Ascent 1Q – Drills 17 Ohio Wells, Loses $1.5B on Bad Derivatives
Ascent Resources, originally founded as American Energy Partners by gas legend Aubrey McClendon, is a privately-held company that focuses 100% on the Ohio Utica Shale. Ascent is Ohio’s largest natural gas producer and the 8th largest natural gas producer in the U.S. The company issued its first quarter update earlier this week. Ascent averaged production of 2.0 Bcfe/d for the quarter, a 9% increase over 1Q21. Nearly all of Ascent’s production (93%) was natural gas, while the rest was oil and NGLs. Ascent generated -$2 million of free cash flow (yes, negative free cash flow) and lost $1.5 billion during 1Q based on bad bets on derivatives/hedging.
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Summit Midstream Partners, formed in 2009 and headquartered in The Woodlands, Texas, operates natural gas, crude oil, and produced water gathering (pipeline) systems in several unconventional shale plays, including the Marcellus and Utica. Last week Summit issued its first quarter 2022 update. The company’s Marcellus/Utica segment (now called Northeast) continued to be the star performer. Flows through the company’s pipeline system were down versus the prior year, with the exception of its Ohio Gathering unit where volumes increased. Revenues were down from the same period a year ago, but not by much.
The Natural Gas Supply Association’s (NGSA) 2022 Summer Outlook projects “upward pressure” on the natural gas market compared to last summer because of robust industrial demand, lower storage inventories, and the ripple effect on energy commodities caused by Europe’s energy crisis as it struggles for independence from Russian oil and gas. The NGSA Summer Outlook predicts a summer-over-summer increase of 3.6 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) in average daily production (supply). NGSA says the supply increase (4% higher than last summer) is actually 1 Bcf/d more than demand for natgas will grow this summer. Oops.
Last year the Bidenistas initiated a massive power grab of transferring the right of individual states to regulate local natural gas gathering pipelines to the federal government, which is set to happen on May 16 of this year (see 
From the beginning of Richard “Dick” Glick’s tenure at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), we’ve pointed out that he votes against every single new pipeline project that comes before him based on cockamamie global warming excuses. Glick, a former wind lobbyist, took over as Chairman of FERC under Joe Biden. However, Glick’s tenure may be coming to an end. His five-year term on FERC will expire on June 30 and the Bidenistas have not yet renominated him for another term. Even if he leaves, which would leave an evenly divided 2-2 Democrat/Republican FERC, he still has until the end of this year to exit stage left.
An interesting development for an LNG export project in Canada we’ve tracked for years. Bear Head Energy, Inc., the current owner of Bear Head LNG in Nova Scotia, is being sold to Houston-based Buckeye Partners for an undisclosed sum. Buckeye is a portfolio company of, wholly owned by, IFM Global Infrastructure Fund (based in Australia). The former owner of the Bear Head LNG project, LNG Limited, was also based in Australia before it went belly up. Buckeye is a serious company with serious assets in the U.S. and has declared its intent to develop the fully-permitted Bear Head project forthwith. Maybe Canada’s East Coast will get an LNG export facility after all!
From time to time we bring you columns written by Ronald Stein, author, engineer, and energy expert. He writes for several organizations, including his latest column appearing on The Heartland Institute website (he is an advisor for Heartland). Stein’s column points out the blazingly obvious that nobody else seems to grasp: Without fossil fuels and the products that are made from fossil fuels, there’s no reason to have so-called renewable electric energy because there won’t be any products to power with that energy! But maybe that’s exactly what the left wants?
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: New York leads America off a renewable-energy cliff; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Biden administration cancels Alaska oil and gas lease sale; NATIONAL: More oil production would hurt shareholders, Occidental CEO says; INTERNATIONAL: Germany unveils bill to accelerate the use of LNG; Insufficient investment to blame for high fuel prices.