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Carrizo O&G 3Q15: No New Drilling in the Utica/Marcellus

Carrizo Oil & Gas, a Houston-based driller, issued their third quarter 2015 financial and operational update on Wednesday. Carrizo actively drills in the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas, the Delaware Basin in West Texas, the Utica Shale in Ohio, the Niobrara Formation in Colorado, and the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania. Carrizo reports losing $708.8 million in 3Q15, but like other drillers, it was a paper loss–a requirement to reevaluate and write down the value of their holdings based on low oil and gas prices. According to the update, Carrizo didn’t drill or complete any new wells in the Utica or Marcellus during 3Q15, nor do they plan to any time soon. They’re concentrating their time and effort in oil plays like the Eagle Ford. Below are select portions of yesterday’s update applicable to the Utica/Marcellus…
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Carrizo Floats 6.3M Shares of New Stock, Hopes to Raise $212M

upsize meFor the past few months MDN has noted several large sales of Carrizo Oil & Gas stock by company CEO Chip Johnson, totaling nearly $2 million of stock sold since June (see Carrizo O&G CEO Chip Johnson Continues to Sell His Company Stock). Carrizo has drilling operations in both the Marcellus and Utica Shales. Yesterday Carrizo announced they are issuing up to 6.1 million new shares of company stock. Not long after the original announcement, Carrizo issued a second announcement “upsizing” the stock offering to 6.3 million shares. They hope to get $212 million, which works out to be an average of $33.49 per share. As of this morning shares of Carrizo on NASDAQ sold for $40.96. The company says they will use the proceeds to pay off debt. What we wonder is, will Chip Johnson be among the buyers of the new stock–selling high and buying low?…
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Carrizo O&G CEO Chip Johnson Continues to Sell His Company Stock

dribs and drabsCarrizo Oil & Gas CEO S.P. “Chip” Johnson continues to sell off his personal shares of the company’s stock that he leads. On June 1, Johnson sold 24,661 shares of company stock for $1.2 million (see 4 Top Carrizo O&G Officers, Incl CEO, Sell 50K Shares of Company Stock). A few days later, on June 5, he sold another 6,000 shares for $309,000 (see Carrizo CEO Chip Johnson Sells Another 6K Shares of Stock). The again on September 8, Johnson sold another 6,000 shares netting him $217,000 (see Carrizo Oil & Gas ā€œInsidersā€ Continue to Sell Company Stock). On October 5, Johnson sold yet another tranche of 6,000 shares, this time for $227,040. Even though he’s now sold off 42,661 shares since the beginning of June, Johnson still owns 607,843 shares worth an estimated $23 million…
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Carrizo Oil & Gas “Insiders” Continue to Sell Company Stock

insider tradingOn June 1 Carrizo Oil & Gas CEO Chip Johnson sold 24,661 shares of company stock for $1.2 million (see 4 Top Carrizo O&G Officers, Incl CEO, Sell 50K Shares of Company Stock). A few days later, on June 5, he sold another 6,000 shares for $309,000 (see Carrizo CEO Chip Johnson Sells Another 6K Shares of Stock). Johnson continues to sell his seemingly endless supply of company stock. On September 8, Johnson sold another 6,000 shares, netting him just $217,000 this time. Along with Johnson, board member Roger Ramsey sold 1,000 shares on September 8, for $36,000…
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Carrizo O&G 2Q15: No New Utica Drilling, but Production Goes Up

Carrizo Oil & Gas released their second quarter update yesterday. Carrizo has operations in both the Marcellus and Utica–although the Utica seems to be where they are concentrating their efforts in the northeast. At the beginning of the year Carrizo said they would not do any new drilling in the northeast, instead concentrating on the Eagle Ford Shale in Texas (see Carrizo Cuts Budget 35%, No Drilling Planned in Utica/Marcellus in 2015). The latest update shows the company to be following that strategy. Although there has been no new drilling, Carrizo did bring several previously drilled Utica wells online for sales, boosting their production in the Utica. Carrizo’s Marcellus production was roughly flat with 1Q15 production with nothing new planned for the Marcellus. Below are the relevant portions of the update dealing with the Utica/Marcellus…
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Indian Giant RIL Looking to Dump its Marcellus Joint Ventures

