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Pennsylvania says 243 private water wells contaminated by gas drilling since 2007

More than 200 private drinking water wells have been contaminated by natural gas drilling activity in Pennsylvania since 2007, according to documents released late Thursday by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. The DEP released a list of 243 well contamination complaints that led to investigations and, in most cases, some form of resolution. The number of complaints amounts to 2.8% of the 7,536 unconventional wells drilled since 2009. Between 2009 and 2010, during the land rush to the Marcellus, water complaints nearly doubled from 34 in 2009 to 61 in 2010, the record shows. About half drinking water wells were damaged by conventional drilling and half by unconventional, or horizontal, drilling, DEP Deputy Secretary for Oil and Gas Management Scott Perry said in a statement. Complaints declined 41% in 2011 to 36 contaminated wells and remained at that level until dropping again this year to 1.3% of the […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Marcellus booming, Wood Mackenzie says

Energy consultant group Wood Mackenzie describes Marcellus as the largest natural gas basin of its kind in the world when based on production. The group said there may be more than $90 billion left in value in the play based on projected output from new wells. Jonathan Garret, a researcher in the exploration and production market in the United States, said the top 20 operators in Marcellus are expected to generate $86 billion in shale value. "These operators are forecast to spend nearly $110 billion in the play and to drill over 25,000 Marcellus wells through 2035," he said in a statement Wednesday. By 2020, Wood Mackenzie estimates Marcellus, centered largely in Pennsylvania, should produce an average of 20 billion cubic feet of equivalent per day, which it said would represent 25 percent of the total U.S. natural gas supply . Wood Mackenzie says the number of active rigs […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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North Dakota gets more gas processing capacity

"We remain committed to meeting the needs of our customers by building essential natural gas and natural gas liquids infrastructure in the Williston Basin," Terry Spencer, president and chief executive officer of ONEOK Partners, said in a statement Tuesday. The company, which has headquarters in Oklahoma, said its gas processing capacity in the area today is five times greater than it was four years ago. More gas processing capacity in the state means less gas associated with oil deposits is burned off, or flared. North Dakota lacks the infrastructure necessary to take full advantage of natural gas associated with oil reserves in the state at the heart of the shale oil and natural gas boom. The state government said, however, that gas processing capacity has increased from 200 million cubic feet per day to 1.3 billion cubic feet per day since 2006. ONEOK said it should have 1.1 billion […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Grandmothers lead U.K.-wide wave of direct action against fracking

On a U.K.-wide day of action on Monday, anti-frackers locked-on to gates to defend planned fracking sites and occupied fracking companies. They closed down PR companies and blocked government departments. In total, 12 anti-fracking actions took place across the U.K. The coordinated protests aimed to highlight the dangers of fracking and the corrupt web of corporate and government power aggressively pushing the process forward despite widespread public opposition. Catalyzed by, and created within, the week-long Reclaim the Power camp taking place in Lancashire in North West England, the actions couldn’t have happened without grandmothers and mothers first occupying the land on which U.K. fracking giant Cuadrilla plans to begin drilling full-scale in earnest. Grandmothers and Mums Lead the Fight to Rid the U.K. of Fracking Twenty-five women, some retired, and three men met at a covert rendezvous point at 5 a.m. on August 7. Sporting camouflage, they rushed onto […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Pennsylvania driller fined for gas leak

Cabot was fined $76,546 by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection for an incident at its Huston well in the northeast part of the state. DEP said the January incident was the result of the failure of a subcontractor to follow standard operating procedures that would have led to a proper valve closure on the well. Furthermore, DEP said the presence of frozen sand in the well may have led to a false positive indicating the well was closed off. DEP Director of Oil and Gas Operations Johns Ryder said his department ensured there was no significant environmental impact from the accident. "In this incident, mostly gas was released, which dissipated quickly to background levels within 100 feet from the well," he said in a statement Tuesday. Cabot told DEP it couldn’t determine how much gas was released during the 27-hour incident. There was no statement from the company […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Europe could learn from U.S. shale success

