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21 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Jun 6-12

The Marcellus/Utica is still struggling to get permit numbers into higher brackets. Three weeks ago a pathetically low six new permits were issued to drill shale wells across Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia (see 6 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV May 23-29). Two weeks ago the number improved–with 20 new permits issued (see 20 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV May 30-Jun 5). Last week, for June 6-12, the number increased by one, to 21 new permits issued. Anemic, but improving.
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44 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Feb 7-13

Last week the number of new shale permits issued for the three M-U states more than doubled from the previous week. Four weeks ago there were 61 new shale drilling permits issued in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia. Three weeks ago that number fell to 33. Two weeks ago the permit number fell again, to just 20. Last week? The number bounced back up to 44 new permits. PA issued 24 new permits, OH issued 18 permits, and WV issued 2 new permits.
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20 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Jan 31-Feb 6

My how the mighty permit count has fallen. Three weeks ago there were 61 new shale drilling permits issued in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia. Two weeks ago that number fell to 33. And last week? The permit number fell again, to just 20. PA issued 13 new permits while OH issued 7. WV got skunked last week: A big, fat 0 new permits.
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33 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Jan 24-30

Our apologies that this latest weekly permit update is a day late. Normally we issued these updates on Wednesdays. Yesterday the Pennsylvania database we use to locate information on new permits issued was throwing an error. We alerted the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection, which maintains the database, and they got it fixed sometime last night. So we’re back! Our thanks to the programmers at the DEP.

The total number of permits across PA, OH and WV last week were down by about half from the week before. There were 33 new permits issued last week vs. 61 two weeks ago.
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61 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Jan 17-23

Holy smokes! What just happened? For months (and months and months) the cumulative number of weekly permits issued to drill new shale wells in the Marcellus/Utica has fluctuated from the low teens to perhaps 30 total on the upper end. Last week, from Jan. 17-23, an amazing 61 permits were issued to drill new shale wells. Double the usual. Wow! Pennsylvania issued 24 new permits, Ohio issued 9, and blow-the-doors-off-we’ve-never-seen-so-many-permits-issued-in-one-week for West Virginia, the Mountain State issued 28 new shale permits.
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18 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Jan 10-16

Last week 18 permits were issued to drill new shale wells in the Marcellus/Utica, down from 24 the week before. Pennsylvania had the most new permits with 12, mostly in the northeastern part of the state in Lycoming and Susquehanna counties. Ohio had four permits evenly divided between Columbiana and Harrison counties. West Virginia had just two lonely permits, one in Lewis and one in Wetzel counties.
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Hilcorp CEO Says Co. Aims to be Best “Late-Life” Operator in O&G

Hilcorp is a major driller founded in 1989 by Jeff Hildebrand. It is THE largest privately-held (stock not publicly traded) oil and natural gas exploration and production company in the U.S. Headquartered in Houston, TX, Hilcorp has over 1,825 employees in multiple operating areas including the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana, Wyoming, New Mexico, Alaska, and (yes) in the Marcellus/Utica. While they don’t have a huge presence here in the northeast, Hilcorp does actively drill shale wells in Lawrence County, PA and Columbiana County, OH. A recent Forbes article based on an interview with Hilcorp CEO Greg Lalicker proved to be a revelation for us: Hilcorp is not unlike Diversified Energy (or maybe it’s the other way around).
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Weekly Shale Drilling Permits for PA, OH, WV: Jun 21-27

All three Marcellus/Utica states received permits to drill new shale wells last week. Pennsylvania issued 9 new permits, all but one of them for the same well pad in Greene County. Ohio issued 3 new permits, two on a single pad in Monroe County. And West Virginia issued just 1 new permit last week–to a company we had not previously heard of.
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Columbiana County, OH Sees Uptick in Utica Drilling Interest

Ohio Utica counties

Columbiana County, Ohio, located in the northern part of the Utica Shale play in the state, was an early target for Aubrey McClendon (then-CEO of Chesapeake Energy). Aubrey was right about the Utica being “the biggest thing to hit Ohio since the plow.” But he was wrong about where the most productive wells would be located, which is further south in the play. Still, there’s money to be made in the northern Utica, and companies like Encino Energy (which now owns Chesapeake’s Ohio assets) and Hilcorp continue to drill in Columbiana.
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Hilcorp Energy Continues to Go Its Own Way in Northern Utica

