In a Brooklyn winery on a sultry July evening, an elegant crowd sips rosé and nibbles trout plucked from the gin-clear streams of upstate New York. The diners are here, with their checkbooks, to support a group called Chefs for the Marcellus, which works to protect the foodshed upon which hundreds of regional farm-to-fork restaurants depend. The foodshed is coincident with the Marcellus Shale, a geologic formation that arcs northeast from West Virginia through Pennsylvania and into New York State. As everyone invited here knows, the region is both agriculturally and energy rich, with vast quantities of natural gas sequestered deep below its fertile fields and forests.

In Pennsylvania, the oil and gas industry is already on a tear -- drilling thousands of feet into ancient seabeds, then repeatedly fracturing (or fracking) these wells with millions of gallons of highly pressurized, chemically laced water, which shatters the surrounding shale and releases fossil fuels. New York, meanwhile, is on its own natural-resource tear, with hundreds of newly opened breweries, wineries, organic dairies and pasturized livestock operations -- all of them capitalizing on the metropolitan area's hunger to localize its diet.

Drilling companies in Texas, the No. 1 drilling state in the United States, were allowed to not disclose all chemicals used in the hydraulic fracturing or fracking process more than 19,000 times in 2012 through August.

Nationally, one in five wells fails to disclose all chemicals involved.

Halliburton and three other large oil service companies in 2011 spent $2 billion on research and development of green drilling.

That's up 32 percent from two years earlier.

From the Marcellus Drilling News:

Ergon, Inc., a crude oil processor headquartered in Jackson, MS but with operations in other states, including West Virginia, announced Wednesday there’s enough crude oil flowing from the Marcellus and Utica Shale region that they are investing $78 million to add more refining capacity to their plant in Newell, WV.

From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

First National Bank of Pennsylvania is offering special premium rates on CDs to people leasing land to gas drillers.

From the Associated Press:

A revised set of proposed regulations for hydraulic fracturing natural gas has been released by New York environmental officials who will begin taking public comment on them in December.

From the Marcellus Drilling News:

A few weeks ago MDN told you about a new landowners group in Lordstown, Ohio, formed in response to requests from Halcon Resources who is asking landowners in the area to sign modifications to existing 20-50 year-old leases on their property to allow for Utica Shale drilling (see this MDN story). At the time the new Lordstown Regional Landowners Group represented 5,000 of the 31,000 acres in Trumbull and Mahoning counties (Ohio) Halcon had recently purchased the rights to.

From the Associated Press:

A West Virginia natural gas driller will pay $177,500 to settle charges it disturbed wetlands and streams while building well pads and pipelines in Harrison County.

From the Marcellus Drilling News:

WorkForce West Virginia issued a new report to the WV legislature on Wednesday documenting that employment throughout WV in the oil and gas industry has increased 10% since 2008, and average wages for those workers have gone up 19%. Why? The Marcellus shale, of course.

From Chesapeake Energy Copr.:

OKLAHOMA CITY--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 29, 2012-- Peake Fuel Solutions, L.L.C., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE:CHK), today announced the development of a new, transformative diesel natural gas (DNG) conversion kit, a product that will help heavy-duty truck operators save up to 30% on their fuel costs.

From the Associated Press:

By MARY ESCH

The world's largest petrochemical maker by market capitalization is eying the shale gas development in the United States.

SABIC, the Saudi Basic Industries Corp., would like to get started by building one plant in the United States.

From the Associated Press:

Around 100 protesters have been escorted from a public forum over injection gas drilling in Athens in southeastern Ohio.

From Bloomberg News on Nov. 28:

By Mark Drajem

From the Associated Press:

 Several faculty members at Community College of Philadelphia say their school shouldn’t be accepting funds for a new Energy Training Center from a natural gas industry trade group.

From the Associated Press:

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder released an energy and environmental policy blueprint.

From the Associated Press:

A Colorado judge says a lawsuit that state regulators filed seeking to strike down some of Longmont's new oil and gas drilling rules can proceed.

A team of scientists at the University of California, Davis has developed a system to hunt pipeline leaks by plane.

For utility companies, the benefits could be big.

From U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown today:

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Two Ohio research institutions will receive resources for projects to advance sustainable shale development practices. Ohio University in Athens and Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus will use U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) resources to address potential issues while reducing the environmental impact of shale development.

Hart Energy reports that Ohio's lack of transparency on drilling production data may slow development in the Utica shale.

Thomas Pritchard of California-based Imperial Capital LLC saidat a Pittsburgh conference that the lack of production data from Ohio is troubling, Hart Energy says.

Interesting tidbit: Ohio gets 30 trillion gallons of rainfall per year.

That factoid is included in Spenser Hunt's story in the Columbus Dispatch on whether Ohio has enough water fro the fracking boom in the Utica shale in eastern Ohio.

Gulfport Energy Corp. keeps striking it rich.

