U.S. Rig Count Gained 4th Week in a Row, Up 7 @ 549; M-U Up 1 @ 38
For the fourth week in a row, the Baker Hughes U.S. national rig count gained, instead of losing, rigs. Last week, the count increased by seven, to 549. The last time the count was higher was June 20. The even more exciting news is that the Ohio Utica picked up another rig, boosting the total in Ohio to 13, the highest it’s been in well over a year. Pennsylvania maintained its count of 18 active rigs, which it has maintained since July 25 (two months). West Virginia kept its seven active rigs, the same number since May 30 (four months). The combined M-U count was 38 rigs, with 24 rigs targeting the Marcellus layer and 14 targeting the Utica. Read More “U.S. Rig Count Gained 4th Week in a Row, Up 7 @ 549; M-U Up 1 @ 38”

For the week of September 15 – 21, the number of permits issued to drill new wells in the Marcellus/Utica decreased from the previous week, but not by much. There were 24 new permits issued across the three M-U states last week, down from 26 issued two weeks ago. Pennsylvania finally improved a bit, but only because of one driller. PA issued 11 new permits last week, with 10 of the 11 going to Range Resources. Range’s permits were spread across three counties, with one permit in Allegheny, five in Beaver, and four in Washington. The other PA permit went to Beech Resources for a well in Lycoming County.
Last Thursday, MDN informed you about a public hearing scheduled for that day by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WV-DEP) for the Adams Fork Energy Project in Mingo County (see
In the closing hours of the 2014 West Virginia legislative session, the legislature passed Senate Bill (SB) 373, the Aboveground Storage Tank Act (see
In April, MDN told you of a proposal by Fundamental Data for the “Ridgeline Facility,” a large natural gas power plant and data center that will be built between Davis and Thomas, WV (see
Patrick Morrisey served as the 34th attorney general of West Virginia from 2013 to 2025. Last November, he was elected as the state’s 37th governor, assuming office in January. Morrisey has been an unabashed champion for fossil fuels since taking office. He’s a visionary, charting out the future of the state’s economy. Gov. Morrisey cast a vision for the future of the state earlier this month at the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce Annual Meeting and Business Summit (see
It took eight years and untold legal fees (on both sides) before a tiny 3.4-mile, 8-inch natural gas pipeline under the Potomac River was finally built and went online in July (see
There is a disagreement brewing between those who operate the PJM Interconnection power grid and Big Tech, including Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and others, regarding the issue of adding data centers to the PJM grid. PJM recently proposed a fast-track stakeholder process to develop rules by the end of the year for interconnecting data centers to its system while ensuring the region has enough power supplies. The proposal would treat new data centers over 50 megawatts (MW) as “non-capacity-backed load” (or NCBL). Under the proposal, PJM could curtail (reduce or cut off) power deliveries to data centers with NCBL status before the grid operator moves to pre-emergency load curtailments for other electricity users. Big Tech doesn’t like it one little bit.