Pennsylvania collected $278.9 million in impact fees from unconventional natural gas producers last year, the highest amount on record after prices continued increasing and more shale wells were drilled. 

Producers paid $44 million more for the 2022 reporting year than they did in 2021, according to the state’s Public Utility Commission (PUC). The PUC attributed the gain to an increase in the price of natural gas, which averaged $6.64/MMBtu on the New York Mercantile Exchange in 2022, compared with $3.84 during the prior year. 

The commission also said 574 new horizontal wells were drilled last year, an increase of nearly 11% from 2021 and the second consecutive year of annual drilling increases, which helped boost collections. 

The impact fee is a stand-in for severance...