From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

The Marcellus shale region now accounts for 26 percent of the country's shale gas production, according to the latest report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

From the Youngstown Vindicator:

By Burton Speakman

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources has issued 457 permits to drill in the Utica shale through Nov. 24.

The new permits are  two in Harrison County and three in Noble County, according to the Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management.

From the Zanesville Times Recorder:
 

From the Associated Press:

An outlay of revenue from drilling impact fees to address affordable housing needs in the Marcellus Shale region will be made next month by the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency.

A Medina City Council committee is holding an informational meeting on injection wells on Tuesday, Dec. 4.

The meeting by the Legislative Committee will take place at 6:30 p.m. in the multi-purpose room in the basement of Medina City Hall, 132 N. Elmwood Ave.

From the Associated Press:

Posted: Saturday, Nov. 24

From the Marcellus Effect blog:

From FrackCheckWV and the Morgantown Dominion Post, Nov. 25:

The state Supreme Court suggested to the Legislature that this week it take a look at surface-owner rights — in particular, possibly granting owners the right to appeal Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) gas well permits.

Members of Congress are unhappy with the proposed fracking rule by the federal Bureau of Land Management, reportrs blogger Amy Mall of the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Clcik  here  to read more.

From the Associated Press:

The tanker Ob River is transporting liquified natural gas from Norway to Japan via the ice-free Arctic ocean.

It is a shipping first.

Low-level radioactive waste from the hydraulic fracturing or fracking process is going to landfill in Ohio and New York.

Ohio says that is not not a problem.

From CNN on Nov. 23:

Hong Kong (CNN) -- If there's been one consistent thread running through the U.S. economic story since 2008, it's been the steady drumbeat of gloom.

From Bloomberg News:

Natural gas tumbled the most in 15 weeks as revised forecasts showing an unusually warm start to December signaled reduced demand for heating fuels.

From the Associated Press:

Chesapeake Energy has received the first permit in Ohio County for a labor camp.

Concerned Citizens Ohio/Shalersville will test well water for free on Sunday, Dec. 2.

The tests will be offered starting at 3:15 p.m. at the King of Glory Church at Streetsboro Plaza at the corner of state Route 303 and state Route 14.

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources is holding a public open house from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 28.

It will be held at the state agency's offices on East State Street in Athens.

The towering flares that turn night into day in the gaslands are becoming increasingly rare.

More operators are employing reduced-emission completions  -- a "green completion" -- a process in which impurities from hydraulic fracturing are filtered out and the gas is not wasted.

From FrackCheckWV and the Calgary Herald:

The energy industry is pouring vast amounts of horsepower, water and money into shale formations with little or no proof it’s the most cost-effective practice, says Ron Craik, president of Horizontal Well Testing Ltd. This company has patents on testing tools he says will ultimately save money, times and reduce the environmental footprint of horizontal drilling and formation fracturing.

From FrackCheckWV and Lois Gibbs of the Center for Health, Environment and Justice on Nov. 24:

The Great Lakes hold 20 percent of the world’s fresh surface water. The good news is that legacy contaminants are decreasing more quickly than previously reported in three of the Great Lakes, but have stayed virtually the same in two other lakes, according to new research. Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), the pesticide DDT and other banned compounds dropped about 50 percent in fish in Lakes Michigan, Ontario and Huron from 1999 through 2009, although there were no significant changes in Lakes Superior and Erie fish, according to the study to be published this month in Science of the Total Environment.

From the Cleveland Plain Dealer and reporter Aaron Marshall on Nov. 23:

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Following a nearly year-long hiatus brought on by a rare earthquake, state regulators are again approving new injection well sites in Ohio, slowly moving the epicenter of waste disposal to Portage County.

Longmont is the first town in Colorado to ban hydraulic fracturing or fracking.

Click  here to see the New York Times story about Longmont and its move.

Could natural gas be a cleaner, cheaper, more effective fuel for America's trains?

Click  here  to read the story from Houston Chronicle.

The New York-Pennsylvania blog No Fracking Way cites a U.S. Department of Energy report that indicates that production in the Marcellus shale derops 67 percent in 105 days of production.

That means that those wells will have to repeatedly fracked to keep up production.

From the Associated Press:

If the trash truck or bus rolling down your street seems a little quieter these days, you’re not imagining things. It’s probably running on natural gas.

From the Ohio Enviornmental Law Center:

November 20, 2012 by ohioenvirolawcenter

From the Associated Press:

By KEVIN BEGOS

The owner of an Williamsport, Pa, trucking company, along with two of his employees, has been charged with dumping thousands of gallons of gas drilling waste water onto the company's grounds without first getting the required state permits, according to the state attorney general's office.

To read more from the Williamsport Sun Gazette, click  here.

Colorado-based PDC Energy Inc. has plans to drill next spring in Ohio's Washington County.

That well will likely be drilled starting in April, the company said in its third-quarter earnings call.

