Expand 3Q: NE PA Gas Throttled Back, Rigs Cut, New CEO Begins
Expand Energy, the nation’s largest natural gas producer (for now, anyway), released its third quarter 2026 update on Tuesday and held its earnings call on Wednesday. It was new CEO Danny Brown’s third day on the job. Expand produced 7.54 Bcfe/d (billion cubic feet equivalent per day) in 3Q, up 2.8% from a year ago. Net income came in at $519 million ($2.24/share), down from $547 million ($2.28/share) in 3Q25. But adjusted net income, which strips out hedging paper gains and one-time items, jumped 44% to $338 million ($1.46/share). Expand’s Northeast PA operations were deliberately throttled back (“curtailed”) because in-basin prices stunk, and those curtailments are carrying into 4Q. Below we sort out what matters for landowners, competitors, the supply chain, and investors. Read More “Expand 3Q: NE PA Gas Throttled Back, Rigs Cut, New CEO Begins”
In June, we told you that 194 landowners in Salem Township (Luzerne County, near Berwick) were lining up to become AI millionaires by selling their land for a giant new data center project (see 
Wall Street’s hedge funds have placed their biggest bet against natural gas prices in more than six years. They’re wagering that a “Super El Niño” will give the U.S. a warm, wimpy winter and leave way too much gas sitting in storage. They may be right. But the last time hedge funds loaded up on the short side of gas heading into winter (this past January!), Mother Nature handed them their heads. 
The Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC) is leading a three-state push by Appalachian drillers to get the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act (BAAJA, S. 5653) over the finish line. The timing is no accident. When the U.S. Senate returns from its campaign break on Monday, November 9, the first thing it will do is take a make-or-break procedural vote on this permitting reform bill. Here’s where things stand: who’s lined up for it, who’s lined up against it, and why a bill about paperwork matters to every landowner and driller in the Marcellus/Utica. 
In August, MDN told you about two federal lawsuits, filed six days apart by Big Green groups, aimed at killing Nationwide Permit 12 (NWP 12). That’s the Army Corps of Engineers permit that lets pipelines cross streams and wetlands without a separate federal review at every single crossing (see 
Mike Rowe, of “Dirty Jobs” fame, sat down with EQT CEO Toby Rice for a 77-minute episode of his podcast, 
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Central Pa. township approves conditional use for proposed data center; How a lifelong Republican came to lead the data center battle in Ohio; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Google revealed as user for potential data center campus in Goochland’s West Creek; NATIONAL: U.S. natural gas futures gain as November contract expires; Baker Hughes announces third-quarter 2026 results; GE Vernova to buy grid-equipment manufacturer for $9 billion as energy demand grows; Trump says high gas price a ‘short-term pain’; Data centers soar despite opposition; Climate anxiety? Just teach both sides (a cure in waiting); America closes refineries while the rest of the world races to build them; U.S. propane’s surplus is nearly gone heading into winter; INTERNATIONAL: Oil rises with Iran attack report, Israeli election in focus; Saudi oil exports booming despite attacks; European gas touches €100 for first time since 2022 energy crisis; Globalists’ climate grift returns in full force; Natural gas is losing its grip across key power markets. 
EQT, the biggest driller in the Marcellus/Utica, released its third-quarter 2026 numbers after the market closed yesterday. Normally we’d also have a call where CEO Toby Rice and CFO Jeremy Knop take analysts’ questions. Not this time. Two days after agreeing to buy Range Resources (
Wait a minute. Didn’t the EPA already fix the Biden-era “Quad O” methane regs? Back in April, MDN told you the EPA had issued a final Quad O rule (see 
Range Resources, the company that drilled the very first Marcellus Shale well back in 2004 on the Renz farm in Washington County, filed its third quarter 2026 update yesterday. It’s likely one of the last quarterly reports Range will file as an independent company. EQT announced Monday that it will buy Range in an all-stock deal worth about $13 billion (see 
On Monday, we brought you the news that EQT Corporation is swallowing Range Resources in an all-stock deal that values Range at roughly $12.8 billion and creates a combined company worth more than $50 billion, including debt (see 
There’s a new name in shale with “Appalachia” on its list of regions, and we’re not sure yet what it owns here. It’s called NEQ Operating. Last May, we told you that NextEra Energy, the Florida utility giant, was buying a Quantum-backed shale investor called Caliber Resource Partners for $1.3 billion, and that it was setting up a 50/50 joint venture with Quantum to run its oil and gas business (see 
Anthropic, the San Francisco company behind the Claude artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot, filed its initial public offering (IPO) paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday (Oct. 26). Buried in the 318-page prospectus, in a risk section titled “Electrical Power and Fuel Constraints,” is an admission that should make every Marcellus/Utica driller, pipeline company, and royalty owner sit up and take notice: some of Anthropic’s planned data centers will run on their own dedicated, on-site natural gas-fired power plants. And Anthropic’s big worry isn’t the gas itself. It’s getting enough pipeline capacity to deliver it. 
Here’s a story that made us smile this morning. EQT, about to become the country’s biggest natural gas producer once its ~$12.8 billion takeover of Range Resources closes, is leasing two brand-new LNG tankers. And EQT is naming them… wait for it… the Marcellus and the Utica! The ships arrive in 2028. Meanwhile, EQT plans to start trading LNG cargoes as soon as next year, open offices in London and Singapore, and possibly lease up to 10 more ships. Appalachian gas, on EQT-leased ships, with the names of our two great shale plays painted on the side. What’s not to love?