The Daily Digger

New permits issued last week:   14   (Previous week:  9 )  +5 Total horizontal permits issued:  2499   (Previous week:  2485 )  +14 Total horizontal wells drilled:  1982   (Previous week:  1974 )  +8 Total horizontal wells producing:  1551   (Previous week:  1540 )  +11 Utica rig count:  22   (Previous week:  21 )   +1 Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog

API Ohio Executive Director Chris Zeigler welcomed the Ohio House Finance Committee’s decision to remove the proposed severance tax increase from House Bill 49. “The committee’s decision recognizes that our industry is an important part of the solution for advancing Ohio’s economic and employment goals,” said Zeigler. “Pro-growth tax policy and smart, science-based regulations will ensure that the state’s oil and natural gas industry continues to provide benefits for Ohio’s economy, consumers, workers and our environment. “In removing such a damaging tax increase Speaker Rosenberger, Chairman Ryan Smith and the House Finance Committee have taken a critical step for Ohio’s oil and natural gas production and processing sector to remain competitive compared to other states. “We are committed to continuing our work with all members of the General Assembly on forward-looking energy policies that will help ensure Ohio’s prominent role in America’s energy renaissance. We are proud of our cont...

UPDATE ON 5/8/17 Several more drillers have released reports on their activity. From Eclipse Resources: The Company updated its Utica Dry Gas type curve assumptions, resulting in an increase in EUR of approximately 13% to approximately 2.2 Bcf per 1,000 foot of lateral based on the results of extended flow testing on its completed Dry Gas Utica Shale wells using the Company’s “Gen3” completion design, which is expected to generate a before tax internal rate of return of approximately 70% at today’s forward natural gas strip pricing. The Company successfully drilled its newest record setting “Super-Lateral” well, the Great Scott 3H, with a total measured depth of 27,400 feet and completable lateral extension of 19,300 feet in less than 17 days from spud to TD in the Company’s Utica Shale Condensate area. The Company completed drilling its first of two planned Marcellus Shale Condensate wells with a completable lateral extension of 10,000 feet. The Company finished compl...

From Business Journal Daily: Executives and organizations that support the development of independent energy production are calling two bills introduced in the Ohio General Assembly nothing less than a $5 billion bailout for utility giant FirstEnergy Corp. that will saddle residents with higher energy costs.  FirstEnergy says the bills, collectively called the Zero Emissions Nuclear Resource Program, help to preserve nuclear energy as a vital, reliable power source that provides electricity to millions of Ohioans each day, not to mention hundreds of jobs in the industry.  The debate essentially pits large utilities such as FirstEnergy against smaller, independent, non-utilities such as Clean Energy Future, which plans to invest more than $1 billion in the region to build two combined-cycle energy production plants in Lordstown.  “We really can’t find one organization that supports FirstEnergy’s program,” says Bill Siderewicz, president of Boston-based Clean Energ...

New permits issued last week:  9   (Previous week:  77 )  +2 Total horizontal permits issued:  2485   (Previous week:  2476 )  +9 Total horizontal wells drilled:  1974   (Previous week:  1968 )  +6 Total horizontal wells producing:  1540   (Previous week:  1540 )  +0 Utica rig count:  21   (Previous week:  22 )   -1 Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog

From Powersource: Russ Forba opened his natural gas royalty statement on Monday and got a bitter surprise.  Mr. Forba was featured in a Post-Gazette article on Sunday describing nine months when Chesapeake Energy Corp. calculated that the costs of piping and marketing the Marcellus Shale gas extracted from beneath his family’s northeastern Pennsylvania farm exceeded — by $112,000 — the family’s share of the gas sales.  The family received no checks from Chesapeake during those months, when the company sold more than 2 billion cubic feet of gas from under the farm, but the Oklahoma-based oil and gas operator assured the family it had zeroed out the negative balance.  The company said it is its practice not to use past costs in such cases to offset future royalties and, until Monday, it had applied that policy to the Forba family.  But the monthly statement Mr. Forba opened this week showed that Chesapeake had revised down the selling price and revised up t...

From the Colorado Springs Gazette: The Boulder Daily Camera published a letter to the editor April 19 that recommended bombing fracking sites to "eliminate fracking and workers." Here is an excerpt:  "If the oil and gas industry puts fracking wells in our neighborhoods, threatening our lives and our children's lives, then don't we have a moral responsibility to blow up wells and eliminate fracking and workers?" wrote Andrew J. O'Connor, who is trying to get an anti-fracking measure on November's ballot.  We repeat. This is not pretend. This letter appeared in the Daily Camera.  After readers expressed dismay, the newspaper softened the online version of the call to violence. Instead of suggesting bombs, the revised version says we "have a moral responsibility to take action to dissuade frackers" from operating.  An editor's note, explaining the revision, said the Camera does not condone violence. The note goes on to defend th...