Proposed drilling regulations in New York could take enormous amounts of land that has already been leased out-of-play for natural gas development.
More at Reuters.com.Marcellus Shale
Natural Gas Leases in Conflict with Mortgages
Thousands of people across the United States have signed leases that give energy companies the right to drill on their land. However, many of these properties have mortgages that prohibit the property owner from entering into a mineral lease.
More at New York Times.
Who Will Get the Marcellus and Utica Shale Ethane?
Parts of the Marcellus Shale and Utica Shale contain worthy amounts of ethane which is a valuable feedstock for the plastics industry. Will it be shipped by pipeline to distant manufacturers or will local manufacturing industries develop?
More at Reuters.
Exporting Marcellus Shale LNG from Maryland?
Dominion Resources is seeking permission to condense natural gas produced from the Marcellus Shale into LNG (liquefied natural gas) for export from their Cove Point facility at Lusby, Maryland.
More at FuelFix.com.
Pennsylvania Supreme Court Case Could Overturn Lots of Natural Gas Leases
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court is considering a case on how mineral rights [1] are defined that could overturn lots of natural gas leases that have been signed over the past century.
[1] http://geology.com/articles/mineral-rights.shtml
More at Business Week.
Marcellus Shale and Utica Shale in Ohio
The Ohio Geological Survey has an online presentation that summarizes the Marcellus Shale [1] resource in Ohio. It also contains lots of information about the Utica Shale [2] in Ohio.
[1] http://geology.com/articles/marcellus-shale.shtml
[2] http://geology.com/articles/utica-shale/
Marcellus Shale: Separating Spin from Fact?
An Associated Press article examines how people who favor and oppose Marcellus Shale natural gas development have very different perceptions of problems and opportunities.
More at Associated Press @ Google.
Severance Taxes or Drilling Fees?
Pennsylvania is one of the few states that does not levy a severance tax on oil and gas extraction. However, in need of revenue, government leaders are proposing severance taxes and drilling fees.
More at ABC News.
Eminent Domain and Natural Gas Pipelines
Now that thousands of wells have been drilled into the Marcellus Shale and other gas plays in the United States the job of getting the gas to market becomes urgent. This has triggered debates about right of way acquisition and eminent domain.
More at PennLive.com.
Shale Gas and the Plastics Industry
Ethane is an abundant component of natural gas and it can be processed and sold as a feedstock to the chemical and plastic industries. An article in the Globe and Mail explains why some plastics producers are excited about the abundant shale gas disco…
More at The Globe and Mail.
Marcellus Shale Wastewater Injection
It is never politically popular to accept out-of-state waste and injection well owners in Ohio are taking heat because they are injecting Marcellus Shale drilling waste from Pennsylvania. An article in the Houston Chronicle explains why so much Pennsyl…
More at Houston Chronicle.
Natural Gas Potential of the Upper Devonian Shale
A sequence of rocks above the Marcellus Shale, known as the “Upper Devonian Shales” might hold significant amounts of recoverable natural gas and natural gas liquids. From top to bottom the Upper Devonian Shales, Marcellus Shale and Utica Shale are the “stacked plays of the Appalachians”.
More at Platts.com.
Another Natural Gas Severance Tax Proposal for Pennsylvania?
The Pennsylvania State Legislature has another potential bill that is designed to apply a 4.9 percent severance tax on natural gas extracted from Marcellus Shale wells in Pennsylvania.
More at PhillyBurbs.com.
How Much Gas is in the Lancashire Shale?
Experts are calculating the volume of natural gas contained in the shales below Lancashire County.
More at The Guardian.
Oh No! Who Really Owns the Natural Gas in Shale?
Is natural gas part of the shale or is it a fugitive commodity that is not an integral part of any specific rock unit? Will a refined legal definition of natural gas in Pennsylvania overturn thousands of historic leases?
More at Business Week.
Unconventional Natural Gas and Oil in Ohio
An article on the Cleveland.com website reports that unconventional natural gas and oil in Ohio could create over 200,000 jobs and generate billions of dollars in economic activity.
More at Cleveland.com.
Natural Gas as a Chemical Industry Feedstock
An article in the Charleston Daily Mail explains how Marcellus Shale gas can be used as a source of energy and as a feedstock in the chemical manufacturing industry and how these might benefit the West Virginia economy.
More at Charleston Daily Mail.
Who Supports Marcellus Shale Drilling in New York?
A Quinnipiac University poll of over 1000 New York residents released today shows who supports Marcellus Shale drilling and perceptions of how drilling will impact the state. Results are tallied by gender, political affiliation, location of residence …
More at Quinnipiac University.
Who Has the Power to Regulate Hydraulic Fracturing?
Communities in New York, Pennsylvania and West Virginia have passed bans on hydraulic fracturing within their political boundaries. In some instances these bans have been overturned because the power to regulate of oil and gas drilling belongs to Stat…
More at Business Week.
Marcellus Shale Ethane Contract
Range Resources announced that it has an ethane sales contract for its Marcellus Shale liquid-rich gas being produced in southwestern Pennsylvania. The contract is with NOVA Chemicals Corporation of Canada.
More at Range Resources.
Pennsylvanians: Favorable View of the Natural Gas Industry
In a poll by Franklin & Marshall College, two-thirds of Pennsylvanians surveyed reported a favorable view of the Natural Gas Industry.
