Allegheny County | Apex Energy | Armstrong County | Ascent Resources | Belmont County | Bradford County | Brooke County | Carroll County | CNX Resources | Columbiana County | Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Encino Energy | Energy Companies | EOG Resources | Guernsey County | Harrison County | Hilcorp Energy | Lycoming County | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Range Resources Corp | Repsol | Seneca Resources | Snyder Brothers | Southwestern Energy | Susquehanna County | Tioga County (PA) | Tug Hill Operating | Washington County | Weekly Permits | West Virginia | Westmoreland County | Wetzel County
44 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Feb 7-13
Last week the number of new shale permits issued for the three M-U states more than doubled from the previous week. Four weeks ago there were 61 new shale drilling permits issued in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia. Three weeks ago that number fell to 33. Two weeks ago the permit number fell again, to just 20. Last week? The number bounced back up to 44 new permits. PA issued 24 new permits, OH issued 18 permits, and WV issued 2 new permits.
Read More “44 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Feb 7-13”
In early September the Weirton, WV Zoning Board of Appeals rejected a request by Southwestern Energy to build a well pad inside city limits (see 
Southwestern Energy, which is one of the biggest Marcellus/Utica drillers, previously applied for a conditional use permit from the City of Weirton, WV that would allow them to build a well pad and drill several wells on it all within the city limits of Weirton. The request came before the Weirton Zoning Board of Appeals in August but the board delayed a decision until this month, September. Following almost three hours of comments and testimony yesterday, the Zoning Board of Appeals unanimously voted down Southwestern’s request–a decidedly unfriendly gesture by the normally gas-friendly municipalities in WV.
All three M-U states received permits to drill new shale wells last week. Pennsylvania received 10 new permits. Ohio received 6 new permits. And West Virginia received 3 new permits.
Eagle Manufacturing, located in Wellsburg, WV, was struggling in the early 2000s. The company makes plastic safety products. Foreign competition was hammering the company (tough to compete with children in China who work in factories for a dollar an hour). The company almost offshored production to China, but decided to stick it out a few more years here at home. And then the Marcellus/Utica Shale miracle happened.
Well that’s disappointing. Earlier this year Energy Solutions Consortium (ESC) asked the State of West Virginia to guarantee a $5.5 million loan for a proposed new shale gas-fired power plant planned for Brooke County which would help them secure even more funding for the project. Several weeks ago the state went one better than the original request and said it would not only guarantee the loan, it would actually make the loan (see 
On Sept. 10, a day after a meeting of the West Virginia Economic Development Authority meeting, we reported (based on media reports) that the Authority had voted to approve a $5.5 million loan guarantee for a proposed new shale gas-fired power plant planned for Brooke County, WV (see 
Justice (with a small “j”) has prevailed in West Virginia. We’ve covered the issue of a proposed new shale gas-fired power plant planned for Brooke County, WV for years. We are down to the wire on some of the final bits needed for this project to advance. One of those bits, the last major hurdle, is a loan guarantee for $5.5 million, covering a tiny part of the financing required to build this nearly $1 billion project. Yesterday the WV Economic Development Authority unanimously approved the loan guarantee.
We should have known that West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice is in league with his fellow coal baron Robert Murray. Officials from Brooke County, WV, where Energy Solutions Consortium is planning to build a $1.25 billion natural gas-fired power plant, are blaming the long fingers of Bob Murray for a last-minute delay of a state loan guarantee that was supposed to be made in August (see