Colorado-based MarkWest EnergyPartners LP  is operating an interim natural gas-processing plant in Ohio's Harrison County.

The plant in Cadiz began operations this week, said Randy S. Nickerson, MarkWest's senior vice president and chief commercial officer.

From the Marcellus Drilling News and the Salem News:

CONSOL Energy’s CNX Gas subsidiary is expanding its presence at the Columbiana County Port Authority’s industrial park in Leetonia.

The number of rigs actively exploring for oil and natural gas in the U.S. rose this week by eight, to 1,817.

In Ohio, that total remained at 26 from the previous week.

Pennsylvania's environmental protection chief is defending his agency's controversial system for testing water wells near Marcellus shale operations by saying other states work the same way.

But regulators in those states say that's not true.

How big a player is Chesapeake Energy Corp. in Ohio's Utica shale?

The Oklahoma-based energy company has been aggressively drilling in eastern Ohio and has 1.3 million acres under lease.

From the Associated Press:

Activist investor Carl Icahn bumped up his stake in Chesapeake Energy, a company where he has already pushed for sweeping changes in governance.

Gulfport Energy Corp. has drilled 10 wells in eastern Ohio and has hit the three biggest wells.

It intends to drill 50 wells in Ohio next year.

From the Associated Press:

A health impact review of shale gas drilling by national experts will make it impossible to meet a looming deadline for new fracking regulations, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday.

From the Associated Press:

A state panel that is devising rules for hydraulic fracturing for natural gas in western Maryland may require drillers to have pollution insurance.

From the U.S. Energy Information Administration on Nov. 20:

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources has issued 453 permits to drill in the Utica shale through Nov. 17.

That's an increase of 10 permits from Nov. 10.

From the Business Wire:

Huntington Bank today named Stephen Hoffman managing director, energy banking.

From the Associated Press:

An author and one-time anti-drilling activist whose family owns a historic 153-acre farm has leased the land to a gas company, saying it's better to work with the industry than to fight it.

Here is a follow-up posting on the peaceful Monday protest at an Athens County injection well in southeast Ohio.

Here is the announcement that came to the media late Monday:

From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

Pittsburgh residents consider Marcellus Shale drilling both an economic opportunity and an environmental risk, according to a study released by PittsburghTODAY and the University of Pittsburgh’s University Center for Social and Urban Research.

From the Associated Press:

The University at Buffalo has closed its new shale gas research institute.

An unspecified number of protestors rallied this morning at an injection well near Athens in southeast Ohio.

Here is the press release announcing the event:

From FrackCheckWV:

Here's an an op-ed column that ran in the Charleston Gazette written by S. Thomas Bond, a retired chemistry professor at Salem College in West Virginia:

From the Los Angeles Times:

Environmental researchers have detected excess greenhouse gas levels near the site of Australia's biggest coal seam gas field, prompting calls for halting expansion of hydraulic fracturing until scientists can determine whether it might be contributing to climate change.

Three Appalachian nurses visited 14 women in southwestern Pennsylvania to talk about health problems and drilling into the Marcellus shale.

The women live in Washington, Greene and Fayette counties.

One of the enduring fears about shale gas extraction is that the millions of gallons of chemical-laden water drillers pump into the ground will, over time, migrate into aquifers and contaminate groundwater supplies.

But it appears that is an unlikely scenario, according to EnergyWire.

From FrackCheckWV;

by Duane Nichols on November 16, 2012

From EcoWatch on Nov. 14:

Today, SkyTruth released a database created from more than 27,000 industry reports on the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking.”

Shale gas could produce 3.5 million jobs in the next 23 years, according to a new report by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Institute for 21st Century Energy.

Click  here  to see an injterview with the institute's Karen Harbert.

From the Marcellus Effect:

It is no secret that low-level radiation comes from the Utica and Marcellus shales during the fracking process.

It gets into the fracking liquid/wastewater that must be safely handled back at the surface.

Was it the smaller-than-expected campaign donation he collected from a Range Resources event and declined request for a ride to the Super Bowl that sparked the conflict between the energy firm and outspoken Democratic Rep. Jesse White?

Or, as he describes, did his shift from someone who described Range in 2009 as a company "committed to doing all the right things" to one who skeptically questions it begin when the firm exerted legal pressure on local municipalities?

Shale gas will be a economic focal point for generations to come, according to Texas-based Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. CEO Bobby Turner.

Click  here  to read the full story on FuelFix.

From the Youngstown Vindicator:

By Burton Speakman

From the Denver-based Sportsmen for Responsible Energy Development:

Commercial oil shale development in Utah, Wyoming and Colorado would require large volumes of water, threatening Western water supplies and jeopardizing fish and wildlife, according to a reportreleased Thursday by Sportsmen for Responsible Energy Development.

NEW PHILADELPHIA: The Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District today said it intends to seek a drilling lease with Antero Resources for district-owned land at Seneca Lake.