More at FuelFix.com.
Shell: An Ethylene Cracker Plant for the Marcellus Shale
Shell Oil Company is interested in developing a large-scale ethylene cracker plant somewhere over the Marcellus Shale of Pennsylvania, West Virginia or Ohio. The plant would process natural gas liquids into a variety of chemical products.
More at Pittsburgh Live.
USGS and EIA Marcellus Estimates Use Different Metrics
The United States Geological Survey and the Energy Information Administration have published significantly different estimates of the amount of natural gas contained in the Marcellus Shale. An article in NorthcentralPA.com reports that the estimate metrics are very different.
More in NorthcentralPA.com.
Shell: A Natural Gas Cracker Plant for the Marcellus Shale
Shell plans to build a world-scale ethylene chemical plant in the Appalachian area that will process ethane from Marcellus Shale natural gas into products for the chemical industry.
More at PennLive.com.
Disagreements over the Amount of Gas in the Marcellus Shale
The United States Geological Survey estimates that there are about 84 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in the Marcellus Shale. Estimates from the Department of Energy put the amount of gas at 410 trillion cubic feet.
More at Bloomberg.com.
2011 Assessment of Marcellus Shale Gas Resources
“The Marcellus Shale contains about 84 trillion cubic feet of undiscovered, technically recoverable natural gas and 3.4 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable natural gas liquids according to a new assessment by the U. S. Geological Survey.” Quoted from the USGS news release.
More at USGS.
Burning Natural Gas Instead of Coal Can Cut Greenhouse Gas Emissions
A Carnegie Mellon University study reports that the generation of electricity by burning Marcellus Shale gas instead of coal could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20 to 50 percent.
More in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Consol Energy Sells Marcellus Shale Stake
Consol Energy has agreed to sell half of its 663,350 acres of Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania and West Virginia along with half of its existing wells to Noble Energy for $3.4 billion.
More in the Post-Gazette.com.
Judge: A City Does Not Have Jurisdiction over Natural Gas Drilling
In June 2011, the city of Morgantown, West Virginia banned hydraulic fracturing within a mile of the city limits. Northeast Natural Energy owned rights to some of the land under the city. Northeast said the action was a “taking”, Morgantown said that they were exercising “home rule”, but on Friday a Judge ruled that jurisdiction over drilling belongs to the State.
More at Forbes.com.
Marcellus Shale Development Will Require Thousands of Miles of Pipelines
About three billion cubic feet of natural gas is being produced every day from the Marcellus Shale, an amount that is expected to grow significantly as more wells are drilled. Moving that gas to market will require thousands of miles of new pipelines,…
More at Business Week.
Reconsidering the New Martinsville, WV Drilling Ban
The City Council of New Martinsville, West Virginia voted to ban Marcellus Shale gas drilling within their city limits. However, their next meeting was filled with people who objected to the ban. Now they plan to reconsider.
More at FuelFix.com.
Public Support for Natural Gas Drilling in New York?
A New York public opinion poll revealed that more people in that state support natural gas drilling than oppose it. Seventy-five percent believe that it will bring more jobs to the state.
More at YNN.com.
Shale Drilling Boom in Ohio?
A recent announcement of highly successful wells drilled into the Utica Shale of eastern Ohio has many communities excited about the potential opportunities and problems associated with a shale drilling boom.
More at Morgan County Herald.
Natural Gas Production Dropping in New York
With a moratorium on Marcellus Shale drilling in New York, the production of natural gas in the state is dropping as existing wells deplete.
More at the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.
How Many Jobs Can Be Attributed to the Marcellus Shale?
An article in the Wall Street Journal provides estimates of total employment for Marcellus Shale core industries in Pennsylvania and explores the various ways of producing such job estimates.
More at Wall Street Journal.
First New York Marcellus Shale Targets
When natural gas drilling resumes in the state of New York the counties most likely to see heavy activity are Broome, Tioga and Chemung. These areas are thought to have the best geological characteristics, which include organic content and thickness.
More in The Ithaca Journal.
Hearings on Regulating Marcellus Shale Development in West Virginia
The State of West Virginia is holding public hearings to receive input on how to better regulate development of the state’s Marcellus Shale resource.
More at Business Week.
The Marcellus Shale Pipeline Challenge
In some parts of Pennsylvania and other states high densities of natural gas wells have been drilled in the past two or three years. Today’s problem is building the many miles of gathering system and transmission system pipelines needed to move the gas to market. Most of these pipelines must cross many parcels of private property and the right to cross them must be carefully negotiated and paid for.
More at Reuters.
Contentious Natural Gas Lease Renewals
In 2008 and earlier lots of landowners above the Marcellus Shale signed natural gas lease agreements for the historical “going rate” of a few dollars per acre. Then as the potential of the rock unit became known the signing bonuses paid on leases skyrocketed to thousands of dollars per acre. Now these leases are expiring and legal battles between landowners and gas companies are beginning.
More at Business Week.
Shale Gas and U.S. National Security
The Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University has published a report titled: “Shale Gas and U.S. National Security”. “This study assesses the impact of U.S. domestic shale gas development on energy security and U.S. national security, with emphasis on the geopolitical consequences of rising supplies of U.S. natural gas from shale and the implications for U.S. foreign policy.” Quoted from the report summary.
