Weekly Shale Drilling Permits for PA, OH, WV: Mar 15-19
Just two of the three M-U states received permits to drill new shale wells last week. Pennsylvania received only 3 new permits for two drillers. One of the two is a completely new company for us! Ohio received 0 new permits last week. And West Virginia received 7 new permits, all for the same company in the same county on the same well pad as all of the permits issued two weeks ago.
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This is a cautionary tale that highlights what we have preached over the years. From some of our earliest posts here on MDN, we have cautioned landowners (and rights owners) to treat the lease signing bonuses and royalties they receive in the Marcellus/Utica as an investment and not spend all the money as it comes in on the assumption it will always be there. We have an example of what happens if you spend it as soon as you get it: Greene County, PA.
Coincidentally, a second dehydration unit fire occurred early Saturday morning, also in Pennsylvania, but this second fire occurred across the state in southwest PA. Our lead story today is about a dehydration unit fire at a well pad in Lycoming County (see Two-Alarm Fire at Alta Resources Well Pad in Lycoming County, PA). The second fire happened at a dehydration unit at a compressor station in Greene County owned and operated by Equitrans Midstream.
Here’s a new one for us: The Leach XPress pipeline project has a teeny tiny presence in the southwestern corner of Pennsylvania. We did not know that! Just 1.74 miles of the pipeline runs through PA, but that small section has earned the builder, Columbia Gas, a big fine.