From ProPublica Communications:

"Since 1986, pipeline accidents have killed more than 500 people, injured over 4,000, and cost nearly $7 billion dollars in property damages," ProPublica's Lena Groeger reports. Using government data, she's mapped out thousands of these incidents -- spanning from San Bruno, CA to Allentown, PA -- in an interactive news application , which provides detailed information about the cause and costs of reported pipeline incidents going back nearly three decades.

Groeger explains that, "One of the biggest problems contributing to leaks and ruptures is pretty simple: pipelines are getting older. More than half of the nation's pipelines are at least 50 years old." Corrosion, weld failures, and unforeseen natural disasters like Hurricane Sandy also lead to dozens of incidents a year.

And while two laws established a federal role in pipeline safety in the '60s and '70s, the then-new rules didn't apply to pipelines that already existed. Older pipelines were essentially grandfathered into less stringent testing, Groeger writes, and old pipelines in rural areas are often also neglected.

She goes on to note the problems caused by "gathering lines" which lack any regulation by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA); serious incidents, like the one in Michigan's Kalamazoo River, which cost $800 million and remains the most expensive pipeline spill in U.S. history; and possible (but expensive) safety measures that may help prevent such incidents in the future.

Read the full report here - http://www.propublica.org/article/pipelines-explained-how-safe-are-americas-2.5-million-miles-of-pipelines - and see Groeger's Pipeline Safety Tracker of major pipeline accidents from 1986 to the present.

 

Two energy company chief executive officers defended the oil potential of Ohio's Utica shale.

The comments came from Texas-based EnerVest CEO John Walker and Oklahoma-based Gulfport Energy Corp. CEO James Palm and appeared to contradict earlier comments by Cheasapeake Energy Corp. CEO Aubrey McClendon.

The anti-fracking grass-roots group, Concerned Citizens Ohio-Shalersville, will meet on Dec. 1 with four speakers.

The program will be at 7:30 p.m. at the King of Glory Church, 1667 Streetsboro Plaza.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. got a $2 billion loan, and that has a few Ohioans concerned.

Read more in a report from Crain's Cleveland Business.

From the American Petroleum Institute:

API Senior Director of Federal Relations Khary Cauthen said on Tuesday that targeting the U.S. oil and natural gas industry for higher taxes could discourage new development, costing jobs, energy production, and eventually even revenue to the government. He said API was running print and broadcast advertising to help educate Americans on the issue:

“As the recent election campaigns demonstrate, Americans are paying attention to energy issues. Taxes on the industry are a key energy issue, and, as our Election Day polling showed, voters are skeptical about targeting the industry for higher taxes. Today, to encourage members of Congress who are part of that conversation with voters, we’re launching new television and print advertising inside the beltway and in selected states.

“Targeting our industry for tax hikes is based on a mistaken assumption: that we don’t pay our fair share of taxes and are heavily subsidized. In fact, we pay more in corporate taxes than any other sector. And we pay at higher effective tax rates. We deliver more total revenue to the government.

“The oil and natural gas industry is already an engine of revenue for our nation, and it’s ready to do its part under broader tax reform. Targeted additional taxes on oil and gas are the wrong approach for what’s needed to rebuild our economy and get our fiscal house in order. More energy development produces more jobs, revenue and energy. More taxes produce less of all three.”
 

From the Associated Press:

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has added a disclaimer to its Marcellus shale natural gas reporting web page.

A press releasse from Food & Water Watch:

 A new report released today by the national consumer advocacy organization Food & Water Watch takes aim at the oil and gas industry’s claim that fracking and drilling for natural gas and tight oil will deliver U.S. energy security. U.S. Energy Insecurity: Why Fracking for Oil and Natural Gas is a False Solution reveals that as of October 26, 2012 the Department of Energy has received 19 proposals to export liquefied natural gas. If approved, these projects would allow the oil and gas industry to sell huge amounts of natural gas overseas—as much as 40 percent of current U.S. consumption.

Ohio’s Utica shale may not produce as much oil as drillers had once envisioned, although energy companies remain very satisfied with the other products they’re finding, according to Chesapeake Energy Corp. CE0 Aubrey McClendon.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that McClendon said the Utica shale under eastern Ohio is unlikely to generate a major increase in Chesapeake’s oil production.

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources' Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management has issued 443 Utita shale drilling permits.

That total is through Nov. 10.

Vinyls producer Georgia Gulf is the newest company to express an interest in building a cracker facility in the United States.

The companies are interested in building cracker facilities to secure cost-effective ways to get more polyethylene feedstock.

From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

A Houston, Texas-based gas processing firm is expanding its presence in Ohio and Pennsylvania with a plan to manufacture oil and gas production equipment in Youngstown, Ohio.

From the Associated Press:

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio began issuing its first new permits today for deep injection of chemically-laced wastewater from oil and gas drilling since a New Year's Eve quake in Youngstown prompted an unofficial statewide moratorium.

