Category Archives: Environment

Mountain Valley Pipeline’s 401 Permit Challeneged

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The State of West Virginia issued a 401 water quality permit for the Mountain Valley Pipeline back in March.

Opponents of the pipeline say the DEP’s review of the permit application was deficient.

Appalachian Mountain Advocates, represented by Derek Teaney, has sent the DEP a letter listing the allegations.

What I’ve heard through the grapevine is that the MVP did a lot of copying and pasting in it’s application.  While some copy-pasta should be expected in an application of that sort, some things that should have received a more personal touch didn’t.

If the DEP doesn’t provide a satisfactory response there will most likely be a lawsuit in the works.

Why You Should Always Ask How Long the Lateral Will Be

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Eclipse Resources holds the world record for a horizontal well at 18,500 feet.  This year they plan to drill 11 extra long wells.

Longer wells have several benefits, including a better ROI for the companies, and fewer environmental burdens on the surface.

The one thing people don’t like about them is that there will be fewer workers as there will be fewer drilling rigs.

Regarding the ROI, Eclipse says it makes an ROI of about 25% on a 6,000 foot well, 67% on a 13,000 foot well, and 87% at 19,000 feet.  That’s a huge jump in ROI.

It occurs to me that if the company is going to be making a lot more money per well, maybe it’s time we started tying royalty percentages to the length of the lateral.  A typical negotiated lease in West Virginia provides for 15-18% royalties, with a few even higher.  If the well is going to be longer than usual, say between 5000 and 10,000 feet the lease could provide for a 2% increase in royalties.  If between 10,000 and 15,000 feet, 4%.  And if between 15,000 feet and 20,000 feet, 6%.  So a 2% increase in royalties per 5,000 feet of lateral.

Share the wealth.

This may not be terribly applicable in some parts of West Virginia.  Well length and unit size are limited in Harrison County in part because there are a lot of leased properties checkerboarding the area.  The company wanting to do horizontal drilling isn’t always able to get an assignment for all the tracts it wants to drill.

It’s an idea to consider, though, and should work well in the northern panhandle where all the leases are owned mainly by Southwestern.

New Pipeline Leaks

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This post was supposed to publish at the end of January. For some reason it didn’t.  Better late than never. 

This month there have been two more pipeline leaks.

The first was on January 14.  It spilled 50,000 gallons of oil into the Yellowstone River in Montana.  It has affected drinking water for some locals.

The second was on January 30.  Exact numbers aren’t in yet for it, but 1,400 barrels of oil have been recovered.  The leak was in Blue Ridge, Texas.  It appears a contractor accidentally cut a 30-inch high pressure oil line.

Now, I’m a fan of the pipelines that are being put in here in West Virginia for economic reasons.  I’m a realist, though.  Pipelines deteriorate.  Pipelines get punctured.  Pipelines rupture.  Pipelines explode.  There is a clear risk in living or working close to a pipeline.  While I believe the risk is low, it’s still there.  Anyone who agrees to have a pipeline close to their house or business has to be aware of the risk.  That’s why I publish this data.

Be informed.

Permanently Protect your Minerals from Development

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We’re in favor of developing oil and gas resources.  However, not everyone is.  If you don’t ever want your oil and gas developed, then here’s a new method that could work.

Essentially, it takes advantage of the ability to create conservation easements by creating a conservation easement for the formation (or all the formations) that have oil and gas in it (them).

Conservation easements have been around for a while, and they work.  Mineral estate conservation easements, as the creator has dubbed them, may or may not work.  I don’t see why they wouldn’t, and it certainly couldn’t hurt.  If you want to give it a try, call your friendly neighborhood oil and gas attorney to discuss it.

 

Another Pipeline Rupture: Ash Coulee Creek, ND

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A six-inch oil pipeline in North Dakota has sprung a leak.  The amount of oil spilled is unknown at this time.  The oil has entered Ash Coulee Creek, and the company, Belle Fourche Pipeline Company, has placed booms and a siphon dam across the creek to minimize future damage.

It’s surprising how often these leaks go unnoticed for long periods of time.  The companies promote their electronic sensors as safe and reliable, but well over half of all spills and leaks are discovered by people, not technology.  Even when they do get discovered, they sometimes don’t get fixed, such as this natural gas pipeline near Franklinville, New York.

Five days after the original news of the spill broke, it turns out the spill was over 176,000 gallons of crude.  That’s about 4,190 barrels.

Lycoming County Pipeline Failure: Corrosion to Blame

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Broken Pipe

A little over a year ago a 24-inch natural gas transmission pipeline in Lycoming County, PA failed.  It didn’t explode, but people were evacuated for safety.

The investigation has determined that external corrosion was was to blame.

Interestingly, the pipeline had no history of internal corrosion.

It’s important to point out that these pipelines are failing after decades of use.  It seems that as the pipelines get older, they would be more subject to corrosion.  To counter that, pipeline companies could increase their inspections.  But pipeline companies aren’t increasing inspection frequency.

