Coterra Buys More Permian Acreage, Automates Fracking with AI
We have two stories about Coterra Energy to share. Coterra was formed in 2021 by the merger of the Marcellus-focused Cabot Oil & Gas and the Permian/Anadarko-focused Cimarex Energy. Unfortunately (for the M-U), the merged company has chosen to concentrate new drilling outside of the northeast Pennsylvania Marcellus until the price of natgas improves (see Coterra Expands Curtailments in Marcellus, Drilling & Fracking Stop). Last November, the company announced it would buy “certain assets of Franklin Mountain Energy and Avant Natural Resources” located in the Permian (see Siren Song: Coterra Energy Buys Permian Assets for $4 Billion). Now comes word via an SEC filing that Coterra is spending $43 million to buy another 1,670 net royalty acres from Franklin Mountain Energy in the Permian. Read More “Coterra Buys More Permian Acreage, Automates Fracking with AI”
We have a post-mortem for the price of natural gas in 2024, and it ain’t pretty. With respect to the “front month” NYMEX futures price average during 2024, BofA (Bank of America) Global Research said in a report that the Henry Hub natural gas price averaged just $2.41 per MMBtu last year. It was “the lowest level since 2020 and second lowest level in at least 25 years.” Ouch. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) did a review of the Henry Hub spot (physically traded) price for 2024 and found it averaged $2.21 per MMBtu. That’s the lowest average annual price in inflation-adjusted dollars EVER reported. Double ouch. 
Last week, MDN brought you the great news that five of the six largest banks in the United States have now canceled their memberships in the awful Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA), a group of woke banks under the umbrella of the equally terrible United Nations (see 
In June 2021, MDN told you about CenterPoint Energy, a power generator looking to shutter portions of its coal-fired generation fleet and build two natural gas combustion turbines in Indiana (see 
Liberal New England, one of the bluest (Democrat) areas of the country, continues to do the opposite of what they preach. For years, New England states like Massachusetts, Vermont, and Connecticut have blocked new natural gas pipelines that would carry Marcellus molecules from a few hundred miles away into their states, claiming they seek to phase out fossil energy to be more “green.” Yet, as of this morning, 41% of the electricity flowing through New England’s grid comes from fossil fuels—natural gas (33%), oil (7%), and coal (1%). Another 4% comes from burning garbage and wood, which emits as much or more carbon dioxide as fossil fuels! How much electricity is being produced from solar and wind right now in New England? A piddly 9%. 
Here’s a story in the karma-is-a-boomerang department… In July 2019, the Connecticut Siting Council approved the Killingly Energy Center gas-fired power plant project after initially rejecting it (see 
According to CME Group, the worldwide natural gas market has evolved, and trading activity has grown in the past few years. The trading volume of Henry Hub Natural Gas (NG) futures during non-U.S. hours has more than doubled from a couple of years ago. We are truly interconnected worldwide. However, there are implications and consequences to being interconnected. Namely, the U.S. gas market is less shielded from global events due to the global linkage created by our LNG exports. It becomes imperative for U.S. gas traders to understand and monitor what’s happening around the globe and how world events may cause volatility. Traders need to monitor for sudden shifts in global demand-and-supply balance, changes in weather patterns, and geopolitical risk. 
At its core, the theory of man-made global warming (renamed to “climate change”) is easy to understand. The theory says when we burn fossil fuels (or wood, or garbage, or any carbon-based source), carbon dioxide is released and floats up into the atmosphere. If there’s too much CO2 floating up there, it creates a canopy trapping the heat that rises from the earth, warming the entire planet. If it’s true that more CO2 creates a canopy, the question becomes, how much is too much CO2? Strong arguments are made that a slightly warmer planet benefits all life and is not necessarily a bad thing. However, a veteran energy analyst, in responding to the memes that natural gas should be phased out due to fear of global warming, offers a blunt assessment: CO2 is not the key factor that controls the temperatures we experience on the surface of our planet. The key factor is wind. 
For the first time, over 1 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) was discharged from U.S. gas-fired power plants in a single year in 2024. It marks a new pollution threshold for the world’s largest gas producer and consumer of natural gas. Yet, because natgas has replaced coal and other higher-polluting sources of electric power, U.S. power emissions from all fossil fuels were up only 0.5% in 2024 from 2023, to 1.64 billion tons. And get this: Overall emissions from all sources were down 19% last year versus 2015. Using natural gas to produce electricity makes the country “greener,” something the media ignores. 
The venerable Baker Hughes national rig count was 589 active rigs last week—which is FIVE weeks in a row. Very unusual. The Marcellus/Utica rig count was a combined 34 last week—the same number for FOUR weeks in a row. The national count remains rangebound between 581 and 589 since June 2024 (except for Sep. 13, when it hit 590 for a single week). The M-U remained static last week, with PA at 15 rigs, OH at 9 rigs, and WV at 10 rigs. 
It’s always a red-letter day here at MDN HQ when we happen across a new pipeline project in the Marcellus/Utica region. Today is one of those days! Eastern Gas Transmission and Storage, a subsidiary of billionaire Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Energy (BHE), filed a new project with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in December to beef up three existing compressor stations in Centre County, Clinton County, and Franklin County in Pennsylvania, and one existing compressor station in Loudoun County, Virginia, with the aim of flowing more Marcellus molecules to the Washington, D.C. area. 
Last August, MDN told you that the Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub (ARCH2) officially received its first $30 million from the Bidenistas (see 
We’re just now learning the good news about decisions by two different North Carolina agencies to approve four new gas-fired power plants that utility giant Duke Energy wants to build at two different N.C. sites. In early December, the N.C. Utilities Commission issued orders deeming the gas plants necessary at both sites. Then, on Dec. 20, the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality granted air quality permits for the four plants. All four will be fed by Marcellus/Utica molecules and are important new customers for our gas. 
Dominion Energy plans to build small “peaker” electric generating plants in Chesterfield County, VA, near Richmond (see 
Yesterday, the Northeast Power Coordinating Council (NPCC) announced the completion of the NPCC Northeast Gas/Electric System Study. Initiated in 2023, the study evaluated New York and New England gas supply and gas pipeline constraints for extreme and protracted winter events during the peak heating season, from December through February, for three time periods: 2024/25 (short-term), 2027/28 (mid-term) and 2032/33 (long-term). It shows that if we get an extended (more than three-day) cold snap, those of us living in NY or New England will be in trouble. 