From Food & Water Watch, a national eco-group. It is displeased with the International Energy Agency's oil and gas analysis:

Here is the statement of Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter:

A new report by New York water consultant against water leases by the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District was released today.

The report by Paul Rubin of Hydro Quest was done for the Southeast Ohio Alliance to Save Our Water.

From NPR's State Impact Texas:

Landfarms are privately-owned but state-regulated fields where “low toxicity waste” is thinly spread then tilled into the soil. The tainted waste is supposed to degrade naturally.

Columbus-based Battelle will help the state of Ohio assess which technology works best in handling drilling wastewater.

Battelle will be working with the Ohio Environmental Proptection Ageny and the Ohio Department of Natural resources.

From the Marcellus Drilling News:

At a meeting of the uber-large Associated Landowners of the Valley (ALOV) landowner group last night in Youngstown, Ohio, lawyer Alan Wenger warned the 500 landowners in the audience that landmen are knocking on doors once again, this time asking landowners already signed to modify their leases.

From the Marcellus Drilling News:

A recent shale gas conference held in Cambridge, Ohio on Nov. 10 turned up some surprising and interesting facts. One of those facts: Almost 100 percent of the land in Carroll County has been leased for possible Utica shale drilling, or is being held by production.

From the Youngstown Vindicator:

By Burton Speakman

From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

Written by Don Hopey / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Tuesday, 13 November 2012 8:32 am. Posted in Archives

from the Marcellus Drilling News:

Very important for landowners in and around Trumbull County, Ohio: Halcon Resources, which took possession of some 31,000 acres of 20-50 year old gas drilling leases in northeastern Ohio, is approaching landowners about amending their leases to allow drilling in the Utica Shale. It’s a good opportunity for landowners to make money from drilling, but also a good opportunity to negotiate new protections.

From the Marcellus Drilling News:

One month ago Halcon Resources purchased Carrizo Oil & Gas’ northern Utica Shale acreage (15,000 acres) for $43 million (see this MDN story). Halcon is not letting any grass grow under their feet. They are already working on their first Utica Shale well—preparing the site—in Trumbull County, OH. When completed, it will be the first active Utica Shale well in the county:

From FrackCheckWV:

The Responsible Drilling Alliance is planning a series of regional membership meetings; the kick off scheduled for the southern tier this Tuesday November 13th in Montgomery, PA, which is in Lycoming County adjacent to Williamsport, PA.

From the Youngstown Vindicator:

By Burton Speakman

From the Associated Press:

Oil and gas industry supporters in Colorado say there is conspiring against the gas drilling industry.

From Bloomberg News:

By Wael Mahdi - Nov 12, 2012 10:15 AM ET

From Bloomberg News:

"Ohio's Oil and Gas Opportunity" is the title of a program on Tuesday, Nov. 13, at the Ohio School Board Association's  conference in Columbus.

A panel of four speakers will explain to school administrators and board members what's happening in the Utica shale in eastern Ohio.

From the Columbus Dispatch:

Ohio Gov. John Kasich, responding to the re-election of President Brack Obama, said his biggest fear is the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will soon try to regulate hydraulic fracturing or fracking  in Ohio.
 

From the Associated Press:

Glenn Paulson, the EPA's science advisor, said Friday that a progress report on the study — mandated by Congress in 2010 — should be released before the end of the year, and a final report in 2014. He spoke at a University of Pittsburgh conference on health impacts of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

From the Associated Press:

The U.S. Department of the Interior scaled back a Bush administration plan Friday to lease Western range lands for development of oil shale and tar sands, the unconventional sources of oil found in pockets of the Rocky Mountains.

A Texas-based energy company and its parent are working to complete the sale of a key portion of eastern Ohio holdings, but the deals on an estimated 539,000 acres at the heart of Ohio’s Utica shale are not yet finalized.

EV Energy Partners LP, the publicly traded arm of privately held EnerVest Ltd., expects to complete the sales before Dec. 31, founder and executive chairman John B. Walker said Friday in a teleconference about the company’s third-quarter earnings.

From Columbus Business First and reporter Jeff Bell:

Ohio’s hopes of landing a coveted “cracker” plant and the jobs and capital investment it would generate may not be dead after all.

The Ohio Energy Resources Alliance and Energy in Depth-Ohio will be in Akron on Monday, Nov. 12, to thank members of the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 18.

The union members will be hailed for their leadership in working to maximize job opportunities in Ohio's Utica shale.

Buckeye Mineral Development will hold an invitation-only meeting at 6 p.m. Monday, Nov. 12, in Youngstown.

The meeting of several thousand Ohio landowners will be held at the Covelli Centre.

From Columbus Business First and Jeff Bell:

Ohio has entered the same league as western Pennsylvania and West Virginia when it comes to drilling activity for shale gas and oil.

From the Associated Press:

PITTSBURGH — Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University say a water quality problem in the Monongahela River that may have been linked to Marcellus shale natural gas drilling is going away.

