The Daily Digger

New permits issued last week:   1  (Previous week:  3 )   -2 Total horizontal permits issued:  3129  (Previous week:  3129 )    +-0 Total horizontal wells drilled:  2654  (Previous week:  2650 )   +4 Total horizontal wells producing:  2238  (Previous week:  2226 )   +12 Utica rig count:  17  (Previous week:  17 )   +-0

From Forbes: One of the most important questions in the global oil markets revolves around U.S. oil production. There is probably nothing OPEC would like to know more than when U.S. oil production will begin to decline.  The resurgence of U.S. oil production over the past decade diminished OPEC's control of the global oil markets. In less than eight years, U.S. oil production climbed from under 6 million barrels per day (BPD) to more than 12 million BPD. This surge is arguably the only reason oil prices today aren't above $100/barrel (bbl).  OPEC's current strategy seems to be to wait for U.S. production to begin declining so they can begin to regain control of the oil markets.  They may not have to wait all that long.  In last week's article , I covered the slowdown in oil production growth in the Permian Basin. This is the most important oil-producing region in the U.S., but of course it isn't the only one. And while most of the coverage of the resurgenc...

by Nicole Jacobs, Energy in Depth Claims of health impacts from shale development have become a heated topic in the Appalachian Basin, with activists pushing a  misleading narrative  in the region. But the allegation that fracking is causing widespread public health issues is far from reality in the Buckeye State, according two state agencies. In response to a handful of activists  soliciting information  on households living near shale development in an attempt to create an agenda-driven health registry, the Ohio Department of Health said it does respond to each complaint received about the shale industry. As Rebecca Fugitt, assistant chief of the department’s Bureau of Environmental Health and Radiation Protection told  StateImpact  though,  regulators simply aren’t getting many complaints: “No, we only get, maybe…  it’s less than five a year …to be honest, it really is.  We don’t get very many .” (emphasis added) Similarly, the ...

From the Times Reporter: People “just heard money and they were lined up, you know, clear around the (Barnesville) high school. Hundreds and hundreds of people (were) waiting to get in to sign up. That was very alarming to me just to see how blindly everyone embraced the industry,” said Jill Hunkler, a 44-year-old Barnesville resident who says she has suffered health problems because of the drilling.  Amid the drilling boom, environmentalists and health experts have descended upon Belmont and neighboring Appalachian counties in an effort to measure the impact of hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking, on water quality, air emissions and even emotional health.  “The evidence is strengthening and growing,” said Nicole Deziel, an assistant professor at the Yale School of Public Health, who has traveled to the region for three years to study air and water quality.  “Scientists are quickly conducting health studies to better understand whether there are health impacts...

From OilPrice.com: Halliburton is cutting its workforce and shelving fracking equipment amid a slowdown in the U.S. shale industry.  The oilfield services giant said that its revenue fell 13 percent in the second quarter, and it decided to cut its North American workforce by 8 percent. The company’s share price jumped 9 percent on the news, with shareholders apparently heartened by the cost-trimming measures. Halliburton “is emphasizing a return on capital approach, and has stacked additional equipment in 2Q where returns were not justified, and expects activity down in [North America] in 3Q,” Morgan Stanley wrote in a note.  In an earnings call with analysts and shareholders on Monday, Halliburton CEO Jeff Miller laid out a few strategies in response to the weak shale market. The company has slashed capex by 20 percent as demand for its services has slowed. “We have sufficient size and scale in this market and see no reason to invest in growth when it comes at the expen...

From WTOV : If an ethane cracker plant is going to be built in Dilles Bottom, several houses could be in jeopardy, including a newly restored home.   William and Tonya Rayl moved in a nearby, almost rundown home on Dilles Bottom Road 11 years ago. Brittany Grego ✔ @BrittWTOV9 This home is the oldest in Dilles Bottom and it could eventually be torn down for the ethane cracker plant, hear from the family at 6. @ WTOV9 5:02 PM - Jul 25, 2019 Twitter Ads info and privacy See Brittany Grego's other Tweets "This house was pretty much crumbling when we moved here, we spent every day, hard work every day to try to make it even livable," they said. It’s the oldest house in Dilles Bottom.

From Business Journal Daily: A referendum committee has been formed to overturn legislation signed into law Tuesday that subsidizes two nuclear plants owned by FirstEnergy Solutions. The announcement by Bill Siderewicz, president of Boston-based Clean Energy Future, followed House Bill 6 being signed into law Tuesday afternoon by Gov. Mike DeWine. The bill passed by a 51-38 vote in the Ohio House of Representatives. On July 17, it was approved by a 19-12 vote in the Ohio Senate.  The legislation will apply monthly surcharges of $2.50 for residential energy customers, $20 for commercial customers and $250 for customers classified as industrial. It also creates the Ohio Clean Air Quality Development Authority, which would provide during the first year “clean air credits” under the Ohio Clean Air program to power plants, such as nuclear power plants, that produce zero carbon emissions. FirstEnergy Solutions operates two nuclear plants in Ohio, the Davis-Besse plant near Toledo a...