S. Korea Building 2 Jones Act LNG Carriers at Philly Shipyard
Donald Trump, the dealmaker, has been hard at work attempting to restore balance to our trade with other countries. One of the countries with a significant imbalance in trade with the U.S. is South Korea. To avoid Trump’s threatened tariffs (and wrath), South Korea’s business lobby group announced yesterday that South Korean companies would invest $150 billion (a staggering number) in areas such as artificial intelligence, chips, biotechnology, shipbuilding, and nuclear power. While no specific breakdown or timeframe for the investments was announced, we are aware of one of the investments. Hanwha Group announced a $5 billion infrastructure plan for the Hanwha Philly Shipyard, where the company will complete (we hesitate to say “build”) two new LNG export ships that are U.S. Jones Act compliant. Read More “S. Korea Building 2 Jones Act LNG Carriers at Philly Shipyard”
It’s hard to believe we’re still talking about (and waiting for) the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to weigh in on whether or not it was legal for former Governor Tom Wolf to unilaterally sentence all Pennsylvanians to the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon tax scheme—with no vote by the legislature. The Supremes collected briefs on RGGI a whole year ago (see 
Glenfarne’s Texas LNG facility in Brownsville, Texas, will have the capacity to export 4 MTPA. EQT Corporation, the largest natural gas producer in the Marcellus/Utica, signed two agreements with Glenfarne to liquefy 2.0 million tons per annum (MTPA) of EQT-extracted shale gas at the facility when it’s built (see 
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Commonwealth LNG orders BH compressors to power next-gen LNG export facility; JEA Board approves plan to build natural gas plant to meet future energy needs; NATIONAL: U.S. natural gas futures mixed in choppy session; Oil price settles lower after rally; The U.S. now exports 30% of the energy it produces; Drilling improvements allow oil, gas production to rise as rig count falls; U.S. and Canadian markets ‘completely and inextricably intertwined’; INTERNATIONAL: OPEC+ may unwind 1.65mm bpd of cuts at next meeting, analyst warns; Japan’s utilities cut fossil fuel electricity share to new lows; Britain’s net-zero scheme is being derailed by opposition to solar and wind projects. 
Another important lawsuit involving whether or not a driller can deduct from royalty checks for post-production expenses was just decided by the Ohio Court of Appeals for the Seventh District in Carroll County. The rights owner in this case, Gateway Royalty II, sued Encino Energy (EAP Ohio) over the issue of deducting post-production expenses from the company’s overriding royalty interests. This is slightly different from the usual post-production issue for landowners/rights owners. 
The war of words continues. 
West Virginia’s oil, gas, and coal industries are experiencing a resurgence, fueled by supportive state and federal policies. Gas & Oil Association of West Virginia (GO-WV) President Charlie Burd reports that Fiscal Year FY25 severance tax collections rose to $318 million, alongside record natural gas production, 90% of which is exported out of the state. Property taxes levied on oil and gas in the state were $428 million for FY24 (the 2025 numbers are not out yet). Burd said the O&G industry continues to directly employ around 15,000 people. 
Despite a “public outcry” (of 13 people), the Chesapeake City (Virginia) Council voted 6-3 in July to approve a compressor station for Virginia Natural Gas (see 
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) published a blog post yesterday to proclaim that it expects record-high natural gas consumption this year, 2025. The EIA forecasts natural gas consumption in the U.S. will increase 1% to set a record of 91.4 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) in 2025. In the agency’s latest Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), EIA predicts natural gas consumption to increase across all sectors *except* for electric power, which had been the source of most natural gas consumption growth in the previous decade. Say what? 
For the week of August 11 – 17, the number of permits issued to drill new wells in the Marcellus/Utica edged up from the previous week. There were 16 new permits issued across the three M-U states last week, an increase of six from the 10 issued two weeks ago. Pennsylvania issued just four new permits, all of them for a single driller on a single pad in a single county: Coterra in Susquehanna County. Ohio also issued just four new permits, all of which went to Encino Energy (EAP) for a single pad in Harrison County. 
Last week, the Baker Hughes U.S. rig count resumed its downward trend, losing another rig from the week before to 538 active rigs nationwide. The count has been down (bleeding) 15 of the last 17 weeks. The Marcellus/Utica count remained the same for the past five weeks at a combined 36 active rigs. PA operated 18 active rigs. OH ran 11 rigs. And WV operated 7 rigs. Twenty-four rigs targeted the Marcellus and 12 rigs targeted the Utica last week. The downward trend is due to a scaleback in oil-focused drilling. Baker Hughes said oil rigs fell by one to 411 last week, while gas rigs held steady at 122. 
Just as we were heading out the door last week for a couple of days off, news broke that a now-idled frack wastewater treatment plant, a Eureka Resources facility in Williamsport, PA, had sprung a leak in a tank and that some of the fluid had entered a storm drain, making its way to the Susquehanna River (see