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WV Developer Must Pay Nearly $1M for Trespass re Marcellus Lease

In December a jury in Ritchie County, WV awarded the county’s Economic Development Authority (EDA) nearly $1 million in damages in a trespassing case. The case is complicated, but at its heart is the issue of a Marcellus-focused company, Ronald Lane Inc., and land Lane deeded to the local EDA. A lawsuit against Lane alleged the company leased the deeded land for “oil and gas purposes” (to Columbia Gas as a heavy equipment storage facility) and that Lane never told the EDA about the lease nor shared the profits received from that lease.
Read More “WV Developer Must Pay Nearly $1M for Trespass re Marcellus Lease”

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20 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Nov 8-14

Four weeks ago the total number of permits issued in the Marcellus/Utica was 22. Three weeks ago it fell to 9. Two weeks ago the numbers picked up somewhat, with 16 new permits. Last week? There was a combined 20 new shale permits. However, the usual order of things with Pennsylvania dominating the new permit numbers was turned upside down. Last week PA only had 2 new permits (can’t remember the number being that low for months, if ever). OH issued a whopping 11 new permits, and WV issued 7 new permits.
Read More “20 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Nov 8-14”

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WV Landowners Left Out of EQT Class Action Can’t Sue Now

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 EQT Settles WV Class Action Royalty Lawsuit for $53.5M). EQT agreed to pay $53.5 million into a settlement fund that will disburse payments to each individual litigant–unless they elected to opt out of the settlement and continue on with a private lawsuit against EQT. Several landowners say they were not given the opportunity to join (or opt out of) the class action, so they launched their own new/separate lawsuit. A federal judge has just shut them down.
Read More “WV Landowners Left Out of EQT Class Action Can’t Sue Now”

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Weekly Shale Drilling Permits for PA, OH, WV: Jul 5-11

Last week not a whole lot of permit action was goin’ on. Pennsylvania scored only a single (1) new permit. We can’t remember the last time that happened! The PA permit was for a well that will be drilled by EQT in Greene County. Ohio’s Utica got skunked with no new permits. West Virginia rode in to save the day, posting 5 new permits–4 of them for Tug Hill and 1 for Antero Resources.
Read More “Weekly Shale Drilling Permits for PA, OH, WV: Jul 5-11”

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Weekly Shale Drilling Permits for PA, OH, WV: Jun 28-Jul 4

All three Marcellus/Utica states received permits to drill new shale wells last week. Pennsylvania issued 12 new permits, 7 of them in the northeast PA dry gas region and 5 in the southwest wet gas region. Ohio issued 3 new permits, all of them for the same driller in Carroll County. (The Ohio driller is brand new!) And West Virginia issued 6 new permits with 5 of the 6 going to Antero Resources.
Read More “Weekly Shale Drilling Permits for PA, OH, WV: Jun 28-Jul 4”

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Peregrine Energy Partners Buys More Royalty Rights in SWPA & WV

Peregrine Energy Partners, headquartered in Dallas, Texas, continues a program to buy royalty rights in the Marcellus/Utica. In January 2019 we told you about Peregrine’s purchase of rights from undisclosed sellers in southwest PA (see Peregrine Energy Buys Royalty Rights in Greene County, PA). In March of this year, Peregrine purchased more rights, in Fayette County, PA. Yesterday the company announced they’ve purchased yet another round of rights–in Washington, PA and two counties in WV.
Read More “Peregrine Energy Partners Buys More Royalty Rights in SWPA & WV”

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EQT Provides More Details on DGO Asset Sale, 1.4 Bcf/d Curtailment

EQT announced yesterday it has closed on a deal to sell “certain non-strategic assets” to Diversified Gas & Oil (DGO) for $125 million, plus another potential $20 million later on. MDN first told you about this deal on May 13 (see Diversified Buys 900 EQT Wells (67 Shale Wells) for $125M). This is the first time EQT has commented publicly on the DGO deal. EQT’s statement differs from previous news accounts about the deal.
Read More “EQT Provides More Details on DGO Asset Sale, 1.4 Bcf/d Curtailment”

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EQT Loses Post-Production Deduction Lawsuit to WV Couple

It’s this kind of story that makes our blood boil–we won’t lie. EQT tried to shaft an elderly couple in Ritchie County, West Virginia out of royalty money by slipping in not only post-production deductions never agreed to in the contract, but also by slipping in a deduction for WV severance taxes owed by EQT itself. Maddening!
Read More “EQT Loses Post-Production Deduction Lawsuit to WV Couple”

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Antero Forms JV with MarkWest to Service Combined 360K WV Acres

Marathon Petroleum subsidiary MarkWest Energy and Antero Resources’ midstream subsidiary Antero Midstream have announced a 50/50 joint venture focused on gathering and processing natural gas and natural gas liquids in northern West Virginia (Tyler, Wetzel and Richie counties). Antero Midstream will contribute its gathering operations for 195,000 acres in WV, boosting MarkWest’s total WV Marcellus gathering operation to a huge 360,000 acres. In addition, the JV will add three new processing plants to MarkWest’s Sherwood Complex in Doddridge County, WV. And get this: the JV contemplates building another eight (!) processing plants at Sherwood and a new/second location. Antero expects to invest “up to $800 million” through 2020, and has already made an initial $155 million investment. We think it’s no coincidence that on the same day Antero Midstream announced the deal (yesterday), they also announced a new round of units (i.e. shares of stock) they hope to pedal to raise $198 million. Here’s the details on the JV deal between Antero and MarkWest…
Read More “Antero Forms JV with MarkWest to Service Combined 360K WV Acres”

