PA Bulletin Shale Roundup: Shell Title V, 3 Pads, 4 Erosion Permits
Week two of MDN’s weekly trip through the Pennsylvania Bulletin, and this one has a whale in it: Shell’s Beaver County cracker plant is finally getting its permanent air permit. The Nov. 7 edition (Vol. 56, No. 45) ran 184 pages. Beyond Shell, DEP signed off on three well pad air permits, four erosion permits, a pair of new gas pipelines in Tioga County, and three frac water recycling setups. A second gas-powered “compute center” also got its permit in Clearfield County. Here’s what matters to the shale crowd… Read More “PA Bulletin Shale Roundup: Shell Title V, 3 Pads, 4 Erosion Permits”

It’s a rerun of last spring, only bigger. A dry autumn has left many small streams in Pennsylvania’s Northern Tier running low, and the Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC) has told shale drillers and their water suppliers to stop withdrawing water at 48 locations. Another 12 shale water sources are on the SRBC’s “watch” list, meaning they’re close to being shut off too. In April we reported 15 shutoffs and 9 watch sites (see
Every Saturday, the Pennsylvania Bulletin publishes pages of DEP permit notices that almost nobody reads. We read them so you don’t have to. Taken one at a time, most look routine: an erosion permit here, an air permit there. Lined up side by side, they tell you which drillers are building, and where. Last weekend’s edition (Oct. 24) shows Expand Energy busy across the Northern Tier, Repsol and Seneca/NFG working in Tioga County, Devon still building in Susquehanna County, and XTO getting a new pad ready in Butler County.
The Marcellus/Utica region received 26 new drilling permits last week, July 13 – 19, up 19 from two weeks ago (after dipping down 21 three weeks ago). So goes the permitting yo-yo ride. Last week, Pennsylvania issued 23 new permits (after issuing just 1 two weeks ago). Ohio issued 2 new permits. And, West Virginia issued 1 new permit. The drillers who received new permits included: Antero Resources (1), Ascent Resources (2), CNX Resources (2), EQT (1), Expand Energy (3), Formentera Operating (1), Laurel Mountain Energy (5), Pennsylvania General Energy (6), and Range Resources (5).
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.