16 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Apr 29 – May 5
Two weeks ago, during the week of April 22 – 28, there were 26 new permits issued to drill in the Marcellus/Utica. Last week, for April 29 – May 5, there were just 16 new permits issued. Encino Energy was the top receiver of permits with 7 permits between two counties: Carroll and Harrison, both in Ohio. EQT (mainly under its Rice Drilling name) received 5 permits between Fayette and Greene counties in Pennsylvania. INR picked up 2 new permits in Guernsey County, OH. Both LOLA Energy and Chesapeake Energy picked up 1 new permit for Butler and Sullivan counties in Pennsylvania.
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Ascent Resources, founded as American Energy Partners by gas legend Aubrey McClendon, is a privately held company focusing 100% on the Ohio Utica Shale. Ascent, headquartered in Oklahoma City, OK, is Ohioâs largest natural gas producer and the 8th largest natural gas producer in the U.S. The company issued its first quarter 2024 update yesterday. The company boasts that 70% of the Ohio Utica’s top 40 wells (by production, converted to equivalents) were drilled by Ascent. A statement by CEO Jeff Fisher in the update says the company remains focused on “costs, efficiencies and margins” in 2024 in order to drive free cash flow.
Epsilon Energy issued its first quarter 2024 update yesterday. Epsilon, a relatively small company, used to concentrate most of its effort on developing Marcellus Shale wells. However, over the past few years, the company has expanded into other plays and now owns assets in the Anadarko (Oklahoma and Texas) and the Permian (Texas and New Mexico). Epsilon typically does not do its own drilling. The company joint venture partners with (gives money to) other companies, like Chesapeake Energy (in the Marcellus), and the other company does the drilling. Epsilon’s capital expenditures were $21.4 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2024, primarily related to work in Texas and the completion of 7 gross (0.7 net) Marcellus wells in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania.
In March, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro traveled to Scranton, PA, to announce a proposal to âimmediately pull Pennsylvania out of a multi-state carbon cap-and-trade programâ (the so-called Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI) and instead enroll PA in its very own RGGI-like carbon tax program (see
The environmental left is now attempting to co-opt the term “Evangelical Christian,” defined as protestants who tend to be pro-life and conservative in their political views. We’re here to expose them for who they really are. We’re talking about the so-called Evangelical Environmental Network (EEN) that keeps trying to pressure Pennsylvania to adopt unreliable renewable energy (by government fiat) and to force residents to dump their use of fossil energy. The EEN claims to be “pro-life” and “conservative” in their press releases. We question those statements. Our observation over the years is that EEN supports extreme leftwing Democrat policies ONLY, and they NEVER support any Republican energy policies in Harrisburg. NEVER. We don’t know about their use of the word “Christian” (that’s between them and God), but we can assure you they aren’t conservative. They certainly aren’t Evangelical in the traditional sense of that word.
Canadian-based Enbridge operates, among many other assets, the Dawn Hub in the Canadian province of Ontario. Located in southwestern Ontario, Dawn, with 288 Bcf (billion cubic feet) of gas storage, provides shippers with direct access to North Americaâs major supply basins — including the Utica and the Marcellus. The Dawn Hub is connected to a myriad of pipelines, including Rover and NEXUS from the M-U region. The new news is that Enbridge has just launched an open season for “peak storage services” at the Dawn Hub storage facility for service beginning as early as April 1, 2025.
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: New polling shows 3 in 4 voters believe natgas is essential; Natgas company owner sentenced in federal conspiracy case; NATIONAL: JP Morgan analysts talk Trump 2.0 and commodity impact; Propane prices were slightly lower this winter compared with last; Build it, and the wind wonât come; INTERNATIONAL: UK shelves hydrogen town trial; Panama Canal in talks with US LNG producers to increase transit; As Europe deindustrializes, can economic suicide be avoided?; Canada’s oil and gas industry soars to new heights.
In October 2020, a law firm filed a lawsuit on behalf of several Cabot Oil & Gas shareholders against Cabot (now Coterra Energy), claiming the company âhad inadequate environmental controls and procedures and/or failed to properly mitigate known issues related to those controls and procedures,â and that the company âfailed to fix faulty gas wells which polluted Pennsylvaniaâs water supplies through stray gas migrationâ (see 
The odious and disgusting Food & Water Watch (FWW) organization (anti-fossil fuel fanatics) has taken point on the left’s effort to block Iroquois Gas Transmission’s plan to upgrade compressor stations in the Empire State. Iroquois’ Enhancement by Compression (ExC) project increases horsepower at three compression stations â two in New York and one in Connecticut â by an extra 125 MMcf/d, flowing more Marcellus/Utica gas into New York City and New England. Less than two weeks ago, FWW announced it had recruited 5,000 drones (no doubt paying some of them) to write comments against ExC in an effort to give New Yorkâs weak Governor, Kathy Hochul, political cover to reject ExC (see
Two days ago, MDN brought you an extensive article from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that delves into the thorny issue of who should pay to plug some of the 200,000+ orphaned and abandoned wells in Pennsylvania (see
The Bidenistas at the EPA attacked coal and gas-fired power plants in April, threatening to destabilize the existing electric power grid with new regulations (see
In April, the Bidenistas at the EPA attacked coal and gas-fired power plants, threatening to destabilize the existing electric power grid (see
There is no mystery about why we are experiencing the highest inflation rates since 1981 (see historical inflation data below). One of the highest costs associated with any good or service is the cost of energy. Joe Biden and his gang of lefties have driven the cost of energy into the stratosphere since taking office, using a regulatory bludgeon to block the expansion of fossil energy. The Bidenistas use the false premise of man-made catastrophic global warming as their raison d’ĂȘtre — their justification — for blocking fossil energy. And yet China and India together produce 40% of the world’s CO2 emissions, while the U.S. produces just 12.6% of the world’s CO2 emissions. So please, don’t lecture us that removing a few more molecules of CO2 here in the U.S. makes one bit of difference when other countries like China and India constantly expand their output of CO2. The only result of the Bidenista’s quest to regulate fossil energy into oblivion is to skyrocket the cost of energy.