The Daily Digger

DENVER--( BUSINESS WIRE )--MarkWest Utica EMG, L.L.C. (“MarkWest Utica EMG”), a joint venture between MarkWest Energy Partners, L.P. (NYSE: MWE) and The Energy & Minerals Group, and Ohio Gathering Company, L.L.C. (“Ohio Gathering”), a joint venture between MarkWest Utica EMG and Summit Midstream Partners, LLC, today announced the completion of definitive agreements with American Energy – Utica, LLC (“AEU”), an affiliate of American Energy Partners, LP, to provide natural gas gathering, processing, and fractionation services in the Utica Shale in Ohio. “The Utica is one of the fastest growing shale plays in the U.S. and we are excited to support American Energy as they are quickly establishing a significant presence in this premier resource play” AEU has acquired a significant acreage position in highly prolific Utica Shale and with the agreements announced today, has dedicated more than 60,000 net acres in the rich-gas and condensate windows to MarkWest Utica EMG and Ohio ...

From The Morning Journal: The truck washing facility used by Clear Creek at the corner of the M&S Truck Stop on state Route 14 ceased operations following a special Aug. 18 planning commission meeting in which the board determined it would not approve their operations without an ODNR permit, which is required.  City Manager Lance Willard confirmed on Friday the company has not yet received the permit, and Bob Yallech, who is serving as Clear Creek’s legal counsel, said he is optimistic the company will continue operations there in the future.  “We are waiting to get permitted. We have an engineer who is doing his work and our due diligence, and we expect once his work is done, to obtain a permit,” he said.  The engineer he was referring to is one working for the ODNR, who will determine whether a permit should be issued. You can read more by clicking here. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog

From Business Journal Daily: Bob Crosser thought working 42 years as an Ohio Edison troubleshooter was enough, so in 2011 he chose to retire and spend his time tending the horses he raises on a farm along U.S. Route 30 here.   But a recent turn of fortune might also have factored in his decision.   “It’s been a gift, really,” Crosser says as his Chevrolet pickup truck bounces toward an operating natural gas well Chesapeake Energy Corp. drilled on his property almost three years ago. “This well’s been good to us. If it keeps coming in like this, I’ll be making a lot more than what I did at Ohio Edison, that’s for sure.”   As such, Crosser is among the first residents in Columbiana County who are finally reaping the dividends in the form of hefty royalty checks from oil and gas leases they negotiated nearly four years ago.   Many energy companies have abandoned the northern portion for more lucrative positions further south in Harrison, Belmont, Monroe and ...

From Reason.com: A lot of folks are fervently forecasting that shale gas and oil production is a bubble about to pop, possibly producing an  economic collapse  similar to the one in 2008. Earlier this week, the left-leaning Center for Research on Globalization in Montreal  dismissed the shale revolution  as a "Ponzi scheme" and "this decade's version of the Dotcom bubble." In a column last year for  The Guardian , Nafeez Ahmed of the Institute for Policy Research and Development  cited   studies predicting that U.S. shale gas production will likely peak in 2015 and oil production in 2017. In a July 2013  report  for the Club of Rome—the same folks who brought us 1972's doom-mongering classic, The Limits to Growth—the University of Florence chemist Ugo Bardi declared that the "idea that a 'gas revolution' that will bring for us an age of abundance is rapidly fading" because "the data show that the gas bubble may be already bursting....

From Business Journal Daily: YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- The state's chief geologist says that the future of oil and gas exploration across Ohio might rest with improved technology and other shale plays that appear to have the same sort of rich organic content as the Utica/Point Pleasant shale, today a focal point of the industry.   "We're investigating the Rhinestreet shale and the Huron shale," said Tom Serenko, Ohio state geologist, Tuesday. "If you look at the cores, you see the similarities to the Point Pleasant. We're dealing with very dark, organic-rich shale."   The Rhinestreet and Huron plays are intervals that help make up the Upper Devonian shale in Ohio, which rests above the Marcellus shale. The Ohio portion of the Marcellus isn't likely to produce a significant amount of natural gas or oil because of its limited scope, Serenko said, but the Upper Devonian could hold promise. Read the rest of the article by clicking here. There have b...

