The Daily Digger

From S&P Global: The shale gas revolution is over and Appalachia's top producers need to radically change their behavior if they want to survive, according to former EQT Corp. CEO Steve Schlotterbeck.  "The biggest problem facing the upstream industry, frankly, is the industry itself," said Schlotterbeck, who created the nation's largest natural gas producer by volume with the merger of EQT and neighbor Rice Energy in November 2017. "The shale gas revolution has been an unmitigated disaster for any buy and hold investor."  Speaking at Petroleum Update's 2019 Northeast Petrochemical Conference in Pittsburgh, Schlotterbeck said upstream producers must change their orientation away from production growth that has swamped the market to delivering yield for their investors. Slashing drilling efforts to the bare bones while paying a healthy dividend with free cash is the path forward, he said.  "The industry is self-destructing from the succes...

From the Athens News: A new academic study linking the amount of radon present in a home to its proximity to deep-shale oil and gas “fracking” wells cites Athens County as having the most of these wells in the state of Ohio, with 108. There’s one problem with that statistic: Athens County does not have 108 deep-shale fracking wells. In fact, it has zero. The number of horizontally drilled fracking wells in some eastern Ohio counties shown on a map that’s part of the study also appears to be incorrect. Mark Bruce, a spokesperson for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Oil and Gas Resource Management, said Friday that the agency is working with the University of Toledo researchers who performed the radon/fracking study “to get their numbers right.” It's unclear whether correcting the numbers of deep-shale fracking wells in the study will alter the conclusions of the study. Click here to read more. This study has been widely publicized on the internet, alt...

New permits issued last week:   1  (Previous week:  7 )   -6 Total horizontal permits issued:  3113  (Previous week:  3113 )    +-0 Total horizontal wells drilled:  2630  (Previous week:  2626 )   +4 Total horizontal wells producing:  2222  (Previous week:  2222 )   +-0 Utica rig count:  19  (Previous week:  18 )   +1

From Kallanish Energy: Like comedian Rodney Dangerfield, the Utica Shale gets no respect, and that’s wrong because the Utica is “really a phenomenal reservoir,” according to Jeff A. Fisher, CEO of Ascent Resources.  The Utica play, primarily in eastern Ohio, is “still a bit misunderstood” and often overlooked, Fisher told an audience of roughly 600 Wednesday at Hart Energy’s 11th annual DUG East Conference and Exhibition in this Pennsylvania city. Kallanish Energy was in attendance.  “This play really shines. The rock really performs,” he said.  Defending the Utica’s ‘robustness’  There is no champion speaking out in defense of the Utica Shale and that’s unfortunate, he said before proceeding to defend the Utica and what he called its “robustness.”  It produces dry natural gas, wet natural gas, natural gas liquids and condensate, depending on where in the Utica Shale you are drilling, Fisher said. His company has drilled 400 Utica wells and is the ei...

From the Pittsburgh Business Times: Bechtel, the project manager for the massive Shell Chemicals plant under construction in Beaver County, is going to be the project manager for a similar project in Ohio if it is built.  The news was confirmed Thursday in a presentation at the Northeast Petrochemical Exhibition and Conference by Paul Marsden , SVP of Bechtel's unit in Pennsylvania. Bechtel is working along with Samsung on the project, Marsden said. But, he said, it depends on PTT Global Chemicals making a final investment decision on the project that has been expected for years.  The Thai-based PTT Global Chemicals has been in the initial stages of a petrochemical plant on the banks of the Ohio River, about 60 miles south of Pittsburgh, in Belmont County, Ohio. PTT has been working on the project for years, and enlisted another company, South Korea-based Daelin, to help. But no final investment decision has been made. A spokesman for PTT in Ohio wasn't immediately avail...

