The Daily Digger

New permits issued last week:   10   (Previous week:  4 )  +6 Total horizontal permits issued:  2748   (Previous week:  2744 )  +4 Total horizontal wells drilled:  2246   (Previous week:  2244 )  +2 Total horizontal wells producing:  1801  (Previous week:  1802 )  -1 Utica rig count:  21  (Previous week:  23 )   -2 Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog

From Cleveland.com: Democratic gubernatorial candidate Dennis Kucinich on Thursday unveiled a series of proposals designed to bring a complete end to oil and gas drilling in Ohio.  At a news conference in downtown Columbus, the liberal former congressman and presidential candidate said that as governor, he would use eminent domain to acquire and close all existing traditional and fracking-style oil and gas wells in the state. Kucinich pledged to block any new drilling permits and order a statewide injection-well ban.  In addition, Kucinich would direct the Ohio State Highway Patrol to stop, inspect, and turn away vehicles found with fracking waste. The state would offer free health screenings to Ohioans living near fracking sites and collect data with an eye toward filing a class-action lawsuit against fracking companies on the scale of the multi-billion-dollar legal settlement that states reach with tobacco companies 20 years ago.  Asked whether his proposals wer...

From WTAP News: On March 22, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management will auction oil and gas lease rights for two parcels in the Wayne National Forest near Marietta.  The two parcels total about 345 acres in the Marietta Unit of the Wayne National Forest in Ohio.  The parcels will be sold in an online auction that starts at 8 a.m.. on March 22, at the "Oil and Gas Rights Auction Website" link in the "Related Links" section of this story.  Each parcel will have its own unique open bidding period with start and stop times clearly identified on the auction website.  The open bidding period for each parcel will run for three hours from start to finish, and bids will be accepted only during a parcel’s open bidding period. Read more by clicking here. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog

From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro is pushing back against pressure to resolve the state’s case alleging unfair treatment of thousands of landowners by natural gas drilling companies.  Chesapeake Energy Corp. recently reached a $30 million settlement agreement with Pennsylvania landowners in separate, private class-action cases based on allegations of improper or inflated deductions from gas royalty payments.  But attorneys for the Oklahoma-based company told a federal judge in late December that the company reserves the right to pull out of those proposed settlements — covering all 14,000 of its Pennsylvania gas-producing leases — if it can’t resolve the attorney general’s case as well.  In an editorial and a letter to the judge, Mr. Shapiro and a senior attorney in the office have called the company’s position a pressure tactic. Click here to read more. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsB...

From The Canton Repository: Without a taproom or a big sign above its entry, Shale Brewing Co. is flying under the radar compared to most area breweries.  But its downtown production facility in a former foundry at Second Street SE is sizable and equipped with a 10-barrel brewhouse. Shale’s beers are available at numerous local stores and bars and in many locales around Ohio.  “We’re now at 150 accounts,” said Jeff Joliat, who co-founded Shale with Jim Williams. “We’re south to Marietta, west to Galion, east to the Pennsylvania and West Virginia borders. We’re in Columbus.” A new distributor soon will be taking Shale’s beers into West Virginia.  Due to the company’s name and oil derrick logo, Shale has proved especially popular in oil-industry areas. “Someone said, ’You should call it Kale instead of Shale and you’d do great in Columbus,” Joliat said with amusement. Read the whole article by clicking here. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @En...

From Reuters : Ohio environmental regulators again asked federal energy regulators to order Energy Transfer Partners to cease drilling operations on the Rover natural gas pipeline project under the Tuscarawas River over concern about the potential for a spill.  Rover has reported a loss of approximately 200,000 gallons of drilling fluids from the hole ETP is drilling under the Tuscarawas River in Stark County, Ohio, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency said in a filing with the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which was made available on Wednesday. The Ohio EPA said Rover has ceased operations at the site and is seeking approval from FERC on a plan submitted on Jan. 22 to continue horizontal drilling. Another article from Reuters notes that analysts feel this decision by the FERC will likely cause the Rover pipeline to miss its targeted completion date of March 2018: “At this point, we don’t think it will be done at the end of the first quarter,” said Matt Lew...

