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Stone Hill Minerals Auctioning SW Appalachia Marc/Utica Package

EnergyNet is an online marketplace for buying and selling oil and gas working interests (operated and non-operated), overrides, royalties, mineral interests, leaseholds, and other contracts. From time to time, we spot auctions on EnergyNet for assets located in the Marcellus/Utica. Stone Hill Minerals Holdings LLC is using EnergyNet for the sale of a southwest Appalachia package in the Marcellus and Utica shale plays, with assets located in both West Virginia and Pennsylvania.
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30 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Sep 5-11

Last week the three states with active Marcellus/Utica drilling, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia, issued a collective 30 new drilling permits, down from the 40 permits issued the week before. PA roared back to life by issuing 21 of the 30 permits, with OH issuing just three and WV issuing six.
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40 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Aug 29-Sep 4

Last week the three states with active Marcellus/Utica drilling, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia, issued a collective 40 new drilling permits, way up from the 19 permits issued the week before. But there was a shocker. PA only issued nine new permits, while OH issued 14 new permits and WV issued a record high 17 new permits.
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Hearthstone Utilities Moving HQ to WV to Leverage Marcellus/Utica

Morgan O’Brien

Hearthstone Utilities, a Naperville, Illinois-based company, is moving its corporate headquarters to Morgantown, West Virginia. Why? According to CEO Morgan O’Brien, “We’re very bullish on West Virginia and the idea of having a gas utility sitting on top of the Marcellus and Utica shales, and what that could mean.” Hearthstone operates natural gas utilities in Indiana, Maine, Montana, North Carolina, Ohio, and with the purchase of Hope Gas from Dominion Energy earlier this year, it now operates in West Virginia (see Dominion Selling WV Utility – Deal Incl. 2K Miles Gathering Pipes).
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24 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Jul 25-31

For the week of July 25-31, the three Marcellus/Utica states issued 24 permits to drill new shale wells, up from 16 the prior week. However, in a major turnaround, Pennsylvania only issued two new permits, one to Chesapeake Energy and the other to Olympus Energy. Ohio had the lion’s share of new permits, issuing 14. Eight of Ohio’s permits went to Encino Energy, and four to Utica Resources Operating. West Virginia issued eight new permits, with seven of them going to Antero Resources.
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21 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Jun 6-12

The Marcellus/Utica is still struggling to get permit numbers into higher brackets. Three weeks ago a pathetically low six new permits were issued to drill shale wells across Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia (see 6 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV May 23-29). Two weeks ago the number improved–with 20 new permits issued (see 20 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV May 30-Jun 5). Last week, for June 6-12, the number increased by one, to 21 new permits issued. Anemic, but improving.
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WV Legislators Visit NNE’s Morgantown Active Drilling Site

Northeast Natural Energy (NNE) is a “top 10” shale driller in West Virginia, headquartered in Morgantown, WV (see Top 10 Natural Gas & Top 10 Oil Producers in West Virginia for 2020). The company drilled its first shale well in 2013. NNE currently leases over 30,000 acres in Monongalia and Marion counties, and has drilled 126 shale wells. West Virginia legislators, in Morgantown for May interim meetings, took a tour of NNE’s active drilling at the company’s Yost pad in Western Monongalia County yesterday.
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Marcellus/Utica-Powered Data Center Proposed for Morgantown, WV

Just coming to light for us now is an application to build a “data center” in Morgantown, WV. The application was filed last August, but the WV Dept. of Environmental Protection’s Division of Air Quality held a hearing yesterday to accept public input on the facility. Marion Energy Partners wants to build the facility, yet its purpose is shrouded in mystery. The best guess is that this is another new cryptocurrency (bitcoin) mining operation. Our interest is that it will use four natural gas-fired turbines to generate the huge amounts of electricity needed to operate it–natural gas that will come from the Marcellus/Utica.
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WV DEP Approves Construction Permit for Gas-Fired Elec Plant

