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Talisman 3Q13: Marcellus Production Up 4%, Avg 443 Mmcf/d

Talisman Energy released their third quarter financial and operations update today. Talisman, a Canadian company, is a major driller in the Marcellus Shale, among other plays both here and around the world. In this update, Talisman CEO Hal Kvisle gives a big thumbs up to the Marcellus. In his opening remarks he comments: “We are achieving excellent results in the Marcellus, sustaining gas production rates through production optimization and a modest drilling program.”

In this really, really, really long 3Q13 update, Talisman says both production and cash flow are up company-wide for the quarter, and drilling costs are down. We’ve extracted out the information from the update on Talisman’s Marcellus drilling program, which is really, really short–but enlightening nonetheless:
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Carl Icahn Snaps Up 6% of His Next E&P Victim: Talisman Energy

Now that Carl Icahn has a toady in place to prep Chesapeake Energy for sale or greater things (we’re not sure which, see today’s story about the mass(acre) firings at Chesapeake), Icahn is already growing restless again. Apparently the wealth of the entire world would not be enough for Lord Icahn, so he’s out on the prowl–and what has he found? That’s right, another drilling company with operations in the Marcellus Shale: Canadian-based Talisman Energy (with 208,000 net acres leased, a number of wells drilled in the Marcellus).

Unfortunately for Talisman, Icahn now has his claws in the company, buying up nearly 6% of the company–more than enough to throw his weight around. Like a cat playing with a mouse, Icahn used Twitter to send a signal (threat?) to the company: “May have conversations with mgmt re strategic alternatives, board seats, etc.” If we were CEO Hal Kvisle, we would be very worried…
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Talisman Makes Noise About Selling Marcellus Midstream Assets

Canadian-based Talisman Energy is a major Marcellus Shale driller in Pennsylvania. They’re also a company in financial trouble–in the midst of attempting to turn the company around in the direction of profitability. A story out of Canada about Talisman’s latest turnaround efforts talks about the company putting certain assets on the auction block, including their considerable assets in Norway. Tucked in the article is this very brief mention that some of Talisman’s Marcellus assets may also go on the auction block:
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Talisman 2Q13: Marcellus Production Down, 20 New Wells Coming

Talisman Energy, a driller with operations both on- and off-shore in the Americas and Asia-Pacific regions, released its second quarter results today. The report/update is long. Talisman doesn’t say much about the Marcellus in the report, but what they do say about their drilling in the Marcellus is interesting, so we’ve extracted out those references and we present them below.

Bottom line: Marcellus production volumes have gradually declined due to no new drilling (because of the low commodity price of natgas), but Talisman plans to reverse that trend…
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PA’s Top 10 Marcellus Drillers Based on Number of Permits

Top 10Who doesn’t love a Top 10 list? David Letterman has built a career on them. There are a lot of different ways to measure who the biggest drillers are in Pennsylvania–the Top 10 drillers. Recently, the Pittsburgh Business Times took a fresh stab at it. They counted how many shale gas wells have been permitted for drilling companies. It doesn’t mean the wells have been drilled yet, but you don’t spend big bucks on a permit to not drill. We can safely assume if it’s permitted, it either has been or soon will be drilled.

So who are the Top 10? The names of the drillers in the list may not surprise you, but we bet the number of permitted wells they have and their order in the list may surprise you…
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Will Investor Pressure Force Some Drillers to Split Company?

Are we about to see large oil and gas companies begin to split U.S. and foreign operations? An interesting theory is put forth in an article on the Investors Business Daily website that a plan by Occidental Petroleum to split its U.S. and foreign businesses may lead to other oil companies doing the same. Why? Investors want to drive up the per-share price of the companies, and by shedding more risky, less profitable international operations, they may be able to do it.

