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Baker Hughes U.S. Rig Count Drops 1 @ 620, M-U Even @ 42
Last week, the Baker Hughes rig count dropped another rig. The count went from 621 active rigs two weeks ago down to 620 last week. This is the third week in a row the national count has lost rigs. Since last October, the national count has gone as low as 616 and as high as 629. And that’s it. No higher and no lower. The Marcellus/Utica remained the same last week at 42 active rigs. However, there were some musical chairs. Pennsylvania gained one rig and now operates 22 rigs. West Virginia lost a rig and now operates 8 rigs. Ohio remained steady with 12 active rigs.
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OTHER U.S. REGIONS: TVA’s Kingston plant is being replaced; NATIONAL: House Freedom Caucus wants natgas to flow in exchange for Key Bridge funding; INTERNATIONAL: Saudi Arabia hikes key oil prices further as market tightens; Chief commodities analyst says OPEC+ is in full control; Short-side portfolio players seek to turn the tables on LNG trade.
What’s below dismal? The new permits report for two weeks ago showed just five new permits, which we called “dismal” (see 
Last week, MDN reported on new (to us) information shared at a Pennsylvania House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee hearing that the state’s program to plug orphaned and abandoned oil and gas wells is, quite frankly, a hot mess (see 
In September 2022, MDN told you about a relatively modest-sized gas-fired power plant planned for Superior, Wisconsin, called the Nemadji Trail Energy Center (see 
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), corrupted by the Bidenistas, voted 3-2 (three Democrats vs. two Republicans) in March to issue a final regulation that will force all publicly traded companies to disclose their so-called greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and the imaginary climate risks their businesses face (see 
Ahead of the Easter weekend, multiple media outlets reported that chocolate prices were soaring, and according to the coverage, the main culprit driving the inflating costs is so-called climate change. Across multiple platforms, the reports followed a similar message, using similar language to describe the problem and its causes — and the reports all came out the same week. The media reports can be traced back to a single source, an organization called Covering Climate Now. This is a story of how entire populations are being brainwashed with false narratives about the climate.
While you wouldn’t know it from looking at the NYMEX Henry Hub futures price, the cuts in production from Marcellus/Utica producers, including Chesapeake Energy, ETQ, Antero Resources, Coterra Energy, CNX Resources, and others, IS having an effect on prices — on the spot prices of physically-traded natural gas in the M-U region. Over the past eight weeks, gas production from the Marcellus and Utica shale has fallen sharply.
The government screws up just about everything it touches — ever notice that? A perfect example is a water testing program set up by then-Attorney General Josh Shapiro in December 2022. In August 2022, Shapiro, who AG at the time, announced that he had finally bullied Energy Transfer into pleading “no contest” (meaning they don’t admit to a darned thing) in a so-called criminal case against the company for a series of accidents affecting construction for both the Revolution and Mariner East pipelines (see 
The production of ethane in the U.S. — one of several natural gas liquids (NGLs) that come out of the ground when drilling both oil and gas wells — rose 9% in 2023 to a new record high of 2.6 million barrels per day (b/d), according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Record ethane production was a result of the boom in natural gas production and the addition of two new ethane cracker plants coming online, one in Texas and the other in Pennsylvania.
In January, Joe Biden announced a “pause” for any approvals of new LNG export plants (currently 17 requests in the pipeline) for at least one year (see