61 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Jan 17-23
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.
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Economists are still analyzing the impact of the coronavirus pandemic from 2020, let alone assessing impacts from 2021. Cleveland State University researchers have run the numbers and have discovered something interesting. Of Ohio’s 88 counties, only 18 grew their economies in 2020. Of those 18, two counties stood head and shoulders above the rest for increases in economic activity. Both counties have something in common: Utica Shale drilling.
Over the years we’ve covered a number of stories about companies buying future royalty payments from landowners (and rights owners) for an upfront, one lump sum payment now. Back in May, we told you about a relative newcomer to our region doing this, Verde Bio Holdings (see
We have some exciting, and exclusive, news to share with the MDN audience. We previously told you that the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) was behaving like a child, dragging its collective heels to prevent two side-by-side injection wells in Belmont County developed by Omni Energy from beginning operation (see 
In February of this year, PTT Global Chemical adamantly claimed a final investment decision (FID) to build the $10 billion ethane cracker plant project in Belmont County, OH would happen by “middle of 2021” (see
In February of this year, PTT Global Chemical adamantly claimed a final investment decision (FID) to build the $10 billion ethane cracker plant project in Belmont County, OH would happen by “middle of 2021” (see
A relatively short jury trial last week in a Belmont County, OH court resulted in a quick, three-and-a-half-hour decision in favor of a landowner against Rice Drilling (now EQT) and Gulfport Energy in a trespass case. The jury awarded the landowner, Tera LLC (owned by Thomas Shaw), a $40 million judgment. It’s believed to be the single largest jury award in Belmont County history.
How’s this for serendipity? We were just thinking about the latest violation of expectations by PTT Global Chemical. In February the company adamantly said a final investment decision (FID) to build the $10 billion ethane cracker plant project in Belmont County, OH would happen by “middle of 2021” (see