What caught MDN’s eye about the article is that the author uses Cabot Oil & Gas as an example of how a small domestic David-type company’s stock price can run rings around a much larger Goliath-type. MDN pointed this out in early March when we noted that Cabot’s market capitalization soared past Chesapeake Energy, a company at least 10 times the size of Cabot (see Guest Post: Corporate Hubris Humbles Chesapeake – Cabot Soars Sure & Steady). Also of interest is that the article names several large multi-nationals with drilling operations in the Marcellus/Utica (ConocoPhillips, Anadarko Petroleum and Talisman Energy) as being pressured to consider splitting their companies…
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Who’s a Member of the Marcellus “1 Bcf/d” Club?

1 bcfd club At the end of an article about EQT, Seeking Alpha blogger and energy analyst Richard Zeits includes a short list of companies who either already belong, or soon will join, the “1 billion cubic feet per day club” of Marcellus Shale gas production.

So far only one driller has achieved 1 Bcf/d of Marcellus production (quick, which one is it?). EQT will likely join the club in 2014. Who else is on the short list to join them? Read on to find out…

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PA PUC Rules Against Anadarko & Talisman on Impact Fee

Contrary to the wishes of Anadarko Petroleum and Talisman Energy, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC), charged with collecting Act 13 impact fees from shale drilling in the state, ruled that setting conductor pipe does in fact trigger or require a company to pay an impact fee from that point forward. Anadarko and Talisman had argued it does not constitute spudding (or starting the drilling process) for a well. The impact fee is levied when a well is spud.

From the PUC announcement yesterday:

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Motley Fool’s “Moguls of Marcellus”

The Motley Fool investing website published a “round-up” type of article yesterday that focuses on the major players (drillers) in the Marcellus Shale, part of a series that looks at major energy plays in the U.S.

The article starts off by listing the top 11 companies by the amount of acreage they lease. They are (from highest to lowest amount of acreage):

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Talisman Energy’s Big 3Q12 Loss, Treads Water in Marcellus

There’s no way to sugarcoat the dreadful third quarter results Talisman Energy reported yesterday—and they don’t try. The Canadian company, one of the larger drillers in the Marcellus Shale, announced a $731-million loss for the third quarter yesterday, which included $443-million of charges tied to exiting from Peru and setbacks with their operations in Norway and Quebec. Talisman’s stock dropped nearly 5% on the news.

The new president & CEO, Hal Kvisle, gave a sobering and frank review of the company and charted out four key priorities moving forward. One of those priorities is where they will focus their operations in the months and years ahead.

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Hit and Run Protest at Talisman Office in Big Flats, NY

Here’s the non-news news: About 100 protesters from Ithaca and New York City showed up for a 30-minute “hit and run” protest in front of Talisman Energy’s offices in Big Flats, NY (near Corning, in Chemung County). The rabble rousers, led by Shaleshock, made wild claims about Talisman polluting the environment and read a statement claiming they’ll lay down in front of trucks if drilling begins in New York. In less than a half hour from the time they arrived, they were “escorted” from the premises, where they were illegally protesting (it’s private property).

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Pennsylvania’s Top 10 Marcellus Drillers in 2011

NOTE: The facts and figures below were cited from a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review article. MDN has been contacted by several of the drilling companies in the list to let us know the numbers in some cases are not at all accurate. MDN is attempting to verify now (Feb 28) and will correct these numbers as soon as the raw data can be further analyzed.

top 10In 2011, Marcellus drilling expanded exponentially in Pennsylvania. According to the PA Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), companies drilled 2,755 Marcellus shale gas wells in Pennsylvania in 2011, up from 1,386 in 2010. That’s nearly a 200 percent increase (or doubling) in one year alone.

Below are the top 10 Marcellus drillers in Pennsylvania ranked by amount of gas produced. Included are some other bits of information (PA figures only) to give you an idea of the size and scope of that company’s operation in the PA Marcellus. (mcf = thousand cubit feet)

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Broome County, NY Landowners Get Big Payment from Talisman

New York landowners in Broome County will receive millions in lease payments this month from Talisman Energy—$5000 per acre (they’ve already received $500 per acre). The landowners belong to the Friendsville Group, a landowner coalition that signed a deal with Talisman in 2009. Most of the Friendsville Group members are landowners just over the border in Pennsylvania, who already received their full $5,500 per acre payments two years ago. The New York members had to wait—either until permits were granted, or January 2012.

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