Ascent Resources | Columbiana County | Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | EQT Corp | Greene County (PA) | Greylock Energy | Hilcorp Energy | Jefferson County (OH) | Lycoming County | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Seneca Resources | Susquehanna County | Washington County | Weekly Permits
20 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Jan 31-Feb 6
My how the mighty permit count has fallen. Three weeks ago there were 61 new shale drilling permits issued in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia. Two weeks ago that number fell to 33. And last week? The permit number fell again, to just 20. PA issued 13 new permits while OH issued 7. WV got skunked last week: A big, fat 0 new permits.
Read More “20 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Jan 31-Feb 6”
Tilden Marcellus LLC, a Canonsburg, Pa.-based oil and gas company, filed for chapter 11 protection last Friday in the Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania. Tilden is a “sister company” to Rockdale Marcellus. You may recall Rockdale went through bankruptcy last year, resulting in the sale of substantially all of its assets (in Pennsylvania) to Repsol for $220 million in cash (see 
Pennsylvania has already received the first $25 million payment from the so-called infrastructure bill, a down payment on what will eventually be $330.6 million (see 
According to numbers published by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, in 2020 Pennsylvania generated and sent more electricity to neighboring states than any other state in the union. More than 230 million megawatt-hours (MWh) of electricity was generated in Pennsylvania during 2020, and nearly 78 million MWh of that electricity was delivered to neighboring states. If PA Gov. Wolf’s Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon tax scheme is adopted, much of that electric production will disappear. PA’s neighbors should be VERY concerned.
The Pennsylvania State Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) has engaged in some questionable activities in the past, but this time they’ve stepped WAY across the line. Last Thursday the PA DEP filed a lawsuit in Commonwealth Court to force the state to adopt the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a blatant tax on carbon dioxide produced by gas- and coal-fired power plants. Thing is, it’s illegal for the state to adopt RGGI right now while the state legislature still has a window of time to vote on overriding Gov. Tom Wolf’s veto of a resolution that would have stopped RGGI. Constitutionally, legally, statutorily, the legislature has a certain number of days to attempt an override. The DEP’s Secretary Pat McDonnell, Gov. Wolf’s patsy, is trying to circumvent the law by forcing RGGI through now.
Some good news to report for Olympus Energy. The supervisors for Upper Burrell Township (in Westmoreland County, PA) voted last week to approve a new compressor station that will flow natural gas from multiple wells on 3-4 nearby Olympus well pads.
Evolution Well Services, headquartered in Houston with a regional office in Pittsburgh, specializes in “electric” fracking–using natural gas from the well pad (instead of diesel fuel) to power turbines to create electricity that drives fracking pumps. In September 2020, three former Evolution employees who worked at remote sites in the Marcellus/Utica for the company, filed a lawsuit against the company claiming Evolution failed to pay them for their commute to and from job sites. This past Tuesday a federal judge in Pennsylvania granted conditional certification for the lawsuit to become a class action.
Once again Pennsylvania’s Attorney General, Josh Shapiro, is turning accidents, including an accident that caused an explosion of the newly completed 
We can’t resist a good railroad story. We’ve always loved them (we know, we’re weird). Here’s a good railroad story for you: Frack sand company Smart Sand, Inc., headquartered in The Woodlands, Texas, has just opened for business and is shipping frack sand to a brand new transloading facility in Waynesburg (Greene County), Pennsylvania.
A month ago MDN brought you the news that UGI Corporation, one of Pennsylvania’s largest natural gas utility companies, had cut a deal to buy the Stonehenge Appalachia Midstream natural gas gathering system in Butler County, PA, for $190 million (see 
PennEnergy Resources LLC, which according to the Pittsburgh Business Times is the 11th largest shale driller in Pennsylvania (with 405 active shale wells), has achieved responsibly sourced natural gas certification from Project Canary on nearly all of its wells. Project Canary has issued its top “Gold” and “Platinum” ratings on 375 of PennEnergy’s wells.
Last week MDN brought you the news that Chesapeake Energy is buying Marcellus driller Chief Oil & Gas (plus associated non-operated assets from Tug Hill Operating) for $2 billion in cash and approximately 9.44 million common shares (see