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Diversified Buys Another 300 Wells Plus Pipelines in WV & Va.

Diversified Energy, with major assets in the Marcellus/Utica region (also assets in other regions, too), owns approximately 8 million acres of leases with 67,000 (mostly) conventional oil and gas wells. The company’s business model is to buy lower-producing wells on the cheap and find ways to make them more productive. Earlier today, the company announced another deal to buy more assets in the Appalachian region. Read More “Diversified Buys Another 300 Wells Plus Pipelines in WV & Va.”

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27 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Dec 16 – 22

For the week of Dec 16 – 22, permits issued in the Marcellus/Utica remained healthy. There were 27 new permits issued last week, up from 22 issued the week before. In something of an unusual twist, the Keystone State (PA) issued just four new permits, all of them to different drillers. PennEnergy Resources’ permit was in Beaver County; Seneca Resources’ permit was in Tioga County; and Range Resources and EQT (Rice) each had one permit in Washington County. Read More “27 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Dec 16 – 22”

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Once Again, PA DEP Fails to Follow-up on Well Violations for Years

Last week, MDN brought you the news that the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) had not followed up on the cleanup work needed for a shale well drilled some 12 years ago (see PA DEP Fails to Follow-up Forest County Shale Violations for 12 Yrs). As violations go, it’s pretty minor (tidying up the pad site), but it illustrates the lack of follow-up by the DEP. We have two more cases where the DEP issued violations and didn’t follow up—for YEARS. These two cases involve conventional wells. Read More “Once Again, PA DEP Fails to Follow-up on Well Violations for Years”

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Details for Surface Owners re Diversified Deal to Plug Wells

In November, MDN told you that Diversified Energy and EQT Corporation had settled a class action lawsuit originally brought by several West Virginia landowners (see EQT, Diversified Settle WV Class Action Lawsuit re Old Wells). Diversified and EQT are ponying up $3.25 million each ($6.5 million total) with requirements for Diversified to plug more wells on an advanced schedule in West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee. Who, exactly, is affected by this settlement? A new court-ordered website provides some answers. Read More “Details for Surface Owners re Diversified Deal to Plug Wells”

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Details on Diversified Deal to Plug More Wells in WV, OH, PA

One month ago, we brought you the news that Diversified Energy and EQT Corporation had settled a class action lawsuit originally brought by several West Virginia landowners (see EQT, Diversified Settle WV Class Action Lawsuit re Old Wells). There is the money aspect of the lawsuit, a payout of up to $6.5 million (subject to attorneys grabbing one-third of that). But then there is (in our opinion) the more important aspect of the settlement that requires Diversified to dramatically increase the number of wells it plugs over the next 10 years. Read More “Details on Diversified Deal to Plug More Wells in WV, OH, PA”

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Diversified Energy Seeks to be NatGas “Marketer of Choice”

In October, Diversified Energy Company (formerly Diversified Gas & Oil) announced it had signed a deal to supply 40 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of natural gas over three years to a “major Gulf Coast LNG facility” for exporting (see Diversified Energy Signs Deal to Supply NatGas for LNG Exports). Diversified hasn’t disclosed which Gulf Coast LNG facility would accept and liquefy its gas, even though the program is supposed to start now, in December. Diversified owns major assets in the Marcellus/Utica region (also assets in other regions), including approximately 8 million acres of leases with 67,000 (mostly) conventional oil and gas wells. The company’s business model is to buy lower-producing wells on the cheap and find ways to make them more productive. Read More “Diversified Energy Seeks to be NatGas “Marketer of Choice””

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30 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Nov 11 – 17

For the week of Nov 11 – 17, permits issued in the Marcellus/Utica were strong, with 30 new permits issued, down just slightly from the 34 issued the prior week (but way up from the piddly numbers issued in prior weeks). The Keystone State (PA) issued 16 new permits, with seven going to Range Resources, all in Washington County. Six permits went to EQT in Lycoming County. Two permits were issued to Olympus Energy in Westmoreland County. A single permit was issued to Chesapeake Energy (now Expand Energy) in Susquehanna County. Read More “30 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Nov 11 – 17”

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EQT, Diversified Settle WV Class Action Lawsuit re Old Wells

In August, MDN brought you up to speed on a lawsuit filed by several West Virginia landowners (turned into a class action) against Diversified Energy and EQT over EQT’s sale of 11,350 conventional wells and 2.5 million acres of leases spread across several states, including West Virginia (see WV Landowner Lawsuit Against EQT, Diversified re Old Wells Continues). The lawsuit claimed EQT had sold the wells and assets as a way of shirking its responsibility to plug old abandoned (no longer producing) wells, and that Diversified would not and could not live up to its responsibility to plug those wells. We have breaking news: Diversified and EQT have negotiated a settlement with the landowners with a proposed payout of up to $6.5 million. Read More “EQT, Diversified Settle WV Class Action Lawsuit re Old Wells”

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SRBC Approved 20 Shale Water Withdrawal Requests in September

In September, the Executive Director of the Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC) renewed 20 water-use permits for individual shale gas well drilling pads in Bradford, Clearfield, Lycoming, Sullivan, and Susquehanna counties. We’re just learning of the action via an official notice published in the Oct. 26 edition of the Pennsylvania Bulletin. The approvals, which are NOT subject to public review according to SRBC regulations, are general water permits. Each site will be required to receive a specific water withdrawal approval at a later date. Read More “SRBC Approved 20 Shale Water Withdrawal Requests in September”

