Josh Ferguson, KY Plant Supervisor, Honored by ESGR

L to R:  Josh Ferguson, Ernest Pitt, Brandon Howard

On Thursday, July 5, 2018, Josh Ferguson, Kentucky Gas Plant Supervisor, was honored by Kentucky's committee for Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR) at a weekly Louisa Rotary meeting.  

Relief Operator, Brandon Howard, nominated Josh for this award to let him know how much he appreciates his continued support while on military leave.  Brandon is a staff sergeant in the 577th Sapper Company of the Kentucky Army National Guard (Prestonsburg).  A Sapper sweeps the battlefield to make sure the path is clear for others to go through.  

ESGR area chairman, Ernest Pitt, presented the award and noted that "supervisors like Josh Ferguson and companies like ABARTA Oil & Gas go beyond the legal requirements to support their employees who serve in the National Guard and Reserves."

ABARTA thanks you, Brandon, for your service to our country.  And we are very proud of Josh for the fine work he does operating our plant.  

ABARTA Energy "Turns the Page"

Written by Jim Watson, Director of Unconventional Operations

Out there in the spotlight

You’re a million miles away

Every ounce of energy

You try to give away

As the sweat pours out your body

Like the music that you play

Here I am

On the road again

There I am

Up on the stage

Here I go

Playin’ star again

There I go

Turn the page

Excerpts from the lyrics of Bob Seger's "Turn the Page"

On April 6, 2015, ABARTA Energy “Turned the Page” on its history.  This marked the day that we became a horizontal operator, with spudding of the George Spriggs Unit H-1 in Johnson County, Kentucky.

Using ABARTA Energy’s Rig #1 (RD-20) we spud the G. Spriggs Unit H-1 at 0630 hrs.  By the time the sun rose the next morning, the Kentucky rig crew had drilled and cemented two sets of casing!  Two days later we reached total depth on the vertical portion of the well and were running electric logs (eLogs).  The logs helped AOG’s Geologist, Junior Jenkins, determine the exact land point (optimal production zone) for the horizontal portion.

Highlands Drilling Rig #6

On April 19, 2015 we began drilling with Highlands Drilling LLC  Rig #6 (SpeedStar 185 class).  This rig is capable of drilling 8,000’ straight down or, depending on true vertical depth (TVD), it can drill a well that is 1,000’ deep with a horizontal leg of 6,000’.

April 28, 2015 was the day that we reached our TD (total depth) of 3,884’.  We tripped out of the hole with our drill string and picked up a set of reamers.  Reamers are like “sandpaper” for the wellbore.  They smooth out any ledges and flatten (to a degree) curves or drops that were created while drilling.  The objective of reaming is to have as smooth a well bore as possible in which to run our packer system. The packers isolate a stage (every 150 – 200’) that will be completed.  In between every packer is a frac port (sliding sleeve).  During the frac job, different size balls are dropped to actuate the port.  The ball lands in a specifically sized seat, the pumping company pressures up on the ball once it is seated and shears brass pins that hold it closed.  Once the port shifts open, the formation between the two packers is exposed and we then pump the next stage in the treatment.  This process goes on until all zones/ stages have been completed.

The completion job (frac job) on the Spriggs Unit H-1 began and ended on May 19, 2015.  We pumped a total of 638,000 pounds of sand in 416,000 gals of fluid in 16 total stages.

Following the frac job, we drilled out the balls and seats and installed tubing, pump and rods with the ABARTA Energy service rig.  On June 9, 2015, 65 days after we spud the well, we had our first production.

My hat goes off to everyone involved with this project.  We literally went from a stop to 100+ MPH in a matter of days.  Special thanks to the guys out of our Kentucky operation.  They put in the very long hours in inhospitable weather and got it done.  It’s truly an honor to work with these individuals. 

So to bring it full circle, ABARTA Energy really has “turned the page” on its history.  We are in the spotlight and giving every ounce of energy we have to this project and yes, the sweat did pour out of our bodies.  We are on the stage, not only the ABARTA stage but also the Kentucky stage as well.  Everyone involved were the stars and with that, we “turn the page” and begin writing our new “horizontal” history.

