29 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Dec 20-Jan 2
This edition of the Marcellus/Utica permits report covers the past two weeks as MDN was taking a break during the last week of 2021. For the period of December 20 through January 2, there were 29 permits issued to drill new shale wells in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia. PA had 16 new permits (most of them located on two well pads), OH had 12 new permits (spread across five well pads), and WV had just one new permit. Must be WV DEP took the last two weeks of the year off.
Read More “29 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Dec 20-Jan 2”

Olympus Energy (formerly Huntley & Huntley) is expanding its drilling program in Upper Burrell, in Westmoreland County, PA, near Pittsburgh (see
A leftist anti-fossil group calling itself Protect PT, in Penn Township (Westmoreland County), PA, backed with big money from Big Green groups, has for years challenged Penn Township ordinances that allow Apex Energy and Huntley & Huntley (now Olympus Energy) to drill and operate shale wells. Protect PT finally struck out legally at the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in May 2020 (see 
Early last week MDN told you about a new/third well pad planned by Olympus Energy in Upper Burrell Township in Westmoreland County, PA (see
Olympus Energy, the renamed Huntley & Huntley Energy Exploration (HHEX), continues to make progress in Upper Burrell Township in Westmoreland County, PA. The company currently has two well pads (Zeus and Calliope) with multiple wells drilled in Upper Burrell. Now comes word of plans for a third well pad, named the Selene Well Pad by the company. Olympus will present plans for the new pad at a hearing on Wednesday.
A profoundly biased and inaccurate article published by Environmental Health News attempts to paint two proposed shale gas wells as an environmental disaster and existential health threat akin to a nuclear meltdown. The article is so over the top it’s laughable–but instructive nonetheless. Apex Energy has proposed drilling two wells on a pad in a rural part of Trafford, PA township, straddling Allegheny and Westmoreland counties. The location is “within one mile of Level Green Elementary School and within two miles of 12,733 residents in Penn Township and Trafford Borough (about 17 miles east of Pittsburgh).” Are the kiddies at nearby schools and residents of Trafford really in danger?