ShaleNet is a course designed to train potential workers in skills needed for the oil and gas industry.  The program is a result of a grant funded by the Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration.  Its mission is to design a comprehensive recruitment, training, placement, and retention program for high priority jobs in the industry.

Companies involved in the oil and gas industry know they need qualified and hard-working people to fill positions that value safety as the top priority.  Veterans are safety conscious, resourceful, professional, and many are trained in technical jobs.

The donation by ANGA will fund training for about 40 veterans, after which they will be top candidates for jobs in the industry.  With already more than 38,000 jobs created last year, there will be plenty of jobs to pursue.

These jobs will be good paying jobs, too.  The average wage for the shale gas industry is approximately $23 per hour. This is much higher than the average wage for other industries, including non-shale related production, and professional and business-service workers, ranging from $13 to $22 per hour.

Needless to say, Ohio veterans are encouraged to get involved and pursue a career in natural gas.  They can start that process by visiting www.shalenet.org to register for this unique training program.

As more Ohioans find jobs in the growing shale industry, it’s great to see opportunities provided for those who served our country.

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Last week the Cincinnati City Council passed a resolution supporting a statewide ban on injection wells, which unfortunately isn’t the first time they have taken aim at disposal wells.  Just last year they passed a resolution to ban injection wells in the city, which is funny because there is not a single producing well in Hamilton County, so why would there ever be a need for a disposal well? But, for some reason, the all-knowing City Council of Cincinnati feels the need to tell eastern Ohioans how they need to live their lives.  On behalf of eastern Ohio, thank you for your concern, but I think you should concentrate on your own problems.

Unfortunately, what we have here is a City Council who is legislating on fear of the unknown, instead of from a basis of fact and real-world data.  For those of us in eastern Ohio, Class II injection wells are nothing new.  In fact, they have been used here in Ohio since the 1960s.  Regrettably, the City Council is getting its information from Food & Water Watch, well-known for being an anti oil and gas development organization.

Usually, when making a decision that could potentially affect the whole state, most organizations would like to hear from both sides before making a decision.  In this case, a one-sided deluge of misinformation and outright lies is enough for the Cincinnati City Council. However, if the city council would like to learn a bit about Class II injection, this post is for them.

In 1983, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) received primacy from the US EPA to permit, regulate, and enforce Ohio’s Class II underground injection control (UIC) program.  In order to gain primacy, ODNR had to demonstrate its rules met or exceeded the federal UIC program. Since that time, Ohio has injected 202 million barrels of brine without one case of groundwater contamination, no doubt a fact that Food & Water Watch left out when lobbying the city council to pass this resolution. Why include facts when falsehoods are much more frightening?

Primacy is also not unique to Ohio.  In fact, more than 40 states also have primacy over their UIC programs. In order for Ohio to maintain primacy, it must continue to demonstrate an ability to effectively manage and regulate the program to the EPA, while also being audited by the US EPA on a regular basis.

In addition to being audited (thankfully not by the IRS, especially nowadays), Ohio takes the lead in promulgating rules and regulations to make sure Ohio has one of the most stringent UIC programs in the nation.  The UIC program rules and regulations have been updated twice in the past three years, thanks in no small part to on the ground enforcement of the program. This has allowed Ohio to actually go above and beyond what the federal government requires for UIC.

This was made clear in testimony provided to the Ohio legislature as it was considering regulatory revisions this spring. The below chart shows just a few of these examples:

Again, these are details that Food & Water Watch probably left out when discussing Ohio’s UIC program with Cincinnati City Council. 

Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls, who introduced the resolution, should have probably done a little more research before passing such an uneducated resolution.  Maybe next time she would see there are no short term windfalls with oil and gas development, but only providing resources that create jobs and help her city prosper.

If there were no oil and gas development, companies like Procter and Gamble, Ashland, LyondellBasell, Rohm and Haas and even Duke Energy would lack the feedstock that help make these companies employ Cincinnati workers.  I am sure she didn’t think about these companies when she decided oil and gas development has no place in her city, though most folks who claim to oppose oil and gas development don’t think about what our economy actually requires to operate. Or simply don’t think, period.

