7 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Jun 3 – 9
Two weeks ago, 31 new permits were issued to drill in the Marcellus/Utica region. Last week, June 3 – 9, the number dropped (dramatically) by 77% to just seven new permits. And that seems to be the pattern: Way up one week, way down the next. Last week, for the second week in a row, Ohio issued ZERO new shale permits. The top permit receiver for last week was HG Energy, which had five permits for a single pad in Doddridge County, WV. The other two permits were issued in PA: one to CNX in Greene County, and the other to Range Resources in Washington County.
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HG Energy drills for natural gas and oil in the Marcellus/Utica. The company, headquartered in Parkersburg, WV, is backed with private equity money managed by Quantum Capital Group (formerly Quantum Energy Partners). One of the companies co-investing in HG is Elliott Management, a so-called activist investor. The Wall Street Journal reports Elliott has just ponied up an additional $500 million (half a BILLION dollars!) to a fund managed by Quantum aimed at “retiring previous vehicles” that fund HG. In other words, retire older IOUs with newer IOUs. Elliott wants to grow its share of ownership in HG.
We recently received a couple of recent issues of a monthly news/analysis newsletter from
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