Weekly Shale Drilling Permits for PA, OH, WV: Apr 5-9
Only Pennsylvania, of the three active Marcellus/Utica drilling states, issued new shale drilling permits last week. But PA’s permits were more than enough to make up for Ohio and West Virginia. PA issued 20 new permits in 7 different counties, scattered across the state (although most of the permits were issued in the dry gas northeastern part of the state).
Read More “Weekly Shale Drilling Permits for PA, OH, WV: Apr 5-9”

Last Friday National Fuel Gas Company (NFG), the parent company for Seneca Resources and Empire Pipeline, issued its latest quarterly update for the quarter ending Dec. 31 (NFG’s first quarter 2021, everyone else’s fourth quarter 2020). Among the pearls of good news for NFG is that the company is adding a rig back in Tioga County, PA to drill on acreage NFG purchased from Shell.
By any measure, it’s obvious to see that shale *drilling* activity in northcentral Pennsylvania counties–including Bradford, Clinton, Lycoming, Potter, Sullivan, and Tioga–is on the “bust” side over the past five-plus years. 2016 was the low point. However, is there any hope of seeing another boom in shale drilling in the region?
EQT announced yesterday it has closed on a deal to sell “certain non-strategic assets” to Diversified Gas & Oil (DGO) for $125 million, plus another potential $20 million later on. MDN first told you about this deal on May 13 (see
A major announcement yesterday from both Shell and National Fuel Gas Company (NFG) says Shell has cut a deal to sell all of its remaining Appalachian assets, which includes 450,000 acres and some 350 producing M-U shale wells along with pipeline assets, to NFG for $541 million. The deal is expected to close by the end of July.
Late last week National Fuel Gas Company (NFG), the parent company of Marcellus/Utica driller Seneca Resources, issued its first quarter (everyone else’s fourth quarter) financial and operational update. NFG CEO and President Dave Bauer proclaimed, “Our team has done a great job cracking the code on our Utica development program” in Tioga County, PA. However, because of the ongoing pricemageddon with natgas prices in the basement, Seneca President John McGinnis said the company will drop to running a single rig for the balance of 2020.
Last June MDN brought you the news that Edge Gathering Virtual Pipelines 2 LLC (EDGE) had successfully deployed a special LNG unit to a remote Marcellus well in PA, converting gas from the well into LNG, selling that gas to a utility in New England (see 