23 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Oct 2 – 8
New shale permits issued for Oct 2 – 8 in the Marcellus/Utica were the same exact number as those issued the previous week. But wow, was there a shift in where they were issued! There were 23 new permits issued last week. Last week’s permit tally included a pathetic 4 new permits in Pennsylvania, 1 new permit in Ohio, and a whopping 18 new permits in West Virginia (after WV issued 13 the week prior). Antero was the top recipient, receiving 11 permits across two counties in WV: Doddridge and Wetzel. HG Energy received 7 permits in Lewis County, WV.
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Encino Energy, now Ohio’s biggest oil producer, has agreed to donate $100,000 over the next five years to the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy Foundation to help fund community projects in Tuscarawas, Harrison, Carroll, and Belmont counties. The donation was announced at a press conference on Tuesday at Tappan Lake Marina in Harrison County. The Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District (MWCD) is an agency formed in 1933 to help control flooding and promote water conservation in the Muskingum River watershed area of Ohio, an area that covers 8,000 square miles. Over the years, MWCD has leased thousands of acres for Utica Shale drilling and cut deals to sell water to drillers for fracking. The result has been well over $100 million in revenue for MWCD–a true game-changer for the agency and the Ohio residents who live in that region.
The Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) recently released production numbers for the first quarter of 2023, and wow! What a surprise! Oil production in the northern Utica Shale skyrocketed, led by wells drilled by Encino Energy. According to an analysis by the Youngstown Business Journal, four shale wells drilled by Encino in Columbiana County have “shattered previous production figures in the county.” Adding up all oil production by all drillers, Encino had the most oil production in the state, with 53.7% of the total oil produced in the Utica/Point Pleasant during the first quarter. It certainly looks like Encino has cracked the oil code in the Buckeye State!
Yesterday the Bidenistas at the Dept. of (In)Justice (DOJ) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a “settlement” (i.e. bullying) with three pipeline companies–Williams, MPLX, and Kerr-McGee Gathering. The settlement requires the three to pay a combined $9.25 million in civil penalties and make improvements at 25 gas processing plants and 91 compressor stations in 12 states, including Ohio and West Virginia, worth another $16 million. The two federal agencies claimed the pipeline companies were violating federal and state clean air laws related to leak detection and repair (LDAR) requirements for natural gas processing plants at various facilities they own and operate across the country.