Top 10 Natural Gas & Top 10 Oil Producers in West Virginia for 2020
The Gas and Oil Association of West Virginia (GO-WV) released a new report yesterday called “Gas Facts” (full copy below). The report chronicles the impact oil and gas has had on the Mountain State over the past five years. According to Charlie Burd, GO-WV executive director, “Natural gas is the state’s top-paying sector, supporting more than 82,000 jobs and contributing roughly $5.2 billion in wages each year. Clean, abundant natural gas will continue to drive economic growth and opportunities for generations of West Virginians.” It’s an interesting report. One thing in the report caught our eye immediately: Two “top 10” lists for gas and oil production. We’re suckers for a good top 10 list…
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Last week Pennsylvania issued 14 permits to drill new shale wells scattered around the state. The permits were issued to Chesapeake Energy, EQT, EXCO Resources, Chief Oil & Gas, and Southwestern Energy. Ohio issued five new permits in two counties, but all of them were issued to Ascent Resources. West Virginia issued just one new permit in a county we don’t often see in the list: Marion. The single WV permit was issued to EQT.
Charlie Burd, executive director of the Gas & Oil Association of West Virginia, gave an update on the state’s oil and gas industry to the members of the West Virginia Legislature’s Joint Standing Committee on Energy on Tuesday. Burd (a Democrat) sang the praises of hydraulic fracturing. In 2020, more than 95% of the 2.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas produced in West Virginia came from horizontal drilling, according to Burd. We discovered some interesting statistics from Burd on the state’s oil and gas industry…
U.S. Senator Joe Manchin from West Virginia remains the only thing standing in the way of the Democrats’ far-left, socialist plan to remake the country using a pair of bills that will spend over $5 trillion of your tax money. Both the infrastructure bill and the so-called budget reconciliation bill contain new regulations and laws that directly, nakedly, attack the oil and gas industry. The Democrats want to end fossil fuels–a truly frightening (and stupid) plan. Manchin is holding them back. Will he cave?
Yesterday Antero Resources announced the publication of its 2020 ESG Report (environmental, social, governance) highlighting a focus on People, Performance, and Purpose. The report details Antero Resources’ ongoing commitment to the communities in which it operates, safe operations, environmental excellence, and strong governance. Frankly, we could care less about ESG programs–an attempt to impress people who will never be impressed with the extraordinary efforts made by fossil fuel companies to respect the environment. What caught our eye in Antero’s report is the amount of money the company invested in West Virginia and Ohio, where it drills for liquids and gas.
A healthy number of permits were issued to drill new shale wells across the Marcellus/Utica region last week. Pennsylvania issued 19 new permits in both southwest and northeast PA. Ohio issued 8 new permits, all of them to a single driller (Ascent Resources) for two well pads in two different counties. West Virginia issued 9 new permits–all but 2 of them were issued to Antero Resources in Tyler County.
In early 2019, EQT, the largest natural gas producer in the U.S. (and in the Marcellus/Utica) settled a class action lawsuit in West Virginia with landowners and rights owners ending EQT’s practice of post-production deductions from royalty checks (see 
Sometimes it seems like a full-time job running around and setting the record straight, correcting the outright lies and half-truths spun by the wacko environmental left. For example, shoveling up the messes made by the Ohio River Valley Institute (ORVI), a far-left, hyper-partisan, nonprofit organization. Last month ORVI peddled falsehoods at a hearing convened by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management which is conducting a study on the prospects for a petrochemical industry in the Marcellus/Utica (see 
We don’t often use material from the known fake news source called the New York Times, but here we are using a second article from the NYT in one day! The article (below) does its best to shred the reputation and credibility of Joe Manchin, senior U.S. Senator from West Virginia. We have to confess we’re a bit wary of Manchin given his tendency to cave under pressure and vote with the Democrat Party line. But Manchin is all that currently stands in the way of Joe Biden and the Democrat Party’s plan to eliminate natural gas (and coal), phasing both out as energy sources to produce electricity, part of the $3.5 trillion so-called budget reconciliation bill.
In April, on the last day of the West Virginia legislative session for 2021, the West Virginia Senate unanimously passed House Bill (HB) 2581 which changes how the State Tax Department values producing oil and gas wells for property tax purposes (see 
The Route 2 | I-68 Authority in West Virginia wants to expand Route 2 to four lanes from Parkersburg, WV to Chester, WV, and to extend Interstate 68 from I-79 near Morgantown, WV westward to WV Route 2 along the Ohio River Valley, some 73 miles (see