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2013
December 15, 2013  Next Year is Make or Break?  Ideastream (a consortium on NEO public radio/TV) reports:  “Crossing that thousand-permit threshold is pretty exciting,” says Mike Chadsey, who heads public relations for the Ohio Oil and Gas Association (OOGA). He says the higher-than-expected increase shows great interest in exploring gas and oil reserves in the state. As for his expectations in the coming year? “2014’s going to be the year that will really tell us what this Utica Play’s going to do,” says Chadsey. “That’s when our processing facilities’ gonna come online. We’re going to flip the switch, and actually see what these wells they have drilled, what kind of production we’re going to get out of them.”

Dec. 13, 2013 Do state drilling permits trump local laws? Canton Repository reports that the Ohio Supreme Court has scheduled arguments in a closely-watched lawsuit that challenges the state's authority to supersede local zoning laws with centralized regulation of oil and gas drilling. The case brought by Munroe Falls, an Akron suburb, against Beck Energy Corp. will be argued Feb. 26. It centers on a Beck project that began on private property in 2011 with state permission. In the process, the city contends the company sidestepped 11 local laws on road use, permitting and drilling.  more here

December 11, 2013
Shale boom is yielding a hotel gusher in six Ohio counties:  Utica region is seeing a big spike in rooms  Crains Cleveland Business reports on the hotel boom...and more...good quotes about housing need, good "names" of planner/decision makers; nice analysis of the boom v. bubble argument

December 7, 2013: More  Cracker news

November 21, 2013 An insight for activists: find common ground with your neighbors:  To clear the air, some Susquehanna County residents leave the fracking debate behind  "...the media blitz angered her neighbors, the Teels, who said it ignored the economic benefits of drilling. The reporters, the activists and the industry haven’t gone away, but things have started to change. he Teels and Switzer disagreed about what happened to their water in the past, but now they’re part of a new advocacy group that agrees it’s time to curb air pollution. Switzer remembers the first time Ron Teel came to her home for a meeting."

November 15, 2013 Is the Shale play a playground?

Ohio Business Daily reports on a drillers meeting in Pittsburgh. "Thus, the southern tier of the Utica is yielding more profitable "wet" gas products such as ethane, butane and propane. "We like that playground," Palm said. "It sure has turned out nice where we are. We've been lucky to an extent and I'll take luck anytime in the oil business." Maybe that's stretching the metaphor to the breaking point...

Nov 7, 2013. Investors need more Info on Fracking Risks. A report in Bloomberg News describes a new report of the lack of transparency by gas/oil companies. “Hydraulic fracturing operations are under intense scrutiny for potential harm to neighboring communities and the environment -- from air and water pollution to increased noise, traffic and crime,” Danielle Fugere, president of As You Sow Foundation, a non-profit focused on environmental and corporate responsibility, said in a statement today.

report is here: http://disclosingthefacts.org/more here: http://www.iehn.org/documents/frackguidance.pdf

October 31, 2013. Shell may pull plug on Pa. cracker. The Daily Mail reports:"Facing eroding profits and future headwinds, executives at Royal Dutch Shell said Thursday they face "hard choices" about future investment plans, including the company's potential $2 billion petrochemical plant along the Marcellus shale. Shell, Europe's largest oil company, announced Thursday that third quarter profits fell short of analysts' expectations. The $4.5 billion the company earned during the quarter fell 32 percent from the same quarter one year ago."

If the “cracker” doesn't go forward, there could have a big economic impact on columbiana county which is close to the proposed site in Beaver Co PA. Maybe this is why Kasich (and his staffers) have been hanging out in the gas counties recently? There's a story out of Wheeling this week that also suggests local officials are positioning for a cracker if the Shell deal falls thru: (2nd paragraph)

November 7, 2013 Freeport families evacuated in gas leak:  "Some families are staying away from their homes the past few evenings as their property is inspected after a report of a gas leak from two old wells in the area."   There's been some discussion about abandoned and deteriorating wells and whether they may be affected by fracking in the vicinity.  Read more here and here.


