It’s Official: NFG Spins Off Seneca as Standalone Marcellus Driller
It’s a go. Yesterday, one day ahead of its own October 15 deadline, National Fuel Gas Company’s (NFG) board approved a plan to split the 124-year-old company in two. Seneca Resources and the NFG Midstream gathering business will spin off as a new, publicly traded Marcellus/Utica driller. The company is calling it “IUG” for now (short for Integrated Upstream and Gathering) because it doesn’t have a real name yet. Seneca president Justin Loweth will be the CEO. NFG shareholders will get the new shares tax-free. Don’t hold your breath, though. The split isn’t expected to close until the second half of 2027. Read More “It’s Official: NFG Spins Off Seneca as Standalone Marcellus Driller”
The Delaware Riverkeeper Network and PennFuture fought for years for the right to challenge Transco’s Regional Energy Access (REA) pipeline permits before Pennsylvania’s Environmental Hearing Board (EHB). They got their wish. Then they lost at the EHB. And yesterday, they lost again in federal court. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit unanimously upheld the state Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) water permits for the Williams-owned pipeline expansion. The court said the groups never showed that the extra water testing they demanded would have changed a thing. Even better, the court handed down a ruling on Pennsylvania’s Environmental Rights Amendment that could make life a lot harder for anti-drillers going forward. 
Infinity Natural Resources, the Morgantown, WV-based driller that bought Antero Resources’ Ohio Utica assets for $1.2 billion earlier this year, isn’t done shopping. CEO Zack Arnold told Hart Energy at its SUPER DUG conference in Houston in September that Infinity is “actively looking for the next opportunity.” Arnold also dropped a few other nuggets worth your attention: Infinity has drilled its first deep dry gas Utica well in a Pennsylvania field that has only ever produced from the Marcellus; a “couple” of unnamed operators are starting to develop the Marcellus in eastern Ohio; and newly available state and federal lands in Ohio are a fresh source of drilling locations. 
Europe blinked. On Wednesday, the European Commission (the EU’s executive branch) proposed delaying its world-first methane rules for imported oil, natural gas, and coal by one year. The rules were set to kick in on January 1, 2027. Under the new proposal, they won’t start until 2028. That’s good news for U.S. LNG (liquefied natural gas) exporters, which supply more than half of Europe’s LNG, and, by extension, for the drillers and royalty owners whose gas feeds those export plants. Pressure came from France, the U.S., many EU countries, and the oil and gas industry. Big Green, as you’d expect, is having a meltdown. The delay still needs a thumbs-up from the European Parliament and EU member governments, and some want a longer, three-year pause. 
Back in July, Infinity Natural Resources (INR) told the world it had booked a $57.5 million derivative (hedging) gain for the second quarter, and MDN used the occasion to decode how hedging works (see 
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