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21 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Mar 31 – Apr 6
For the week of Mar 31 – Apr 6, the number of permits issued in the Marcellus/Utica to drill new shale wells increased by two from the previous week. Last week, 21 new permits were issued, with 12 going to the Keystone State (PA). Expand Energy, via its merged companies Chesapeake Energy and Southwestern Energy, scored five permits, with three permits for Southwestern in Susquehanna County and two for Chesapeake in Bradford County. Greylock Energy received three permits for drilling in Potter County. Range Resources also received three permits to drill wells in Lycoming and Washington counties. Read More “21 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Mar 31 – Apr 6”
Ray Kemble and his lawyers are in for a tough court fight. The Susquehanna County (PA) Court of Common Pleas has set a date of October 6, 2025, to hear a “Dimock” case between Kemble (and his lawyers) and Coterra Energy (originally Cabot Oil & Gas), in a case that stretches back to 2017. In a damning decision against Kemble’s lawyers in 2023, the judge found they repeatedly refused to provide documents in the case even though ordered to by the judge (see 
In January 2020, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled in THE most consequential lawsuit for Marcellus Shale drilling we’ve seen, a case called Briggs v Southwestern Energy (see 
The highly functional and responsible Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC), unlike its completely dysfunctional and irresponsible cousin, the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), continues to support the shale energy industry by approving water withdrawals and consumptive use for responsible and safe shale drilling. The SRBC published a notice in the March 29 Pennsylvania Bulletin that the Executive Director of the SRBC gave his approval to or renewed 50 (!) general water use permits in February for individual shale gas well drilling pads in Bradford, Centre, Clearfield, Clinton, Lycoming, Potter, Susquehanna, and Tioga counties in Pennsylvania. 
On March 27, the Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC) online Hydrologic Conditions Monitor showed low stream flows have triggered restrictions on 18 shale gas water withdrawal points in Bradford, Potter, Susquehanna, Tioga, and Wyoming counties. Another 17 shale gas withdrawals are approaching restrictions. Of the water withdrawal points regulated by SRBC, only shale gas development water withdrawals currently have restrictions because they take water from smaller streams. 
President Trump was 100% correct in calling the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) Biden’s “green new scam.” Here is a perfect example. The heart of Marcellus Shale country is the highest-producing natural gas county in Pennsylvania, Susquehanna County (not far from where MDN sits). Anyone who lives in our region knows this: It is one of the cloudiest regions of the country. Binghamton, NY (where MDN resides) averages 212 cloudy days per year! Yes, we’re nuts for living here. About 25 minutes south of Binghamton down Interstate 81 sits Clifford Township, PA, in Susquehanna County. It’s just as cloudy as Binghamton. Yet Biden’s IRA (“green new scam”) is paying to build a….wait for it….solar farm in Clifford Township! In a place that is cloudy 58% of the time. Taxpayers are paying for this insanity. Meanwhile, natural gas (more reliable, easier to produce, and almost as clean as solar) keeps chugging away in Clifford and other locations around Susquehanna County. 
Epsilon Energy issued its fourth quarter and full-year 2024 update yesterday. Epsilon, a relatively small company, used to concentrate most of its effort on developing Marcellus Shale wells. However, over the past few years, the company has expanded into other plays and now owns assets in the Anadarko (Oklahoma and Texas), the Permian (Texas and New Mexico), and most recently, the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin (in Alberta, Canada). Epsilon typically does not do its own drilling. The company joint venture partners with (gives money to) other companies, like Expand Energy in the Marcellus, and the other company does the drilling. Epsilon’s CFO, Andrew Williamson, began his comments on a conference call with investors by saying, “The tides have shifted in the Marcellus, and we’re off to a great start there in 2025.” 
For the week of Mar 3 – 9, the number of permits issued in the Marcellus/Utica to drill new shale wells increased by six from the previous week. Last week, 22 new permits were issued, with 13 (more than half) going to the Keystone State (PA). Expand Energy (Chesapeake Energy) scored five permits for a single pad in Bradford County. Coterra Energy also received five permits for a single pad in neighboring Susquehanna County. EQT had two new permits for a single pad in Washington County. And Range Resources rounded out PA’s permits with a single permit in Washington County. 
There has been dynamite news coming from this week’s CERAWeek by S&P conference in Houston (wish we were there!). Of all the things reported thus far (with two days still to go), no piece of news has been more dynamite than a statement made by Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum during a talk at the event yesterday. Speaking of the 124-mile Constitution Pipeline project that Williams gave up on building in 2020 after years of delays and legal roadblocks by New York State, Burgum said the Trump administration is willing to “step in” and take federal action to get the pipeline project from the Pennsylvania Marcellus to New York and New England completed. 
In late 2022, MDN told you that Canadian-based Enerplus, with sizable non-operated assets in the northeast Pennsylvania Marcellus, had sold certain Canadian assets so it could concentrate most of its activity on drilling in the North Dakota Bakken (see 
Two weeks ago, MDN brought you the exciting news that President Trump pledged to get the long-dead Pennsylvania Marcellus to New York State Constitution Pipeline built (see 
Coterra Energy, formed by the merger of Cabot Oil & Gas (drills for natural gas in the Marcellus) and Cimarex Energy (drills for oil in the Permian and Anadarko basins), issued its fourth quarter and full-year 2024 update yesterday. The headline news (for us) is that the company announced it will restart its Marcellus drilling program in Susquehanna County, PA, “in the coming months” of early 2Q25. Whew! That puts a big, fat smile on our face. Also of note: Coterra exited 2024 with a three-year production high in the Marcellus, although that statement is not backed up with the raw data. Coterra produced 2,042.8 MMcf/d (2.04 Bcf/d) in 4Q24, versus producing 2,304.9 MMcf/d (2.30 Bcf/d) in 4Q23—11% less than the year ago period. In the bowels of the report, we learned that the company had stopped curtailing production in December. So, must be the “production high” was the rate flowing in December.