Decorating for the Holidays

Employees at ABARTA's headquarters in Pittsburgh were invited to participate in the First Annual Door/Cubicle Decorating Contest.  In the days following Thanksgiving, wreaths and garlands were hung, lights were strung and little elves at 200 Alpha Drive worked nights and weekends to decorate their office doors and cubicles.  On December 10th, Dana Harshbarger, ABARTA Energy's Reservoir Engineer, was declared the winner and awarded a first place prize.
While doors were being decorated, Sandy Doyle, Secretary/Receptionist, and LeeAnn Ruk, Assistant Controller, created a magnificent 36 foot garland to adorn the open staircase in our lobby.  

Installation required about 10 people to carry the garland up the stairs, hold it in place and then wire it to the railing.  The 9-foot, fully lit tree at the bottom of the staircase made it feel a lot more like Christmas!  

Historical Prizes Found Restoring Home

Cliff Simmons, Pittsburgh's Director of Operations, his wife Marisa and daughter Whitney were recently featured in their local newspaper after restoring their 142-year-old home in Kittanning, PA.  Read more here: 

http://triblive.com/news/armstrong/7450638-74/marisa-cliff-kittanning#axzz3OoGIvXC7

Community Center Breaks Ground

community center  noun:  a building or group of buildings where there are classes and activities for the people who live in a community.  The community of O’Hara Township, where AOG headquarters are located, was sorely in need of a new community center.
 

Built in the 1950s as an elementary school, the Boyd Community Center housed the Lauri Ann West Memorial Library, classrooms and a non-regulation size gymnasium where a local community theater performed, basketball was played and yoga classes took place.  A catering company continues to work out of the original elementary school cafeteria kitchen, and groups rent classrooms and the gymnasium for private events.  But to say that the building has outgrown its useful life is a gross understatement.  Simply replacing windows and floors wouldn’t work.  The building was seriously out of date.

Long before the library moved to a newly-constructed building to become the Cooper Siegel Community Library, local residents anticipated the need and began working to raise funds to build a new community center to serve six local municipalities and beyond.  $7 million had already been raised when Jim Taylor, President and CEO of ABARTA Energy, was tasked with raising the remaining $1 million needed to construct the new Lauri Ann West Community Center.  Unfortunately, by the time the $8.1 million goal was met, the bids for construction came in at $9.4 million.  Thankfully O’Hara Township came to the rescue with a $1.5 million five-year loan so work could begin in the summer of 2014.

Above you’ll see Jim Taylor (third from the right), Shelley Bitzer (fifth from the right) and Lauri Ann West’s mother clapping in the foreground on that memorable day when the ground was finally broken.  The front portion of the existing building that housed the library has been torn down, but the gymnasium and classrooms remain so that operations can continue during construction.  The new 28,000 square foot facility will house a regulation-size gym, an elevated indoor walking track, drop-off child-care room, art and dance studios, a fitness center, a café, an outdoor patio, a large community room and after-school arts and enrichment room for kids.

Jim reports that long ago before the elementary school was built the land was used for agricultural purposes, so the new center has been designed to remind one of a barn.

Imagine being able to say you played a major role in making it possible for this incredible facility to be built.  Jim is working with the Board of Directors and the Capital Campaign Leadership Team to make this dream become a reality.  According to Jim, “The Lauri Ann West Community Center, The Cooper-Siegel Community Library (http://www.coopersiegelcommunitylibrary.org/) and the Aspinwall Riverfront Park (http://www.aspinwallriverfrontpark.org/) are the three most important community assets that will be built during our lifetime.”

To date, 700 donors have offered their support, but fundraising efforts continue.  To see plans for the new center and make a donation, please visit http://lauriannwestcommunitycenter.org/.

Just Like His Daddy

Luke Ferguson, son of Josh Ferguson (Kentucky Plant Supervisor), dressed for career day in kindergarten.  Of course he wants to be just like his daddy.

A Look Ahead at Potential Federal Regulation Changes

Ken Fleeman, Pittsburgh’s Manager of Engineering, was asked to write an article about proposed changes to Federal regulations that will affect the oil and gas industry.  This article was published in the December 2014 issue of The Northeast ONG Marketplace and can be found online via: 

http://www.ongmarketplace.com/online-issue/.

