4Q Earnings for M-U Drillers Bounced Back After Down First 3 Qtrs
The experts at RBN Energy track 38 exploration and production (E&P) companies to monitor financial and operational performance. In a recent blog post, RBN found the 10 gas-weighted E&Ps (all but one with significant operations in the Marcellus/Utica) experienced a rebound in earnings during Q4 2024 after a rough first three quarters of the year. Earnings for the 10 gas-weighted E&Ps averaged $3.02/boe (barrels of oil equivalent) in Q4 2024 after losses in Q2 and Q3 2024. Cash flow averaged $10.18/boe, 52% higher than the $6.71/boe generated in Q3 2024. Realized prices averaged nearly $18/boe in Q4 2024, 24% higher than the $14.52/boe recorded in Q3 2024. Things are looking up for M-U drillers. Read More “4Q Earnings for M-U Drillers Bounced Back After Down First 3 Qtrs”
The European Union’s idiotic methane regulations will be enforced beginning this year. Domestic (European) oil, gas, and coal companies must monitor, measure, and report their emissions. The same restrictions apply to energy imports from other countries, including the U.S. (see 
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: What’s ahead for New England’s power grid – more gas?; Mass layoffs at hydrogen company near Albany, NY; NATIONAL: Oil, gas execs reveal where they expect WTI oil price to be in the future; U.S. natural gas consumption set new winter and summer monthly records in 2024; Big Oil shrugs at $50 crude; White paper points to carbon capture as possible data center solution; Study found US gas exports did not impact climate change, so Biden admin buried it; Consumers are not voting for the energy transition; US Army Corps to narrow list of emergency energy projects by this week; INTERNATIONAL: Exports of Russian pipeline gas to Europe down 19% in March month-on-month, data shows; Allianz’s board says it’s time to save the planet; ‘Pissed off’ at Putin, Trump threatens tariffs on Russian oil if Moscow blocks Ukraine deal; The Paris climate agreement is dead — time to bury it for good; Aramco eyeing new US LNG deal. 
The Baker Hughes U.S. national rig count lost one rig last week (after gaining one the week before), now operating 592 active rigs. As for the Marcellus/Utica, the rig count was a combined 35 last week. However, there was a notable change in the totals. Rigs focused on the Marcellus were down by one to a combined 23 across the three M-U states of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio. Rigs focused on the Utica picked up the lost Marcellus rig, now at a combined 12. PA had operated 15 rigs (or more) for 19 weeks straight. That streak was broken last week when PA lost a rig. OH had operated nine rigs for 16 weeks in a row but picked up one last week and now stands at ten active rigs. WV had operated 10 rigs for an astonishing 23 weeks in a row. Six weeks ago, WV added (and has kept) one additional rig and operates 11 active rigs. 
Infinity Natural Resources (INR), headquartered in Morgantown, WV, focuses 100% on the Marcellus/Utica. The company went public earlier this year with a $265 million ($20/share) initial public offering, giving INR a $1.18 billion market capitalization (see 
The highly functional and responsible Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC), unlike its completely dysfunctional and irresponsible cousin, 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 March 29 Pennsylvania Bulletin that the Executive Director of the SRBC gave his approval to or renewed 50 (!) general water use permits in February for individual shale gas well drilling pads in Bradford, Centre, Clearfield, Clinton, Lycoming, Potter, Susquehanna, and Tioga counties in Pennsylvania. 
Last week, Pennsylvania State Senator Gene Yaw (Lycoming County), chairman of the Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, sounded the alarm for all Pennsylvanians. Yaw said, “We are going to have to suffer some hardships. Meaning, we probably are going to have some blackouts, brownouts.” Why would PA, an electricity exporter, experience blackouts? The plain, simple, and short answer is because of Governor Josh Shapiro’s idiotic energy policies. 
We think the headline of this post pretty much says it all with respect to why it costs five times more to plug orphaned wells in Pennsylvania than in other states (see 
The Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub (ARCH2), led by West Virginia and Ohio, was one of seven projects to win the Bidenista Hunger Games competition to receive a chunk of $7 billion to build a regional hydrogen hub (see 
For the week of Mar 17 – 23, the number of permits issued in the Marcellus/Utica to drill new shale wells dropped by nine from the previous week. Last week, 22 new permits were issued, with 16 going to the Keystone State (PA). PennEnergy Resources took the lion’s share with 11 permits for a single pad in Butler County. PA General Energy received four permits for a single pad in Lycoming County. Range Resources got one new permit in Washington County. 
On March 27, the Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC) online Hydrologic Conditions Monitor showed low stream flows have triggered restrictions on 18 shale gas water withdrawal points in Bradford, Potter, Susquehanna, Tioga, and Wyoming counties. Another 17 shale gas withdrawals are approaching restrictions. Of the water withdrawal points regulated by SRBC, only shale gas development water withdrawals currently have restrictions because they take water from smaller streams. 
Donald Trump has taken significant actions to eliminate “environmental justice” programs within the federal government during his second term, which began on January 20, 2025. What is so-called environmental justice (EJ)? EJ is the leftist theory that energy projects like pipelines and well pads target locations where there are black, brown, or poor people who can’t fight back legally. They don’t want the projects, but they have no way ($$) to fight them. And so their populations suffer the negative environmental consequences of living near polluting energy projects. Energy projects are presumed to be inherently racist. It is a disgusting, loathsome political theory peddled mainly by the far-left of the Democrat Party. Although Donald Trump has quashed EJ on the federal level, the Josh Shapiro Department of Environment Protection’s EJ program keeps chugging along, oblivious that nobody wants it, nobody respects it, and it’s a “dead man walking.” 
Toby Rice, CEO of EQT Corporation, took part in a presentation by natural gas industry leaders at the West Virginia Capitol on Wednesday. The group was briefly joined by Gov. Patrick Morrisey, who was there to promote an expansion of electric microgrids in the state to power data centers. Morrisey is pushing legislature, House Bill 2014, to do just that (see 
From time to time, we like to check in on what the price of natural gas is doing, both the “futures” NYMEX price (front month) and the spot price at various points around the Marcellus/Utica. We’re certainly well off our highs over the past month from when the NYMEX price hit $4.49 on Monday, March 10, 2025. We like it above $4. Yesterday, the NYMEX price closed up 2.3% to $3.95, close to $4.00. Where will the price head next? Up or down? Will we go above the psychological $4 barrier again soon?