The Pittsburgh Post Gazette is reporting that Governor Tom Corbett has forced Richard J. Allan, Pennsylvania’s Secretary of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, to resign. Effective immediately, Ellen Ferretti, Deputy Secretary for Parks and Forestry, will serve as the acting secretary. The reason for the resignation is unknown at this time.
Gulfport Energy Corporation reported positive production results for its Shugert 1-1H well in Ohio’s Utica shale. Located in Belmont County, Ohio, Shugert 1-1H tested at a peak rate of 20.0 million cubic feet per day of natural gas, 144 barrels of condensate per day, and 2,002 barrels of natural gas liquids per day. Gulfport plans to begin flowing the Shugert 1-1H well into a sales pipeline by early December.
Utica East Ohio Midstream has begun site preparation for a shale gas collection and processing plant, according to Cleveland.com. The site, located on 117 acres south of Hanoverton, Columbiana County, will be the home of the $400 million plant, which is estimated to have an initial capacity of 600 million cubic feet per day. The first phase of the plant is to be operational by May of 2013.
In July 2011, PIOGA filed a motion in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania seeking to hold the United States Forest Service in contempt of court for allegedly failing to adhere to the Court’s December 2009 preliminary injunction order in the Minard Run, et al. v. United States Forest Service, et al. litigation. That order prevented the Forest Service from requiring mineral owners to prepare a NEPA document before the development of oil and gas rights in the Allegheny Forest. It also required the parties to revert to a drilling proposal process that they had used from 1980 until the litigation began in 2009.
Read more ›