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Nat’l Rig Count Down 2 @ 576; Marcellus Even @ 25, Utica Adds 1 @ 11
The U.S. national rig count lost two more rigs last week, going from 578 to 576, tying January 24th of this year as the lowest national rig count in the past 12 months. Rigs targeting the Marcellus layer remained the same with 25 rigs last week, while the Utica (in Ohio) picked up one rig and now operates 11 rigs for a combined total of 36. Pennsylvania was static with 18 rigs, Ohio moved up from nine to ten rigs, and West Virginia remained the same with eight rigs. Read More “Nat’l Rig Count Down 2 @ 576; Marcellus Even @ 25, Utica Adds 1 @ 11”
Ascent Resources, founded as American Energy Partners by gas legend Aubrey McClendon, is a privately held company focusing 100% on the Ohio Utica Shale. Ascent, headquartered in Oklahoma City, OK, is Ohio’s largest natural gas producer and the 8th largest natural gas producer in the U.S. The company issued its first quarter 2025 update on May 7. 1Q25 net production averaged 2,002 MMcfe/d (2.0 Bcfe/d), consisting of 1,680 MMcf/d of natural gas, 13,833 bbls/d of oil, and 39,789 bbls/d of natural gas liquids (NGLs), putting liquids at 16% of the overall production mix for the quarter. 
Last November, MDN brought you the great news that MPLX (aka MarkWest Energy) would file to build an expansion at its existing Harmon Creek facility in Smith Township, Washington County, PA (see 
In January 2024, MDN told you about a long-closed landfill that seeks to reopen in Liberty and Pine Townships in Mercer County, PA (see 
ECA Marcellus Trust I, the royalty interest holder in some of the wells drilled and maintained by Greylock Energy in Greene County, PA, announced on May 9 that it will issue a 5.2-cent dividend to unitholders for the first quarter of 2025. The company continues to hold back some profits ($90,000 in 1Q25) to build a cash reserve for “future known, anticipated or contingent expenses or liabilities.” 
Last December, MDN told you that the future of what could become the country’s largest LNG export facility, Venture Global’s Calcasieu Pass 2 (CP2), was in question following a court order from the the leftwing U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (see 
Last week, two different quasi-governmental agencies, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), issued summer assessments for whether or not the country could experience problems with having enough electric power for this summer. Both assessments conclude the same thing: IF we don’t have any extreme weather events, and if unreliable renewable sources like solar and wind don’t crap out for an extended period, we’ll be fine. However, if we do have a hot spell or solar/wind fail, we’re in trouble. In particular, New England and the central part of the country from top to bottom are at most risk. However, even the PJM area could experience some problems. 
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Occidental, UAE’s ADNOC to explore JV to develop South Texas direct air capture hub; As the federal government abandons the climate fantasy, New York doubles down; NATIONAL: Natural gas retreats amid repeated substantial injections, EBW analyst says; DOE cuts off $89 million Harvard grant amid stand-off with Trump; Trump can end the World Bank’s climate hypocrisy; Mile high Marxist Bernie Sanders proves there is no climate emergency; Wasting away in wind-and-solarville; INTERNATIONAL: OPEC+ did not lift production to kill the oil price, SEB says; China fossil fuels production retreats from record levels. 
For the week of May 5 – 11, the number of permits issued to drill new wells in the Marcellus/Utica was up four from the previous week. Last week, 26 new permits were issued in the M-U. In the Keystone State (PA), 13 new permits were issued. The top permittee was Seneca Resources, which had eight permits spread across two pads in Lycoming and Tioga counties. Olympus Energy, which is being sold to EQT, scored four permits for a pad in Allegheny County. And Infinity Natural Resources (INR) received a single permit in Indiana County. 
In February, President Trump signed an executive order (EO) creating the National Energy Dominance Council, directing the new council to move quickly to increase domestic oil and gas production (see 
West Virginia has more than 21,000 abandoned and orphaned oil and gas wells. Plugging them to prevent environmental problems is a thorny issue, as it is in other states like Pennsylvania and Ohio (and Texas, and Oklahoma, etc.). Regulatory hurdles make it expensive. A WV bill not previously on our radar made its way through the legislature and was signed yesterday by Governor Patrick Morrisey: House Bill (HB) 3336. The bill (now law) makes it cheaper and faster to plug abandoned and orphaned oil and gas wells in the Mountain State. 
We spotted a story that got us thinking. Pennsylvania is the #1 exporter of electricity in the country, exporting some 26% of all the electricity it produces. Such exports give the state an opportunity to profit from building more gas-fired power, leveraging cheap Marcellus gas. However, exporting electricity is a complex issue. PA State Senator Kristin Phillips-Hill, Republican from York, PA, is sounding the alarm over the electricity exporting issue. She makes some great points… 
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) issued its latest monthly Short-Term Energy Outlook last week, the agency’s monthly best guess about where energy prices and production will go in the next 12 months. In this latest assessment, EIA dropped its estimates for the Henry Hub spot price. The agency expects the HH price to average $4.10 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) in 2025, $0.20 lower than last month’s forecast. However, EIA expects the annual average price in 2026 to be $4.80/MMBtu, which is $0.20 higher than last month’s forecast. EIA forecasts the Henry Hub spot price will average $4.20/MMBtu during the third quarter of 2025. 
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates that the average number of wells completed simultaneously (simul-frac’d) at the same location in the Lower 48 states has more than doubled, increasing from 1.5 wells in December 2014 to more than 3.0 wells in June 2024. By completing (fracking) multiple wells at once rather than sequentially, operators can accelerate their production timeline and reduce costs per well.