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Weekly Shale Drilling Permits for PA, OH, WV: Feb 22-26

All three M-U states received permits to drill new shale wells last week. Pennsylvania received 7 new permits. In something of a twist, Ohio received 15 new permits (two companies), far more permits than we’ve seen in some time. And West Virginia received 5 new permits.
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Weekly Shale Drilling Permits for PA, OH, WV: Feb 8-12

All three M-U states received permits to drill new shale wells last week. Pennsylvania received 16 new permits. Ohio received 3 new permits. And West Virginia received 4 new permits.
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Weekly Shale Drilling Permits for PA, OH, WV: Jan 25-29

All three M-U states received permits to drill new shale wells last week. Pennsylvania received 22 new permits. Ohio received 2 new permits. And West Virginia received 8 new permits.
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Weekly Shale Drilling Permits for PA, OH, WV: Jan 18-22

For the second week in a row, two of three M-U drilling states received permits to drill new shale wells. Pennsylvania scored 10 permits to drill new shale wells last week. Ohio received no new permits for Utica wells (second dry week in row). West Virginia received 4 new permits to drill new shale wells last week.
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Weekly Shale Drilling Permits for PA, OH, WV: Jan 11-15

Two of three M-U drilling states received permits last week. Pennsylvania scored 14 permits to drill new shale wells. Ohio received no new permits for Utica wells. West Virginia received 5 new permits to drill new shale wells.
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Weekly Shale Drilling Permits for PA, OH, WV: Dec 14-18

Last week Pennsylvania issued 25 new shale well drilling permits in both northeast and southwest PA, although most of the permits for SWPA. Ohio issued 4 new shale well permits, all of them to the same company (Encino Energy) and the same well pad (in Harrison County). West Virginia issued 6 new shale well permits, one in Lewis County and the rest in Tyler County.
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Weekly Shale Drilling Permits for PA, OH, WV: Dec 7-11

Last week Pennsylvania issued 21 new shale well drilling permits scattered across both northeast and southwest PA. Ohio issued 5 new shale well permits, all of them to the same company and the same well pad. West Virginia issued 3 new shale well permits, all in different counties.
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Weekly Shale Drilling Permits for PA, OH, WV: Nov 30-Dec 4

Last week Pennsylvania issued just 3 new shale well drilling permits–all for Cabot Oil & Gas in Susquehanna County. Ohio issued 5 new permits, with 4 of the 5 issued to Ascent Resources. And West Virginia issued 3 new shale well permits.
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Weekly Shale Drilling Permits for PA, OH, WV: Nov. 16-20

Last week Pennsylvania issued 11 new shale well drilling permits, all but one of them in the northeastern (dry gas) part of the state. Ohio issued one new permit, and West Virginia issued 2 new shale well permits.
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Diversified Pays $400M for HG Energy’s Shale Assets in PA, WV

Diversified Gas & Oil has been on a mission to buy as many non-shale (conventional) oil and gas wells as it can in the Appalachian Basin. It owns close to 3 million acres of leases with some 60,000 (mostly) conventional oil and gas wells. That’s changing. Yesterday Diversified announced it has cut a deal to buy 107 operating (and 3 non-operating) shale wells in Pennsylvania and West Virginia for $400 million.
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CNX’s Pipelines to be Used for “Partners” – Not Just CNX Res.

Yesterday we brought you the news that CONE Midstream has been renamed to CNX Midstream, and that CNX Resources is now the sole owner of the entire gathering pipeline system (see CONE Midstream Gets a New Name: CNX Midstream Partners). CONE was originally a joint venture between CONSOL Energy (the “CO” part of the name) and Noble Energy (the “NE” part of the name). CONSOL and Noble had a joint venture on hundreds of thousands of Marcellus/Utica Shale acres. Some of the wells drilled were “owned” by CONSOL, some by Noble. CONSOL and Noble decided to divide up the JV, each taking a piece, in late 2016 (see Divorce: CONSOL & Noble Dissolve M-U Joint Venture). Then in May 2017, Noble up and sold all of their Marcellus leases and wells, to HG Energy (see Noble Energy Sells Remaining M-U Assets for $1.2B – Who Bought?). Not long after, Noble announced they also want to sell their share of CONE. Long story short, CNX (formerly CONSOL) bought Noble’s CONE share, and now owns it lock, stock and barrel. Does that mean CNX will no longer flow gas from HG Energy (formerly Noble) wells served by their 100%-owned pipelines? Not on your life! CNX will continue to service HG Energy’s wells, and may even run gathering lines to other competitors’ wells (i.e. “partners”) in the areas where CNX Midstream operates. So said CNX CEO Nick DeIuliis on a conference call yesterday with analysts. DeIuliis is jazzed that his company now owns 100% of the pipeline gathering system because it will allow them to “move quickly” to seize opportunities…
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Noble Energy Exits Marc/Utica, Sale to HG Energy Closes for $1.1B