From Natural Gas Now: Fracking opponents would have us believe modern hydraulic fracturing technology is unstudied, or has only done so by “frackademics.” The term refers to scientists at universities often tainted solely because they they are located in Texas or because they are geologists. Saying geologists are tainted is like saying doctors are prejudiced in a medical diagnosis and it’s best to get a second opinion from a dentist. Or, in the shale “debate” context, the opinion of a rock star, fashion designer or movie star is as valid  – or greater – than those of scientists.   Good Shale Gas News Tends to Sink Without A Trace   No less than four recent academic studies have two things in common: Key parts of their conclusions are positive, and in the “conventional” media and thus to the eyes of the public, they sunk without a trace. This ensured  Google News  flow, which travels downstream to hundreds of local frack-free sites, remains overwhelm...

GRAPEVINE, Texas--( BUSINESS WIRE )-- GreenHunter Resources, Inc. (NYSE MKT: GRH) (NYSE MKT: GRH.PRC),   a diversified water resource, waste management, environmental services, and hydrocarbon marketing company specializing in unconventional oil and natural gas shale resource plays, announced today that it has received permits and has completed downhole performance tests on new wells at its Mills Hunter Facility, located in Meigs County, Ohio. Recent bottom hole integrity tests of these wells indicate injection volume capabilities of between 3,000 to 5,000 barrels of oilfield brine water per day per well. This increase in capacity is in line with earlier projections made by the company to double injection capacity by the end of calendar year 2014. The addition of these wells brings GreenHunter’s SWD well count up to 13 in the Appalachian Basin, with a new total daily injection capacity exceeding 31,000 bbls per day. The majority of this new oilfield brine water injection capac...

From Business Journal Daily: The Ohio Department of Natural Resources has lifted its suspension on one of the two American Water Management Services injection wells in Weathersfield Township, the agency announced Thursday.   In a prepared statement, ODNR spokeswoman Bethany McCorkle said that after analyzing data in the wake of a 2.1 magnitude earthquake that occurred in late August, the agency determined that the shallower well – AWMS #1 -- was not related to any seismic activity.   "ODNR concluded that with reasonable scientific certainty, injection operations at the shallower of the two wells was not related to the 2.1 seismic event that occurred in August," McCorkle said. "The company may resume injection operations at the AWMS #1 well immediately." You can read more here. The other well that was shut down by the ODNR following the earthquake remains offline at this point. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog

The Dormant Minerals Right Act has been popping up as a sticking point for many Ohio landowners as Utica shale leasing and drilling has advanced.  Lawyers from Bricker & Eckler have posted a couple of excellent videos that shed more light on the DMA and what affect it has on Utica shale activity. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources has released the latest weekly update on permitting activity in the Utica shale.  Things remained busy last week. 17 new permits were issued.  Monroe County was the main spot, with 9 of the 17 permits being issued for wells there.  Rounding things out were Belmont County (4), Noble County (2), Carroll County (1), and Guernsey County (1). With this latest activity, there have now been 1,532 permits issued for horizontal drilling in Ohio's Utica shale.  The report reveals that there have now been 1,092 wells drilled, while 577 are producing.  The Utica rig count is 43. View the report in its entirety by clicking right here. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog

From Scientific American: Flaming tap water  comes from bad wells, and not the drinking-water kind. Folks who live closest to natural gas wells in Pennsylvania suffer ill health. And the uptick in earthquakes in parts of Colorado and New Mexico is entirely  human-induced . All of these problems are associated with  fracking , yet none of them have anything to do with either the horizontal drilling or cracking rock with high-pressure water that fall under that rubric.   Instead, all of these bad outcomes are the simple results of an  oil and gas addiction —and the need to get the next fix out of the ground fast—just like subsidence and  toxic ash floods  result from our addiction to coal. The fossil-fuel addiction is, of course, primarily responsible for climate change as well, but  that’s another story .   As more and more research focuses on  fracking , the outcome becomes clearer and clearer. It is bad industry practices—poorly...

