Ascent Res. 2Q – Drilled 21 & Fracked 22 Wells, Added 20 to Sales
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 Ohio’s largest natural gas producer (356,700 leased acres) and the 8th largest natural gas producer in the U.S. The company issued its second quarter 2023 update on Wednesday. Ascent’s net production averaged 2.1 Bcfe/d (billion cubic feet equivalent per day) during 2Q23, up 6% over 2Q22 but down from 2.2 Bcfe/d in 1Q23. The company made $250 million in profit during 2Q23, down just a bit from the $285 million it made in 2Q22.
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The KeyState Natural Gas Synthesis project in Clinton County, PA, is developing the first carbon capture project in Pennsylvania, which will locally produce hydrogen, ammonia, and urea (see 
The Williams Regional Energy Access Expansion (REAE) project is a plan to beef up the Transco pipeline in Pennsylvania and New Jersey to deliver an extra 829 MMcf/d of Marcellus gas to PA, NJ, and Maryland. The project is Williams’ alternative to the PennEast Pipeline that got canceled in September 2021 (see 
You never know how Marcellus/Utica gas affects the entire country for the good. Here’s an interesting example. In April, the ARCH2 (Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub) project, the West Virginia-led effort to attract $1 billion of government funding for one of 6-10 regional hydrogen hubs, took a big leap forward with the announcement of a plan to build a “multi-billion-dollar” clean ammonia manufacturing facility in southern West Virginia (see 
Everyone is telling the Bidenistas at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the same thing: Dump the faulty regulations you composed at the last minute that will result in closing most (if not all) of America’s natural gas-fired power plants. The latest group to tell (off) the EPA is the electric grid operators that cover a majority of the residents in the country, including PJM Interconnection, the largest electric grid operator in the U.S., serving 65 million people in 13 states plus the District of Columbia (including PA, OH, and WV). Earlier this week, PJM, Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), Southwest Power Pool (SPP), and Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) submitted joint comments against the EPA’s proposed new regulations.
We guarantee that if an oil and gas company announced it was in the process of drilling 90 boreholes 700 feet deep (through the groundwater table) to extract oil and gas in the bastion of liberalism known as Massachusetts, the leftist mainstream media would have a stroke. There would be protests. There would be nutballs gluing themselves together in plastic PVC pipe in front of the drilling rigs to prevent drilling. The news would make the front page of the Boston Globe, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the LA Times. But if the same company drills 90 boreholes 700 feet deep and calls it “geothermal” … nothing. Not a peep from anyone. Even though geothermal pipes that run through the water table pump something far more dangerous than drilling mud. Bentonite (drilling mud) is the same stuff used in kitty litter and toothpaste. It’s completely non-toxic and safe if it leaks. On the other hand, geothermal systems pump antifreeze through pipes. Eversource, the largest utility company in Massachusetts, announced yesterday it is drilling 90 boreholes in Framingham, MA, and will pump dangerous antifreeze through it to heat local homes, businesses, and a community college. Where is the outrage?
New shale permits issued for Jul 31 – Aug 6 in the Marcellus/Utica were down a lot from the previous week. There were 14 new permits issued last week, down more than half from the 29 issued the previous week. Last week’s permit tally included just 4 new permits in Pennsylvania (very low), 14 new permits in Ohio, and no new permits in West Virginia (for the second week in a row). The top permittee for the week was Encino Energy, receiving 8 permits spread evenly between Harrison and Tuscarawas counties in Ohio.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Manchin ‘thinking seriously’ about leaving Democratic Party; NATIONAL: Hydrogen’s colors hog the spotlight; INTERNATIONAL: OPEC data suggest 2 million barrel per day oil supply deficit; European gas declines as market cools after fears of LNG strikes.
In December 2020, then-Gov. Tom Wolf announced a $2.5 million contract had been awarded to the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) Graduate School of Public Health to “conduct research on the potential health effects of hydraulic fracturing in Pennsylvania” (see 
In 2015 Cunningham Energy, a small oil driller based in West Virginia, struck oil in the Big Injun sandstone formation in Clay County, WV (see 
At the end of May, WhiteHawk Energy, headquartered in Philadelphia with ownership of mineral and royalty interests for 850,000 gross unit acres and over 2,500 producing horizontal shale wells between the Marcellus and the Haynesville, sent a letter to the board and management of PHX Minerals, based in Fort Worth, Texas, owner of 75,000 leased mineral acres principally located in the SCOOP and Haynesville plays. The letter proposes marriage–a combination of the two companies. WhiteHawk received no response and tried again about three weeks later. Still nothing. So WhiteHawk has gone public to catch the attention of PHX shareholders, hoping to convince them to pressure PHX’s board–the M&A equivalent of a shotgun wedding.
Yesterday MDN editor Jim Willis had a nice chat with a renewing MDN subscriber (a landowner with wells and leases in Ohio). The question arose, “What do you see happening right now?” Jim’s response: “As long as the price of natural gas stays below $3, not much!” Jim made the point that price drives this industry, and ongoing prices in the basement aren’t helping. Can we get an amen? Both Jim and the subscriber agreed that gas prices may be heading higher soon. That conversation seems to have been prescient. Yesterday the front-month Henry Hub NYMEX futures price rocketed to a six-week high, close to $3 (closing at $2.96/Mcf). Are we finally going to go above, and stay above, $3 gas?
In May, the Bidenistas at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a hellscape of new regulations (681 pages) aimed at forcing coal- and natural gas-fired power plants to close (see 
Once a month, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) analysts issue the agency’s Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), their best guess about where energy prices and production will go in the next 12 months. The latest monthly report, issued Tuesday, predicts that U.S. natural gas production AND demand will rise to record highs in 2023. EIA projected that dry gas production will rise to 103 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) in 2023 and 104.12 Bcf/d in 2024. The current record high is 98.13 Bcf/d set in 2022.