From an Antero Resources press release: In 2018, Antero plans to operate an average of five drilling rigs and four completion crews in the Marcellus Shaleand expects to complete 120 to 125 wells with an average lateral length of 9,300 feet. The drilling plan in the Marcellus averages nine wells per pad. As average lateral lengths continue to increase, total well costs are expected to decline further in 2018 to $0.80 million per 1,000' of lateral, a 45% decline from 2014 and a 9% reduction from 2017 well costs. The Company plans to operate one drilling rig and one completion crew in the Ohio Utica Shale in 2018 and expects to complete 20 to 25 wells with an average lateral length of approximately 11,600 feet. Antero is currently drilling and completing its Utica wells at an average budgeted cost of $0.89 million per 1,000' of lateral, a 43% well cost improvement over 2014 and a 9% improvement from 2017 well costs.  Antero is budgeting to continue to consolidate acreage for...

From the Perry Tribune: The two-day training program teaches firefighters field-tested tactics and procedures for combating potential drilling and production site incidents. Firefighters also learn how to evaluate oil and natural gas emergencies, and obtain valuable site-specific information during an emergency. "Providing firefighters with the latest information and tactics for dealing with oil field emergencies is one of the most important things we do," said OOGEEP Executive Director Rhonda Reda. "Our state-certified instructors, many of whom are current or retired firefighters themselves, take pride in providing fellow emergency responders with this valuable safety information. It is because of our instructors that firefighters from across the nation look to OOGEEP’s training program as a highly regarded model." The first day of the program focuses on distinguishing between normal operations and true oil field emergencies. Classroom presentations provide an ov...

From Bloomberg: OPEC increased its forecast for rival oil-supply growth for a second month running after a recovery in prices sent Brent crude to $70 a barrel. OPEC’s output cuts -- now entering a second year -- have been successful in eroding bloated stockpiles and lifting prices to a three-year high. Yet the rally has prompted concern that competitors in the U.S. will be emboldened to expand production. “Higher oil prices are bringing more supply to the market, particularly in North America,” the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said Thursday in its monthly report. The group raised its forecast for 2018 non-OPEC supply growth by 160,000 barrels a day, or 16 percent, to 1.15 million barrels a day. Expected growth in total U.S. crude supply was revised higher by 110,000 barrels a day to 820,000 a day, led by conventional production. OPEC lowered its forecast for shale-oil output by 1.1 percent from last month’s report, to about 5.42 million barrels a day. Continue the a...

New permits issued last week:   4   (Previous week: 6 )  -2 Total horizontal permits issued:  2744   (Previous week:  2740 )  +4 Total horizontal wells drilled:  2244   (Previous week:  2240 )  +4 Total horizontal wells producing:  1802  (Previous week:  1798 )  +4 Utica rig count:  23  (Previous week:  23 )   +-0 Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog

From NGI: The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (Ohio EPA) has requested daily updates on Rover Pipeline LLC's latest horizontal directional drill (HDD) under the Tuscarawas River, citing "significant concerns" over a potential repeat of a major spill that occurred there last April.  In a letter sent last Thursday to Rover sponsor Energy Transfer Partners LP (ETP) and FERC, Ohio EPA cited a recent "loss of returns associated with the pilot hole installation in Stark County at the HDD under the Tuscarawas River."  The Tuscarawas crossing is the site of a roughly 2 million gallon drilling fluids spill last April that led the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to suspend new HDD activities on the project pending independent review.  Citing information gathered during a Jan. 10 on-site inspection, Ohio EPA said 146,000 gallons of drilling fluids "have been lost down the hole," while also noting that based on Rover's use of "drone sur...

