Top Destinations for U.S. LNG Exports in 2025; Key Trends to Track
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. Read More “Top Destinations for U.S. LNG Exports in 2025; Key Trends to Track”
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. 
Last week, the Baker Hughes U.S. rig count continued its downward trend, losing another rig to end at 539 active rigs nationwide. The count has been down 14 of the last 15 weeks, with the only slight increase happening a month ago. The Marcellus/Utica count remained the same (after gaining one rig three weeks ago) at a combined 36 active rigs. PA is running 18 active rigs. OH is running 11 rigs. And WV is operating 7 rigs. There were 24 rigs targeting the Marcellus and 12 rigs targeting the Utica last week. 
In the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) Today in Energy online publication, the EIA lays out the case that more Marcellus/Utica molecules will help supply Gulf Coast LNG export facilities in the future. The EIA says the economics of producing more gas in the Appalachian Basin are more favorable. It’s just cheaper to produce natural gas in the M-U. The EIA’s models show that natural gas is and will transit through the Eastern Midwest region on the way to the Gulf Coast. Pipelines will carry our molecules over (to the Midwest) and then down (to the Gulf Coast). It’s a beautiful thing! 
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) yesterday released a new report, “A Critical Review of Impacts of Greenhouse Gas Emissions on the U.S. Climate” (full copy below), evaluating existing peer-reviewed literature and government data on climate impacts of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions and providing a critical assessment of the conventional narrative on climate change. The report was developed by the 2025 Climate Working Group, a group of five independent scientists assembled by Energy Secretary Chris Wright with diverse expertise in physical science, economics, climate science, and academic research. Among the key findings, the report concludes that CO2-induced warming appears to be less damaging economically than commonly believed, and that aggressive mitigation strategies may be misdirected. Additionally, the report finds that U.S. policy actions are expected to have undetectably small direct impacts on the global climate, and any effects will emerge only with long delays. 
According to Enverus Intelligence Research, the upstream M&A (mergers and acquisitions) sector “hit the brakes” during the second quarter, falling 21% quarter-over-quarter to $13.5 billion. There were two Marcellus/Utica deals in the top five. Actually, our two deals were in the top three. The announcement by EOG Resources cutting a deal to buy Encino Energy in the Ohio Utica for $5.6 billion was the #1 highest value M&A deal in upstream O&G during 2Q (see 
We spotted a fascinating Hart Energy article that summarizes information from a recently released Mizuho Securities study. Mizuho researcher Nitin Kumar says that we are roughly halfway through the shale revolution. He posits that approximately 290,000 horizontal wells have been landed in shale rock in the Lower 48 and that under current economic conditions and with current technology, another 270,000 locations remain. It will take another 25 years to drill them, says Kumar. Which is interesting, although we take some issue with those findings. However, embedded in the statistics is something that caught our attention: the value of undeveloped acreage in various shale plays, including the Marcellus. 
The Baker Hughes U.S. rig count has been hemorrhaging for 11 consecutive weeks. Last week, the U.S. rig count declined by another two rigs to its lowest level since October 2021, ending the week at 537 active rigs. You have to go back to the dark days of the pandemic, July 2020, for the previous 11+ consecutive weeks of decline in the rig count. The Marcellus/Utica stayed even (after falling by one two weeks ago) at a combined 35 active rigs. There were 23 rigs targeting the Marcellus and 12 rigs targeting the Utica last week. 
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) issued its latest monthly Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) last week. The STEO is the agency’s monthly best guess about where energy prices and production will head in the next 12 months. In this latest assessment, EIA dropped its estimates for the Henry Hub spot price for 2025. The agency expects the HH price to average $3.70 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) in 2025, $0.30 lower than last month’s forecast. EIA also dropped its 2026 forecast, now believing the gas price will average $4.40/MMBtu, down a whopping $0.50 (half a buck!) from last month’s $4.90. You can see why we refer to the dartboard EIA uses each month when creating these forecasts. 
If you’ve read MDN for any length of time, you know that so-called renewable energy, wind and solar, are unreliable and really, really expensive. Most people believe renewables overcome those problems by being good for the environment. No so! Renewables are actually bad for the environment. We will explain… 
A month ago, MDN published a post predicting that Marcellus/Utica natural gas production is set to grow thanks to new pipeline projects and demand from data centers and LNG exporters (see