Hilcorp is a major driller founded in 1989 by Jeff Hildebrand. It is one of the largest privately-held (stock not publicly traded) oil and natural gas exploration and production companies in the U.S. Headquartered in Houston, TX, Hilcorp has over 1,825 employees in multiple operating areas including the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana, Wyoming, New Mexico, Alaska, and (yes) in the Marcellus/Utica. While they don’t have a huge presence here in the northeast, Hilcorp does actively drill shale wells in Lawrence County, PA and Columbiana County, OH. The Youngstown Business Journal reports Hilcorp is advancing its program in the northern portion of the Ohio Utica.
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Weekly Shale Drilling Permits for PA, OH, WV: Feb 22-26

All three M-U states received permits to drill new shale wells last week. Pennsylvania received 7 new permits. In something of a twist, Ohio received 15 new permits (two companies), far more permits than we’ve seen in some time. And West Virginia received 5 new permits.
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Weekly Shale Drilling Permits for PA, OH, WV: Nov 30-Dec 4

Last week Pennsylvania issued just 3 new shale well drilling permits–all for Cabot Oil & Gas in Susquehanna County. Ohio issued 5 new permits, with 4 of the 5 issued to Ascent Resources. And West Virginia issued 3 new shale well permits.
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Weekly Shale Drilling Permits for PA, OH, WV: Nov. 9-13

An interesting week for permits. Last week Pennsylvania issued just 2 new shale well drilling permits after having issued 3 the week before (lowest numbers we’ve seen). Ohio, which has not issued many permits in recent months, was on fire last week with 17 new shale permits! West Virginia issued just 1 new shale well permit.
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Man Killed in Accident at Hilcorp Well Pad in Lawrence County, PA

An Indiana County, PA man was working at a Hilcorp drill pad in North Beaver Township (Lawrence County), PA, helping to load “large sections of steel pipeline and drilling equipment” onto a truck when the load became unstable and a large pipe fell from the truck and struck/killed the man. Leonard Clair Long, Jr., 60 years old, died at the scene. He worked for Hilcorp subcontractor Ziegenfuss Drilling.
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“Strong” Well Results in Northern Utica During 1Q18

As MDN reports in today’s lead story, Ohio has just achieved a new milestone by producing more natural gas than the state has ever produced during the first three months of this year (see Top 25 Producing Gas & Oil Wells in Ohio Utica for 1Q18). The best performing individual wells are located in the southern part of the Utica play–in Belmont, Jefferson, Monroe, and Guernsey counties. However, don’t overlook the wells and overall performance of counties in the northern part of the play–places like Columbiana, Mahoning and Trumbull counties. Particularly Columbiana County. The Youngstown Business Journal does a deep dive into the numbers for the northern tier counties and finds that wells drilled by Hilcorp in Columbiana produced “strong results” in 1Q18. Here’s a closer look at the northern Utica counties and the drillers who work there…
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Hilcorp’s Billionaire Founder Steps Down from CEO Role

Jeff Hildebrand

Hilcorp is a major driller founded in 1989 by Jeff Hildebrand. It is one of the largest privately-held (stock not publicly traded) oil and natural gas exploration and production companies in the U.S. Hilcorp is the largest oil producer in Louisiana. Headquartered in Houston, TX, Hilcorp has over 1,825 employees in multiple operating areas including the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana, Wyoming, New Mexico, Alaska, and (yes) in the Marcellus/Utica. While they don’t have a huge presence here in the northeast, Hilcorp does actively drill shale wells in Lawrence County, PA and Columbiana County, OH. In fact, of the 58 operating shale wells in Lawrence County, Hilcorp owns all but 10 of them (see Lawrence County, PA O&G Production “Inching Upward Again”). Hilcorp has, until now, been captained by its founder Jeff Hildebrand, called an “oil baron” by Bloomberg back in 2015 when Hildebrand, among other big oil guys, backed a loser in the presidential campaign–Jeb Bush (see Big Oil & Gas Money Flows to Jeb Bush Campaign, Disappointingly). Hildebrand, the 209th richest person in the world, has just stepped down as CEO of Hilcorp. The new CEO is Greg Lalicker–a petroleum engineer who joined the company in 2006. But don’t worry. Hildebrand will continue on as executive chairman of the company and remain “heavily involved”…
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