Pennsylvania Gas

Surprising Utica Shale Well Production!

September 30, 2011
energy

“Chesapeake Energy Corporation disclosed initial horizontal well drilling results in the wet gas and dry gas phases of the Utica Shale play in eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania.

The Buell 10-11-5 8H in Harrison County, Ohio was drilled to a lateral length of 6,418 feet and achieved a peak rate of 9.5 million cubic feet (mmcf) per day of natural gas and 1,425 barrels (bbls) per day of natural gas liquids and oil (liquids), or 3,010 barrels of oil equivalent (boe) per day.” Quoted from the Chesapeake Energy press release.

More at Chesapeake Energy.

Natural Gas Potential of the Upper Devonian Shale

September 30, 2011
energy

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.

Utica Shale Speculation?

September 28, 2011
energy

Although data is only available for 16 wells drilled into a Utica Shale resource that has a geographic extent of 170,000 square miles, that is not stopping oil and gas companies from spending billions of dollars on acreage.

More at Wall Street Journal.

Another Natural Gas Severance Tax Proposal for Pennsylvania?

September 25, 2011
energy

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.

Oh No! Who Really Owns the Natural Gas in Shale?

September 23, 2011

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.

Who Has the Power to Regulate Hydraulic Fracturing?

September 19, 2011

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.

Who Knows the Potential of the Utica Shale?

September 12, 2011
energy

With just a small number of wells drilled into the Utica Shale using current technology, the potential of that rock unit remains unclear. However, a number of companies are placing big bets on the Utica – especially in Ohio.

More at Seeking Alpha.

Marcellus Shale Ethane Contract

September 8, 2011
energy

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

September 6, 2011
energy

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

September 6, 2011
energy

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

August 30, 2011

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

August 29, 2011

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

August 25, 2011

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

August 25, 2011

“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.

Consol Energy Sells Marcellus Shale Stake

August 20, 2011
leases-royalties

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.

Marcellus Shale Development Will Require Thousands of Miles of Pipelines

August 15, 2011
gas-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.

How Many Jobs Can Be Attributed to the Marcellus Shale?

August 2, 2011
energy

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.

Major Natural Gas Liquids Find in the Utica Shale

July 29, 2011
natural-gas

Chesapeake Energy announced a major new natural gas liquids play in the Utica Shale of eastern Ohio based upon results from six horizontal and nine vertical wells. The company holds 1.25 million net leasehold acres in the Utica Shale and believes that they could be worth $15 – $20 billion in increased value to the company.

More at Chesapeake Energy.

The Marcellus Shale Pipeline Challenge

July 28, 2011
energy

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

July 28, 2011
energy

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.

Major Oil Companies are Buying Up the Marcellus

June 10, 2011

Major oil companies are rapidly buying the small players in the Marcellus Shale gas play. Exxon Mobil Corporation just spent $1.7 billion to purchase Phillips Resources, Inc. and TWP Inc. This follows Chevron’s recent acquisition of Atlas Energy and other transactions. More on the FuelFix.com blog.

Linking Methane in Drinking Water to Gas Extraction

May 16, 2011
environmental-issues

The NPR Talk of the Nation program for May 13 investigates the occurrence of natural gas in household water supply wells in Pennsylvania. In a study of 68 wells, those within one kilometer of a natural gas well had 17 times the amount of methane in the water.

Drilling the Marcellus Shale on Pennsylvania Game Lands

May 9, 2011
government-politics

The Pennsylvania Game Commission hopes to generate millions of dollars in revenue by expanding the natural gas leasing program on Pennsylvania Game Lands. More in the Wall Street Journal.

Tom Corbett Speaks Against “Forced Pooling”

May 9, 2011

Pennsylvania Governor, Tom Corbett, says that he is against changes to laws governing oil and gas drilling that will enable “forced pooling” – which can require property owners to be participants in a consolidation of many neighboring properties into a single lease/royalty agreement. More at Forbes.com.

Natural Gas Concerns Trigger Water Testing in Pennsylvania

April 11, 2011
environmental-issues

Drinking water facilities and wastewater treatment plants will expand their water testing procedures out of concern for radioactive particles in wastewater produced during natural gas drilling. More in the New York Times.

17,000 Marcellus Shale Gas Wells?

March 11, 2011
drilling-activity

Statoil ASA and Chesapeake Energy project that they could drill as many as 17,000 natural gas wells into the Marcellus Shale over the next twenty years. More in the West Virginia Gazette.

Radiation in Marcellus Shale Wastewater?

March 8, 2011
environmental-issues

A New York Times article explores concerns about radiation levels in wastewater from Marcellus Shale drilling sites and how that water is being processed before discharge into the environment.

How Much Gas in the Utica Shale?

March 3, 2011

The Utica Shale has a larger geographic extent than both the Marcellus Shale of the Appalachian Basin and the Barnett Shale of Texas. It is also has a much larger total volume. Will its gas producing potential exceed that of the Marcellus and Barnett. An article on the Seeking Alpha blog explores this question.

“Triple Play” in the Appalachian Basin

March 3, 2011

John Pinkerton, CEO of Range Resources, explains the “Triple Play” in natural gas that can be had in parts of Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio and West Virginia. Shale gas can be produced from the Upper Devonian Shale, the Marcellus Shale, and the Utica Shale – all from a single drill pad. More in the Star-Telegram Blogs.

Natural Gas in the Upper Devonian Shales

March 2, 2011

From the PAGasDirectory Blog…. In an assessment of its lease holdings, Range Resources has included 10 to 14 trillion cubic feet of Upper Devonian natural gas as an unproven resource. The Upper Devonian is above the Marcellus Shale and includes multiple organic shales such as the Cleveland, Huron-Dunkirk, Rhinestreet, Middlesex and Geneseo-Burket Shales. See an article on SearchAndDiscovery.net for a generalized stratigraphic sequence.