24 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Jun 16 – 22
For the week of June 16 – 22, the number of permits issued to drill new wells in the Marcellus/Utica rose from the previous week. There were 24 new permits issued across the three M-U states last week, up six from 18 issued two weeks ago. The Keystone State (PA) issued 16 new permits. Olympus Energy received the most new permits, six, all of them in Westmoreland County (across two pads). Seneca Resources received five permits for one pad in Tioga County. Range Resources scored three permits for a single pad in Washington County. Read More “24 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Jun 16 – 22”

EQT Corp. has agreed to pay $167.5 million to investors who claimed the company overstated the benefits of its $6.7 billion merger with Rice Energy, according to a motion filed yesterday seeking preliminary approval of what the investors called the largest-ever stockholder suit deal lodged in Western Pennsylvania federal court. The proposed settlement comes after six years of ongoing litigation. 
Coterra Energy CEO Tom Jorden had a sit-down interview at the 2025 J.P. Morgan Energy, Power, Renewables and Mining Conference on Tuesday of this week. Coterra is the successor company of Cabot Oil & Gas after Cabot merged with Cimarex Energy in October 2021 (see
Just as the pandemic began to unfold in early 2020, Shell pulled out of a 50/50 joint venture partnership with Energy Transfer (ET) to build a new LNG export facility in Lake Charles, Louisiana (see
Infinity Natural Resources (INR), headquartered in Morgantown, WV, focuses 100% on the Marcellus/Utica. The company went public earlier this year with a $265 million ($20/share) initial public offering, giving INR a $1.18 billion market capitalization (see
Diversified Energy and global investment firm Carlyle have formed a strategic partnership to invest up to $2 billion in proved developed producing (PDP) natural gas and oil assets across the U.S. Diversified will operate and manage the assets, while Carlyle brings the money and financial expertise, aiming to “securitize” these investments for long-term funding. Diversified owns significant assets in the Marcellus/Utica region (and other regions, too). The company owns approximately 8 million acres of leases with close to 70,000 (mostly) conventional oil and gas wells. The company’s business model is to buy already-drilled, lower-producing wells on the cheap and find ways to make them more productive.
This is an unfortunate part of mergers and acquisitions. The Houston Chronicle is reporting that a WARN notice (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification) filed by Encino Energy indicates that 121 Encino workers will be laid off on or around August 17. No reason is given, however, EOG Resources is in the process of buying out and merging in Encino’s Ohio Utica assets (see
A leftist anti-fossil group calling itself Protect PT (Penn-Trafford), located in Westmoreland County, PA, backed with big money from Big Green groups, has for years challenged Penn Township ordinances that allow Apex Energy (now CNX Resources) to drill and operate shale wells. Protect PT finally struck out (legally) at the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in May 2020 (see 
The highly functional and responsible Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC), unlike its highly dysfunctional and irresponsible counterpart, the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), continues to support the shale energy industry by approving water withdrawals and consumptive use for responsible and safe shale drilling. The SRBC published a notice in the June 21 Pennsylvania Bulletin that the Executive Director of the SRBC renewed 38 general water use permits in May for individual shale gas well drilling pads in Bradford, Cameron, Clearfield, Lycoming, Susquehanna, Tioga, and Wyoming counties in Pennsylvania. So far in 2025, the SRBC has issued or renewed 225 general water use permits for shale gas development.
Last week, MDN told you that EQT’s vice president of midstream, Robert Wingo, was moving on to another job (see
A situation that’s been playing out for nearly two years is just now becoming public. In late 2023, a welding inspector working on the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) said he had discovered three sections of the pipeline were corroded and violated construction standards and federal guidelines. He reported it to his superiors at MVP, who allegedly ignored his objections. So he filed a report with the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA). The pipeline sections got replaced, and the inspector got fired. In April of this year, the inspector filed a lawsuit against MVP (and Equitrans Midstream, and EQT) for wrongful termination.
Olympus Energy wants to drill six wells on a single pad in rural Elizabeth Township, a borough in Allegheny County, on the east bank of the Monongahela River. The pad would sit about 2,400 feet (nearly half a mile) away from Elizabeth Forward High School. Some parents of students and members of the administration pushed back against Olympus’ drilling plan, using the children as an excuse (see