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National Rig Count Gains 4 @ 586; M-U Count Steady @ 34
For the second week in a row, the Baker Hughes U.S. rig count regained some of the rigs lost in prior weeks. Two weeks ago, the rig count gained six rigs (see National Rig Count Gains 6 @ 582; M-U Count Steady @ 34). Last week, the rig count gained another four rigs to 586. Note that for much of last year, the national count remained in a very tight range of 581-589. It seems like that equilibrium is returning after the recent drop below 580. As for the Marcellus/Utica, the rig count was a combined 34 last week—the same number for eight weeks in a row. It looks like we’ve hit an equilibrium here, too. Read More “National Rig Count Gains 4 @ 586; M-U Count Steady @ 34”
Expand Energy is the new company formed from the merger of Chesapeake Energy with Southwestern Energy. Expand is essentially Chesapeake Energy 2.0. Expand CFO Mohit Singh spoke at last week’s 2025 NAPE Summit in Houston. He had some fascinating things to say, including this: “Just to be clear, in our view, at least 75% of the natural gas demand growth is going to come from LNG.” He called LNG demand “durable” and reliable. AI (artificial intelligence) data center demand for natural gas, on the other hand, is volatile and “noisy,” according to Singh. 
In 2022, after the shocking news that U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (from West Virginia) had sold out his state and the entire country by agreeing to support the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) bill, the details began to come out about just how bad the bill really is for the oil and gas industry. First and foremost, it slaps a new tax on oil and gas activities (see 
The European Union’s idiotic methane regulations will be enforced beginning this year. Domestic (European) oil, gas, and coal companies must monitor, measure and report their emissions. The same restrictions will also apply to energy imports coming from other countries, including the U.S. (see 
Their policies and laws of the left end up costing the average person big money and result in the opposite of what those policies and laws were intended to produce. New York Governor Kathy Hochul and her predecessor, Andrew Cuomo (both far-left Democrats), have shoved the Big Green agenda down the throats of New Yorkers for years. Their laws and policies have sought to eliminate the use of natural gas and force the use of electricity as the preferred energy source instead. Here’s a concrete example of how those policies have produced the exact opposite of what they profess to seek. The New York Post has an article about a New York City landlord forced to give up clean, efficient natural gas to heat his apartment building and switch to burning far-dirtier fuel oil instead. Why? Because Hochul’s policies (and Consolidated Edison’s complicity with those policies) have forced the price of using natural gas to skyrocket. 
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Behind the oil industry’s biggest divorce – Chevron vs California; NATIONAL: How a ‘cow fart’ vaccine could help tackle climate change; House passes bill blocking future presidents from banning oil drilling without approval; The trillion-dollar A.I. data center tsunami – coming to a field near you; INTERNATIONAL: Activist Elliott said to build stake in struggling oil major BP; Taiwan looks to buy Alaskan natural gas as it seeks to head off US tariffs.