Williams Investing $1.6B to Build Pipeline, On-Site Powergen for ??
While there has been no public announcement, pipeline giant Williams (owner of the mighty Transco pipeline system) filed a Form 8-K statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to say the company has signed an agreement with “an unnamed large, investment-grade company” to provide onsite natural gas and power generation infrastructure for the unnamed customer. The company will invest $1.6 billion to build a pipeline and on-site power generation. Read More “Williams Investing $1.6B to Build Pipeline, On-Site Powergen for ??”
EOG Resources, one of the largest oil and gas drillers in the U.S. (with international operations in Trinidad and China), owns nearly a half million acres of leases in the Ohio Utica (~460,000 acres). EOG calls its position the “Ohio Utica combo play” and now considers it one of the company’s “premium plays.” EOG concentrates on oil drilling in the Utica. During the company’s fourth quarter and full-year update, we learned that EOG has fully committed to operating two rigs and one frac crew in the Ohio Utica in 2025. Looking back at 2024, the company drilled and completed 25 Utica wells. Looking forward to 2025, the plan is to drill and complete another 30 new Utica wells. 
In November 2023, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) agreed with a petition from Dominion Energy subsidiary Virginia Electric and Power Company that requested a planned LNG production, storage, and regasification facility in Greensville County, VA, should be exempt from FERC jurisdiction under section 7 of the Natural Gas Act (see 
Smart Sand is a fully integrated frac and industrial sand supply and services company, offering complete mine to wellsite proppant and logistics solutions to frac sand customers and a broad offering of products for industrial sand customers. The company produces low-cost, high quality Northern White sand, a premium sand used as a proppant to enhance hydrocarbon recovery rates in the hydraulic fracturing of oil and natural gas wells. The company’s main markets are the Bakken and Marcellus. However, the company is increasingly supplying sand to Ohio Utica drillers. 
U.S. natural gas futures jumped 7.5% on Monday on record flows to liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plants and forecasts for higher demand over the next two weeks than previously expected. The amount of gas flowing to the eight big U.S. LNG export plants rose to an average of 15.8 Bcf/d so far in March, up from a record 15.6 Bcf/d in February, as new units at Venture Global’s 3.2-Bcf/d Plaquemines LNG export plant under construction in Louisiana entered service. 
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: The predictable outcome of California’s green energy policies is here; Why isn’t NH using US natural gas instead of Canadian?; NATIONAL: US DOE eases LNG bunkering restrictions; Refinery closures, rising consumption will reduce U.S. petroleum inventories; The climate cult turns to acid to save the planet; INTERNATIONAL: Crude futures plunge as OPEC+ revives supply; Trump’s tariffs threat hits Canada’s oil and gas drillers. 
For the fifth week in a row, the Baker Hughes U.S. rig count added rigs—the first time that has happened since May 2022. Last week, the count added a single new rig for a new total of 593. The national count remained in a tight range of 581-589 for much of last year. We’ve officially broken through that range. However, note that the national count is still 6% (36 rigs) below what it was last year at this time. As for the Marcellus/Utica, the rig count was a combined 35 last week, retaining a rig added in West Virginia two weeks ago. It just feels like the sun is shining again! 
The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) published a notice in the March 1 Pennsylvania Bulletin announcing that the agency has approved an Air Quality Permit for a new cryptocurrency data center in Venango County, PA. Venango is in the northwestern part of the state. The permit was issued to a company we had not previously heard of: Nova Energy LLC. The data center will be located in Frenchcreek Township. 
Wow! Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro is an even bigger bully (and dunce) than we gave him credit for. He’s not only mean and vindictive, he’s energy suicidal. Shapiro is threatening the 12 other states (plus the District of Columbia) that belong to the PJM Interconnection, saying that he may cut them off from 25% of the electricity that powers the electric grid by pulling Pennsylvania out of PJM. PJM is a private organization that manages the grid for Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, and other states. To boost his visibility in a dying political party, Shapiro is playing with fire. 
The Democrat Party keeps digging their hole deeper and deeper. How defending corruption and graft and political payoffs will help their cause is a mystery for us. Our diagnosis is the party has had a collective psychotic break with reality. Two months ago, a video circulated on social media featuring a Biden EPA political appointee talking about “tossing gold bars off the Titanic,” intentionally rushing to get billions of tax dollars recklessly out of the agency before Inauguration Day. The EPA’s new sheriff, Lee Zeldin, located $20 billion of those gold bars sitting at a Citibank bank account (see 
The Reuters news agency, based in the U.K., is typically objective in its news coverage. It tilts to the left a bit, depending on the reporter. But overall we tend to trust most of its coverage. It’s certainly better than Bloomberg by a mile. However, when we saw the opening line of a Reuters article titled “Climate policy requires a more realistic approach,” we were blown away by its brutal honesty. Here’s the very first two sentences of the article: “The pursuit of net zero carbon emissions has been a resounding failure. Despite trillions of dollars spent on renewable energy, hydrocarbons still account for over 80% of the world’s primary energy and a similar share of recent increases in energy consumption, according to The Energy Institute.” Wow! 
For the week of Feb 17 – 23, the number of permits issued in the Marcellus/Utica to drill new shale wells fell back to earth. Three weeks ago, 24 new permits were issued. Two weeks ago, the number increased to 36 new permits. Last week the number deflated, going down to 14. The Keystone State (PA) issued six new permits last week, with all six going to Blackhill Energy for a single pad in Bradford County. 
Earlier this month U.S. District Judge Robert D. Mariani dismissed the Wayne Land and Mineral Group (WLMG) v. Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) lawsuit that argued the DRBC had “taken” the property rights of landowners in eastern Pennsylvania, robbing them of their right to allow shale drilling on and under their land. It’s a sad and bitter end for landowners in PA’s Wayne and Pike counties where there is bountiful Marcellus shale waiting to be extracted.