Gulfport Energy is an Oklahoma City-based independent oil and natural gas exploration and production company (“driller”) with its main operations in the Utica Shale of eastern Ohio and along the Louisiana Gulf Coast. Gulfport is considered one of the Top 5 Utica drillers (see Which 5 Drillers Dominate in the Utica Shale?). Just a week ago the company purchased another 12,600 acres in the Ohio Utica (see Gulfport Picks Up 12,600 Utica Acres in Monroe County, OH for $87M). The deal making is far from over for Gulfport. A major announcement yesterday from the company: They are entering a third play, the SCOOP (in Oklahoma) by purchasing 85,000 acres of leases with 48 horizontal wells producing 183 million cubic feet equivalent per day of natural gas. In order to help pay for it, Gulfport also announced new stock and new debt offerings of senior notes (IOUs), hoping to raise the $1.85 billion they’re paying for the SCOOP assets. No, this post has nothing directly to do with the Marcellus/Utica–except (a) we jealously wish they were investing that money here and not there, and (b) it’s yet another sign that we’ve turned the corner and drilling everywhere is once again beginning to pick up…