From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Dave Elkin remembers in the earlier days of the Marcellus when EQT drilled three wells from a single well pad and it was considered a technological marvel.  “The greatest thing since sliced bread,” Mr. Elkin, a senior vice president of asset optimization at EQT Corp., thought at the time.  It was a quaint memory that contrasts sharply with the company’s and industry’s new normal: superpads — concrete platforms that can house 30 wells, maybe even 40, with long horizontal tentacles stretching underground for up to 4 miles in each direction.  A superpad means a quarter of a billion dollars pumped into a single hillside in a place like rural Washington County. It means fewer well pads in total but much more activity on those that exist. It means that from a 10-acre spot, a company like EQT can theoretically slurp natural gas from underneath an area nearly the size of the City of Pittsburgh.  “I call them mini-industrial complex...

From Argus: The US northeast should realize an increase of more than 3 Bcf/d (85mn m³/d) of natural gas pipeline capacity by the end of this quarter, compared with an increase of 2.3 Bcf/d in volumes in the fourth quarter of 2017.  Columbia Gas Transmission's 1.5 Bcf/d Leach XPress pipeline project began flows last week, shuttling gas from West Virginia and Pennsylvania into Ohio and to an interconnection with Columbia Gulf pipeline near Leach, Kentucky.  Energy Transfer Partners has been bringing its 3.25 Bcf/d Rover pipeline project on line in phases, with the final tranche of 1.55 Bcf/d expected to begin flowing by the end of March. The 713-mile (1,147km) pipeline will transport Appalachian shale gas to pipeline interconnects in West Virginia, markets in Ohio and Michigan, and to the Dawn storage hub in Ontario, Canada.  Finally, Spectra's 128mn cf/d Atlantic Bridge project began partial flows of 40mn cf/d in November, with the rest of that line expected to sta...

From the Athens News: Dick McGinn, who has led efforts in Athens city and county to pass community bill of rights ordinances or amendments, also criticized the Pennsylvania federal judge’s decision. “Obviously the judge has little interest in civil rights,” he wrote in an email. “Her chosen legal path is to favor the ‘rights’ of corporations to trample on civil rights. The fight will continue. The people will win in the end.” McGinn, in his capacity as a leader of the Athens County Bill of Rights Committee, issued a news release Tuesday celebrating the fact that Athens City Council had codified language in the Community Bill of Rights passed by voters in 2014, “exactly as voted on by the people; and includes the ballot language, too.” This is the same CELDF-originated legal reasoning that the federal judge in Pennsylvania rejected in the Grant Township case. Athens Law Director Lisa Eliason was asked Tuesday if she felt concerned about the Athens law considering the sanctioning and r...

From NGI: FERC has denied several motions to stay its August certificate order approving the Nexus Gas Transmission pipeline project that were filed by environmental and citizens’ advocacy groups.  The groups filed their motions for a stay in September and October, with their sights set on preventing the project from advancing while a request for rehearing was pending. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission denied motions filed by the Sierra Club; Oberlin, OH; Sustainable Medina County; Neighbors Against Nexus; Freshwater Accountability Project; Communities for Safe and Sustainable Energy, and the Coalition to Reroute Nexus.  It was the latest setback for opponents who have waged a hardline campaign to stop the 1.5 Bcf/d project to carry Appalachian gas to markets in the Midwest and Canada. The bulk of the 257-mile pipeline would be constructed in Ohio. The Sierra Club filed late last year in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to stop all Nexus co...

