U.S. Gas Rig Count Whacked Again Last Week – PA & WV Each Lose 2
The weekly rig count in the U.S., particularly in gas-focused plays, continues to be of concern. That is, it keeps decreasing and then not recovering the decrease. Last Thursday, Baker Hughes said the U.S. lost another eight rigs total (oil and gas)–the seventh week in a row the rig count has decreased. Two weeks ago, the cumulative Marcellus/Utica rig count was even at 49 rigs (see Baker Hughes Rig Count Down 6th Week in a Row – Indicating a Trend). But that was after the M-U had plunged seven weeks earlier, going from 53 to 49. Last week Pennsylvania and West Virginia each lost two rigs. The Marcellus (by itself) hit 35 active rigs last week, the lowest number since March of this year.
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On June 8, the West Virginia Dept. of Environmental Protection issued a renewed Section 401 water quality certification for the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project. In a court filing by MVP that shoves the news in the faces of the corrupt Democrat three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, the judges are told as soon as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issues a Section 404 water permit (deadline is June 24), construction will resume to finish up the final 6% of the MVP project. And there’s not a darned thing the 4th Circuit can do to stop it. Sweet victory. Sweet justice.
Last year after the shocking news that U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (from West Virginia) had sold out his state and the entire country by agreeing to support the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) bill, the details began to come out about just how bad this law really is for the oil and gas industry. First and foremost, it empowers the federal EPA to slap a new methane tax on oil and gas activities (see 
In May, the Bidenistas at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a hellscape of new regulations aimed at forcing coal- and natural gas-fired power plants to close (see 
According to Baker Hughes, which has tracked rig counts since 1944, drillers cut the rig count once again last week (overall by a single rig), the sixth week in a row when the rig count has gone down. This is the first time the U.S. oil & gas rig count has gone down six weeks in a row since July 2020–nearly three years ago. Oil rigs rose by one last week to 556. Gas rigs fell two to 135, the lowest since March 2022. According to oil and gas expert David Blackmon (who writes for Forbes), a rig count slumping for six weeks in a row is a trend and cannot be ignored. What about the Marcellus/Utica?
It literally took an Act of Congress, but the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline will be, according to the builder and main owner, Equitrans, completed and online by the end of 2023. Victory!!! Finally, the good guys win one. The bulk of the credit for this significant victory goes to…House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who listened to the Republicans of West Virginia and stuck his own neck out to ensure this pipeline project gets completed by including it in the debt ceiling bill. Yes, liberal Democrat Joe Manchin gets credit for calling attention to the plight of MVP, but make no mistake–Manchin could not seal the deal. He fumbled the ball and could not get it across the finish line for a touchdown. It was McCarthy who picked up the ball and ran with it. It was Congresswoman Carol Miller (from West Virginia) and Senator Shelley Moore Capito (also from WV) who fought and lobbied (behind the scenes). Their work aided McCarthy in securing a place for MVP in the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023. Hats off to the Republican delegation from WV for their success.
Although U.S. Senator Joe Manchin “absolutely thinks” that Congress will pass the debt ceiling bill negotiated by President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, it’s still an open question as to whether or not it will pass. There are plenty of people on both ends of the political spectrum who are more than unhappy with the bill and plan to vote against it. At least, that’s what they say now. Today will be the acid test when a finalized bill appears and gets a vote in the House of Representatives. The billed, called the “Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023,” contains language that forces the completion of the 303-mile Marcellus/Utica Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). Manchin says if the bill passes, all currently open and pending lawsuits against MVP in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit will be immediately dismissed.
Big news over the weekend. President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy agreed to a compromise deal to raise the debt ceiling–into the stratosphere. Part of the deal is a provision in the 99-page “Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023” called Section 324, which expedites the completion of the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project. MVP will flow 2 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of Marcellus/Utica gas from Wetzel County, WV, to Pittsylvania County, VA. Needless to say, anti-fossil fuel nutters began howling at the moon and clawing at their faces upon hearing the MVP news.
Today’s lead story shares the good news that Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) is finally getting a literal “act of Congress” to force its completion (see Biden-McCarthy Debt Ceiling Deal Includes Finishing MVP PDQ). One of the provisions in the “Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023” (debt ceiling bill) removes jurisdiction to hear court cases brought against MVP away from the corrupt U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and gives it to the D.C. Circuit instead. Which may not be the panacea we were hoping for. On Friday, the D.C. Circuit ruled in a case concerning MVP that has the potential to delay the project further. So much for the D.C. Circuit being MVP’s savior…
Last Friday, Form Energy, a Boston-based firm building a utility-scale battery factory just across the Pennsylvania border in Weirton, West Virginia, held a groundbreaking ceremony on the site of a former steel plant. On hand for the ceremony were Jennifer Granholm, Secretary of the Department of Energy (DOE), and U.S. Senator Joe Manchin, from WV. We don’t care a fig about the battery factory. It was comments about a potential Appalachian hydrogen hub, made during interviews at the event, that caught our attention. Granholm all but guaranteed a hydrogen hub is coming to our region. Hello, $1 billion! Joe Manchin went even further and said, “I think West Virginia is going to be awarded a hydrogen hub.” What does Joe know that we don’t?
Two weeks ago, the Bidenistas at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a hellscape of new regulations aimed at forcing coal- and natural gas-fired power plants to close (see 
Last week MDN told you the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) had given final approval to Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) to install pipe through 3.5 miles of woodlands, and under the Appalachian Trail, in the Jefferson National Forest in Monroe County in West Virginia, in and Giles and Montgomery counties in Virginia for the THIRD time (see