Facts & Rumors # 657
September 19, 2026
Marcellus, Utica, Permian and Eagle Ford Plays
National Fuel Gas Could Be Selling Seneca and National Fuel Gas Midstream Company. National Fuel Gas explores options for $5 billion natural gas production business, sources say. Reuters. U.S. energy firm National Fuel Gas is exploring strategic options for its integrated natural gas production business, with any deal set to value the unit at around $5 billion, five people familiar with the matter said. The Williamsville, New York-based company, which traces its roots back to 1902 as a carve-out from John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil, is working with advisers including investment bankers at Goldman Sachs to study a wide range of scenarios for the business, which consists of natural gas-focused producer Seneca Resources and pipeline operator National Fuel Gas Midstream Company.
The Great Fuel Crisis Is Here. Oil executives say the great fuel crisis is here. The Wall Street Journal. American oil executives warned for months that the prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz was bound to cause a fuel crisis. Now, they say it is here. Commercial fuel stocks around the world have been depleting for more than six months, and strategic crude reserves can’t be tapped much further. Attacks last week shut down a crucial crude pipeline in Saudi Arabia that bypassed the Strait, stranding at least 2.5 million barrels a day from an already tight global oil market, analysts estimate.
Record U.S. Crude Output in 2026. EIA projects U.S. crude oil output to reach record 13.8 million barrels per day in 2026. Energies Media. U.S. crude oil production is on track to set a new annual record. The Energy Information Administration’s latest Short-Term Energy Outlook projects output will average 13.8 million barrels per day in 2026 — topping the previous record of 13.7 million b/d set just last year. The EIA’s latest Short-Term Energy Outlook makes it official: U.S. crude oil output will average 13.8 million barrels per day across all of 2026. That’s a modest but meaningful step beyond the 13.7 million b/d record set in 2025, and it shows American production capacity keeps pushing into new territory.
America’s Digital Future Is Dependent on Appalachian NatGas. America’s digital future runs on Appalachian energy. GoErie. Opinion. Somewhere in Appalachia today, a pipefitter went to a job site before dawn. A drilling engineer will review subsurface data. A researcher will test a new technology designed to make energy production more efficient. And a boilermaker will finish a shift that started the night before. These are the people who keep the lights on. And right now, the country needs them more than ever. The economy we’re building runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week to power technological innovation, advanced manufacturing, and energy needs that never sleep. The demand for abundant and reliable energy is increasing faster than the infrastructure needed to deliver it — and the question on everyone’s minds is a simple one: where will that power come from?
NatGas Production TX#1 and Appalachian Basin #2. Thanks, MDN. Texas is still the undisputed king of American natural gas — but Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio together produced almost as much gas in 2025 as Texas did all by itself. New EIA data confirms Appalachia is America’s second major shale gas hub, and it’s not particularly close behind. The U.S. Energy Information Administration’s annual gross withdrawals table shows the country produced 47.73 Tcf of natural gas in 2025 (gross withdrawals — the total wellhead volume before processing, as distinct from marketed or dry gas figures). Texas alone accounted for 13,603 Bcf, or 28.5% of the U.S. total — nearly double Pennsylvania’s 7,676 Bcf (16.1%).
OH EOG 67% of Oil and Ascent 41% of NatGas. Thanks, MDN. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) recently released second-quarter 2026 production numbers. The state’s top natural gas producer was Ascent Resources, with 220,554,117 Mcf (220.55 Bcf) produced during the quarter, averaging 2.42 Bcf/d. Ascent’s production accounted for 41% of the state’s natural gas production. The top oil producer in the state, by far, was EOG Resources, which reports under two names: EOG Ohio LLC (the old Encino Energy assets EOG bought last year) and EOG Resources Inc. Together, they produced 8,846,396 barrels of oil during the quarter, which works out to an average of 97,213 barrels per day. That’s 67% (two-thirds!) of Ohio’s entire oil production during 2Q26.
EQT Curtailing Production. Thanks, MDN. The fall “turn down the valves” season for Marcellus/Utica gas has arrived, and it showed up about a week early. Last Friday (Sept. 11), the spot price at Texas Eastern M-2 (aka Tetco M-2), the key pricing point for gas produced in southwestern Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio, averaged $1.435 per MMBtu (million British thermal units, roughly 1,000 cubic feet of gas). That’s 6.5 cents below the $1.50 mark that EQT, the region’s biggest driller, has flagged as its trigger for curtailing (temporarily cutting back) production. So, are shut-ins coming? History says probably, at least for a while.
