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alvinengelke@hotmail.com
Rev. Keith Belt is under the weather so there were no services Sunday at the Burning Springs M. E. Church.
Gay Park continues to be on the mend but, as she noted, has a long way to go.
The Creston auction will be Friday, February 6, starting at 6 P. M. at the Creston Community building. All this assumes that there will be no typhoons, floods, deep & drifting snow or other inclement weather events.
Tuesday, February 3 is Agriculture & Forestry day at the Legislature, down at the Mouth of the Elk. All who can are urged to attend and the Taste of West Virginia reception will be at 6 P. M. at the Marriott. That is the place where one can dine on the best food in the state and talk with legislators and other leaders.
Some recent events happened in New York which have caused some to suggest reading Isaiah 9:10 - 20 and then ponder the situation.
A big buck with a fine set of antlers was spotted down on the Petty place one day last week.
Local residents didn't get delivery of the Parkersburg papers for three days last week and missed out on all the salacious stories about the Mayor & his mistress. One woman noted that he did have a shiner and bruises & abrasions on the nose and chin.
Johnna Heater noted that she was going to have a pacemaker installed and that she would now have to sell her new microwave. She wanted to send condolences to the Cora Boggs family and wished all her friends in Wirt [and elsewhere] "happiness and good health always".
The hole in the Creston bridge continues to be a topic of discussion as well as the new way of treating roads for snow and ice and the "demand" for more money from the legislators. Some felt sorry for the poor state road worker who, the other day, was trying valiantly to plow one half inch of snow off the roadway.
Donna Sue Ferrell has been on the sick list and has undergone several tests with minimal results. <
Bessie & Suellen Arthur were attending to business in Elizabeth.
Ray Gumm noted that his brother lives near the Marcellus well that Aubrey McClendon drilled on Laurel near Brohard and said he wished that he owned an interest in it. More wells are planned there and drilling is also happening on Clover ridge south of Spencer. Apparently Aubrey, who has obviously a good feel for the future, must feel that oil prices will be back up soon and that it is unlikely that he plans to give away his Pennsylvania grade crude.
Charles Russell was attending to business in Spencer & visited with brother Euell, who has been on the puny list, Ray Gumm, Paris Parsons & others. Edith Kittle noted that she didn't come down with the flu that has been all too prevalent at the Miletree Center.
If Ground Hog day is anything like Sunday, old brer whistle pig will see no shadow, as if that makes any difference anyway.
Wood County Commissioner Bob Tebay and a group of mayors went to visit Minot & Williston, North Dakota to see the impact of a drilling boom and, perhaps, an ethane cracker plant. In Williston MacDonalds workers start at $15/hour which shows the proper way to "raise the minimum wage". Of course the Big Eared One and his handlers do not believe in economic growth without government intervention & control.
The war against the American oil & gas shale plays continues with thousands being laid off by service companies and the cutback of new drilling, pipeline construction, etc. The Big Eared one & Hillary double crossed the Saudis (when she went to Tehran and cut a deal) which put the Saudis in the same boat as the Jews in Israel, that is expendable areas for "peace in our time". The price drop for crude has put the whammy on the Russians [who are flying over Europe with nuclear warheads on their bombers] and the Iranians who are involved in terrorist activities in numerous lands. Sheik Ali Baba said the kingdom could sell crude for $20/bbl. for an extended time which would collapse a few nations and, likely, much of the oil & gas business in Canada & America. John Hofmeister, former head of Royal Dutch Shell predicts that the price of oil will go back up because of a decrease in production and an increase in demand.
While "our leaders" won't talk about Moslem radicals & terrorists, the kingdom of Saudi Arabia is building a 600 mile long wall, fence and trench to stop those terrorists that would invade the sands from Iraq which is now pretty much controlled by Iran as is Yemen, Lebanon, Syria and the Gaza strip. Instead of defending Israel the Big Eared One sent one of his campaign experts to the Holy Land to try to remove Bibi Netanyahu from office. The group that will do the work on the ground is "One Voice" a group funded by the U. S. State department.
Recent research has determined that a lot of funding for "global warming" & opposing drilling and hydraulic fracturing went through a group called "Sea Change" that was funded by shadowy associates of Vladimir Putin. Such is somewhat ironic as his economy, other than the sale of weapons to terrorists, is based almost exclusively on the sale of oil and natural gas.
Successful horizontal wells have now been drilled in Quebec reflecting the vast size & expanse of the same shales that underlie the local area.
In less than cheery news Chevron announced that they have given up on their proposed oil & gas shale play in Poland although this would mean that there is more market for surplus natural gas from this region to be shipped to Europe. San Leon, a George Soros backed firm, said their vertical Polish shale well was good and came in at 60 thousand cubic feet. For comparison Range's latest Utica well came in at 59 million & Triad's Utica well in Tyler County came in at 46.5 million.
The ATEX (Appalachia to Texas) 20" inch ethane pipeline caught fire in Brooke County. If there were ethane crackers in the area there will be little need to send the raw material to the Gulf of Mexico to provide employment there.
Barry Davis, CEO of Enlink, in a talk given at Pittsburgh, said that [in spite of the oil war, etc.] the Marcellus & Utica are positioned for growth. While he noted that nationwide there will be a 50% reduction in shale drilling what remains will be in "the best of the best". He noted that 10 of the 19 top spots in the nation are in the local Marcellus/Utica play and that there will be growth. Enlink has a facility at Brooksville [the old Eureka station, pipeline, etc.] and local employees note that Davis has a handle on what is going on and that they are excited.
The price of gasoline in the Parkersburg had gone down below $1.90 but is now up 20 to 25 cents from the low. The price of local Pennsylvania grade crude rose to $47.24 with mountain high test (drip) fetching $23.24, Marcellus & Utica light $41.24 and medium $47.24/bbl.
Antero the Denver based group that has been a leader in drilling Marcellus wells has acquired a reputation for a suing folks who objected to their "less than reasonable" lease terms and taking their property away from them just to show what a big out of state firm that had high dollar lawyers could do. Sorta reminds one of the Reconstruction when the carpet baggers came down and hooked up with the scalawags to clean out the honest citizens. However, the worm turned on them and Trio Oil & Gas sued Antero for trespass after firm drilled several laterals on a lease that Trio operated. For details see Doddridge Co. CA 14-C-66.
It was reported that a number of oil tanks have been set at Mountain V's horizontal Devonian well on Owl Hill and that a gas line has been laid up to the top of the hill.
Area residents have been hauling hay. The thaw has made for deep mud in some places and the rain on frozen roadways made for some very treacherous conditions.
The proposed revisions in the little Unger boy's tank bill seem to resolve the problems faced by local oil & gas producers, owners of tanks placed on construction jobs, etc. The State Tax Commissioner, however, came up with new forms for severance tax and some had to spend days working out the new forms to avoid fines and penalties. Am extension was given for the forms but there was no change in the date the money was due to Earl Ray and associates.
The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Hur Herald.
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