Bankrupt Rex Energy has most of its gas well permits in Butler Co.
More than 75 percent of Rex Energy's gas well permits issued by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection were in Butler County.
Rex Energy invested heavily in the area, with permits for 321 wells on 76 well pads, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Office of Oil and Gas Management Operator Well Pad and Well Inventory reports.
Its future in the area remains to be seen after Rex Energy filed Friday for federal bankruptcy protection. A hearing for First Day Motions was held Tuesday morning in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Pittsburgh.
The State College-based oil and gas company filed for Chapter 11 protection after it defaulted on a debt payment in April. Rex also failed to deliver timely financial statements to lenders and failed to provide lenders with accurate notices of the company's financial troubles.
Company lenders committed $100 million to ensure operations continue as normal during the debt restructuring. The company also plans to continue making royalty payments to well, subject to bankruptcy court approval.
A Rex Energy spokesman reported the company has 212 active wells on 81 well pads in Pennsylvania under the name RE Gas Dev LLC.
According to the DEP Office of Oil and Gas Management Operator Well Pad and Well Inventory reports, RE Gas Dev has 425 gas, oil and combined oil and gas wells statewide on 84 pads operating under the name Re Gas Dev LLC. Of those 409 are gas wells, 227 are listed as active.
In Butler County, 321 RE Gas Dev wells are in various states of activity, the DEP's Well Inventory report states, with 210 listed as active.
Active means the permit was issued but the well may or may not have been drilled or is producing, but it has not been plugged.
Rex got permits issued for 66, but reported back to the DEP that the wells were never drilled. Additionally, 10 were permitted but the permits expired before drilling commenced.
Rex reported 23 wells are plugged and 12 were in “regulatory inactive status,” which means the well is capable of producing, but the operator requested a temporary shut in.
Rex Energy also has 57 well permits in the state under the name Rex Energy Operating Corp., with 34 of those in Butler County, according to the Well Inventory report. However most of those wells were either permitted, but Rex Energy reported not drilling them or permitted but the permits expired.
Drilling dates for the RE Gas Dev LLC go back to November 2006, according to the DEP's Well Inventory report. The most recent drilling was March 2 at the Bloom Unit 4H and Bloom Unit 8H at a well in Connoquenessing Township.
Rex Energy was founded in 2007 and has offices in Cranberry Township.
Rex Energy, headquartered in State College, was founded in 2007 and has been shedding assets since 2012. It most recently sold off non-operated oil and gas assets in Centre, Clearfield and Westmoreland counties.
