Ohio Utica Production 1Q17 – Oil Down Again, NatGas Up Again
The Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) has just issued production numbers for the first quarter of 2017. The bad news is that oil production continued to slide in 1Q17, down 29% from the same quarter in 2016. However, that’s an improvement from 4Q16 when oil production was down 44% (see Ohio Utica Production 4Q16 – Oil Down, NatGas Up). So oil is down, percentage-wise, but down less than last quarter. The good news continues to be natural gas production, which was up 13% over the same period in 2016, which is in line with last quarter when it was up 14% over the same period in the previous year. Eclipse Resources dominated the top 5 spots on the natural gas production list, all of those wells drilled in Monroe County (with 3 of the top 5 being on one well pad–the Holliday pad). Ascent Resources continued to dominate oil production with 20 of the top 25 most productive wells. However, Eclipse had the #1 most productive oil well, which continues to be the record-breaking Purple Hayes (was the longest on-shore lateral well in the world, until Eclipse drilled another longer one, in Ohio). Purple Hayes is the gift that keeps on giving, quarter after quarter. Below we have the ODNR’s high level overview of the numbers, along with MDN’s own exclusive analysis showing: the top 25 producing gas wells, the top 25 producing oil wells, and then the top 25 gas and oil wells as ranked by average production per day. There is a difference…
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In delicious irony, Robinson Township (Washington County), PA, one of the original seven selfish towns that sued Pennsylvania and eventually won at the PA Supreme Court, overturning a portion of the state’s 2012 Act 13 shale drilling law (granting towns the right to self-regulate some aspects of oil and gas drilling by using onerous zoning ordinances), is about to get a new Marcellus gas-fired electric plant. That is, a plant that burns the stuff they don’t like drilled. In April, MDN shared a list of five new Marcellus gas-fired plants coming in Southwestern PA (see 
We’re going to take a stab at this, and we are not confident we will get it 100% right. With that as a warning, we recently reported that a case brought by landowners in northeastern PA against Chesapeake Energy over unwarranted royalty deductions suffered a bit of a setback (see 
In April MDN provided an update on the Sabal Train Transmission pipeline project (see 
In May MDN conveyed the news that it appears Mountaineer NGL Storage, which wants to build a new underground NGL storage facility in Monroe County, Ohio, near Clarington, along the Ohio River (see 
A group of profoundly radical “environmental” organizations filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit last Friday against the West Virginia Dept. of Environmental Protection–for doing their job. Sierra Club, West Virginia Rivers Coalition, Indian Creek Watershed Association, Appalachian Voices and Chesapeake Climate Action Network has sued the DEP because the department had the audacity to conduct a very thorough review, and then issue a stream and water-crossing permit (demanded under federal law) for the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). MVP is a $3.5 billion, 301-mile pipeline that will run from Wetzel County, WV to the Transco Pipeline in Pittsylvania County, VA. The project, which filed an official application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in October 2015, is being built by EQT, NextEra Energy and several other partners. This is now SOP–standard operating procedure–for Big Green groups with deep pockets. Sue and keep suing in an attempt to slow and eventually kill off any project that remotely involves fossil fuels. Yes, they are RADICAL, they are EXTREME, waaaaaay outside the mainstream of American society. And they MUST BE STOPPED. When will someone launch weekly lawsuits against these Big Green organizations? Here’s the latest maddening development…
In December 2016, the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) unveiled new regulations to clamp down on methane emissions and other other air pollution that allegedly comes from shale drilling sites (see 
On Friday, Exxon Mobil took the gloves off and went after the out-of-control New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. Last year Schneiderman decided he would try to shake down Exxon for billions of dollars, claiming the company wasn’t being honest with shareholders about the threat of man-made global warming, which doesn’t actually exist. He said Exxon should have done more to warn shareholders that they invest in a filthy, rotten, human-killing Big Oil company–a company whose stock will someday implode. We’ve covered Schneiderman’s witch hunt from the beginning (
Just a quick reminder that the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection is conducting four public hearings, beginning today and running through Wednesday, for the Williams Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline project. If there is any way you can make it to one of the hearings to show your support for the project, do it! Below is the DEP announcement sharing the locations for the hearings. Today are two hearings, both from 6-9p, one in Tunkhannock and the other in Lancaster. Tomorrow the hearing is in Bloomsburg, and Wednesday in Annville. Come out to support this critical pipeline project…
Events related (or of interest) to the Marcellus and Utica Shale, primarily pro-drilling events.
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: Stonewall Group receives Telly Award for Shale Crescent ad; Overheated anti-fossil fuel rhetoric fooling young people, says Blacklight researcher; Rick Perry: ‘First-ever’ natural gas exports offer hedge against Russia; The tyranny of the administrative state; Working gas in storage jumps by triple digits; Effort to crush shale producers only made them stronger; and more!