U.S. Rig Count Drops 5 Erasing Most Gains – M-U Stays Even 2nd Wk
The yo-yo behavior of the national rig count continues. Two weeks ago, the U.S. rig count broke a nine-week-straight decline by adding six rigs (see U.S. Rig Count Goes Up First Time in 10 Weeks – M-U Stays Even). The trend had been pretty dismal for the past several months. Then that ray of sunshine. However, the clouds appeared again last week when the count dropped five rigs–four of them in the oil-focused Permian Basin, and one in the gassy Haynesville Shale.
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Here we go again. During the Trump administration, a group of 45 Republicans worked “across the isle” with 45 Democrats to launch the Climate Solutions Caucus, a group seeking to find bipartisan compromise on green energy and climate initiatives. You know how we feel about so-called climate change (i.e., man-caused global warming). It’s nonsense and a waste of time. Yet some Republicans feel the need to “address” this “global crisis.” Whatever. After the 2018 mid-term elections, when there was a bloodbath of Republicans losing, the group became defunct and has not operated since–until now. Last Friday, Congressman Andrew Garbarino (R-NY-02) and Congresswoman Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA-06), Co-Chairs of the House Climate Solutions Caucus, announced that the bipartisan caucus is composed of an equal number of Members from each party (29 each, a total of 58) for the first time since the end of the 115th Congress, and will relaunch and renew its efforts.
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Evergy slashes plans to expand renewables, proposes more natgas; Can anyone challenge Cheniere as the King of U.S. LNG?; NATIONAL: Chevron opted to buy vs build US LNG processing, gas executive says; INTERNATIONAL: Japan eyes creation of global gas stockpile; HSBC leads peers in advancing climate agenda among Big Oil.
In 2021 as he was running for the office of Governor in Virginia, Glenn Youngkin pledged if he won, he would remove the state from the onerous carbon tax on coal- and gas-fired power plants called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). Following his recent review of a new regulation to remove the state from RGGI, Youngkin is on the cusp of keeping his promise.
Exxon Mobil Corporation announced it is buying Denbury Inc., a developer of carbon capture, utilization, and storage solutions and enhanced oil recovery, for $4.9 billion in an all-stock transaction. Denbury currently focuses on the Gulf Coast and Rocky Mountain region. Presumably, Exxon plans to expand Denbury’s technology to other regions, including the Marcellus/Utica.
Hydrogen energy is closely tied to natural gas. Currently, 95% of all hydrogen produced in the world is produced by cracking methane (natural gas). The so-called regional hydrogen hubs being dangled by the Bidenistas (up to $1 billion of government financing for 6-10 projects) can potentially launch expanded demand for natural gas in the Marcellus/Utica (see 
This one has us laughing our considerably fat rear-ends off. The left long ago corrupted science, turning it from the pursuit of objective facts into forced obedience to political opinions (i.e., global warming is caused by fossil fuels). The left issues mountains of data–graphs, tables, pictures–that supposedly prove they are correct with their opinions and theories about global warming (which they renamed “climate change”). But what’s this? Many people don’t believe all of those graphs and tables and data being pushed–they’re just too dumb to understand it. What’s the solution? Instead of using charts and graphs generated by Microsoft Excel that are so literal, have artists redraw them as “fine art” to make them look prettier. The left says, in a new study, dumb folks will fall for the pretty pictures every time.
New shale permits issued for Jul 3-9 in the Marcellus/Utica saw a dramatic decrease after posting a dramatic increase the week before. There were 11 new permits issued last week, way down from the 39 issued the previous week. Last week’s permit tally included a scant 3 new permits in Pennsylvania, 3 new permits in Ohio, and 5 new permits in West Virginia. The top permittee for the week was Northeast Natural Energy, receiving 5 permits in Monongalia County, WV.
Yesterday MDN brought you the news that a third-party contractor “struck a well head” on a Hilcorp shale well pad in Columbiana County, Ohio, resulting in a leak that forced the evacuation of 450 people within a mile of the well site (see 
The analysts at the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) have been looking at natural gas production in the Marcellus/Utica (i.e., Appalachia) for 2022. The M-U is the largest-producing natural gas shale play in the world. Pennsylvania is the second-largest producer of natural gas in the U.S. after Texas. The EIA looked at PA’s production, specifically production from the four largest-producing counties, for 2022. They found what we told you about back in March: Production in PA has fallen (see 
For years we’ve railed against what we consider the theft of royalties and bonus payments by the state of Pennsylvania from landowners with creeks and rivers running through their leased (for shale drilling) property. The Pennsylvania Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) claims that under a centuries-old law, the state of PA “owns” the property under “navigable” waterways–including rivers and streams (see 