Antero’s Water Treatment Plant in West Virginia

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Ken Ward, Jr. of the Charleston Gazette-Mail put together an excellent article on the wastewater treatment plant that Antero Resources is building on the Doddridge County and Ritchie County line.  He explains the need for the plant, the controversy around the plant, and gets into the regulatory framework that is either being used or abused depending on your point of view.  There are a number of points of view represented.

Basically, the plant takes up a lot of space and has disrupted the lives of the people who live next to it.

For regulatory purposes the plant is supposed to be privately held and used by Antero.  Being private instead of commercial, the plant doesn’t have to go through some regulatory approvals.  Interestingly, Antero will be taking water from other companies and treating it.  Usually that would be commercial, not private.   It looks like Antero is using a loophole to avoid regulations.  People don’t typically like that kind of thing, particularly when their lives are being disrupted by someone who is making a lot of money disrupting their lives.

There’s more in the article.  We won’t ruin it all for you here.

WVU Research Says Fracking Waste is Not Very Radioactive

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WVU Test Wells

WVU Test Wells, Morgantown in the background

West Virginia University has been drilling and fracking two research wells.  They are using the same techniques that the industry uses and doing science on it all.

One conclusion they reached is that the cuttings (crushed rock brought to the surface) are not very radioactive at all.  They believe this was influenced at least in part by using a particular drilling mud.  The conclusion about radioactivity is interesting in light of the recent Kentucky investigation into the radioactivity levels of West Virginia fracking waste.

Another conclusion they reached was that produced water is not safe to drink or discharge into streams.  No surprise there.

The nice thing about this project is that it’s not funded by either the industry or environmentalists.  It’s paid for by the University.  That doesn’t mean that someone on the team isn’t biased, but hopefully the science will be done with a minimum of bias.  We’re looking forward to seeing more of their work reported in the future.

Really Old Wells and Horizontal Fracking

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Bloomberg has an interesting article about old wells in Pennsylvania and how they can affect or be affected by a horizontally fracked well.

West Virginia has the same problem.

The first thing to know about old wells in West Virginia is that we don’t know where they all are.  West Virginia didn’t start assigning API numbers to wells until 1929, at least forty years after oil and gas development really boomed in West Virginia, and at least seventy years after the first oil wells were drilled.  That means there are a lot of well locations out there that are unknown.  How many?

A quick Google search turned up some great photos that can help us get an idea.  The following were taken from a web site about the Kanawha and West Virginia Railroad.  There are many more on other sites.

The photo below was taken in 1913 on Blue Creek in West Virginia.  You can plainly see at least six wells, and possibly another six or seven.  When you look at the larger photo it’s possible that some of what looks like oil derricks are actually just ageing or smudges on the photo.Blue Creek, WV Oil Wells

 

 

This photo of oil wells in West Virginia was taken at another location on Blue Creek, possibly about the same time as the one above.  There are clearly ten oil wells.Oil Derricks on Blue Creek near One Mile Fork

 

 

 

 

 

None of those wells would have had API numbers, and their locations were never recorded by anybody.  Nobody thought they would be important.  They are the kinds of wells that we are concerned with, and they exist all over West Virginia.

Many of these old wells were not properly plugged when they were abandoned.  Someone might have thrown old lumber or trees down the hole, filled it with dirt, and called it a day.  Others might have gotten a little better treatment with some cannon balls or scrap metal thrown in for good measure.  Very few were plugged with cement, and many were just left open.

This can be a real problem when a horizontal well is drilled nearby.  Some of the old wells were drilled down thousands of feet, a few even into the formations that we are fracking today.  When we frack, the pressure can push fluids into the old wells, either directly by way of the induced fractures or through existing faults in the rock.  It’s called well communication in the industry.

It could lead to contamination of a water well, or fracking fluids on the surface, or natural gas spewing into the air.  Nobody wants that.  Even the companies doing the fracking don’t want that as it lowers the amount of pressure in their well, leading to fewer, shorter, and smaller fractures and lower production.

So what can be done about it?  It’s hard to do much about it.  Many of these old wells don’t show above the surface, so getting eyes in the field isn’t going to help.  A metal detector will find a lot of them, but some of these old wells were lined with wood.  Even the wells the were lined with metal often had the casing pulled out for use on another well.  It’s a real problem, and there isn’t an obvious and good solution.

The reason we’re writing about it is to point out to people one way that their water wells can be contaminated with fracking fluid.  If you think you have a water well that’s been ruined by fracking you can get help.  It’s going to be an uphill battle proving that fracking did it, but it can be done.

Call the office at 304-473-1403 and find out what you can do.

 

Comment Time on the Atlantic Coast Pipeline

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If anyone would like to comment to the FERC about the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, now is the time to do so.  My comments would focus on opposition to the use of eminent domain and on the safety concerns I have recently found.  Others are concerned about damage to the immediate environment around the pipeline and the trickle down effects on global warming.  Some few are concerned that we are overbuilding pipeline infrastructure.  Whatever your concern, now is the time to voice your opinion.

The link to use when filing your opinion is:

https://ferconline.ferc.gov/QuickComment.aspx

Good luck!  Regardless of the outcome lets be grateful we live in a place where we can at least voice an opinion.