 By Alvin Engelke
alvinengelke@hotmail.com
Obviously the fight against "global warming " has been successful as Bessie Arthur's thermometer registered -19 degrees Fahrenheit the other morning. It was so cold the oil haulers could not get the oil to flow into the trucks. Water lines froze and chariots really didn't want to start. The last time it was this cold locally was January 1978. The global warming/climate change hoaxers have been maintaining a low profile as it is obvious that the taxes, fees and restrictions they have demanded & expropriated had nothing to do with the weather.
Steve Cunningham was attending to business in Creston one day last week.
Mary "Jenny" Belt finally made it home after being a patient in the Cleveland Clinic and recuperating with family there.
Sunday was Ground Hog Day but with an overcast sky and rain no local whistle pigs could have seen a shadow.
Charles Russell was calling on Ray Gumm, Parris Parsons and brother Euell at Miletree in Spencer.
A fellow who plans to attend the IOGA (Independent Oil & Gas Association) meeting in Charleston made it clear that he would be taking his drinking water with him as there still remain questions about the safety of the water supply Down at the Mouth of the Elk. While the little Unger boy wants to pass more laws, it seems that no one in state government was using laws that were already on the books -- last inspection of the old tank farm was 1986 even though it had new owners and a new use. Apparently elsewhere in the nation jokes are being made about Earl Ray and his flunkies.
Nancy Engelke was undergoing more tests this time at Marietta Memorial.
An outfit called Siltstone purchased the old Union Trust & Deposit bank building at the corner of 7th & Market in Parkersburg for $475,000. According to Sunday's Parkersburg News the company came here to purchase mineral rights obviously before the big drilling boom hits locally in the Marcellus, Utica and other formations. According he the Secretary of State's website the firm nor its parent company is authorized to do business in West Virginia. The purchase has caused a lot of stir and not just locally. No one locally had ever heard of Siltstone before.
Back in September there was a fire at the Blue Racer fractionation plant at Natrium on the Wetzel/Marshall County line which caused some local gas to be shut in because more gas had to be sent to the Hastings fractionation plant. Mother Hope announced that the plant has reopened. The plant removes the ethane, propane, butanes, pentanes and drip gas from the gas stream. Presently the ethane goes to the Gulf Coast or to Canada to a cracker as has been proposed down on the Washington Bottom.
Presently there is a glut of ethane and no where to send it and it is priced at 23 cents/gallon or $3.45/MMBTU or dekatherm. Some suggest that ethane be used as a fuel for compressors as the "federal rules" only allow so much in the interstate gas stream.
Speaking of federal rules the U. S. State Department found that the proposed Keystone oil pipeline would have no significant environmental impact. Canada has made it clear that if the Big Eared One still says no the oil will go to China and, of course, refineries there, etc. do not have environmental guidelines.
Calhoun County passed their excess levy Saturday with the Grantsville area being for it and the West Fork voting against it.
The local weather did warm up some, school resumed and snow melted and there was rain. Now there will be deep mud, etc.
In Pennsylvania the state supremes ruled that the new oil and gas law there was not proper and local communities do, in fact, have input into proposed drilling, etc.
When Shell purchased the old South Penn/Pennzoil leases they indicated that they did not to operate in West Virginia and HG Resources, Jared Hall, et al., acquired the properties. Now, it is understood that Royal Dutch Shell is very active in the Marcellus &Utica fields and is a major buyer of the produced fluids.
Antero has a new well that started out at 210 bbl./hour but settled down at 180 bbl./hour. That calculates out at 4320 bbl./day and if it is Appalachian light sweet that amounts to $332,078.40/day for the liquids, not counting the gas. Some oil and gas leases state that the mineral owners will not share in this income.
Some of the wise ones have said that we need more Mexicans in the nation as "there are jobs Americans won't do". It is obvious that as long as generous permanent welfare benefits are handed out a significant percentage of the population has no intention of working. The former governor of Mississippi, a state that has a big welfare group noted that folks in that state would not work in chicken processing plants. All this is absurd. Locally there is a problem finding men who have CDLs with or without experience. Major reforms and politicians with backbones are desperately needed.
The price of local Pennsylvania grade crude (tier one) is $95.49 with drip fetching $76.87, Marcellus & Utica light $85.46 and medium $95.49/bbl. It was noted that the oil haulers want to get producers to agree to contracts on the hauling of oil.
The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Hur Herald. | 
