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44 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Feb 7-13
Last week the number of new shale permits issued for the three M-U states more than doubled from the previous week. Four weeks ago there were 61 new shale drilling permits issued in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia. Three weeks ago that number fell to 33. Two weeks ago the permit number fell again, to just 20. Last week? The number bounced back up to 44 new permits. PA issued 24 new permits, OH issued 18 permits, and WV issued 2 new permits.
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Part of the so-called Biden infrastructure bill (now a law) provides $4.7 billion to plug old abandoned and orphan oil and gas wells. We previously reported on initial payments from the program for both Pennsylvania and West Virginia. When we spotted an even higher number for Ohio’s portion of that program, we smelled that something is wrong, and indeed it is. We will explain below.
You have GOT to be kidding! In 2015 Energy Transfer’s Rover Pipeline purchased an old house in Ohio that was crumbling and falling down, intending to fix it up and use it for offices. The company later decided to demolish it. The old house was on a list to be considered as a National Historic Place, even though the local fire department considered burning it down as a training exercise it was so dilapidated. Because this particular old house was potentially considered “historic,” Rover went through all sorts of hell and ended up paying a $2.3 million fine. Then Richard “Dick” Glick took over at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and decided to drag that case out yet again, this time fining Rover $20 million for something long ago settled (see 
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.
Last year Big Green lobbyists using the City of Oberlin, Ohio contested the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) decision to approve the Enbridge/DTE Energy NEXUS pipeline, a a $2 billion, 255-mile pipeline from the Ohio Utica Shale into Michigan that’s been flowing for years connecting to a pipeline that exports some of the gas into Canada (see 
In late 2020, ExxonMobil released the outlines of its development plan for the next five years (see 
Our friends at NGI (Natural Gas Intelligence) are running an excellent series providing expert forecasts for the global natural gas and oil markets in 2022. The latest installment interviews several experts about the prospects for the Marcellus/Utica. With the Shell ethane cracker plant coming online sometime this year, the prospects for NGL sales in the M-U have picked up. Also in the discussion: capping Pennsylvania’s orphaned wells, drilling in the Wayne National Forest, and the Mountain Valley Pipeline coming online.
BCCK Holding Company (BCCK) has been granted a contract to upgrade a cryogenic gas processing plant in the Marcellus/Utica, in southeastern Ohio. The name of the customer was not disclosed but we’re guessing it is MarkWest Energy (now MPLX). BCCK says it has developed a simple and effective modification to improve the existing cryogenic plant design and equipment with the aim of increasing propane recovery.
The Ohio Oil and Gas Energy Education Program (
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.