Marcellus/Utica May Finally Be on the Verge of Production Increase
A month ago, MDN published a post predicting that Marcellus/Utica natural gas production is set to grow thanks to new pipeline projects and demand from data centers and LNG exporters (see Marcellus/Utica Set to Grow Thanks to LNG, Data Centers, Southeast). Today, we shift the focus from customers to what drillers are saying (predicting) about their 2025 production and their long-term production plans. Read More “Marcellus/Utica May Finally Be on the Verge of Production Increase”
In what appears to be an innocuous, brief press release, DT Midstream (DTM), headquartered in Detroit, which owns significant assets in the Marcellus/Utica region and other regions, including the Haynesville, delivered what we consider big news. DTM has achieved an investment-grade rating with all three major credit rating agencies: Fitch Ratings, Moody’s Ratings, and S&P Global Ratings. While this announcement may seem minor, we can assure you, it’s a big deal. 
Anyone with half a brain in the energy space has seen and predicted (for years) a coming imbalance between electricity generation and electricity demand here in the U.S. When you don’t have enough production (generation) for increasing demand, there is a temporary cushion in the way of “peaker” plants that come online to bridge the gap. However, when huge new demand suddenly emerges, such as for AI data centers, and that demand is ongoing, peakers can’t meet the demand. The result is a power outage. The policies of Lord Obama and President Autopen, in promoting wind and solar while throttling natural gas, have set us up for a disaster, with an inability to meet sudden new demand for electricity. Unreliable renewables are NOT up to the task. That is the conclusion of a new report issued by the Department of Energy (DOE) called “Report on Evaluating U.S. Grid Reliability and Security” (full copy below). 
On Monday, President Trump signed an Executive Order (EO) to end market-distorting subsidies for unreliable wind and solar. The EO directs the Secretary of the Treasury (Scott Bessent) to terminate the clean electricity production and investment tax credits for wind and solar facilities and implement the enhanced Foreign Entity of Concern restrictions as identified in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The EO also directs the Secretary of the Interior (Doug Burgum) to revise regulations and policies to eliminate preferential treatment for wind and solar facilities compared to reliable, dispatchable energy sources. 
NATIONAL: Exxon sees $1.5B earnings hit from lower oil, gas prices; Can oil and gas solve the AI power dilemma?; U.S. LNG feedgas demand rose last week; Celebrate American independence by advancing energy dominance; INTERNATIONAL: Oil rises again on Middle East tensions; Who is the world’s top natural gas consumer? 
In early April, MDN brought you the exciting news that THE largest gas-fired power plant in the country, along with a MASSIVE data center complex, will be built at a former coal-fired power plant site in Indiana County, PA (see 
The lawfare battle brought by radical green groups in New Jersey, including Food and Water Watch, the NJ Highlands Coalition, and the Sierra Club, aimed at overturning the decision to permit and build an electric compressor station and a pipeline that connects to it, is over. Done. Finished. Can we please stick a fork in it? We’re talking about the battle to block a compressor project in West Milford, NJ, part of Kinder Morgan’s Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) East 300 expansion project, an upgrade of TGP to deliver an extra 115 MMcf/d of natural gas to Consolidated Edison and its customers in New York City and surrounding suburbs. The radicals just flamed out in a NJ appeals court and have no options left to challenge it. 
When referring to Big Green groups in Pennsylvania and elsewhere, we often label the groups as “colluding,” meaning they coordinate their legal and public relations attacks against fossil fuel companies. It is something we have long suspected but (unfortunately) can’t prove definitively. We had hoped Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW) was about to prove it (see 
MDN recently brought you the news that the Trump administration was blocking cargoes of ethane to China (see 
For the week of June 23 – 29, the number of permits issued to drill new wells in the Marcellus/Utica rose slightly from the previous week. There were 27 new permits issued across the three M-U states last week, up three from 24 issued two weeks ago. The Keystone State (PA) issued 10 new permits. Six of the ten permits went to EQT for a single pad in Greene County. Two permits were issued to Range Resources for a pad in Washington County. And one permit each was issued to Coterra Energy in Susquehanna County (in Dimock!), and Infinity Natural Resources in Indiana County. 
Quick! Somebody grab a tourniquet and tie it to the Baker Hughes U.S. rig count. The count has been hemorrhaging large numbers of rigs for 10 consecutive weeks. Last week (an early week with the count issued on Thursday), the U.S. rig count declined by another eight rigs to its lowest level since October 2021, ending the week at 539 active rigs. You have to go back to the dark days of the pandemic, July 2020, for the previous 10+ consecutive weeks of decline in the rig count. The Marcellus/Utica was clipped by one rig (in Pennsylvania), falling from a combined 36 to 35.