37 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Feb 28-Mar 13
The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) finally got their reporting system back online after it had gone down for a second time in three weeks. We have collected the permits issued over a two-week period in this report, to catch things up (and because PA didn’t issue any permits for one of the two weeks). This current report shows permits issued from Monday, Feb. 28 through Sunday, Mar. 13. PA issued 15 new permits over the two-week period. The top permitees in PA were EQT and CNX, both with five permits each. In Ohio, 11 new permits were issued, with Encino Energy receiving four and Gulfport three permits. West Virginia also issued 11 new permits for the two-week period. Antero received six of WV’s permits, and both Southwestern Energy and Arsenal Resources scored two each.
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According to S&P Global, shale gas producers behaved themselves during the fourth quarter of 2021 and didn’t, even as the price of gas went sky high, do anything more than maintain current production. Gas drillers kept spending in check, didn’t do any more drilling than was necessary to maintain production, and plowed free cash flow back into dividends and stock buybacks. The result? Investors loved it and share prices soared.
Two years ago Yale University sold off its $80 million equity stake in Marcellus/Utica fracker Antero Resources. You know, Antero is an evil fossil fuel company and the woke children attending Yale demanded divestment. But a funny thing happened on the way to the forum… according to Yale University’s latest 13F form filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, as of Dec. 31, 2021, the University owns $41 million of Antero Resources stock once again!
Antero Resources, one of the biggest Marcellus/Utica drillers with 3.2 Bcfe/d (billion cubic feet equivalent per day) of production, issued its fourth-quarter and full-year 2021 update yesterday. The company earned $901 million in 4Q21, up from $70 million in 4Q20, but still lost $187 million for the full year due to hedges gone bad. Antero generated $237 million and $849 million of Free Cash Flow during the fourth quarter and full year of 2021, respectively. The company placed 10 Marcellus wells and four Utica wells online to sales during 4Q. Antero plans to drill 60-65 new wells in 2022.
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.
Everyone loves a “top x” list, right? We sure do. Hart Energy, publisher of must-have industry magazines including E&P (Exploration & Production), and Oil and Gas Investor, recently published a special publication called 
Each quarter NGI (Natural Gas Intelligence) runs the numbers and publishes a list of the 25 top natural gas marketers in the U.S. (or in the case of 3Q21, the top 24). These are not necessarily the top producers of natural gas, although in some cases they are, but the top sellers (vendors, jobbers) of natural gas. NGI’s latest quarterly report for third quarter 2021 shows overall the biggest sellers of natgas lost ground once again, which continues a four-year trend of year over year declines in the amount of gas sold.
Contrary to the false narrative spun by leftist media that “everyone,” especially large institutional investors, are divesting from and refusing to buy new investments in stocks of companies that drill for oil and natural gas, some of the largest institutional investors came off the sidelines and some (for the first time ever!) got into the game by investing in individual shale gas stocks in the Marcellus/Utica during the third quarter of 2021. Which big investors did the investing and how much did they invest/purchase in the way of stock? We have all the deets below…
It was a pretty paltry week for new shale drilling permits in the Marcellus/Utica. Two weeks ago Pennsylvania issued 21 permits to drill new shale wells. They must have shot their wad because last week PA issued just two new permits–the lowest number in PA we’ve seen in…we can’t remember how long. Ohio issued no new permits for Utica drilling last week…zero…goose egg. Only West Virginia held out some promise, issuing seven new permits for shale drilling last week.