Jamison Cocklin

As its operational footprint in Ohio has continued to shift toward the southeast, following an intensifying pattern of other operators moving toward the Utica Shale’s core, Consol Energy Inc. last month closed its northeast Ohio field office in Columbiana County.

MarkWest Energy Partners LP said Monday that most of its Houston Processing and Fractionation facility in southwest Pennsylvania is back online after a lightning strike late last Wednesday forced the company to shut down operations there so it could assess the damage (see Shale Daily, May 29).

Rice Energy Inc. delivered big on Monday, reporting some of the best initial production (IP) results yet seen in Ohio’s Utica Shale, with its first well, the Bigfoot 9H in Belmont County, flowing at a stabilized rate of nearly 42 MMcf/d after five days, exceeding the market’s expectations.

An environmental advocacy group on Wednesday called two former top officials from the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) to testify on behalf of its efforts to stop Republican Gov. Tom Corbett’s administration from leasing anymore state park or forestlands.

Landfills in West Virginia will stop accepting drilling sludge after the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) discovered that a site in Harrison County recently accepted the material after it was rejected at another dump across the state line in Pennsylvania.

MarkWest Energy Partners LP said Friday that its Houston Processing and Fractionation facility in southwest Pennsylvania was still shut down and will remain so until further notice. Severe thunderstorms that rolled through much of the region on Wednesday led to a lightning strike at one of the complex’s three processing plants (see Shale Daily,May 29). The company said it will likely notify investors and the news media when the plant is brought back online. A company spokesman said damage at the plant was still being assessed and repairs were being made. The 355 MMcf/d facility primarily serves Range Resources Corp., which said Thursday that some of its wells were shut in as a result of the problems at the Houston plant. Some production is being rerouted to MarkWest’s Majorsville complex in Marshall County, WV, about 30 miles southwest of the Houston facility in Chartiers Township in Washington County.

MarkWest Energy Partners LP on Thursday said its Houston Processing and Fractionation facility in southwest Pennsylvania would remain offline until a full assessment of equipment could be made after a lightning strike on Wednesday caused limited damage to one of its processing plants there.

Permian pure-play operator Parsley Energy Inc. caught the market’s attention Friday after launching an initial public offering (IPO) in which it sold about six million more shares than anticipated, exceeding its offering price and sending the stock soaring in its first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

Six West Virginia University (WVU) professors have each been awarded $10,000 research grants to study a complex array of shale gas-related issues in the state and across the world. WVU’sNational Research Center for Coal and Energy issued the grants as part of its newly launched WVU Shale Gas Network. The professors will study the potential impacts of shale gas drilling, ranging from heart health and water resources, to the chemical industry and policy development. The projects are aimed at improving the safety and efficiency of shale gas exploration and production, developing new methods for shale gas use in chemical manufacturing and finding out more about the industry’s effects on public health. The Appalachian Basin, Asia, South America and Europe will be among the regions of focus.