No Change in M-U Rig Count @ 34; No Change in Nat’l Rig Count @ 589
The Baker Hughes national rig count dramatically increased three weeks ago, adding seven rigs for a national count of 589 (see OH Drops 1, PA Adds 1 Rig; National Rig Count Soars, Adds 7 @ 589). For the past three weeks, we have held on to the gains made (still at 589), including last week. Note that the national count continues to be rangebound between 581 and 589 since June (except for Sep. 13, when it hit 590 for a single week). The Ohio Utica lost one rig three weeks ago, and the Pennsylvania Marcellus picked it up. Two weeks ago, PA lost the rig it picked up the week prior. Last week, nothing changed; the combined M-U count stands at 34 for two weeks in a row, with PA at 15 rigs, OH at 9 rigs, and WV at 10 rigs. Read More “No Change in M-U Rig Count @ 34; No Change in Nat’l Rig Count @ 589”
It took a full nine months, but New York’s leftist Governor, Kathy Hochul, didn’t disappoint her radicalized base of supporters. The NY legislature (both chambers controlled by Democrats) passed a ban on “CO2 fracking” (uses carbon dioxide instead of water) back in March of this year (see 
A lawsuit that slipped by us (and is still playing out) that began in Carroll County, OH, has major ramifications for landowners and drillers across the state. The case is EAP Ohio LLC v. Sunnydale Farms LLC, et al. in which 13 oil and gas leases were executed in 2008 and 2009 in Carroll County, Ohio. The 2008 Leases contained an identical royalty clause that limited post-production deductions to three categories: transportation, compression, and/or dehydration to deliver the gas for sale. After drilling wells on those properties, EAP (Encino Energy) deducted several other items from royalties, including costs incurred for processing, treating, fuel, gathering, and trucking. The lawsuit tussles with the issue of how terms are defined and whether these “extra” categories are allowed under the lease’s language. 
Last week, MDN brought you the news that the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) had not followed up on the cleanup work needed for a shale well drilled some 12 years ago (see 
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally-owned electric utility corporation in the U.S. TVA’s service area covers all of Tennessee, portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, and small areas of Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia. TVA is the sixth-largest power supplier and the largest public utility company in the country. In May 2023, TVA announced that it would convert the Kingston Fossil Plant (coal-fired plant) in East Tennessee to a natural gas-fired plant capable of generating 1,500 megawatts of electricity (see 
The NYMEX futures price for natural gas keeps climbing. Significantly. Last week, the “front month” contract for the NYMEX gained 46.8 cents per MMBtu (up 14% for the week). On Friday, the price closed at $3.748/MMBtu. The price soared 16.4 cents on Friday alone! Friday’s closing price was the highest since Monday, Jan. 9, 2023—in nearly two full years. U.S. natural gas storage withdrawals are “exceeding seasonal averages, and record liquefied natural gas (LNG) export volumes are maintaining strong demand,” said Brian Swan, senior commodity analyst at Schneider Electric, in a daily note. What’s next for the price? 
The dataheads (sounds better than geeks or eggheads) at the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) published an interesting analysis on Friday detailing which states export the most and import the most electricity. In 2023, Pennsylvania exported 83.4 million megawatt-hours (MWh) of electricity to other states in the PJM electric grid. That’s roughly 26% of all the electric power the Keystone State produced. Meanwhile, for the first time in years (maybe in forever?) Virginia became the #1 state importing electricity, importing 50.1 million MWh. Virginia is also in PJM, so it’s not a stretch to suggest Pennsylvania’s electric exports went (largely) to Virginia. 
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: PA PUC Chairman Stephen DeFrank appointed Chair of NARUC Committee on Gas; NATIONAL: 2025 natural gas forecast; Trump threatens to try to regain control of Panama Canal; U.S. shale nears limits of productivity gains; EPA head Regan, who championed environmental justice, to leave office Dec. 31; INTERNATIONAL: EU still relies on Russia for a fifth of its gas needs; OECD fails to agree ban on foreign fossil fuel financing; Oil slips amid Fed signals and Trump tariff threats; Oil on track to average $80 in 2024, JP Morgan highlights; Gas traders count down to New Year’s; India, not China, set to lead in oil consumption growth.