Utica Shale Play Resurgence is Real – It’s Time to Get Excited!

Guy Coviello, President and CEO of the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber of Commerce, is jazzed about the resurging Utica Shale and says it’s time to get excited about it. In a recent column, Coviello said it’s time “to once again embrace our friends in the oil and gas industry, for our policymakers to invest in the…

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20 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Sep 30 – Oct 6

There were 20 permits issued to drill new shale wells in Marcellus/Utica for the week of Sept. 30 – Oct. 6, down eight from the 28 issued the prior week. The Keystone State (PA) had eight new permits, with five going to Southwestern Energy (now Expand Energy following a merger with Chesapeake) in both Susquehanna…

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Utica Shale Academy Transforms Community Through Education

Federal, state and local officials gathered Aug. 23 to cut the ribbon outside the Utica Shale Academy Energy Training Center’s newly expanded space in Salineville (click for larger version) The Utica Shale Academy (USA), located in Salineville (Columbiana County), OH, is already a decade old. Where does the time go?! The USA, through an innovative…

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Ohio About to Net $60+ Million for Drilling Under State Parks

A request by the Ohio Office of Budget and Management (OBM) to set up two new bank accounts to accept payments from drillers is the tipoff that drilling is about to begin under some of Ohio’s state land, including state parks. The state will receive nearly $60 million in lease signing bonus payments to drill…

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Gassy Northern Utica in Ohio Turns Oily Thanks to Encino Energy

Encino Energy purchased Chesapeake Energy’s Ohio oil and gas assets (including Utica Shale assets) in 2018 for $2 billion (see Encino Takes Over from Chesapeake in Ohio Utica; Big Plans). A few months later, Encino CEO Hardy Murchison and COO Ray Walker (formerly of Range Resources) told attendees at a conference they would do oil…

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Utica Drilling in Columbiana County, OH, Came Alive in November

Columbiana County, OH, located in the northern portion of the Utica Shale play in the Buckeye State, has recently come roaring back to life. In 2022, there were 41 permits issued to drill in the Utica in Columbiana County. So far, in 2023, there have been 35 permits issued to drill in Columbiana County. But…

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14 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Nov 20 – 26

New shale permits issued for Nov 20 – 26 in the Marcellus/Utica was anemic but better than the prior pathetic report of just a single new permit (see 1 New Shale Well Permit Issued for PA-OH-WV Nov 13 – 19). There were 14 new permits issued last week. Last week’s permit tally included 7 new…

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22 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Nov 6 – 12

New shale permits issued for Nov 6 – 12 in the Marcellus/Utica slipped but still turned in a respectable number. There were 22 new permits issued last week, versus 37 issued the week before. Last week’s permit tally included 6 new permits in Pennsylvania, 16 new permits in Ohio, and no new permits in West…

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OGLMC Votes to Allow Fracking Under Ohio’s Salt Fork State Park

Yesterday, the Ohio Oil & Gas Land Management Commission (OGLMC) met in a public forum and voted to allow shale drilling under (not on top of) three different state-owned tracts of land: all 20,000 acres of Salt Fork State Park in Guernsey County, more than 300 acres of Valley Run Wildlife Area in Carroll County,…

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Leasing in Columbiana County Picks Up; Bonuses & Royalties Down

Once upon a time (roughly 12 years ago), Chesapeake Energy and other shale drillers were leasing property in Columbiana County, OH, in deals that often paid $6,000 per acre for a signing bonus and granted 20% royalties for any oil or gas produced. According to an analysis by the Youngstown Business Journal, those days are…

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18 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Jul 31 – Aug 6

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…

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31 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Jul 17-23

New shale permits issued for Jul 17-23 in the Marcellus/Utica saw a nice increase. There were 31 new permits issued last week, up from the 23 issued the previous week. Last week’s permit tally included 13 new permits in Pennsylvania, 8 new permits in Ohio, and 10 new permits in West Virginia. The top permittee…

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17 New Shale Well Permits Issued for OH-WV (Not PA) Jul 10-16

We’re trying not to sound too PO’d (personally offended) here, but once again, in what seems to be an every month or two occurrence, the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) online oil and gas permitting database is throwing an error. So, we are left with no permit numbers for PA for the week of…

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Hilcorp Well Leak in Columbiana OH Fixed, Evacuees Return Home

Yesterday MDN brought you the news that a third-party contractor “struck a well head” on a Hilcorp shale well pad in Columbiana County, Ohio, resulting in a leak that forced the evacuation of 450 people within a mile of the well site (see Columbiana County, OH Evacuates 450 After Hilcorp Gas Well Accident). Good news….

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Columbiana County, OH Evacuates 450 After Hilcorp Gas Well Accident

Roughly 450 people within a one-mile radius of a Hilcorp Energy well pad in Fairfield Township (Columbiana County, OH) were evacuated following a mishap at the pad. Hilcorp says a third-party contractor “struck a well head” on the pad around 9:00 a.m. Tuesday, causing natural gas to leak into the air. What does that mean,…

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