches Drilling Productivity Report Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog

From the Akron Beacon Journal: The Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District  approved a partial assignment of deep mineral rights under three leases at Clendening Reservoir in Harrison County to America Energy-Utica, the new company formed by Aubrey McClendon, the former CEO of Chesapeake Energy. Read more about that here. And also from the Akron Beacon Journal: The Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District on Friday approved a third short-term water sale from Seneca Lake in southeast Ohio with Antero Resources.   The Colorado-based company will pay $4.25 per thousand gallons from November through January.   There is a daily maximum limit of 2 million gallons. Read more about that sale here. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog

From Business Journal Daily: D&L Energy Inc. says the company it hired to market its assets has received signed confidentially agreements from 44 potential bidders and wants U.S. Bankruptcy Court to approve an auction Nov. 13. D&L filed for bankruptcy reorganization in April after its employees were caught illegally dumping brine waste into a sewer drain at its Salt Springs Road headquarters, and criminal charges were filed. In court documents, the company stated it owes more than $5.2 million to its 20 largest creditors. Read the rest of that article here , and find out who is objecting to D&L's auction idea. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog

From The Motley Fool: Gulfport Energy  ( NASDAQ:  GPOR     ) won't end the year producing as much oil and gas at it had hoped. Drilling delays and infrastructure problems have forced the company to aim a bit lower. That being said, Gulfport Energy still sees lots of promise from Ohio's Utica Shale. It's not alone.  Chesapeake Energy  ( NYSE:  CHK     ) and  Halcon Resources  ( NYSE:  HK     ) both continue to move forward with programs to develop the Utica Shale. In Chesapeake's case, it actually sees its production accelerating as infrastructure expands. As the following slide details, there are a number of infrastructure projects coming online, including processing plants and a Gulf Coast ethane pipeline that are critical to producers.  Source: Chesapeake Energy The other critical piece of information that the slide points out is that Chesapeake still has 93 of its 321 drilled wells waiting on pipeli...

From The Salem News: The Hickory Bend Processing Plant will be dedicated on Oct. 28. Pennant Midstream is constructing the Hickory Bend gathering system in northeastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania which is associated with the plant that is located at 10846 South State Line Road. The project is a joint venture between NiSource Midstream Services and Hilcorp Energy Company's midstream affiliate Harvest Pipeline. The Hickory Bend project is approximately 55 miles of wet gas gathering pipeline facilities and represents a $375 million investment in the region including the cryogenic processing plant in Springfield Township. Read the rest of this story right here.  Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog

From the Tribune Chronicle: Drilling is under way in Weathersfield for the first of two injection wells planned by Howland-based American Water Management Services, and permits are being sought by another local company for an unrelated injection well in Warren Township. A large rig set up along state Route 169 in Weathersfield Township just outside of Niles is drilling the new Class II Saltwater Injection well used for permanent disposal of oil field brine and waste thousands of feet underground. Stephen Kilper, vice president of American Water Management Services, said Monday the facility is expected to be operational by January. It will be the the first by his company, which also gained a permit for a second deeper well on the same property. Work has not yet begun on the second well. Read the whole article by clicking here.  Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog

From SNL Financial: Speaking on an Oct. 16 third-quarter earnings conference call led by CEO Richard Kinder, the company provided an update on the plans that were  announced  on Aug. 7 after Kinder Morgan signed a letter of intent to form a joint venture with  MarkWest Energy Partners LP  to pursue projects that include both new fractionation capacity and shipping capacity of Y-grade from the Marcellus and Utica shales to the Gulf Coast.   Adding new fractionation capacity will be the first project, which is slated to consist of a new 400-MMcf/d cryogenic processing complex in Tuscarawas County, Ohio. The site would utilize an existing 220-acre site that Kinder Morgan has under option.   "The JV would expect the initial 200 MMcf/d cryogenic processing plant to be in service by the fourth quarter of 2014 with the second 200 MMcf/d plant in-service shortly thereafter, subject to timing of customer commitments," the two parties said at the time ...

From The Salem News: Some local and state officials updated residents on where the shale fracking natural gas industry currently stands in our county during an informational meeting held at the Crestview Performing Arts Center this past week. "We're just really getting started with this in Columbiana County," said County Commissioner Timothy Weigle, when asked. "We've talked to our friends in Carroll County (which has more than 10 times the number of wells producing gas as there are here). They are a couple million ahead in tax revenue." Here, commissioners are only seeing a slight tax increase at this point, but it is believed the industry will continue to grow for the foreseeable future. According to statistics Weigle presented, there have been 86 well permits issued in this county since 2010 and 74 wells have been drilled. Eight of the wells are currently producing, and two wells have been plugged. There are also 90 Road Use Maintenance Agreement...

