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Top 10 Marcellus/Utica Drillers in SWPA – Ranked by Production

top-10.jpgEverybody loves a list. We do too! We spotted a ranking in a recent issue of the Pittsburgh Business Times that lists the top 37 shale gas producers in southwestern Pennsylvania, based on the amount of gas they produced in 2015. We pulled the names of the top 10, listed in order from most to least…
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Noble Energy Loses $2.4B in 2015; Marcellus Scale-Back in 2016

Noble Energy, a driller with a significant presence in the Marcellus but with a bigger presence in other shale plays, (and operations in other countries and offshore), announced in January the company was cutting its stock dividend and 2016 capital budget (see Noble Energy Cuts Stock Dividend 44%, Lowers 2016 Capex 50%). Yesterday Noble released its fourth quarter and full year 2015 update, along with details about their plans for 2016. What do we learn? Noble lost $2.4 billion in 2015, with $2 billion of the loss coming in 4Q15. Ouch. Of the four shale plays they operate in onshore in the U.S.–the DJ Basin, Eagle Ford, Delaware and Marcellus–in 2016 Noble plans to focus on the first three and scale back in the Marcellus, limiting their Marcellus activity to completing previously drilled wells (they have 85 DUCs–drilled but uncompleted wells). Here’s an update on Noble’s performance last year, and plans for this year…
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The Dismal Outlook for Marcellus/Utica Drilling in 2016

Yes, it’s bad out there and getting worse–at least in the short term–when it comes to drilling in the Marcellus and Utica Shale. Several major drillers in the northeast have announced cuts–big cuts–and those cuts will impact not only the employees at those companies, but also the many supply chain companies that provide goods and services to them. There were a paltry 19 rigs operating in Pennsylvania last Friday. In January 2014, just two years ago, there were 55 active rigs working in the PA Marcellus. Here’s a recap of who’s cutting how much in 2016 (and perhaps beyond)…
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Noble Energy Cuts Stock Dividend 44%, Lowers 2016 Capex 50%

In an announcement made on Tuesday, Noble Energy, a driller with a significant presence in the Marcellus/Utica, said the company is reducing dividend payments for its commons stock–lowering the payment by 44% to 10 cents per share. MDN recently told you that both Rex Energy and Chesapeake Energy had suspended dividend payments on preferred stock, not common stock (see Rex Energy Suspends Preferred Stock Dividends to Conserve Cash, and Chesapeake Energy Suspends Preferred Stock Dividends, Saves $170M). Noble’s move is a bit different–lowering (not eliminating) dividends on common stock. All of these companies are engaging in strategies to hold on to some of the money in the organization so they can keep the lights on and keep drilling. But it’s a Catch-22. Investors are owners of the company, and they like to get paid. Receiving dividends is an important part of why they invested in the first place. But if the company keeps paying, it risks going out of business and then their shares of stock are worthless. No good choices. Noble also announced on Tuesday they are budgeting to spend $1.5 billion in 2016, which is down 50% from 2015…
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DUC DUC Goose! The Growing Backlog of Uncompleted Shale Wells

Ever hear of a DUC? No, we didn’t forget the “K” on the end of DUC. It stands for Drilled but UnCompleted (DUC) wells. Completing a well means taking the final step of fracking the well and hooking it up to production. Lately there’s been a lot of talk about DUCs–a large inventory of wells drilled (holes in the ground) not yet completed. Completing a well takes a lot of sand, water and money. There’s little incentive to complete wells when commodity prices for oil and gas are so low. In some cases drillers will drill the borehole and not complete a well as a way of holding their acreage before a lease expires. In other cases, they’d love to finish the job–but the price they will get is too darned low, so they put completion on hold. Sometimes a driller has contracted for a rig and crew to operate it–instead of canceling and owing that money anyway, they go ahead and drill. How many DUCs are there in general, and in the Marcellus/Utica specifically? The honest answer is, no one knows for sure. But smart analysts can make some pretty good guesses, based on company reports and their own industry knowledge. Below we bring you the latest we can find on DUCs–specifically how many DUCs there are in the Marcellus/Utica…
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Noble Energy Cancels Midstream IPO, Couldn’t Raise $237M

That didn’t take long. Last week driller Noble Energy launched an initial public offering (IPO) for a new midstream subsidiary. They hoped to raise $237-$262 million by offering 12.5 million shares at $19-$21 per share (actually “units”). We didn’t bother reporting it at the time because the new midstream company would own and operate a pipeline system in the DJ (Denver-Julesburg) Basin in Colorado. However, what makes the IPO news now for the entire shale industry at large, including the Marcellus/Utica, is that the company has stumbled–pulling the IPO because of lack of interest/low offers for units, which may portend a similar fate for other midstream IPOs in other shale plays…
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Noble Energy Axes Another 45 Marcellus Jobs, 180 Jobs Companywide

cutting jobsPerhaps we now know why Noble Energy VP of exploration, Michael W. Putnam, sold a bunch of company stock last Thursday in what is called “insider selling” (see Noble Energy’s VP of Exploration Sells $224K of Company Stock). Yesterday the company announced it is cutting 45 jobs in the Marcellus Shale–and 180 jobs companywide. Ouch. MDN received the following tip from a subscriber yesterday late morning: “FYI, Noble Energy is in the midst of a possibly major layoff of their Canonsburg office today. 30-50% of the existing staff. This information came to me from friends who work there, one of whom was let go this morning. They knew about the pending layoff last week.” How many will be left working in the PA Marcellus, and how many employees will be left companywide? We have the numbers…
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PA Allows Wastewater Pipelines to be Buried – With No Regulations

