Devon Swaps Old Coterra Debt for New Debt in Financial Housekeeping
In February, MDN brought you the big news that Devon Energy is buying out and merging with Coterra Energy, paying $21.4 billion in Devon stock (see Devon Energy Buying Coterra Energy for $21.4B in All-Stock Merger). The merger closed on May 7 (see Devon and Coterra Complete Merger, Launches $8B Buyback Program). Immediately after the merger was official, the new board of directors approved a plan to spend $8 billion by June 2029 to repurchase (buy back) shares of stock. And now Devon is pushing to clean up Coterra’s outstanding debt. Read More “Devon Swaps Old Coterra Debt for New Debt in Financial Housekeeping”
Here’s a story that may, at first glance, seem to have nothing to do with the Marcellus/Utica. Au contraire! The story of what’s happening with Permian drillers has a great deal to do with the M-U region. Although MDN frequently refers to the Haynesville Shale as the #1 competitor to the M-U because both plays target natural gas as the primary hydrocarbon, would it surprise you to learn that the Permian basin is the #2 producer of natural gas behind the M-U? And it’s catching up. Permian Basin drillers are experiencing starkly contrasting fortunes, reaping historic profits from war-driven oil price rallies while facing negative regional natural gas prices due to severe pipeline bottlenecks. To curb financial losses from associated gas, major producers like Permian Resources and Devon Energy are shutting in wells, while others resort to flaring to maintain more profitable crude production. 
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: New Jersey legislators “don’t want” energy jobs, vow to raise energy costs; Climate protesters arrested after using bodies, barrels to block Boston traffic; New York legislature passes data center moratorium; NATIONAL: U.S. natural gas futures pull back on weather outlook; Supreme Court overturns ruling on Biden-era furnace rules in win for natural gas groups; INTERNATIONAL: Oil climbs as Israel, Iran pause; OPEC+ decides to boost production in July; Fifth Qatari-controlled LNG tanker exits Hormuz Strait; Morgan Stanley sees LNG upside risks as Asian demand picks up. 
Last week, the combined Marcellus/Utica Baker Hughes rig count remained at 36 active rigs for the fourth week in a row. The M-U’s chief competitor, the Haynesville, maintained its count of 55 active rigs, operating 19 more than the M-U. The national count added 1 rig last week, bringing the total to 563 rigs. That’s the seventh week in a row the national count has added rigs, driven by new oil-focused rigs. Baker Hughes said oil rigs rose by two to 431 last week, the highest since June 2025, while gas rigs fell by one to 124, the lowest since January 2026. Other miscellaneous rigs held at eight. 
Back in March, MDN alerted you to a potential new water pipeline coming in Lycoming County, PA, for EQT shale drilling (see 
Stephanie Catarino Wissman, executive director of the American Petroleum Institute Pennsylvania, argues in a recent op-ed that Pennsylvania’s Act 13 natural gas impact fee has successfully paired shale development with local investment since 2012. Unlike a severance tax, the fee directs revenue to counties, municipalities, and environmental programs, generating nearly $3 billion overall and more than $1 billion from 2020 to 2024. Funds have supported roads, bridges, stormwater systems, emergency services, parks, watershed restoration, abandoned mine reclamation, orphan well plugging, and tax relief. 
Energy Transfer (ET) disclosed last week that co-CEO Marshall “Mackie” McCrea III will retire on or before December 31, 2026, with co-CEO Thomas Long set to become sole CEO upon McCrea’s departure. The company said McCrea cited a desire to pursue personal objectives and spend more time with his family, while also expressing confidence that the partnership is well-positioned for the future. ET owns important assets in the Marcellus/Utica region, including the Mariner East and Rover pipeline systems. Does McCrea’s retirement signal anything about the company’s future with the M-U? 
According to José Costa of the Northeast Gas Association, Massachusetts’ high energy bills (some of the highest in the country!) stem from infrastructure constraints rather than price volatility. That is, Democrat politicians like Gov. Maura Healey have blocked new pipelines with additional capacity from entering the state. Although the nearby Marcellus Shale produces abundant, affordable natural gas, New England’s pipeline system operates at capacity during extreme winter cold. These physical bottlenecks restrict gas delivery, driving up spot prices to nearly 17 times Pennsylvania’s levels. The same supply with far more demand equals soaring prices. It’s Economics 101. 
On March 18, President Trump issued a 60-day waiver pausing the enforcement of the Jones Act (see 
The Marcellus/Utica region received 30 new drilling permits last week, May 25 – 31, up from 15 permits issued two weeks ago. However, not all 30 permits reported last week were issued last week. Ohio, which is occasionally tardy in updating its public reports, included permits in last week’s report that should have been included in the previous week’s report. Last week, Pennsylvania issued 8 permits. Ohio issued 17 new permits, of which 9 were from last week, and 8 were from the week before but not reported until last week. West Virginia issued 5 new permits last week. The drillers who received new permits included: Antero Resources, Ascent Resources, Clean Energy E&P, EOG Resources, Expand Energy, Grenadier Energy, and Range Resources. 
In a significant ruling for Utica and Marcellus shale landowners, the Ohio Seventh District Court of Appeals affirmed a trial court’s decision denying a motion by Ascent Resources to compel arbitration in a lease-expiration dispute. The court ruled that when an oil and gas lease expires by its own terms without active production or drilling operations, the lease’s arbitration clause does not survive the lease’s expiration to govern subsequent disputes—such as claims of trespass and unauthorized drilling. To force arbitration on post-expiration events, a lease must contain explicit “survival” language or involve rights that accrued/vested while the lease was still active. 
Google has partnered with Voltus to fund a three-year, 100-megawatt (MW) so-called “virtual power plant” in the PJM Interconnection (roughly the Marcellus/Utica region). VPPs are designed to address soaring data center demand. Voltus will “aggregate” distributed energy resources from residential, commercial, and industrial customers. We call foul. So-called VPPs are fake—they don’t actually exist. They simply use existing grid electricity taken from other sources. Creating a VPP just takes a little software and a lot of apathy from citizens to make it work. Google will, in essence, pay other electricity consumers to shift or forgo energy use. Google says it’s faster and more cost-effective to buy electricity from other electricity users rather than build an actual, honest-to-God power plant. 
The experts at NGI (
AI (artificial intelligence) data centers are vital to both the natural gas industry and the national security of the United States. Yet, many Americans (a majority?) have turned against data centers. Sure, sometimes the builders of these facilities have shot themselves in the foot by not being more transparent and attempting to build facilities too close to population centers. Our thesis is that reasonable people can compromise, address issues, and move forward with data centers. But that’s not happening. Why?