The Marcellus Shale | May 2022
Field Overview
The Marcellus Shale is the largest gas play onshore in the US. Located in the Northeast, it supplies the high-demand markets along the East Coast. Most of the basin’s gas is produced through unconventional methods, while the little oil produced is mostly by conventional means. Some of the top formations include the Onondaga and the Huntersville.
State Drilling Statistics
Active Drilling Rigs in Basin- 39 (
+2)
Total Rigs in Pennsylvania- 25 (+2)
Total Rigs in United States- 753 (+25)
Total U.S. Rigs 60% YTD
State Permitting Data
Permits Approved – 85
Marcellus Top Producers
Top Producer By BOE – Chesapeake
Basin Highlights
The Streambed Loophole
The administration has claimed it was “finding the correct balance” between economic and environmental concerns since Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf put a moratorium on new oil and gas leases on state forest and state park lands in 2015. Wolf’s executive decree, however, did not prevent all new leases on publicly held land. Pennsylvania has continued to lease thousands of acres of state-owned streambeds, bringing in tens of millions of dollars in additional revenue. For public lands under the governor’s jurisdiction, the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources has leasing authority. According to DCNR Press Secretary Wesley Robinson, the embargo did not apply to streambeds.
Industry Sues on Grounds of Fairness
Three trade groups representing Pennsylvania’s conventional oil and gas industry are suing the state’s environmental regulators to prevent a new rule on methane and other air pollution from being applied to their well sites. According to the industry groups, the state Department of Environmental Protection created a single rule that applies to both conventional and unconventional well sites “in blatant disregard” of a 2016 state law requiring conventional wells to be regulated separately from those tapping the Marcellus and Utica shales. When the DEP drafted the regulation, it rejected that reasoning, which largely reflects federal criteria that the state must comply with by mid-June or risk fines, including the loss of federal transportation funds. In a letter received by the commission this past month., the DEP withdrew the rule from consideration by the state’s Independent Regulatory Review Commission at its forthcoming hearing on May 19.
Operators with Most Permits in PA
| Rank | Company | Permits Approved |
| 1 | Range Resources | 18 |
| 2 | Chesapeake | 11 |
| 3 | Seneca Resources | 8 |
| 4 | Repsol | 7 |
| 5 | BKV | 5 |
Top Producers By Gas
| Change | Rank | Company | Gas Production (MCF) (2/22) |
| – | 1 | Chesapeake | 92.9 |
| – | 2 | Coterra Energy | 74.3 |
| – | 3 | Range Resources | 56.4 |
| – | 4 | EQT | 54.9 |
| – | 5 | Rice Drilling | 44.4 |
Rig Count
PA Oil Production
PA Natural Gas Production
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