M-U Rigs Stuck at 33 for 7th Week; Oil Tops $100, Gas Slips
Seven weeks. Same number. The Marcellus/Utica held at 33 rigs again for the week ended October 16, while the national count held at 603 for a second straight week, tying the 52-week high set last week. Underneath that flat national number, oil rigs dropped by three and gas rigs added one. Frac spreads slipped by four, snapping a five-week winning streak. On the price board, oil and gas went in opposite directions: WTI blasted past $100 to settle at $101.41 a barrel, while natural gas fell back to $3.116 per MMBtu. Plus: Expand Energy grabs the top spot on the Enverus permit list, and a name we don’t recognize shows up at No. 4. Read More “M-U Rigs Stuck at 33 for 7th Week; Oil Tops $100, Gas Slips”
On Friday, we told you a leak on Columbia Gas Transmission’s Mountaineer XPress (MXP) pipeline had pushed Appalachian gas down to $1.06 (see 
Ten days ago, after Devon Energy agreed to sell its Eagle Ford assets for $4.2 billion, we asked whether the Marcellus would be next (see 
The feds have spoken: this winter in the Northeast will most likely be warmer than normal, and maybe a little soggier, too. NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center released its official winter outlook last Thursday (Oct. 15), and a “super” El Niño is calling the shots. For those who make a living from Marcellus/Utica gas, a warm winter means less gas burned to heat homes, and that means softer prices. The market noticed. November futures slid 12 cents on Friday. But here’s the twist. In pipeline-starved New England, traders are still betting on $20-plus gas in January. A mild winter can’t fix what bad policy broke. 
The PJM Interconnection, the outfit that runs the power grid for 13 states plus Washington, D.C. (including Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia), had a rough week last week. Unusually warm October weather, combined with a big chunk of power plants down for fall maintenance, pushed PJM into emergency mode on October 13 and 14. The lights stayed on. But PJM says weeks like this are becoming normal, because electricity demand from data centers is growing faster than new power plants and power lines are being built. PJM’s answer? More power plants. 
Last Thursday, in a unanimous 5-0 vote, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) proposed something it has twice before refused to do: create a “blanket” authorization program for LNG plants. That’s regulatory-speak for letting LNG export terminals (and the smaller LNG “peak shaver” storage plants up here in the Northeast) make upgrades, swap out equipment, boost capacity, and even build new liquefaction trains, tanks, and marine berths without begging FERC for a separate, case-by-case order each time. Interstate pipelines have had a blanket program like this since 1982. LNG never did. FERC Chairman Laura Swett called it “historic,” and for once the word fits. The proposal is a notice of proposed rulemaking (NOPR), not a final rule, and the usual suspects are already lining up against it, including nine blue-state attorneys general. But if it goes through, more gas gets out the door faster, and that’s good news for the Marcellus/Utica. 
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Pittsburgh’s data center boom could be a connectivity windfall for the region; NATIONAL: U.S. natural gas futures settle lower; The $40-a-barrel cost most oil consumers never see; INTERNATIONAL: Brent oil hits $110 as supply risks mount; BOM’s scientific scandal – the raw data is not raw; Fossil fuels are winning the battle for easy money.