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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Pipeline giant Williams has cut a deal outside of bankruptcy court with Chesapeake Energy. The deal means Williams will continue to gather Chesapeake’s production in the Marcellus, Eagle Ford, and Midcontinent shale regions. Chessy has also committed to buying up to 150 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) of capacity on Williams’ new Transco Regional Energy Access project which will flow Marcellus gas to customers in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Northeast Natural Energy (NNE) is a small-to-midsized driller headquartered in Morgantown, WV. The company drilled its first shale well in 2013. NNE currently owns 49,000 acres of leases “in the heart of the Marcellus Fairway,” operating 27 Marcellus wells and over 100 conventional oil and gas wells, mainly in West Virginia (with some located in southwestern Pennsylvania). In April 2017 MDN reported that NNE had obtained $300 million of investment from two investment firms (see
Antero Resources, one of the largest drillers in the Marcellus/Utica, working primarily in West Virginia, has just won a major sales tax case in the WV Supreme Court that affects the entire oil and gas industry, including M-U drillers.
On Monday we brought you the news that Gulfport Energy, the third-largest driller in the Ohio Utica Shale, had filed for bankruptcy over the weekend (see 
We hoped it wouldn’t happen, but warned you it might when Gulfport Energy announced several weeks ago it had missed a debt payment and was in “restructuring” talks (see
EOG Resources, one of the largest oil and gas drillers in the U.S. (with operations in Trinidad and China too) has just sold *all* of its Marcellus assets located in Bradford County, PA to (we’ll tell you below, MDN has the exclusive on this) for $130 million. EOG has now left the M-U building.
In August Southwestern Energy announced it is buying out and merging in Montage Resources in an all-stock deal (see 
When a pipeline company considers whether or not to build a new pipeline, the company conducts an “open season”–a time when drillers (producers) can sign long-term contracts to use capacity along the pipeline. Such contracts guarantee pipeline companies will be able to make back the considerable amount of money they have to spend to build the pipeline. What happens when a driller that signed to a 10- or 20-year contract goes bankrupt? Or what happens if a contract will force a driller into bankruptcy? Can such a contract be canceled?
In line with a rise of COVID-19 cases in the general population throughout the state of Pennsylvania (and elsewhere), workers at the Shell ethane cracker site in Monaca, PA (near Pittsburgh) have seen a big jump in active coronavirus cases. As of yesterday, the number of active cases stood at 39. Wednesday the number was 31. Shell says most if not all of the cases are coming from offsite and onsite transmission among the 7,000 active workers is not a factor in the rising number.
Ascent Resources, originally founded as American Energy Partners by gas legend Aubrey McClendon, is a privately-held company that focuses 100% on the Ohio Utica Shale. Ascent is Ohio’s largest natural gas producer and the 8th largest natural gas producer in the U.S. The company issued its third-quarter 2020 update yesterday. Ascent reports it shut-in 210 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) of production, but still managed to produce 2 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) during 3Q.