Trump Makes Democrat Rosner FERC Chairman; Likely Temporary
As we reported earlier this week, President Trump has appointed David Rosner, a Democrat, to be Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (see FERC’s Mark Christie Exits, Trump Rumored to Appoint Democrat Chair). Rosner, a former aide to Senator Joe Manchin (West Virginia), tends to be more Republican-like in his rulings with a philosophy of new pipeline development that aligns with President Trump. However, it seems that the appointment is likely temporary, according to media sources. Read More “Trump Makes Democrat Rosner FERC Chairman; Likely Temporary”
We spotted a Financial Times article with an intriguing title: Opec oil ‘price war’ will halt shale boom, say US producers. The FT is the UK equivalent of our Wall Street Journal. Although it tilts a bit left, the reporting is usually pretty reliable, so we trust it (for the most part). We learned a few important things from this article. First is that the break-even price for U.S. shale drillers to make a profit is $65 per barrel. If oil remains below that point, new drilling stops. Second, one producer claimed his company would not “put any more rigs out” until prices get back to, and stabilize at, $75 per barrel. 
Eastern Gas Transmission and Storage (EGTS), a subsidiary of billionaire Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Energy (BHE), filed a new project with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) last December to beef up three existing compressor stations in Centre, Clinton, and Franklin counties in Pennsylvania, and one compressor station in Loudoun County, Virginia, to flow more Marcellus molecules to the Washington, D.C. area (see 
Rover Pipeline, a 713-mile natural gas pipeline, was designed to carry up to 3.25 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of Marcellus and Utica gas from Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio to destinations in Ohio, Michigan, West Virginia, and Canada. The project was completed and came online in late 2018 (see 
In 2018, Equitrans Midstream, the builder of the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), proposed to extend MVP by an extra 75 miles from the current terminus in Pittsylvania County, VA, to Alamance County, NC, to provide natural gas for heating and electric generation. The 75-mile extension is called MVP Southgate. In December 2023, MVP changed the Southgate plan by cutting the distance by more than half and bumping up the size (diameter) of the pipeline (see 
In April, MDN told you about a new greenfield expansion of the Elba Express pipeline into South Carolina to serve growing demand for natural gas in the state (see 
This post is not directly about the Marcellus/Utica, but the issue we discuss is important and significantly affects the M-U. Andrew Dehoff, the Executive Director of the Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC), is sounding the alarm about potential water usage for hyperscale data centers that will be located in the SRBC’s jurisdiction. Dehoff spoke at a Pennsylvania State Senate hearing on Monday. These giant data centers are BIG users of energy and, potentially, big users of water. The water is used not only to cool gas-fired power plants that generate energy for the data centers, but the data centers themselves use water to help cool the thousands upon thousands of computers located in them. 
Competitive Power Ventures’ 680-megawatt CPV Valley Energy Center in Wawayanda, NY, fired up and began producing enough electricity to power 600,000 liberal NY homes in October 2018 (see 
Earlier today, Reuters published a great article titled “Key US natural gas trends to track as LNG exports hit new highs.” The article is full of terrific charts (and narrative) showing where our LNG is currently going (by country), along with where it has gone historically (by country). The article reveals that over the first 8 months of 2025, total U.S. LNG exports climbed by 22% or by 12.4 million tons from the same months in 2024 to a record 69 million tons. Europe accounted for over two-thirds of U.S. export volumes, followed by Asia. The top three markets were the Netherlands, France, and Spain, which together accounted for 28% of total U.S. LNG shipments so far this year. 
We first told you about a frac sand company called Smart Sand some 13 years ago (see 
Eversource wants to build the Western Massachusetts Natural Gas Reliability Project in Springfield, Massachusetts, to prevent winter gas outages. The purpose of the tiny 5.3-mile pipeline is to function as a backup—to prevent natural gas from being turned off for 58,000 Eversource customers (200,000 people) in the region. The existing pipeline in that area is more than 70 years old with no backup. If the existing, old pipeline has an issue and the gas gets turned off, that’s 200,000 people with no natural gas in the dead of a New England winter. A small group of people, calling themselves the Springfield Climate Justice Coalition, acted like children at an open house held by Eversource to discuss the project. 
Venture Global has won an arbitration case brought against it by Shell. The case accused Venture Global of not delivering contracted LNG shipments *for years* while Venture Global sold those shipments on the open/spot market for more money than they would have made from honoring their contracts with Shell (and with other big LNG buyers, Shell wasn’t the only one to sue). Shell claimed to have spent some $1.7 billion more buying LNG than it would have if Venture Global had honored its contract. Yet in arbitration, the tribunal found that Venture Global did honor the letter of the contracts signed. Venture Global may have won based on the letter of the contract, but they certainly lost based on the spirit of the contract, by exploiting loopholes. They lost the trust of their customers. 
The Trump administration has been a blizzard of activity since it began in January. We absolutely love it. The Trump team has so overwhelmed the radical left that they run in circles chasing their tails. Yet every now and again, the Trump team makes a misstep (in our estimation). We understand that nobody is going to agree 100% with someone else. Not even spouses! But we strongly object to this misstep. Under new mandates proposed by the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), beginning in 2028, a total of 1% of America’s LNG exports must be carried via U.S.-flagged vessels. From 2029 onwards, 1% of U.S. LNG exports should be shipped on U.S.-flagged and U.S.-built vessels. 
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the United States set multiple records for energy production and exports in 2024. Of the record 103 quadrillion British thermal units (quads) of total primary energy production in the United States, a record 31 quads went to other countries. Who knew?! In 2024, the U.S. exported 55% of its domestic crude oil and natural gas plant liquids (NGPL) production either directly as crude oil or as processed petroleum products such as propane, distillate fuel oil, and motor gasoline. 
Iron Oak Energy is a proppant and solutions provider with over 34 million tons of annual production capacity (i.e., a big frac sand company). Iron Oak’s assets include leading positions in the largest U.S. shale plays and strategically located terminals to distribute sand to the company’s customers. Yesterday, Iron Oak announced a deal to buy the Northern White assets of HC Minerals, Inc. The assets include a frac sand plant in Wyeville, Wisconsin, and four terminals in the Marcellus and Utica shales to distribute the sand. 