A northeast Ohio company has plans to open one of the state’s first third-party water treatment facilities to process flowback, brine and other wastewater that collects during the drilling process. Ohio favors injection wells to dispose of its oilfield waste, with nearly 98% of all brine water being disposed of in Class II injection wells. Iron Eagle Enterprises LLC, of Liberty Township is the first to receive a third-party permit. Plans call for constructing a 14,000 b/d, or 588,000 gallon, facility in Carroll County, where drilling activities have been robust. The plant is expected to employ as many as 50 people once it’s operational. No completion date has been announced.

PDC Energy secured the first three permits in November to drill in Morgan County, OH, in one of the farthest moves west in the Utica shale play since Devon Energy Corp. explored its western fringes when development first got underway. PDC is the first to push farther southwest of Noble, Guernsey, Belmont and Monroe counties, where drilling activities have only recently started to increase. The company operates two wells in adjacent Washington County, and it holds most of its acreage in Guernsey County to the north.

Consol Energysaid the federal waiting period has expired on its $3.5 billion agreement with Murray Energy Corp. to sell subsidiary Consolidation Coal Co., which holds five of its longwall coal mines in West Virginia (see Shale Daily, Oct. 28). Proceeds from the transaction, set to close before the end of 2013, would be dedicated to the Marcellus Shale, as well as lthe Utica and Upper Devonian shales.