WA, NM Congress Members Visit NEPA, Impressed with Marcellus Ops
Two out-of-state Members of Congress, Rep. Dan Newhouse (Washington-04) and Rep. Yvette Herrell (New Mexico-02), both members of the Congressional Western Caucus, recently took a field trip to northeastern Pennsylvania to get a firsthand look at how Marcellus drillers and midstream companies get the job done. They came away thoroughly impressed, to the point they penned an editorial for a local newspaper that begins with this sentence: “Pennsylvania’s natural gas producers are providing safe, reliable, and affordable energy for the United States and setting an example for states across the country.”
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Coterra Energy, the new name for the two merged companies that were Cabot Oil & Gas and Cimarex Energy (a Permian driller), issued its third quarter update yesterday. Cabot has been and remains one of our favorite Marcellus/Utica drillers. According to Tom Jorden, CEO of Cimarex and now CEO of the combined company, the integration of the two companies is “well underway” and has been “a full court press” since May. In the aggregate, Coterra brought 61 wells online during 3Q and plans to operate seven rigs and four completion crews during 4Q. Five of the rigs are in the Delaware Basin (in the Texas Permian), and two of the rigs are in Susquehanna County in northeast Pennsylvania. What about details for Marcellus operations during 3Q?
Last week Pennsylvania issued 14 permits to drill new shale wells scattered around the state. The permits were issued to Chesapeake Energy, EQT, EXCO Resources, Chief Oil & Gas, and Southwestern Energy. Ohio issued five new permits in two counties, but all of them were issued to Ascent Resources. West Virginia issued just one new permit in a county we don’t often see in the list: Marion. The single WV permit was issued to EQT.
A healthy number of permits were issued to drill new shale wells across the Marcellus/Utica region last week. Pennsylvania issued 19 new permits in both southwest and northeast PA. Ohio issued 8 new permits, all of them to a single driller (Ascent Resources) for two well pads in two different counties. West Virginia issued 9 new permits–all but 2 of them were issued to Antero Resources in Tyler County.
In May MDN told you about one of the oddest combinations in recent memory–the merger of Permian driller Cimarex Energy with Marcellus driller Cabot Oil & Gas (see 
Northeast Pennsylvania high schoolers are getting a look at what a career in the shale energy field looks like. The Susquehanna County Career and Technology Center in Dimock, in cooperation with Cabot Oil & Gas, is hosting its annual week-long Energy and Oilfield Career Experience summer camp. Susquehanna County, the only county where Cabot drills, is the #1 producer of natural gas in PA. Has been for years.
Cabot Oil & Gas announced on Friday as part of its second quarter 2021 update the company will *increase* production during the second half of this year. Cabot CEO Dan Dinges said because the Williams Leidy South Expansion Project will be fully online in 4Q and because the gas price outlook this winter is strong, the company plans to increase production by 4% in 3Q, and by a full 10% in 4Q. Finally! Somebody willing to drill more and produce more and make a profit doing it.