WV O&G Industry Generated $660M, Employed 15K; Top 10 Drillers
The State of West Virginia’s fiscal year begins on July 1 each year and runs through June 30 of the following year. Looking at the state’s most recent fiscal year of July 1, 2023, through June 30, 2024, the natural gas and oil industry in WV accounted for over $660 million in state revenue via severance and property taxes. That’s according to the Gas and Oil Association of West Virginia (GO-WV). In addition, the O&G sector employed over 15,000 direct jobs and an additional 73,000 indirect jobs, with an average annual salary of more than $97,000. Shale energy has been an economic miracle in the Mountain State! Read More “WV O&G Industry Generated $660M, Employed 15K; Top 10 Drillers”
GREAT news! The Ohio Oil and Gas Land Management Commission (OGLMC) met for about 15 minutes on Friday and voted to award Encino Energy the right to drill under (not on) 62.5 acres of Leesville Wildlife Area located in Carroll County. Encino will pay a $218,715 signing bonus and 18% royalties on any oil and gas produced. Landowners in Carroll County, pay attention: That works out to be a hefty $3,500 per acre for a signing bonus. 
WhiteHawk Energy, headquartered in Philadelphia and owning mineral and royalty interests for over 1 million gross unit acres with over 3,400 producing horizontal shale wells between the Marcellus and the Haynesville, announced yesterday that it has doubled its ownership in Marcellus assets in Washington and Greene counties in southwest Pennsylvania. WhiteHawk paid $118 million to increase ownership across 475,000 gross acres in the Marcellus Shale. The drillers operating on those acres include EQT, Range Resources, and CNX Resources.
Last week, MDN told you about three (so far) proposed Utica/Marcellus gas-fired power plants proposed for the New Albany International Business Park in Licking County, Ohio (see 
MDN exclusively brought you the news, in June 2018, that Diversified Gas & Oil (now renamed to Diversified Energy) had purchased EQT’s Huron Shale assets in Kentucky, Virginia, and West Virginia for $575 million (see 
The experts at RBN Energy track 38 exploration and production (E&P) companies to monitor financial and operational performance. In a recent blog post, RBN found the 10 gas-weighted E&Ps (all but one with significant operations in the Marcellus/Utica) experienced a rebound in earnings during Q4 2024 after a rough first three quarters of the year. Earnings for the 10 gas-weighted E&Ps averaged $3.02/boe (barrels of oil equivalent) in Q4 2024 after losses in Q2 and Q3 2024. Cash flow averaged $10.18/boe, 52% higher than the $6.71/boe generated in Q3 2024. Realized prices averaged nearly $18/boe in Q4 2024, 24% higher than the $14.52/boe recorded in Q3 2024. Things are looking up for M-U drillers. 
The European Union’s idiotic methane regulations will be enforced beginning this year. Domestic (European) oil, gas, and coal companies must monitor, measure, and report their emissions. The same restrictions apply to energy imports from other countries, including the U.S. (see 
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: What’s ahead for New England’s power grid – more gas?; Mass layoffs at hydrogen company near Albany, NY; NATIONAL: Oil, gas execs reveal where they expect WTI oil price to be in the future; U.S. natural gas consumption set new winter and summer monthly records in 2024; Big Oil shrugs at $50 crude; White paper points to carbon capture as possible data center solution; Study found US gas exports did not impact climate change, so Biden admin buried it; Consumers are not voting for the energy transition; US Army Corps to narrow list of emergency energy projects by this week; INTERNATIONAL: Exports of Russian pipeline gas to Europe down 19% in March month-on-month, data shows; Allianz’s board says it’s time to save the planet; ‘Pissed off’ at Putin, Trump threatens tariffs on Russian oil if Moscow blocks Ukraine deal; The Paris climate agreement is dead — time to bury it for good; Aramco eyeing new US LNG deal.