Chevron Building 7 New Gas-Fired Power Plants for Data Centers
Big Oil is entering the Big Power market in a Big Way. Last December, the country’s largest oil and gas producer, ExxonMobil, announced it is working on a plan to build a massive 1,500 MW gas-fired power plant to power a data center(s) in a location not yet disclosed (see ExxonMobil plots natural gas power plant to exclusively power data centers). Now comes word (yesterday) from the country’s second-largest oil and gas producer, Chevron, that it has formed a partnership to build at least seven gas-fired power plants next to data centers. Some of the power plants will be located in the Southeast, some in the Midwest, and some in the West. The plants in the Southeast and possibly the Midwest will use Marcellus/Utica gas to power them. Read More “Chevron Building 7 New Gas-Fired Power Plants for Data Centers”
In February 2022, three Democrat Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) commissioners voted to adopt and immediately begin using new guidelines for approving pipeline projects by taking into account mythical global warming (GHG) factors (see 
Pine Run Gathering LLC, a joint venture owned by Stonehenge Energy and UGI, announced yesterday that it had completed a transaction to buy Superior Midstream Appalachian, LLC, for $120 million. Superior Appalachian owns and operates three gathering systems in Pennsylvania, namely Pittsburgh Mills (Allegheny & Butler counties), Snow Shoe (Centre County), and Brookfield (Tioga County). The Pittsburgh Mills system is connected to UGI’s Big Pine gathering system. All three have a combined daily flow of approximately 190 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d). 
In December, CNX Resources announced it had struck a deal to buy the assets of Apex Energy II, LLC, a portfolio company of funds managed by Carnelian Energy Capital Management, for $505 million (see 
Last November, Coterra Energy announced it would buy “certain assets of Franklin Mountain Energy and Avant Natural Resources” located in the Permian (see 
Did you happen to catch the news lighting up all the cable news stations yesterday about Chinese startup DeepSeek? The company launched a free AI assistant that it claims uses less data at a fraction of the cost of other AI models. By Monday, the DeepSeek assistant had overtaken U.S. rival ChatGPT in downloads from Apple’s app store. The news sent traders into a tailspin of selling off tech company stocks like Nvidia (which makes the chips used in AI). The news also affected natural gas drillers negatively. Why? 
We don’t think it’s hyperbole to say that the Trump freight train hit and ran over the left’s radical environmental agenda in a single 12-hour period on January 20th when newly-inaugurated President Donald J. Trump signed a flurry of Executive Orders (EOs). The Trump train hit and ran over the left, and they still don’t understand (can’t conceive) just how fundamentally and deeply they’ve been defeated. They can’t accept that their power has been completely emasculated. Their fantasy world of forced renewable everything is GONE. Now, renewables have to compete with fossil energy, and it’s no competition. No more shaming and blaming oil and natural gas (and shale energy). How did everything change on Jan. 20th? Let’s break it down for you, blow by blow… 
A fire was reported at a natural gas well near Jane Lew (Harrison County), WV, on Saturday at around 2:15 pm. Multiple fire departments responded. One media report says the well location is listed as the Stickel Pad belonging to driller HG Energy. There were no injuries, according to 911 officials. The fire was extinguished within a few hours. Other than those barebones facts and a few photos (below), that’s all we know about this incident. The incident doesn’t seem to be a priority for local news media outlets to cover. 
Diversified Energy, with major assets in the Marcellus/Utica region (assets in other regions, too), owns approximately 8 million acres of leases with 67,000 (mostly) conventional oil and gas wells. The company’s business model is to buy lower-producing wells on the cheap and find ways to make them more productive. The company made a major announcement this morning. It has struck a deal to buy out and merge with Maverick Natural Resources for $1.28 billion. The deal adds over a million more acres of leases to Diversified plus significant new production. 
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision last July vacating (nullifying) the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) approval of Transco’s Regional Energy Access Expansion (REAE) project to bring gas from Pennsylvania to New Jersey and Maryland (see 
We’re in full crash mode with the Baker Hughes national rig count. After losing five rigs three weeks ago, and four more two weeks ago, the BH rig count lost another four rigs last week—13 rigs out of circulation in three weeks. The number of rigs nationally now stands at 576, the lowest since Dec. 2021 (over three years ago). The Marcellus/Utica rig count was a combined 34 last week—the same number for six weeks in a row. PA has operated 15 rigs for the past 11 weeks, with the exception of one week, when the number briefly increased to 16 rigs. OH has operated nine rigs for the past eight weeks, and WV has operated 10 rigs for an astonishing 20 weeks in a row, going back to Sep. 13. 
The highly functional and responsible Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC), unlike its completely dysfunctional and irresponsible cousin, the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), continues to support the shale energy industry by approving water withdrawals and consumptive use for responsible and safe shale drilling. The SRBC published a notice in the January 25 Pennsylvania Bulletin that the Executive Director of the SRBC gave his approval to or renewed 18 general water use permits in December for individual shale gas well drilling pads in Bradford, Cameron, Centre, Clearfield, Lycoming, Susquehanna, and Tioga counties. 
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) stopped publishing its monthly Drilling Productivity Report (DPR) last June (see 
In December, PA’s Democrat Governor, Josh Shapiro, filed a complaint with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) alleging the PJM electric grid is being mismanaged and using inflated numbers that will cause economic pain for the 65 million customers who buy electricity in the PJM region—in particular the residents of PA. What’s causing the high prices in PJM, a region rich in natural gas? The policies of Shapiro and his predecessor in proposing a carbon tax have scared away new gas-fired power plants from building in the Keystone State. As we reported yesterday, Shapiro has increased his menacing and threats against PJM (see