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Diversified Energy Signs Deal to Supply NatGas for LNG Exports

This morning, Diversified Energy Company (formerly Diversified Gas & Oil) announced it had signed a deal to supply 40 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of natural gas over three years to a “major Gulf Coast LNG facility” for exporting. The contract begins in November (next month!), which means even though Diversified isn’t (yet) willing to identify the LNG export facility, it will sell to a facility already up and running and not fully supplied, limiting the pool of potentials to a handful. The announcement says more details about the deal will be released in the company’s forthcoming third quarter update. Read More “Diversified Energy Signs Deal to Supply NatGas for LNG Exports”

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OH Lawmakers Asked to Waive Competitive Bids to Plug Orphaned Wells

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) asked a panel of lawmakers called the Ohio Controlling Board to waive the need for competitive bidding for $11.2 million in contracts to plug orphaned oil and gas wells around the state. Yesterday, the Controlling Board approved the request. The contracts were awarded to two companies: Next LVL Energy (owned by Diversified Energy) will receive $7 million, and CSR Services will receive $4.2 million. Read More “OH Lawmakers Asked to Waive Competitive Bids to Plug Orphaned Wells”

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Ohio Utica 2Q24 Production – Oil Up 23%, Gas Down 4% vs Year Ago

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) released production numbers for the second quarter of 2024 yesterday. The story the numbers tell continues to be about Utica oil, which continues to rise each quarter. Ohio’s total oil production during 2Q24 was 8.01 million barrels, up 23% from 2Q23’s 6.5 million barrels and up 11% from 1Q24’s 7.2 million barrels. The story of oil in the Buckeye State can’t be told apart from Encino Energy (EAP), which produced nearly half of all the state’s oil during 2Q24. As for natural gas production, it’s no surprise it went down slightly in 2Q24, given the current low price for gas. The state produced 526.6 Bcf in 2Q24, down 3.7% from 2Q23’s 547.0 Bcf, and down 1.4% from this year’s first quarter number of 534.0 Bcf. MDN pulled the numbers from the ODNR quarterly report and produced top 25 lists for both gas and oil wells.
Read More “Ohio Utica 2Q24 Production – Oil Up 23%, Gas Down 4% vs Year Ago”

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WV Judge Blocks Class Action in Diversified Old Wells Lawsuit

MDN has an exclusive update on a lawsuit by several West Virginia surface landowners who are suing Diversified Energy over Diversified’s failure to plug their unproducing conventional wells. At the prompting of the Sierra Club, the landowners attempted to turn the lawsuit into a class action. Yesterday, a federal judge for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of WV struck down the class action request, meaning a couple of surface owners from the original lawsuit can proceed with their lawsuit. The outcome won’t affect anyone else. However, a second related case and a second request for a class action are still alive.
Read More “WV Judge Blocks Class Action in Diversified Old Wells Lawsuit”

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Diversified Saves Big Money Retiring Its Own Older Wells

In late 2021, Diversified Energy (formerly Diversified Gas & Oil) announced it had purchased Next LVL Energy, a well-plugging company that concentrates on plugging mainly old conventional oil and gas wells in Appalachia (see Diversified Energy Buys Well-Plugging Co. Next LVL Energy). Next LVL was headquartered in the Pittsburgh region. In early 2023, Diversified moved Next LVL to a brand new headquarters in Bridgeport, WV (see Diversified’s Next LVL Energy Moves Headquarters from PA to WV). Since then, Diversified has grown the subsidiary. In 2023, Next LVL retired over 400 wells!
Read More “Diversified Saves Big Money Retiring Its Own Older Wells”

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3 Conv. Drillers Sue Multiple OH Injection Wells for Contamination

In April, the Ohio Oil and Gas Commission upheld a regulatory order from the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) suspending operations of three wastewater injection wells located in Torch (Athens County), OH, owned by K&H Partners, a subsidiary of Tallgrass Energy (see Ohio O&G Commission Votes to Shut Down 3 Athens Injection Wells). K&H subsequently applied to plug and abandon the wells (see Owner of 3 Athens, OH Injection Wells Applies to Permanently Plug). It appears that the situation has resulted in a flood of lawsuits by conventional drillers in the region, not only against K&H but also against a number of other injection wells and their owners.
Read More “3 Conv. Drillers Sue Multiple OH Injection Wells for Contamination”

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WV Landowner Lawsuit Against EQT, Diversified re Old Wells Continues

In June 2018, MDN exclusively brought our readers the news that Diversified Gas & Oil (now called Diversified Energy) had purchased EQT Corporation’s Huron Shale assets, with a bunch of conventional wells, in Kentucky, Virginia, and West Virginia for $575 million (see Diversified Gas & Oil Adds to Conventional Assets in KY, VA, WV). A few months later, the West Virginia Surface Owners’ Rights Organization (WVSORO) accused EQT of selling off its conventional wells to avoid having to plug them (see WV Surface Owners Accuse EQT of Selling Wells Should be Plugged). Two years ago, in July 2022, Big Green groups used a couple of WV landowners in an attempt to launch a class action against EQT and Diversified (see Big Green Uses WV Landowners to Sue EQT, Diversified re Old Wells). There have been recent developments in the case.
Read More “WV Landowner Lawsuit Against EQT, Diversified re Old Wells Continues”