Baker Hughes | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Research | West Virginia
Baker Hughes U.S. Rig Count Gained 3 Rigs, M-U Keeps a Combined 37
We continue to eek out progress with the rig report. Last week, the national rig count added three rigs after adding two the prior week and one three weeks ago. We’ve added rigs for three weeks in a row! We ended last week with 542 active rigs across the country. The Utica Shale in Ohio added one rig two weeks ago and kept it last week. The combined count was 37 for two weeks running. PA operated 18 active rigs last week. OH operated 12 rigs. And WV operated 7 rigs. Twenty-four rigs targeted the Marcellus and 13 rigs targeted the Utica last week. Read More “Baker Hughes U.S. Rig Count Gained 3 Rigs, M-U Keeps a Combined 37”
The highly functional and responsible Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC), unlike its highly dysfunctional and irresponsible counterpart, the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), continues to support the shale energy industry by approving water withdrawals and consumptive use requests for responsible and safe shale drilling. The SRBC published a notice in the September 20 Pennsylvania Bulletin that the Executive Director of the SRBC approved and/or renewed 40 general water use permits in August for individual shale gas well drilling pads in Bradford, Centre, Clearfield, Lycoming, Sullivan, Susquehanna, Tioga, and Wyoming counties in Pennsylvania. 
EQT Corporation CEO Toby Rice, along with two other speakers (one from Enbridge and one from investment firm Engine No. 1) spoke on a panel at last week’s Bloomberg event called “Barrel of Tomorrow in the Age of AI” held in Houston. Rice and the others had some interesting comments about the current high price of electric and heating bills in the U.S. and how to decrease them. Their recommended solution to lower energy costs for U.S. residents is to build more natural gas pipelines. Rice also provided insight into the breakeven price that “marginal” producers need to break even and generate returns. 
For years, Big Oil companies based in other countries have been in love with LNG trading, including BP (UK), Shell (UK), Total (France), and Eni (Italy). In fact, in February 2016, Shell completed a $69.7 billion buyout and merger with BG, the largest such oil and gas deal since Exxon bought Mobil in 1999, because of LNG (see 
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: OOGA’s annual community charity event raises $25,000 for Utica Shale Academy; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: NYK increases CO2 credits purchase from Occidental; U.S. Northeast is relying less on electricity imports from Canada; Conroe’s natural gas pipeline lawsuit delivers national consequences; NATIONAL: U.S. natural gas futures extend losses; Exxon says demand makes case for fossil fuel growth; Comments on DOE climate science study; The US LNG industry risks becoming victim of its own success; Natural gas is America’s secret weapon in the AI power race; INTERNATIONAL: Oil drops as Trump, Xi meeting curbs tariff expectations; Turkey plans energy deals with USA; Nearly all “climate action” in Australia has reduced emissions by piddly 3.9% in 20 years; JP Morgan analysts look at global oil demand growth; Thousands of German residents take to the streets demand stop to natgas projects. 
For the week of September 8 – 14, the number of permits issued to drill new wells in the Marcellus/Utica increased from the previous week. There were 26 new permits issued across the three M-U states last week, more than doubling the 11 issued two weeks ago. For the second week in a row, Pennsylvania’s permit take was pathetic. PA issued just two new permits last week, after issuing three two weeks ago. Expand Energy received one permit in Bradford County, and Coterra Energy received the other permit in Susquehanna County (both counties in northeastern PA). 
In April, MDN told you of a proposal by Fundamental Data for the “Ridgeline Facility,” a large natural gas power plant and data center that will be built between Davis and Thomas, WV (see 
MDN has highlighted Capstone Turbine Corporation, a California company that manufactures small electric-generating plants that run on natural gas, several times in the past (
In April 2023, MDN told you about the Adams Fork Energy project, a multi-billion-dollar clean ammonia production facility planned for Mingo County, WV (see