Chesapeake Swings to Profit in 2Q, Investors Still Punish Stock
Chesapeake Energy released its second quarter 2019 update yesterday. The company continues its mission to transform itself from a natural gas producer into an oil producer. The company is on track to produce 250,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil in 2019 (averaging 122,000 bpd in 2Q). CEO Doug Lawler said Chessy will dial back spending on natgas in 2020 and allocate more money to oil drilling in Texas and Wyoming. The Marcellus Shale continues to be a natural gas cash cow for the company, helping fund drilling in other plays.
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Last Thursday the Texas Eastern Transmission Company (TETCO) pipeline exploded near a trailer park in Lincoln County, Kentucky (see 
Marcellus/Utica gas hitches a ride to the Gulf Coast to feed several LNG export facilities. We previously outlined how some gas flows to Cheniere’s Sabine Pass LNG plant via Williams’ Transco system (see 
PennEast Pipeline is a $1 billion (or $1.2 billion, depending on the source) new greenfield pipeline project from Luzerne County, PA to Mercer County, NJ. PennEast will flow PA Marcellus gas to markets in NJ. The project has faced numerous lawsuits and regulatory blockades, much of it in NJ. We won’t recount all of the ins and outs. What we will tell you is that PennEast is about to overcome another such government blockade by submitting a new Freshwater Wetlands Permit application to the NJ Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP).
Pennsylvania state officials in the Gov. Tom Wolf administration (yes, lib Dem Tom Wolf) are drawing up plans, a “playbook,” for how to redevelop the increasing number of coal-fired electric generating plants that are closing in the state. Most of those plans boil down to this: redevelop those sites as natural gas-fired electric plants and/or petrochemical plants. Both are tied directly to PA’s prolific Marcellus Shale. Who knew there was such common sense inside the Wolf Administration?
Last November MDN told you that Northeast Energy Center, backed by Liberty Energy and NorthStar Industries, is proposing to build an LNG liquefaction plant in central Massachusetts (see 
Liberty Utilities in Keene, New Hampshire wants to convert its 1,200 or so customers over to using natural gas–convert them from using propane. Natgas is cheaper (for customers) and has more reliable supplies. Liberty asked the NH Public Utilities Commission for permission to convert in 2017. Of course anti-fossil fuel lunatics objected, and the PUC delayed. Now, over two years later, the PUC has granted permission to Liberty to move forward with converting its commercial customers at one location.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: WV PSC says customers can expect lower natural gas rates this winter; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Northern Missouri pig poop project starts distributing natural gas; NATIONAL: EIA’s Henry Hub spot price forecast slips to $2.36 through 2019, $2.75 in 2020; Dems want to kill oil and gas leasing. Here’s why it matters; The great American oil and natural gas pipeline boom; The science is settled: Fracking makes America strong and healthy; INTERNATIONAL: When it comes to oil prices today, it’s China, China, China; Abbott to AMLO… Wrap up pipeline probe and get natural gas moving south.