EQT, Shell, Others Launch CCUS/Hydrogen Hub Initiative for OH-PA-WV
EQT, Equinor, Shell Polymers, U.S. Steel, and several other companies with either a base of operations or major interest in the Marcellus/Utica region, yesterday announced a new initiative to establish a carbon capture, utilization & storage (CCUS), as well as hydrogen production and utilization hub. A CCUS/H2 hub, if you will. While no specifics were announced, the aspiration seems to be establishing several facilities that capture, store or reuse carbon dioxide created during industrial activities, and figure out how to create more hydrogen (H2) and use it as a power source and (perhaps) as a raw input for manufactured products. Ultimately the aim of the group is to generate more business in the Appalachian region by committing to reduce CO2 emissions.
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Our apologies that this latest weekly permit update is a day late. Normally we issued these updates on Wednesdays. Yesterday the Pennsylvania database we use to locate information on new permits issued was throwing an error. We alerted the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection, which maintains the database, and they got it fixed sometime last night. So we’re back! Our thanks to the programmers at the DEP.
With the ever-changing landscape of mergers and acquisitions in the shale industry, including here in the Marcellus/Utica, it’s helpful to check in every now and again with a “top 10” list. This time our top 10 list is for the largest shale drillers/operators in Pennsylvania. The Pittsburgh Business Times recently updated its “Book of Lists” for active PA shale drillers, all 47 of them. We have a quick list of the top 10 below.
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.
In May 2021 S&P Global Market Intelligence ran an article on which Marcellus/Utica drillers are likely targets to be acquired, and which drillers are doing the targeting (see 
EQT Corporation, the largest natural gas producer in the United States, announced last Friday that all of its natural gas produced in Washington and Greene counties in Pennsylvania (the majority of its production, some 4 Bcf/d) is now officially certified as “responsibly produced” gas by two different certification organizations: Equitable Origin and MiQ. That 4 Bcf/d of certified gas represents 4.5% of all natural gas produced in the U.S.
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 
Two subsidiaries of Connecticut hedge fund Kensico Capital Management filed a lawsuit against EQT on December 28 alleging EQT committed securities fraud during its $6.7 billion acquisition and merger with Rice Energy in 2017. The suit was filed by Saxena White PA on behalf of Kensico Associates and Kensico Offshore Fund Master Ltd. Kensico is not the first large investor to sue EQT over the 2017 merger (see 
It’s a wrap on Hart Energy’s DUG East (Developing Unconventional Gas) conference, held in Pittsburgh last week. Overall the sentiment, from the reports we’ve read, was a positive “up” kind of attitude among those attending. However, some words of caution were shared as well. One analyst, with rig counting giant Enverus, said he thinks more natural gas production is returning to the Marcellus/Utica, but not as much as growth (percentage-wise) as the M-U’s chief competitor, the Haynesville Shale.