155th Anniversary of Drake's Well

Kathy Flaherty, Pittsburgh Geologist, leads the celebration of the anniversary of Drake's Well on or around August 27th.  This year, like every other, Kathy and a team of bakers laid out a hearty spread of breakfast treats for the Pittsburgh office. To commemorate the first commercial oil well drilled in the United States, Kathy writes an ode or rap as shown above.  The "Drake Well Rap" will be included in Kathy's next publication, More Oily Odes.

ABARTA Energy Invests in Energy Futures

For some people, the word “futures” may evoke images of stock market pits crowded with traders gesturing, scribbling on notepads and yelling numbers related to pork bellies, orange juice and other global commodities.  But the energy “futures” that ABARTA Energy is investing in are far closer to home – they involve our local communities, schools, children and our industry. 

Because we believe that energy education is so important, ABARTA Energy has presented Junior Achievement of Western Pennsylvania (JA) with a donation of $10,000 to enable them to continue their very successful “Careers in Energy” program, designed to teach middle school students about different types of energy, the economic and environmental impact of each, and careers in the industry and related fields.   The investment earned ABARTA Energy the JA 2014 Bronze Leadership Circle Award.  JA’s leadership circle includes many other local oil and gas companies, among them Range Resources. 

ABARTA Energy’s JA Team with Manager of JA STEM Initiatives Krista Myers 

(L to R):  Kathy Flaherty, Krista Myers, Ken Fleeman and Jim Taylor 

Presenting the award to Jim Taylor on July 11, 2014, JA’s STEM Initiatives Manager, Krista Myers, stated: “ABARTA Energy was awarded the Bronze Leadership Circle Award in recognition of their tremendous support of the JA Careers in Energy Program—a middle grades program that educates students about the energy industry and the vast opportunities available within the field.”  This year alone, JA’s “Careers in Energy” program served more than 2,000 of our western Pennsylvania students and several hundred in West Virginia.  Topics range from the importance of energy in our everyday lives and benefits and drawbacks of all energy sources, to natural gas exploration and environmental activism and are covered in the seven lessons featured in the curriculum.  The program provides a factual foundation of the science, engineering, business and societal aspects of the petroleum industry, and a peek into the career opportunities that reflect the current needs of our local, growing energy economy.   Jim Taylor welcomed the invitation to sponsor this important effort:  “We support the goal of the JA ‘Careers in Energy’ program, educating future generations about possibilities in the energy industry that promise to bring economic benefits and certain energy security to Pennsylvanians for decades to come.” 

Junior Achievement Leadership Circle Award presented to ABARTA Energy for 

financial and in-kind support.

Interested in becoming more personally involved with the JA mission, Ken Fleeman ventured into the eighth grade classroom at Burgettstown Area Middle/High School and instructed six classes.  Ken’s lessons for the day focused on the environmental footprint of our daily activities and the liability of every energy type, including solar, wind, geothermal and hydrocarbons.  The classes viewed an animated film of horizontal drilling, which led to candid discussions on oilfield practices and modern frac technology.  Although the lesson was based on the JA-prepared curriculum materials, Ken also drew on his own expertise and observations, including workplace expectations of employees.  From his day in the classroom, Ken is gratified to know that “we have bright, inquisitive young people who are interested in the energy industry; the future will be in good hands.”

As part of their JA Energy packets, each student also receives a bookmark featuring the ABARTA Energy logo on one side, and the basic geological stratigraphic column on the other.  It is a useful tool to note the age of the various oil and gas producing rocks, their relative depths, their rock types – and it does a fine job marking a page in a book!

ABARTA Energy Launches Newly Redesigned Website

ABARTA Energy is pleased to announce the release of our newly redesigned website on June 1, 2014.  Located at the same address:  www.abartaenergy.com, the website is designed with a fresh new look and user-friendly navigation.  The new site fits all types of browser resolutions, whether the user is on a desktop computer, smart phone or tablet.  Our main goal was to build a user-friendly and easy to navigate site.  The new design allows users to quickly find the content they are looking for thanks to its low hierarchical design structure.

We hope that you will enjoy browsing our new website.  If you experience any problems or have suggestions for improvement, please contact us at info@abartaenergy.com.

