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PA Drops Another Rig to 17-Year Low; National Rig Count Even @ 585
The realignment we spoke of several weeks ago about Pennsylvania losing rigs to its neighbors has deepened. Last week, PA lost another rig, going from 13 rigs down to 12 rigs, while Ohio picked up one rig and now has 10 active rigs. West Virginia also operated 10 rigs last week. Just two months ago (as of August 23), PA operated 21 rigs, OH had 9 rigs, and WV had just 5 rigs. This is a massive realignment away from PA to its neighbors. According to Reuters, PA’s rig count is at a 17-year (!) low. What the heck is going on with the mighty PA Marcellus? Read More “PA Drops Another Rig to 17-Year Low; National Rig Count Even @ 585”
In September, the Executive Director of the Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC) renewed 20 water-use permits for individual shale gas well drilling pads in Bradford, Clearfield, Lycoming, Sullivan, and Susquehanna counties. We’re just learning of the action via an official notice published in the Oct. 26 edition of the Pennsylvania Bulletin. The approvals, which are NOT subject to public review according to SRBC regulations, are general water permits. Each site will be required to receive a specific water withdrawal approval at a later date. 
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) recently published an interesting post about natural gas pricing hubs in North America. There are nearly 200 such pricing hubs. The hubs “provide transactional flexibility to buyers and sellers in the natural gas industry.” As we’ve pointed out before, there is no one “price” for natural gas. Prices at various trading hubs can vary significantly. All pricing hubs compare themselves to the Henry Hub “benchmark” hub in Southern Louisiana. You may read about such-and-such as a hub trading a “discount” or “premium” to the HH. The EIA post explains how these hubs work and provides examples from various locations around the country, including three hubs in the northeast that flow Marcellus/Utica molecules. 
How often have we told you the mainstream media lies to you about fossil energy? Maybe a bazillion times, right? Today, we have a case that incontrovertibly proves our point. Last Friday, researchers from Colorado University at Boulder (CU) and collaborators from several other institutions published a new study in the peer-reviewed Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The study proves that so-called fugitive methane floating in the atmosphere is NOT coming from fossil fuels. At least, the contribution from fossil fuels is minor and nonconsequential. Where DOES fugitive methane come from? The researchers can’t be 100% sure (yet), but they say it’s either natural (Mom Earth, things like wetlands) or agriculture (cow burps and rice paddies). And where are the stories in mainstream media about this earth-shattering discovery? NOWHERE. It’s crickets. You can’t FIND a mainstream article that covers this study. Nothing in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Miami Herald, Houston Chronicle, AP, UPI, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, etc. 
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reports that U.S. natural gas production from shale and tight formations declined by about 1% from January through September 2024 compared to the same period in 2023. Most of the decline comes from two shale plays—the Haynesville in Louisiana and Texas (down 12%) and the Utica Shale in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia (down 10%). Although the EIA’s analysis (below) is excellent and instructive, it misses one important detail about the decrease in Utica Shale gas production. 
Yesterday, MDN reported on Range Resources’ third quarter update (see 
The Biden-Harris administration continues to spend money like drunken sailors. They can’t hand it out fast enough ahead of November 5th. We can’t even count how much has been doled out just this week—certainly several billion dollars. Some of the money flowing out of D.C. this week ($44 million) will go to a project that is part of the Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub (ARCH2) to establish new carbon dioxide injection wells, one in Marshall County, WV, and one in Belmont County, OH. 
As we outline in a companion post today, the Biden-Harris Department of Energy is investing $44 million in a project to drill two carbon dioxide injection wells, one in West Virginia and the other in Ohio (see DOE Spends $44M on Drilling CO2 Injection Wells in WV & OH). Some companies are ready to dive into the CCS pool. Others in our region are also exploring the carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) space but are proceeding a bit slower, dipping their toes first. Power plant and energy-trading giant Tenaska and Marcellus/Utica driller EQT are “cautiously moving ahead with plans to develop carbon storage projects in the region.” Both indicate it will take “years to develop” carbon injection wells. They both plan to have carbon wells operating in the next 5-10 years. 
Last week, MDN brought you a story about a developing issue of who, ultimately, should pay to build out new electricity sources for data centers (and AI) that increasingly use huge amounts of power (see 
Yesterday, EQT announced that the company had reached so-called “net zero” emissions for Scopes 1 and 2 more than a year earlier than planned. The milestone includes assets purchased and added to the company from Alta Resources and Tug Hill/XcL Midstream. However, it does not include the assets added from the Equitrans Midstream merger in July. The company has replaced over 9,000 pneumatic devices, electrified its fracking fleet, and implemented new technologies to monitor methane emissions. According to EQT, it has paid off. 
Here’s something the radical left in mainstream media that demagogues LNG-by-rail either doesn’t know or is covering up: There are some trains *already* transporting LNG on rail cars today, despite a ban on the practice by the Bidenista. How? Some trains use LNG as fuel for the locomotive engines that pull the train. The LNG is stored in a specially outfitted rail car, the same type of car now banned by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA). LNG-for-fuel is being used by at least one railroad (in Florida) every single day. Meaning all of the howling from the left about “bomb trains” hauling LNG through populated communities is nonsensical garbage. 
This morning, Diversified Energy Company (formerly Diversified Gas & Oil) announced it had signed a deal to supply 40 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of natural gas over three years to a “major Gulf Coast LNG facility” for exporting. The contract begins in November (next month!), which means even though Diversified isn’t (yet) willing to identify the LNG export facility, it will sell to a facility already up and running and not fully supplied, limiting the pool of potentials to a handful. The announcement says more details about the deal will be released in the company’s forthcoming third quarter update. 
Yesterday, the radicalized Clean Air Council and Environmental Integrity Project filed a rulemaking petition with the Pennsylvania Environmental Quality Board (EQB) asking the EQB to increase minimum setback distances from fracked wells. Setbacks, also referred to as protective buffers and no-drill zones in the context of fracking, are mandatory distances that fracked wells must abide by to keep them away from homes, schools, hospitals, drinking water wells, and surface water. PA already has a safe and sufficient setback of 500 feet. The groups want that increased by 650% to 3,281 feet. It would ban approximately 95% of all new shale wells in the state.