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Chesapeake Energy Throws in the Towel on NY Shale Drilling

throw in the towelA good news/bad news story. The good news is that Chesapeake Energy is giving up the legal fight with landowners in New York to extend their leases beyond the original lease term. MDN has long chronicled the fight on the part of landowners to stop Chesapeake from claiming force majeure to extend leases signed for (in some cases) just a few dollars per acre–leases signed long before horizontal drilling and fracking were contemplated (see More on the NY Force Majeure Ruling Against Chesapeake). After two years of legal wrangling, Chesapeake is throwing in the towel. Landowners will now be able to sign with another company, if drilling ever comes to NY.

The bad news is, Chesapeake is throwing in the towel–as in they are giving up on NY–tired of the ongoing five-year moratorium in shale drilling. Wake up Cuomo! Your actions have caused this! You are causing direct economic harm to your residents every day the moratorium stays in place…
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The Marcellus Continues to be Star Performer for Chesapeake

Different media outlets have analyzed the comments made last Thursday by Chesapeake Energy officials, looking for Chessy’s “take” on their particular region. A newspaper in West Virginia published the report below that looks at Chessy’s update on the Marcellus Shale in the southwestern corner of the play–otherwise known as the “wet gas” area. Bottom line: Although everyone continues to focus on the Chesapeake’s love affair with the Utica Shale, the Marcellus Shale is the play actually contributing to the company’s bottom line–in a big way. The Marcellus is helping turn around the good ship Chesapeake.

Of particular interest to MDN in this brief article is a short paragraph that mentions the signing bonus/royalty deals landowners in the Upper Ohio Valley have recently landed with Chesapeake and other drillers–some of the highest bonus and lease terms we’ve seen to date in the Marcellus…
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Spectra’s OH Pipeline Project Advances, Sept 20 Deadline w/FERC

More than 1 1/2 years ago MDN told you about a planned new 70-mile pipeline and compressor station to connect Utica and Marcellus wells in eastern Ohio to Spectra Energy’s Texas Eastern pipeline system (see Chesapeake Investing in New 70-Mile Ohio Pipeline). Called the Ohio Pipeline Energy Network (OPEN), the project is a $500 million joint venture between Chesapeake Energy, American Electric Power and Spectra Energy. Not since December 2011 have we heard any news about the project–until now.

Even though there’s been no media coverage, Spectra has been hard at work planning and holding public meetings for feedback on eight different proposed pipeline routes. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has given Spectra until Sept. 20 to tell them which alternative is their preferred route. FERC will then make a decision and (presumably) issue a permit that will allow Spectra to begin construction. An update on the OPEN project…
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Chesapeake’s Lawler Excited about OH Utica, Calls it “Outstanding”

Chesapeake Energy’s new CEO, Doug Lawler, like Chessy’s founder and first CEO Aubrey McClendon, positively gushes when it comes to the Utica Shale. On a conference call with analysts yesterday, Lawler said, “The Utica is outstanding,” and he sees the Utica as “…a very strong asset going forward.”

More details on Chessy’s Utica Shale drilling program in Ohio from Lawler:
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Chesapeake 2Q13: Dramatic Turnaround from One Year Ago

It appears that the great ship of Chesapeake Energy is, ever so gradually, turning around. We won’t recount how Chesapeake’s founder Aubrey McClendon was unceremoniously dumped by corporate raider Carl Icahn, nor how some of his closest long-time “friends” betrayed him. All water under the bridge now. The news is that Chesapeake released their second quarter update today and the numbers are mostly good–very good. The company’s EBITDA (net income) increased 77% from the same time last year, and operating cash flow was up 53%.

With respect to the Marcellus, Chesapeake says they connected an astonishing 131 wells during 2Q13, more than double the 52 they connected in 2Q12. Dry gas production in the northern part of the Marcellus averaged 780 million cubic feet per day, and wet gas production in the southern Marcellus averaged 208 mmcf/d, for a total of 988 mmcf/d–almost 1 bcf/d! (Cabot and EQT are the first two companies to average more than a billion cubic per day.) Chesapeake reports they have 11 active drilling rigs in the Utica Shale and 5 in the Marcellus.
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5th Upper Devonian Driller + Maps of Best UD Spots to Drill

out of the blueIt seems as if “out of the blue” the Upper Devonian Shale (UD) has popped up on the radar screen–quite suddenly and in quite a big way. The Upper Devonian is located a few hundred feet above the Marcellus Shale layer in the northeastern U.S. Over the past few weeks, MDN has highlighted stories of drillers expanding their UD drilling programs–including CONSOL, Rex Energy, Range Resources and EQT Corporation (see EQT 4th Driller to Target Upper Devonian Shale Layer). Courtesy of a sharp MDN reader, we can add a fifth UD driller to the list: Chesapeake Energy. Todd Sigler reports that Chesapeake has drilled an Upper Devonian well in Hancock County, WV and has several Upper Devonian permits in extreme western Beaver County, PA.

