Going all the way back to 2012, MDN has chronicled, from time to time, the myriad press releases issued by a small driller headquartered in Denver called 1st NRG Corp. They’ve been saying since that time that they really really really really want to drill in the Utica Shale–on a small 7,000 acre leasehold they own (see our stories about 1st NRG here). Ever hear of the boy who cried wolf? Eventually they did participate in drilling a Utica well, in 2014 (see 1st NRG Begins Pushing Dirt on First Utica Well Pad). That was the last time we wrote about 1st NRG–until today. Turns out the well they drilled, which was supposed to be a horizontal Utica “test” well, turned into a vertical Beekmantown Dolomite well. But 1st NRG hasn’t given up. In a “corporate update 2016” press release issued yesterday, the company said “these are exciting times” for the company, and that they are on a “growth trajectory for 2017.” What has the company so jazzed? They expect that Dolomite well to get hooked up to production in January. Although they still love the Utica, the company will focus on the reviving activity in the Clabaugh Ranch field in Wyoming in 1Q17 (coal bed methane, not shale drilling). Finally, the company is working on the purchase of a 364-mile natural gas gathering pipeline system, which they “hope” to close in 1Q17. The company cagily does not identify where the gathering system is located. Here’s the recent update from 1st NRG, along with a slightly older announcement about the pipeline gathering system they “hope” to buy…