KY Mud Runners Benefit Camp Caleb

Jamie Preece #332, Dave Sagraves #326 & Brandon Howard #330 pictured BEFORE the race.

On Saturday, May 31st, Jamie Preece (KY Field Office),  David Sagraves and Brandon Howard (Gas Plant) along with some family members and friends participated in the 2^nd Annual Caleb’s Mountain Mud Run 5K.  Proceeds from this event will benefit Camp Caleb and their ministry to children throughout Appalachia as well as Hope in the Light, a mission ministering to hurting people in Haiti. The course wrapped through and around the scenic 400 acre camp where runners faced challenging terrain and various obstacles. 

Tom Bartos Rings Bell at NYSE

Tom Bartos, CFO of ABARTA Energy, has been serving on the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) Board of Governors for seven years and as a member was invited to ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) as a kick off at their Oil & Gas Investments Symposium (OGIS) Monday, April 7th in New York.  This is not the first time Tom has been given this honor, but it was every bit as thrilling the second time around.

The IPAA is the leading, national upstream trade association representing oil and natural gas producers that drill 95% of the nation's oil and natural gas wells.  These companies account for 54% of America's oil production and 85% of its natural gas production.  The IPAA OGIS New York is the premier outlet for publicly traded independent exploration and production and service and supply companies to present their company profiles to the investment community.

Local Marcellus Drilling Relies on Regional Manufacturing for Steel Pipe

Written by Vince Delbrugge, Manager, Unconventional Drilling Operations

On April 8^th, I was one of five ABARTA Energy employees to tour three local factories owned by TMK IPSCO that make the steel tubular products that we use to drill and complete our wells. Manufacturing processes used to make the pipe include those that are icons for Pittsburgh and the Ohio Valley: melting, casting, forming and cutting of steel. Dan Allen and Doug Dye, representing Miller Supply, and Tony Cargo, representing TMK IPSCO, hosted the tour. After meeting in Robinson Township for breakfast, we drove to the three different facilities in Ambridge and Koppel, Pennsylvania and Brookfield, Ohio (see map below highlighting locations) to watch production and learn how their operation influences ours. I describe some of the interesting processes in this article.

(1) Plant Tour Locations

(2) ABARTA ENERGY (AE) tours pipe manufacturing facilities owned by TMK IPSCO. 

L to R:  Doug Dye, Miller Supply; Shane Huffman, AE Geologist; Cliff Simmons, AE Director of Operations; Dan Allen, Miller Supply; John Emmerling, AE VP/COO; Jim Watson, AE Director of Unconventional Operations; and author Vince Delbrugge, AE Manager, 
Unconventional Drilling Operations.

The Koppel facility is modified to melt and cast the types of steel used for our applications. Electric arc furnaces use huge amounts of electricity to melt steel scrap which is the first operation of manufacturing tubing and pipe. Melting in an arc furnace is a spectacular event. Like lightning in a big bucket, thousands of Amperes of electric current spark between graphite electrodes and the steel. Both electric current and radiating light easily add enough heat to reach the steel melting temperature of nearly 3,000˚F. Sophisticated technology is used to measure and modify the amount of elements in the molten steel before they are cast into the solid, cylinder-shaped, billets. Small, precise amounts of carbon, manganese, chrome, molybdenum and other elements are specified and controlled in the molten metal that is about 97% iron.  Scrap metal for melting is limited to certain steels, because some elements cannot be removed or reduced once they are melted.

(3) Electrodes melting steel in the arc furnace.

(4) Continuous casting the round billets at the Koppel facility.

Billets cool and solidify in the Koppel factory with the shape, properties and element composition that all influence quality of the finished pipe. After cooling to room temperature, the billets are transported by truck to the factory in Ambridge where we watched them form the solid billets into the sizes and shapes for our oil and gas applications. The metal is stretched, bent, twisted and squeezed using a variety of traditional cold and hot processes that are performed at different temperatures ranging up to 2,300˚F. The first forming process at Ambridge is rotary piercing which creates the hole in the pipe that is called the inner diameter. This interesting process is illustrated below in details (a) through (d). Details (e) and (f) are sections of billets that were photographed after interrupting the rotary piercing process and cutting the billets that show the growth of the inner diameter. Subsequent forming processes at Ambridge refine the diameters, roundness and straightness of the tubular material that we need for our oil and gas operations. Heating and cooling processes called quench and temper change the atomic structure of the steel to increase its strength. 