The single largest company in India, and one of the largest energy companies in the world, is Reliance Industries Limited (RIL). As of July 2013, RIL had invested a massive $5.7 billion in three shale joint ventures–the bulk of that in the Marcellus Shale. The company was planning to double it’s shale investment to over $10 billion! But a funny thing happened on the way the Forum. Prices for oil and gas started to slump, and RIL’s return on their shale investments slumped with it. RIL invested $3.5 billion in a Marcellus joint venture with Atlas Energy in 2010 (see Joint Venture Between Reliance Industries and Atlas Energy Worth $3.5 Billion Over 10 Years). RIL later battled Chevron to buy Atlas–but Chevron won, so RIL became a jv partner with Chevron (see Indiaā€™s RIL Loses Bidding War for Atlas Energy ā€“ $4.3 Billion Deal with Chevron Goes Forward). RIL currently has 3 jv’s, the Chevron jv in the Marcellus (owns 40% of that acreage), a jv with Carrizo Oil & Gas in the Marcellus (owns 60% of that acreage), and a jv with Pioneer Natural Resources in the Texas Eagle Ford (owns 45% of that acreage). Now comes word that RIL wants to exit all of their jv’s and wash their hands of U.S. shale, a 180 degree reversal from just a few years ago…
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Goldman: Cabot O&G, Range Resources Among Top Takeover Targets

bigger fish smaller fishWith all of this talk about CONSOL Energy and Noble Energy and mergers/acquisitions and workforce reductions, we came across an interesting story and analysis by SNL Financial summarizing a Goldman Sachs Global Investment Research report issued last Friday. The Goldman report evaluates 38 exploration and production (E&P) companies on their suitability and desirability as mergers and acquisitions candidates based on asset quality, potential upside returns to the buyer as oil and gas prices improve, and low break-even operations. That is, of all the E&Ps out there, which ones are most likely to be targeted for a takeover, and by whom? The surprising answer is that Cabot Oil & Gas and Range Resources, both huge Marcellus drillers, are among the takeover targets. And the super majors interested in doing the taking over? Exxon Mobil and Statoil
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Carrizo CEO Chip Johnson Sells Another 6K Shares of Stock

Last week MDN told you that four of Carrizo Oil & Gas’ top managers had sold a cumulative 49,689 shares of company stock valued at $2,476,038 (see 4 Top Carrizo O&G Officers, Incl CEO, Sell 50K Shares of Company Stock). Carrizo’s CEO Chip Johnson sold 24,661 of those shares–about half of the total. This week Johnson just sold another 6,000 shares, netting himself another $308,760 to add to the $1,228,858 he got last week. Also selling 1,000 shares of Carrizo stock this week is a member of the board of directors, Roger Ramsey. Makes us wonder what’s going on–why the top brass in the company is selling some of their stock. Of course, it may be no big deal since Chip Johnson after selling 30,661 shares of stock still owns 631,843 shares worth $32.5 million. We suppose his stock sales thus far amount to little more than a rounding error!…
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4 Top Carrizo O&G Officers, Incl CEO, Sell 50K Shares of Company Stock

It’s always a bit dangerous to shoot off your mouth when you don’t have the proper context and background to understand something–and we have to confess we don’t know much about this case. We spotted something that tickled our fancy and we wanted to pass it on. Four top officers in Carrizo Oil & Gas, a producer that previously did some drilling in the Marcellus but lately is drilling in the Ohio Utica, recently (on Monday, June 1st) sold some of their shares in the company. Cumulatively it was 49,689 shares valued at $2,476,038. The people doing the selling were the Chief Financial Officer, the Chief Accounting Officer, the Chief Operating Officer and the Chief Executive Officer. Is this no big deal and just a few employees selling when the stock is on the upswing? Probably. Still, it just struck us as a bit odd that all fourĀ sold their stock on the same day…
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Carrizo 1Q15: Drilled 2 Test Wells in OH Utica, Good Results

A bit of a surprise for MDN with the release of Carrizo Oil & Gas’s first quarter 2015 update today. In January Carrizo said they would not be drilling any new wells in the Utica/Marcellus in 2015 (see Carrizo Cuts Budget 35%, No Drilling Planned in Utica/Marcellus in 2015). While the company held true to its word on the Marcellus and did not drill any new wells, they did drill two new Utica wells in 1Q15. The two wells were drilled in northeast Guernsey County, OH and are being used as tests to determine the production capability in that area. Early results, according to Carrizo, are quite good (an average 200 barrels per day of oil/condensate). They do say, however, that because of low prices, they have no plans to drill any more Utica wells for the balance of this year beyond these two test wells in Guernsey…
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Carrizo CEO Sells 6K Shares of Stock for $307K

