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22 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Apr 27 – May 4
For the week of April 28 – May 4, the number of permits issued to drill new wells in the Marcellus/Utica was down two from the previous week. Last week, 22 new permits were issued in the M-U. In the Keystone State (PA), 10 new permits were issued. The top permittee was NFG’s Seneca Resources, which had four permits in Tioga County. PennEnergy Resource received two permits in Butler County. Expand Energy (SWN) received two permits in Lycoming County. Finally, both Coterra Energy and EQT (Rice Drilling) received a single permit, in Susquehanna and Washington counties, respectively. Read More “22 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Apr 27 – May 4”
Pine Run Gathering LLC, a joint venture owned by Stonehenge Energy and UGI, announced yesterday that it had completed a transaction to buy Superior Midstream Appalachian, LLC, for $120 million. Superior Appalachian owns and operates three gathering systems in Pennsylvania, namely Pittsburgh Mills (Allegheny & Butler counties), Snow Shoe (Centre County), and Brookfield (Tioga County). The Pittsburgh Mills system is connected to UGI’s Big Pine gathering system. All three have a combined daily flow of approximately 190 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d). 
Marathon Petroleum’s MPLX, formerly MarkWest, operates five complexes in the Marcellus shale. One of the five is the Bluestone Complex in Butler County, PA. Bluestone gathers 200 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) of natural gas. Bluestone processes 400 MMcf/d of natural gas, separating methane from other hydrocarbons. The facility then further separates ethane (C2H6) from other NGLs like propane and butane in a process called C2+ fractionation—producing some 81,000 barrels per day. Yesterday, MPLX announced that the Bluestone plant has become the only U.S. natural gas processing facility to achieve the EPA’s ENERGY STAR Challenge for Industry. 
PennEnergy Resources, LLC, the 11th largest shale driller in Pennsylvania, agreed to a “deal” with the Biden Department of Justice (DOJ), the Biden Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Josh Shapiro Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to pay a $2 million fine and spend another $3.6 million on “upgrades” related to air emissions at its well pads. Based on inspections done in 2018 (six years ago!), the EPA accused PennEnergy of illegal air emissions at five “facilities” (well pads) in Butler County, PA. Yet PennEnergy is being forced to “fix” 17 of its oil and gas production facilities and implement “partial measures” at an additional 32 facilities in Butler County and neighboring Lawrence County. 
Yesterday, the Biden Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Biden Department of Justice (DOJ) announced settlements with two Pennsylvania shale drillers claiming violations of the federal Clean Air Act and the Pennsylvania Air Pollution Control Act. The Bidenistas alleged that XTO Energy and Hilcorp Energy violated emissions limits at oil and gas production facilities in Butler County, Lawrence County, and Mercer County. XTO is on the hook to pay a $4 million fine, while Hilcorp must pay $1.275 million. In addition, XTO will be made to pay another $1.4 million to plug orphaned wells the company had nothing to do with orphaning. That passes as “justice” with the Bidenistas. 
There were 20 permits issued to drill new shale wells in Marcellus/Utica for the week of Sept. 30 – Oct. 6, down eight from the 28 issued the prior week. The Keystone State (PA) had eight new permits, with five going to Southwestern Energy (now Expand Energy following a merger with Chesapeake) in both Susquehanna and Wyoming counties. The other three permits went to Laurel Mountain Energy for a pad in Butler County. 
The blowhard Democrat Governor of Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro, took a bow last year to tout that “his” administration (as opposed to the Democrat who preceded him, Tom Wolf) had plugged more than 130 abandoned old oil and gas wells in the state, more than “the previous eight years combined” (see 
XTO Energy began to drill four shale wells in Prospect Borough, Butler County, PA, in 2019. At least one of the wells was drilled down to a depth of nearly 2,000 feet. At some point since that time, XTO decided not to finish the wells and filed a request to plug the wells. A Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) inspector visited the well pad, the Coretsky well pad, in September of last year and issued a “failure to plug” notice of violation for the four wells (called the Patton wells). Although it took a few months, XTO said the equipment would be delivered last week and that, as of today (Monday), the process would begin to cap and plug the four abandoned wells.