From The Columbus Dispatch: A coalition of environmental advocates have sent Gov. John Kasich a letter asking him to put a halt to the injection of fracking wastes in Ohio.  The letter , signed by 33 groups, requests an executive order "to immediately halt" the underground injection of the waste. A handful of protesters gathered Downtown outside the Riffe Center to hand deliver the letter to Kasich's office. "We are facing an onslaught of oil and gas waste here in Ohio," said Alison Auciello, an Ohio organizer for Food and Water Watch. Read the rest of the article here. And here is the letter: Anti-Drilling Letter to OH Gov. John Kasich Requesting He Shut Down Injection Wells from Marcellus Drilling News Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog

Josh Fox's message to Obama From Politico: “I think he ignores us at his own moral peril,” the “Gasland” director and fracking opponent told POLITICO in an interview last week.  “History will be the judge,” Fox added. “When you talk about chemicals in the ground, those chemicals have Barack Obama’s initials on them. Obama is the guy who presided over more fracking than [George W.] Bush. Is fracking going to be Obama’s legacy?”  Fox called Obama’s record on fracking “extremely disappointing,” saying the president has not taken activists’ concerns about the technique seriously. He said Obama has also largely turned a blind eye to his pleas to meet with people who have suffered harm because of hydraulic fracturing. Read the rest of this article here. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog

From Energy in Depth: This past weekend, anti-fracking activists across the United States – and allegedly around the world – participated in the “ Global Frackdown ,” a series of events intended to show the growing strength of activists opposed to oil and gas development. You would be forgiven for not noticing, though. The rallies – much like a  recent one  in Washington, DC, that was well-advertised and highly touted by activists – were defined more by a lack of attendance than any symbolic “growth” of opposition. In Dallas, Texas, the ‘Global Frackdown’ rally  took place  in front of the Perot Museum of Nature and Science. Only about a dozen people showed up. Dallas ‘Global Frackdown’ rally – Oct. 19, 2013; IMAGE SOURCE: WFAA Read the whole article by clicking here. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog

From the Akron Beacon Journal: Its Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management has investigated 183 water well complaints filed by Ohio landowners from 2010 through mid-October. . A total of six water supplies were impacted by drilling over the nearly four-year period, said state spokesman Mark Bruce. But all of those problems stemmed from old, vertical only wells, not today’s big horizontal wells that rely on fracking to free up natural gas, oil and other liquids from rocks deep underground, he said. To date, Ohio has approved 927 horizontal wells in the Utica shale, of which 577 have been drilled, as of Oct. 12. A total of 164 Utica wells are in production. Thirty drilling rigs are in Ohio. "None of the impacted water supplies were related to hydraulic fracturing or horizontal shale drilling," he said in an e-mail. Read the entire article by clicking here. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog

Chesapeake Energy CEO Doug Lawler From The Intelligencer/Wheeling News-Register: Chesapeake Energy just opened its office at Fox Commerce Park earlier this year, but the Ohio Valley's largest active natural gas driller is cutting hundreds of workers throughout the country. Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake has issued a federal Worker Adjustment Retraining and Notification Act notice with the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services to eliminate 60 jobs from its Uniontown, Ohio office. "The past few months have been very challenging as we have evaluated the competitiveness of the company," said Doug Lawler, chief executive officer, in a letter to the workers who are being relieved of their duties. Lawler has been cutting jobs at the company since August. Read the rest of the article here.  Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources' latest report on permitting activity in the Utica shale shows that 13 new permits were issued. Harrison County was the hot spot, with 5 of the permits issued there.  2 permits each were issued to Carroll, Monroe, and Trumbull counties.  Belmont and Washington counties round out the report with 1 permit each. The new permit total is 927.  577 wells have now been drilled, and 164 are producing.  The Utica rig count is 30. View the report in its entirety here. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog

From The Motley Fool: Former  Chesapeake Energy  ( NYSE:  CHK     ) CEO Aubrey McClendon is well known for making some very bold claims about Ohio's Utica Shale. He thought the play would end up being similar to Texas' Eagle Ford Shale, but it would be economically superior to that play. Initial development of the play hasn't shown that to be true. Is that about to change? It turns out the Utica is just saturated with a vast amount of recoverable natural gas and natural gas liquids. While it doesn't contain the high levels of oil of the Bakken or Eagle Ford, the amount of gas that can be extracted on a barrel of oil equivalent, or BOE, basis per well rivals or exceeds these two oil rich plays. This is one of the reasons why McClendon  chose to return to the play with his new venture . To see what I mean, take a look at the following slide from  Magnum Hunter Resources ( NYSE:  MHR     ) . I want to draw attention to the last line ...