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Weekly Shale Drilling Permits for PA, OH, WV: Mar 15-19
Just two of the three M-U states received permits to drill new shale wells last week. Pennsylvania received only 3 new permits for two drillers. One of the two is a completely new company for us! Ohio received 0 new permits last week. And West Virginia received 7 new permits, all for the same company in the same county on the same well pad as all of the permits issued two weeks ago.
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In February West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice announced a plan to eliminate the state’s personal income tax. Who wouldn’t love that idea? But in order to replace the $2.1 billion received annually from the personal income tax, Justice would raise other taxes, including a tiered system that potentially raises the state’s oil and gas severance tax (see 
Shale and conventional oil and gas drillers in West Virginia listen up: If you file for a modification to a previously filed permit request, it’s going to cost you $2,500. Currently, it costs nothing. Senate Bill (SB) 404 passed the Senate last week unanimously. On Wednesday the House of Delegates approved it by a vote of 77-22. We expect Gov. Jim Justice will sign it.
In February 2020, Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) Secretary Pat McDonnell sent a letter to the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA). McDonnell’s letter alleges Shell’s 97-mile, two-legged Falcon pipeline system that will carry ethane to the mighty Shell cracker plant now under construction in Beaver County, PA, “may have been conÂstructed with deÂfecÂtive corÂroÂsion coatÂing proÂtecÂtion.” It’s an explosive charge just coming to light now, more than a year later.
Last week MDN brought you news of a new forced pooling bill under consideration in this year’s West Virginia legislative session (see 
As sure as the seasons change and our long winter is finally turning into spring with the first crocuses popping up through the soil, you can count on another sign of spring: a forced pooling bill will pop up in the 60-day West Virginia legislative session. And so it has. The WV legislature is currently considering two bills, Senate Bill (SB) 538 and House Bill (HB) 2853, called “unitization bills” which is just another word for forced pooling. This time West Virginia University is providing support for forced pooling in the form of a new study claiming forced pooling will “jump-start” a new era of natural gas development.
The pandemic did its best to shut the world down, and maybe it succeeded in shutting down other countries–but not here in the US of A. Against an onslaught of shutdowns (particularly in “blue” states), people staying home, businesses closing, anarchy and chaos in large Democrat cities…and against an onslaught against fossil fuels by environmental Nazis seeking to destroy the economies of the world via bans of oil and natural gas and coal…U.S. natural gas production decreased by just 1 percent last year. Can you believe it? That’s a victory in our book!
A few weeks ago during his “State of the State” address, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice announced a plan to eliminate the state’s personal income tax. Who wouldn’t love that idea? We sure would! But in order to replace the $2.1 billion received annually from the personal income tax, Justice would raise other taxes, including a tiered system that potentially raises the state’s oil and gas severance tax. We don’t like that idea so much. However, the reaction to Justice’s proposal by the Gas and Oil Association of West Virginia (GO-WV) may surprise you.
Yesterday the country’s largest natural gas producer, EQT Corporation, released its 4Q and full-year 2020 update, holding a conference call with analysts to discuss the results. The update shows the company produced an average of 4.45 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) of natural gas in 4Q. Although there was plenty of “free cash flow” for the year, on paper the company lost $967 million in 2020, which is an improvement over the year before when it lost $1.2 billion. Perhaps the biggest news (for us) coming from yesterday’s update is that in 4Q EQT turned its drilling attention to the West Virginia Marcellus. EQT plans to do much more drilling in WV this year too.