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24 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Mar 28-Apr 3
Last week Pennsylvania issued 14 new shale well permits, with EQT Corp. grabbing eight (seven of them on a single pad in Fayette County), and Coterra Energy (formerly Cabot Oil & Gas) receiving three (all on the same pad in Susquehanna County). Ohio issued ten new permits last week, with three going to a relative newcomer, Utica Resource Operating (same pad in Guernsey Count) and three for Encino Energy (same pad in Harrison County). West Virginia got skunked and shows no new shale permits issued last week. Pity.
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Since Russia illegally and immorally invaded Ukraine on February 24, the stock price for Marcellus/Utica natural gas drillers has skyrocketed based on the fear that Russia will cut off natural gas to Europe in response to their response to the war (sanctions on Russia). The Russia/Ukraine war has stoked concerns that Europe will need much more natgas from the U.S. and therefore the U.S. will have to drill and pump more gas to supply it, making gas drillers an attractive investment.
According to S&P Global, shale gas producers behaved themselves during the fourth quarter of 2021 and didn’t, even as the price of gas went sky high, do anything more than maintain current production. Gas drillers kept spending in check, didn’t do any more drilling than was necessary to maintain production, and plowed free cash flow back into dividends and stock buybacks. The result? Investors loved it and share prices soared.
Southwestern Energy, which has become a natural gas-producing behemoth second only to EQT Corporation, issued its fourth quarter and full-year 2021 update on Friday. The company also issued projections for 2022. Southwestern produced 4.27 Bcfe/d (billion cubic feet equivalent per day) of natural gas and equivalents in 4Q21 across both plays where it operates–the Marcellus/Utica in the northeast and the Haynesville in the Gulf Coast region. Of that 4.27 Bcfe/d, some 3.14 Bcfe/d (74%) came from the M-U.
With the ever-changing landscape of mergers and acquisitions in the shale industry, including here in the Marcellus/Utica, it’s helpful to check in every now and again with a “top 10” list. This time our top 10 list is for the largest shale drillers/operators in Pennsylvania. The Pittsburgh Business Times recently updated its “Book of Lists” for active PA shale drillers, all 47 of them. We have a quick list of the top 10 below.
Holy smokes! What just happened? For months (and months and months) the cumulative number of weekly permits issued to drill new shale wells in the Marcellus/Utica has fluctuated from the low teens to perhaps 30 total on the upper end. Last week, from Jan. 17-23, an amazing 61 permits were issued to drill new shale wells. Double the usual. Wow! Pennsylvania issued 24 new permits, Ohio issued 9, and blow-the-doors-off-we’ve-never-seen-so-many-permits-issued-in-one-week for West Virginia, the Mountain State issued 28 new shale permits.
In May 2021 S&P Global Market Intelligence ran an article on which Marcellus/Utica drillers are likely targets to be acquired, and which drillers are doing the targeting (see 
Everyone loves a “top x” list, right? We sure do. Hart Energy, publisher of must-have industry magazines including E&P (Exploration & Production), and Oil and Gas Investor, recently published a special publication called