Baker Hughes | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia
Nat’l Rig Count Down 3 @ 563; Marc. Even @ 24, Utica Drops 1 @ 12
Last week, for the fifth week in a row, the Baker Hughes U.S. rig count dropped, down another three rigs to its lowest level since November 2021. There were changes among the Marcellus/Utica states, too. The combined M-U count dropped by one to 36 active rigs. The Pennsylvania Marcellus gained one rig, now at 18 rigs. The Ohio Utica dropped one of the two rigs it picked up two weeks ago and now stands at 11 rigs. West Virginia also dropped a rig and now runs only seven rigs. Read More “Nat’l Rig Count Down 3 @ 563; Marc. Even @ 24, Utica Drops 1 @ 12”
The highly functional and responsible Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC), unlike its less functional and irresponsible counterpart, 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 May 31 Pennsylvania Bulletin that the Executive Director of the SRBC renewed 45 general water use permits in April for individual shale gas well drilling pads in Blair, Bradford, Lycoming, Potter, Sullivan, Susquehanna, and Tioga counties in Pennsylvania. The director also approved new water withdrawals for the 146-megawatt gas-fired Hunlock Creek power plant in Luzerne County. 
President Trump’s version of his conversations with New York Governor Kathy Hochul was correct: She caved. Yesterday, pipeline giant Williams filed a 246-page request (below) with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to expedite the reissuance of a certificate for the Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) project, a billion-dollar-plus project designed to increase Transco pipeline capacity and flows of Marcellus gas heading into New York City and other northeastern markets. NESE is one of two projects, along with the Constitution Pipeline, on which Hochul “caved” in a deal with Trump (see 
Big Green is NOT happy with the prospect that New York Governor Kathy Hochul is rumored to have “caved” and traded approvals for two natural gas pipelines—the Constitution and Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE)—in return for building a $5 billion boondoggle wind farm off the coast of Long Island. As we reported today in a related post (Williams Files Request Asking FERC to Reissue NESE Cert in NY, NJ), Hochul did cave and agreed to allow these two pipeline projects, provided they meet federal and state requirements. Prior to the news breaking (via the New York Times and other outlets), Big Green, comprising Food & Water Watch, the NRDC, NYPIRG, Frack Action, and Catskill Mountainkeeper, issued a joint press release warning Hochul that she should not allow these pipelines…or else. 
In February, MDN told you about a proposed new bill in Ohio, House Bill (HB) 15, which makes significant changes to state energy policy to encourage the development of more in-state electric generation by making it easier (and more cost-effective) to build gas-fired power (see 
Electricity bills across Pennsylvania (and elsewhere in the PJM grid) are due to increase on June 1, when utilities reset a portion of their charges to reflect the current cost of energy. The increases reflect the rising cost of power on the regional transmission grid. Electric grids are complex to understand, but at their core, the grid manager (in this case, PJM) coordinates the flow of electricity within the grid and operates a wholesale power market where utilities purchase the electricity they deliver to their customers. Wholesale electric prices have spiked, and now utilities need to pass along those costs to ratepayers (don’t be mad at the local utility). The question is, why have wholesale electric prices spiked? Is someone (is PJM) at fault? 
Did you know that there are eight LNG export terminals currently in operation in the U.S. with a combined export capacity of 14.43 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d)? There are another eight LNG projects currently approved and under construction with a combined additional capacity of 17.43 Bcf/d. That’s right, all of the facilities under construction will more than double our current LNG exporting capacity! In addition to all of that, there are another 12 facilities approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) but not yet under construction. If they were to be built, add another massive 17.65 Bcf/d. Astonishing! We have maps with the names, locations,m and capacities for all LNG export facilities either in operation or planned. 
Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that federal agencies conducting environmental reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) must consider only the direct effects of a project rather than its broader impacts. The 8-0 ruling (highly unusual for a unanimous decision) follows years of lower courts demanding broader consideration of the effects of projects like LNG export terminals and energy-moving projects, such as rail lines and pipelines, to account for the climate effects of fossil fuels that move through them and will later be burned. 
The effort by the Trump administration to build both the Constitution Pipeline and the Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) Project continues to pick up steam. Just yesterday, we told you that there was a public disagreement between the White House and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul regarding whether she agreed to a quid pro quo deal to allow the two pipelines in return for restarting an offshore windmill project (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 2021, PennEnergy Resources made a request to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to withdraw up to 3 million gallons of water a day from Big Sewickley Creek (Beaver County) and one of its tributaries for shale fracking (see 
We need a scorecard to keep track of all the ups and downs at the problem-plagued Freeport LNG export facility, located near Galveston, Texas. We don’t think it’s a stretch to say the plant, which is the third-largest LNG export plant in the U.S., has been down almost as much as it has been up since first coming online in 2019 (