Ugly…U.S. Rig Count Drops Another 5 Rigs, M-U Drops 2 More Rigs

It’s gettin’ ugly out there. For the fifth week in a row and the 14th in the last 15 weeks, the U.S. active rig count lost rigs. Last week the number decreased by ANOTHER five rigs, after falling five rigs the week before, and five the week before that–now down to 654 active rigs across…

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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…

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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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EOG Essentially Confirms DT Midstream Building Its Utica Pipeline

In 2020, EOG Resources, one of the largest oil and gas drillers in the U.S. (with international operations in Trinidad and China), sold *all* of its Marcellus assets, which were located in Bradford County, PA, to Tilden Resources for $130 million (see EOG Resources Sells Marcellus Assets for $130M, Exits Basin). EOG left the M-U…

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U.S. Rig Count Drops Another 5 Rigs, M-U Loses 1 More Rig

For the fourth week in a row and the 13th time in the last 14 weeks, the U.S. active rig count lost rigs. It’s grueling. Last week the number decreased by five rigs after falling five rigs the week before–now down to 659 active rigs across both oil and gas. The Marcellus dropped one rig…

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29 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Jul 24-30

New shale permits issued for Jul 24-30 in the Marcellus/Utica were down just a couple, but still a nice number. There were 29 new permits issued last week, down from the 31 issued the previous week. Last week’s permit tally included 22 new permits in Pennsylvania, 7 new permits in Ohio, and no new permits…

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Gulfport Drilling Marcellus (Not Utica) Wells in Belmont Co., OH

Gulfport Energy, the third-largest driller in the Ohio Utica Shale (by the number of wells drilled), emerged from bankruptcy in May 2021 with a new board and top management. In January of this year, the company appointed a new CEO, John Reinhart, the former President and CEO of M-U driller Montage Resources Corporation before that…

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DT Midstream Makes FID on New Greenfield Pipeline in Ohio Utica

DT Midstream (DTM), headquartered in Detroit, owns major assets in the Marcellus/Utica region and other regions. DTM issued its second quarter 2023 update yesterday. The company announced it had reached a final investment decision (FID) to build a new greenfield gathering system in the Ohio Utica Shale. The gathering system will transport associated gas from…

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U.S. Rig Count Drops Another 5 Rigs, M-U Loses 2 More Rigs

For the third week in a row and the 12th time in the last 13 weeks, the U.S. active rig count lost rigs. Last week the number decreased by five rigs after falling six rigs the week before (see U.S. Rig Count Drops Another 6 Rigs, Now Lowest Level in 16 Mos.). Both the Marcellus…

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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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Mountain Valley Pipeline Politicos Talk A Good Game, But…

Mountain Valley Pipeline Politicos Talk A Good Game, But… Jim Willis on NGL Pipelines Editor & Publisher, Marcellus Drilling News (MDN)   [Editor’s Note: The politicos supporting the Mountain Valley Pipeline are talking a good game but only impeachment of tyrant judges will do if they want to end the nonsense.] On Tuesday, U.S. Senator Joe Manchin

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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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OH Court to Rule on Challenge of Law Allowing Drilling Under Parks

In January, Ohio House Bill (HB) 507 became law with the signature of Gov. Mike DeWine (see OH Gov. Signs Bill Expanding Drilling in State Parks, NatGas “Green”). The new law allows shale drilling under (but not on top of) Ohio state-owned land. HB 507 encourages (pushes for) more drilling under state-owned land. Even though…

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800,000 Tons of Drilling, Frack Waste Unaccounted for in NY-PA-OH

Researchers with the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) recently published a study in the journal Ecological Indicators. The study’s intent was to measure whether or not frack waste dumped in local landfills has radiation that is leaking out in groundwater (leachate) from those facilities. Research like this, if legitimate (and accurate), is a good thing. We…

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Decisions on Drilling Under OH State Parks Coming “Next Few Months”

In early June, shale drillers could, for the first time, begin to apply for permits to drill under (not on top of) Ohio state lands and state parks under newly formulated rules established by the Ohio Oil & Gas Land Management (OGLM) Commission (see Ohio State Lands Now Open for O&G Leasing – Virtual Ribbon-Cutting)….

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