A free webinar titled: “The Impact of Marcellus Shale: What Do the Economic Impact Studies Imply?” is scheduled for Thursday, March 18th at 1:00 PM and hosted by the Penn State Cooperative Extension. You can register on their website.

An article in Reuters explains that Statoil has a deal with Tennessee Gas Pipeline to transport Marcellus Shale natural gas from Pennsylvania to New York City and parts of New Jersey. This connection to cities on the east coast is part of what makes the Marcellus Shale gas play so important.

An article on the Syracuse.com website reports that Chesapeake Energy wants to store 663 million (??) gallons of hydrofrack water produced in Pennsylvania in a well about a mile from Keuka Lake.

Calvin Tillman, the Mayor of Dish, Texas gave a two hour presentation on how to prevent the harmful effects of natural gas drilling at the Elmira Heights Theater in Elmira Heights, New York. He encouraged local officials to “take control” of what happens in their jurisdiction. More at The Online Leader.

Drilling and hydrofracking a well in one of the natural gas plays such as the Marcellus or Haynesville requires at least a million gallons of water with chemical additives and will become salty when it comes in contact with subsurface brines. An article on the Reuters website explores this problem in New York.

Most of the publicity about natural gas drilling in New York has focused on environmental concerns and limiting resource development. A recent assembly of people in Binghamton focused on the rights of property owners to benefit from their resource. More in an article on Reuters.com.

An article on the Oil and Gas Journal website reports that the Sumitomo Corporation of Japan is considering a stake in the Marcellus Shale gas play. Last year they invested in Barnett Shale acreage.

An article on the Oil and Gas Journal website gives a detailed presentation on the huge number of opportunities that still exist in the Marcellus Shale gas play.

Some people believe that the state of New York is implementing regulatory standards for natural gas drilling that are strict enough to significantly reduce or delay the development of the Marcellus Shale in that state.  More at the Oil and Gas Journal website.

An article in the New York Times reports that Chesapeake Energy will not drill for the Marcellus Shale in the New York City watershed – there is plenty of gas elsewhere.

New York state government has released their revised permitting standards for natural gas wells targeting the Marcellus Shale. However, New York City officials are calling for a ban on drilling in the watersheds that supply their drinking water. More in a Reuters article.

In a news release, Chesapeake Energy says that they are the largest leaseholder in the Marcellus Shale play with 1.45 million acres net. They are the most active driller in the play with 15 rigs and they expect to be the largest natural gas producer from the play by the end of 2009 with 80 mmcfe net per day. And they have increased their average per well yield projection from 3.75 bcfe to 4.2 bcfe.

An article in Buffalo Business First says that the economic impact of just 300 Marcellus Shale gas wells is well over $1 billion and will yield $32 million in state tax revenue.

The State of New York issued three permits to Gastem, Inc., to drill vertical wells into the Utica Shale. More information at the Energy Business Review.

An article at RigZone profiles the Marcellus Shale holdings and activities of Range Resources. Range was one of the first companies to aggressively buy Marcellus leases and now has significant holdings.