Ascent Resources | Bradford County | CNX Resources | EQT Corp | Greene County (PA) | Guernsey County | Monongalia County | Northeast Natural Energy | Ohio | Olympus/Huntley & Huntley | Pennsylvania | Tilden Bradford | Weekly Permits | West Virginia | Westmoreland County
Weekly Shale Drilling Permits for PA, OH, WV: Apr 19-23
All three M-U states received permits to drill new shale wells last week. Pennsylvania received a 6 new permits, most of them in the southwestern part of the state. Ohio received 4 new permits last week, all of them for Ascent Resources on the same Guernsey County pad. And West Virginia received 6 new permits split between CNX Resources and Northeast Natural Energy, all in one county: Monongalia.
Read More “Weekly Shale Drilling Permits for PA, OH, WV: Apr 19-23”
Analysts with S&P Global Market Intelligence say that shale gas drillers in the Marcellus/Utica region have finally learned their lesson and are sticking to their promise to keep capital spending restrained this year–even with an increase in the price of gas. Both spending and rig counts are predicted to stay low this year as drillers work on boosting free cash flow and improving company share price.
The experts at RBN Energy have, for the past five years, closely tracked the spending and production of a representative collection of 39 major public E&P (exploration & production) companies. RBN splits the companies tracked into three groups: Oil-Weighted E&Ps, Diversified E&Ps, and Gas-Weighted E&Ps. In a recent post, RBN reveals what those 39 companies have announced they will spend, and produce, in 2021. For eight of the nine gas-weighted E&Ps that produce gas in the Marcellus/Utica, the numbers show drillers will spend 15% less this year, but overall will produce 2% more natural gas than they did last year.
There’s a lot of gum-flapping about sustainability and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) these days. It seems as if every upstream and midstream company has suddenly gotten the ESG religion. But at the end of the day, what does it actually mean? How do companies really effect positive change, not just talk about it? CNX Resources doesn’t just talk a good game. CNX is investing $30 million to focus on local, underserved communities and populations in the tri-state region. CNX is looking for real results, not just pretty slide shows to show investors.
There are those who talk a good game about fighting back against the cultural rot that is consuming our country, fighting back against those who spread the false gospel of socialism and claim that capitalism is somehow evil. There are those who talk a good game about supporting fossil fuel energy. And then, there are those who actually do something about it. Talk is cheap. Action is expensive. You can classify Nick Deiuliis, CEO of CNX Resources, as an action guy. Yesterday Nick announced an exciting new mentorship program for high schoolers.
In our opinion, we have yet to fully understand the long-term, permanent changes in society that have happened because of the COVID-19 pandemic. There are signs that things have permanently changed. For example, a significant number of people now work from home rather than commute to an office in downtown. Many workers like working from home better! In a signal that COVID long-term changes are impacting the Marcellus/Utica industry, two major M-U companies with office space in the Southpointe business park (Pittsburgh suburb in Washington County) are shopping a collective 213,000 square feet of office space they no longer need because their workers have permanently relocated to home offices.
All three M-U states received permits to drill new shale wells last week. Pennsylvania received a big 21 new permits. Ohio received 7 new permits last week, all of them for Encino Energy (two different well pads). West Virginia received just 2 new permits, both for HG Energy on the same pad in the same county.
The data crunchers at the Pittsburgh Business Times have been sifting through the data for 2020 and have composed a list of the “
Yesterday, CNX Resources, Bettis Brothers, and The Bus Stops Here Foundation announced a partnership intended to bring greater awareness and access to opportunities in the natural gas industry to disadvantaged urban and rural communities in the Pittsburgh region. Does the Bettis name ring any bells? It should. Pittsburgh-based IntegrServ, a trucking company partly owned by former Pittsburgh Steeler Jerome Bettis, filed a federal lawsuit last summer against EQT claiming discrimination against his company (a minority-owned company) after EQT canceled a contract worth some $66 million (see 
Two weeks ago CNX Resources issued its 4Q and full-year 2020 update, except at the time they didn’t issue the usual press release with a summary overview (see 
CNX released fourth-quarter and full-year numbers yesterday, but without the usual press release summarizing the results. CNX’s top brass did hold a conference call with analysts to discuss the update. Right out of the chute CEO Nick DeIuliis opened up the session by making four points. Nick’s very first point was that “2020 marked the most successful year we’ve seen as an E&P” as measured by free cash flow.
As we entered 2020, the stock price for most Marcellus/Utica drillers was near or even at the lowest it had ever been (see 
Capital expense (capex) investments made by drillers in the Marcellus/Utica during the third quarter of 2020 were the lowest in at least six years according to a new report (full copy below) from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA). The report looks at nine of the top drillers in the M-U and finds collectively they cut capex investment by more than one-third in 3Q20 over 3Q19. And yet those same nine collectively spent a half-billion dollars more during 3Q on drilling and building projects than they earned in revenue from selling oil and gas. That’s troubling.