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US EPA Reversing Controls on METHANE, a Powerful Greenhouse Gas

S. Tom Bond — Sun, 16 Aug 2020 07:06:45 +0000

Methane is 25 to 40 times more damaging than carbon dioxide as a GHG

In Pittsburgh, EPA’s Andrew Wheeler announces methane rollbacks for oil and gas

From an Article by Reid Frazier, StateImpact Pennsylvania, August 13, 2020

EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler came through Pittsburgh Thursday to announce a rollback of an Obama-era regulation on climate-warming methane emissions from the oil and gas sector.

Big oil companies favored the rules, which curb powerful greenhouse gas pollution. And, some states have their own controls on methane. Natural gas is most often between 80 to 90% methane, CH4.

The rule requires oil and gas companies to monitor and fix leaks of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, and applies to new wells, pipelines and other infrastructure. In making the announcement, Wheeler said it was redundant with rules that make companies fix leaks of smog forming volatile organic compounds.

“In reality, these emissions are already captured by other means,” Wheeler said, to a room of masked reporters, local Republican elected officials, and Trump administration officers at the not-for-profit Energy Innovation Center.

“Industry already has more than enough incentive to capture methane without reporting requirements and other obligations,” Wheeler said. “Methane is the key constituent of natural gas and a valuable commodity. So companies are motivated to keep it in the pipeline system.”

The rollback removes transmission and storage facilities from methane monitoring requirements, and rescinds emission limits for methane from the production and processing of oil and gas. It also reduces monitoring of leaks at compressor stations, which process oil and gas, from quarterly to twice a year, and exempts lower-producing wells from some monitoring requirements.

Methane is a potent greenhouse gas — 25 times “better” at trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide over the course of a century, and even stronger on shorter time scales. It’s responsible for around 17 percent of global warming to date, according to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

The rollback is opposed by environmental groups, but also by large oil and gas companies, who argue it undercuts the climate benefits of natural gas use.

Shell US president Gretchen Watkins said in a statement the company has “consistently urged the Trump Administration to directly regulate methane emissions” from oil and gas operations. “The negative impacts of leaks and fugitive emissions have been widely acknowledged for years, so it’s frustrating and disappointing to see the Administration go in a different direction,” Watkins said.

But, according to Wheeler, the rollback would save money for smaller companies, which he credited with creating a drilling boom around the country. “The big multinational corporations are in a much better position than some of the small or medium-sized (companies)” to comply with the Obama-era methane rules, he said.

Wheeler said the rollback would save the oil and gas industry between $17 and $19 million a year. “These are important savings, especially to small and mid-sized oil and gas operators,” Wheeler said. “It’s important, vitally important to remember that it was the small exploration companies, not the multinational corporations, that made the breakthroughs here in the Marcellus Shale.”

Environmental groups in Pennsylvania say the rollback increases the stakes for Governor Tom Wolf’s attempts to regulate methane leaks in the commonwealth. “As the federal government is stepping back, it becomes even more important for states to step up,” said Matthew Garrington, senior manager of state campaigns for the Environmental Defense Fund.

Pennsylvania already has methane rules for wells that went into service after 2018. The Wolf administration is crafting rules that would apply to tens of thousands of existing wells in the state. Those rules would apply mainly to deeper Marcellus shale wells. Garrington said they should also apply to shallow conventional wells, which the EDF estimates account for around half of Pennsylvania’s methane emissions.

Other states, like Ohio and Colorado, also have their own methane rules, but Garrington said there are plenty that do not. “If we’re going to address climate change, we need a strong federal floor when it comes to requirements to reduce emissions across the oil and gas supply chain,” Garrington said.

Several environmental groups announced they will sue the Trump administration to prevent the rule from taking effect.

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SEE ALSO: The science and impact of climate change, KSAT Explains, San Antonio, August 14, 2020

Episode 9 of “KSAT Explains” covers what the future climate of Texas will look like, why you should care and what made the issue so polarizing.

Antero Expanding Marcellus Drilling into Utica Shale in Ohio

Duane Nichols — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 22:56:35 +0000

Antero Domain in WV & PA

Antero Planning for Drilling in Belmont County, Ohio

From article by Casey Junkins, Wheeling Intelligencer, March 11, 2013

Belmont County, OH – Many individual mineral owners are joining the village of Barnsville drilling agreement with Denver-based Antero Resources at a rate of $5,700 per acre and 20 percent of production royalties. Antero held a series of lease signing meetings throughout Barnesville in February and early March, during which Mayor Ron Bischof said the driller received a very positive response from most residents. The agreement the private mineral owners signed is the same one village leaders inked with Antero last year.

Barnsville is about 5 miles south of I-70 (US 40) and 30 miles west of Wheeling, WV.

Belmont County records show Antero already has more than 800 separate lease agreements there with intention to drill. The driller also has active operations in Noble and Monroe counties, reaching a depth of 8,132 feet at one Monroe County well, according to Ohio Department of Natural Resources records. This year, Antero plans to operate an average of 12 drilling rigs in the Marcellus and 2 rigs in the Utica. These 14 rigs will be supplemented by four shallow rigs that will drill the vertical section of some horizontal wells down to the point at which the wells will turn horizontally, about 6,000 feet under the ground.

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Marcellus Shale Activities of Antero in Western PA and Northwestern WV

Antero has 301,000 net acres of leasehold located in northern West Virginia and southwestern Pennsylvania, all in the southwestern core of the Marcellus Shale Play. See the Antero web-site here. [Example drilling lease parameters in this region are $1500 per acre and 15% royalty for a 5 year lease.].