Todd also pointed us to two excellent drilling presentations about the UD, one from Range Resources and one from Rex Energy, which we’ve embedded below. The Range presentation includes a good backgrounder on the UD and a great series of maps showing where the best places to drill in the UD can be found–currently–based on our knowledge and experience so far. The Range presentation also discusses how Range (and others) are adopting a “stacked play” strategy of drilling the Upper Devonian, Marcellus and Utica layers–all in the same well bore. How cool is that?!
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PA’s Top 10 Marcellus Drillers Based on Number of Permits

Top 10Who doesn’t love a Top 10 list? David Letterman has built a career on them. There are a lot of different ways to measure who the biggest drillers are in Pennsylvania–the Top 10 drillers. Recently, the Pittsburgh Business Times took a fresh stab at it. They counted how many shale gas wells have been permitted for drilling companies. It doesn’t mean the wells have been drilled yet, but you don’t spend big bucks on a permit to not drill. We can safely assume if it’s permitted, it either has been or soon will be drilled.

So who are the Top 10? The names of the drillers in the list may not surprise you, but we bet the number of permitted wells they have and their order in the list may surprise you…
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Some PA Landowners Mull Decision to Sue Chesapeake over Royalties

Are you a landowner in Pennsylvania leased with Chesapeake Energy? And if you are, do you feel cheated with your royalty payments? If so, you may want to join what’s shaping up to be a class action lawsuit in PA against Chessy over what some claim are underpaid royalties.

Landowners are being pursued by a couple of Scranton-area lawyers working with a couple of out-of-state lawyers–from New York City–to go after Chesapeake on the issue of what they say are shorted royalty payments. Are these lawyers champions of the downtrodden, defending the rights of shafted landowners? Or the real estate equivalent of ambulance chasers? You decide…
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The House Aubrey Built Transitions from Exploration to Production

An excellent article published by NGI’s Shale Daily reports that Chesapeake Energy is transitioning from a risk-taking exploration company to a profit-making production company.

Chronicling the journey–where they are now and how much Chessy plans to raise this year by selling even more assets–here’s NGI’s expert take on the mighty house built by Aubrey, and stolen by corporate raiders Carl Icahn and others (euphemistically referred to as “activist investors”):
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M3 Midstream’s Kensington, OH NGL Plant Launch Date Slips

In May 2012, MDN told you about a new $400 million natural gas liquids (NGL) processing plant that would be built in Kensington, about a mile south of Hanoverton, OH, by a joint venture involving M3 Midstream, Chesapeake Energy and EV Energy Partners (see Location for OH NGL Processing Plant Identified). M3 said the Kensington NGL plant was on track for an “aggressive” May 2013 opening as late as December last year (see Columbiana County NGL Plant On Track for May Opening). It’s end of June and the plant is still not running.

We do, however, have a new estimated start date…
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Rig Counts (and Profits) in the Marcellus/Utica

An interesting article in yesterday’s Wheeling News-Register (below) takes a look at rig counts in the Marcellus/Utica region, noting the big increase in rigs drilling in Ohio while the number of rigs in West Virginia has remained the same or gone down slightly, and the number of rigs in Pennsylvania has decreased rather dramatically. The article also gives us a look at how much money, on average, Chesapeake Energy makes per day per well in both dry and wet gas areas. Very useful information.

MDN has inserted a Baker Huges rig count chart at the bottom showing the number of rotary drilling rigs by state (PA, OH, WV) for the past 12 months (taken from the Marcellus and Utica Shale Databook):
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WV Landowners Settle with Chesapeake Out of Court

A lawsuit in Marshall County, WV that previously escaped our notice has just been settled. Landowners David and Sharon Hall, owners of 116 acres, sued Chesapeake Energy and Statoil alleging damage to their surface property. The lawsuit also says Chesapeake did sloppy work on the drill pad, destroyed crops and destroyed timber on seven acres of the Hall’s land.

Last Friday the judge dismissed the case because it was settled out of court…
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PA Landowner Says Chesapeake Trespassed, Court Decides for Chessy

In yet another case of “be careful how you word your lease,” the Valley Rod & Gun Club (in Pennsylvania) leased land to Chesapeake Energy for drilling. The two disagreed over where the drill pad should be located and Chesapeake moved forward with a site they wanted against the wishes of the landowner. The landowner sued saying Chesapeake trespassed in building the pad. Earlier this week U.S. District Court in PA ruled…
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