From The Times Leader: It was a full house at the JobsOhio’s public board meeting on Monday afternoon at the Ohio Mine Safety Training Center in Harrison County. JobsOhio is a private nonprofit corporation designed to drive job creation and new capital investment in Ohio through business attraction and retention and expansion efforts. Numerous elected officials, department heads and seven of the nine JobsOhio board members were present at the meeting.  Bob Smith, chairman of the board, began the meeting and thanked all who were in attendance. He then introduced Congressman Bill Johnson.  Johnson, R-Ohio, discussed the actions of President Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War in reference to Ohio’s leadership skills.  “So you’ve got the secretary of treasury, the commander in chief of the Army, and the two most prolific fighter generals that Lincoln could find, all from Ohio. You think about where we might have been, as a nation, if Lincoln had not surrounded himself ...

New permits issued last week:   7  (Previous week:  11 )   -4 Total horizontal permits issued:  3113  (Previous week:  3106 )    +7 Total horizontal wells drilled:  2626  (Previous week:  2613 )   +13 Total horizontal wells producing:  2222  (Previous week:  2222 )   +-0 Utica rig count:  18  (Previous week:  19 )   -1

From the Star Beacon: Construction on the Risberg natural gas pipeline has started in Ohio, near the state line.  Pipe segments lined an area of clear ground south of Interstate 90 Wednesday, marking the path of the Risberg Pipeline. Construction started at the end of another pipeline in Meadville, Pennsylvania, and work has now entered Ohio, as the $86 million pipeline is getting closer and closer to it's end-point in North Kingsville.  The pipeline includes 16 miles of new pipeline in Pennsylvania and 12 miles of new pipeline in Ohio. "I don't think it's possible to overstate the need (for natural gas)," Conneaut City Manager Jim Hockaday said.  Growth Partnership Executive Director Greg Myers has said in the past that the county has lost out on investment and job opportunities because of lack of access to natural gas.  Work on the project started in March, with crews clearing land along the pipeline's path. At the time, the project was expected to...

From the Washington Examiner: The Trump administration’s battle for new energy infrastructure will center on Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania this summer, as members of the president’s cabinet work with state regulators to build the country’s first natural gas and petrochemical hub in Appalachia.  Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette told John that he and others from the Energy Department, Transportation Department and other agencies have been charged by the president to produce a plan to overcome the regulatory hurdles to get the project off the ground.  Meetings in the three shale-producing states are ongoing, with Kentucky — not a natural gas producer — also part of the conversation. Kentucky is seen as a major part of the logistics chain that will be needed to convert Appalachia into a thriving center for petrochemicals and energy exports along the Ohio River.  Assistant Secretary Mark Menezeswill be sitting down with Ohio regulators in the next few da...

WEEK ENDING 06/08/2019 New permits issued last week:   11  (Previous week:  4 )   +7 Total horizontal permits issued:  3106  (Previous week:  3097 )    +9 Total horizontal wells drilled:  2613  (Previous week:  2608 )   +5 Total horizontal wells producing:  2222  (Previous week:  2223 )   -1 Utica rig count:  19  (Previous week:  21 )   -2

by Nicole Jacobs, Energy in Depth The activist who wrote a  2012 memo  encouraging anti-fracking groups to connect health problems and fracking even when no evidence existed to support the claims recently co-authored a  report  admitting that the vast majority of scientific research shows no harmful air pollutants near oil and natural gas sites. As the report  explains , “Air pollution near oil and gas production typically measures in concentrations within healthy air standards…” Activist researcher and executive director of the openly anti-fracking  Physicians Scientists & Engineers for Healthy Energy  (PSEHE) Seth Shonkoff and his co-authors analyzed 37 peer-reviewed journal articles on hazardous air pollutants from 2012 to 2018, finding: “[M]easurements of hazardous air pollutant concentrations near operational sites  have generally failed to capture levels above standard health benchmarks ; yet, the majority of studies continue...

