Williams Building New Compressor in Columbiana County, OH
We have a second big news story coming out of Columbiana County, OH, today. Pipeline giant Williams confirmed it plans to build a compressor station in Hanover Township (Columbiana County) to help push more natural gas in the northern part of the Utica play. “But wait, that’s an oil area, right?” Very good, young Padawan. It is an oily part of the play. However, when a well is drilled for oil, natural gas always comes out of the ground along with it. It used to be that drillers could just burn the “excess” methane, but not now with far stricter environmental regulations.
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A royalty case that took nearly four years and hundreds of filings by both sides was finally decided by an Ohio jury in March (see 
The Ohio Oil & Gas Association (OOGA) held its annual meeting in March at the Hilton in Columbus, OH. While MDN was not there, an industry friend sent along a copy of the slide deck used by the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) Division of Oil & Gas Resources Management. The ODNR’s “regulatory update” addressed a number of interesting issues, including the state’s ongoing application for “primacy” in permitting carbon dioxide injection wells, permitting and unitization (forced pooling), updates on rule changes for drilling and fracking, and several “top 5” lists for natural gas and oil producers in the Utica Shale.
Oil production in the Ohio Utica hit a record 27.8 million barrels in 2023, up 41% from 2022, according to researchers at the Levin College of Public Affairs and Education at Cleveland State University. In December, eastern Ohio oil wells pumped 93,000 barrels of crude, up one-third from December 2022, according to federal data. Oil has been locked away in the Utica/Point Pleasant shale layer for millennia. Aubrey McClendon, co-founder and former CEO of Chesapeake Energy, was the first to see the vision of freeing oil from the Utica. However, it was a successor company, Encino Energy, that figured out how to coax large quantities of oil out of the Utica shale.
Yesterday, MDN reported that Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost took legal action on Monday, seeking to force Austin Master Services (AMS) in Martins Ferry (Belmont County), OH, to correct “egregious violations of Ohio law” regarding the storage of oil and gas waste that he says threatens the Ohio River and Martins Ferry’s drinking water supply (see 
Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, the seemingly moribund effort to drill shale wells on land located in Ohio’s Wayne National Forest (WNF) is active once again. WNF is a patchwork of public and private mineral rights that covers over a quarter million acres of Appalachian foothills of southeastern Ohio. For years, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) blocked new permits and drilling in WNF. During the Trump administration, the BLM began to auction off federal leases and permits (
According to the data geeks at the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), U.S. natural gas production grew by 4% in 2023, which was similar to the growth in 2022. U.S. gas production in 2023 averaged a whopping 125.0 Bcf/d (billion cubic feet per day). In 2023, more natural gas was produced in the Appalachia (Marcellus/Utica) region of the Northeast than in any other U.S. region, accounting for 29%, or 37.7 Bcf/d, of gross natural gas production. However, production growth in Appalachia slowed because our region doesn’t have enough pipeline takeaway capacity to transport more natural gas out of the region to the markets that would buy it.
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost took legal action Monday, seeking to force Austin Master Services in Martins Ferry (Belmont County), OH, to correct “egregious violations of Ohio law” regarding storage of oil and gas waste that he says threatens the Ohio River (500 feet away) and Martins Ferry’s drinking water supply (1,000 feet away). Austin Master Services serves the Marcellus/Utica industry (and other industries) with radiological waste management solutions, including remediation, decontamination & decommissioning (D&D), and transportation. The company was bought by and is now a subsidiary of PA-based American Environmental Partners, Inc. (see 
Summit Midstream Partners, LP, which owns midstream (pipeline) assets in a number of major plays across the country, including the Marcellus/Utica, announced on Friday the sale of the company’s Ohio Utica assets, including its Summit Midstream Utica, LLC subsidiary, which includes its approximately 36% interest in Ohio Gathering Company, approximately 38% interest in Ohio Condensate Company, and other wholly-owned Utica assets. The sale was made to a subsidiary of MPLX LP (i.e., MarkWest Energy) for $625 million in cash. Summit will no longer own Utica assets in Ohio, but the company WILL retain (for now) its Marcellus assets in West Virginia.
Now we’re teaching our kids how to become eco-terrorists? In Ohio?? It seems the answer to that is YES. Ohio State University (OSU) has a geography class that teaches “the political economy of climate change and the political philosophy of climate justice.” One of the books to be used in the course is: “How to Blow Up a Pipeline.” Ring any bells? There was a movie released with the same title last year (see 
There were 16 new permits issued to drill in the Marcellus/Utica during the week of Mar. 11 – 17, down 3 from 19 permits issued the prior week. Pennsylvania issued 9 new permits. Ohio issued 4 new permits. And West Virginia issued 3 new permits. Penn Production Group (PPG) and EOG Resources tied for most new permits with 4 each. PPG received 4 permits to drill in Clearfield County, PA. EOG received 4 permits to drill in Harrison County, OH. Coterra Energy received 3 permits to drill in Susquehanna County, PA. Antero got 2 permits for Ritchie County, WV. Southwestern Energy and Chesapeake Energy each received a single permit to drill in Bradford County, PA. EQT received a single permit for Wetzel County, WV.
Here’s a strange one we don’t quite understand. Yet. Two weeks ago we brought you the news that a jury in a federal court had decided a group of Utica shale drillers, including Rice Drilling (now EQT), Ascent Resources, XTO, and Gulfport Energy, were not guilty of “unjust enrichment” by drilling into the Point Pleasant shale layer that sits immediately below the Utica (see 
Last week, the Baker Hughes rig count lost seven rigs after gaining three rigs the week before. The count went from 629 active rigs two weeks ago to 622 last week. The national count has consistently stayed between 620 and 625 (or one or two above or below that range) since last October until recently, when it went higher for a few weeks. But now it’s back in the same long-term range. The Marcellus/Utica remained the same last week with Pennsylvania at 24 rigs (the most since last June), Ohio with 12 rigs, and West Virginia with 8 rigs. The M-U combined is running 44 rigs, which it has run in four of the last five weeks.