M-U Drillers Excited About Growing Demand from Nearby Data Centers

Just last week, MDN brought you the news about a new report from Aurora Energy Research that predicts new electricity demand from data centers in northern Virginia could (likely will) hit 15 gigawatts (GW) by 2030 (see Report Says Va. Data Center Growth Needs 15 GW of Gas-Fired Power). According to Aurora, wind and solar won’t cut it if PJM needs to add another 15 GW of electricity to its grid over the next five years. Those technologies aren’t mature and scalable enough to meet the demand. The answer to increasing the electricity supply is natural gas, which has drillers and midstreamers in the M-U jazzed.
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They lost, and we won for the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project. “They” means the radical environmental left (nutters who irrationally hate all fossil energy, including natural gas), and “us” means those who support the common sense use of fossil energy and projects like MVP. According to the left, the next battleground is to block the construction of an extension of MVP called Southgate. The left will always tell you what they are planning. You only have to listen and have the courage to believe them.
The future is much brighter for natural gas producers in West Virginia because of the completion and operation of the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), which stretches from Wetzel County, WV, in northern West Virginia, to Pittsylvania County, VA, in southern Virginia. In a recent appearance on the MetroNews Talkline radio program in WV, Marcellus Shale Coalition president Dave Callahan said completing and now using MVP “checks a lot of boxes” for the M-U industry. He explains which boxes in his talk…
Precise Boring of Ohio, founded 25 years ago, specializes in Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD) — drilling sideways underground and installing pipelines through the holes it drills. Specifically, Precise (headquartered in Fairfield County, OH) works on installing shale and other types of pipelines, including water and sewer pipes. Precise is actively working for the Marcellus/Utica industry in Ohio. This morning, CST Utilities, an Ohio-based infrastructure service company providing a range of excavation, underground, and maintenance services to public utilities (electric, natural gas, water), telecom providers, and other businesses, announced it has bought Precise and will operate it as a standalone subsidiary.
The Sabine Pass LNG terminal, owned and operated by Cheniere Energy, is spread over an 853-acre site in Cameron Parish, Louisiana. The facility is the largest LNG terminal in the world, with a total send-out capacity of 4.1 Bcf/d (billion cubic feet per day) and a storage capacity of 16.8 Bcf. The facility’s “nameplate” capacity, with six trains operating, is roughly 30 mtpa (million tons per annum). Around 330 MMcf/d (million cubic feet per day) of M-U molecules flow to the Sabine Pass facility, getting there by various interstate pipelines. Last Friday, flows to the facility dropped to 3.4 Bcf/d.
Last week, we told you about a modern-day Paul Revere, a Republican Senator from Massachusetts who single-handedly blocked a horrible bill that empowers state regulators to “terminate [natural gas] service to consumers so long as they have access to ‘safe, reliable, and affordable alternatives’” (see
The U.S. national oil and gas rig count has been in a pattern of free-falling for the past three weeks. The national combined Baker Hughes oil and gas rig count dropped by another two to 588, the lowest it has been since January 2022. The Marcellus/Utica, after losing two rigs three weeks ago, maintained the same count last week — a combined 36. Pennsylvania continued to operate 21 rigs. Ohio remained steady with ten active rigs. And West Virginia kept five active rigs. At this time last year, WV operated 12 active rigs. The M-U fell down three weeks ago and (so far) hasn’t gotten back up.
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Con Edison launches campaign to deflect blame for coming energy disaster; NATIONAL: Biden’s hypocrisy on climate change is painfully obvious; Biden owes us trading partners clarity on LNG pause; INTERNATIONAL: Greenland is not experiencing a climate crisis and neither are we; The new gold rush – hunting down naturally occurring hydrogen; Rare LNG vessel sails through Red Sea amid Houthi attacks.