MDN’s Energy Stories of Interest: Wed, Jun 25, 2025 [FREE ACCESS]
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Delaware estuary now under pressure from Trump administration; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Cheniere makes positive FID on Corpus Christi Trains 8 & 9 project; NATIONAL: Biden EPA press aide joins climate think tank; U.S. LNG feedgas drops but likely to rise this week; Senate parliamentarian rejects offshore oil, gas drilling provisions in GOP megabill; AEA launches six-figure advocacy initiative to end the IRA credits; INTERNATIONAL: Oil prices plunge on Trump ceasefire push; Oil market concerns almost exclusively focused on Strait of Hormuz; One-fifth of global LNG trade flows through the Strait of Hormuz; US energy expert Robert Bryce warns Australia is ‘acting like an energy weakling’; LNG freight rates hit 8-mth top on tight tanker availability, Mideast conflict. Read More “MDN’s Energy Stories of Interest: Wed, Jun 25, 2025 [FREE ACCESS]”
Yesterday, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) announced the distribution of $164,592,500 in natural gas impact fees collected from producers for the 2024 reporting year. The bad news is that the impact fee raised $15 million less than it did in 2023, the prior year. The good news is that the state Independent Fiscal Office predicts the impact fee for 2025 will soar by $70 million to roughly $235 million (see 
Diversified Energy and global investment firm Carlyle have formed a strategic partnership to invest up to $2 billion in proved developed producing (PDP) natural gas and oil assets across the U.S. Diversified will operate and manage the assets, while Carlyle brings the money and financial expertise, aiming to “securitize” these investments for long-term funding. Diversified owns significant assets in the Marcellus/Utica region (and other regions, too). The company owns approximately 8 million acres of leases with close to 70,000 (mostly) conventional oil and gas wells. The company’s business model is to buy already-drilled, lower-producing wells on the cheap and find ways to make them more productive. 
The West Virginia Supreme Court recently issued two 3-2 decisions reinforcing that oil and gas producers generally cannot deduct post-production costs from royalty payments to mineral owners unless lease agreements explicitly permit such deductions. We previously reported on both decisions. On June 6, the Supremes ruled in Kaess v. BB Land LLC on “in-kind” royalty leases (see 
Talk about shotgun weddings! WhiteHawk Energy has been smitten with PHX Minerals for two years. WhiteHawk repeatedly proposed marriage (M&A), yet PHX repeatedly gave WhiteHawk the cold shoulder (
Did you know that artificial intelligence (AI) services like ChatGPT “isn’t great for the planet”? That you should be using AI responsibly. And that you can choose an AI model that “harms the planet less.” This is the lunacy now coming from the left. Last week, on the same day, both the New York Times and the Washington Post (the epitome of leftist groupthink) published stories warning readers that using AI is killing the planet. Here we go again. Yeah, you should just remain dumb and give up your use of AI. That’s the solution! 
Last week, for the eighth week in a row, the Baker Hughes U.S. rig count dropped, down by one rig to its lowest level since November 2021. This is the first time we’ve seen a slide in the count for eight weeks (or more) since September 2023. The national rig count continues in free fall, although perhaps the rate of descent is slowing. The Marcellus/Utica count remained the same last week, at a combined 36 active rigs. The Pennsylvania Marcellus operated 18 rigs. The Ohio Utica operated 11 rigs. And West Virginia operated seven rigs. 
This is an unfortunate part of mergers and acquisitions. The Houston Chronicle is reporting that a WARN notice (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification) filed by Encino Energy indicates that 121 Encino workers will be laid off on or around August 17. No reason is given, however, EOG Resources is in the process of buying out and merging in Encino’s Ohio Utica assets (see 
The Pennsylvania Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) is out with an initial estimate for how much money will be raised and distributed from the 2025 impact fee assessment. The IFO projects that impact fee revenue will increase by $70 million in 2025 compared to the revenue collected in 2024. IFO predicts revenues will hit around $235 million. The impact fee is PA’s version of a severance tax. The impact fee generated $164.6 million in 2024 and $179.6 million in 2023. 
A leftist anti-fossil group calling itself Protect PT (Penn-Trafford), located in Westmoreland County, PA, backed with big money from Big Green groups, has for years challenged Penn Township ordinances that allow Apex Energy (now CNX Resources) to drill and operate shale wells. Protect PT finally struck out (legally) at the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in May 2020 (see 
The highly functional and responsible Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC), unlike its highly dysfunctional and irresponsible counterpart, the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), continues to support the shale energy industry by approving water withdrawals and consumptive use for responsible and safe shale drilling. The SRBC published a notice in the June 21 Pennsylvania Bulletin that the Executive Director of the SRBC renewed 38 general water use permits in May for individual shale gas well drilling pads in Bradford, Cameron, Clearfield, Lycoming, Susquehanna, Tioga, and Wyoming counties in Pennsylvania. So far in 2025, the SRBC has issued or renewed 225 general water use permits for shale gas development. 
The United States continued to produce more energy than it consumed in 2024. This surplus energy production helped energy exports grow to a record high 30.9 quadrillion British thermal units (quads) in 2024, up 4% from 2023. Energy imports remained flat at 21.7 quads in 2024, indicating that the United States exported 9.3 quads more energy than it imported, the highest net exports in the records of the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), which date back to 1949. Thanks to the miracle of shale energy!