Antero Resources | Energy Companies | EQT Corp | Greene County (PA) | Marshall County | Pennsylvania | Ritchie County | Tug Hill Operating | Weekly Permits | West Virginia
Weekly Shale Drilling Permits for PA, OH, WV: Jul 5-11
Last week not a whole lot of permit action was goin’ on. Pennsylvania scored only a single (1) new permit. We can’t remember the last time that happened! The PA permit was for a well that will be drilled by EQT in Greene County. Ohio’s Utica got skunked with no new permits. West Virginia rode in to save the day, posting 5 new permits–4 of them for Tug Hill and 1 for Antero Resources.
Read More “Weekly Shale Drilling Permits for PA, OH, WV: Jul 5-11”
Seneca Resources Company, the exploration and production subsidiary of National Fuel Gas Company (NFG), is the latest company to jump on the ESG (environmental, social, governance) bandwagon. Seneca is partnering with NexTier Oilfield Solutions, an oilfield services company that fracks and completes wells for companies like Seneca, to study the carbon emissions that come from fracking shale wells.
According to an analysis done by S&P Global Market Intelligence, the five largest drillers in the Pennsylvania Marcellus Shale resumed their drilling in June in a big way. S&P’s analysis shows those five drillers were responsible for 51% of the new drilling permits issued last month, up from 28% of new permits issued in May. Perhaps we know why. The price of natgas at regional hubs in PA rocketed over the past month. At the Leidy Hub in the northeast’s dry gas window (centered on Susquehanna County, PA), cash prices went from a low of 93.7 cents/MMBtu on May 3 to $3.07/MMBtu at the end of June.
An analyst writing on the Seeking Alpha investors website confirms our concerns over the potential merger between Marcellus driller Cabot Oil & Gas and Permian driller Cimarex Energy (see 
Diversified Energy (née Diversified Gas & Oil) continues to expand *outside* of the Marcellus/Utica region. In April the company announced it had purchased ~780 net operated wells and leases in the Cotton Valley/Haynesville region of Lousiana for $135 million (see 
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).