From The Columbus Dispatch: The legislature has steadfastly declined to give Gov. John Kasich what he wants regarding a new severance tax on fracking in Ohio, but the governor says he’s only going to push harder if he wins re-election — and end a “rip-off” of consumers at the same time.   Lawmakers have given Kasich many of his agenda items over three-plus years, but he and GOP legislative leaders,  particularly in the House, have butted heads repeatedly over whether, or how much, Ohio should increase severance taxes  on the shale fracking industry spreading across eastern Ohio.   “I think, in the Senate, they want to do something seriously over there,” Kasich told  The   Dispatch . “The House, I can’t tell you. Give us time to ratchet it up. I need to focus on it.” Read the rest of the article by clicking here. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog

The latest report on permitting activity from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources covers the week of September 14 to September 20.  With 23 new permits, the Utica shale passed another milestone number. The 23 permits were distributed pretty evenly across several counties.  Belmont, Carroll, Columbiana and Monroe counties each were the location of 4 permits.  3 permits were issued in both Guernsey and Harrison counties.  Noble County finishes the report with 1 new permit. The cumulative total for permits issued now stands at 1,520.  1,081 wells have been drilled, 573 are producing, and the Utica rig count stands at 44. Check out the report by clicking here. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog

From a Rex Energy press release: Appalachian Basin  - Warrior North Prospect   In the Warrior North Prospect, the company recently placed into sales the six-well Grunder pad. The six wells were drilled with an average lateral length of approximately 4,800 feet and completed with an average of 24 completion stages. In addition, the company tested approximately 600 and 500 foot spacing between the laterals on the six wells. Initial results from the downspacing tests are encouraging and the company will continue to monitor production results going forward. Using an 18/64" choke size, the six-well Grunder pad produced at an average 5-day sales rate per well of approximately 1.2 Mboe/d, comprised of 2.1 MMcf/d of natural gas, 454 bbls/d of condensate and 433 bbls/d of NGLs (assuming full ethane recovery).   In addition, the company recently placed into sales the three-well Jenkins pad. The three wells were drilled with an average lateral length of approximately 5,350 f...

From USA Today: Faulty wells, not deep underground fracking, is the main reason that natural gas extraction from shale rock has contaminated drinking water in parts of Texas and Pennsylvania, says a study Monday by researchers from five universities.   As natural gas production increases in the United States, so, too, have reports of well water contaminated with methane. Now a study, the first to make comprehensive use of "stray gas forensics," not only found pollution in multiple wells but also identifies the culprit.   "Our data clearly show that the contamination in these clusters stems from well-integrity problems such as poor casing and cementing," says co-author Thomas Darrah, assistant professor of earth science at Ohio State. While a scientist at Duke University, he led the research team, which includes experts from Duke, Stanford, Dartmouth and the University of Rochester. That whole article is available by clicking here. Here is the press release ...

I apologize for the lack of new posts.  I was away on a family vacation, and while I had hoped to have time to update the blog while we were away, it just didn't materialize.  Some updates will be posted today to get caught up from the past week, and then things will get back to normal with frequent updates this week. Thanks for coming to us for the latest news. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog

From the Athens County Fracking Action Network: Over four thousand citizens from the Ohio River basin filed protests of Texas-based GreenHunter’s frackwaste barge dock facility permit application to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers last month. Because more than 3000 letters were sent through an alert by Food and Water Watch (FWW), the Corps is acknowledging fewer than 1000. Athens County Fracking Action Network (ACFAN) encourages writers who used the FWW tool to e-mail Teresa Spagna of the Corps directly at teresa.d.spagna@usace.army.mil to request that their earlier comments be counted. Sending from your own e-mail account seems to be what the Corps requires to count your letter. Please send a short e-mail to Ms. Spagna requesting your earlier comment be counted. Ms. Spagna has told us that comments will be accepted until a decision is made. She has also stated that the Corps has no deadline for a decision.  Citizens and public officials are concerned because the facility w...

