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Feds Will “Step In” to Build Marcellus-to-New England Pipeline
There has been dynamite news coming from this week’s CERAWeek by S&P conference in Houston (wish we were there!). Of all the things reported thus far (with two days still to go), no piece of news has been more dynamite than a statement made by Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum during a talk at the event yesterday. Speaking of the 124-mile Constitution Pipeline project that Williams gave up on building in 2020 after years of delays and legal roadblocks by New York State, Burgum said the Trump administration is willing to “step in” and take federal action to get the pipeline project from the Pennsylvania Marcellus to New York and New England completed. Read More “Feds Will “Step In” to Build Marcellus-to-New England Pipeline”
After five weeks of adding rigs, the Baker Hughes U.S. rig count decreased by a single rig last week. The national rig count now stands at 592. As for the Marcellus/Utica, the rig count was a combined 35 last week, retaining a rig added in West Virginia three weeks ago. Rigs focused on the Marcellus were a combined 24 across the three M-U states of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio. Rigs focused on the Utica were a combined 11. PA has operated 15 rigs (or more) for the past 17 weeks. OH has operated nine rigs for the past 14 weeks. WV had operated 10 rigs for an astonishing 23 weeks in a row. Three weeks ago, WV added (and has kept) one additional rig and now operates 11 active rigs. Good things are happening in the Mountain State. 
In something of a bombshell announcement, the CEO of Mon Power parent First Energy said the company plans to replace its West Virginia coal plants with natural gas plants. Mon Power’s Harrison and Fort Martin coal-fired plants are scheduled to shut down between 2035 and 2040. The company will construct 3 to 4 gigawatts (GW) of combined cycle natural gas plants to replace them, beginning in the next five years. That will use somewhere between one-half and three-fourths of a billion cubic feet of Marcellus/Utica natural gas to power these beasts. This is big news indeed! 
While there has been no public announcement, pipeline giant Williams (owner of the mighty Transco pipeline system) filed a Form 8-K statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to say the company has signed an agreement with “an unnamed large, investment-grade company” to provide onsite natural gas and power generation infrastructure for the unnamed customer. The company will invest $1.6 billion to build a pipeline and on-site power generation. 
In November 2023, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) agreed with a petition from Dominion Energy subsidiary Virginia Electric and Power Company that requested a planned LNG production, storage, and regasification facility in Greensville County, VA, should be exempt from FERC jurisdiction under section 7 of the Natural Gas Act (see 
Smart Sand is a fully integrated frac and industrial sand supply and services company, offering complete mine to wellsite proppant and logistics solutions to frac sand customers and a broad offering of products for industrial sand customers. The company produces low-cost, high quality Northern White sand, a premium sand used as a proppant to enhance hydrocarbon recovery rates in the hydraulic fracturing of oil and natural gas wells. The company’s main markets are the Bakken and Marcellus. However, the company is increasingly supplying sand to Ohio Utica drillers. 
Two weeks ago, MDN brought you the exciting news that President Trump pledged to get the long-dead Pennsylvania Marcellus to New York State Constitution Pipeline built (see 
You know we delight in connecting the dots that others often miss. We spotted big news in the quarterly update for DT Midstream (DTM), headquartered in Detroit, which owns major assets in the Marcellus/Utica region and other regions like the Haynesville. Earlier this year the company closed on the purchase of three pipeline systems, two of which flow Marcellus/Utica molecules (see 
Never in our wildest dreams did we see this one coming. And we must caution against too much hope. However, we are JAZZED. Last Friday, President Trump signed yet another executive order. This EO creates the National Energy Dominance Council, directing the new council to move quickly to increase domestic oil and gas production (see our companion post today for details). During comments with reporters at the EO signing, Trump vowed to complete the long-dead Pennsylvania Marcellus to New York State Constitution Pipeline! Trump’s own words: “We are going to get this done, and once we start construction, we’re looking at anywhere from nine to 12 months.” Holy smokes!!!! 
A Washington County, PA, judge is closing the barn door about 12 years late. On February 7, Washington County Court of Common Pleas Judge Brandon P. Neuman ruled Sunoco Pipeline, LLC (i.e., Energy Transfer) did not have the eminent domain authority to take property for the Mariner East Pipelines in 2013 from Bradley and Amy Simon (in Washington County), and possibly many other property owners. The case alleges that while ME gained eminent domain authority later, when the company negotiated with the Simons (and potentially others), it did not have that legal authority, yet it claimed it did. The Simons signed a lease they otherwise would not have signed if they had full information. They either would not have signed, or perhaps negotiated a bigger payment. That’s the gist of the story—that ME fraudulently presented claims. 
According to an investigative reporter for Penn State, between 2018 and 2023, Pennsylvania fined Energy Transfer and its subsidiary Sunoco at least $42 million in connection to the construction of Mariner East II. Some $10 million of that came from a deal with the PA Attorney General’s office (who happened to be Josh Shapiro at the time) for supposed repeat contaminations of waterways, failures to report environmental damage, and the use of unapproved chemicals in drilling fluid (see