(5, 6 & 7)

Size and shape of the pipe and tubing is complete when it leaves Ambridge, but it cannot be used yet for oil and gas operations. Almost all of our tubular products are connected together with screw threads, which are cut into the ends of the products at the Brookfield, Ohio facility (see below). We had the opportunity to watch an Okuma lathe cut threads into the outer diameter of pipe used for our production casing, which is the pipe that extends from the surface to the bottom of the well. Okuma lathes and many other machine tools can maintain tolerances of 1/10,000ths of an inch, which is more precise than is required for successful pipe connections. Roundness, straightness and other shape tolerances of pipe products and other structural materials created during forming are the most important factors that determine our pipe connection quality, and we saw the extensive inspection operations at Brookfield diligently monitoring those properties both before and after cutting the threads. Some of the pipe from Ambridge must be rejected at Brookfield because the threads cannot be successfully cut due to the shape distortion.

(8) Pipe threads cut on a lathe at the Brookfield, Ohio facility.

 (9) Coolant is used while the tungsten-carbide tool moves along the billet to remove metal and cut the thread geometry.

Working with suppliers gives us knowledge about their capabilities that will help our planning for our wells. Visiting the different facilities gave us the chance to observe processes that are critical in the path of manufacturing our casing, tubing and drill pipe, and we know how to evaluate the important characteristics and improve the quality of our wells. We are grateful to TMK IPSCO for the opportunity to tour their facilities and purchase material for our wells that is made here in our region.

Image References.

[1] Image from Google Earth.

[2] Image by Anthony Cargo.

[3] Mr. Blaaaaah. An Electric Arc Furnace’s Three Graphite Electrodes. Web. http://www.reddit.com/domain/siemens.com/.

[4] Web. http:/www.alibaba.com/product-detail/TIEQI-High-Performance-flexible-dummy-bar_56…

[5] Schematic of the rotary piercing operation. Web. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Schraegwalzen.png. Modified by Vince Delbrugge.

[6] E. Ceretti, E.; Giardini, C.;  Attanasio, A.; Brisotto, F.; and Capoferri, G. Figure 6. Longitudinal section of the rod, start and development of the hole, in FEM Analysis of Rotary Tube Piercing Process. Web. http://www.tubenet.org.uk/technical/piercing.html. Modified by Vince Delbrugge.

[7] E. Ceretti, E.; Giardini, C.;  Attanasio, A.; Brisotto, F.; and Capoferri, G. Figure 7. Α 3˚, Formation of the internal hole in the rolling direction: =Comparison between simulation and experiment, in FEM Analysis of Rotary Tube Piercing Process. Web. http://www.tubenet.org.uk/technical/piercing.html. Modified by Vince Delbrugge.

[8] Industrial Piping Specialists, Incorporated. Web. http://www.ipipes.com/?page_id=144.

[9] Okuma. Web. http://www.okuma.com/loc-series-oil-country-lathe.

ABARTA Energy Well Represented at NAPE East

Written by Tom Bartos, CFO

ABARTA Energy rolled out its new identity at NAPE East in April at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh.  In addition to being represented by staff on the exhibit floor, I was one of four speakers on an open panel discussion with other industry leaders  from MarkWest, Talisman Energy and CONSOL Energy.  A brief overview of our company follows.

ABARTA Energy, also known as ABARTA Oil & Gas Co, was founded in 1979 as a way to further diversify Taylor and Bitzer family interests, which at the time consisted of newspapers and Coca-Cola bottling plants.  The company began by making relatively small energy investments each year with different oil and gas developers and remained a passive financial partner through the late 1980s.

In 1995, Jim Taylor, a third generation family shareholder, realizing the opportunity to increase shareholder value in the energy business, joined ABARTA Energy and assembled a management team to move the company to the next level.  ABARTA Energy then became a more active partner with energy companies who shared its vision for growth.  We developed in-house expertise in geology, engineering and operations so we could pursue a balance between continued growth through the drill bit and acquisitions.  In 1997, ABARTA Energy completed its transition to an operating company by acquiring the joint venture assets from Meridian Exploration and by 2007, owned and operated over 1,000 wells in West Virginia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Texas.

