19 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Feb 5 – 11
There were 19 new permits issued to drill in the Marcellus/Utica during the week of Feb. 5 – 11, versus 20 permits issued the prior week. Pennsylvania issued 13 new permits last week. Ohio issued 4 new permits. West Virginia issued 2 new permits last week. Range Resources scored the most new permits with 5 split between Allegheny and Beaver counties in PA. Chesapeake Energy received 4 permits in Bradford County, PA. Seneca Resources received 4 permits in Elk County, PA. Encino Energy received 4 permits in Guernsey County, OH. And Diversified Energy received 2 permits in Harrison County, WV.
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Antero Resources, which is 100% focused on the Marcellus/Utica with over 500,000 net acres under lease (and the largest M-U driller in West Virginia), issued its fourth quarter and full-year 2023 update yesterday. The company reports net production averaged 3.4 billion cubic feet equivalent per day (Bcfe/d) during 4Q23, an increase of 6% year-over-year. Production for the full year 2023 averaged 3.4 Bcfe/d as well. Of the company’s 2023 production, liquids (NGLs) averaged 193 thousand barrels per day (MBbl/d), an increase of 14% from 2022. Natural gas production averaged 2.2 Bcf/d, up 2% from 2022. The company made $95 million in 4Q23 versus a profit of $730 million in 4Q22 — down a big 87% year over year. For 2023, Antero made $243 million versus $1.9 billion in 2022, down 87% year over year.
It feels like the NYMEX Henry Hub futures price for natural gas is in a free fall, heading for $1.50/MMBtu or (gasp) maybe even lower. Yesterday, the NYMEX price for the front month closed at $1.58/MMBtu. The price has been down for eight trading days in a row and is at the lowest price since June 26, 2020 — roughly 45 months. Year-to-date (45 days), the price is down 93.30 cents, or 37%. The national average for spot prices, a metric monitored by NGI, was down 6 cents yesterday to $1.60/MMBtu. Jeesh!
ProFrac Holding Corp. is an oilfield service company (OFS) providing well-stimulation services, proppants production, and other complementary products and services to oil and gas companies engaged in the exploration and production (E&P) of unconventional oil and natural gas resources throughout the United States. In other words, ProFrac is a fracker-for-hire. The company has its own subsidiary to provide frac sand called Alpine Silica Holding, LLC. Yesterday, ProFrac, a public company, announced its plans to spin the Alpine subsidiary into its own public company with an initial public offering (IPO).
In December 2019, New York Attorney General Tish James and her highly-paid associates were thoroughly, completely, 100% humiliated in court when their case against Exxon Mobil, accusing the company of screwing shareholders by keeping secret knowledge they are toasting Mom Earth, was itself toast (see
Plugging and capping old wells has been in the news a lot lately. The left claims old oil and gas wells are partially responsible for toasting Mom Earth. Bunkum (see our companion story today about the EDF/Google satellite). But, let’s be honest, it’s better to cap old wells than to have them belching methane for years and years. Amid the confusion surrounding this issue is a claim that even plugged wells can and do continue to leak significant quantities of methane. A new study from a British university lays that baseless claim to rest.
NATIONAL: USA Compression boasts record revenues for Q4; API files petition challenging Biden’s oil & gas leasing program; House votes to overturn Biden’s natgas export approval freeze; INTERNATIONAL: OPEC+ oil-cut laggards pledge compliance with targets; OEUK warns of 40,000+ job losses.