The Daily Digger

From Gas & Oil: A couple of miles north of Carrollton, Ohio, on what used to be a bean field just off state Route 9, construction crews have been working around the clock to build a facility that will produce 700 megawatts of electricity using a 21st-century approach that leaves coal-based methods in the annals of the energy industry.  The $900-million project is the Carroll County Energy power plant. When completed, the facility's combined-cycle system will use not coal but natural gas to produce electricity.  The system uses natural gas to heat air that turns a turbine connected to a generator, which creates electricity. Exhaust heat from the gas turbine is then used to heat water, which creates steam to turn a second turbine connected to a second generator. The result: even more electricity.  The method produces power with nearly twice the efficiency of coal-fired plants while producing less than 50 percent of the carbon emissions that coal-based methods u...

After several weeks of slow permitting activity in the Utica shale, the latest report from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources documents a spike last week.  12 new permits were issued - 9 in Belmont County, and 3 in Noble County. The Utica rig count also increased from 14 to 17, reaching the highest total seen in several months. The new cumulative totals stand at 2,229 permits issued, 1,784 wells drilled, and 1,392 wells producing. View the report below or by clicking here. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog

From the Ohio Department of Natural Resources comes this press release: During the second quarter of 2016, Ohio’s horizontal shale wells produced 4,839,792 barrels of oil and 334,257,982 Mcf (334 billion cubic feet) of natural gas, according the figures released today by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR). Natural gas production from the second quarter of 2016 showed an increase over the second quarter of 2015, while oil production was reduced for that same period.     2015 QUARTER 2 (SHALE) 2016 QUARTER 2 (SHALE) PERCENTAGE CHANGE Barrels of oil 5,955,042 4,839,792 (18.73%) Mcf of natural gas 221,914,394 334,257,982 50.62% The ODNR quarterly report lists 1,415 horizontal shale wells, 1,362 of which reported oil and natural gas production during the quarter. Of the 1,362 reporting oil and natural gas results: The average amount of oil produced was 3,553 barrels. The average amount of natural gas produced was 245,417 Mcf. The average number of seco...

From Reuters: The huge global oil oversupply that has weighed on prices for the past two years may not clear until the second half of 2017, Shell's chief energy adviser Wim Thomas told Reuters.  The potential return to the market of some 1.5 million barrels per day of supply from Libya and Nigeria and uncertainty about Iranian and Iraqi production levels could push a rebalancing further away than many in the oil industry are hoping.  "All these things when they come back on the market can again postpone the true balancing," Thomas said in an interview on the sidelines of the ONS oil conference in Stavanger, Norway.  He said the most optimistic scenario was for rebalancing, meaning that huge volumes of stored crude have to be absorbed, to kick in this year and that Shell was prepared for all outcomes. "It can happen any time between the second half of this year and the second half of next year." Click here to read the rest of this article. Connect wit...

From Bloomberg: Multibillion-dollar oil and gas deals are back on the table.  More than $11 billion of transactions were announced globally in July as crude’s recovery fueled hopes of a steadier market, Wood Mackenzie Ltd. said. That’s the highest monthly total this year and brings the amount since May to $32 billion, triple that of the previous three months. Dealmaking will continue to accelerate as oil prices stabilize, according to the consulting firm.  Exxon Mobil Corp. and Statoil ASA were among the buyers after crude’s rebound from a 12-year low earlier this year bolstered confidence. Acquisitions will allow the companies to ensure future growth as the industry has slashed $1 trillion in spending to protect their balance sheets during the downturn. “The extreme oil price volatility in the first quarter caused a lot of uncertainty,” said Greig Aitken, principal analyst for mergers and acquisitions at Wood Mackenzie. “Activity picked up as confidence returned and ...

From Vorys: The Ohio Tax Commissioner recently issued a memorandum to county auditors regarding significant changes to the taxation of oil and gas reserves starting in tax year 2016.  These significant changes include: Elimination of filing forms 6 and 6A.  Values will now be based upon production volumes reported to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR).  After hearing from industry representatives, the Ohio Tax Commissioner acknowledged that this approach may lead to higher values than statutorily permitted in some circumstances.  Accordingly, the Ohio Tax Commissioner announced a temporary fix to address this circumstance.  The new approach will overvalue oil and gas reserves in some circumstances because amounts reported to ODNR are produced amounts, whereas O.R.C. 5713.051 requires that values be based on volumes “produced and sold.”  The temporary fix is re-instatement of DTE form 6A for the limited purpose of ensuring that producer...

From Akron.com: Residents of the cities of New Franklin and Green had the opportunity to provide comments concerning the proposed NEXUS gas transmission pipeline project that would impact the two communities if the planned route remains.  Staff for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the federal agency responsible for evaluating applications to construct and operate interstate gas pipeline facilities, was on hand at Green High School Aug. 18 from 5 to 10 p.m. to record verbal remarks regarding the project, specifically why local residents want the route of the project to take a more southern path.  The NEXUS pipeline, a 36-inch, 250-mile line to be developed by Nexus Gas Transmission LLC, along with Detroit-based DTE Energy Co. and Texas-based Spectra Energy Corp., is projected to transport up to 1.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day and would run from Kensington to Ontario, Canada, according to pipeline officials. Locally, the proposed route would ...