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EQT Takes the Plunge: Drilling 1st Utica Well in SWPA

take the plungeYesterday EQT released an update for second quarter 2014 (see EQT 2Q14 Update: Profit & Production Way Up). The top brass for EQT also held an analyst phone call/update to discuss that update–to elaborate and add some color and additional information. It was an informative phone call. Among the most interesting items to be discussed is that EQT has finally found its way on the Utica. They plan to begin drilling what is likely the deepest Utica well ever drilled at a depth of 13,500 feet–in Greene County–Pennsylvania’s most southwestern county…
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EQT Midstream: 2 Major Pipeline Projects Advance, 1 Doesn’t

In addition to yesterday’s big news that EQT has decided to “take the plunge” and drill what is thought to be the deepest Utica Shale well yet, in Greene County, PA (see MDN’s related story today), EQT also announced yesterday their plans for their midstream operations over the coming months. CEO David Porges said EQT Midstream will spend “over $350 million” on midstream projects in 2014. The company has three major pipeline/midstream projects on the books. Porges said two of those projects are advancing while one is going “on the back burner”…
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EQT Analyst Presentation: Acreage Maps, Decline Curves & More

It’s “EQT Day” on MDN. In addition to two other stories on EQT–one about the company drilling their first-ever Utica well in SWPA, the other about which pipeline projects made the cut and will get built–we bring you the latest analyst presentation slide deck (below). Full of interesting charts and graphs from the July 24, 2014 analyst presentation given by EQT’s management team. Here’s a guide to our favorite slides (just about all of them are our favorites!)…
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Cabot O&G: Afterburners Kick in on Rocket to the Moon

MDN has an admitted soft spot for Cabot Oil & Gas. We know a number of Cabot personnel–all extremely talented and top-drawer professionals. Cabot has been (in our opinion) unfairly maligned for “causing Dimock” which is still a rallying cry for hacks like Josh Fox and his Gasland fictional movies. Even though we have an admitted crush on Cabot, the fact is, they are a stellar performer by everyone’s standards. Yesterday the company released second quarter results for 2014 and they report, among many interesting things, that the company produced an average 1.26 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day from their wells in Susquehanna County, PA. Folks, the entire country produces 70 Bcf/d (see U.S. Hits New Daily Production Record Thx to Marcellus/Utica). If you do the math, the amount of gas a single driller is producing from a single PA county (Cabot/Susquehanna County)–is nearly 2% of all gas produced in the U.S. every day. Simply astonishing…
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Cabot CEO Dinges Talks Marcellus, Midstream Challenges

MDN brought you the Cabot Oil & Gas second quarter update today in a related post. The company released their update yesterday. They also held a call for analysts and investors in which CEO Dan Dinges talked pretty frankly about his frustrations with Williams over problems with pipelines in Susquehanna County, PA where Cabot has drilled all of their PA Marcellus wells–to date anyway. Seems that Williams had some difficulties during the harsh winter and those difficulties stretched into 2Q14 as well…
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Constitution Pipeline Update from Cabot – Final EIS Due Any Day

The Constitution Pipeline, as MDN has covered numerous times before, is a 30-inch, 124-mile pipeline from Susquehanna County, PA to Schoharie County, NY to carry cheap, abundant Marcellus Shale gas to markets that include New York City and New England (see Vicariously Attend FERC Scoping Hearing on Constitution Pipeline). The $683 million project will be built by Williams, although Cabot is also a partner in the project. In fact, the pipeline will carry mostly Cabot natural gas–another half billion cubic feet of Cabot gas per day will flow through it. So it was no surprise that Cabot CEO Dan Dinges took time to mention the Constitution in an analyst call yesterday. Here’s what he said about timing for the project:
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Noble Energy 2Q14: 249 Mmcf/d Marcellus Production, Up 120%

Noble Energy is a big on- and off-shore driller with operations that span the world. A very successful single off-shore project in the Mediterranean, just off the coast of Israel, has essentially made Israel energy independent–no longer relying on Arab countries for natural gas. Noble also has a big presence in the Marcellus Shale–especially in West Virginia. Noble issued their second quarter 2014 update yesterday. MDN has extracted two sections from the update for MDN readers. The first is the general introductory overview, the second the operations update for the Marcellus with particulars on number of wells drilled, where, etc….
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Save the Loyalsock Coalition Attempts a New Spin Job Against DCNR

Another anti-drilling spin job by the partisan, biased “reporters” at PBS’ StateImpact Pennsyvlania. The reliably anti-drilling Marie Cusick–who (going by her previous articles) hasn’t encountered a fossil fuel she likes–is once again trying to stir the anti-drilling pot against legitimate, legal and ethical drilling in the Loyalsock State Forest in central Pennsylvania. Anadarko Petroleum owns mineral rights for 25,000 acres of the Forest. Anadarko presented a plan in March 2012 (!) to drill there, a plan that STILL has not been approved by the Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources (see PA DCNR Blocks Drilling in Loyalsock State Forest – For Now). Finally, there have been some baby steps toward granting Anadarko access to what they legally have a right to do…
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OH City Ban on Drilling Heads to Court – Implications for Utica?

Last week two Ohio drillers filed a lawsuit against Broadview Heights, OH, a suburb of Cleveland, for the city’s recently passed ban on drilling oil and gas wells. According to the lawsuit, only the state (via the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources) has the sole legal right to allow or deny a given oil/gas well from being drilled. That is, this is yet another so-called “home rule” court case. This particular case is interesting on a lot of levels. Number one, contrary to the understanding of those commenting on a story about the case in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the oil and gas wells that have been drilled and those that may be drilled in the future in Broadview Heights–are not fracked shale wells. They are conventional shallow wells. Even so, the case could have implications for Utica (unconventional fracked) drilling…
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