Gastar Exploration

Gastar Exploration, with a small but meaningful drilling program in both the Marcellus and Utica Shale (~46,700 net acres leased) filed their second quarter update yesterday. As we reported after their 1Q15 update, Gastar isn’t drilling any new Marcellus wells for the balance of 2015, instead concentrating new drilling on the Midcontinent drilling program (see Gastar 1Q15: NE Production Up 5%, No New Marcellus Wells in 2015). Even though Gastar didn’t drill anything new in the northeast over the past three months, production from the Marcellus for Gastar continued to climb because of previously drilled and completed wells. Gastar, like almost all other North American drillers, took a huge net loss on income during 2Q15 largely due to assets being devalued due to the price collapse. In other words, it wasn’t actual money they lost, but money on paper. Below is the brief update from the 2Q15 update on Gastar’s Marcellus program, along with their most recent investor presentation. MDN has hacked apart the long PowerPoint to show you only those bits related to the Marcellus/Utica (and there are some good slides in there)…
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Gastar Exploration has a small but meaningful drilling program in both the Marcellus and Utica Shale with close to 60,000 acres leased. As we reported in February, Gastar is scaling back operations in the northeast for the balance of 2015 (see Gastar Finishing 5 Wells, Then Idling Rigs in Marcellus/Utica). The company released their first quarter update yesterday and reports northeast production is up a hair, from 6,400 barrels of equivalent per day (Boe/d) in 1Q14 to 6,700 Boe/d in 1Q15–a 5% increase. Here’s the portion of yesterday’s update dealing with the Marcellus/Utica…
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Gastar Exploration is an independent oil and gas driller with active drilling programs in the Hunton Limestone horizontal play, the Woodford Shale and the Meramec Shale–all three of which occupy roughly the same acreage in the Mid-Continent area. Of interest to MDN is Gastar’s program in West Virginia and Pennsylvania, where they drill in both the Marcellus and now the Utica Shale layers. At last check-in Gastar owns 58,900 acres of leases in the northeast. As we reported in February, Gastar plans to spend a minimal amount drilling in the northeast in 2015–essentially just completing a few wells already drilled (see Gastar Finishing 5 Wells, Then Idling Rigs in Marcellus/Utica). In their 2014 year-in-review, Gastar reports year over year production in the Marcellus/Utica went down–a story we don’t often see. Usually production goes up. Why down for Gastar? They drilled and brought fewer wells online in the Marcellus/Utica in 2014 than in previous years. Here’s the Appalachin Basin section from Gastar’s 2014 update…
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Gastar Exploration released an update today to crow about an 87% increase in their proved reserves, and to whisper that they’ve further reduced their 2015 drilling budget–all the way down to $103 million. The news, for the Marcellus, gets worse. Of that $103, they’ll spend a measly $20 million in the Marcellus–$12 million to complete five wells and another $8 million on “acreage costs.” In other words, for all intents and purposes, Gastar has stopped drilling in the Marcellus and the Utica “until economic conditions are more favorable.” Gastar is keeping three drilling rigs active in their midcontinent drilling program–for the time being…
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We don’t toot our own horn too often (at least, we hope not), but we want to point out how MDN keeps readers on the cutting edge. Yesterday we brought you the news that Gastar Exploration is a) shifting their drilling focus to a play outside the Marcellus/Utica in 2015, and b) is issuing more common stock, hoping to raise more money for drilling (see Gastar 2015 Budget: Scaling Back Marcellus/Utica Drilling). We said, based on our back-of-the-envelope calculations, we expect Gastar will raise around $100 million from issuing the new stock. After we published yesterday, Gastar released an update on their stock offering to say they expect to raise…
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