Today we own an interest in over 2,100 oil and natural gas wells in eight states with over 50% of our revenues derived from participating in horizontal shale joint ventures in Bradford and Tioga Counties, Pennsylvania, and a Utica shale joint venture with Rex Energy in Ohio.

Headquartered in Pittsburgh, we have field offices in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Kentucky where we operate over 750 conventional wells, 260 miles of pipelines along with multiple compression stations and sizeable sour gas and cryogenic plants. 

ABARTA Energy strategically decided not to be a first mover in the Marcellus and subsequently participated in the play once it became derisked by other companies.  In 2010, ABARTA Energy joint ventured with two established public companies on our acreage in Bradford and Tioga counties to develop the Marcellus.  To date, ABARTA Energy has participated in over 115 horizontal shale wells in Pennsylvania and Ohio with our joint venture partners.

The company currently owns approximately 130,000 acres of oil and gas leases for unconventional development in the Marcellus, Utica, Burket and Rogersville shales.  All the operated acreage in Pennsylvania is strategically positioned in a proven, stacked shale area with plans to continue developing our shale assets in the coming years.

Additionally, ABARTA Energy owns over 70,000 mostly contiguous and HBP (held by production) acreage in Kentucky containing highly prospective Rogersville shale development opportunities.  The Rogersville shale is a liquids-rich resource play in the Cambrian section of the Rome Trough, at depths of 10-12,000 ft.

The Utica Shale….Warrior South

Written by Shane Huffman, Geologist    

     In this modern period of unconventional shale plays, the industry again has shifted its attention to the Appalachian Basin, this time to explore the Utica Shale.  During the last three years, operators have applied their exploration efforts to the more oil-prone and liquids-rich shale plays.  Much like the Eagle Ford Shale in southern Texas, the Utica has three distinctive windows for exploration: a dry gas window, a liquids-rich gas window, and an oil window, making the shale an economically attractive target for the industry (See Figure).

   

           












The recent focus of exploration activity for the Utica Shale has been primarily in eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania where the formation reaches depths of 3,500 feet along the western margin and deepens eastward to 10,000 feet.  

     The Utica Shale is an organic, carbonate rich black shale deposited in warm oceans that extended from Quebec to Tennessee during the Late Ordovician period (443 – 490 million years ago).  The formation lies between 2,000 and 4,000 feet below the Marcellus Shale and has been a major source rock for oil and gas in the deep reservoirs in the Appalachian Basin.  The thickness of the Utica varies from less than 100 feet to more than 500 feet.  The primary pay target is the lowermost 120 to 140 feet of the formation known as the Point Pleasant.

     The Ohio Department of Natural Resources estimates potential recoverable reserves from the Utica Shale to be between 1.5 and 5.5 billion barrels of oil and between 3.8 and 15.7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.  The vast reserves of oil and natural gas estimated by the industry and state geologists have been called a “game-changer” for American energy independence and could even surpass the energy potential in the Marcellus Shale.

     In the wake of the evolving play, ABARTA Oil & Gas has positioned itself to benefit from the development of this natural gas resource.  In the spring of 2012, ABARTA Oil & Gas entered into a partnership with Medina Fuel Company and Rex Energy to jointly explore and develop approximately 6,400 acres in Guernsey, Noble, and Belmont counties, Ohio, known as our Warrior South Project.  Warrior South falls in what has been deemed the “sweet spot” of the Point Pleasant as it lies in the liquids-rich gas window. 

     Rex Energy serves as the project operator and to date has drilled a total of 8 wells, all of which are currently producing.  The project has added significant volumes to our reserves and is proving to be a successful venture with an additional 6 wells planned for 2014.

                

                                                                     

Good Governance Makes Good Sense: Laying a Strong Foundation for the Future

L to R:  Jim Taylor, Lynn Clarke, Rob McIlroy

Jim Taylor, ABARTA Board Chair and Oil & Gas President and CEO, participated in a panel with two other board members from privately-held companies to address a group of approximately 100 family business owners in Pittsburgh on Wednesday, November 6^th.  This was one of nine educational seminars hosted annually by the Institute for Entrepreneurial Excellence at the University of Pittsburgh Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business (http://entrepreneur.pitt.edu).