In May, Noble Energy dropped a bombshell that it is selling its 100% interest in 385,000 Marcellus/Utica acres and wells producing 415 million cubic feet equivalent of natural gas in West Virginia and Pennsylvania for $1.225 billion to “an undisclosed buyer” (see Noble Energy Sells Remaining M-U Assets for $1.2B – Who Bought?). Noble will use the money from the sale to pay down essentially all of the debt the company incurred from its recent $2.7 billion purchase of Clayton Williams Energy–a deal that expanded Noble’s “core Delaware Basin position” (i.e. the Permian Shale in Texas, an oil play). At the time of the announcement, MDN was the only news source that correctly identified the “undisclosed buyer”–which is HG Energy (headquartered in Parkersburg, WV), backed with money from investment firm Quantum Energy Partners. Noble didn’t identify the buyer until earlier this week, when they issued another announcement that the deal is now done. In this latest announcement, Noble did identify HG Energy as the buyer. An interesting aside: The original announcement pegged the deal at $1.225 billion. In the end, it turned out to be $1.125 billion–$100 million less than the original asking price…
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Noble Energy Sells Remaining M-U Assets for $1.2B – Who Bought?

Yesterday Noble Energy dropped a bombshell that it has sold its 100% interest in 385,000 Marcellus/Utica acres and wells producing 415 million cubic feet equivalent of natural gas in West Virginia and Pennsylvania for $1.225 billion to “an undisclosed buyer.” That works out to be $3,181 per acre. Not included in the sale is Noble’s half operating interest in the CONE Midstream pipeline gathering system. It was just three years ago that Noble announced it would lease 138,000 feet in a new office building in Southpointe, and move in 200 employees (see Noble Energy’s Huge Vote of Confidence in the Marcellus). At the time, Noble’s CEO said the Marcellus is “the premiere gas play in the United States” and that the Marcellus figures prominently in Noble’s future plans. That was then, this is now. Noble will use the money from the sale to pay down essentially all of the debt the company incurred from its recent $2.7 billion purchase of Clayton Williams Energy–a deal that expanded Noble’s “core Delaware Basin position” (i.e. the Permian Shale in Texas, an oil play). All of the above is what you get from other news sources. The reason you read MDN is because we’ve found out who the buyer of the Noble acreage is
Read More “Noble Energy Sells Remaining M-U Assets for $1.2B – Who Bought?”

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Southwestern Sells More Assets from 2014 Chesapeake Deal

southwestern energyAs we report today, Antero Resources is buying 55,000 acres of leases in the Marcellus (and Utica) Shale from Southwestern Energy (see Antero Takes Southwestern to Cleaners in Deal for 55K Marc. Acres). The acreage that Southwestern is selling comes from the massive $5.375 billion deal Southwestern made with Chesapeake in 2014 (see Chesapeake Using $1B from Southwestern Deal to Buy Back Stock). The interesting thing is that selling land is not the only recent deal Southwestern has brokered to dump assets from the Chesapeake deal. Southwestern cut a deal (in May) to sell 135 vertical (conventional) and 37 horizontal (shale) wells in West Virginia to HG Energy. Earlier this week Southwestern got approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to sell pipeline contracts to HG Energy too. Which begs the question: How many more Chesapeake deal assets is Southwestern going to sell off?…
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Domestic Eco-Terrorism: Worker Shot at Rural WV Oil Well Site

We have what appears to be an act of eco-terrorism, (possibly attempted murder) in southwestern West Virginia, by what appears to be an anti-driller who has had a snap with reality. Mark Miller, a 39 year-old married father of two who works for oil and gas company HG Energy, was visiting a conventional oil well site in Lincoln County on Monday. Miller said in an interview he was at the well, which has a history of leaks, to take pictures of an existing leak. The well is located on state-owned land, in a rural wildlife management area. Miller, in an unmarked pickup truck, started to drive away when a “tall, lanky man dressed in camouflage, with black stuff rubbed all over his face” approached the truck. Miller stopped to see if he could help, assuming the man’s vehicle was broken down somewhere nearby. The man approached the passenger side window, didn’t talk but held up a recorder which played something about not drilling, and he stuck a gun through the window, pointing it at Miller’s head. Miller tried to knock the gun away and the man pulled the trigger, shooting Miller in the hand, shattering bones in his left hand…
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Who’s Still Leasing Land and Where in WV?

Who’s leasing land for drilling–and where? Perhaps the bigger question is, are drillers still leasing land?! The answer to that would be a resounding “yes, they are still leasing.” We don’t have a comprehensive overview of where people are leasing, but we spotted a list of leases filed with the clerk in Wetzel County, WV and found it interesting. Here’s who leased, how much acreage, and which energy company they signed with (sorry, no lease terms with signing bonuses and royalties, just acreage & driller)…
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