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29 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Feb 20-26
New shale permits issued for Feb. 20-26 in the Marcellus/Utica slide lower last week. There were 29 new permits issued in total last week (down from 35 the week before), including 24 new permits for Pennsylvania, no new permits for Ohio, and five new permits issued in West Virginia. Last week the top receiver of new permits by far was the largest natural gas driller in the country, EQT Corporation, with 20 new permits split between Greene and Washington counties in southwestern PA.
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Gulfport Energy, the third-largest driller in the Ohio Utica Shale (by the number of wells drilled), emerged from bankruptcy in May 2021 with a new board and new top management. In January of this year, the company appointed a new CEO, John Reinhart, the former President and CEO of M-U driller Montage Resources Corporation before that company was gobbled up by Southwestern Energy (see 
Range Resources Corporation, the very first driller to sink a Marcellus shale well back in 2004 in western Pennsylvania, issued its fourth quarter and full-year 2022 update yesterday. During 2022, Range generated record cash flow from operations of $1.9 billion and produced an average of 2.1 billion cubic feet equivalent per day (Bcf/d) of natural gas. The company spent $492 million on drilling in 2022. Of keen interest to us was a response by Range’s CEO about the rumors that Pioneer Natural Resources is interested in buying or merging with Range.
Looks like the rumors were true. Last December, we told you that oil giant BP (formerly British Petroleum) was considering axing its annual Statistical Review of World Energy publication, which the company has published since 1952. Why stop publishing it? Because being honest about the data was exposing the so-called transition to green energy as the hoax that it is (see 
The rumor mill kicked into overdrive on Friday when Bloomberg published an article saying Pioneer Natural Resources Co., one the largest independent oil producers in the U.S., is considering (negotiating for) an acquisition of Marcellus driller Range Resources Corp., according to “people familiar with the matter.” Range was the very first company to drill a Marcellus shale well back in 2004 in western Pennsylvania. By the end of Friday, Pioneer issued an abrupt statement saying it “is not contemplating a significant business combination or other acquisition transaction.” It wasn’t an outright denial that such talks are taking place. Range could not be reached for comment.
Southwestern Energy used to be a pure-play Marcellus/Utica driller until it picked up leases and wells in the Louisiana Haynesville play in 2021. Last Friday, the company issued its fourth quarter and full-year 2022 update. The update shows Southwestern now gives more love (i.e., money) to Haynesville drilling than it does to Marcellus/Utica drilling, even though the M-U produces more gas than the company’s Haynesville assets.
Coterra Energy, the new name for the former Cabot Oil & Gas that merged with oil driller Cimarex Energy, issued its fourth quarter and full-year 2022 update yesterday. Coterra’s natgas program is focused on drilling in Susquehanna County in northeastern Pennsylvania. A couple of things stood out for us from the update. First, Coterra’s Marcellus production dropped in 2022. During 4Q21, Coterra produced an average of 2.5 Bcf/d (billion cubic feet per day) of natural gas in the Marcellus, versus producing 2.1 Bcf/d in 4Q22–down 14%. For the full year, Coterra produced an average of 2.3 Bcf/d in 2021 and 2.2 Bcf/d in 2022–down 6%.
On February 15, 2023, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania agreed to hear the case Dressler Family, LP v. PennEnergy Resources, LLC, a case addressing the question of whether Pennsylvania is an “at-the-well” jurisdiction, or a “first-marketable product” jurisdiction. The case may have profound implications for Pennsylvania landowners and drillers. The issue in this case revolves around whether or not a driller is allowed to deduct expenses from royalty payments for transporting and cleaning up natural gas between the well and the point of sale. Can a driller claim post-production deductions even if there are clauses that prohibit them?
Chesapeake Energy issued its quarterly and 2022 annual update yesterday. The company drills primarily for natural gas in both the Marcellus and Haynesville shale plays. Chesapeake’s net production in 4Q22 was approximately 4.05 Bcfe/d (90% natural gas and 10% total liquids), utilizing an average of 14 rigs to drill 58 wells and place 66 wells on production. That was for drilling across all of its shale plays, including the oily Eagle Ford. However, given the crash in prices for natural gas, CEO Nick Dell’Osso said the company is cutting rigs this year–axing two rigs in the Haynesville and one in the Marcellus.
Yesterday morning Harrison County, OH, commissioners got a face-to-face update from Encino Energy’s director of external affairs, Jackie Stewart. You may recall that Encino bought out and took over all of Chesapeake Energy’s existing Ohio assets–both shale and non-shale–in November 2018 for $2 billion (see 
Since 2015 we’ve reported on the case of Grant Township (Indiana County, PA), a town that passed an ordinance cooked up by the radical Big Green group Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) to try and block a state-approved injection well proposed by Pennsylvania General Energy (
Chesapeake Energy has cut a deal to sell a second portion of its remaining Eagle Ford assets to U.K. chemical company INEOS Energy for $1.4 billion. The deal includes 172,000 net acres and approximately 2,300 wells. It is the first time INEOS will own U.S. shale assets. In 2018 Chesapeake, under the direction of then-CEO Doug Lawler, purchased 420,000 net acres in the Eagle Ford shale and Austin Chalk formations in Texas from WildHorse Resource Development Corp for $4 billion (see 
Last week Antero Resources, which is 100% focused on the Marcellus/Utica with over 500,000 net acres under lease (and the largest M-U driller in West Virginia), issued its fourth quarter and full-year 2022 update. Antero management says the company can better handle low commodity prices for natural gas than other M-U drillers because (a) it sells 100% of its production outside of the M-U region, and (b) nearly half of the company’s revenues come from liquids, not methane.
Spanish-owed Repsol owns 214,000 net acres of leases in the Marcellus Shale, primarily located in northeastern Pennsylvania in Bradford, Susquehanna, and Tioga counties. Early last year (in January 2022), Repsol closed on a deal to buy Rockdale Marcellus out of bankruptcy for $222 million (see