Chesapeake Narrows Focus to Marcellus & Haynesville, Dropping Oily EF
Chesapeake Energy issued its 2Q22 update on Tuesday and held a conference call with analysts yesterday. The big news is that Chesapeake has come full circle, back to its natural gas roots. Chessy CEO Nick Dell’Osso said the company will focus more on drilling for natural gas in both the Marcellus and Haynesville shale plays, and less on drilling in the company’s oil-focused Eagle Ford play. In fact, Chesapeake now views the Eagle Ford as “non-core” and will (soon) stop investing in drilling new wells there. Our take is that you can look for a sale of the EF assets soon.
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Coterra Energy, formed last October when Cabot Oil & Gas merged with Cimarex Energy, issued its second quarter update yesterday. The company made $1.2 billion in profit last quarter, versus making just $30 million a year ago. Natural gas production in the Marcellus stayed pretty much even at 2.22 Bcf/d. The company generated over $1 billion in free cash flowing during 2Q–one of the highest, if not the highest, we’ve seen. Coterra uses its free cash flow to issue dividends, buy back shares, and retire debt sooner.
Here’s some of the best news we’ve heard in a month! Freeport LNG, offline due to an explosion and fire in June, issued an announcement yesterday to say it has signed a deal with the Pipeline Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) that will allow the export facility to restart in October–at or near full strength of exporting 2 Bcf/d of natural gas.
In July 2018, a group of 100+ southwestern Pennsylvania landowners sued EQT for failure to pay them rental fees for storing natural gas under their properties (see 
Two days ago, MDN mused over the issue of whether or not there will EVER be fracking in New York State (see 
According to Wikipedia, Elizabeth, PA is a borough in Allegheny County, on the east bank of the Monongahela River, where Pennsylvania Route 51 crosses, 15 miles upstream (south) of Pittsburgh and close to the county line. The population was 1,493 at the 2010 census. Very rural. Olympus Energy wants to drill a well in the township. The pad would sit about 1,700 feet (one-third of a mile) away from Elizabeth Forward High School. Some of the parents of students, and some of the administration, are pushing back against Olympus’ drilling plan, using the kiddies as an excuse.
What makes an oil and gas company (specifically a driller) a “bad actor”? Anti-fossil fuel zealots believe they’ve found a clever way of smearing Marcellus drillers and painting them as “bad actors” by citing how many notices of violation (NOVs) the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) has issued to a driller. The problem is, those notices are highly inconsistent and many times are for relatively minor (quickly fixable) “infractions” against regulations. Citing a high number of NOVs sounds impressive and scares people, which is the important thing for antis.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: PA state lawmakers, antis collude on anti-fracking action plan; NATIONAL: Oil falls on slowing us demand concerns; Fitch Solutions unveils latest oil price forecast; Can the carbon-capture industry grow as quickly as it needs to?; Manchin-Schumer energy deal proves the power of the swamp; INTERNATIONAL: LNG vessel transit through Panama drops.