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WV DEP Fines Antero Resources $93K for “Pollution” of Streams

The West Virginia Dept. of Environmental Protection has gotten a signed consent order from Antero Resources assessing a fine of $93,000 on the company for “pollution” of waterways in several WV counties related to installing pipelines. So says a single Associated Press article. We can find nothing about this story from another other news source than the AP. Not on the WV DEP website. Not on Antero’s website. We scoured the web. We scoured our own MDN archives. Nada. Just a single AP story currently running in dozens of newspapers and in other media outlets/websites across the country. Here is the entire, very brief AP story with sparse details…
Read More “WV DEP Fines Antero Resources $93K for “Pollution” of Streams”

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GreenHunter Resources 1Q15: Bets the Ranch on OH Injection Wells

A lot of news to report about GreenHunter Resources, the fresh water and wastewater subsidiary of Magnum Hunter Resources, focused totally on the Marcellus and Utica Shale region. On Friday GreenHunter released their first quarter 2015 update and held an earnings call with analysts. If we could sum it up in our own layman’s terms–we’d say GreenHunter is currently treading water (pun intended) as they wait to turn around their lack of revenue by bringing online a series of wastewater injection wells in both Ohio and West Virginia. Although GreenHunter’s COO Kirk Trosclair rightly pointed out the company has gotten much more efficient–driving down costs–there’s no papering over the fact that GreenHunter’s revenues for 1Q15 were down 39% from the same quarter in 2014 ($5.1 million in 1Q15 vs. $8.5 million in 1Q14). Which seems odd as GreenHunter’s CEO, Gary Evans, said that the company currently turns down 20 to 25,000 barrels a day of water that they can’t handle because they are currently “full.” GreenHunter currently has two operating injection wells at their Mills Hunter facility, located in Meigs County, OH and one injection well operating in Ritchie County, WV. By the end of June they plan to have six wells operating at the Mills facility and a second well at the Ritchie location…
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US Coast Guard Approves Brine Shipping via Barge on Ohio River

Big NewsSome big news coming from GreenHunter Resources, the wastewater disposal arm of MagnumHunter Resources. As MDN has chronicled for the past several years, MagnumHunter has been trying to secure a permit from the U.S. Coast Guard to transport frack wastewater via barges down the Ohio River. The Coast Guard floated a preliminary plan to allow it all the way back in November 2013 (see More on Coast Guard Plan to Allow Barging of Frack Wastewater). However, until now, they have withheld permission due to meddling by The White House and other federal agencies. According to a conference call last week, MagnumHunter/GreenHunter officials said the Coast Guard “quietly” granted permission in December to allow them to begin barge shipments down the Ohio River. The permission apparently applies only to brine, or “produced water” and not flowback for frack wastewater…
Read More “US Coast Guard Approves Brine Shipping via Barge on Ohio River”

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Wirt County WV Coalition Still in Hunt for a Deal – Who With?

Last summer it seemed like a deal to lease 241,000 acres of land in the Wood, Ritchie, Calhoun, Roane, Jackson and Wirt County area was imminent (see Wirt County Landowner Group Close to Deal for Huge 241K Acres). But then in October Jim Lydon, chairman of the Wirt County Oil and Gas Group said the deal fell through and they were still shopping for a deal (see Wirt County Landowner Deal Falls Through, Still Searching).

According to Lydon the land in their massive coalition is in the “super wet area” of both the Marcellus and Utica Shale–and indeed he’s right. The group is still searching for a deal and no one is talking (that we can tell) on the record–although an article published yesterday in the Parkersburg News and Sentinel does mention, in passing, a few possible companies that may be talking with the group about a new deal…
Read More “Wirt County WV Coalition Still in Hunt for a Deal – Who With?”

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Magnum Hunter 2014 CapEx: Utica/Marcellus

In our season of 2014 guidance statements, Magnum Hunter Resources has just issued theirs. And what do we find when we open this particular Christmas present? The company will spend $400 million on capital expenditure projects in 2014, and the vast majority of it will go to the Utica and Marcellus Shale. Magnum Hunter plans to lease more acreage in the Marcellus/Utica, increase drilling rigs from two to three, and build out more pipelines in the northeast too. The Ohio Utica is a particular focus for Magnum Hunter in 2014.

Here is their 2014 blueprint, including which counties in OH and WV will see drilling action from Magnum Hunter in 2014:
Read More “Magnum Hunter 2014 CapEx: Utica/Marcellus”

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More on that Half Billion Dollar Antero Water Pipeline in WV

We have a few more helpful details on Antero’s project to build an 80-mile water pipeline from the Ohio River to Tyler and Ritchie counties in West Virginia. The project has been approved and will cost Antero $525 million (that’s over half a billion). However, when complete, the new pipeline and other infrastructure Antero has and is building will reduce their cost to drill a well by $600,000. They plan to drill some 30% of their wells this year using water from this project, and 90% of the wells they drill in 2014.

More information about the project, which Antero has been tight-lipped about:
Read More “More on that Half Billion Dollar Antero Water Pipeline in WV”

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GreenHunter Buys 2 More Wastewater Injection Wells

GreenHunter Energy, a company specializing in treatment and disposal of fracking wastewater, continues to add new wastewater injection wells to its portfolio. Just today they announced they’ve purchased two more injection wells, one in Washington County, OH and the other in Ritchie County, WV. In February of this year, GreenHunter purchased three injection wells, one of which was also in Washington County, OH (see this MDN story).

Here’s the details about the two newest injection wells for GreenHunter:

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