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Top 20 Marcellus Drillers in Southwest Pennsylvania
The sharp folks over at the Pittsburgh Business Times have been looking through data from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and have compiled a list of 20 drillers who have at least a dozen shale wells in the southwest PA region. And they ranked them from lowest to highest. We’ve grabbed the list below. The interesting thing for MDN is that there is one name in the list not familiar to us, and we’ve been watching this space since 2009. Always fun to learn something new. Here’s the list of southwest PA’s “Top 20” Marcellus drillers…
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It’s that time of year for energy companies to issue updates on just how much oil and gas they own in the ground, recoverable at current prices. Yesterday CONSOL Energy announced their total proved reserves had hit 6.3 trillion cubic feet equivalent (Tcfe), as of December 31, 2016. That number is an 11% increase compared to the previous year. The vast majority of CONSOL’s reserves (99%) are in the Marcellus and Utica Shale plays. Of the 6.3 Tcfe total proved reserves, some 423 billion cubic feet equivalent (Bcfe), or 6.8%, is in oil, condensate and other liquids. Meaning 93.2% of CONSOL’s reserves are in good ole natural gas (i.e. methane). As part of CONSOL’s update we get some interesting stats about the wells they drilled in 2016. In the Marcellus, CONSOL and its JV partner turned-in-line 47 wells with an average lateral (horizontal) length of 7,300 feet and expected ultimate recoveries (EUR) averaging 2.3 Bcfe per thousand feet. In the Utica Shale, CONSOL and their JV partner turned-in-line 15 wells with an average lateral of 8,000 feet and EURs up to 2.2 Bcfe per thousand feet. Here’s the update from CONSOL…
In September, MDN brought you research on 10 of the largest Marcellus/Utica drillers that have “hedged” their 2017 production (see 
Companies in the oil and gas sector often split the ownership of assets into different companies (on paper) for various reasons: tax purposes…to attract investment…to give us laypeople headaches. CONE Midstream, a joint venture between CONSOL Energy and Noble Energy (CO from CONSOL and NE from Noble Energy) was formed in summer 2014 (see 
CONE Midstream, a joint venture between CONSOL Energy and Noble Energy (get it? CO from CONSOL and NE from Noble Energy) was formed in summer 2014 (see 
We can’t say enough good things about Rusty Braziel and 
Swiss-based company INEOS is a young but rapidly growing chemical company with roughly $40 billion in sales per year. INEOS’ competitors would be companies like BASF, Bayer and Dow Chemical. They have their fingers in a lot of pies. For example, the company currently has two ships that shuttle Marcellus and Utica Shale ethane from Philadelphia to Scotland and Norway (see 
While many drillers across the U.S. have cut their gas drilling programs back to the bare bone, even temporarily halting new drilling, two Marcellus/Utica drillers didn’t get the memo. CONSOL Energy and Rice Energy continued to break new records for natural gas production through the first six months of this year. Even though CONSOL and Rice may spend less and drill less than they previously did, natgas production from both companies continues to increase–due to new strategies, new efficiencies, and smart people. Here’s a peak behind the curtain at what CONSOL and Rice, both currently focused on the Utica Shale, are doing to boost production…
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has fined two CONSOL Energy subsidiaries, CNX Gas (the drilling division) and CONE Midstream (co-owned by CONSOL and Noble Energy) for coloring outside the lines when they built some gathering pipelines in four western Pennsylvania counties. CNX was fined $139,000 and CONE was fined $45,000 for veering off the path officially filed with the DEP. According to DEP spokesman John Poister, the numskulls didn’t pay attention and were sloppy (our words, his sentiment). Here’s the official announcement from the DEP, along with comments from Poister…
The answer to the question posed in the headline of this article, asking where drillers are starting to drill again now that they are starting to drill again, is–it depends on the driller. There is no particular geography in the Marcellus/Utica, nor is there a preference for a given layer (Marcellus or Utica) across the major players. Each of them is following their own strategy. Here’s a rundown for several major players and their strategies…