Antero Resources | Bradford County | Carroll County | Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | EQT Corp | Greene County (PA) | Harrison County | HG Energy | INR/Infinity Natural Resources | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Range Resources Corp | Ritchie County | Susquehanna County | Tyler County | Washington County | Weekly Permits | West Virginia
Weekly Shale Drilling Permits for PA, OH, WV: Jun 28-Jul 4
All three Marcellus/Utica states received permits to drill new shale wells last week. Pennsylvania issued 12 new permits, 7 of them in the northeast PA dry gas region and 5 in the southwest wet gas region. Ohio issued 3 new permits, all of them for the same driller in Carroll County. (The Ohio driller is brand new!) And West Virginia issued 6 new permits with 5 of the 6 going to Antero Resources.
Read More “Weekly Shale Drilling Permits for PA, OH, WV: Jun 28-Jul 4”
Last week MDN told you that EQT Corporation, the largest natural gas driller in the U.S., had released its 2020 ESG report and announced the company would be “net carbon zero” by 2025 or sooner (see 
In April, CNX Resources Corp. announced instead of just blowing smoke about ESG (environmental, social, governance) with pretty slide shows and hoopla, they would donate $30 million to local, underserved communities and populations in the tri-state region (see 
More details have emerged from what has to be one of the oddest combinations in recent memory–the merger of Permian driller Cimarex Energy with Marcellus driller Cabot Oil & Gas (see 
Yesterday EQT, the largest natural gas producer in the U.S., released its annual Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Report, outlining the company’s 2020 operational data and initiatives aimed at improving the way EQT produces “environmentally responsible,” reliable, and low-cost energy. Additionally, EQT announced targets to achieve net zero Scope 1 and 2 so-called greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in its production operations by or before 2025–less than four years away.
There is no denying that permits issued to drill new wells in all of the Marcellus/Utica, including Ohio, have gone down over the past couple of years. Price is the main reason–the low price of natgas, that is. Even with all of the lower drilling budgets, less drilling, and (yes) layoffs, we spotted a statistic about Ohio that gives us encouragement. According to JobsOhio, the state’s economic development agency, “about 200,000 Ohioans are employed by the oil and gas industry.” That’s great news!
“I’m greener than you!” … “No, I’M greener than YOU!!” So we imagine the backroom squabbling that’s going on among Marcellus/Utica drillers as we watch companies engage in a form of brinksmanship for how clean and green their natural gas is versus a competitor’s. EQT announced that in addition to the myriad of environmental programs they already belong to, they’ve joined a United Nations program to further prove their commitment to reduce global warming (see today’s related post). Not to be outdone, Southwestern Energy stepped up its commitment to a program it first joined in 2018 to certify some of its production as responsibly developed. Now ALL of Southwestern’s M-U gas will get the TrustWell certification.
EQT continues to fall all over itself in its efforts to prove the natural gas it extracts from Mom Earth is environmentally friendly and safe and good and yummy and worthy and… We’ve lost track of how many certification programs the company has joined–at least four prior to yesterday. The latest (fifth?) program EQT has joined is the United Nations’ Climate and Clean Air Coalition’s Oil & Gas Methane Partnership (OGMP 2.0).
As temperatures rise across the U.S. and Americans flip on air conditioning which makes a big draw on the electric grid, stocks of natural gas in storage are decreasing. Natgas is used to generate electricity. When there’s less supply to meet existing or growing demand, economics 101 tells us the price of the good or service (in this case natural gas) goes up. And indeed that’s exactly what’s happening. As the price of natgas increases, so too does the share price for M-U drillers.
Each quarter NGI (Natural Gas Intelligence) runs the numbers and publishes a list of the 25 top natural gas marketers in the U.S. These are not necessarily the top 25 producers of natural gas (although in some cases they are), but the top 25 sellers (vendors, jobbers) of natural gas. NGI’s latest quarterly report shows overall the biggest sellers of natgas “lost ground” once again in 1Q21, which continues a two-year trend of year over year declines in the amount of gas sold.
Last December Dan Rice IV, former CEO of Rice Energy and member of the EQT board of directors, launched a “blank check” acquisition firm, called Rice Acquisition Corp., to invest in various energy ventures. Dan found that something-to-invest-in just a few months later in the form of acquiring and merging together Archaea Energy and Aria Energy into a single company focused on providing renewable natural gas (RNG) and “green” hydrogen (see