Feds Rewrite LNG Rulebook: What It Means for the Marcellus/Utica
Last Wednesday, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced that the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) has proposed the first top-to-bottom rewrite of federal LNG facility safety rules in more than two decades. Most of the coverage, and most of the projected savings, centers on the giant LNG export terminals along the Gulf Coast. But the Marcellus/Utica has its own LNG industry: peak-shaving plants that keep the gas flowing on the coldest days of winter, plus small liquefaction plants fed by local shale gas. The 236-page proposal touches our corner of the LNG world in several ways, some good and one worth watching. Here’s what’s in it and what it means for the region. Read More “Feds Rewrite LNG Rulebook: What It Means for the Marcellus/Utica”
Back in January, we told you that Vistra Corp. had agreed to buy Cogentrix Energy and its 10 natural gas-fired power plants from private equity firm Quantum Capital Group for about $4 billion (see 
Welcome to a new weekly MDN feature. Every Saturday, the Pennsylvania Bulletin (the state’s official gazette) publishes page after page of permit applications and approvals from the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). Most of it covers sewage plants, quarries, and crematories. But buried in there is a steady trickle of shale-related permits: new well pad air permits, earthmoving permits for pads and pipelines, renewals, and spill cleanups. We read it so you don’t have to. Last week’s edition (Oct 31, Vol. 56, No. 44) ran 256 pages. Here’s what matters to the shale crowd. 
Last week we told you that West Virginia Attorney General JB McCuskey had served subpoenas on at least six environmental groups. He wanted nearly 10 years of their records, and his legal hook was the state’s consumer protection law (see 
The state that banned fracking, blocks pipelines, and has a law on the books requiring a zero-emissions grid by 2040 may soon get new gas-fired power plants. National Grid Ventures, the unregulated arm of utility National Grid, has filed requests with New York’s grid operator (NYISO) to build three new natural gas units at two of its old Long Island power plants: the E.F. Barrett station in Island Park (Nassau County) and the Northport Power Station (Suffolk County). Taken together, the three units add up to about 1,481 megawatts (MW) of new gas-fired generation in summer, and 1,584 MW in winter. New York Focus calls it the clearest sign yet of a “gas renaissance” in the Empire State. We call it reality knocking on Albany’s door. 
Cheniere Energy, the country’s largest LNG exporter and a big customer for gas from right here in the Marcellus/Utica, just put up another blockbuster quarter. Cheniere shipped a record 188 cargoes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from its two Gulf Coast plants in 3Q26, raised its full-year profit forecast for the third time this year, and bumped its dividend by more than 12%. More important for our neck of the woods: Cheniere is getting close to a final investment decision (FID) on a big expansion at Sabine Pass, Louisiana — the plant where our molecules end up. And in a twist nobody saw coming a few years ago, QatarEnergy is now a Cheniere customer. 
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Longtime scientist-executive named to lead National Energy Technology Laboratory; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Natural gas is “cleaner” – but only when Maura Healey says so; The Permian Basin to become the largest natural gas-producing region in the U.S. In the 2030s; Colorado votes on right to buy natural gas in US climate fight; NATIONAL: Nymex slides as market transitions into winter; If proppant could talk; INTERNATIONAL: Oil prices sink as Iran signals talks; European natural gas prices fall more than 10% amid hopes for US-Iran talks; India’s top gas importer sets eyes on US LNG under long-term deal with Qatar; Poster child for green energy becomes buyer of emergency power. 
Four days before Ohioans pick their next governor, Rolling Stone and the climate activist website DeSmog published a story by anti-fossil writer Justin Nobel under the headline “Ohio Denies Evidence of Fracking Waste in Drinking Water. Its Own Records Show Otherwise.” We read every word. The state’s records show no such thing. What they show is one salty water well in Coshocton County that the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) investigated in 2021 and traced to a naturally salty layer of rock. Much of the rest is opinion from activists and a water well driller, plus a candidate’s campaign promise. Here’s what the story gets wrong, and what it leaves out. 
It’s a rerun of last spring, only bigger. A dry autumn has left many small streams in Pennsylvania’s Northern Tier running low, and the Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC) has told shale drillers and their water suppliers to stop withdrawing water at 48 locations. Another 12 shale water sources are on the SRBC’s “watch” list, meaning they’re close to being shut off too. In April we reported 15 shutoffs and 9 watch sites (see 
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) says it plans to approve the air permit for Aligned Data Centers’ giant “Project Phoenix” campus at the former Bruce Mansfield coal plant site in Shippingport (Beaver County, PA). The campus will run on Marcellus/Utica natural gas, but it won’t burn the gas. Aligned plans to make its own electricity with solid oxide fuel cells, which turn gas into power through a chemical reaction instead of combustion. DEP published its notice in Saturday’s Pennsylvania Bulletin and scheduled a public hearing for Thursday, December 3, in Shippingport. Get the popcorn ready. 
Nine weeks. Still 33. The Marcellus/Utica held at 33 rigs for the week ended October 30, and the national count held at 603 for a fourth straight week. Underneath that flat national total, oil rigs added two and gas rigs lost two. Frac spreads slipped by three, a third straight weekly drop. On the price board, WTI closed out October above $104 a barrel, and natural gas, now trading on the December contract, settled at about $2.90 per MMBtu. Every one of our 33 rigs is still parked in the same county it was in five weeks ago. Plus: Expand Energy grabs the top spot on the Enverus permit list again, Range Resources doubles its permits in the same week EQT agreed to buy it, and CNX returns to the rig list. 
Antero Midstream (AM), the pipeline and water company that serves Antero Resources, finally got paid. In 3Q26, AM collected about $377 million from Veolia Water Technologies, ending a six-year court fight over the failed Clearwater wastewater plant. AM used the money to cut its debt by more than $400 million and pay off its 2028 notes early. The legal win more than tripled 3Q net income. But AM’s day-to-day business barely grew from 2Q, because Antero Resources shut in gas to avoid selling it at bargain-basement prices. AM says 4Q will be a record anyway, and it’s lining up “several billion dollars in potential projects,” including a brand-new North-South pipeline to Clarington, Ohio (see 
Enterprise Products Partners (EPD), the Houston midstream giant that owns ATEX, the 1,230-mile pipeline carrying Marcellus/Utica ethane to Mont Belvieu, TX, reported a blowout third quarter on Thursday. But the part of the earnings call that matters most to M-U drillers and landowners came during Q&A. An analyst asked whether the pending EQT-Range combination changes the math on ATEX recontracting. Enterprise’s answer: not really, but the next round of contracts will be priced for “today’s market.” Translation: the rate reset we told you about in August is still coming. 
DT Midstream (DTM), the Detroit-based midstream company that gathers Marcellus/Utica gas in northeastern and southwestern Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio, released its third-quarter 2026 update on Thursday. The headline for our neck of the woods: Northeast gathering volumes slipped about 9% from the second quarter, to 1.25 Bcf/d (billion cubic feet per day), and DTM says they’ll drop again in the fourth quarter because drillers are curtailing (holding back) production while prices are weak. The longer-term picture is much brighter. DTM is taking bids on another expansion of Millennium Pipeline into the New York market, signing 20-year deals to move Appalachian gas to Indiana power plants, and talking about a bigger NEXUS Pipeline down the road.