From the Denver Post:

A western Colorado water district is fighting for rights to divert and store huge amounts of water from the White River — enough to sustain a large city — for uses that include oil shale industrial development.

From EnergyWire:

Peter Behr and Joel Kirkland, E&E reporters

From the Cleveland Plain Dealer and reporter Robert Schoenberger:

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- An influential shale gas researcher said his early estimates of 1 million U.S. manufacturing jobs created by the ongoing energy boom may have been overly conservative.

From the Marcellus Drilling News:

 Bill Powers, editor and writer of the Powers Energy Investor newsletter and someone who has sat on the board of three oil and gas companies and has been an active investor for 25 years, says shale gas supplies in the U.S. have been vastly overhyped.

Yoko Ono and her son, Sean Lennon, have installed a new billboard to attempt to sway New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

The message from Artists Against Fracking is: Governor Cuomo, Imagine there's no fracking.

Case Western Reserve University School of Law is holding a day-long look at legal issues surrounding hydraulic fracturing or fracking on Nov. 16.

The program, "The Law and Policy of Hydraulic Fracturing: Addressing the Issues of the Natural Gas Boom," will run from 9 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. in the moot courtroom (A59) at the law school on Cleveland's east side.

1. Gulfport Energy Corp. reports that its first six horizontal wells in Ohio's Utica shale are averaging 8.17 million cubic feet of natural gas per day, plus 1,006 barrels per day on condensate and 1,111 barrels of natural gas liquids.

That averages out to 3,479 barrels of oil equivalents per day for those six wells.

From the Marcellus Drilling News:

ESI Enviro wants to build a new $5 million Utica and Marcellus shale wastewater treatment facility in Campbell, Ohio, along the Mahoning River. The mayor of Campbell, Bill Vansuch, is in favor it. The city has been under water financially (in receivership) since 2004 and the revenue from the plant would be a big boost in revenue for the city.

From Emily Petsko of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

While the results of last night's election are beginning to sink in, many are already looking to the next four years and questioning whether President Obama's stance on energy will shift or remain the same. Here are some highlights from promises the President made during his campaign and previous energy policies of his administration:

Gulfport Energy Corp. has contracted with a Texas-based company to prepare a 3D digital image of the geology in Ohio's Utica shale.

That work was done by Ingrain Inc., based in Houston. It is a digital rock physics lab.

1.  Gulfport Energy Corp. has drilled its longest lateral ever in eastern Ohio.

The Stutzman well in Belmont County's Somerset Township extends 8,634 feet.

From the Kansas City Star:

WASHINGTON -- Property owners near shale gas wells are liable to suffer a major loss in value because of worries over water contamination, according to economists from Duke University and the nonprofit research organization Resources for the Future.Their study found Pennsylvania homeowners who use local groundwater for drinking lost up to 24 percent of their property value if they are within a mile and a quarter of a shale gas well.

From EnergyWire:

From the Associated Press:

SANFORD, N.Y. — A 44-mile-long, $280 million natural gas pipeline under construction in central New York will carry natural gas from northern Pennsylvania to East Coast markets.

From company press release:

GRAPEVINE, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 25, 2012-- GreenHunter Energy, Inc. (NYSE MKT: GRH) (NYSE MKT:GRH.PRC), a diversified water resource, waste management and environmental services company specializing in the unconventional oil and natural gas shale resource plays, announced today that its wholly owned subsidiary, GreenHunter Water, LLC , has acquired two operating Class II salt water disposal (SWD) wells located in Washington County, Ohio and Ritchie County, West Virginia . These SWD wells are strategically positioned in the heart of the Marcellus and Utica Shale Unconventional Resource Plays and will bring an additional 3,000 to 4,000 Barrels per day (BBL/D) of combined commercial SWD capacity into the Company’s existing water services portfolio. Consideration for the purchase consisted of a combination of cash and newly issued Series C perpetual cumulative preferred stock (non-convertible).

From Ohio University:

ATHENS, Ohio (Nov. 7, 2012) -- The Institute for Sustainable Energy and the Environment (ISEE) at Ohio University has been awarded more than $2 million in state and federal grants to support research to clean the wastewater that results from hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” on site. The ISEE is a research center at OHIO’s Fritz J. and Dolores H. Russ College of Engineering and Technology.

From EcoWatch and Akron Beacon Journal:

On Tuesday, voters in Broadview Heights, Ohio, came out in record numbers to say yes to the adoption of a Community Bill of Rights banning corporations from conducting new gas and oil drilling and related activities in their city.

From Wednesday press release:

Longmont, Colo.—Today is a historic day for the city of Longmont, Colorado. Nearly 60 percent of Longmont voters approved an amendment to the city’s charter to prohibit hydraulic fracturing and disposal of waste products connected with the process within city limits.

