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18 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Jan 10-16
Last week 18 permits were issued to drill new shale wells in the Marcellus/Utica, down from 24 the week before. Pennsylvania had the most new permits with 12, mostly in the northeastern part of the state in Lycoming and Susquehanna counties. Ohio had four permits evenly divided between Columbiana and Harrison counties. West Virginia had just two lonely permits, one in Lewis and one in Wetzel counties.
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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.
Back in December, MDN editor Jim Willis had the delight and pleasure of attending an open house at the new location of the 
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 
A Shell spokesman last week said that the mighty ethane cracker plant the company is building in Monaca (Beaver County), PA is now 80% complete and projected to be operational “sometime this year,” although a more specific date can’t be nailed down. Currently, there are some 8,000 workers who report to the construction site each day. Simply astounding! When the plant is done and operational, it will employ about 600 permanent on-site workers. Shell is now in recruiting mode to find those 600 permanent workers.
Yesterday the American Petroleum Institute (API) issued its annual “State of American Energy” report (full copy below). We will say right up front we’ve had our differences of opinion with the API and its direction, particularly over the past year, but there is no disputing the API remains the premier organization representing the oil and gas industry in the U.S. (and beyond). The API is at the top of the O&G food chain. So it’s a big deal that during the annual virtual event to unveil the latest API report the organization featured a young completions engineer who works for Coterra Energy (formerly Cabot Oil & Gas) in Susquehanna County, PA.
In late 2020, ExxonMobil released the outlines of its development plan for the next five years (see 
Our friends at NGI (Natural Gas Intelligence) are running an excellent series providing expert forecasts for the global natural gas and oil markets in 2022. The latest installment interviews several experts about the prospects for the Marcellus/Utica. With the Shell ethane cracker plant coming online sometime this year, the prospects for NGL sales in the M-U have picked up. Also in the discussion: capping Pennsylvania’s orphaned wells, drilling in the Wayne National Forest, and the Mountain Valley Pipeline coming online.
The Associated Press (better named Dissociated Press) is once again attempting to smear Cabot Oil & Gas, now called Coterra Energy, by playing up a simple legal move by Coterra aimed at resolving an ongoing criminal charge brought by the loathsome Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro. Coterra waived a preliminary hearing in the case brought by Shapiro on Friday, and AP is jumping up and down to exclaim this is somehow an indicator of the company’s guilt–that Cabot really did pollute all those water wells in Dimock. Coterra’s move IS NOT an admission of any kind. We will explain.
Olympus Energy (formerly Huntley & Huntley) drills in the Greater Pittsburgh region, in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties. In 2021 Olympus filed an application to build a new well pad in a rural part of Allegheny County, in West Deer Township. So-called “concerned citizens” got amped up to oppose the project (see 
Rising Phoenix Royalties (RPR) announced it has purchased the future royalty payments from a landowner in the Marcellus Shale, in Washington County, PA. This latest purchase by RPR covers 98 acres drilled under by Range Resources. This is not the first RPR transaction we’ve reported on.
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