Nat’l Rig Count Even @ 592; Marcellus Even @ 24, Utica Even @ 11
The Baker Hughes U.S. national rig count did not gain or lose last week—staying even with 592 active rigs. As for the Marcellus/Utica, the rig count was a combined 35 last week. Rigs focused on the Marcellus were a combined 24 across the three M-U states of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio. Rigs focused on the Utica were a combined 11. PA has operated 15 rigs (or more) for the past 18 weeks. OH has operated nine rigs for the past 15 weeks. WV had operated 10 rigs for an astonishing 23 weeks in a row. One month ago, WV added (and has kept) one additional rig and now operates 11 active rigs. Read More “Nat’l Rig Count Even @ 592; Marcellus Even @ 24, Utica Even @ 11”
We feel like it’s “peaker” day here at MDN. We have three stories that revolve around peaker gas-fired power plants. What is a peaker? It’s a gas-fired power plant that pops on and gets used only during the heaviest electric usage times, like really hot days in the summer and really cold days during the winter. “Baseload,” on the other hand, are gas plants that run constantly. LS Power, a huge power generation company that owns and operates some 50,000 megawatts (MW) of power generation, including utility-scale solar, wind, hydro, battery energy storage, and natural gas-fired facilities, announced on Friday a plan to add more than 700 MW of new electric generating capacity across Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Virginia. The plan includes promoting (upgrading) two peakers, one in PA and one in OH, to become full-time baseload plants. More yummy Marcellus and Utica gas will be required to feed these plants. 
The Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission operates the largest sewage treatment plant in New Jersey — in Newark. When Hurricane Sandy hit in 2012, the sewer plant lost power and dumped BILLIONS of gallons of raw sewage into the Passaic River. The Commission plans to prevent that from happening again by building a tiny natural gas peaker plant to generate electricity. It would only be used to avoid such environmental damage again (i.e., rarely used, only for emergencies). Great news: The plant has been approved by the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and now has (or soon will have) all the permits it needs to begin construction. 
J.P. Morgan recently issued its 15th annual Eye on the Market Energy Paper. It’s mysteriously titled Heliocentrism. Heliocentrism is the astronomical model in which the Earth and planets orbit the Sun, the center of the solar system, proposed by Copernicus in the 16th century. Heliocentrism replaced geocentrism, the earlier belief that Earth was the stationary center of the universe, with the Sun, planets, and stars revolving around it. You could be burned at the stake for not believing in geocentrism once upon a time. J.P. Morgan’s report uses the metaphor of heliocentrism. In the report, the “sun” is fossil fuel energy, and the planets that orbit it are renewable energy like solar and wind. Leftists believe the opposite. 
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Energy a heated topic in PA budget debate; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Two New England energy companies in surprising alliance with fossil fuel lobby; Healey admin opposes gas pipelines in Massachusetts, voters feel otherwise; NATIONAL: Leaders cheer EPA announcement to revise WOTUS; Ex-Pioneer CEO says shale can’t thrive at $50 oil; Chevron advances plans to develop US data centers with power generation; Energy bosses shrug off DeepSeek to focus on powering AI boom; A new Beltway intrigue – follow the Biden EPA money; Coinbase seeks approval to launch natural gas futures contracts; INTERNATIONAL: EU countries draft plan to soften gas storage targets; Freeport LNG, EQT execs expect Europe to buy more U.S. LNG; Crude edges higher after seven weeks of declines. 
For the week of Mar 3 – 9, the number of permits issued in the Marcellus/Utica to drill new shale wells increased by six from the previous week. Last week, 22 new permits were issued, with 13 (more than half) going to the Keystone State (PA). Expand Energy (Chesapeake Energy) scored five permits for a single pad in Bradford County. Coterra Energy also received five permits for a single pad in neighboring Susquehanna County. EQT had two new permits for a single pad in Washington County. And Range Resources rounded out PA’s permits with a single permit in Washington County. 
Speaking of the Constitution Pipeline project (see today’s post, Williams CEO Supports Restart of Constitution Pipe – With Conditions), New York Governor Kathy Hochul will visit The White House for a one-on-one with President Trump today. They have a few things to discuss. One of the biggest discussion topics will be Trump attempting to convince Hochul that it’s time to allow the 124-mile Constitution Pipeline from Susquehanna County, PA, to Schoharie County, NY, to move Marcellus gas into New York State and New England, to get built. Will he be successful? 
A three-judge panel (all liberal Democrats) from the Ohio District Courts of Appeals for the Tenth District ruled yesterday that anti-fossil fuel fanatics don’t have the right to appeal a decision by the Ohio Oil & Gas Land Management Commission (OGLMC) to meet and award contracts to drill under (not on) several Ohio state parks, including the 20,000-acre Salt Fork State Park in Guernsey County. The case was appealed by Earthjustice acting on behalf of the anti-fossil fuel Save Ohio Parks. In February 2024, a liberal Democrat judge from Franklin County ruled against antis (see 
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) issued its latest monthly Short-Term Energy Outlook on Tuesday, the agency’s monthly best guess about where energy prices and production will go in the next 12 months. In this latest assessment, EIA expects the Henry Hub price to average around $4.20 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) in 2025, 11% more than last month’s forecast. EIA also expects the annual average price in 2026 will be near $4.50/MMBtu, up 8% from last month. What changed? EIA now expects more consumption of natural gas in 2025 and 2026 and less natural gas in storage, leading to the rise in its forecasted Henry Hub spot price. 
There has been dynamite news coming from this week’s CERAWeek by S&P conference in Houston (wish we were there!). Of all the things reported thus far (with two days still to go), no piece of news has been more dynamite than a statement made by Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum during a talk at the event yesterday. Speaking of the 124-mile Constitution Pipeline project that Williams gave up on building in 2020 after years of delays and legal roadblocks by New York State, Burgum said the Trump administration is willing to “step in” and take federal action to get the pipeline project from the Pennsylvania Marcellus to New York and New England completed. 
One of President Donald Trump’s greatest lines during the 2016 presidential campaign was his promise, “We’re gonna win so much, you may even get tired of winning. And you’ll say, ‘Please, please. It’s too much winning. We can’t take it anymore, Mr. President, it’s too much.’ And I’ll say, ‘No it isn’t. We have to keep winning. We have to win more!’” Such was our thought (“We’re winning too much!”) about yesterday’s massive announcements (plural) coming from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA announced the launch of the biggest deregulatory action in the history of our country. It is MASSIVE, with extremely important/critical implications for the oil and gas industry. Many of the actions EPA is taking will roll back, modify, or otherwise improve regulations that directly affect the shale industry, including actions on Biden’s Clean Power Plant 2, the Waters of the United States (WOTUS) regulation, revising regs to allow brine (wastewater) to be recycled and used for things like cooling data centers, and much, much more.