SALEM, Ohio — The Ohio Department of Natural Resources issued 17 new horizontal drilling permits in Belmont County during December, making the county the No. 1 county for permits for the third consecutive month.
Six permits were issued in York Township to Rice Drilling for a single well pad. In Washington Township, there were four permits issued to Gulfport Energy Corporation, and Gulfport also obtained three new permits in York Township.
In Mead Township, XTO Energy received two permits. In Richland Township, a permit was issued to XTO Energy, and in Wheeling Township, a permit was issued to Ascent Resources Utica. To date, the ODNR has issued 310 permits in Belmont County, with 120 wells producing. There are also 113 wells in some sort of drilling phase. In 2015, the ODNR issued 118 permits for sites in the southeastern Ohio county, the most of any county.
Monroe County
The ODNR issued 10 permits in Monroe County in December.
In Salem Township, eight permits were issued to Statoil USA Onshore Properties for one well pad. In Ohio Township, a single permit was issued to Statoil USA Onshore Properties and in Seneca Township, a permit was issued to Antero Resources Corporation. There are now 81 producing wells and 102 in some sort of drilling phase in the county. Monroe County was second in Ohio for the number of permits issued in 2015, at 99 permits.
Carroll County
Chesapeake Energy continues to move forward with drilling plans in Carroll County, receiving three permits in December for sites in Perry Township.
There are now 499 permits issued in Carroll County and 392 wells are producing. Meanwhile, 51 wells remain in some drilling phase. The ODNR issued 50 permits in the county in 2015.
Single permits
The ODNR issued one permit each in Guernsey, Jefferson and Noble counties.
In Guernsey County, the ODNR issued a permit to PDC Energy for a well to be drilled in Wills Township. As of the end of December, there are now 185 total permits in Guernsey County, and so far, 98 wells are producing. There are 57 wells in a drilling phase. The ODNR issued 27 total permits there in 2015.
A single permit was issued by the ODNR to Chesapeake Energy in Knox Township, Jefferson County. According to the ODNR, there are 61 permits in Jefferson County, 14 producing wells and 30 in a drilling phase. In 2015, the ODNR issued 28 permits in the county.
In Noble County, the ODNR issued a single permit to PDC Energy for Seneca Township. The ODNR has now issued 182 permits there to date. So far, there are 102 producing wells and 37 wells in some drilling phase. Forty-seven permits were issued in 2015.
Ohio overall
In December, the ODNR issued a total of 33 permits for wells to be drilled in December, and issued 473 permits throughout the year. The ODNR didn’t issue any new permits in the Marcellus shale during December. There was only one Marcellus shale permit issued in 2015.
Pennsylvania
Washington County led Pennsylvania in the number of permits issued during December. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection issued 55 permits in December in Washington County. The DEP reported there were six shale wells drilled in December in Washington County. However, the DEP reported there were 160 shale wells drilled in 2015 overall. In 2015, the DEP has issued 361 Washington County shale well permits.
Beaver County
In Beaver County, the DEP issued seven permits for new wells during December. In 2015, the DEP issued 49 permits total for Beaver County. The DEP reported no wells being drilled in December. There were four new wells drilled in 2015.
Bradford County
In Bradford County, where the first Marcellus shale wells were originally drilled years ago, the DEP issued seven new permits in December. The DEP issued 224 permits during 2015.
Butler County
In December, the DEP reported there were 10 permits issued in Butler County. The DEP issued 143 permits to sites in the county throughout 2015. The DEP reported there was one shale well drilled in Butler County during December. Overall, there were 85 new wells drilled in 2015.
Greene County
In Greene County, there were 17 new permits issued in December and 325 permits were issued in total over the year. There were three new wells drilled during the month, and throughout the year, 103 wells were drilled.
Lawrence County
The DEP issued five new permits in Lawrence County during December. In 2015, the DEP issued 44 well permits in Lawrence County. Overall, there were six wells drilled in 2015.
West Virginia
Wetzel and Tyler counties continue to be the hot spots for drilling in the shale.
The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection issued four permits for drilling a new well pad in the Marcellus shale. The DEP also issued a single permit for drilling in the Utica shale. The Marcellus shale permits issued are for one piece of property and were issued to Antero Resources Corporation. In the Utica shale, the permit was issued to Jay-Bee Oil and Gas.
In Wetzel County, the DEP issued four permits for new wells in the Marcellus shale.
Two permits were issued to the SWN Production Company and the other two were issued to Ascent Resources-Marcellus.
Two permits
The DEP issued two permits to the SWN Production Company both in Brooke and Marshall county.
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