From The Herald Star: Before it closed in 2013, the Ormet Aluminum Corp. in Monroe County used the same amount of power in a day that the entire city of Pittsburgh did. “And that was 540 megawatts of power we were using,” explained Robert Cox, general manager of the Long Ridge Energy Terminal, on the former Ormet site.  On Thursday, the terminal at 43840 state Route 7, north of Hannibal, hosted those representing local, state and national partners at the site to break ground for a new 485-megawatt natural gas power plant estimated to be complete in two and a half years.  Cox has been on the site managing operations for 30 years and saw the Ormet plant at its peak production capacity until its closing in 2013.  “That closure really impacted the local economy, it took a hit,” noted Ed Looman, project manager of the Appalachian Partnership for Economic Growth.  The facility closed due to high utility costs after the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio did not ...

From Kallanish Energy: The Ohio House of Representatives has approved a sweeping energy bill that boosts financial support for two struggling nuclear power plants and two coal-fired power plants, while gutting programs promoting renewable energy and energy efficiency, Kallanish Energy reports.  The much-watched, much-debated bill was approved by a 53-43 vote.  House Bill 6 would raise $200 million a year by imposing a new fee on all Ohio residential electric customers to support FirstEnergy Solutions, the owner of the Perry and Davis-Besse nuclear power plants in northern Ohio.  That would amount of nearly $1.3 billion over the six years the legislation is slated to last, ending in 2027. Without the additional money from customers ($1 per customer), the plants will close within two years, said the company, which is spinning off from Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp. It filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last year.  The bill would erase Ohio’s clean-ener...

From the Houston Chronicle: With growing volumes of natural gas from Texas and the rest of the United States sold abroad, developers are rushing to build new pipelines connecting oil and gas fields with border crossings and shipping ports.  But a growing number of landowners and environmentalists are fighting those projects at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and in federal courts, challenging the notion that pipeline projects carrying gas destined for export are entitled to the same privileges granted infrastructure projects serving American customers.  Under federal law, pipeline developers can seize land for construction as long as the project is deemed in “the public interest.” In the D.C Circuit Court of Appeals, the city of Oberlin, Ohio is challenging FERC’s 2017 approval of a 275-mile pipeline moving Appalachian natural gas to Michigan through their city, arguing in part FERC erred because a substantial portion of the gas will be exported to Canada. Clic...

From the Orange County Register: Fracking helped save the lives of roughly 11,000 Americans each winter from 2005 to 2010, according to a recent National Bureau of Economic Research paper.  How? By driving down energy prices and helping them affordably heat their homes.  Demographers have long observed that low-income people die at higher rates during the winter months. This “excess winter mortality” has a simple, heartbreaking cause — people keep their dwellings uncomfortably cold to reduce their heating bills. Constant exposure to chilly temperatures makes it more likely that people will contract and succumb to respiratory and heart disease.  Many low-income Americans also skimp on food and health care to afford their heating bills. Thirty-one percent of households struggle to pay energy bills. About 17 percent of U.S. households spend more than 10 percent of their total income on energy costs, mostly on heating. Read on by clicking here. 

WEEK ENDING 06/01/2019 New permits issued last week:   4  (Previous week:  17 )   -13 Total horizontal permits issued:  3097  (Previous week:  3093 )    +4 Total horizontal wells drilled:  2608  (Previous week:  2601 )   +7 Total horizontal wells producing:  2223  (Previous week:  2186 )   +37 Utica rig count:  21  (Previous week:  16 )   +5

From the Ohio Department of Natural Resources: During the first quarter of 2019, Ohio’s horizontal shale wells produced 5,073,536 barrels of oil and 609,452,391 Mcf (609 billion cubic feet) of natural gas, according to figures released today by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management.   Natural gas production from the first quarter of 2019 showed a 14.57 percent increase over the first quarter of 2018, while oil production increased 28.69 percent for the same period.     2018 Quarter 1 (Shale) 2019 Quarter 1 (Shale) Percentage Change Barrels of oil 3,942,329 bbl 5,073,536 bbl 28.69% Mcf of natural gas 531,954,017 Mcf 609,452,391 Mcf 14.57% The ODNR quarterly report lists 2,277 horizontal shale wells, 2,228 of which reported oil and natural gas production during the quarter. Of the wells reporting oil and natural gas results:   The average amount of oil produced was 2,277 barrels. The average amoun...