Austin Master Services Claims It is “Effectively a Dead Company”
We have been tracking and reporting on the drama surrounding Austin Master Services (AMS), a radiological waste management solutions company in Martins Ferry ( Belmont County), Ohio, located close to the Ohio River (see our AMS stories here). Last week, a Belmont County Common Pleas Court judge ordered AMS to be fined $200 per day for failing to meet its permitted requirements for the amount of frack drill cuttings and other frack waste products housed at the Martins Ferry site. If the company fails to meet the order by July 22, AMS’ (and parent company American Environmental Partners’) CEO Brad Domitrovitsch will be required to serve a 30-day sentence in the Belmont County jail. Paperwork filed with the court by AMS claims the company is out of money, deep in debt, and is “effectively a dead company” that will not be able to meet the court’s order … unless it gets sold (quickly) to someone else who can do the cleanup work.
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Yeah, the bottom pretty much fell out of the rig count last week, both nationally and for the Marcellus/Utica region. We’re hitting new lows with both counts. For the M-U, Pennsylvania stayed the same with 21 active rigs, but Ohio lost one rig, and West Virginia lost two rigs last week, for a net loss of three — 37 active rigs across the region, the lowest in more than a year. The national rig count hit 600 last week, the lowest it has reached since January 2022. Ugh.
Back in the summer of 2020, MDN told you about a lawsuit brought by an Ohio rights owner called TERA, an organization that owns the royalty rights for a number of leases with wells in Belmont County, OH, drilled by different producers, suing the producers for drilling into the Point Pleasant shale layer when the lease only mentions the Utica layer (see 
Yesterday was the second and final day of a hearing begun on Monday in Belmont County, OH, Common Pleas Court to determine whether or not Austin Master Services (AMS) and its parent company American Environmental Partners (AEP), along with the owner of both companies, Brad Domitrovitsch, has failed to comply with an order from the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) to clean up and clear out a facility in Martins Ferry that currently holds too much frack waste. The hearing concluded with the judge’s finding that AMS, AEP, and Domitrovitsch are in “contempt” of a previous court directive to get the facility cleaned by April 17. Beginning yesterday, AMS will be fined $200 per day. If the facility is not cleaned up and in compliance by July 22, the judge has ordered Domitrovitsch (who does not live in Ohio) to report to Belmont County jail to serve a 30-day sentence.
A group of landowners in Belmont County, OH, filed a lawsuit against Rice Drilling (now EQT Corporation) in July 2021, alleging the company had shorted them on royalty payments by (a) selling the gas extracted to an affiliated (instead of unaffiliated) third party, and (b) deducting post-production costs specifically disallowed under the signed contract. Several landowners who are part of what was originally known as the Smith-Goshen Landowners Group have requested a federal court in Ohio to elevate the lawsuit to class-action status.
One month ago, the Ohio Oil and Gas Commission upheld a regulatory order from the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) suspending the operation of three wastewater injection wells located in Torch (Athens County), OH, owned by K&H Partners, a subsidiary of Tallgrass Energy (see 
American Environmental Partners (AEP) and its owner, Brad Domitrovitsch, had their first day in court yesterday in Belmont County, OH, to address a motion by Ohio’s Attorney General, David Yost, to hold the company and Domitrovitsch in contempt for not complying with an order to clean up the Austin Master Services (AMS) facility owned by AEP. Although the hearing was scheduled to begin at 10 am, it didn’t actually start until 11:10 am. The judge gave the attorneys for the parties involved time to talk in an effort to arrive at a resolution. Which obviously didn’t happen as the hearing went forward. There was just one witness for the day yesterday.
The Ohio Oil and Gas Land Management Commission (OGLMC) approved two bids to drill for oil and gas under (not on) state-owned lands yesterday. Antero Resources was the sole bidder to drill under a Dept. of Transportation (DOT) property in Noble County. Southwestern Energy won its bid to drill under DOT land in Monroe County along the Ohio River. The OGLMC also advanced five other nominations to drill under state-owned properties to the bidding process. One nomination advancing is a request to drill under the 84-acre Keen Wildlife Area in Harrison County (see 
American Environmental Partners (AEP) and its owner, Brad Domitrovitsch, are due in court today in Belmont County, OH, to address a motion by Ohio’s Attorney General, David Yost, to hold the company and Domitrovitsch in contempt for not complying with an order to clean up the Austin Master Services (AMS) facility owned by AEP. AMS is a radiological waste management solutions company in Martins Ferry ( in Belmont County) close to the Ohio River. Media accounts report that AMS has stored at least 10,000 tons of fracking waste (drill cuttings with low radioactivity) at the facility. The facility is rated and permitted to hold 600 tons. In March, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost asked the Belmont County Common Pleas Court to block AMS from receiving more waste and order it to clean up and comply with its rating. The court granted both requests with a deadline of April 17 to comply. The deadline came and went without compliance.
Two weeks ago, MDN told you about an odd situation in Ohio. DeepRock Disposal, an injection well company owned by a former member of the Ohio Oil & Gas Commission and current State Senator, Brian Chavez, leaked injected wastewater beyond its permitted boundary of a half mile into a non-functioning conventional well “miles away” (in Noble County) where the water came to the surface (see 
Two weeks ago, during the week of April 29 – May 5, there were 16 new permits issued to drill in the Marcellus/Utica (and 26 the week before that). Last week, for May 6 – 12, there were just ten new permits issued. The trend has been going down for the past few weeks. Ascent Resources scored the most new permits last week, with six scattered between two well pads in Guernsey and Jefferson counties in Ohio. Coterra Energy received two new permits in Susquehanna County, PA. Antero Resources also received two permits, in Wetzel County, WV.
Forced pooling is the practice of forcing landowners (rights owners) who don’t want to allow drilling under (not on top of) their land from blocking such drilling for their neighbors. Underground horizontal drilling used in shale wells often crosses borders into neighboring land. There’s no way around it. There is no surface disturbance for those who don’t want to lease. In Ohio, the practice of forced pooling is called “unitization.” At least 65% of landowners in a proposed unit must be leased in order to force the others in the unit to accept drilling under their land.
Austin Master Services (AMS) is a radiological waste management solutions company operating in Martins Ferry (Belmont County), OH, close to the Ohio River. Media accounts report that AMS has stored at least 10,000 tons of fracking waste (drill cuttings with low radioactivity) at the facility. The facility is rated and permitted to hold 600 tons. In March, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost asked the Belmont County Common Pleas Court to block AMS from receiving more waste and order it to clean up and comply with its rating. The court granted both requests with a deadline of April 17 to comply (see 
Last week, the Baker Hughes U.S. rig count lost another two rigs, down to 603, the lowest the count has been since January of 2022. Since last October, the national count had gone as low as 616 and as high as 629, and that was it — a fairly narrow band. That is, until three weeks when it crashed through the floor and went lower, down to 613. Then, two weeks ago, it was down to 605. And now, it has gone even lower, down to 603. Will we see it go lower than 600?
EOG Resources, one of the largest oil and gas drillers in the U.S. (with international operations in Trinidad and China), owns a huge 430,000+ acres of leases in the Ohio Utica. EOG calls its position the “Ohio Utica combo play” and now considers it one of the company’s “premium plays.” EOG concentrates on oil drilling in the Utica. As part of the company’s first quarter 2024 update, Keith Trasko, Senior VP for Exploration and Production at EOG, said Utica wells “compete with the best plays in America, very comparable to the Permian on a production per foot basis.” Wow! High praise indeed. The Utica is the new Permian…we like the sound of that!