A very big story is unfolding in the Marcellus/Utica, and nobody else is talking about it. There is a major reshuffling of rigs in the M-U, with Pennsylvania losing active rigs and West Virginia picking them up. Two weeks ago, PA dropped from 21 to 18 active rigs, the lowest count it has had in…
Read More...For the week of Aug. 26 – Sept. 1, a total of 32 permits were issued to drill new shale wells in Marcellus/Utica, nearly matching the previous week’s 34. It’s nice to see the numbers returning to higher levels. The Keystone State (PA) had 18 new permits. PA’s top recipient was EQT (and its subsidiary…
Read More...The big news (for us) with the weekly Baker Hughes rig count is that last week, Pennsylvania laid down its use of three active drilling rigs, resulting in the lowest rig count in the state in 2 1/2 years. PA now operates 18 active rigs, down from 21 the week prior. The last time PA…
Read More...Mason County, WV Last Friday, the West Virginia Economic Development Authority (EDA) approved spending up to $10 million in an economic incentive package for a project that Babcock & Wilcox (B&W) has proposed. B&W plans to invest $125 million in WV’s Mason County to build a hydrogen production facility. One of the inputs (feedstock) for…
Read More...For the week of August 19 – 25, a total of 34 permits were issued to drill new shale wells in Marcellus/Utica. The Keystone State (PA) had 16 new permits. PA’s top recipient was Chesapeake Energy, with six permits in Bradford County. Coterra Energy was a close second, with five new permits issued in neighboring…
Read More...Earlier this month, MDN brought you the important news that just one month after the mighty Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) went online, natural gas production in the State of West Virginia increased more than 9% (see WV Marcellus Production Up 9.5% in One Month Thanks to MVP). We now have data for another full month of…
Read More...Here’s a lawsuit that flew under our radar — until now. Several landowners in West Virginia sued Jay-Bee Oil & Gas, alleging “improper royalty deductions” were made from royalty checks for post-production work from 2010 to 2023. The landowners (their lawyers) convinced a court to turn the lawsuit into a class action. Jay-Bee denies the…
Read More...MDN has an exclusive update on a lawsuit by several West Virginia surface landowners who are suing Diversified Energy over Diversified’s failure to plug their unproducing conventional wells. At the prompting of the Sierra Club, the landowners attempted to turn the lawsuit into a class action. Yesterday, a federal judge for the U.S. District Court…
Read More...We spotted an article on the always-excellent NGI website (the Daily Gas Price Index) that said exploration and production (E&P) permitting activity shows a “summer slump” in natural gas plays, including in the Marcellus/Utica. The information in the article is from data compiled by Enverus and Evercore ISI. So, we decided to review our weekly…
Read More...Tyler County, WV Local media reports a fire at a Jay-Bee Oil & Gas well pad near Big Run in Tyler County, WV, which began last night around 5 p.m. and is still ongoing this morning. There were no injuries. Two different news agencies report that every fire department in the county, plus some from…
Read More...The Fairmont Brine Processing plant, located at 168 AFR Drive in Fairmont (Marion County), West Virginia, was constructed between 2009 and 2010 by AOP Clearwater LLC. The plant was acquired by Fairmont Brine Processing (FBP) in 2012. FBP began pre-treatment operations at the site in 2013 and fully operated the plant beginning fall of 2014….
Read More...This week’s permit report is a bit different. Technically, for the week of August 12 – 18, a total of seven new permits were issued across the Marcellus/Utica. However, last week’s permit report omitted West Virginia numbers because the state’s online data service was out of order (see 26 New Shale Well Permits Issued for…
Read More...U.S. Senator Joe Manchin from West Virginia (aka Traitor Joe) spoke to the Pittsburgh Business Times Wednesday afternoon about a bill he and Republican Sen. John Barrasso (from Wyoming) recently introduced, the Energy Permitting Reform Act of 2024 (see Barrasso, Manchin Release Bipartisan Energy Permitting Reform Bill). Manchin told PBT reporter Paul Gough he thinks…
Read More...Earlier this month, MDN told you that the Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub (ARCH2) has officially received its first $30 million from the Bidenistas (see EQT & Others Enter “Phase 1” of Hydrogen Hub; DOE Cuts $30M Check). ARCH2 is getting $925 million from a $7 billion pot created by the Bidenistas. ARCH2, one of…
Read More...In late 2021, Diversified Energy (formerly Diversified Gas & Oil) announced it had purchased Next LVL Energy, a well-plugging company that concentrates on plugging mainly old conventional oil and gas wells in Appalachia (see Diversified Energy Buys Well-Plugging Co. Next LVL Energy). Next LVL was headquartered in the Pittsburgh region. In early 2023, Diversified moved…
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