31 New Shale Well Permits Reported for PA-OH-WV Jun 15 – 21
The Marcellus/Utica region received 31 new drilling permits last week, June 15 – 21, up from the pathetic 2 permits issued two weeks ago. However, not all 31 permits reported last week were issued last week. Ohio, which is increasingly tardy in updating its public reports, included permits in last week’s report that should have been in the previous week’s. Last week, Pennsylvania issued 18 permits. Ohio issued 9 new permits, all of which should have been reported two weeks ago. West Virginia issued 4 new permits last week. The drillers who received new permits included: EOG Resources, EQT, Gulfport Energy, Infinity Natural Resources, JKLM Energy, LOLA Energy, Northeast Natural Energy, PennEnergy Resources, and Sabre Energy. Read More “31 New Shale Well Permits Reported for PA-OH-WV Jun 15 – 21”
The Ohio Oil and Gas Land Management Commission (OGLMC) is set to vote on Monday to open roughly 23,000 acres of publicly owned wildlife preserves in eastern Ohio to fracking. The panel will weigh accepting bids on about 15,000 acres split between Jockey Hollow and Egypt Valley, plus opening another 8,000 acres of Egypt Valley. Approval would bring Ohio’s leased public land to more than 30,000 acres across Salt Fork State Park and six wildlife areas, mostly in the Belmont-Harrison-Guernsey region. Ohio has already collected roughly $57 million in signing bonuses, plus 18–20% royalties. 
In October 2025, we reported that Ohio Republican Senators had introduced Senate Bill (SB) 219, the first significant update to Ohio’s oil and gas laws since the Kasich administration more than a decade ago (see 
Last week, the combined Marcellus/Utica Baker Hughes rig count remained at 36 active rigs for the sixth week in a row. The M-U’s chief competitor, the Haynesville, maintained its count of 55 active rigs, operating 19 more than the M-U. The national count regained 1 rig last week (after losing it the week before), bringing the total back up to 563 rigs, the highest number the count has reached in a year. Baker Hughes said oil rigs held steady at 433 last week, while gas rigs rose by one to 122, their highest since early June, and other miscellaneous rigs held steady at eight. 
In February, President Donald Trump unveiled a record-breaking $33 billion natural gas power plant in Piketon (Pike County), Ohio, to be operated by SB Energy, a subsidiary of Japan’s SoftBank (see 
JobsOhio, a private, nonprofit corporation that works on behalf of the state to drive job creation and new capital investment in Ohio by attracting business, contracts its economic research to Cleveland State University (CSU) to monitor the Utica Shale industry. JobsOhio released the latest CSU twice-a-year report yesterday (full copy below). It shows that Ohio’s shale energy sector drew another $2.9 billion in direct investment between January and June 2025, pushing cumulative investment in the Utica since 2011 to nearly $117.5 billion. All private money! It’s massive. 
In a significant ruling for Utica and Marcellus shale landowners, the Ohio Seventh District Court of Appeals affirmed a trial court’s decision denying a motion by Ascent Resources to compel arbitration in a lease-expiration dispute. The court ruled that when an oil and gas lease expires by its own terms without active production or drilling operations, the lease’s arbitration clause does not survive the lease’s expiration to govern subsequent disputes—such as claims of trespass and unauthorized drilling. To force arbitration on post-expiration events, a lease must contain explicit “survival” language or involve rights that accrued/vested while the lease was still active. 
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced on May 27, 2026, that he has directed the chair of the Ohio Tax Credit Authority to pause consideration of any new data center tax exemption requests. The pause comes while the Ohio General Assembly’s Joint Data Center Committee “studies” the growth of data centers in the state. DeWine noted that data centers previously granted sales and use tax benefits reported a total capital investment of $27.2 billion in 2025. The Tax Credit Authority will stop accepting new exemption proposals after a meeting next Monday, where it will consider one final proposal. DeWine said the move is a suspension of new exemptions, NOT a data center ban. 
The Warren, OH, City Council introduced legislation to impose a permanent ban on new data centers, citing concerns about water supply, wastewater infrastructure, utility costs, and the city’s residential character. Sponsored by Democrats, the proposed ordinance argues that data centers place unsustainable demands on city systems, particularly following a costly wastewater plant upgrade. One Council Democrat drew parallels between data centers and past fracking “disappointments” in the region, emphasizing water as the community’s most critical resource.