South Korea’s POSCO Buying into the Marcellus. It finally happened. Chord Energy, the Bakken-focused driller that inherited a big non-operated slice of the northeast Pennsylvania (NEPA) Marcellus when it bought Enerplus in 2024, has found a buyer. That buyer is POSCO International, the trading and energy arm of South Korean steel giant POSCO. The price is $550 million. MDN first told you in February 2025 that Chord was thinking about selling this asset, and in July 2025 that it was actively shopping it (see links below). The deal covers approximately 32,000 net acres and trailing 12-month (TTM) production of approximately 121 MMcf/d (MMcf/d means million cubic feet per day). The gas is all “residue” gas, meaning dry gas with no NGLs (natural gas liquids like ethane and propane).
Enbridge Launches Open Season for Proposed Texas NatGas Pipe. Reuters. Canadian energy company Enbridge said on Tuesday it launched a non-binding open season for its proposed West Texas Express natural gas pipeline to transport gas west from the Waha area of the Permian Shale to markets in and around El Paso, Texas. The Permian is the biggest oil-producing shale basin in the United States. Gas production associated with oil production in the Permian, which is located in West Texas and eastern New Mexico, also makes the basin the fastest growing and second biggest gas-producing shale basin behind the giant Marcellus and Utica shale regions in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia.
CNX Drilling in North-Central WV; Paying $525M in Royalites. Thanks, MDN. CNX Resources isn’t going anywhere in north-central West Virginia. At a community event at the Blacksville Volunteer Fire Department social hall, CNX Chief Operating Officer Navneet Behl laid out a drilling calendar for the company’s Wadestown operation in western Monongalia County through 2029. CNX has 24 wells already producing on three pads there, is working on six more wells on those same pads, and is building a brand-new pad slated for 13 more wells. The company says it expects to pay about $525 million in royalties on those 19 new wells. That’s the good news. The not-so-good news came from the same guy: Behl admitted CNX can only drill so much in Appalachia because there still aren’t enough pipelines to haul the gas away.
Good News for Appalachian Basin Planned Power Plants and Data Centers. Thanks, MDN. Yesterday the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized a rule that rips out the heart of the Biden administration’s 2024 power plant carbon regulations. Gone is the requirement that new “base load” natural gas-fired power plants and long-lived coal plants capture 90% of their carbon dioxide (CO2) by 2032. EPA says the repeal will save $310 billion. At the same time, EPA proposed scrapping every remaining greenhouse gas standard for power plants, which it says would save another $370 million. For the Marcellus/Utica, where a parade of big gas-fired power plants is lining up to feed AI data centers, this is very good news.
July DUCs Report. A trio of the United State’s most prolific oil and/or natural gas production regions reported a 15% year-over-year drop-in drilled, but uncompleted wells during August, the latest federal data reveals.
According to the Energy Information Administration’s monthly Short Term Energy Outlook, Appalachia (including the Marcellus and Utica Shale plays), the Eagle Ford and the Permian Basin combined for 1,878 DUCs.
That figure was down 335 wells, or 15.1% from August 2025’s 2,213-well total, and indicates producers continue to draw down partially completed wells rather than expense an entirely new well. In July 2026, the trio’s DUCs total was 1,889, according to STEO.
Both Appalachia and the Permian saw sharp drops in the number of DUCs available last month, while the Eagle Ford continued a recent trend of slowly adding to its Drilled, but Uncompleted well total.
The Permian’s DUCs total last month was 839, down 227 wells, or 21.3%, from August’s 2025’s 1,066 total. This past July’s total of DUCs was pegged at just 828, STEO reported.
Appalachia’s DUCs total fell to 630 last month, the lowest total in nearly three years, and down 165 wells, or 20.8% from August 2025’s 795 total. Last month’s total was down 26 wells, or 4% from July 2026’s 656.
In the Eagle Ford, August’s drilled but uncompleted Wells total was 409, up 57 wells, or 16.2% from August 2025’s total of 352. This past July, the Eagle Ford’s drilled by uncompleted wells total was 405, STEO’s August issue reported.
PA September 7, to September 17, 2026
County Township E&P Companies
1. Allegheny West Deer EQT
2. Allegheny West Deer EQT
3. Allegheny West Deer EQT
4. Allegheny West Deer EQT
5. Allegheny West Deer EQT
6. Allegheny West Deer EQT
7. Allegheny West Deer EQT
8. Allegheny West Deer EQT
9. Indiana Armstrong INR
10. Indiana Armstrong INR
11. Washington Robinson Range
12. Washington Robinson Range
13. Westmoreland Washington CNX
OH September 6, to September 12, 2026
County Township E&P Companies
1. Noble Noble EOG
2. Noble Noble EOG
3. Noble Noble EOG
WV September 7,to September 11, 2026
1. No New Permits
