Industrywide Issues

U.S. Natural Gas Markets (and Prices) Now Linked with Rest of World

According to CME Group, the worldwide natural gas market has evolved, and trading activity has grown in the past few years. The trading volume of Henry Hub Natural Gas (NG) futures during non-U.S. hours has more than doubled from a couple of years ago. We are truly interconnected worldwide. However, there are implications and consequences…

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Wind, Not a Carbon Dioxide Canopy, Controls Temps on Mother Earth

At its core, the theory of man-made global warming (renamed to “climate change”) is easy to understand. The theory says when we burn fossil fuels (or wood, or garbage, or any carbon-based source), carbon dioxide is released and floats up into the atmosphere. If there’s too much CO2 floating up there, it creates a canopy…

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No Change in M-U, Nat’l Baker Hughes Rig Counts 2nd Week in a Row

The venerable Baker Hughes national rig count was 589 active rigs last week—which is FIVE weeks in a row. Very unusual. The Marcellus/Utica rig count was a combined 34 last week—the same number for FOUR weeks in a row. The national count remains rangebound between 581 and 589 since June 2024 (except for Sep. 13,…

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BHE’s Eastern Gas Pipe Proposes Expansion to Flow M-U Gas to D.C.

It’s always a red-letter day here at MDN HQ when we happen across a new pipeline project in the Marcellus/Utica region. Today is one of those days! Eastern Gas Transmission and Storage, a subsidiary of billionaire Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Energy (BHE), filed a new project with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in December…

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Register Support for M-U Hydrogen Hub at Scoping Hearing or Online

Last August, MDN told you that the Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub (ARCH2) officially received its first $30 million from the Bidenistas (see EQT & Others Enter “Phase 1” of Hydrogen Hub; DOE Cuts $30M Check). ARCH2 is getting $925 million from a $7 billion pot. ARCH2, one of seven projects to win approval, was…

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NC Approves Duke Energy Replacing Coal Plants with Natural Gas

We’re just now learning the good news about decisions by two different North Carolina agencies to approve four new gas-fired power plants that utility giant Duke Energy wants to build at two different N.C. sites. In early December, the N.C. Utilities Commission issued orders deeming the gas plants necessary at both sites. Then, on Dec….

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Poll Shows Virginia Voters Strongly Support NatGas-Fired Power

Dominion Energy plans to build small “peaker” electric generating plants in Chesterfield County, VA, near Richmond (see Dominion Plans to Build 1,000-MW Gas Peaker Plant Near Richmond, VA). The Chesterfield Energy Reliability Center (CERC) calls for building four 250-megawatt gas-fired power plants (1,000 MW total) that can jump into action during the coldest and hottest…

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Gulfport Energy Well Explodes in Guernsey County, OH – No Injuries

Around 5:37 p.m. last Thursday, an explosion and fire at a well pad in Guernsey County, Ohio, resulted in a half-mile evacuation around the site. No extensive damage and no injuries were reported according to a local fire official. According to a statement issued by Gulfport Energy, a storage tank ignited that was located at…

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Diversified Buys Another 300 Wells Plus Pipelines in WV & Va.

Diversified Energy, with major assets in the Marcellus/Utica region (also assets in other regions, too), owns approximately 8 million acres of leases with 67,000 (mostly) conventional oil and gas wells. The company’s business model is to buy lower-producing wells on the cheap and find ways to make them more productive. Earlier today, the company announced…

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AccuWeather Says Cold Blast in Northeast Could Stop M-U Drilling

AccuWeather meteorologists who specialize in predicting the weather for the natural gas industry issued a statement to Rigzone saying several Arctic blasts will send waves of bitterly cold air across much of the eastern United States starting last weekend. The meteorologists said the “deep freeze could impact natural gas production and operations in the Northeast.”…

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Superlight Crude Production Takes Off in Eastern Ohio’s Utica Shale

We’ve been covering the emergence of Ohio Utica oil over the past couple of years (see our Utica oil stories here). Other news outlets are beginning to notice the oily Utica. The experts at RBN Energy published a post on Friday announcing, “Condensate Production Takes Off in Eastern Ohio’s Utica Shale.” Condensate is another word…

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ODNR Seeks $6M from Austin Master Services to Cover Cleanup Costs

One of the significant stories of 2024 in the Ohio Utica was about Austin Master Services (AMS), a radiological waste management solutions company in Martins Ferry (Belmont County), Ohio, that handles fracking waste (trucks it for disposal). AMS ran into trouble when it ran out of money. The Martins Ferry facility where waste is temporarily…

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Anti-Shale Group Continues to Try and Block Apex Wells in SWPA

A leftist anti-fossil group calling itself Protect PT (Penn-Trafford), located in Westmoreland County, PA, backed with big money from Big Green groups, has for years challenged Penn Township ordinances that allow Apex Energy and Huntley & Huntley (now Olympus Energy) to drill and operate shale wells. Protect PT finally struck out (legally) at the Pennsylvania…

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DT Midstream Closes on 2 Interstate Pipelines with M-U Connections

DT Midstream (DTM), headquartered in Detroit, owns major assets in the Marcellus/Utica region and in other regions, such as Haynesville. In November, DTM announced it had cut a deal to buy three FERC-regulated interstate pipelines from Oklahoma-based ONEOK, Inc. for $1.2 billion (see DT Midstream Buys 2 Interstate Pipelines with M-U Connections). Two of the…

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PA Gov. Shapiro Blames PJM Grid Operator for High Prices He Caused

In typical sleazy politician fashion, PA’s Democrat Governor, Josh Shapiro, is blaming someone else (the PJM grid operator, in this case) for problems that he and his predecessor have created. Shapiro recently filed a complaint with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) alleging PJM is mismanaging the grid and using inflated numbers that will cause…

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