11/4/13: Ohio Drilling moves south
Slide show of the top 10 counties for permits.  More here

October 21, 2013  Drilling industry creates housing demand locally: Greatest impact on rental market Marietta Times  "What is really booming right now in the rental market," she said. "It is very hard to find a good rental in the area now and we have seen rental prices go up recently." McClain said as the demand grows the rental rates will continue to climb.

October 8, 2013 Oklahoma Businesses warn about lack of affordable housing  "Business advocates from rural Oklahoma told state lawmakers Tuesday that a lack of affordable housing for the influx of energy and agricultural workers to their regions is stalling economic growth." HUM..OH does not come before OK.

10/813  How Fracking Is Bad for Our Bodies: With the spread of hydraulic fracturing come untoward social and somatic health effects.  TheAtlantic


10/2/13 DrillBits: Gas and oil industry updates for Guernsey, Noble, Muskingum, Belmont and Tuscarawas counties
a newsy summary (notice no news of local advocates or local impacts?)

10/4/13 The play has only just begun, experts say
In reality, the play is shifting gears. Exploration and production companies have set into a quiet, methodical pace. A handful of them have become the predominant players in Ohio, including Chesapeake Energy, Gulfport Energy, Consol Energy, Hess Corp., Devon, Noble Energy and Andarko E&P, among a sprinkling of others whose work today will define the trajectory of the Utica and its part in shaping the state’s future.  “The project evolution is taking an ordinary course from the stand point of you lease it, define it and harvest it,” said Don Fischbach, chairman of the energy group at Calfee, Halter & Griswold in Cleveland. “We’re just about to give birth to the extent of the project area. The parameters of this play are dependent on a lot of unknown factors like commodity prices, infrastructure build-out, and it’s not fair to compare the Utica’s time line to other plays that are predominantly producing crude oil.”


9/30/13  Shale drillers must report chemicals 
The Columbus Dispatch   Oil and gas companies are being told for the first time to give county officials and local fire departments information about the toxic chemicals drillers use to fracture shale. Ohio officials sent a memo this month notifying companies that a federal right-to-know law trumps a 2001 state law that allowed them to send the information exclusively to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.  more here

10/1/13 Gas-to-liquids plant planned for Ashtabula County Shale Play 
Houston-based Pinto Energy LLC, a developer of "Gas-to-Liquid" processing facilities, plans to build a 2,800-barrel-per-day natural gas processing plant just east of Ashtabula. Plans announced last month call for the plant to process natural gas extracted from the Utica and Marcellus Shale Plays into liquid products that can be used in the manufacture of specialty products like solvents, lubricants, waxes and clean transportation fuels. The 80-acre industrial site was chosen for its access to existing infrastructure, like waste water treatment plants, an air separation unit, gas pipelines, and barge and rail loading facilities, along with a local customer base for some of the plant's products, officials involved in the project announced. The gas-to-liquid, or GTL, facility is expected to create 30 direct jobs, 400 temporary construction jobs and about 112 indirect jobs. The state-of-the-art facility will be one of the first plants of this kind in North America. According to Pinto, the gas-to-liquid technologies have existed since the early 20th century, but recent technological advancements have transformed the industry.  More here.

9/3/13  ODJFS Ohio Shale Report
appended at the bottom of this page-take away is:  more jobs!

9/3/13  Production moves south
(thanks to ABJ "Drilling" column)

9/1/13 A Comparison of the Utica and Marcellus Shale Plays
a nice overview of the gas/oil explore/extraction industry in Ohio

7/2/13-Housing Crisis?
In an article entitled “Rental Market Drying Up Fast” the online news source Shale Play writes “Houses are selling at higher prices, hotels are full and apartments are renting quickly because of the Upper Ohio Valley's burgeoning oil and natural gas industry. This boom has led to some families in lower income brackets suffering because they say landlords are evicting them in favor of renting to out-of-state oilfield workers...”

8/2/13 Peer-reviewed article shines light on injection wells and earthquakes
"Ohio has a network of more than 190 class II injection wells originally intended for disposal of brine from the 64,000 or so producing wells within the state. Insufficient disposal and treatment facilities within the Marcellus producing areas of Pennsylvania have resulted in dramatic increases in disposal of out-of-state wastewater." good primer on injection wells

  


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