A last minute change made to proposed new drilling regulations in Pennsylvania will mean (if adopted) that drillers can bury wastewater pipelines instead of being required to run them on top of the ground. Companies typically use pipelines in areas where it would be disruptive to have multiple truck trips in and out of an area. They’re also used to lower the cost of transporting wastewater (cheaper through a pipeline than by tanker truck). The change came after a letter-writing campaign launched by CONSOL Energy and their joint venture partner Noble Energy. But there’s a bit of controversy over the new standard that permits lines to be buried: the buried wastewater lines aren’t regulated. Not yet anyway…
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Noble Energy 3Q15: Marcellus Prod. Up 50%, 1st Utica Well Drilled

but wait there's moreNoble Energy is a global driller involved in a number of shale plays in the U.S. including the DJ Basin, Eagle Ford Shale, Delaware Basin and Marcellus Shale. Noble idled the last remaining drilling rig they were operating in the Marcellus in September (see Noble Energy to Idle Remaining Marcellus Rig Next Month). Even so, they had a banner third quarter in the Marcellus. Noble issued their third quarter update yesterday and although the section on their Marcellus operations is brief (read it all below), it packs a punch. Even with reducing rigs to zero, Noble completed and brought online their first Utica Shale well (in Marshall County, WV). Noble’s production volumes in the Marcellus in 3Q15 rocketed to 493 million cubic feet of natural gas equivalent per day (MMcfe/d), more than a 50% increase over 3Q14 numbers. But wait, there’s more!…
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Noble Energy to Idle Remaining Marcellus Rig Next Month

zeroNoble Energy, a driller with a massive joint venture with CONSOL Energy on 663,350 acres of Marcellus and Utica Shale leases in the northeast, has confirmed they are “cutting back” the number of rigs they operate in the Marcellus Shale due to “the current environment.” What “cutting back” means is that they will go from operating a single rig to operating no rigs beginning in the middle of the third quarter (which means next month). Two other Marcellus rigs operated by CONSOL Energy will go off line by the fourth quarter…
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Noble Energy Completes Buyout of Rosetta Resources

Noble Energy, the company that with a 50/50 joint venture with CONSOL Energy in some 663,350 acres of Marcellus and Utica Shale leases in the northeast and rumored to be interested in either taking over all of the acreage (becoming the company of record on the acreage and doing the drilling on that acreage) or possibly buying the gas division of CONSOL Energy, one of America’s oldest and biggest coal companies, just closed on buying out Rosetta Resources Inc. Noble purchased Rosetta for its Eagle Ford and Permian Basin acreage–over 100,000 acres total (located in Texas). Here’s the details of that purchase…
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CONSOL Energy/Noble Energy Rumors Continue to Swirl

swirlFollowing up on our CONSOL Energy/Noble Energy rumor from last Friday, MDN now has a second source that delivers a bit more information about the rumor–refining it for us. We told you on Friday that a persistent rumor among those working for or with CONSOL Energy is that Noble Energy is lining up to buy the gas division, CNX (see Rumors Circulate that CONSOL May Sell Itself to Noble Energy). A new source tells MDN that a complete buyout of CNX is not necessarily in the cards–but that Noble Energy is “taking over” the joint venture acreage the two currently hold in a 50/50 deal in the Marcellus/Utica…
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Rumors Circulate that CONSOL May Sell Itself to Noble Energy

rumor mongeringMDN doesn’t do this (too) often, but we’re going to engage in a little Friday idle speculation. A tad bit of rumor mongering. So take this for what’s it worth. MDN has a contact in the Pittsburgh region that tells us that *all* of CONSOL Energy’s field engineers received an email at 3:30 am–this morning–requesting that they report to the center in Canonsburg, PA to discuss dismissal packages. Our contact says CONSOL’s plan is to lay down the rest of their active drilling rigs as soon as existing wells are completed and that they will not drill any new wells for the next 18 months. The really big bombshell is this: rumors are swirling that CONSOL’s CNX gas division is getting ready to sell itself to Noble Energy
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CONE Midstream Looking to Add Customers Beyond CONSOL & Noble

In August 2014, CONSOL Energy and Noble Energy formed a midstream joint venture called CONE Midstream to connect their Marcellus and Utica wells (see CONSOL & Noble Energy Form New Marcellus Midstream Company). By February of this year, CONE had already flown by the 500 million cubic feet per day of of throughput (see CONE Midstream’s Strong Beginning, Hits 500 Mmcf/d 6 Mos Early). CONE issued their first quarter 2015 update on Monday. Management also held an earnings call and on that call upper management stated they are now looking to open up their pipelines to flow gas for other companies. CONE CEO John Lewis said so far CONE has two customers: CONSOL Energy and Noble Energy. Lewis said they’re looking at taking on new customers as well as looking at possibly buying other pipelines already in place to add to their network…
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