New permits issued last week:   6   (Previous week:  2 )  +4 Total horizontal permits issued:  2740   (Previous week:  2736 )  +4 Total horizontal wells drilled:  2240   (Previous week:  2239 )  +1 Total horizontal wells producing:  1798  (Previous week:  1787 )  +11 Utica rig count:  23  (Previous week:  21 )   +2 Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog

CARROLLTON, Ohio, Jan. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Advanced Power today announced commercial operation has begun at its 700-megawatt Carroll County Energy natural gas electric generation facility. Carroll County Energy is a combined-cycle natural gas electric generating facility built to sell into the PJM market. It is located in an area with low priced natural gas production, as well as AEP's 345 kV transmission lines and Kinder Morgan's Tennessee Gas Pipeline system. Commercial operations began in mid-December, said Chuck Davis, President, Advanced Power Asset Management. He said that commencement of operations was a credit to community partnerships, solid financial support, and the professionalism of Bechtel, the general contractor as well as the subcontractors and scores of workers employed to build the facility. "In the four-plus years since we first announced plans to build this state-of-the-art generation facility, Carroll County Energy has received outstanding ...

From CNBC: American drillers will pump enough oil in 2019 to potentially surpass Saudi Arabia's output and rival the world's current top producer, Russia, according to a forecast from the U.S. Department of Energy.  The department's Energy Information Administration forecast Tuesday that U.S. oil production will average 10.8 million barrels a day in 2019, a level that would put it on par with Saudi Arabia and Russia . EIA expects American output to top 11 million barrels a day for the first time ever in November 2019.  This year, EIA sees U.S. output rising to 10.3 million barrels a day, the highest ever annual average production. "Led by U.S. production, particularly in the Permian Basin, and new oil sands projects in Canada, non-OPEC production is forecast to continue growing through the end of 2019," EIA acting Administrator John Conti said in a statement.  "We expect to see growth near 2.0 million barrels per day in 2018 and 1.3 million barrels p...

Two articles by Forbes contributor Michael Lynch looked at the potential for oil prices to spike or the potential for them to crash. From the first article : There is significant optimism about oil prices for next year given the return of inventories to something approaching “normal” levels, and a high degree of compliance among oil producers who have agreed to cut production. Strong economic growth should produce robust demand next year, and there is a relatively strong consensus that the market will be bullish for oil prices, with some talking about a $70 or $80 target for Brent. Compared to the swings of the last decade, a $10 or even $20 increase seems like a pittance, but would actually put $100 billion to $200 billion into the pockets of OPEC countries, and add tens of billions to the oil industry’s revenues.  And numerous events could cause prices to move upward, including civil unrest in Venezuela or Libya, increased attacks on Nigerian producing facilities, disputes ...

From Cleveland.com: Natural gas consumption has soared during the past couple of weeks of arctic weather and it's a good bet that next month's bill will include a built-in shudder.  Columbia Gas of Ohio estimates delivered gas volumes this week are double what they were during the first week of last January. Dominion Energy of Ohio said gas volumes in its Ohio lines were running as much as 54 percent higher than a year ago.  Average residential bills are expected to increase by about $20, Columbia estimates because of the extremely cold temperatures.  Still, prices per unit of gas for some Ohio consumers are actually falling.  Dominion and Columbia customers who rely on their utility's monthly variable price are now paying, or soon will pay, less per unit of gas they buy this month than they did in December. Read the whole article by clicking here. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog

From Forbes: Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, pickup trucks all over the U.S. oil patch could be seen sporting a bumper sticker that read "Lord, please just give me one more oil boom and I promise not to mess it up."   Fast forward to 2017 and the first few days of 2018, and the oil and gas industry is being handed the first half of that plea by the Trump Administration in the form of radical shifts from the Obama-era energy and environmental policies of the previous 8 years. For its own sake, those in the U.S. oil and gas industry today had better take the promise made in that bumper sticker slogan very seriously. Because if the industry messes this opportunity up, there will be hell to pay the next time the voters decide to put a Democrat in the White House, an inevitability that could come about as soon as 2020.  In just the last week, the Department of the Interior has presented the industry with three major policy reversals that will make it easier and mor...