Oil and gas development is responsible for over 6,000 products we use in our everyday lives.  If Vice Mayor Qualls would like to stand behind her resolution, then she should also ban any products that use oil and gas in the City of Cincinnati.  So I guess the question is, would the City Council be willing to give up any of these products?  I think not.

In the end, Cincinnati should stick with legislating issues that affect them and not trying to tell eastern Ohioans how to live their lives.  I know they would not like it if we started passing resolutions banning Skyline Chili, and frankly, that would be silly anyway — not unlike trying to ban energy development.

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Currently, COTA has more than 320 buses. They hope to transition the entire fleet to CNG over the next 12 years at a pace of about 30 each year.  Jeff Hiott, a senior program manager with the American Public Transportation Association commented on the difference between diesel and CNG:

“A diesel-fueled bus is still the cheapest buy. However, when you look at everything combined, you can realize some savings there.” –Jeff Hiott (COTA’s cheap-fuel buses roll out today, 5/6/13)

That’s certainly good news for taxpayers in Central Ohio.

COTA isn’t alone in their quest for a cleaner and cheaper fuel for public transportation.  More than a third of transit buses nationwide were hybrids or used an alternative fuel in 2011. According to the American Public Transportation Association, that’s up from 10 percent a decade earlier.

- Original post from November 20, 2012 -

Last week, the International Energy Agency (IEA) released its annual forecast for international energy production. Their findings were nothing short of astounding, however they may have surprised few as America’s shale development has taken off in the past years with much fanfare.

The agency, which advises industrialized nations on energy policy, projects the United States will become the world’s largest producer of natural gas by 2015, surpassing Russia as the world’s natural gas juggernaut. The report also identified the United States becoming the world’s top oil producer in 2017, replacing Saudi Arabia as the highest-producing nation.

This is a direct result of expanding shale development taking place across the country, including in Ohio’s Utica Shale. And businesses are taking full advantage of the opportunities these domestic energy resources are providing.

As the IEA released its report, the Central Ohio Transit Authority (COTA) was beginning preparations to convert their fleet to compressed natural gas (CNG) powered busses. In late April, COTA expects to receive their first 30 CNG vehicles, marking the first steps in the process of a full conversion.

Long-term, this move will reduce both operational costs and the carbon emissions of the fleet. COTA expected to spend about $12 million on diesel this year, and notes the switch to CNG could cut their fuel budget by about two-thirds once completed. The reduction of operating costs – thanks to an abundance of natural gas available thanks to shale development, is a driving factor in the conversion, as COTA CEO Curtis Stitt explained in an interview with Columbus Business First:

As we were moving through the process of rehabilitation, we decided on CNG as the fuel of COTA for the future. – Curtis Stitt, CEO, COTA (COTA gets ready for 1st shipment of CNG vehicles, 11/16/12)

In addition to the benefits of converting to natural gas vehicles in being more environmentally friendly and easy on the wallet, the paper also highlights another benefit touted by COTA: noise reduction. The column cites COTA officials noting it would take ten CNG buses to create the same noise level as a single diesel-powered bus- just another reason COTA is converting its entire fleet over the next decade.

The benefits of the increasing use of natural gas have been covered extensively on our blog, and have garnered much attention and support throughout the state, and country.

Earlier this year, the Institute for Energy Research released a study noting that the U.S. has led the world in carbon reductions since 2006, thanks in large part to a growing utilization of natural gas as and energy resource. In October, America’s Natural Gas Alliance, in coordination with Governor John Kasich’s office and the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, held a Natural Gas Vehicle Summit to help companies and municipalities see these benefits, and offer a glimpse of what’s here in Ohio and what will be an expanding industry in the years to come.

While COTA may be the latest to make the switch, they are not the first. The Stark Area Regional Transit Authority has set plans to switch their vehicles to natural gas, and, back in April, Smith Dairy announced they would convert their entire fleet of large diesel power trucks to run on CNG.  The company broke ground on a $1.5 million fueling station at their headquarters in Orrville.

