Baker Hughes | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia
National Rig Count Gains 1 @ 593; M-U Rig Count Even @ 35
For the fifth week in a row, the Baker Hughes U.S. rig count added rigs—the first time that has happened since May 2022. Last week, the count added a single new rig for a new total of 593. The national count remained in a tight range of 581-589 for much of last year. We’ve officially broken through that range. However, note that the national count is still 6% (36 rigs) below what it was last year at this time. As for the Marcellus/Utica, the rig count was a combined 35 last week, retaining a rig added in West Virginia two weeks ago. It just feels like the sun is shining again! Read More “National Rig Count Gains 1 @ 593; M-U Rig Count Even @ 35”
The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) published a notice in the March 1 Pennsylvania Bulletin announcing that the agency has approved an Air Quality Permit for a new cryptocurrency data center in Venango County, PA. Venango is in the northwestern part of the state. The permit was issued to a company we had not previously heard of: Nova Energy LLC. The data center will be located in Frenchcreek Township. 
Wow! Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro is an even bigger bully (and dunce) than we gave him credit for. He’s not only mean and vindictive, he’s energy suicidal. Shapiro is threatening the 12 other states (plus the District of Columbia) that belong to the PJM Interconnection, saying that he may cut them off from 25% of the electricity that powers the electric grid by pulling Pennsylvania out of PJM. PJM is a private organization that manages the grid for Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, and other states. To boost his visibility in a dying political party, Shapiro is playing with fire. 
The Democrat Party keeps digging their hole deeper and deeper. How defending corruption and graft and political payoffs will help their cause is a mystery for us. Our diagnosis is the party has had a collective psychotic break with reality. Two months ago, a video circulated on social media featuring a Biden EPA political appointee talking about “tossing gold bars off the Titanic,” intentionally rushing to get billions of tax dollars recklessly out of the agency before Inauguration Day. The EPA’s new sheriff, Lee Zeldin, located $20 billion of those gold bars sitting at a Citibank bank account (see 
The Reuters news agency, based in the U.K., is typically objective in its news coverage. It tilts to the left a bit, depending on the reporter. But overall we tend to trust most of its coverage. It’s certainly better than Bloomberg by a mile. However, when we saw the opening line of a Reuters article titled “Climate policy requires a more realistic approach,” we were blown away by its brutal honesty. Here’s the very first two sentences of the article: “The pursuit of net zero carbon emissions has been a resounding failure. Despite trillions of dollars spent on renewable energy, hydrocarbons still account for over 80% of the world’s primary energy and a similar share of recent increases in energy consumption, according to The Energy Institute.” Wow! 
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Behold! Biggest liar in New York wants to be NYC mayor; NATIONAL: Wells Fargo drops targets slammed by US Energy Secretary Wright; Renewables aren’t renewable; EPA rules on emissions of natural gas shall not pass; Time running out for Congress to act on 45V tax credit rules; Natural gas surges to meet data center power needs; AI fever in power stocks moves from nuclear to plain natural gas.