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8 New Shale Well Permits Reported for PA-OH-WV Aug 3 – 9
The Marcellus/Utica region received 8 new drilling permits last week, August 3 – 9, down 7 from two weeks ago. Pitiful. (Cue Linda Ronstadt’s “Poor, Poor, Pitiful Me“) It’s actually a little worse than that. Two weeks ago, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources didn’t issue a report. One of the Ohio permits from last week is actually from two weeks ago. Pennsylvania only issued 2 new permits, Ohio issued 6 (5 new + 1 tardy), and West Virginia was a big, fat goose egg. The drillers who received new permits were: Apex Energy (4), Ascent Resources (1), EOG Resources (1), and Expand Energy (2). Read More “8 New Shale Well Permits Reported for PA-OH-WV Aug 3 – 9”
Back in March, we brought you news that the Trump administration had announced “South Mon,” a $17 billion, 4.3-gigawatt (GW) natural gas-fired power hub headed for southwestern Pennsylvania, funded as part of Japan’s $550 billion U.S. investment commitment (see 
WhiteHawk Minerals (NYSE: WHK), the Philadelphia company that has quietly become one of the largest mineral and royalty owners in the Marcellus, filed its first full quarterly report as a public company this week: $111.8 million of new acquisitions, record production of 70.0 MMcfe/d, and its first real dividend at $2.00 per share annualized. But the most interesting thing WhiteHawk said all week wasn’t in the press release. It came out of CEO Daniel Herz’s mouth on Thursday’s earnings call — some of the biggest drillers in Appalachia are now partnering with WhiteHawk to buy minerals ahead of the drill bit. 
Venture Global (VG), the Arlington, Virginia-based LNG exporter that operates the Calcasieu Pass and Plaquemines liquefaction plants in Louisiana — and is building a third, CP2 — reported second quarter 2026 results Tuesday that were, by any measure, a blowout. Revenue hit $4.6 billion (up 48% from 2Q25), net income came in at $1.3 billion (up 266%), and consolidated adjusted EBITDA reached $2.5 billion (up 79%), the largest quarterly EBITDA in company history. VG shipped 127 cargoes in the quarter and raised its full-year EBITDA guidance to $8.7-$9.1 billion, up from the $8.2-$8.5 billion it guided to in May. The company also passed its 1,000th cargo overall and jacked up its quarterly dividend by 122%. Why do we care in Appalachia? Because Plaquemines is fed by pipelines that carry Marcellus/Utica molecules south — and VG is planning to nearly double in size. 
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its August Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) on Tuesday — the agency’s monthly toss at the energy dartboard. Last month EIA nudged its Henry Hub natural gas price forecast up a few pennies. This month it took a real bite out of it. EIA now expects Henry Hub to average $3.44/MMBtu in 2026 (down from $3.67 last month) and $3.31/MMBtu in 2027 (down from $3.49). For the current quarter, the number is $2.87/MMBtu — a full 50 cents below what the agency predicted a month ago. The short version for landowners and royalty owners: gas is going to be cheap this fall. The longer version is more interesting, and it’s a story about where the gas is coming from. 
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: MSC head: The workers live in this community, too; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Amazon is behind one of the largest planned gas power plants in the US; Duke Energy invests $500,000 to help small businesses grow across North Carolina; Heat wave keeps southeast natural gas spot market cooking; Trump’s ‘energy emergency’ could fast-track massive expansion of Plaquemines LNG; NATIONAL: U.S. natural gas futures fall as inventories rise; AGA applauds introduction of the Energy Efficiency Reform Act; AI hyperscalers are pricing bitcoin miners off the grid; Democratic socialists seek to cripple American AI; President Trump returns Endangered Species Act ‘to how it was intended to be’; INTERNATIONAL: Oil falls as Iran talks remain stalled; It goes both ways – Canada needs U.S. oil and gas too; Hormuz standoff derails oil supply recovery and deepens demand slump; 5 LNG megaprojects poised to power the next gas boom; India seeks more USA LPG.