22 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Sep 11 – 17
New shale permits issued for Sep 11 – 17 in the Marcellus/Utica rebounded. There were 22 new permits issued last week, up from 14 issued two weeks ago. But the increase came from an unlikely source. Last week’s permit tally included 9 new permits in Pennsylvania, 1 new permit in Ohio, and 12 new permits in West Virginia. WV is typically on the low end of permits, not the high end. The top permittee for the week was Antero Resources, which received 6 permits in WV. EQT was a close second with 5 permits in WV.
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Two Marshall County, WV landowners with the same last name (obviously related) sued Southwestern Energy (SWN), accusing the company of “well bashing,” in March of this year (see
We should have known there was a price to pay, a “pound of flesh” to be exacted, when we read the announcement that the Bidenistas of the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) had approved EQT’s deal to buy Tug Hill’s West Virginia assets. Two days ago, EQT issued a press release to announce the deal had been blessed by the FTC and would happen within the next seven days (see
Last September, EQT Corporation announced it was buying privately-owned Tug Hill Operating’s West Virginia shale assets for $5.2 billion (see
Yesterday the Bidenistas at the Dept. of (In)Justice (DOJ) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a “settlement” (i.e. bullying) with three pipeline companies–Williams, MPLX, and Kerr-McGee Gathering. The settlement requires the three to pay a combined $9.25 million in civil penalties and make improvements at 25 gas processing plants and 91 compressor stations in 12 states, including Ohio and West Virginia, worth another $16 million. The two federal agencies claimed the pipeline companies were violating federal and state clean air laws related to leak detection and repair (LDAR) requirements for natural gas processing plants at various facilities they own and operate across the country.
Two Marshall County, WV landowners with the same last name (brothers? cousins? father/son?) have sued Southwestern Energy accusing the company of “well bashing.” The landowners seek to have the lawsuit certified as a class action. Well bashing happens when drilling a child well near a parent well causes the parent well to lose pressure or become clogged with fracking fluids and sand. Ultimately the child well causes the parent well to become less profitable (i.e., less revenue from royalties for the landowner). The lawsuit says Southwestern is practicing well bashing intentionally–in order to keep lease rates low.