The Link-Up: 9/20
Welcome back to The Link-Up, your weekly rundown of our favorite stories from the past seven days in the oil and gas industry!
Marcellus Shale Engineering and Environmental Laboratory to begin research at second site
Daily Energy Insider
I'm sure most of you have figured this out on your own by now, but I'm a huge nerd. So the idea of something like the MSEEL existing to improve recovery from wells using modeling in place of temperature and acoustic sensing (which are cost prohibitive on any kind of large scale)... yeah, I'm here for that. Fun fact: my dad wanted me to be an engineer, and here I am writing blog posts instead of doing stuff like this.
Legislators updated on two, billion-dollar pipeline projects
WV News
Construction had been halted over right-of-way issues, but those have been cleared up, which is good, because related to just one of the pipelines....
Other statistics related to the pipeline project include $478 million in total economic activity and 3,093 jobs supported while construction is underway. When the Atlantic Coast Pipeline is complete, Orndorff said the economic activity will drop to $15.6 million annually, with additional, local tax revenue of $10.7 million a year.
Study Detected Methane in Water Wells But Not From Booming Oil Drilling Nearby
Journal of Petroleum Technology
Well, that would certainly explain why everyone thinks they're right about that whole thing I suppose. Long story short, the methane came from shallower depths than where we're drilling and is likely produced by bacteria.
Open space programs get boost from state funding
Daily Local News
Fracking bad for the environment? Chester County, Pennsylvania is spending $300,000 in well impact fees on playgrounds, parks, and preserves.
Penn State Professors Blend Poetry And Photography In 'Shale Play'
WPSU
Looking for something a little different out of your weekly curated oil and gas news blog post? This definitely qualifies.
Leading the way toward responsible growth
Parkersburg News and Sentinel
West Virginia House of Delegates member John Kelly jumped into the newspaper pages to write (or make his interns write, either-or) a column. Some nice stats:
According to Workforce West Virginia, natural gas pipeline development has created 3,600 new jobs in the state over the past year. A recent report from the West Virginia University Bureau of Business and Economic Research said employment in our area’s natural gas industry will grow 4.5 percent annually through 2023, with roughly one out of every four jobs that will be created in the Parkersburg area in coming years to come from growth in this sector.
Kelly wasn't really writing an "everything is awesome" puff piece though, as much as we love those. Primarily, he wanted to talk about mineral rights, and the WV's legislature's efforts to scale back regulations from requiring unanimity when leasing land for drilling to a 75 percent supermajority, which obviously went a long way in promoting the industry. Then he took some time to go double barrel on companies (one in particular) that are "acting out of pure greed to overturn reasonable compromises that other companies and surface rights advocates are willing to accept."
Newspaper drama was the original Twitter drama, or something like that.
Colorado's Oil Industry Is Still Booming, As The Industry Casts A Wary Eye On Proposition 112
Colorado Public Radio
I'm going to toss one of these in every one of these posts until the election, on the off chance that someone in Colorado on the fence about voting sees this.
See you next week!
