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No Change in M-U, Nat’l Baker Hughes Rig Counts 2nd Week in a Row
The venerable Baker Hughes national rig count was 589 active rigs last week—which is FIVE weeks in a row. Very unusual. The Marcellus/Utica rig count was a combined 34 last week—the same number for FOUR weeks in a row. The national count remains rangebound between 581 and 589 since June 2024 (except for Sep. 13, when it hit 590 for a single week). The M-U remained static last week, with PA at 15 rigs, OH at 9 rigs, and WV at 10 rigs. Read More “No Change in M-U, Nat’l Baker Hughes Rig Counts 2nd Week in a Row”
Yesterday, the Northeast Power Coordinating Council (NPCC) announced the completion of the NPCC Northeast Gas/Electric System Study. Initiated in 2023, the study evaluated New York and New England gas supply and gas pipeline constraints for extreme and protracted winter events during the peak heating season, from December through February, for three time periods: 2024/25 (short-term), 2027/28 (mid-term) and 2032/33 (long-term). It shows that if we get an extended (more than three-day) cold snap, those of us living in NY or New England will be in trouble. 
This is an interesting pattern we’ve not seen in a long time for the venerable Baker Hughes rig count. The national rig count and the count for the Marcellus/Utica remained the same for multiple weeks in a row. The national count was 589 active rigs last week (now four weeks in a row). The M-U count was 34 last week (now three weeks in a row). The national count remains rangebound between 581 and 589 since June 2024 (except for Sep. 13, when it hit 590 for a single week). The M-U remained static last week, with PA at 15 rigs, OH at 9 rigs, and WV at 10 rigs. 
Two days ago, MDN brought you analysis from RBN Energy that said U.S. LNG feedgas demand in 2024 would average “just under” the average from 2023, the first time since we began exporting LNG in 2016 that we have not grown our exports year over year (see 
Yesterday, MDN brought you the news that the Biden Department of Energy (DOE) and its grossly incompetent leader, Jennifer Granholm, released a fake “study” that recommends not approving any more LNG export facilities, claiming we already have enough in the pipeline to last us forevermore (see 
This is VERY interesting. The nonpartisan S&P Global, which never (we mean NEVER) seeks to ruffle political feathers, released a study on LNG exports on the very same day as the Biden/Granholm Department of Energy released its LNG export study. The S&P study, which came out a few hours earlier than the DOE study, says more U.S. LNG exports will NOT raise the domestic price of natural gas, at least not appreciably. The Biden-corrupted DOE report says the opposite, that more LNG exports will cause domestic natural gas prices to go through the roof (and consequently, we shouldn’t build more LNG export facilities). Who do you believe? The company that is one of THE largest financial analysis companies in the world, that manages the S&P 500 Index and S&P credit ratings? Or lying, sore-loser politicians like the ditsy Jennifer Granholm and Joementia Biden? 
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The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) released its 2024 Long-Term Reliability Assessment? (LTRA) yesterday. The LTRA highlights *critical* reliability challenges that the power industry is facing over the next 10 years, including satisfying escalating energy growth, managing generator retirements, and removing barriers to resource and transmission development. The LTRA concludes that well over half of the continent is at elevated or high risk of energy shortfalls over the next 5 to 10 years. 
“The science is settled on climate change” is not so settled after all. Researchers in Spain have found that global emissions of a sulfur gas produced by marine life have a previously unknown cooling effect on temperatures. It has long been known that oceans capture and redistribute the sun’s heat. However, there is more to the story. A study published Nov. 29 in the journal Science Advances noted that oceans, notably in the Southern Hemisphere, produce gases known as marine sulfur. And one of these gases, methanethiol, influences the climate in a way that has gone unnoticed. Until now. The study finds that our fear over the planet’s health may be “greatly overestimated” given the cooling effects of methanethiol. 
The left can no longer hide the truth, as they have tried to do for years. The truth is, with the advent of data centers and artificial intelligence and their enormous demand for new electricity, there is only one solution that will work, at least in the next 10-20 years: natural gas power. A Democrat-controlled panel from the Virginia legislature commissioned an independent study of how to power data centers. Northern Virginia has the highest concentration of data centers globally and remains the fastest-growing market for data centers in the country. The state must plan for how to get power to operate all of those installations. The independent study concluded that the only practical solution is to use natural gas-fired power plants. 
The Baker Hughes national rig count dramatically increased two weeks ago, adding seven rigs for a national count of 589 (see 
We’ve discussed shale wastewater, sometimes called brine or “produced water,” many times over the years. When drilling an oil or gas well deep in the earth, the hole releases naturally occurring water from the depths (far, far below the surface water table) for years after the well is drilled. The water coming out has a LOT of minerals, sometimes mildly radioactive, and is usually called either brine (meaning salty) or produced water. Traditionally, there are two ways to handle all of that water coming out of the ground: (1) recycle it and reuse it for more oil and gas drilling, or (2) pump it back down into the ground from whence it came via an injection well. Ohio University (in Athens, OH) has just won a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to study how produced water can be cleaned up and used outside the oil and gas sector. 
Yesterday, the analysts at S&P Global Commodity Insights, the leading independent provider of information, data, analysis, benchmark prices, and workflow solutions for the commodities and energy markets, released their 2025 energy outlook. S&P published the top 10 “key themes” from the report. Key theme #2 was this: “Total energy demand growth to outstrip clean energy supply growth.” The concomitant conclusion is that *something* has to meet that new energy demand, and since unreliable renewables can’t and won’t, fossil fuels will ride in to save the day—as they always have. 
Yesterday, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported five states produced more than 70% of the record 113.1 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of U.S. marketed natural gas production in 2023. Two of the five were in the Marcellus/Utica: Pennsylvania (18% of the country’s gas) and West Virginia (8% of the country’s gas). We did some digging and found that when adding the production from PA, WV, and OH, the three together represented 31.5% of all the natural gas produced in the U.S. in 2023. It is an astonishing fact! 
The environmental left is hellbent on regulating fossil fuels, including oil and natural gas, out of existence. One of their favorite (false) memes is to claim methane is a bazillion times more “potent” in causing global warming than other things, like carbon dioxide. The false narrative continues that shale drilling is causing a stratospheric increase in fugitive methane leaks into Mom Earth’s atmosphere. Except….it isn’t true. According to data from the Environmental Protection Agency, methane emissions from the country’s top oil and gas-producing basins have fallen 44 percent since 2011. Methane emissions right here in the Marcellus/Utica have fallen 52% from 2019 to 2023!