Because Jim knows first-hand the value of ABARTA’s Board of Directors, he was able to speak from experience about what he perceives is one of our greatest resources.  ABARTA Board Member Lynn Clarke, who is CEO of MetroKitchen.com (http://www.metrokitchen.com), and Rob McIlroy, Board Secretary and Vice President of Robroy Industries, also joined Jim on this panel. 

The role and importance of a board – including why and how to establish one – were among the topics discussed.  Panelists enumerated reasons to have a Board, explained the four types of Boards, detailed what makes an effective Board, and gave the Top 10 Benefits of having a Board.  Jim says that he was about 35 years old when ABARTA was transitioning from the 2^nd to the 3^rd generation of owners, and that is when they adopted an independent Board of Directors.  Statistics say that only about 12% of 3^rd generation family businesses survive, and fewer than that grow and thrive.  ABARTA’s leadership wanted to ensure the company’s success and survival. 

Our independent board, made up of members who have specific industry and functional expertise, provides essential support, encouragement, guidance and helps to make ABARTA a better company.  They ask tough questions and are not afraid to ask about touchy subjects.  They anticipate issues, guide key management, set goals and enforce follow through, act as a sounding board and bring outside perspectives to the table.  This provides for more creative thinking and decision making and ultimately will help our family business leadership achieve its vision.

The ultimate goal is not only survival but success, and ABARTA appreciates the role our independent board plays in that success.

Katie Hanlon Turns Talent into Gift

West Virginia Administrative Assistant Katie Hanlon has many passions and past times, one of which is photography.  She is well known in the Bridgeport area for her talent as a photographer and is often asked to snap just a few pictures of friends’ children for their Christmas card.  For the second year, Katie turned her talent into a gift for a family in need.

Katie’s cousin Tori, who is just a few weeks older than Katie’s daughter Charlie, was born with biliary atresia.  Biliary atresia is a life-threatening condition that affects only 1 in 18,000 infants in which the bile ducts inside or outside the liver do not have normal openings.  This summer Tori had to undergo not one but TWO liver transplants!  Her mother had to quit her job to care for Tori, and Katie says the family has “basically been living in Cincinnati Children’s Hospital for months.”

Hitting so close to home, Katie imagined what the mounting bills must be like for Tori’s family and decided to do something about it by collecting donations at her annual photo shoot.  Katie set aside time on Saturday, October 26^th to photograph friends and  collected $1,810 for her cousin.  She also had an assistant shooting video and sent the video to Tori as an early Christmas present.  What a wonderful use of your talent, Katie!

Tori lives with her parents Andrea and Bill King and older sister Ella in Charleston, WV.  If you would like to read about Tori, follow this Facebook link or copy and paste to your browser:  https://www.facebook.com/torisliver.  Contact Katie Hanlon at khanlon@abartaenergy.com if you would like to contribute to the Tori King Transplant Fund.

Mother/Daughter Share Passion for Rowing

Lynn Biery, Pittsburgh Land Supervisor, and daughter, Elyn, share a passion for rowing.  For the past three years, Lynn has been that “rowing (soccer) mom” helping her daughter, Elyn, rise to Coxswain for her Steel City Rowing team.  (In most boats, the Cox sits facing the rowers in the stern so she/he can steer the boat and coordinate the power and rhythm of the rowers.) Lynn’s passion developed quite by accident but was spawned by early ABARTA health initiatives.  As part of Lynn’s exercise routine, she tried an IndoRowing machine at a local gym and liked it so much that she decided to become a certified instructor.  She quickly fell in love with the motion that eventually developed her power and strength and took her to the water in March 2013.   

Lynn Biery is the 2nd rower from the top, daughter Elyn is at the bottom in purple.

