The Center for Sustainable Shale Development (“CSSD”), a newly formed independent organization supporting best practices, announced 15 new performance standards for operators in the oil and gas industry. The CSSD will offer an independent, third-party evaluation process to certify companies that achieve and maintain these standards. The Post-Gazette reports that the standards address the protection of air, water and climate by implementing: (i) limitations on gas well flaring; (ii) requirements to use “green completion” activities; (iii) storage tank emission controls; (iv) development of groundwater protection plans; (v) reduction of toxicity of fracking fluids; and (vi) improvement of water recycling to at least 90 percent. The certification process, including a plan for comprehensive third-party auditing, is currently in development, and the CSSD anticipated accepting applications for certification later this year.
In another sign of the energy industry’s impact on the region, the Pittsburgh Technical Institute broke ground earlier this week on a $3.5 million energy technology center designed to educate individuals in the oil and gas electronics involved in extracting, transporting, and storing gas. The 15,392-square-foot facility, which is being funded partially by the Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program, is expected to be completed this fall. The Post-Gazette has more.
On January 14, 2013, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized amendments to the National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) for stationary reciprocating internal combustion engines (RICE). In addition to amending several rules governing the operation of emergency engines, EPA’s final rules creates a new subcategory for existing 4-stroke spark ignition RICE with more than 500 horsepower that are area sources and where the engines are located in “remote” areas. This new subcategory covers the type of engines commonly used for natural gas production and transmission.
For engines in remote areas, the rule establishes management practices and associated testing and monitoring requirements. Additionally, for engines in populated areas, operators are required to install catalytic controls, conduct performance tests on the catalyst, and implement certain measures to control the catalyst inlet temperature. The final rule will be effective 60 days after publication in the Federal Register.
Don S. Wardius, head of Renewable and Alternative Feedstocks Development at Bayer Material Science, said Bayer wants to see a research and development consortium organized to explore turning methane, a main component in natural gas, into benzene, as reported by the Tribune-Review and Pittsburgh Business Times. Bayer uses benzene as a raw material for the polymers in high-performance plastics. Wardius spoke at the Manufacturing Renaissance Series held in Pittsburgh on Thursday, which was a gathering of chemical executives, academics and lawmakers to discuss the attractive economics around using natural gas to create compounds required in plastics and other industries.
On October 31, 2012, the American Clean Skies Foundation published a report highlighting, on a state-by-state basis, the positive economic impacts for consumers and supply chains from the increased development and production of natural gas. The report notes that, since 2007, the oil and natural gas industry will create up to 1.6 million new jobs across the country and will increase the U.S. gross domestic product by up to $245 billion by 2017. In breaking these numbers down, the report estimates that for every billion cubic feet of additional gas demand per day, 13,000 new drilling and pipeline jobs are created, plus thousands of additional new jobs in various downstream sectors that use natural gas. Significant benefits highlighted in the report include Shell’s construction of an ethane plant and up to 145,000 new jobs in Pennsylvania, and how the development of natural gas resources in Ohio has brought new life to Ohio’s steel industry as U.S. Steel and Timken plan to expand to meet the increased demand for steel pipe and other drilling materials.
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On Monday, October 15, 2012, Carizzo Oil and Gas announced that Halcon Resources Corp. purchased a majority of their Utica Shale leases in Trumbull, Ohio, and Mercer and Crawford counties, Pennsylvania, for $43 million. An existing drilling pad and approved well drilling permits were also part of the sale. Carrizo will continue to own an undivided 10% interest, along with an option to increase its ownership to 50%, in nearly 26,000 additional gross acres, primarily in Guernsey County, Ohio, where the company said there were encouraging drilling results. Continue reading…
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.
The Pittsburgh Business Times reports that Chesapeake Energy Corp. is in talks with Giant Eagle concerning a possible joint venture which would involve the installation of compressed nature gas (CNG) refueling facilities at Giant Eagle’s GetGo gas stations. Norman Herrera, Chesapeake’s director of market development, told the Business Times that Chesapeake may be involved as an investor in the infrastructure, and may also play a role in arranging agreements with local fleets to convert to CNG and commit to refueling at GetGos.
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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.
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Tags: Cracker plant,
Energy law,
Environmental law,
Fracking,
Gas drilling,
Natural gas,
Natural resources,
PA Act 13,
Pennsylvania,
Pipeline construction,
Shale gas,
Utica Shale
Cecil Township, Robinson Township, Peters Township, and Mt. Pleasant Township, all in Washington County, and South Fayette Township, Allegheny County together filed a complaint in Commonwealth Court [add link to Complaint] arguing that Act 13 is unconstitutional. Chief among the issues raised by the municipalities is the explicit requirement that local ordinances “allow for the reasonable development of oil and gas resources”.
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On Tuesday March 20, Williams Partners L.P., a Williams Companies, Inc. affiliate, announced an agreement to acquire Caiman Eastern Midstream LLC, a midstream subsidiary of Caiman Energy, for $2.5 billion. Caiman Eastern’s holdings include existing physical assets such as a gathering system, two processing facilities and a fractionator. Expansions to the gathering system, processing facilities and fractionator are currently under construction. An ethane pipeline is also planned. The physical assets are supported by long-term contracted commitments for 236,000 dedicated gathering acres from 10 producers in West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Through this acquisition, Williams Partners is able to establish a major footprint in the liquids-rich area of Marcellus shale. In coordination with this acquisition, Williams Partners is also announcing its intention to participate in a new joint venture with Caiman Energy to develop midstream infrastructure in the natural gas liquids and oil-rich areas of the Utica Shale, primarily in Ohio and northwest Pennsylvania.