Starting next year, TravelCenters of America LLC, a company based in Cleveland, reported in June that they hope to add at least 200 CNG fuel pumps at its truck stops across the nation through a partnership with Shell Oil Co.

The trend is taking place in other regions of the country as well. In April, Frito-Lay announced it would add 67 trucks that would run on CNG to its fleet.  Other national companies making the switch include Sunny Delight and AT&T.

More and more companies, communities, and municipalities are recognizing the benefits of natural gas vehicles, and the appeal of utilizing natural gas as an energy source. As we see continued high production of domestic natural gas, we can expect this trend to continue as these entities work to take full advantage of our resources. Here at home, we can see how Ohio is preparing to do just that, emerging as a pioneer in the shale revolution that is not only pushing the U.S. to be worldwide leader in energy production, but creating jobs for American families as well.

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More specifically, these folks claim that doctors do not have adequate access to the information needed to evaluate and treat patients if an accident were to happen on or near a well pad site. Their goal, of course, is to spread fear, doubt, and misinformation about something very technical and vast in its scope. In this case they count on the fact that few in the general public have read, in its entirety, the 175-page document known as Senate Bill 315 that covers topics like chemical disclosure.

Against that backdrop, it’s worth noting what the leadership of The Ohio State Medical Association recently did: they sent a letter to the members of the Ohio General Assembly saying, essentially, that such claims are garbage.

Senate Bill 315, which was passed in 2012, clearly spells out that first responders and other medical professionals have total access to additives used during the hydraulic fracturing process. In fact, Ohio has always been a full disclosure state, through the fracturing ticket and fracturing chart associated with each individual producing oil and gas well in Ohio.  Senate Bill 315 expanded the disclosure requirements. Additionally, the industry is using FracFocus to share with anyone interested what chemicals are used to produce natural gas in our state, as well as the other 33 producing states in the country.

The letter from OSMA, which represents over 20,000 Ohio physicians, residents, medical students, and practice managers, explained that they are well aware of the fact that, as doctors and medical professionals, they have full access to a list of additives used during the hydraulic fracturing process.

The following Ohio State Medical Association letter has been reprinted in its entirety:

April 18, 2013

The Honorable Keith Faber

President

Ohio Senate

Statehouse

Columbus, OH 43215

Dear President Faber:

I am writing to clarify a statement issued by Ohio Citizen Action on Wednesday, April 17, which purports to capture the Ohio State Medical Association’s position on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, chemicals and the medical profession’s right-to-know.

It is true that on Saturday, April 6 during a business session at our Annual Meeting in Columbus that our members considered Resolution No. 41-13 which called for certain requirements and stipulations for fracking chemicals that extend beyond current state law.

However, by a unanimous voice vote, our members ultimately approved only this five-line passage from the 70-line resolution (not including footnotes):

Resolved, That the Ohio State Medical Association advocate for provisions in Ohio state law that would allow doctors, first responders, emergency agencies, and the Local Emergency Planning Commission in each county to obtain the needed information on all chemicals located at an oil or gas exploration well pad, including hydraulic fracturing.

We believe the portion of the Resolution that was supported by our House of Delegates on April 6 is in line with Senate Bill 315 (specifically Sec. 1509.10), the measure pertaining to medical professionals gaining access to chemical compositions used during fracking operations to assist in the diagnosis and treatment of patients who may have been exposed to such chemicals. We believe this existing law affords a physician the right-to-know in a confidential manner when necessary what fracking chemicals are present.

The remainder of the OSMA Resolution requiring fracking companies to report all chemicals — including trade secret chemicals — to the Local Emergency Planning Commission (LEPC), allowing physicians and other medical professionals access to this LEPC information and fining companies for not properly reporting chemicals were referred to the OSMA Council for further consideration. These provisions were not voted on during the Annual Meeting and these provisions are not currently part of any OSMA stipulations, guidelines or expectations beyond what is already required by state law.

