21 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Jun 2 – 8
For the week of Jun 2 – 8, the number of permits issued to drill new wells in the Marcellus/Utica fell from the previous week. There were 21 new permits issued across the three M-U states last week, down 14 from 35 issued two weeks ago. The Keystone State (PA) issued 11—half—of the new permits. Seneca Resources scored six permits for a single pad in Tioga County. EQT (under the name Rice Drilling) received four permits for two pads in Greene County. Sabre Energy received a single permit in Sullivan County. Read More “21 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Jun 2 – 8”

During EQT Corporation’s third quarter 2023 update and conference call (held in October 2023), the company announced “two of the largest, long-term physical supply deals ever executed” for 1.2 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of EQT’s molecules. Those molecules will flow on the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) beginning in 2027 (see
In April, MDN told you that the West Virginia Supreme Court was scheduled to hear oral arguments in two important oil and gas royalty cases (see 

The MVP (Mountain Valley Pipeline) Southgate project won a major decision in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (DC Circuit), affirming a decision made by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to allow an extra three years to build the project. Southgate is an extension of MVP from its current termination point in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, into Rockingham County, North Carolina. Coincidentally (or not), a day before the DC Circuit’s decision clearing the way for the project, MVP filed a request with the NC Department of Environmental Quality for a permit to build the project in that state. 

The Southwest Appalachia drilling team for Expand Energy, the newly combined company created when Chesapeake Energy merged with Southwestern Energy, claims it has drilled the U.S.’s longest on-shore well and longest on-shore lateral to date at more than five miles. The BW Edge MSH 210H was recently drilled in Marshall County, West Virginia. We say the team “claims” to have drilled the longest lateral because in March, Hart Energy reported a similar claim by Expand to have drilled an even longer lateral in Ohio County, WV (see
A few weeks ago, MDN brought you the news that the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) is laying the blame for a series of low-level earthquakes in southeastern Ohio on fracking at an Encino Energy shale well in Noble County (see
On May 20, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) issued notices of violations to XTO Energy, Inc. (a subsidiary of ExxonMobil) for failing to restore five multi-million gallon shale gas freshwater impoundments it used to support fracking operations in Butler County. The impoundments are required to be restored, which includes liners removed and the area regraded to the original contours, within nine months of their last use.
In February, MDN brought you the rumor that Canadian pension fund CPP Investments, the majority owner of Encino Acquisition Partners (aka Encino Energy), was considering either a sale of the company or possibly an initial public offering (see
The highly functional and responsible Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC), unlike its less functional 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 May 31 Pennsylvania Bulletin that the Executive Director of the SRBC renewed 45 general water use permits in April for individual shale gas well drilling pads in Blair, Bradford, Lycoming, Potter, Sullivan, Susquehanna, and Tioga counties in Pennsylvania. The director also approved new water withdrawals for the 146-megawatt gas-fired Hunlock Creek power plant in Luzerne County.
In 2021, PennEnergy Resources made a request to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to withdraw up to 3 million gallons of water a day from Big Sewickley Creek (Beaver County) and one of its tributaries for shale fracking (see