Enverus US Rig Count Leaps Up 13, Marcellus Rigs Up by 4
The Enverus U.S. rig count rose by 13 to 336 over the past week, after having slid backward the week before (see Rig Count Slides Backward by 3, Marcellus Lost 2 Rigs Last Week). The best news? The Marcellus region gained four active rigs, two in the dry gas northeast region, and two in the wet gas southwest region. The Ohio Utica Shale maintained its seven active rigs.
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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, located in Massachusetts, has ruled that Enbridge, builder of the Weymouth compressor station, can keep a previously-issued state permit for the station, a permit that allows it to operate. This is the final humiliation and defeat of rabid anti-fossil fuelers who dedicated themselves to blocking the plant.
We think we’ve spotted a potential new export market for northeastern Pennsylvania natural gas. New Fortress Energy (NFE) issued a joint announcement yesterday with the Philippine National Oil Company (PNOC) to say NFE will build LNG infrastructure and new gas-fired power plants in The Philippines. The two signed a “memorandum of understanding” (MOU).
LNG was the main reason for the huge drop in natural gas prices two days ago (see 
Can a single barge sinking (as it did Tuesday night) in the Calcasieu Ship Channel in Louisiana cause the Henry Hub natural gas price to plunge some $0.22 in a single day? It seems the answer to that question is YES.
The Westmoreland Sanitary Landfill in Westmoreland County, PA (southwestern corner of the state, near Pittsburgh) was fined $24,000 earlier this year (see 
DTE Energy has been a long-time pipeline builder and operator in the Marcellus/Utica region. DTE, based in Detroit, is both a utility company and a midstream/pipeline company. According to an in-depth Forbes article (quoting Bloomberg), DTE is “exploring options” to either sell or spin-off its natural gas pipeline assets, including those in the M-U.
Over the years we’ve written about pipeline systems being built or expanded and upgraded to carry Marcellus/Utica natural gas to other regions, including as far away as the Gulf Coast, where the gas either gets used in petrochemical plants or (more commonly nowadays), gets exported as LNG. We now have some estimates for just how much of the 33+ Bcf/d (billion cubic feet per day) of our gas goes to the Gulf Coast.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) would like the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on whether it (FERC) or the bankruptcy courts have the final say in whether or not drillers can wiggle out of long-term pipeline contracts by declaring bankruptcy. Chesapeake Energy is trying to do so now, attempting to shed several contracts including some in the M-U region (see 
Strange times. It’s not the kind of thing you want to be known for typically–that your shale region will lead the way among all shale regions across the country in *reducing* production in the coming month. Yet that’s what the latest Drilling Productivity Report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (released yesterday) shows–and most folks in the Marcellus/Utica region will be happy about it.
In September MDN told you that Cove Point LNG had gone offline for roughly three weeks for its annual plant maintenance routine (see 
Late Friday the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) granted permission to Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) to restart work on all but a 25-mile segment of the 92% completed project (see 
We spotted a couple of stories, one in Barron’s the other in the Wall Street Journal, about the pickup in the futures price of natural gas over the past week, and how those recent gains have led to impressive gains in the share price for Marcellus/Utica drillers. Yesterday the NYMEX Henry Hub futures price closed up 4.11% to $2.74/Mcf. The rising tide lifts all boats.
Here we go again. Just last week we told you that a New York City law firm couldn’t find enough interest to make a class action lawsuit against Cabot Oil & Gas using a sham indictment from the highly political Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office, so the law firm pulled the plug on the case (see