The OSMA Council could address the remainder of this Resolution at a later date. At this point, this issue is not a high-priority matter for the OSMA and that is not expected to change unless directed by the Council. The OSMA’s highest immediate legislative priorities remain the state budget, Medicaid expansion, health insurer accountability and medical liability reforms.

If I can provide any further clarification, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Regards,

Tim Maglione, JD

Senior Director, Government Relations

The Ohio State Medical Association jumped into the conversation about hydraulic fracturing because, as medical professionals, they know how important it is that the facts and science are presented.  A person is certainly entitled to his or her personal opinion, but not to his or her own facts.

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“U.S. hopes for a new shale oil bonanza in Ohio, joining the prolific Bakken and Eagle Ford plays that have raised production to 20-year highs, were shattered on Thursday by the first hard evidence that the Utica formation was primarily gas-prone.

“Now, data from Ohio’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) showed that in 2012, the first full year of drilling, oil output amounted to only 636,000 barrels — about enough to fill a single small crude oil tanker. On average for the full year, output came to a mere 1,742 barrels a day (bpd) versus 780,000 bpd in North Dakota, where much of Bakken lies.”

The numbers reported to the DNR and discussed in the Reuters account would indicate that the 86 wells now producing are averaging approximately 20 barrels of oil per day.  It’s hard to argue with statistics, but it’s also important to understand that on the surface, these particular ones are very misleading.

For example, Chesapeake Energy reported production on 53 wells that averaged 77 BOPD and 2097 Mcfd.  The gas production rates are certainly substantial, even with only three wells being online for more than 300 days, but the oil production rates appear less than impressive.  However, no mention is made of natural gas liquids (NGLs) that are being recovered from the gas.  In fact, considerable NGLs are being recovered from the gas stream and are not reported as oil production to the state.  Similarly, nothing is mentioned as to how the wells are being produced. Notably, due to limited pipeline capacity (a condition that is only temporary, given massive buildouts already underway), many of these wells are being “choked back” until the product can actually be sent somewhere.

In fact, nearly $10 billion is being invested in Ohio’s midstream infrastructure to help bring the gas and entrained NGLs from these wells to market.  How will this impact the production from these same 86 wells going forward? No one knows for sure.  But it’s safe to say that the numbers will look better when this infrastructure is in place.

In the end, the raw production numbers reported to the state represent only a snapshot of what the industry is actually doing — and, more importantly, what it’s capable of doing.  No, the oil numbers are not as good as other, more mature plays, like the Eagle Ford in Texas. But the real question is, are the wells economic?  Can a company invest $5-9 million to drill and complete a well in the Utica shale and make a profit on its investment?  The most important numbers to a company are net present value and payout time — neither of which are reported to the State.

The Reuters report also compares the Bakken’s current production numbers to the Utica’s first year.  This is hardly a fair comparison.  I don’t know what the Bakken produced in its first year, but I can assure you it wasn’t 780,000 barrels of oil per day. Heck, back in the mid-1990s, the U.S. Geological Survey thought the Bakken only held about 151 million barrels of oil, a number they later had to upwardly revised by nearly 25-fold in 2008 after development began to take off.  The article does not state how many wells are responsible for that production either.

Personally, I like to compare apples to apples — not apples to airplanes.

I’m not throwing in the towel on Ohio production, and we know the companies operating here in Ohio aren’t either.  In fact, I’m celebrating the fact that the number of permits taken out at the DNR is steadily rising along with infrastructure development and production — which is great news for our economic future in this part of the country.

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In January 2013, Antero announced in its corporate budget that it would be investing roughly $150 million in the Utica/Point Pleasant this year, while bringing in two rigs to develop its leasehold.  On Monday, Antero updated its shareholders during a 1st quarter earnings call to inform them of progress-to-date in the Utica.  

Staying true to its word, Antero is now operating two rigs in the wet/condensate window in the southern portion of the Utica/Point Pleasant.  Both rigs are currently located in Noble County, roughly five miles apart in Seneca Township.  The first rig is currently developing a three-well pad at the Milligan Unit located right off route 566, just south of Seneca Lake.  

