39 New Shale Well Permits Reported for PA-OH-WV Aug 24 – 30
The Marcellus/Utica region received 39 new drilling permits last week, August 24 – 30, up significantly from the 19 permits issued two weeks ago. Pennsylvania finally bounced back, issuing the vast majority of the new permits, with 25. Ohio issued 8 permits. And West Virginia issued 6 new permits. The drillers who received new permits were: Antero Resources, Campbell Oil & Gas, CNX Resources, EOG Resources, EQT, Expand Energy, Infinity Natural Resources, PennEnergy Resources, and Repsol Oil & Gas. Read More “39 New Shale Well Permits Reported for PA-OH-WV Aug 24 – 30”

Appalachian drillers just got a hard lesson in how fast the money can vanish. New analysis from RBN Energy shows pre-tax profits at gas-weighted producers cratered 75% in the second quarter — and nine of the ten companies in RBN’s gas-weighted peer group are Marcellus/Utica operators. This is an M-U report card, whether RBN calls it one or not. The piece, written by Nicholas Cacchione and published August 26, covers second quarter results for 37 publicly traded exploration and production companies (E&Ps). RBN sorts them into three buckets: Oil-Weighted, Diversified, and Gas-Weighted. Every company in that last bucket except Comstock Resources — a Haynesville player — has major operations in the Marcellus or Utica.
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.
WhiteHawk Minerals (NYSE: WHK), the Philadelphia company that has quietly become one of the largest mineral and royalty owners in the Marcellus, filed its first full quarterly report as a public company this week: $111.8 million of new acquisitions, record production of 70.0 MMcfe/d, and its first real dividend at $2.00 per share annualized. But the most interesting thing WhiteHawk said all week wasn’t in the press release. It came out of CEO Daniel Herz’s mouth on Thursday’s earnings call — some of the biggest drillers in Appalachia are now partnering with WhiteHawk to buy minerals ahead of the drill bit.
CNX Resources posted its second quarter 2026 results last Thursday, and the numbers tell two stories at once. On the drilling side, CNX is running lean — just 2 wells drilled all quarter. On the financial side, the company spent more buying back its own stock ($199 million) than it spent drilling and completing wells. When a producer would rather buy its own shares than drill, that says something about where gas prices sit right now — and where management thinks they’re headed.
Despite rising Northeast gas demand from retiring coal plants and new data centers, plus added Appalachian pipeline capacity, production growth isn’t guaranteed—operators prioritize capital discipline, debt reduction, and shareholder returns over volume. Appalachia has held flat at roughly 33-36 Bcf/d since 2020. Can anything tempt Marcellus/Utica drillers to drill and produce more than they are now? According to RBN Energy, sustained Henry Hub prices above $4/MMBtu (versus the current $3.50-$3.60 long-dated curve) and better takeaway infrastructure could be enough of a temptation.
On April 29, 2026, Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) issued six violations to CNX Resources for causing water supply problems affecting two Bell Township residences in Westmoreland County. The violations targeted three CNX facilities with 19 shale gas wells drilled between 2022 and 2026. DEP determined that CNX operations diminished water supplies after two homeowners filed complaints in December 2025 about loss of well water. CNX was ordered to provide temporary water within 24 hours and submit restoration plans within 15-45 days. CNX, which *did* offer temporary water back in December, is disputing the DEP’s findings, denying responsibility and claiming insufficient evidence of hydrogeologic pathways linking their operations to water impacts.
Yesterday, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro announced $267 million in state funding for energy projects, including $31.5 million for CNX Green Ventures to capture coal mine methane at the Enlow Fork mine in Greene County. Funded through EPA Climate Pollution Reduction Grants, the RISE PA program supports industrial decarbonization. CNX plans to drill boreholes, capture methane from mine ventilation, and pipe it for processing and sale as remediated mine gas. 
