20 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Apr 10-16
New shale permits issued for Apr. 10-16 in the Marcellus/Utica picked up two from the prior week. There were 20 new permits issued in total last week, up from 18 in the prior week. Last week’s tally included 13 new permits for Pennsylvania, 4 new permits for Ohio, and 3 new permits in West Virginia. Last week the top receiver of new permits was Coterra Energy, with 6 new permits issued in Susquehanna County, PA. EQT was number two with 5 new permits, all of them issued in Greene County, PA.
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It appears the wind has gone right out of the sails when it comes to issuing new permits for shale drilling in the Marcellus/Utica. For the week of May 23-29, only six new permits were issued. Four of the permits were issued in Pennsylvania, two in West Virginia, and none in Ohio. This is the lowest number in a single week we’ve seen in maybe forever. A measly, lousy six permits!
Complete confusion continues with respect to West Virginia’s House Bill (HB) 2581, a new law passed on the last day of the annual WV legislative session in April. HB 2581 changes how the State Tax Department values producing oil and gas wells for property tax purposes (see
Last week Pennsylvania issued 18 permits for new shale well drilling scattered across the state. Ohio (for the eighth week in a row) did not issue any new shale permits. Are we missing something with Ohio? Are they late in updating their online database? West Virginia issued 2 permits for new shale well drilling last week.
Over the years we’ve covered a number of stories about companies buying future royalty payments from landowners (and rights owners) for an upfront, one lump sum payment now. Normally the deals don’t disclose how much money changed hands for those upfront payments. We have some recent transactions from a newcomer to the Marcellus/Utica, a company willing to announce how much they paid to buy those rights, which caught our attention. We have financial details for a deal in the Marcellus, and details for a deal in the Utica to share with you. We have hard numbers for how much they paid to buy those royalty rights.