PA DEP Claims Permit Backlog for O&G Now Completely Eliminated
Permitting in Pennsylvania overseen by the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) has been a hot mess for years. A Chapter 102 Erosion and Sedimentation permit sometimes takes two, three, or even six months for approval — instead of the policy-mandated 14 days. According to a DEP press release from yesterday, that’s all behind us now. DEP Acting Secretary Jessica Shirley and Gov. Josh Shapiro said the agency has eliminated the backlog for oil and gas permits. Credit where credit is due. Read More “PA DEP Claims Permit Backlog for O&G Now Completely Eliminated”
One month ago, Pennsylvania’s rig count dropped to just 12 rigs, the lowest that state has operated in the last 17 years (see 
Environmental wackos have made building a new natural gas pipeline anywhere in the northeast (or southeast) such a heinously nasty experience with multiple and repeated regulatory challenges and a blizzard of lawsuits that nobody has ventured to propose a new “greenfield” (brand new from scratch) pipeline since Mountain Valley Pipeline, which took a decade to complete at double the original budget. We’re hopeful the situation will change under the new Trump administration. The Marcellus/Utica industry recognizes we need another new pipeline to move more of our molecules to other regions. What would be the “driving force” to prompt a company to be willing to try once again? 
Last Friday (Nov. 8), the Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC) sent a heads-up to shale drillers and other large water users in the basin to warn them to be on the lookout for a Plan B to source water. Northeastern Pennsylvania (and other states in the northeast) are experiencing drought or near-drought conditions. The streams and rivers that some drillers use to source water for drilling and fracking are getting low in some areas. The SRBC is about to clamp down and block new withdrawals until the situation improves. 
Three weeks ago, Pennsylvania’s rig count dropped to just 12 rigs, the lowest that state has operated in the last 17 years (see 
In May, MDN told you that several Republican Pennsylvania State Senators were planning to introduce a bill to cut off millions of dollars in impact fee revenues to municipalities that set protective standards on the development of natural gas that “imposes a standard or condition on well development that conflicts with or exceeds those contained” in state law (see 
How, exactly, did the Marcellus Shale come to be? What spurred early interest to spend millions of dollars to sink a well in the Marcellus with the hope (gamble) that natural gas would flow from it? We all know that Range Resources sunk that first well in 2004, but there was a LOT that happened before to tee up the Marcellus as a potential target. The Marcellus Shale layer has been known about since the late 1800s. However, it wasn’t until the 1970s and the Yom Kippur War that serious interest in the Marcellus as a source of natural gas began in earnest. 
Earlier this week, three of five supervisors in Cecil Township (Washington County), PA, voted to ban all new fracking via a new setback (distance from well to nearest structure) requirement of 2,500 feet (see 
Dan Doyle is president of 
Williams’ Transco Regional Energy Access Expansion (REAE) project expands the mighty Transco pipeline in Pennsylvania and New Jersey to deliver an extra 829 MMcf/d of Marcellus gas to Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland. About 450,000 MMcf/d of the total capacity went online in late 2023 along Transco’s Leidy Line in Pennsylvania. Another 160 MMcf/d went online in PA and NJ in early July. On July 26, FERC granted Williams’s request to bring online the final 219 MMcf/d ahead of schedule (see 
As part of its third quarter update, EQT Corporation, now the second-largest natural gas producer in the U.S., dropped the bombshell that it has completely divested from the remaining non-operated wells it owns in northeastern Pennsylvania, selling the assets to Norwegian company Equinor (formerly known as Statoil) for $1.25 billion. You may recall in April, EQT did a deal with Equinor to swap land in Pennsylvania and Ohio, plus receiving $500 million from Equinor to sweeten the pot (see 
Permitting in Pennsylvania overseen by the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) has been a hot mess for years. A Chapter 102 Erosion and Sedimentation permit sometimes takes two, three, or even six months for approval — instead of the law-mandated 14 days. It got so bad that in the fall of 2019, PA State Sen. Gene Yaw introduced a bill to allow third-party reviews of these permits to speed up approvals (see 
Ever notice how politicians like to blame others when their own policies create havoc and chaos? When you block new gas-fired power plants that provide more electricity for growing demand and pretend unreliable renewables will step in to save the day, there are negative consequences, like the price of electricity soaring through the roof (see 
The realignment