Antero currently has 458 MMcf per day of gross operated production or 364 MMcfe per day net in the Marcellus Shale. The net daily production figure includes approximately 1,400 Bbls per day of NGLs and oil.
Antero has drilled and completed 135 horizontal Marcellus Shale wells, 130 of which are online, and is in the process of drilling and completing 28 additional horizontal wells.
Five recently completed wells in the rich gas area are shut-in, waiting on pipeline (expected March and June 2013).
Operating 13 drilling rigs in West Virginia.
Antero sold its gathering facilities in an area of dedication in Harrison County and southeastern Doddrige County, WV to Crestwood Midstream Partners in March 2012.
Antero is constructing its own gathering facilities in the remainder of Doddridge County and in Ritchie County, WV to conGnect its wells to compression facilities and processing.
Antero is currently processing approximately 130 MMcfd of rich gas production from the Marcellus Shale through MarkWest’s 200 MMcf per day Sherwood I Plant, which is fully operational.
Markwest is constructing a second 200 MMcf per day plant, Sherwood II, which is also fully dedicated to Antero and is expected to go in-service in the second quarter of 2013.

See also the color graphics and maps in this 38 page ANTERO REPORT dated March 2013.

Senate Endorses Tax Credits for Gas Industry Development

Dee Fulton — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 03:44:17 +0000

Sen. Brooks McCabe (D-Kanawha), lead sponsor of SB 465

The Marcellus Gas and Manufacturing Development Act was passed out of the the Senate Energy, Industry and Mining Committee on Feb. 17th. The purpose of the Act contained in Senate Bill 465 is to encourage and facilitate “the development of oil and gas wells and the downstream uses of natural gas in this state and the economic development in this state associated with the production and various downstream uses.” It intends to do that by using tax credits and incentives for industrial expansion (particularly for fractionation and ethane cracker plants) and promoting natural gas as an alternative energy fuel. It also encourages the West Virginia Economic Development Authority, that agency that oversees TIFs, and the WV Infrastructure and Jobs Development Council to provide public assistance to this private industry sector, Marcellus shale gas, and it’s correlative industries fractionation and ethane cracking.

The bill contains tax breaks geared toward subsidizing both the planned Dominion fractionation plant and an anticipated, but as yet unannounced, cracker plant. (See Special Report: Task Force Charged with Opening Door to Chemical Industry in Kanawha Valley, FrackCheck Feb. 18.) The bill also lowers the bar for the amount of investment qualifying for special privileges to certain manufacturing businesses to enjoy a 95% break on county property taxes. So if a cracker plant costs $10 million, the owner or ownership entity pays county property taxes on an adjusted appraised value of only $500,000. There’s a little whip-snapper provision that adds a small penalty if the investment occurs after July 1,2011; the cost of the real estate acquired for expansion is deducted from the basis for computing the credit.

The bill also adds fractionation and cracker plant investments to the list of industrial expansions which qualify for the Manufacturing Tax Credit (up to 5% of the cost of new manufacturing property).

Currently WV Code 11-13A-5a calls for 10% of oil and gas severance fees to be distributed back to the counties, with the majority directed to the counties in which the fees were generated. The bill amends that to allow for distribution of the severance fee to fund permitting and inspection of gas wells as well as highway funds. Of the excess above the 10% of severance fees that is redirected back to counties, a $2 million Marcellus Shale Permit Fund is established to fund the WVDEP in permitting and inspection of gas wells. A baseline of $64.8 million must be distributed from severance fees to counties and municipalities for highway maintenance under this bill.

Incentives for investing in natural gas powered vehicles and other alternative fuel powered vehicles (but not ethanol) and investing in the equipment to fuel those vehicles are also included in the bill.

The sponsors are Senators McCabe, Kessler (Acting President), Browning, Unger, Snyder, Stollings, Plymale, Wells, Palumbo, Beach, Klempa, Yost and Foster. The bill goes to the Finance Committee next. Story of bill’s introduction , Feb. 9. Story of bills passage

Text of the Marcellus Gas and Manufacturing Development Act.

Further light reading:

ARTICLE 6F. SPECIAL METHOD FOR APPRAISING QUALIFIED CAPITAL ADDITIONS TO MANUFACTURING FACILITIES

ARTICLE 13S. MANUFACTURING INVESTMENT TAX CREDIT

ARTICLE 13R. STRATEGIC RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT TAX CREDIT

§11-13A-5a. Dedication of ten percent of oil and gas severance tax for benefit of counties and municipalities (must scroll down)

Marshall County Industry Activity, Trans Energy and Dominion

admin — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 04:27:43 +0000

St. Mary’s based company Trans Energy announced it has begun drilling Lucey No. 1H, its seventh Marcellus shale gas well in Marshall County. “Trans Energy continues to move to a development phase from an exploration phase as it develops its acreage position in northern West Virginia” , Trans Energy President John Corp stated in a press release dated Jan. 17, 2011.

Dominion Transmission announced that it has reached an agreement with PPG to option the purchase of 56 acres at the Natrium site where the company plans to process natural gas and separate natural gas liquids. The site, nine miles north of New Martinsville, is close to Dominion’s TL-404 pipeline, an existing transmission line in Ohio and West Virginia that Dominion plans to convert to a wet gas service line. U.S. Representative David McKinley (R-WV), welcomes the expansion of gas industry in the 1st District, which is represented by McKinley. ”Development of Marcellus shale natural gas reserves faces some of the same rigid regulatory obstacles that other energy development projects are facing,” McKinley said. “I plan to vigorously advocate for the responsible removal of barriers to new jobs here, regardless of the energy source. If it creates and protects jobs in West Virginia, I am in favor of it.”