Antero Resources | Armstrong County | Ascent Resources | Energy Companies | Indiana County | INR/Infinity Natural Resources | Jefferson County (OH) | Ohio | Ohio County | Pennsylvania | Southwestern Energy | Weekly Permits | West Virginia | Wetzel County
18 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Jan 1-7
There were 18 new permits issued to drill in the Marcellus/Utica during the first full week of 2024 (Jan. 1-7), versus 24 permits issued for the final two weeks of last year (Dec. 18-31). Pennsylvania issued 9 new permits last week. Ohio issued just 1 — which was to drill a Marcellus (not a Utica) well! West Virginia issued 8 permits. Antero Resources took the top spot last week with 7 new permits, all of them issued for drilling in Wetzel County, WV.
Read More “18 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Jan 1-7”
Even though separately (and together) Chesapeake Energy and Southwestern Energy own MORE assets in the Marcellus/Utica than in the Haynesville shale play, the main driver to do a merger between the two companies is the Haynesville and that play’s close proximity to LNG export facilities along the Gulf Coast. That is the conclusion of most analysts based on comments made yesterday by Chesapeake and Southwestern in announcing a $7.4 billion deal to combine the companies (see 
Hyperion Midstream LLC, a subsidiary of Olympus Energy, is seeking a special exception to a Penn Township (Westmoreland County) zoning ordinance so it can build a six-generator compressor station along Wilderness Road over the next four years. Last night, Hyperion representatives and witnesses testified at a township zoning hearing in favor of the plan. Those who spoke said the proposed compressor site would not create a problem for the air and water quality of that area.
For years, anti-fossil fuel haters have made the same false claims: Drilling and fracking will destroy the environment, contaminate your water, make you sick, and create death and destruction everywhere it’s tried. Then, a responsible driller, like Olympus Energy, comes along and drills wells not far from the lefties in Pittsburgh, and none of those things happen. The air is fine, the water is fine, and nothing gets polluted or contaminated. In other words, the left’s wild claims are exposed as outright lies. But that doesn’t stop the left, funded by shadowy sources, from continuing to sue and challenge time and again — even AFTER shale wells are already drilled and online!
Last October, MDN told you that American Energy Partners, Inc. (AEPT), based in Allentown, PA, with its fingers in several different pies, including subsidiaries in drilling, remediation, water, and more, changed its name to American Environmental Partners, Inc. (see 
We have a special treat for you today. One of our favorite Marcellus/Utica people is Nick Deiuliis, CEO of CNX Resources. Apart from the great work Nick does in leading CNX, he is also a writer and a thinker. He understands the political and philosophical issues related to energy like few others. And Nick isn’t afraid to “say it straight.” Last week, Nick released the first of three videos (embedded below) called “A Rational Thinker’s Guide to Climate Change and Related Policies.” In Part One of the “Rational Thinker’s Guide” trilogy, Nick argues that the most pressing issue of our time is the inept policies being pushed on society by the climate alarmist movement.
In mid-October, the rumor mill kicked into high gear with talk that Chesapeake Energy was sniffing around a merger with Southwestern Energy (see 
EQT CEO Toby Rice appeared on CNBC’s ‘Money Movers’ program last Friday to discuss what he expects for natural gas prices this year, what lower natural gas production means for EQT, and more. It was an interesting segment (watch it below; it is just four minutes long). Rice said, among other things, that a key issue for people to understand is that the marginal cost (i.e., the breakeven cost) in the U.S. to produce natural gas is around $3.50/MMBtu, which will hold production levels flat. Prices lower than that lead to lower production.
In October 2020, a law firm filed a lawsuit on behalf of several Cabot Oil & Gas shareholders against Cabot (now Coterra Energy), claiming the company “had inadequate environmental controls and procedures and/or failed to properly mitigate known issues related to those controls and procedures,” and that the company “failed to fix faulty gas wells which polluted Pennsylvania’s water supplies through stray gas migration,” and that the company, in general, hid all of this from the public — namely from investors (see 
Shell, one of the contracted customers to receive LNG from Venture Global’s Calcasieu Pass LNG export facility, added its voice to BP’s request with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to release documents from Venture Global related to an ongoing delay in making the plant commercial. The Calcasieu Pass LNG export facility recently received FERC authorization to place the final three liquefaction blocks (7-9) into service (see 
Diversified Energy Company, with major assets in the Appalachian region (including the Marcellus/Utica), announced yesterday the company had sold a majority stake in an unspecified number of Appalachian conventional oil and gas wells to an investment company called DP Lion Equity Holdco, for $200 million.