OKLAHOMA CITY--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 21, 2014-- Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE:CHK) today announced that Brad Sylvester will join Chesapeake as Vice President – Investor Relations and Communications. Sylvester joins Chesapeake from Southwestern Energy Company. He will report to Chesapeake’s Chief Financial Officer, Nick Dell’Osso. Doug Lawler, Chesapeake’s Chief Executive Officer, commented, “Brad is a highly talented and proven investor relations professional with more than 20 years of solid experience in the exploration and production industry. His leadership skills and extensive experience uniquely qualify him to lead our Investor Relations and Communications teams. I look forward to working very closely with Brad as we continue to drive value for our shareholders.” Dell’Osso added, “Brad has consistently been recognized as one of the industry’s top investor relations officers by both buy-side and sell-side analysts and investors. He will maintain and build those rela...

The latest weekly Utica shale permitting update from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources is now available.  The southern portion of the play remains the hot spot. 11 new permits were issued last week.  Leading the way: Monroe and Washington counties, each with 4 permits.  Belmont County (2) and Carroll County (1) rounded out the activity. The 11 permits last week bring the new cumulative total to 1,499.  1,076 wells have now been drilled, 565 are producing, and the Utica rig count is 41. View the report here. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog

Bloomberg View:   College Students Can't Defeat Big Oil Energy in Depth:   How the Media Rushes to Promote Fracking Critics Akron Beacon Journal:   Anti-Fracking Ohio Billboard is Coming Down The Motley Fool:   The Utica Shale is Starting to Look "Extraordinary" Ideastream:   For Some, Shale Gas Boom's a Headache Gas & Oil:   M3 Midstream Momentum "Trilogy" to Be Open by Mid-October Penn State University:   Residual Hydraulic Fracturing Water Not a Risk to Groundwater ScienceDirect:   The Fate of Residual Treatment Water in Gas Shale Platts:   Utica Shale Q2 Gas Production Up Fivefold From Year Ago Energy in Depth:   As Natural Gas Provides Environmental Benefits, Bill McKibben Scrambles to Defend Activists’ Stance Gas & Oil:   Gas, Oil Industry Gives Home Sellers a Boost Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog

Jim Silver (left) From Energy in Depth: Youngstown anti-fracking activists managed to get their “Community Bill of Rights” – which has been overwhelmingly defeated three times already –  on the ballot  again this November, but they haven’t managed to impress too many people in the community.   In fact, City of Kent Law Director Jim Silver (who claims to be a “self-described environmentalist”) said last week that the document is “terribly written,” contradictory and overly-broad. As the  Record-Courier  reported, Silver put it this way:   “Besides precluding gas/oil harvesting process, the amendment would make it illegal to discharge anything into the air or water, no matter the circumstance, Silver said.  If approved, Kent would become a ‘ghost town,’ Silver said, because it would be illegal to drive a car, cut grass with a gas mower or operate a gas heater because of the related emissions .” (emphasis added) Read the whole article here...

From Planetizen: Youngstown had been one of those Rust Belt, "shrinking" cities long noted in Planetizen, but thanks in part to fracking and its location on the Utica shale formation, manufacturing has returned and unemployment has dropped by half since 2010. "The turnaround is part of a transformation spreading across the heartland of the nation, driven by a surge in domestic oil and gas production that is changing the economic calculus for old industries and downtrodden cities alike," writes Nelson D. Schwartz , economics reporter for The New York Times. Here in Ohio, in an arc stretching south from Youngstown past Canton and into the rural parts of the state where much of the natural gas is being drawn from shale deep underground, entire sectors like manufacturing, hotels, real estate and even law are being reshaped.  One example provided is Paris-based Vallourec , a manufacturer of products for energy extraction. While it's not the Youngstown of old, it...

From API: API unveiled a new vendor survey today that demonstrates the diverse array of suppliers, service providers, and other small and midsized businesses supporting the U.S. energy renaissance. “Oil and natural gas companies are only one part of a much larger economic success story that is creating job growth up and down the supply chain,” said API Upstream Group Director Erik Milito . “From the folks who make work gloves to environmental consultants, these businesses represent just a small cross-section of the opportunities created by America’s energy revolution.” API’s 2014 vendor survey lists nearly 30,000 operators, contractors, service companies, suppliers, and other vendors that support oil and natural gas operations in every state and the District of Columbia. It includes individual state profiles, which detail job gains and salary information for industry-related work, as well as information on survey participants organized by congressional district. “Thanks to inn...