Chip Johnson, CEO of Carizzo Oil & Gas, an active driller in both the Marcellus and Utica Shale, has just sold 6,000 shares of company stock that he owns, netting him a cool $307,380. Does it mean anything? Not really. After selling those 6,000 shares, he still owns 608,356 shares worth $31 million. So we think about all it means is that Chip and his family are planning a summer vacation…
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The Mad Dash to Raise Cash Continues: Carrizo & Rice Energy

The “get cash through the door” game continues for both drillers (E&P) and midstream companies. We have two more drillers looking to get cash through the door in two different ways. Last week, Carizzo Oil & Gas, an independent oil and gas company with drilling operations in several shale plays including the Marcellus and Utica, floated a plan to use equity financing (selling more of the company via shares of stock) to raise $205 million by floating 4.5 million shares of stock for $45.50 per share. Carrizo, which has no plans to drill new wells in the northeast in 2015 (see Carrizo Cuts Budget 35%, No Drilling Planned in Utica/Marcellus in 2015), will use the money to pay down debt. Meanwhile, Rice Energy, which is a “pure play” energy company targeting the Marcellus/Utica, announced yesterday they’re going the IOU route–issuing new notes, or promises to repay loans (incurring more debt), hoping to raise $400 million to be used for “for general corporate purposes, including capital expenditures”…
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Carrizo Call Reveals Recent Results for Guernsey, OH Utica Well

A few weeks ago Carrizo Oil & Gas announced they would not do any new drilling in the Marcellus/Utica in 2015 and instead pull back and concentrate on other plays–namely the Eagle Ford in Texas (see Carrizo Cuts Budget 35%, No Drilling Planned in Utica/Marcellus in 2015). In an analyst call yesterday Carrizo officials reiterated that strategy, saying they were still “early” to the play and lack of pipeline infrastructure played a role in their decision to suspend Utica drilling. They also had some interesting things to say about the production coming from a Utica well just brought online in Guernsey County and their future prospects for drilling in the condensate window of the play–whenever they return to the Utica…
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Lights Out for Marcellus Drilling in Lackawanna/Luzerne Counties

It’s lights out for Marcellus drilling in both Lackawanna and Luzerne counties in northeastern Pennsylvania. Lackawanna and Luzerne are otherwise known and Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, respectively. But it’s not because of the two large cities located in those counties that Marcellus drilling will not be done (there are plenty of rural locations in each). It’s because there’s no gas in the shale layer to be had in those counties–at least not in quantities that are commercially profitable. Over the past five years seven different wells have been drilled in both counties (or very close by in neighboring Columbia County). The seventh and final well, drilled by WPX Energy, has just been plugged and abandoned…
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Carrizo Cuts Budget 35%, No Drilling Planned in Utica/Marcellus in 2015

Carrizo Oil & Gas is the latest Marcellus/Utica driller to cut their 2015 capital expenditures (capex) budget–by 35% over 2014. According to the Carrizo announcement below, they plan to spend $450-$470 million on drilling, most of it in the Eagle Ford (Texas) where they’re running three drilling rigs. They will spend only has much as they have to on “lease maintenance” in the Utica Shale–which we take to mean they’ll only do what they must to show they still intend to drill on leases that may soon expire. In the update below we get some numbers for Carrizo’s second Utica Shale well, in Guernsey County, OH. The update also indicates Carrizo continues to throttle back production in the Marcellus. It says nothing about new drilling in the Marcellus, so we presume there isn’t any planned for 2015…
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Carrizo Scales Back in Marcellus, Keeps Drilling in Utica

What a difference three months can make. In second quarter 2014 Carrizo Oil & Gas drilled 9 Marcellus wells and purchased more Utica acreage (see Carrizo 2Q14: Drills 9 Marcellus Wells, Buys More Utica Acreage). In third quarter 2014, Carrizo didn’t drill or complete any Marcellus wells, they began work to complete their second-ever Utica well and now have plans to drill only 5 more Utica wells in 4Q13. The problem seems to be lack of infrastructure (pipelines) to carry any production from their wells to market, as well as stubbornly low prices for natural gas in the northeast–leading to voluntary “curtailment” on the part of Carrizo (they shut the wells off for a period of time). Carrizo is re-focusing their efforts on the more oily Eagle Ford and Niobrara Shale plays…
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