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Weekly Shale Drilling Permits for PA, OH, WV: Apr 12-16
All three M-U states received permits to drill new shale wells last week. Pennsylvania received a whopping 17 new permits spread across various counties and drillers. Ohio received just 2 new permits last week, both for Ascent Resources on the same pad. And West Virginia received a big 12 new permits split between two drillers: Antero Resources and Tug Hill Operating.
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One of the brightest of the bright spots in the Marcellus/Utica shale industry has been shale’s effect on local economies and jobs, as in more money and jobs flow to shale drilling counties. To counter all that good news left-leaning “media” outlets like the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette have run hit pieces, like this article in February: 
Each quarter the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) issues an update on Utica (and Marcellus) oil and natural gas production. ODNR no longer issues a summary press release as they once did, which means the quarterly updates kind of fell off our radar. An astute MDN subscriber emailed to ask about the 4Q numbers for Ohio. We checked and discovered we had only reported on 2Q numbers for all of 2020! Today we correct that oversight. ODNR publishes a detailed spreadsheet of all active wells showing oil and gas production by well. We make a copy of that spreadsheet, enhance it to make it more usable, and link to it–for each quarter in 2020. We also do our own sorting to show you the top 25 shale gas wells and top 25 shale oil wells for each quarter in 2020.
Last week, after months and months of dithering around, the Ohio legislature passed a bill that overturns and rescinds House Bill (HB) 6, legislation adopted in 2019 due to $61 million in bribes spread around by FirstEnergy (see 
Finally! After months and months of dithering around, the Ohio legislature has passed a bill that will overturn and rescind House Bill (HB) 6, the legislation that got passed due to $61 million in bribes spread around by FirstEnergy in what has become Ohio’s biggest bribery scandal ever (see 
The Enervus U.S. rig count continues to climb (a very good sign). For the week ending March 24, the U.S. rig count climbed another 11 active rigs to 513. The oil-focused Permian Basin added eight new rigs. The Marcellus stayed even at 33 active rigs while the Ohio Utica picked up one active rig and now has 12 active rigs. The other major shale gas play, the Haynesville, stayed even at 47 active rigs.
Really Dick? This is what you spend your time on these days? Digging up long-addressed and settled and resolved actions (from SIX YEARS ago)–old infractions by pipeline companies like Energy Transfer’s Rover Pipeline. Claiming you will “not look the other way” when there’s a violation (a violation that happened long before you were even a FERC Commissioner). Whoa, you’re such a big man. So self-righteous. Glick is now digging up old pipeline sins to parade around once again. It’s like a dog that buried roadkill a year ago and recently rediscovered the spot, dug it up, and now drags the old rotting carcass around the yard for all to see, all proud of himself.
In February 2020, Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) Secretary Pat McDonnell sent a letter to the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA). McDonnell’s letter alleges Shell’s 97-mile, two-legged Falcon pipeline system that will carry ethane to the mighty Shell cracker plant now under construction in Beaver County, PA, “may have been constructed with defective corrosion coating protection.” It’s an explosive charge just coming to light now, more than a year later.
Earlier this week the Ohio Supreme Court expanded on one of its prior rulings concerning the Ohio Marketable Title Act (MTA) to try and make things a little bit clearer concerning previously severed mineral rights (severed from surface rights). What is at stake in the MTA is whether surface rights owners can regain possession of mineral rights by using the MTA–at least in some cases. Indeed they can, but certain rules must be obeyed.
Ohio’s House Bill (HB) 6 is a law granting billions (plural) of dollars to FirstEnergy in an attempt to prop up the company’s economically failing nuclear power plants. FirstEnergy is accused of bribing state legislators to pass, and keep passed, HB 6 by paying out $61 million (see 
Ascent Resources, originally founded as American Energy Partners by gas legend Aubrey McClendon, is a privately-held company that focuses 100% on the Ohio Utica Shale. Ascent is Ohio’s largest natural gas producer and the 8th largest natural gas producer in the U.S. The company issued its fourth-quarter and full-year 2020 update earlier this week. According to Ascent CEO Jeff Fisher, “Ascent has successfully delivered on its operational and financial objectives in 2020.” Ascent reports it shut-in (curtailed) roughly 100 million cubic feet equivalent per day (MMcfe/d) of production in 4Q. The company produced 1.9 billion cubic feet per day (Bcfe/d) during 4Q, down from 2 Bcfe/d in 3Q.