MDN’s Energy Stories of Interest: Wed, Oct 1, 2025 [FREE ACCESS]
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Trump’s energy secretary rails against NY green energy efforts in visit to LI power station; Data center developers still eager to call Virginia home; $2.2 billion solar plant in California scheduled to be turned off after years of wasted money; NATIONAL: Exxon to cut 2,000 jobs; Protecting national security with domestic shale energy supply; Wall Street rediscovers oil and gas; U.S. LNG feedgas demand up slightly this week despite maintenance; New tactics, but climate crusaders running out of options; INTERNATIONAL: Oil slips as OPEC+ weighs faster output hikes; UN, EU, ICJ, climate cabal want to keep the poor impoverished; Net zero hobbits encounter realities outside Middle-Earth; Ed Miliband to announce ‘total ban’ on fracking in fight against Reform. Read More “MDN’s Energy Stories of Interest: Wed, Oct 1, 2025 [FREE ACCESS]”
It took over two years, but NextEra Energy finally sold its ownership interest in Meade Pipeline Co LLC to investment company Ares Management Corporation for $1.1 billion. You may recall that NextEra acquired Meade Pipeline for $1.37 billion in 2019 (see 
Last week, we told you that, although she has not publicly admitted it, New York Governor Kathy Hochul has approved the Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) pipeline project (see 
The fight in Marietta, OH, over DeepRock Disposal Solutions’ plan to build a fifth shale wastewater injection well is getting heated. Opposition to the well has made for some very strange bedfellows. The Republican City Council is utilizing the legal services of the radicalized Earthjustice green group to challenge a permit issued by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, which would allow the well in Marietta, OH (see 
Our friend Bill desRosiers, Manager of Government and External Affairs at Coterra Energy, has authored an excellent article and white paper addressing the topic of how the oil and gas industry can use virtual reality (VR) to attract new blood to the industry. The oil and gas industry is facing a significant workforce challenge: nearly 400,000 U.S. energy workers are nearing retirement, while younger generations remain hesitant to enter the field. In spring 2025, Coterra partnered with Xalter to deploy a multi-state pilot VR program to prepare the next generation of energy workers. Bill draws back the curtain to discuss the company’s experience in using VR for training and to attract new talent to the company. 
In February 2016, Shell completed a $69.7 billion buyout and merger with BG, the largest such oil and gas deal since Exxon bought Mobil in 1999, driven by the company’s love of LNG (see 
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. 
The Youngstown Vindicator is reporting that one of the first new horizontal gas and oil wells to be drilled in Mahoning County, OH, in recent years has begun producing gas and oil at its well pad. The Wehr Spring Valley Farm well is producing oil and natural gas. However, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) has not yet released any production numbers for the well. The big news here is that drilling is migrating well north of the traditional locations for Utica drilling—to the “northern part” of the Utica. Is this a foretaste of good things to come in the northern Utica? 
Last week, we brought you several posts about a “summit” (a blaming and bullying session) convened by one of the biggest bullies on the political scene today, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, to complain about high electricity prices in the PJM Interconnection grid (see 
As we’ve explained multiple times, the policies of governors like Josh Shapiro (Pennsylvania), Maura Healey (Massachusetts), and Ned Lamont (Connecticut) are the DIRECT cause of higher electricity prices. And now that prices are soaring, those governors are running away from their culpability as fast as they can, attempting to shift blame (see 
A new report from big energy data analytics firm Enverus finds that the average breakeven price for new shale wells in the United States currently sits at $70 per barrel. That’s a problem, because the sale price for a barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude has been firmly in the $60s for months. U.S. shale drillers can’t drill new wells if they lose money. Consequently, they’re beginning to lay down the rigs and stop new drilling. But here’s the even more troubling part of the report: Enverus predicts the breakeven price will rise to around $95 per barrel within ten years. 
The mighty BP (formerly British Petroleum) is an oil and natural gas company attempting to transition into a renewable energy company. They’re failing. BP is having an identity crisis. It’s a European company and has bought into the false narrative that fossil energy is on the way out (“transitioning” to so-called renewables) due to concerns over mythical global warming. BP’s recently published Annual Energy Outlook for 2025 report (full copy below) takes a different approach from previous versions of the report. It offers two scenarios: What will happen between now and 2050 if we don’t change anything, called “Current Trajectory,” which means humans will turn Earth into a burning hell; and what will happen if the world finally gets serious about mythical global warming and commits to ensuring temperatures don’t rise more than 2 degrees Celsius, called “Below 2°.” 
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.