Since early 2015 (seven years ago!) we’ve been tracking stories about various proposals to build Marcellus gas-fired power plants in the Mountain State (see Marshall Co Gas-Powered Electric Plant Gets WV Green Light). Those projects have been frustrated and held back by Big Coal lawsuits (see Brooke County Blames Coal Lobby for WV Gas Plant Delay). Those litigation issues are now largely resolved, yet no new projects have broken ground in the state–ever. There are no large-scale gas-fired power plants in WV to the best of our knowledge. However, that’s about to change–finally. The West Virginia Dept. of Environmental Protect (WV DEP) has approved a construction permit for a gas-fired plant in northern Monongalia County.
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29 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Nov 29-Dec 5

There was a healthy number of new permits issued in all three actively drilling Marcellus/Utica states last week. In Pennsylvania, 14 new shale well permits were issued across the state. In Ohio, five new shale permits were issued, four of them to a single driller (Ascent Resources) in a single county (Jefferson). West Virginia came roaring back after getting skunked with no permits two weeks ago. WV issued 10 new shale permits last week with five going to a single well pad in Monongalia County.
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9 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Oct 25-31

It was a pretty paltry week for new shale drilling permits in the Marcellus/Utica. Two weeks ago Pennsylvania issued 21 permits to drill new shale wells. They must have shot their wad because last week PA issued just two new permits–the lowest number in PA we’ve seen in…we can’t remember how long. Ohio issued no new permits for Utica drilling last week…zero…goose egg. Only West Virginia held out some promise, issuing seven new permits for shale drilling last week.
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Weekly Shale Drilling Permits for PA, OH, WV: Sep 13-19

A nice bump up (finally) in the number of permits to drill new shale wells in the M-U, although it’s a lot of wells for a relatively few well pads. Pennsylvania issued 19 new permits across five pads in both the northeast and southwest portion of the play, including 8 permits for a single Cabot Oil & Gas pad in Susquehanna County. Ohio issued just 3 new permits, all to Encino Energy for a single pad in Carroll County. And West Virginia issued a surprisingly high 18 permits to two drillers on three pads in two counties: Marshall and Monongalia.
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Weekly Shale Drilling Permits for PA, OH, WV: Jun 21-27

All three Marcellus/Utica states received permits to drill new shale wells last week. Pennsylvania issued 9 new permits, all but one of them for the same well pad in Greene County. Ohio issued 3 new permits, two on a single pad in Monroe County. And West Virginia issued just 1 new permit last week–to a company we had not previously heard of.
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Weekly Shale Drilling Permits for PA, OH, WV: May 10-16

All three M-U states received permits to drill new shale wells last week. Pennsylvania received a sizable 14 new permits (after receiving 18 permits the previous week). The majority of those permits were for wells on three pads in northeastern PA. Ohio received 3 new permits last week all in one county (Greene) for one driller (Eclipse, now owned by Southwestern Energy) on one well pad. And West Virginia received a sizable 13 new permits with 9 of them split between two well pads for different drillers (Northeast Natural Energy and Tug Hill).
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Weekly Shale Drilling Permits for PA, OH, WV: Apr 19-23

All three M-U states received permits to drill new shale wells last week. Pennsylvania received a 6 new permits, most of them in the southwestern part of the state. Ohio received 4 new permits last week, all of them for Ascent Resources on the same Guernsey County pad. And West Virginia received 6 new permits split between CNX Resources and Northeast Natural Energy, all in one county: Monongalia.
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Weekly Shale Drilling Permits for PA, OH, WV: Mar 1-5

All three M-U states received permits to drill new shale wells last week. Pennsylvania received 9 new permits, with 5 of those permits going to Cabot Oil & Gas and their drilling program in Susquehanna County. Ohio received 4 new permits, all for the same company (Encino Energy) in the same county (Harrison) on the same well pad. And West Virginia received 3 new permits, all for the same company (Northeast Natural Energy) in the same county (Monongalia) on the same well pad.
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