The Ohio Oil & Gas Association Pipeline

(Popular Mechanics) Nationally renowned researchers and state officials are still investigating a series of earthquakes that rippled across normally placid eastern Ohio in recent months, trying to determine for certain whether a Class II injection well-the EPA's designation for wells designed to pump brackish, chemical-laced wastewater from gas-drilling operations-was the cause. So far, the evidence seems to indicate that it was: that the quakes were a rare but difficult to predict and perhaps unavoidable consequence of the natural gas boom that has seized the region.

(WEWS Channel 5) Fracking industry insiders are speaking out after Wednesday's earthquake forum in Youngstown.

They said the record number of earthquakes was not caused by hydraulic fracturing, but linked to injection wells.

Executive Vice-President of the Ohio Oil and Gas Association said fracking did not cause the earthquakes.

"This well is not hydraulically fractured. Injection wells are meant for disposing of permanently, impounding in deep reservoirs a waste stream. In this case, a waste stream that comes from oil and gas wells where we produce formation water along with the oil and gas," Stewart said.

(Bloomberg Businessweek) Boos, applause and the occasional outburst marked a gathering of about 500 Ohio residents seeking explanations for a series of earthquakes that has hit their area since deep injection drilling came to town.

At a news conference after the forum Wednesday, the company said voluntarily shut down an oil and gas wastewater well in Youngstown to study any links to the quakes urged caution in accepting a seismologist's finding that their injection well almost certainly caused the quakes.

"It is in the best interest of the community to allow the research process to play out," said Vince Bevacqua, a spokesman for D&L Energy. "The well that people are concerned about -- rightly or wrongly -- is offline and will stay offline until we have answers."

CNN Covers Youngstown Injection Well Story

(CNN) In what may be the nation's next boomtown, the ground is, literally, booming.

Residents here in northeastern Ohio are receiving up to $5,000 an acre from energy companies that lease their land -- plus monthly royalties. But they have also experienced at least 11 earthquakes since last March, state officials say.

Protesters Take to the Statehouse Lawn to Stop Fracing

(Tribune Chronicle) No Frack Ohio on Tuesday called on legislators to ban what's called fracking, a process that blasts pressurized water, sand and chemicals underground to release gas and oil reserves. The group also wants a ban on deep injection wells that hold drilling wastewater.

Ohio bills on the topic of Tuesday's Columbus protest were introduced in October and referred to the Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee. Neither has received a hearing.

''These bills will allow Ohio to take the time to make appropriate and responsible decisions in order to protect our citizens and the water they drink while also increasing the transparency of fracking procedures and operations,'' Driehaus of Price Hill wrote last week to committee chairman, Millersburg Republican State Rep. David Hall.

(Youngstown Tribune) The noise was only part of the problem, Frederick told other protesters at an anti-fracking rally Tuesday at the Statehouse. She recounted health problems, contaminated water, property damage and other issues that have affected her and her husband since they moved to the Youngstown area several years ago.

Frederick was one of the speakers during the two-hour protest. About 200 people participated, including more than 40 who traveled by bus from Youngstown, the site of a New Year's Eve earthquake that many believe was caused by an injection well used to dispose of fluid waste from oil and gas production.

(Business Journal Daily) "We have a lot of questions," said state Rep. Robert Hagan, a Youngstown Democrat who spoke at the rally. "We want to know what they're doing, what they've been doing, and what they're going to do to protect us," Hagan said of the Kasich Administration and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. "If there's something they know and are not telling us, I'd like to know."

"I want to know how many hundreds of thousands of gallons, or millions of gallons of toxic waste we're taking and putting into our community. I want to know what the chemicals are. I want ODNR are to give us more security about safety," Hagan said. "They have not answered my emails or invitations and they're ignoring their obligation to give us the answers that we want."

(New Philadelphia Times-Recorder Letter to the Editor) It is erroneous to link hydraulic fracturing to the situation with the oilfield wastewater injection well allegedly associated with recent seismic activity in Youngstown. State officials and numerous scientists have stated many times that the Youngstown seismic events are not a result of hydraulic fracturing.

The oil and gas industry concurs with the temporary closing of this injection well while further studies can be conducted by geologists and seismologists concerning the cause of the earthquakes. Going forward, any and all decisions made must be made based on these sound scientific principles.

U.K. Report States Shale Operations Won't Cause Earthquakes

(Bloomberg) Drilling for shale gas in the U.K. won't cause dangerous earthquakes and poses little risk to the environment given appropriate safeguards, scientists said.

"Most geologists think this is a pretty safe activity," Mike Stephenson, head of energy science at the British Geological Survey, said at a briefing in London yesterday. "We think the risk is pretty low and we have the scientific tools to tell if there is a problem."

Shale Activity Continues to Create Positive Economic Impacts

(Bloomberg) Thirty-four years after Black Monday, the day Youngstown Sheet & Tube announced shutdowns marking the end of the Ohio city's steel era, a $650 million mill is coming to life thanks to the natural-gas drilling boom.

The factory for Vallourec SA (VK)'s V&M Star will have 350 workers and produce seamless pipes used in hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking. It's part of a development that an oil and gas industry study calculates will mean more than 200,000 jobs and $22 billion in economic output in Ohio by 2015 -- and which has neighboring states looking to get in on the action.

(Zanesville Times Recorder) As the buzz surrounding the Utica and Marcellus shale formations increases, local landowners are positioning themselves to get the most money for their land.

Some are joining to push drilling companies for better deals. Others already have sold or leased their land. Still others are holding out, either for a better price or more information on the drilling process.

This past week, online bidders duked it out for 95 acres of land in Mount Perry. Kaufman Reality & Auctions, based in Sugarcreek, sold the land itself separate from the oil and gas rights, but the same bidder bought them both for a combined $382,000.

In December in Morgan County, 53 acres of farmland sold to several bidders for a combined $108,000. The oil and gas rights to the same 53 acres went for $165,000.

For additional information on the OOGA Pipeline, please contact:

Brian Hickman

Communications Director
Government Affairs Manager
Ohio Oil & Gas Association
(740) 587-0444
bhickman@ooga.org