Europe may be on the cusp of developing a shale natural gas sector that could mimic the expansion in the United States, analysis from finds. Developments in hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and horizontal drilling have led to exponential increases in U.S. natural gas production since at least 2005. Geological complexities have presented obstacles to a replication of the phenomenon outside the United States. Robert Clarke , director of research into the area for Wood Mackenzie, said U.S. shale gas production has evolved from operations in easy-to-reach and highly productive basins to what he’s describing as "unconventional 3.0" — a phase characterized by a lessons-learned approach to areas once considered too difficult for commercial drilling. "Europe is one of the best areas outside of the United States for this to occur," he said Wednesday in an e-mailed statement. His report says countries outside the United States — notably Mexico, Russia, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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China’s National Effort in Oil and Gas Fracking Fails

China’s “economic miracle” faces an existential threat now that the nation is the world’s largest importer of oil. The Chinese central authorities mandated a $275-billion crash investment in fracking to develop cheap energy from China’s 30 trillion cubic meters of natural gas trapped in the world’s largest shale fields. But China’s effort to knockoff America’s oil and gas fracking boom appears to have failed. China seems doomed to continue to destroy its industrial competitiveness by relying on high-cost energy imports. The head of China’s National Energy Administration (CNEA) quietly admitted last week that the country’s bold effort to follow the United States’s lead in launching an oil and gas boom based on hydraulic fracking of shale is failing. CNEA central planners promised domestic fracking would produce 80 billion cubic meters of cheap natural gas a year by 2020. But CNEA’s estimate for domestic gas production has been revised down […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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China's National Effort in Oil and Gas Fracking Fails

China’s “economic miracle” faces an existential threat now that the nation is the world’s largest importer of oil. The Chinese central authorities mandated a $275-billion crash investment in fracking to develop cheap energy from China’s 30 trillion cubic meters of natural gas trapped in the world’s largest shale fields. But China’s effort to knockoff America’s oil and gas fracking boom appears to have failed. China seems doomed to continue to destroy its industrial competitiveness by relying on high-cost energy imports. The head of China’s National Energy Administration (CNEA) quietly admitted last week that the country’s bold effort to follow the United States’s lead in launching an oil and gas boom based on hydraulic fracking of shale is failing. CNEA central planners promised domestic fracking would produce 80 billion cubic meters of cheap natural gas a year by 2020. But CNEA’s estimate for domestic gas production has been revised down […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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It Is My Shale Gas and I Want It Now!!!

The shale gas that lies beneath the surface of Upstate New York belongs to real people who need it now. It’s time they stood up for themselves! I recently read a comment on an online anti-drilling site that made me laugh out loud.  I have made and read many comments on many articles, but surely this one deserved first place in three specific categories; Most Ignorant, Most Thoughtless and Most Typical. The writer was complaining about a pipeline that will deliver natural gas to other peoples’ homes. Here is the substance of the comment: Pipelines are a bad thing. They have to cut down lots of trees through the woods. During construction of one near my home, traffic was bad due to the many trucks and equipment being used to build the pipeline. If I knew that pipeline was going by my home I wouldn’t have built my “Log Cabin” in Lycoming County. It makes you wonder if […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Shell exits Pinedale, Haynesville gas plays, adds acreage in Marcellus, Utica shales

Royal Dutch Shell on Thursday said it plans to exit the Pinedale and Haynesville dry gas plays while adding acreage in the Marcellus and Utica shales in Pennsylvania, continuing its strategy of divesting large US natural gas assets in some plays, while adding assets in other plays to its portfolio. Shell announced two separate transactions in a statement Thursday. In one deal with Ultra Petroleum, Shell will acquire 155,000 net acres in the Marcellus and Utica shales in Pennsylvania and receive a cash payment of $925 million from Ultra in exchange for 100% of Shell’s Pinedale Anticline field assets in western Wyoming, including producing leases and associated gathering and processing contracts. In a separate agreement with Dallas-based Vine Oil & Gas and its partner Blackstone, Shell agreed to sell 100% of its Haynesville assets in northern Louisiana — including gas-producing properties and associated field facilities and infrastructure — for […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple