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2011
Year In Review and Look
Ahead
2011 saw steady increases
in production throughout the Marcellus Shale
play, a heavy emphasis on strengthening and
expanding pipeline infrastructure, and a boom in
the level of activity in the Utica Shale play.
Although the overall national economy continued
to sputter in 2011, the increased level of
activity in the Marcellus and Utica Shale plays
throughout Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio
proved to any remaining doubters that the energy
companies working in these areas, along with the
multitude of businesses that service the
industry, will be permanent fixtures in our
region for years to come.
2012 should
see continued growth and maturation of drilling
programs throughout the Marcellus play and the
start of concerted drilling efforts in the Utica
play. The next few weeks should bring the much
anticipated announcement regarding Shell's
location of its ethane cracker, with West
Virginia and Pennsylvania seen as the leading
contenders. With the passage of the West
Virginia Horizontal Well Drilling Act in
December of 2011, most expect a relatively quiet
legislative session in West Virginia with
respect to oil and gas issues. On the
legislative side in Pennsylvania, 2012 looks to
be another busy year, with Governor Corbett
indicating that he will sign into law the
drilling emergency response bill aimed at
providing first responders with GPS coordinates
of wells and emergency response plans for each
drill site, and negotiations are ongoing among
both chambers of the legislature and the
Governor on a broader bill addressing an
extraction fee and the extent to which local
ordinances that attempt to limit drilling will
be preempted. This legislation will certainly
impact ongoing litigation before local zoning
boards and courts regarding the lengths to which
local governments may attempt to regulate
development of Marcellus shale
rights.
Click here to see our compilation of
some of the most important stories in the oil
and gas industry in our region for 2011. Many of
the stories featured here will continue to be
issues that demand our attention in 2012 and
beyond.
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Beginning with the February
2012 issue, Marcellus Fairway: The Play
Today will be distributed under a new name:
The Shale Play Today.
This new title better reflects the scope of the
information we provide to you, our readers, on a
monthly
basis.
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Pa.
Gov. Corbett Signs Act 127, Authorizing PUC
Jurisdiction Over Pipeline Safety
by
Barry A. Naum
Harrisburg,
Pa.
On
December 22, 2011, Pennsylvania Governor Tom
Corbett signed HB 344 into law as the Gas and
Hazardous Liquids Pipeline Act, or "Act 127,"
which ascribes to the Pennsylvania Public Utility
Commission ("Pa. PUC" or "Commission") regulatory
authority over natural gas pipelines in the
Commonwealth. Specifically, Act 127 mandates that
the Pa. PUC will "establish and maintain a
registry of all pipeline operations" and provides
the Commission with authority to enforce Federal
pipeline safety standards and regulations over all
"pipeline operators" within the Commonwealth,
which is defined as non-public utility owners or
operators of "equipment or facilities . . . for
the transportation of gas or hazardous liquids by
pipeline or pipeline facility regulated under
federal pipeline safety laws." Under this
definition, Pa. PUC regulatory authority is
expressly extended by the Act to include oversight
of operators of "gathering" pipelines.
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