Unimin Corporation has announced a new facility for distributing proppants used in hydraulic fracturing. The facility will be located in Navarre, Ohio, about 10 miles west of Canton. Strategically placed to be accessible by rail and highway, the facility will be open 24 hours daily, 365 days a year. The new facility joins six other Unimin facilities distributing proppants in the northern Appalachian basin.
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) missed a Wednesday, February 27th deadline to issue a final version of its proposed regulations for high-volume hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. DEC Commissioner Joe Martens reportedly stated in early February that the regulations will not be completed until the New York State Department of Health (DOH) concludes its review of potential health impacts. Also in early February, DOH Commissioner Nirav Shah signaled that more time was needed to complete the health study. Missing the February 27th deadline means that DEC will need to entertain another round of public comments if the agency re-proposes the regulations. More than 200,000 public comments were reportedly submitted in response to DEC’s proposal published on December 12, 2012.
WJAC-TV reports that Aspen Fluid Logistics plans to continue its development of a wastewater treatment pilot system in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, despite weather and permitting challenges. The pilot project, which was announced last April, will treat up to 50,000 gallons per day of wastewater from oil and gas drilling operations. It is estimated that the project will bring more than 100 jobs to Cambria County and surrounding areas. If the pilot program is successful, company officials indicate that they hope to complete construction of a full water treatment facility, which would take at least two years.
FirstEnergy Corp. believes demand for power may increase quickly in the near future if shale gas development from the Marcellus and Utica shale spark a “manufacturing renaissance.” Chief Financial Officer James Pearson recently told analysts that he thinks that the manufacturing and industrial industries may grow at far greater rates than in the past because of the economic development potential of the Marcellus and Utica shale.
On February 25, 2013, the Commonwealth Financing Authority (CFA) began accepting applications for the following five programs established and supported by the Act 13 Marcellus Legacy Fund:
1. Abandoned Mine Drainage and Abatement and Treatment Program
2. Baseline Water Quality Data Program
3. Greenways, Trails, and Recreation Program
4. Orphan or Abandoned Well Plugging Program
5. Watershed Restoration and Protection Program
These programs are jointly administered by the Department of Community and Economic Development, the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, and the Department of Environmental Protection. The total funding available for these programs is $14 million dollars, which comes directly from impact fee payments made last year by natural gas operators. Applications are currently being accepted through July 31, 2013, and will be considered at CFA’s Nov. 13, 2013, meeting.
As reported in the Akron Beacon Journal Online, Chesapeake Energy has hit oil in West Virginia’s Ohio and Marshall Counties. Chesapeake reports that it drew an average of 290 barrels of oil per day from one Ohio County well in 2012
with another Ohio County well producing an average of 195 barrels of oil per day. Additional wells in Marshall County and across the Northern Panhandle are also showing strong oil production in addition to producing other liquids- such as ethane, propane and butane. Chesapeake released a report detailing its successes in the 2012 operating year showing year-end proven reserves of 15.7 Tcfe.
In a report issued last week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Inspector General (OIG) asked the agency to improve its air emissions data for the oil and gas industry. Specifically, OIG called on EPA to implement a comprehensive strategy for improving air emissions data and prioritizing emission factors for the industry. EPA agreed with some of these recommendations, but rejected OIG’s directives to ensure that states submit certain data and to develop additional, default calculation guidance for emission factors.
Ohio Governor John Kasich’s budget proposal includes additional provisions regulating the oil and gas industry in Ohio. The proposals include a $25,000 horizontal-well impact fee to be paid into county escrow accounts, a requirement to notify landowners of oil and gas lease transfers within 30 days of the transfer, new testing requirements and limits on the disposal of materials containing naturally occurring radioactivity and a ban on the use of brine on roads. These provisions are all part of Ohio’s two-year, $63 billion spending plan.
Despite a drop in the number of rigs within the Commonwealth, the Pocono Record reports that Pennsylvania gas production doubled in 2012. In 2011, there were 110 drilling rigs in Pennsylvania. That number dropped to 84 in 2012. Despite this, Pennsylvania produced 1.1 trillion cubic feet of gas, or roughly 9% of the country’s daily demand, between July and December 2012. Continuing with past trends, the vast majority of the top producing wells were in Northeastern Pennsylvania, and Bradford was the top producing county.
Youngstown city council approved a citizens group’s charter-amendment proposal to ban fracking in Youngstown and placed the proposal on the May 7 primary election ballot. Backed by over 3,800 signed petitions, the group, Frack Free Mahoning Valley, appears to have the required number of signatures, and therefore the Youngstown city council was required to approve the ordinance to be placed on the ballot. Other cities throughout Ohio, including Niles, Cincinnati, Yellow Springs and Mansfield already have voted to ban oil and gas extraction and/or injection wells in their communities. Regardless of the outcome of the May 7th vote, the city council and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources asserts that any such municipal ordinance is preempted by state law, and accordingly any such ordinance would likely be unenforceable.
Chesapeake Energy, the No. 1 driller in Ohio’s Utica Shale formation, projected an estimated ultimate recovery (EUR) of 5 billion to 10 billion cubic feet of equivalents over the lifetime of each of its wells drilled into the Utica Shale in Carroll County and the surrounding areas. Those EUR estimates are pointedly higher than what has been reported from wells drilled in the Marcellus Shale formation in Pennsylvania, where Chesapeake Energy has only reported EURs as high as 4.2 billion cubic feet of equivalents and the U.S. Geological Survey has reported an average EUR of 1.1 billion cubic feet of equivalents.
James Cutler, CEO of Houston-based Appalachian Resins, Inc., indicated to the State Journal that his company is preparing to announce the details of its planned $500 million integrated polyethylene facility in Marshall County, south of Wheeling. Funding for the project has appeared to come together, reports the State Journal. The plant will include an ethane cracker that would consume 15,000 barrels of ethane per day. Ethane is produced with the “wet gas” found in the Marcellus Shale formation in northern West Virginia, Southwestern Pennsylvania and Ohio. The plant’s cracker will produce ethylene, and the facility will ultimately produce polyethylene resins, such as HDPE. The plant is projected to produce upwards of 120 permanent jobs.
Allegheny County Council voted yesterday to approve a lease with CONSOL Energy Inc., permitting gas drilling at Pittsburgh International Airport, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports. County Executive Rich Fitzgerald intends to sign the bill. CONSOL estimates that drilling will start no earlier than late 2014. Current estimates are that gas drilling at the airport could earn the Allegheny County Airport Authority $500 million dollars. Federal law requires that the revenue that the county receives from the lease must go directly to the airport. The Shale Energy Law Blog has more coverage on the airport lease here and here.
Geisinger Health Systems has announced that it was awarded a $1 million grant by the Degenstein Foundation to study health impacts of Marcellus shale drilling. The grant funds are expected to be primarily used to create data-gathering infrastructure, with the balance going to develop studies of the data gathered. Geisinger expects to collaborate on its efforts with Guthrie Health of Sayre and Susquehanna Health. Preliminary results could be available next year, with long-term results expected to follow in the coming years. AP has more.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced in a Federal Register notice a revised deadline by which oil and gas operators must submit a request to use alternative calculation methods for reporting greenhouse gas emissions. The old deadline to make the request was September 30th of each year prior to the reporting year. The new deadline is June 30th. EPA noted that changing the deadline will better allow the agency to respond before the reporting year begins to those who make the request .