Antero has also returned the other rig back to the Miley well, a well the company developed last year with tremendous success. The Miley 5H had an initial production rate of seven million cubic feet (mmcf) per day, with a composition of 36 percent natural gas and 64 percent liquids.  Given that mixture, the well had an initial production rate of 3,222 barrels of oil equivalent per day — making it Antero’s best well to date.  

Antero has acreage in Guernsey, Noble, Monroe, Belmont and Harrison counties, comprising a total of 81,000 acres in the wet/condensate window. To date, Antero has completed six wells with one in production and has developed four more with two in different stages of completion.  

The company currently has an estimated 35 million cubic feet equivalent (mmcfe) per day of net production, including approximately 2,300 bbl/d of NGLs and condensate shut in waiting for infrastructure to be built.  

Antero has entered into an agreement with MarkWest to process liquids at MarkWest’s Seneca I plant, which is being constructed near Summerfield in eastern Noble County.

The MarkWest Seneca I plant is a 200 mmcf/d cryogenic gas processing facility, which is on pace to begin operations early in the fourth quarter of this year. MarkWest is also currently in the process of constructing of an additional 200 mmcf/d facility, called the Seneca II, which is also scheduled to be installed later this year.

This highlights an important fact about shale development, not just in Ohio but indeed all across the country. Sure, the industry creates jobs on the well-pad and up the supply chain while drilling and completing the wells. But the additional infrastructure that development brings — including MarkWest’s facilities — shows how the ripple effects of allowing responsible shale development, particularly in the form of new jobs and new economic activity.

Even more good news is that Antero will be keeping busy in the Utica, as the company has an additional 10 permitted wells waiting to be developed in Noble and Monroe Counties.  This increased development will bode well for the counties, as Antero is helping to provide good paying jobs while boosting local economies.

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Source: OOGEEP

The training provides background information and practical guidelines to assist responders in communicating and evaluating a potential emergency site, and the capability to respond an unforeseen emergency.  OOGEEP even provide hands-on training including “live burns” utilizing crude oil and natural gas props.  One of the instructors for the program, Brent Gates, a Fire Chief and Ohio Certified Fire Instructor from New Concord, Ohio, explained the importance of hands-on training:

“This is by far one of the best training programs I have been involved in. The information and hands-on training we provide makes a difference to so many communities who are impacted by the development of oil and gas.”—Brent Gates

OOGEEP developed the training to prepare communities for possible emergencies and they believe the 13 year old program is part of the reason the state has a strong safety record in oil and natural gas production. OOGEEP’s executive director, Rhonda Reda, commented on the program’s success and how it could serve as a model for other states:

“Ohio citizens should be honored that many other energy producing regions have looked to Ohio as a model to set up similar safety programs in their respective states.”—Rhonda Reda

The training is endorsed by the Ohio Fire Chief’s Association, the Ohio Society of Fire Service Instructors and the Ohio Fire and Emergency Services Foundation.  The program provides each firefighter the opportunity to receive up to 12 CEU credit hours and an optional college graduate credit through Hocking College upon completion.

Charlie Dixon, lead fire instructor and OOGEEP’s safety and workforce administrator, explained how the program can benefit individual communities:

“Ohio has always been a leader in developing safety programs. While there have been very few natural gas and crude oil emergencies in Ohio, often times fire departments are often called to respond to non-emergency incidents simply because there is a lack of knowledge or unfamiliarity of equipment, standard practices, and advanced technologies used by Ohio’s industry. The fact is not all incidents reported are emergencies, and we are hopeful that this program will mitigate those types of reported incidents that could tie up community resources that may be needed elsewhere.”—Charlie Dixon

As Ohio’s oil and natural gas production increases its comforting knowing that innovative OOGEEP has already trained over 1,000 firefighters on how to handle unforeseen emergencies if they occur.  While incidents in Ohio’s oil and gas fields are rare, it’s comforting knowing that if an event occurs that the most courageous among us are armed with the best strategies and approaches in tackling this situation.

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