For more than six months Longmont and its citizens have been of threatened, bullied and out-spent by the oil and gas industry. Longmont’s victory over this highly industrialized and dangerous oil and gas extraction process signals to communities throughout the state and the nation that they can and will prevail over state officials who answer to the oil and gas industry rather than to their constituents.

According to Michael Bellmont, a member of Our Health, Our Future, Our Longmont (Our Longmont), “We have shown that Big Oil money does NOT always win and that our constitutionally guaranteed right to health, safety, and protection of property is NOT for sale. We proved that ordinary citizens with very little money but a lot of determination, intelligence, passion and boot leather can prevail.”

Over 100 volunteers worked in hot summer days to gather the necessary signatures to place the measure on the ballot. Over 8,200 signatures were submitted, well over the 5,700 required to move the measure to today’s ballot. Also, more than 200 citizens contributed the funds necessary to carry out the Yes on 300 campaign. The opposition raised over a half-million dollars to oppose Question 300. All of their funds came from the oil and gas industry and their trade associations. Not one Longmont resident contributed.

“The people of Longmont have made history: they have chosen to ban fracking,” said Sam Schabacker, a Longmont area native and Mountain West Regional Director for Food & Water Watch, the national consumer group who supported Our Longmont’s efforts. “Longmont residents were not frightened away or fooled by the oil and gas industry’s attempt to buy the election, to the tune of $500,000, through deceptive and threatening TV commercials, full-page newspaper advertisements and multiple mailers. Hopefully this citizen-led effort will inspire other communities to stand up and protect their health, safety and property against the risky practice of fracking as well.

Our Health, Our Future, Our Longmont, a group of concerned citizens from throughout Longmont, believes that Longmont has a right to protect the public health, safety, and welfare of our community. By protecting the health, safety, and welfare of our citizens, we will preserve our economic vitality, our home values, our water, parks, wildlife, lakes, trails, streams, open space, recreational areas and our quality of life for ourselves and future generations.
 

By Bob Downing

and Jim Mackinnon

From the Marcellus Drilling News:

Gulfport Energy Corporation, a company that has two of the highest producing natural gas wells in the Ohio Utica Shale, released their third quarter financial and operational update yesterday. Counter to most other large drillers, Gulfport showed a slight profit in 3Q12—of $0.5 million—on $60.5 million in revenue. If not for some income tax expenses their net income for 3Q12 would have been $16 million.

Here is a joint press release issued by MarkWest Utica EMG LLC and Antero Resources:

MarkWest Utica EMG, L.L.C. (MarkWest Utica), a joint venture between MarkWest Energy Partners, L.P. (MarkWest) and The Energy and Minerals Group (EMG) today announced the completion of definitive agreements with Antero Resources (Antero) to provide processing, fractionation, and marketing services in the liquids-rich corridor of the Utica Shale.

Ten new Utica shale horizontal wells have been approved by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.

That includes two new wells in Carroll County, three in Harrison County, one in Holmes County, two in Monroe County, one in Noble County and one in Trumbull County.

From ShaleReporter.com:

HARRISBURG — The state Department of Environmental Protection is denying allegations that it does not fully test residential drinking water for contamination from commercial oil- and gas-drilling operations.

From the Youngstown Vindicator:

By Jamison Cocklin

The Unitarian Universalist Church of Kent is hosting a fracking teach-in on Friday, Nov. 9.

The program wil begin at 7 p.m. at the church, 228 Gougler Ave., Kent.

From the Marcellus Drilling News"

A private firm representing landowners with 95,000 acres in southeastern Ohio issued a press release yesterday essentially saying, “Hey, we’re still here, and we still have 95,000 acres to lease to some lucky driller.” The land is located in Washington, Athens, Meigs, Muskingum, and Perry counties in southeastern Ohio.

Fracking natural gas is inexpensive green technology that already is helping reduce carbon dioxide emissions associated with climate change by cutting dependency on coal, writes Bjorn Lomborg in Foreign Policy.

Lomborg: "A good example is the innovation of fracked gas, which has made the price of natural gas drop dramatically -- allowing a switch in electricity production away from coal. This in turn has singlehandedly caused the United States to reduce its annual CO2 emissions by about 500Mt, or about twice as much as the entire global reductions from the last 20 years of international climate negotiations. Moreover, it has not cost the United States anything -- in fact, U.S. consumers are saving about $100 billion per year in cheaper prices. That's a policy that is easy to sell around the world."

From Crain's Cleveland Business:

Shale poet Craig Czury often hitchhikes along state Route 29 in northern Pennsylvania  in order to meet parties involved in the Marcellus shale boom.

His first question is invariably: Where are you from?

From the Youngstown Vindicator:

From the Marcellus Drilling News:

Earnings reports for the third quarter continue to roll out. Noble Energy provided their 3Q12 update. Noble is a large company with operations in a number of countries. Here in the U.S., Noble is actively drilling in the Marcellus Shale in West Virginia. They also have a joint venture in the Marcellus in Pennsylvania. Noble reports their Marcellus production grew to 102 million cubic feet per day in the third quarter, an increase of 38% over last quarter. They also report their first two wet gas wells have started to produce natural gas liquids and are doing better than expected.

