Marcellus Drilling News

AI | Electrical Generation | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | West Virginia

WV Rolls Out Data Center Welcome Mat as PA Slams the Door
August 20, 2026August 20, 2026

Yesterday we told you how PA Gov. Josh Shapiro’s Executive Order 2026-05 handed every township supervisor a kill switch and wrote natural gas out of the “clean firm energy” column (see Shapiro EO Slams Brakes on PA Data Centers, Gas Plants Too). Now look two states south. On Aug. 11, WV Gov. Pat Morrisey stood at a Charleston podium reading “STANDING ON PRINCIPLES,” flanked by Senate President Randy Smith and House Speaker Roger Hanshaw, and rolled out the West Virginia Responsible Data Center Development Plan — a 20-year framework built to attract hyperscale data centers, not repel them. Same gas underneath. Opposite answers. Read More “WV Rolls Out Data Center Welcome Mat as PA Slams the Door”
Energy Companies | Epsilon Energy | Expand Energy | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Susquehanna County

Epsilon Mulls Auburn Expansion, Sees 200 Bcf Left in Susquehanna
August 20, 2026August 20, 2026

Epsilon Energy (NASDAQ: EPSN) keeps calling its Susquehanna County, PA, acreage a “legacy” asset — and then keeps telling investors it’s sitting on up to 200 billion cubic feet of gas it hasn’t produced yet. At the EnerCom Denver energy investment conference on Tuesday, Epsilon’s VP of Finance put hard numbers on the northeast Pennsylvania position for the first time, disclosed pad-level economics that are rare to see in public, and dropped the news item that matters most to anyone with a lease inside the Auburn dedication: the company is reviewing an expansion of the Auburn Gas Gathering System to handle drilling coming in 2028 and beyond. Read More “Epsilon Mulls Auburn Expansion, Sees 200 Bcf Left in Susquehanna”
Antero Resources | CNX Resources | Commodity Price | Energy Companies | EQT Corp | Industrywide Issues | Range Resources Corp

WhiteHawk Sees $30B of Landowner Minerals Left to Buy in M-U
August 20, 2026August 20, 2026

Six days after WhiteHawk Minerals (NYSE: WHK) filed its first quarterly report as a public company, CEO Daniel Herz took the stage at EnerCom Denver and did something CEOs usually avoid: he put a dated natural gas price forecast on the record. He thinks $4 gas is the number that unlocks the next wave of supply, he doesn’t think the Haynesville gets where people expect, and he thinks the back half of this decade is going to be a roller coaster. Read More “WhiteHawk Sees $30B of Landowner Minerals Left to Buy in M-U”
Allegheny County | Energy Companies | EQT Corp | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation

EQT Gives Up an Automatic Win in Elizabeth Twp Permit Fight
August 20, 2026August 20, 2026

click for larger version

Elizabeth Township’s (Allegheny County, PA) Board of Commissioners was supposed to vote by August 21 on EQT’s conditional use permit for the six-well Heracles pad near Elizabeth Forward High School. Instead, at an August 17 workshop meeting, commissioners announced they’d cut a deal with EQT to push the decision into September — saying they need more time. Here’s the part the news coverage skipped: under Pennsylvania’s Municipalities Planning Code, blowing that 45-day deadline would have handed EQT an automatic, deemed approval. The clock was running in EQT’s favor. EQT gave it up voluntarily. That’s not a company scrambling for cover — that’s a company building a record it expects to defend on appeal. Read More “EQT Gives Up an Automatic Win in Elizabeth Twp Permit Fight”
Columbia County | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Transco | Williams | Wyoming County (PA)

Williams Wins Right to Sell PA Solar Credits from Compressor Arrays
August 20, 2026August 20, 2026

In a case the judges themselves called one of first impression, Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court just handed one of the country’s biggest natural gas pipeline companies the right to earn — and sell — Pennsylvania solar energy credits. Williams wants to put two 11-megawatt (MW) solar arrays next to a pair of Transco compressor stations in Wyoming and Columbia counties. The panels won’t touch the electric grid. They’ll simply feed the compressor stations and shrink Williams’ power bill. The Public Utility Commission said twice that meant no solar credits. On August 19, the court said the PUC was wrong. Read More “Williams Wins Right to Sell PA Solar Credits from Compressor Arrays”
Carbon Capture | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Questerre Energy

Questerre Wins Quebec OK for Carbon Storage Pilot on Utica Acreage
August 20, 2026August 20, 2026

Utica Shale in Quebec (click for larger version)

Quebec has approved Questerre Energy’s application to run a carbon storage pilot on its Utica Shale acreage near Bécancour — but don’t mistake this for Quebec lifting its ban on Utica gas drilling. The Ministry of Economy, Innovation and Energy approved the five-year pilot (extendable two more years) on August 19, letting Questerre drill injection and observation wells — including one existing well — to test the subsurface for long-term CO2 storage. CEO Michael Binnion is using the approval to push two bigger arguments: that Questerre’s pre-existing exploration rights survived Bill 21, the 2022 law that outlawed oil and gas production province-wide, and that gas and carbon storage should be developed together as Quebec’s “made in Quebec” answer to emissions and energy security. Buried in the release: Quebec has also given Questerre a decommissioning notice for its 12 suspended wells, due within 36 months — a deadline the company is now contesting using a separate bill that allows old wells to be repurposed for carbon storage. Read More “Questerre Wins Quebec OK for Carbon Storage Pilot on Utica Acreage”
Best of the Rest

MDN’s Energy Stories of Interest: Thu, Aug 20, 2026
August 20, 2026August 20, 2026

NATIONAL: Natural gas futures sustain upward climb as heat endures; Psychedelics for Climate Action (12,000 cultists); R Street is wrong on climate; Who’s paying for climate reporting in the mainstream media?; INTERNATIONAL: Oil gains as refinery demand surges; Oil market starts pricing in a prolonged Hormuz crisis; Washington lit the fuse for Africa’s energy explosion. Read More “MDN’s Energy Stories of Interest: Thu, Aug 20, 2026”