MDN’s Energy Stories of Interest: Fri, Oct 30, 2026
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Residents evacuated after truck transporting LNG overturns in Wysox; Well Done Foundation plugs 15 PA orphan wells, a $2.25M taxpayer win; Pitt aims to become a national leader in energy research and solutions; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: US closes $5.1B loan to Alliant Energy for new gas power generation, energy storage; NextDecade provides third quarter 2026 business update (Rio Grande LNG); Amazon walked away from $427M data center plan after neighbors fought back; Owners pull the plug on proposed $1B natural gas plant in northern Wisconsin; Vineland residents plan to sue data center over unpermitted natural gas engines; NATIONAL: U.S. natural gas futures fall on mild weather outlook; What would a midterm Democrat sweep mean for usa oil, gas?; Granholm’s permitting warning to Trump and fellow Democrats; What is on the horizon for the 2026/2027 natural gas withdrawal season?; INTERNATIONAL: Oil wavers on conflicting reports of USA military moves; QatarEnergy secures 20-year US LNG supply from Woodside amid Hormuz blockade; QatarEnergy buys US, other LNG to hedge future Hormuz disruptions; LNG imports make up increasing share of Colombia’s natural gas supply. Read More “MDN’s Energy Stories of Interest: Fri, Oct 30, 2026”
Expand Energy, the nation’s largest natural gas producer (for now, anyway), released its third quarter 2026 update on Tuesday and held its earnings call on Wednesday. It was new CEO Danny Brown’s third day on the job. Expand produced 7.54 Bcfe/d (billion cubic feet equivalent per day) in 3Q, up 2.8% from a year ago. Net income came in at $519 million ($2.24/share), down from $547 million ($2.28/share) in 3Q25. But adjusted net income, which strips out hedging paper gains and one-time items, jumped 44% to $338 million ($1.46/share). Expand’s Northeast PA operations were deliberately throttled back (“curtailed”) because in-basin prices stunk, and those curtailments are carrying into 4Q. Below we sort out what matters for landowners, competitors, the supply chain, and investors. 
In June, we told you that 194 landowners in Salem Township (Luzerne County, near Berwick) were lining up to become AI millionaires by selling their land for a giant new data center project (see 
Wall Street’s hedge funds have placed their biggest bet against natural gas prices in more than six years. They’re wagering that a “Super El Niño” will give the U.S. a warm, wimpy winter and leave way too much gas sitting in storage. They may be right. But the last time hedge funds loaded up on the short side of gas heading into winter (this past January!), Mother Nature handed them their heads. 
The Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC) is leading a three-state push by Appalachian drillers to get the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act (BAAJA, S. 5653) over the finish line. The timing is no accident. When the U.S. Senate returns from its campaign break on Monday, November 9, the first thing it will do is take a make-or-break procedural vote on this permitting reform bill. Here’s where things stand: who’s lined up for it, who’s lined up against it, and why a bill about paperwork matters to every landowner and driller in the Marcellus/Utica. 
In August, MDN told you about two federal lawsuits, filed six days apart by Big Green groups, aimed at killing Nationwide Permit 12 (NWP 12). That’s the Army Corps of Engineers permit that lets pipelines cross streams and wetlands without a separate federal review at every single crossing (see 
Mike Rowe, of “Dirty Jobs” fame, sat down with EQT CEO Toby Rice for a 77-minute episode of his podcast, 
EQT, the biggest driller in the Marcellus/Utica, released its third-quarter 2026 numbers after the market closed yesterday. Normally we’d also have a call where CEO Toby Rice and CFO Jeremy Knop take analysts’ questions. Not this time. Two days after agreeing to buy Range Resources (
Wait a minute. Didn’t the EPA already fix the Biden-era “Quad O” methane regs? Back in April, MDN told you the EPA had issued a final Quad O rule (see 
Range Resources, the company that drilled the very first Marcellus Shale well back in 2004 on the Renz farm in Washington County, filed its third quarter 2026 update yesterday. It’s likely one of the last quarterly reports Range will file as an independent company. EQT announced Monday that it will buy Range in an all-stock deal worth about $13 billion (see 
On Monday, we brought you the news that EQT Corporation is swallowing Range Resources in an all-stock deal that values Range at roughly $12.8 billion and creates a combined company worth more than $50 billion, including debt (see 
There’s a new name in shale with “Appalachia” on its list of regions, and we’re not sure yet what it owns here. It’s called NEQ Operating. Last May, we told you that NextEra Energy, the Florida utility giant, was buying a Quantum-backed shale investor called Caliber Resource Partners for $1.3 billion, and that it was setting up a 50/50 joint venture with Quantum to run its oil and gas business (see 
Anthropic, the San Francisco company behind the Claude artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot, filed its initial public offering (IPO) paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday (Oct. 26). Buried in the 318-page prospectus, in a risk section titled “Electrical Power and Fuel Constraints,” is an admission that should make every Marcellus/Utica driller, pipeline company, and royalty owner sit up and take notice: some of Anthropic’s planned data centers will run on their own dedicated, on-site natural gas-fired power plants. And Anthropic’s big worry isn’t the gas itself. It’s getting enough pipeline capacity to deliver it.