From the Business Wire:

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Revolutionary advances in oil and natural gas extraction technologies over the last five years have had an equally dramatic effect on state economies, says a new illustrated report by the American Clean Skies Foundation (ACSF).

From the Associated Press:

A Wayne County, Pa. anti-drilling group has commissioned what it calls a first-of-its-kind survey of ground-level methane concentrations in Damascus Township, Pa.

Appalachia Resist, a grass-roots group in southeast Ohio, is planning a weekend action camp on Nov. 16-18 in Athens County.

The weekend will begin with a panel discussion at 7 p.m. at Arts West on State Street in Athens.

From the Marcellus Drilling News:

Antero Resources announced today they are selling off 61,000 acres of leases and 30 miles of pipeline, along with other assets, in the Piceance Basin (pronounced “pee awns”, located in northwestern Colorado) for $325 million in cash to an unnamed private company.

From the Marcellus Drilling News:

Range Resources posted its financial and operating update for the third quarter of 2012 yesterday. MDN has pulled out the operational report for the Marcellus Shale and includes it below. Of particular interest in the Range update are two items: 1) Range’s continued focus on what they call their “super-rich” area of the Marcellus—an area they define as having wet gas present with 1,350 Btus or higher; 2) Range had a “significant step-out well” in the super-rich area that tested at 1,044 barrels per day of natural gas liquids.

From the Coshocton Tribune and reporter Brian Gadd:

Although work on the Appalachia to Texas Pipeline (ATEX) isn’t expected to begin until 2013, pipe already is being brought into the area, property easements are being worked out and some people still are fighting against the pipeline.

From the Business Journal, Youngstwom:

“Unconventional Gas Development from Shale Plays: Myths and Realities” is the topic of a presentation November 7th at Youngstown State University. The speaker is Anthony R. Ingraffea, the Dwight C. Baum professor of engineering in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Cornell University.

From the Youngstown Vindicaror:

By Burton Speakman

Rolling Stone lists Ohio and nine other areas of the United States that could see more fracking if Mitt Romney is elected president.

Urban drilling could come to the suburbs of Cleveland and Columbus, Rolling Stone says.

From the Associated Press:

From the Marcellus Drilling News:

The Ohio Utica Shale’s newest entrant, 1st NRG Corporation, previously announced they would drill on 7,150 acres of the Utica Shale in eastern Ohio (see this MDN story). Yesterday they announced they have secured a $7 million loan which will help finance the drilling.

From the Marcellus Drilling News:

Dominion is a huge utility and midstream (pipeline) company with customers and operations throughout the Marcellus and Utica Shale region. Dominion issued their third quarter financials and it was not a pretty picture. Earnings for 3Q12 were down nearly half of what they were from 3Q11. Ouch. The reason? Dominion puts a lot of the blame on a hangover from a warm winter.

From the Associated Press:

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — A West Virginia University researcher is examining potential sources of pollution that could result from natural gas drilling.

From Penn Future:

The Citizens Guide to Marcellus Shale Drilling – and the Need for Action

Here are a few Utica shale tidbits:

1. Marathon Petroleum Corp. and Harvest Pipeline Co. said they are planniong a system to bring crude oil from the Utica shale ine astern Ohio and western Pennsylvania to refineries by truck and barge.

From the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency:

The first four months of air quality data collected near a shale gas drilling well shows the air remains clean.

From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

Written by Don Hopey / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Chesapeake Energy Corp. is still in love with the liquids-rich Utica shale in eastern Ohio.

It is eying Carroll, Harrison and Columbiana counties to be Ohio’s "core of the core" where the Oklahoma-based energy giant will continue drilling for natural gas, oil and other liquids.

From the Utica Shale blog:

Chesapeake Energy (NYSE:CHK) reported production results of three wells recently completed into the Utica shale in Ohio's Carroll and Harrison counties.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. has 134 Utica shale wells, of which 32 are in production.

It is the No. 1 player in Ohio's Utica shale.

From Bloomberg News:

By Joe Carroll - Nov 2, 2012 12:00 AM ET

Kent State University’s Stark campus will host a Nov. 29 program on regulating Ohio’s oil and gas industry.

The program will be held from 6:30 to 8 p.m. in Kent State’s Main Hall auditorium, 6000 Frank Ave. NW, Jackson Township.

Okalhoma-based Gulfport Energy on Wednesday released preliminary production data from two Ohio wells, one in Harriison County and the second in Guernsey County.

The company's statement offers some of the first production numbers associated with horizontal wells in Ohio's Utica shale.

From Reuters:

Chesapeake Energy Corp said today it has arranged an unsecured $2 billion loan to pay off more-expensive loans.