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22 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Mar 30 – Apr 5
The Marcellus/Utica region received 22 new drilling permits last week, Mar. 30 – Apr. 5, up 3 from the 19 issued two weeks ago. Pennsylvania issued 6 of the permits. Ohio issued 8 new permits. West Virginia also issued 8 new permits last week. The drillers who received new permits last week included Ascent Resources, EOG Resources, EQT, Expand Energy, Jay-Bee Oil & Gas, and Laurel Mountain Energy. Read More “22 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Mar 30 – Apr 5”
We believe this is the end of the legal road for the Briggs family’s lawsuit against Southwestern Energy (now part of Expand Energy) in a case that centers on whether hydraulic fracturing constitutes a trespass if it forces gas from a neighbor’s property, even if no fluid enters that neighbor’s specific property layer. In January 2020, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled in favor of Southwestern, retaining the “rule of capture” in the Keystone State (see 
Epsilon Energy, a relatively small company, used to concentrate most of its effort on developing Marcellus Shale wells. However, over the past few years, the company has expanded into other plays and now owns assets in the Anadarko (Oklahoma), the Permian (Texas), the Powder River Basin (Wyoming), and the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin (in Alberta, Canada). In the Marcellus, Epsilon does not do its own drilling. It is a joint venture partner with (gives money to) Expand Energy, and Expand does the drilling in the Marcellus. Epsilon issued its latest quarterly update yesterday, discussing what’s on the docket for 2026. And, what’s on the docket is that Expand plans to drill five new wells this year on Epsilon’s leased acreage in northeast Pennsylvania. 
Expand Energy and EQT Corporation are bypassing traditional gas-trading middlemen to capture higher profits by selling natural gas directly to end users. Expand has increased its marketing team and relocated to Houston to secure regional supply deals with utilities and manufacturers, using its production data for a competitive edge. Simultaneously, EQT is pursuing long-term contracts with power plants and LNG exporters to reclaim margins once held by intermediaries. 
Thanks to the work of David Hess at the PA Environment Digest Blog in tracking Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) notices published in the Pennsylvania Bulletin, we spotted three new water pipeline projects related to drilling new shale wells in three different northeastern PA counties: Lycoming, Bradford, and Wyoming. Water is used for fracking. New water pipelines mean new fracking is on the way in those locations. 
Yesterday, Expand Energy and Evolution Well Services announced a new agreement to deploy Evolution’s 100% electric hydraulic fracturing technology (e-fracking) in Expand’s Northeast Appalachia (northeast Pennsylvania) drilling program. Evolution, headquartered in Houston with a regional office in Pittsburgh, specializes in “electric” fracking — using natural gas from the well pad (instead of diesel) to power turbines that generate electricity to drive fracking pumps. We’ve written about Evolution’s e-fracking work in the Marcellus/Utica for years (
Expand Energy turned in its fourth quarter and full-year 2025 update earlier this week. The company reported a year of “phenomenal execution,” marked by a 15% reduction in Haynesville breakevens and significant debt reduction post-Southwestern merger. The company, the largest natural gas producer in the U.S., had combined (Marcellus/Utica and Haynesville) production of 7.4 Bcfe/d, up 16% from 6.4 Bcfe/d for the same period in 2024. Interim CEO Michael Wichterich said the company is making a “strategic move” to Houston (from Oklahoma City) to align with a projected 40% rise in natural gas demand over five years. 
Yesterday, Expand Energy announced it is moving its corporate headquarters from Oklahoma City, OK, to Houston, TX. That was the headline and lead in the announcement. And oh, by the way, the company’s very successful CEO, the guy who guided the merger of Chesapeake Energy with Southwestern Energy and has made the resulting Expand Energy *the largest* natural gas producer in the country, Nick Dell’Osso, has “stepped down” effective immediately. Talk about burying the lede! The press release and just about every news story you will read imply that Nick didn’t want to move to Houston, so he’s cashing in. Not so. What the press release doesn’t tell you is that the board terminated (fired) Dell’Osso last Friday. The question is, why? 
The highly functional and responsible Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC), unlike its highly dysfunctional and irresponsible counterpart, the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), continues to support the shale energy industry by approving water withdrawals and consumptive use requests for responsible and safe shale drilling. The SRBC published a notice in the February 7 Pennsylvania Bulletin that the Executive Director of the SRBC approved and/or renewed 42 general water use permits in December and 32 general permits in January (74 combined) for individual shale gas well drilling pads in Bradford, Clearfield, Clinton, Lycoming, Sullivan, Susquehanna, Tioga, and Wyoming counties. 