Natural gas is at $3.89/MMBtu, well below the recent high of $5.29 on December 5, 2025. In fact, we spent the entire last month well over the $4.00 mark. Predictions of warm weather are probably the cause of the lower price.
Drilling rigs are at 548, down from a high of 554, but of from a low of 544.
Gas storage was at 3,746 Bcf as of December 5, 2025. That’s ten days ago, so the number will be lower today, but the EIA hasn’t updated its storage report since then. That number shows increased withdrawals from storage, with storage levels below the five-year high but well above the five-year average. The recent cold weather probably reduced that number significantly.
India has signed a one-year deal to buy 2.2 million tons per annum of natural gas from the U.S.
The energy grid is getting a little concerned about data centers possibly not getting built after the grid spends a bunch of money on upgrades.
Shale 4.0 is a very recent term, but it’s good news for the U.S. and mineral and royalty owners. Shale 4.0 will be about maximizing the total recovery of oil and gas from the rock. We currently only recover about 10-15% of the natural gas or oil that’s in the rock.
The Freeport LNG plant shut down briefly, yet again. The article is worth reading as it explains how Freeport shutting down affects global prices.
The price of natural gas has been going up. Commodities traders like to read charts and look for patterns in them. Natural gas gets traded just like any other stock, so the thinking and opinions of traders will affect its price. What really drives natural gas prices, though, is weather. Regardless of breakouts, trends, and patterns on stock charts, natural gas will always react to the weather.
Charlie Burd of the Oil and Gas Association of West Virginia wrote an article explaining why West Virginia is uniquely situated to provide energy for the AI boom.
A couple of U.S. Congressmen have introduced a bill that would severely limit the ability of activists to slow down energy projects using the court system. While I agree that the court system is being abused in this way, this bill goes overboard, stating that if any lawsuit regarding an energy project has been ruled on, no other lawsuits can be brought against it. Technically, anyone could file any lawsuit against an energy project, lose, and no other lawsuit could be brought. I think you can see that this is also easily abused. Much of the bill is good, but it needs a little tweaking to be a good bill.
This is big news! Antero Resources is buying HG Energy! It’s not really going to make much of a difference for most people who have previously signed leases with HG. All of those agreements will stay in place and be unchanged. The main thing that’s going to change is that the name on the check stub will be Antero, not HG. It will be interesting to see if Antero continues to take leases in the HG areas or if the development resources that HG has will be shifted to other areas.
Probably related, INR and NOG are buying a bunch of Antero’s Ohio property.
The U.S. has set records for natural gas output and demand this year.