Lynn spends approximately four hours each week rowing, both indoor and out.  After training for only six months, she had the confidence to compete for the first time in the Head of the Ohio in Pittsburgh on the Allegheny River.  One of the largest one-day events in the country, this event attracts competitors of all skill levels.  Lynn’s team placed third, and she received a bronze medal for her efforts in a Masters Mixed 8+ race on Saturday, October 5^th.  She worked with seven other rowers in a sweep boat pulling only one oar (see photo), while her daughter, Elyn, sat in front commanding the team to victory.  What surprised Lynn about this victory is that the team had only practiced twice together in the sweep boat.  Typically the rowers practiced in a sculling boat where each rower pulls two oars instead of one.  This team of 4 women and 4 men of varying ages and skill finished the 2.6 mile course in 18:13 and crossed the finish ahead of 5 other boats.  It is never too late to try something new, and we applaud you.

You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.                                                                 C.S. Lewis

Shale Drilling

AOG and Shale Drilling....What’s Next?
Written by Junior Jenkins, Geologist

We are living in the midst of a shale energy revolution and ABARTA Oil & Gas is in the thick of it!  ABARTA and shale gas have a relationship that goes way back, back to when the company became actively involved in the nuts and bolts part of the oil and gas business.  One of the company’s first acquisitions was United Recoveries, Inc. in Pike County, Ky.  Shale gas production is nothing new in eastern Kentucky with early shale wells being drilled before 1920 with old cable tool rigs.  The early stimulation method to get the gas moving was to load up the hole with nitroglycerin and create a down-hole explosion.  This was a precursor to our modern day fracing, not as effective but much more dramatic!  The United Recoveries wells were producing “dry” gas from the Huron formation of the Devonian Shale interval, an organic rich deposit located across most of the Appalachian Basin from Tennessee to New York.  The lower part of the Devonian Shale interval contains the Marcellus shale which is most productive in northern West Virginia and throughout Pennsylvania.

The unique feature of shale gas is that the source of the gas and the reservoir holding the gas is the same rock.  This is known as a resource play.  Geologists have always known these organic rich rocks were full of gas, but the tight nature of the rock usually only allowed commercial gas production when natural fractures were encountered during drilling, so the gas could more easily flow to the well bore.  I think everyone was surprised at just how much gas these rocks could produce when horizontal drilling and modern fracturing techniques were developed.  The shale revolution is on!

ABARTA Oil & Gas is actively involved in the Marcellus shale in Pennsylvania and the Utica shale in Ohio.  The Utica shale is older (and deeper) being Ordovician age (~450 million years); as opposed to the Devonian age shale (~350 million years).  The Utica shale ABARTA is involved in is located in the “wet gas” window.  This means during the conversion of organics to hydrocarbons, the organic quality and thermal range was just right for liquids to form with the gas.  These liquids commonly include ethane, butane, propane and light oils.  Wet gas is generally more valuable because the liquids can be stripped out and sold separately.  That’s why everyone seems to be looking for wet gas today.  With the massive success of Marcellus and other shales throughout the country, the price of gas has fallen and any boost to improved economics by adding liquid hydrocarbon production is being pursued.

ABARTA Oil & Gas is committed to continue developing opportunities in the Marcellus and Utica shales, but what is the next new shale play?  ABARTA is currently working on a potential new shale play in Kentucky called the Rogersville shale.  This is a brand new shale that has never produced commercial gas, but information from some old deep test wells indicate potential for vast reserves at great depths.  The Rogersville shale is even older and deeper than the Marcellus or Utica shales and is Cambrian age (+500 million years).  This makes the potential shale play extremely risky and expensive, but the rewards could also be extreme!  The Rogersville shale play is located in a deep, narrow sub basin in eastern Kentucky called the Rome Trough.  Drilling depths will likely be about 2 miles deep!  It is anticipated that this deeper basin has preserved organic rich shales and a resource play can be established.  While data is limited, ABARTA is busy interpreting information and assembling a prospect for the Rogersville shale.  This shale should also have some liquids associated with it.  One very positive to this play is that ABARTA Oil & Gas has over 60,000 acres leased in eastern Kentucky that may be prospective for the Rogersville shale.  A lot of this acreage is held by production from shallower zones with additional acreage being leased when available.

The ABARTA geology team is busy and committed to developing active shale plays and identifying new shale opportunities wherever it may lead us.  We plan on being in the shale game for a long time!