Gulfport Energy Files for Pre-arranged Chapter 11 Bankruptcy
We hoped it wouldn’t happen, but warned you it might when Gulfport Energy announced several weeks ago it had missed a debt payment and was in “restructuring” talks (see Gulfport Energy Misses Debt Payment, in “Restructuring” Talks). On Saturday, Gulfport, the third-largest driller in the Ohio Utica Shale (by the number of wells drilled), announced it had filed for a “pre-arranged” Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
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EOG Resources, one of the largest oil and gas drillers in the U.S. (with operations in Trinidad and China too) has just sold *all* of its Marcellus assets located in Bradford County, PA to (we’ll tell you below, MDN has the exclusive on this) for $130 million. EOG has now left the M-U building.
In August Southwestern Energy announced it is buying out and merging in Montage Resources in an all-stock deal (see 
Once again PTT Global Chemical is changing the timeline for a final investment decision (FID) to build a $10 billion ethane cracker plant in Belmont County, OH–for the umpteenth time. The most recent timeline had a decision coming by the end of this year or in the first quarter of next year. Whoops, they did it again! The new timeline is now “at least the middle of 2021.”
When a pipeline company considers whether or not to build a new pipeline, the company conducts an “open season”–a time when drillers (producers) can sign long-term contracts to use capacity along the pipeline. Such contracts guarantee pipeline companies will be able to make back the considerable amount of money they have to spend to build the pipeline. What happens when a driller that signed to a 10- or 20-year contract goes bankrupt? Or what happens if a contract will force a driller into bankruptcy? Can such a contract be canceled?
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: More taxes will impede Marcellus Shale production; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: San Francisco bans natural gas in new buildings; NATIONAL: LNG feedgas demand has reached a new all-time high; Cheniere doubling down to cut LNG environmental footprint as stakeholder pressure grows; Physical gas flow constraints, volatility arise at Henry Hub; State climate action unlikely after Democrats fail to flip statehouses; The coming energy shocks under a Biden administration; EPA nominees may face challenging Senate confirmation path; INTERNATIONAL: Europe’s Green Deal is bad news for U.S. LNG.