SRBC Stops Water Withdrawals for Fracking Use at 47 Locations
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 also tells shale drillers when to stop withdrawing if low water flow (i.e., drought) conditions exist. And that’s what the SRBC did earlier today. The agency, via its Hydrologic Conditions Monitor, warned shale drillers that, at 47 listed locations (all in Pennsylvania), they must stop water withdrawals until streamflow reaches a specific “trigger flow” target (different for each location). Read More “SRBC Stops Water Withdrawals for Fracking Use at 47 Locations”
ECA Marcellus Trust I, the royalty interest holder in some of the wells drilled and maintained by Greylock Energy in Greene County, PA, announced on Friday that it will issue a 2-cent dividend to unitholders for the second quarter of 2025. The company continues to hold back some profits ($90,000 in 2Q25) to build a cash reserve for “future known, anticipated or contingent expenses or liabilities.” 
For the week of August 4 – 10, the number of permits issued to drill new wells in the Marcellus/Utica dropped like a rock from the previous week. It was lousy. There were 10 new permits issued across the three M-U states last week, 24 fewer than the 34 issued two weeks ago. Pennsylvania was the only state to issue new permits. Both Ohio and West Virginia got skunked with ZERO new permits. The story in PA is the story of a single well pad. Nine of the 10 permits issued in PA were for a series of wells on a single pad in Greene County for EQT (under the name of Rice Drilling). The other permit was issued to Campbell Oil & Gas for a well in Clearfield County. 
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 
Venture Global has won an arbitration case brought against it by Shell. The case accused Venture Global of not delivering contracted LNG shipments *for years* while Venture Global sold those shipments on the open/spot market for more money than they would have made from honoring their contracts with Shell (and with other big LNG buyers, Shell wasn’t the only one to sue). Shell claimed to have spent some $1.7 billion more buying LNG than it would have if Venture Global had honored its contract. Yet in arbitration, the tribunal found that Venture Global did honor the letter of the contracts signed. Venture Global may have won based on the letter of the contract, but they certainly lost based on the spirit of the contract, by exploiting loopholes. They lost the trust of their customers. 
Diversified Energy, which owns significant assets in the Marcellus/Utica region (and other regions, too), issued its second quarter update yesterday. The company owns approximately 8 million acres of leases with close to 70,000 oil and gas wells, mostly conventional wells (by number of wells). However, the company now produces 41% of its production from shale wells, meaning the blend of assets has changed over time. The company’s business model is to buy already-drilled, lower-producing wells on the cheap and find ways to make them more productive. They do a great job at it. Diversified also owns midstream (pipeline) assets in addition to a well-plugging subsidiary called Next LVL. What does the 2Q update show? The company produced 1,149 MMcfe/d (73% natural gas, 13% NGLs, and 14% oil). That’s up a huge 33%! 
EOG Resources, one of the largest oil and gas drillers in the U.S. (with international operations in several other countries) announced at the end of May it had made a deal to buy Encino Energy and Encino’s massive Ohio Utica Shale assets for $5.6 billion (see 
According to an article on the Fortune magazine website, “AI’s endless thirst for power is driving a natural gas boom in Appalachia—and industry stocks are booming along with it.” It looks like the roles are reversing. For all of oil and gas history, oil has been the belle of the ball, the more sought-after hydrocarbon. A change is happening, at least in places like the Marcellus/Utica, where natural gas is the more sought-after commodity. And because of that, the stock price for companies that focus on gas drilling is soaring. The market capitalization (stock value times the number of outstanding shares) for M-U companies has soared 25% to 75% over the past 12 months. Wow! 
Ascent Resources, founded as American Energy Partners by gas legend Aubrey McClendon, is a privately held company focusing 100% on the Ohio Utica Shale. Ascent, headquartered in Oklahoma City, OK, is Ohio’s largest natural gas producer and one of the largest natural gas producers in the U.S. The company issued its second quarter 2025 update yesterday. Net production for the quarter averaged 2,034 MMcfe/d (2.0 Bcfe/d), consisting of 1,738 MMcf/d of natural gas, 13,033 bbls/d of oil, and 36,385 bbls/d of natural gas liquids (NGLs), putting liquids at 15% of the overall production mix for the quarter. 
The parents of four children under the age of 18 (from three families) filed a lawsuit on their kids’ behalf against EQT subsidiaries EQT Production Company and EQT XL Midstream Operating, claiming that emissions from a nearby compressor station and nearby shale wells operated by EQT have led to severe health-related problems for the kids. The families used to live in the rural hamlet of Knob Fork in Wetzel County, WV. They all have since moved. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages and money for ongoing monitoring of the kids’ health. 
Gulfport Energy is the third-largest driller in the Ohio Utica Shale (by the number of wells drilled). The company emerged from bankruptcy four years ago with a new board and new management in May 2021 (see 
Coterra Energy, formed by the merger of Cabot Oil & Gas (drills for natural gas in the Marcellus) and Cimarex Energy (drills for oil in the Permian and Anadarko basins), issued its second quarter 2025 update yesterday. Two things stood out for us: (1) A group of Dimock wells that came online in December are superstar performers, and (2) while resurrecting the Constitution Pipeline project is “top of mind” for the company, that project is taking a back seat to another Williams pipeline project right now.