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Big Midstream Companies Eye Data Center/AI Market for New Pipes
What had been a regular stream of talk about providing power to data centers and artificial intelligence (AI) has become a torrent. There is a clear connection between data centers and the natural gas industry. This most recent round of quarterly financial updates by the biggest of the big pipeline companies (all of which have a huge presence in the Marcellus/Utica) reveals a new opportunity: building natgas pipelines directly to data centers. Why? Because increasingly those data centers are considering making their own power.
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The mighty Shell ethane cracker plant in Monaca (Beaver County), PA, has a new person in charge: Emma Lewis, senior vice president of U.S. chemicals and products at Shell. We told you Lewis had replaced Hilary Mercer back in January (see 
A Washington County, PA, man and his anti-fossil fuel lawyer have won the right to force Chevron executives to testify in court in a case where the man accuses Chevron of using PFAS (“forever chemicals”) in fracking fluids in 2011-2012 near his home. He alleges the chemicals spread to his water well and damaged his health and the health of family members who drank and used the “contaminated” water.
In July, MDN told you about a disappointing (but not surprising) decision from the Democrat leftists on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court (see 
The vast majority (up to 99%) of Pennsylvania’s abandoned conventional wells are “orphans,” or wells without an identifiable, documented owner whom the state can hold liable for cleanup. Orphan wells date back to the Civil War in some cases. Even with “newer” wells, the problem has been poor recordkeeping by the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (see 
The Baker Hughes U.S. rig count has gone up three out of the last four weeks, including last week, when it went up by two to 588. However, it’s still down 41 from the 629 it hit earlier this year in March, so we don’t get overly excited about reading that it went up again last week. It’s still below 600, an important psychological level. The Marcellus/Utica stayed even last week with 36 active rigs. However, one rig moved. Pennsylvania gained a rig and now operates 21 active rigs. Ohio lost a rig and now operates 10 active rigs. West Virginia remained the same with five active rigs. The M-U’s primary competitor, the Haynesville, was down two rigs and now operates 32 rigs. The gap between the M-U and Haynesville grows!
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Proposed Newton Twp. solar farm draws resident opposition; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Vermonters still don’t know how much a clean heat standard would cost; Negative natgas prices get more common in Texas; NATIONAL: EIA reveals latest world oil consumption forecast; America must unburden itself from Harris’s climate agenda; INTERNATIONAL: Another LNG tanker seen docking at Russian terminal sanctioned by US; European gas trades near 2024 high, luring imports of LNG.
As I previously emailed to let you know, some major behind-the-scenes changes are taking place for the MDN website. Last week, we changed the web host, which somehow inadvertently affected some people who had issues logging in and staying logged in. Today, we have changed the membership system, so a few of the links at the top will look different. If you are not logged in, you will see a Login button along the top right of the site (for the computer version). If you are logged in, you will see an Account button where you can manage the details of your MDN account.