From VORYS: In a January 3, 2018 decision, the Supreme Court of Ohio held that Ohio does not recognize an implied covenant to explore further as a distinct implied covenant in oil and gas leases. See Alford v. Collins-McGregor Operating Co., Slip Opinion No. 2018-Ohio-8 .  BACKGROUND  The appellant-landowners were subject to an oil and gas lease executed by their predecessors in favor of the appellee-lessee in 1980. The landowners’ lease contained a one-year primary term and a standard habendum clause. The lease did not require the lessee to drill a specific number of wells or produce from a particular depth. It also did not disclaim implied covenants. One well was drilled under the lease in 1981, which produced from the Gordon Sand formation. In 2015, the landowners filed suit, alleging that while deeper formations like the Utica and Marcellus shales were being developed near their property, their lessee had not explored for oil and gas on their property from an...

New permits issued last week:   2   (Previous week:  8 )  -6 Total horizontal permits issued:  2736   (Previous week:  2734 )  +2 Total horizontal wells drilled:  2239   (Previous week:  2236 )  +3 Total horizontal wells producing:  1787  (Previous week:  1787 )  +-0 Utica rig count:  21  (Previous week:  23 )   -2 Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog

From WTRF News: While the public focuses on high-profile projects like the possible Belmont County ethane cracker, there's another project quietly going forward in Monroe County.  At the site of the former Ormet plant, Fortress Investment Group out of New York purchased 1660 acres in June.  And they are about to build a natural gas fired power plant there.  People were surprised to hear about Long Ridge Energy, and they liked the idea.  "Anything that can stimulate the growth of this area would be good, you know, after the steel and coal industry kind of fell apart," said John Celli of St. Clairsville. "I think it's good business for the locals around here."  "I think it would be a really good idea, especially if they hired a lot of locals," said Jeff Culley of New Martinsville. "They'll bring in a lot of jobs and probably help the economy a little bit. So I think it's a good idea." Connect with us on Facebook an...

From Natural Gas Now: Tom Linzey, the arrogant spoiled attorney who founded and runs the CELDF, has been getting away with conning communities and funders for many years now . Like the snake-oil salesman he is, he’s sold his bogus “Community Bill of Rights Ordinance” (CBR) concept to communities from Maine to New Mexico, losing every step of the way, but never paying a penalty for bad faith lawyering.  Tom Linzey is a Marxist, or worse, by any definition but has developed a nice gig offering free legal services to communities looking for any way possible to stop this or that. They provide the platform and useful idiots such as Leonard DiCaprio , Adelaide Park Gomer, Henry Wallace’s descendants fork over the money that has allowed Linzey to pursue his radical agenda. The gig may be up in one case, though. Federal Judge Susan Paradise Baxter has had it with the CELDF and the bully Tom Linzey. She’s just sanctioned him and fellow CELDF attorney Elizabeth Duane with $52,000 in lega...

From The Inquirer: Chesapeake Energy Corp. has agreed to pay Pennsylvania landowners $30 million to settle federal lawsuits over its disputed gas-royalty payments. But the deal hinges on state Attorney General Josh Shapiro also resolving a lawsuit against the shale-gas producer. Chesapeake’s lawyers told a federal judge in Scranton last week that they had reached a deal to settle several longstanding class-action suits , according to a transcript of the status meeting. The settlement would provide payments to all 14,000 Chesapeake gas leaseholders, and the landowners would also be allowed to “reset” their leases to clarify the terms under which they are paid royalties, or their share of gas sales.  But the Oklahoma City gas producer said it won’t go forward with the deal unless it also resolves a lawsuit filed in Pennsylvania in 2015 by former state Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane that alleged Chesapeake cheated landowners by making large deductions from their royalty payment...

New permits issued last week:   8   (Previous week:  13 )  -5 Total horizontal permits issued:  2734   (Previous week:  2716 )  +18 Total horizontal wells drilled:  2236   (Previous week:  2201 )  +35 Total horizontal wells producing:  1787  (Previous week:  1751 )  +36 Utica rig count:  23  (Previous week:  21 )   +2 Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog