M-U Rigs Even @ 36; Haynesville Even @ 55; Nat’l Up 4 @ 562
Last week, the combined Marcellus/Utica Baker Hughes rig count remained at 36 active rigs for the third week in a row. The M-U’s chief competitor, the Haynesville, maintained its count of 55 active rigs, operating 19 more than the M-U. The national count added 4 rigs last week, bringing the total to 562 rigs. That’s the sixth week in a row the national count has added rigs, driven by new oil-focused rigs. Baker Hughes said oil rigs rose by four to 429 last week, their highest since June 2025, while gas rigs held steady at 125 and other miscellaneous rigs held steady at 8. Read More “M-U Rigs Even @ 36; Haynesville Even @ 55; Nat’l Up 4 @ 562”

The Marcellus/Utica region received 15 new drilling permits last week, May 18 – 24, down from 23 permits issued two weeks ago. Pennsylvania issued 7 of last week’s permits. Ohio issued no new permits. West Virginia issued 8 new permits last week. The drillers who received new permits included: Antero Resources, Clean Energy E&P, EQT, Expand Energy, and PennEnergy Resources.
According to RBN Energy, the Northeast natural gas market is entering a new phase after years of stalled pipeline development and Appalachian takeaway constraints. Once a premium destination for Gulf Coast and Canadian gas, the region became a major supplier as Marcellus/Utica production surged, reversing flows toward the Southeast and Gulf Coast. Recent legal, regulatory, and cost hurdles have frozen major projects, with the Mountain Valley Pipeline serving as both a milestone and a warning. Now, under a friendlier regulatory climate, new expansions toward New York/New Jersey and New England are advancing.
Three weeks ago, the Trump Department of Energy announced it is moving forward with funding for five of the original seven Biden-awarded hydrogen hub projects, spending $5 billion of the originally allotted $7 billion (see
The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Equinor USA Onshore Properties Inc. (formerly Statoil) in a multi-million dollar tax dispute last Friday. The case has major implications for how the state calculates severance taxes for natural gas liquids. The decision reversed an intermediate court’s procedural dismissal, entitling Equinor to over $19 million in tax refunds for the years 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018, and 2019. The dispute centered on the definition of “gross proceeds” and the timeliness of administrative appeals in a years-long battle with the West Virginia tax commissioner.
In January, MDN reported that Fidelis New Energy and 8090 Industries together had launched a new company, American Intelligence & Power Corporation (AIPCorp), to develop the Monarch Compute Campus in Mason County, West Virginia (see
Antero Resources, the largest Marcellus/Utica (M-U) driller in West Virginia, released its Q1 2026 update last week. Antero placed 20 Marcellus wells to sales during Q1 with an average lateral length of 11,652 feet. Thirteen of these wells have been online for approximately 60 days with an average rate per well of 25 MMcfe/d, including 1,457 Bbl/d of liquids per well. Antero’s drilling and completion capital expenditures during Q1 were $222 million. In addition to capital invested in drilling and completion activities, the company invested $25 million in land during the first quarter. Through its land investment, Antero added approximately 5,400 net acres, representing 24 incremental drilling locations at an average cost of approximately $900,000 per location.