MDN’s Energy Stories of Interest: Wed, Aug 27, 2025 [FREE ACCESS]
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. Read More “MDN’s Energy Stories of Interest: Wed, Aug 27, 2025 [FREE ACCESS]”
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 
Environment-related permitting in Pennsylvania, overseen by the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), has been a hot mess for years. A Chapter 102 Erosion and Sedimentation permit sometimes takes two, three, or even six months for approval, instead of the policy-mandated 14 days. The DEP announced last November that it would “soon” implement the SPEED (Streamlining Permits for Economic Expansion and Development) program to speed up the permit approval process (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 August 23 Pennsylvania Bulletin that the Executive Director of the SRBC renewed 57 general water use permits in June and July for individual shale gas well drilling pads in Bradford, Clearfield, Lycoming, Sullivan, Susquehanna, Tioga, and Wyoming counties in Pennsylvania. So far in 2025, the SRBC has issued or renewed 282 general water use permits for shale gas development. 
In April, we told you that Energy Transfer’s (ET) Lake Charles LNG project had landed a new partner to help pay for the project, MidOcean Energy, which will cover 30% of the cost of building the plant (see 
EY, previously known as Ernst & Young, is a multinational professional services network (i.e., consulting firm) based in London. EY is also one of the “big four” largest accounting firms in the world. EY published a new study last week titled “US Oil and Gas Reserves, Production and ESG Benchmarking Study” (full copy below). The study found that due to mergers and acquisitions in 2024, the largest publicly traded oil and gas companies in the U.S. went from 50 down to 40, and that those 40 companies produced a staggering 41% of all O&G production in this country. It’s probably no surprise that many in the list produce natural gas (and oil) in the Marcellus/Utica.