Gas-rich Ohio is in the running for a $2 billion chemical plant

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A giant chemical plant that processes natural gas is coming to the Midwest and Ohio leaders hope the state's newly tapped gas deposits, coupled with growing industries that use gas products, make Ohio the favored location.

Shell Chemical is finalizing plans for a $2 billion complex that is expected to create hundreds of jobs and pull other industries and manufacturers into its orbit. Shell has said only that it plans to build in either West Virginia, Pennsylvania or Ohio, three states that overlay ancient shale beds rich in natural gas.

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The plant needs hundreds of acres of land, according to Dan Carlson, Shell Chemical's general manager of new business development in the Americas. Shell would also like access to railroads, river barges, a skilled workforce and university researchers, Carlson said via email.

"What we're looking for is cost-effectiveness and ease in moving this project forward quickly," he added.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich flew to Houston in late November to make a personal pitch to Shell executives and the state has provided written appeals from the governor's Republican allies and Democratic rivals alike, including Democratic House Minority Leader Armond Budish of Beachwood and U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown.

http://www.cleveland.com/shalegas/index.ssf/2012/01/gas-rich_ohio_is_in_the_runnin.html

DEP inspections show more shale well cement problems

But violations data released last week by the state Department of Environmental Protection show problems persist with the cemented strings of steel casing meant to protect groundwater from gas and fluids in Marcellus wells.

In August, DEP inspectors found defective or inadequate casing or cement at eight Marcellus wells, including Hess Corp.'s Davidson well in Scott Twp., Wayne County - the first casing violation found in the county where only a handful of Marcellus wells have been drilled.

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Thousands Protest Outside Shale Drilling Conference In Philadelphia

An estimated 2,000 people showed up this morning to protest the industry and its controversial drilling process known as “fracking.”

“My backyard is a wildlife habitat,” noted Susan Breese of Susquehanna County (right), who calls herself a natural-born environmentalist.  But she says that’s been a lot tougher since a shale-gas well was drilled near her home in 2008.

The main issue for her, and one echoed by other foes, is contaminated water.  Hers has more than double the allowable limit of barium and nearly four times the limit for strontium.

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Fracking eyed as drain on water

The Marcellus Shale natural gas industry has a huge thirst for water — to hydraulically fracture a single gas well requires upward of a thousand tanker-trucks of water.

And so during the summer, when some streams here in gas-rich northern Pennsylvania naturally turn into trickles, the Susquehanna River Basin Commission pays close attention to ensure that drilling interests don’t suck the state’s creeks dry.

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Report: Shale pipeline costs triple since 2004

The Marcellus region in Pennsylvania was the most expensive, averaging about $300,000 per inch-mile. Gas analyst and the report’s lead author Julia Sagidova said the pipelines generally run 120 miles with a diameter between 24 and 36 inches, bringing the price of a new pipeline to $500 million.

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Marcellus Shale Boom Adds Less Than 10,000 Pa. Jobs

Between the fourth quarter of 2007 and the fourth quarter of 2010, according to the latest report from the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry’s Center for Workforce Information and Analysis (CWIA),  all Marcellus Shale-related industries added 5,669 jobs. Six industries in what CWIA defines as the “Marcellus Core” industries added 9,288 jobs during this period. Over the same three years, 30 industries in a group CWIA calls “Marcellus Ancillary” actually lost 3,619 jobs.

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Two Oil and Gas Drilling Operators Sentenced on Felony Convictions for Violating The Safe Water Drinking Act

Acting United States Attorney Robert S. Cessar announced today, June 24, 2010, that a resident of Sheffield, Pennsylvania and a resident of La Quinta, California, have been sentenced in federal court in Erie as a result of their felony convictions for violating the Safe Drinking Water Act by unlawfully injecting brine produced from an oil drilling operation.

United States District Judge Sean J. McLaughlin imposed the sentences on John Morgan, age 54, of Sheffield, Pennsylvania, and Michael Evans, age 66, of La Quinta, California.  Mr. Morgan received a sentence of three years probation, a $4,000 fine, eight months home detention and eighty hours community service.  Mr. Evans received a sentence of three years probation, a $5,000 fine, ten months home detention and one hundred hours community service.

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