SHALE INSIGHT 2025 to Spotlight the M-U as America’s Energy Hub
Folks, it’s coming fast! The 15th Annual Shale Insight 2025 event comes to Erie, PA, September 16-18. That’s just over a week away. The event will bring together executives, policymakers, and technical experts from across the Marcellus/Utica natural gas industry to chart how the region is leveraging decades of innovation to drive the nation’s economic and technological competitiveness. Timely topics include grid reliability and power generation, the impact and opportunities from the rise of data centers and AI, infrastructure build-out and downstream use opportunities, among many others. We can’t recommend this event enough. Read More “SHALE INSIGHT 2025 to Spotlight the M-U as America’s Energy Hub”
Two weeks ago, the Baker Hughes U.S. rig count resumed a downward trend, which continued last week. The count lost another two rigs to end the week at 536. The count has been down (bleeding) 16 of the last 18 weeks. Fortunately, the Marcellus/Utica count has remained constant for the past six weeks, at a combined 36 active rigs. PA operated 18 active rigs. OH ran 11 rigs. And WV operated 7 rigs. Twenty-four rigs targeted the Marcellus and 12 rigs targeted the Utica last week. The overall downward trend in the national count is due to a slowdown in oil-focused drilling, although last week’s figures reversed this trend. Baker Hughes said oil rigs rose by one to 412 last week, while gas rigs fell by three to 119. 
New life is being breathed into old, shuttered coal-fired power plants. That’s the focus of an article appearing on the Fortune magazine website. The poster child for converting old coal-fired plants is none other than the former Homer City Generating Station in Indiana County, PA. It will be transformed into a more than 3,200-acre natural gas-powered data center campus, designed to meet the growing demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC). The new gas-fired plant in Homer City will be THE LARGEST gas-fired power plant in the country, capable of producing up to 4.5 gigawatts (4,500 MW) of electricity (see 
For the week of August 18 – 24, the number of permits issued to drill new wells in the Marcellus/Utica nearly doubled from the previous week. There were 30 new permits issued across the three M-U states last week, a significant increase from the 16 issued two weeks ago. Pennsylvania issued the lion’s share with 14 new permits. Six of PA’s permits went to EQT for a single pad in Greene County. Four permits were issued to Expand Energy for a pad in Bradford County. Three permits were awarded to Sabre Energy for a pad in Sullivan County. And a single permit was issued to Range Resources in Beaver County. 
West Virginia’s oil, gas, and coal industries are experiencing a resurgence, fueled by supportive state and federal policies. Gas & Oil Association of West Virginia (GO-WV) President Charlie Burd reports that Fiscal Year FY25 severance tax collections rose to $318 million, alongside record natural gas production, 90% of which is exported out of the state. Property taxes levied on oil and gas in the state were $428 million for FY24 (the 2025 numbers are not out yet). Burd said the O&G industry continues to directly employ around 15,000 people. 
Last week, the Baker Hughes U.S. rig count resumed its downward trend, losing another rig from the week before to 538 active rigs nationwide. The count has been down (bleeding) 15 of the last 17 weeks. The Marcellus/Utica count remained the same for the past five weeks at a combined 36 active rigs. PA operated 18 active rigs. OH ran 11 rigs. And WV operated 7 rigs. Twenty-four rigs targeted the Marcellus and 12 rigs targeted the Utica last week. The downward trend is due to a scaleback in oil-focused drilling. Baker Hughes said oil rigs fell by one to 411 last week, while gas rigs held steady at 122. 
Yes, we’re suckers for a good railroad story. Always have been, always will be. And here’s one! FTAL Infrastructure owns short line and terminal switching operator Transtar and is an affiliate of Fortress Investment Group. It’s kind of a Matryoshka doll (a Russian “nesting” doll of one thing inside another). Transtar, owned by FTAL, which is owned by Fortress, is buying the Wheeling & Lake Erie (W&LE) regional railroad for $1.05 billion. W&LE, headquartered in Brewster (Stark County), Ohio, owns 840 miles of track in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. 
The parents of four children under the age of 18 (from three families) filed a lawsuit on their kids’ behalf against EQT subsidiaries EQT Production Company and EQT XL Midstream Operating, claiming that emissions from a nearby compressor station and nearby shale wells operated by EQT have led to severe health-related problems for the kids. The families used to live in the rural hamlet of Knob Fork in Wetzel County, WV. They all have since moved. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages and money for ongoing monitoring of the kids’ health. 
PJM Interconnection is the electrical grid operator covering Pennsylvania, along with all or parts of 12 other states and the District of Columbia. For months, the Democrat governors of PJM states have been hammering PJM, blaming PJM for higher electricity prices, even though it is their own policies that are driving electricity prices higher (see 
A group of 26 financial officers (state treasurers) from 21 states sent letters to 18 major financial institutions this week, including BlackRock, warning them to abandon environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices if they wish to continue doing business with their states. Notably, Pennsylvania’s Treasurer, Stacy Garrity, was one of the signatories on the letter. West Virginia’s Treasurer, Larry Pack, signed, too. Unfortunately, Ohio’s Treasurer, Robert Sprague (a Republican), was NOT one of the signatories. Curious.