Bradford County | Energy Companies | Expand Energy | Jay-Bee Oil & Gas | JKLM Energy | Pennsylvania | Pleasants County | Seneca Resources | Tioga County (PA) | Weekly Permits | West Virginia | Wetzel County
15 New Shale Well Permits Reported for PA-OH-WV Jul 27 – Aug 2
The Marcellus/Utica region received (as near as we can tell) 15 new drilling permits last week, July 27 – August 2, down 4 from two weeks ago. The reason for our hesitation is that the Ohio Department of Natural Resources didn’t issue a report for last week. They sometimes are tardy in their report filing, catching it up in the next week’s report. The drillers who received new permits included: Seneca Resources (6), Expand Energy (6), JKLM Energy (2), and Jay-Bee Oil & Gas (1). Read More “15 New Shale Well Permits Reported for PA-OH-WV Jul 27 – Aug 2”
EQT Corporation, the largest driller in the Marcellus/Utica (based on M-U production), recently achieved two records with the same Marcellus well. EQT drilled not only the “deepest” shale well in the continental U.S. (by “measured depth”), but also the longest horizontal shale well (by lateral length). EQT’s Longwell 9H well, located in Wetzel County, West Virginia (near the Pennsylvania border), eclipses a record set by Expand Energy in 2025 in Marshall County, WV. 
In August, the parents of four children under the age of 18 (from three families) filed a lawsuit on their kids’ behalf against EQT subsidiaries EQT Production Company and EQT XL Midstream Operating, claiming that emissions from a nearby compressor station and nearby shale wells operated by EQT have led to severe health-related problems for the kids (see 
Pipelines in West Virginia (like most other states) pay property taxes. It’s a significant revenue generator for counties. There are many pipelines in Wetzel County, including three NGL pipelines owned and operated by MarkWest (aka MPLX) that connect to the Mobley Gas Plant. In 2022, MarkWest filed a tax return for the pipelines showing a 35% reduction in value due to less-than-forecasted pipeline usage, a concept called “economic obsolescence based on inutility.” The County Assessor for Wetzel County challenged MarkWest’s claim.