Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G)

Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County

Cabot O&G 2015 Update; Cutting 2016 Drilling Budget 58%
February 2, 2016February 2, 2016

Cabot Oil & Gas, one of the premier drillers in the Marcellus Shale (operates totally within Susquehanna County, PA) released their fourth quarter and full year 2015 operational update this morning. The highlights: Cabot ended up spending $774 million on capital expenditures (mostly drilling) in 2015, down a bit from the previous estimate of $850 million. It’s down because they scaled back activity during 4Q15. They also had to write down the value for some of their non-core holdings by $73 million–what’s called an impairment charge. Looking ahead, Cabot plans to spend $615 million on capital expenditures (i.e. drilling) in 2016, which is down 58% from 2015. They will drill approximately 30 new wells, 25 of them in the Marcellus and 5 in the Texas Eagle Ford Shale. Here’s the update…
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Chesapeake Energy | Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Range Resources Corp | Southwestern Energy

4 Biggest Marcellus Gas Drillers Cutting Budgets 53% This Year
January 15, 2016January 15, 2016

We spotted a mention of “the four largest U.S. independent gas producers” (meaning natural gas producers) in an article about the challenges drillers are facing in cutting their spending while getting less money for the gas they produce. The article is a somber look at just how hard it is to not spend more than you make, if you’re a gas driller. Oh, and those four largest gas producers in the U.S.? Yep, everyone of them is a major player in the Marcellus/Utica…
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Chesapeake Energy | Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Devon Energy | Energy Companies | EOG Resources | EQT Corp | Industrywide Issues | Research

Which Marcellus/Utica Drillers are Part of the “Thousand Club”?
January 12, 2016January 12, 2016

It’s difficult to compare apples with apples when it comes to evaluating how productive, or profitable, a hydrocarbon-producing well is. We typically think of wells as “oil wells” or “natural gas wells” or perhaps “wet gas (NGL) wells.” While there are some wells that produce almost all natgas or almost all oil, etc., most wells produce multiple hydrocarbons. Oil wells in the Permian Basin or Eagle Ford Shale (in TX) produce natural gas along with the oil coming out of the well. Many Marcellus and Utica wells in southwestern PA and eastern OH produce very profitable quantities of natural gas liquids, a mish mash of ethane, propane, butane, isobutane, and pentane. And don’t forget condensate (natural gasoline). So how do you compare the relative output/profitability/production for different “types” of wells? One way is to convert all of those hydrocarbons into one hydrocarbon–oil. Specifically, barrels of oil. Once you convert all hydrocarbons into barrels of oil, you have a way to compare apples to apples–comparing wells located in the same shale play or comparing wells from one play with wells from another. Recently the sharp analysts at investment firm Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. ran the numbers to convert and compare wells across different plays. They issued a report showing wells that belong to the “Thousand Club”–wells producing at least 1,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. Where are the most such wells located? The Eagle Ford Shale, the Bakken Shale, and yes, the Marcellus and Utica Shale. Which drillers are in the club?…
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Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Exxon Mobil | Industrywide Issues | Research

Morningstar Outlook/Predictions for Oil & Gas in 2016 & Beyond
December 30, 2015December 30, 2015

Morningstar, Inc. is one of, if not THE leading providers of independent investment research in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. Morningstar’s analysts keep a close eye on many different sectors, including the energy sector. Yesterday Morningstar published its Quarter-End Insights for the oil and gas sector, which include not only a look back at what happened, but predicts what they see coming in 2016 and beyond. Among Morningstar’s predictions: “Long-term” prices for oil will hit $70 per barrel for Brent crude and $64 per barrel for WTI. Near-term oil prices? They “could be ugly.” Morningstar recommends three specific E&Ps in which to invest. Two of them operate in the Marcellus…
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Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies

Cabot O&G Attorney Sells $97K of Company Stock
December 30, 2015December 30, 2015

From time to time MDN brings you news of a company’s top management either buying (preferred, from our perspective) or selling (not so preferred) shares of company stock. We figure it’s a good sign when the people who run the company believe in it enough that they plunk down their own coin to buy shares of it. We should hasten to add selling company stock is not necessarily a bad sign or indicator of a lack of confidence. People have lives and need money: kids to put through college, renovations to the house, Christmas debt to pay off, etc. This latest buying/selling incident is one in which a top officer is *selling* stock. Cabot Oil & Gas’ General Counsel, George Cunningham, sold 5,670 shares of company stock on Monday for a total price of $97,297.20…
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Commodity Price | Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Southwestern Energy

Problem: Some Marcellus/Utica Drillers Entering 2016 Not Hedged
December 22, 2015December 22, 2015

A recent report issued by Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services sounds an alarm over the issue of hedging for 2016–in particular for independent producers in the Marcellus and Utica Shale region. What’s hedging and why do we care? Drillers (and others who buy and sell natural gas) often engage in a practice called hedging, which is, in a simplified explanation, a contract to sell (or buy) a commodity like natural gas at an agreed-on price at a future date. There is an element of risk in hedging. From a driller’s perspective, if you strike an agreement to sell your gas in the future and the price goes a lot higher, you have to sell your gas at the lower price you agreed to. That’s the down side. But if the price goes a lot lower in the future, you’ve covered your derriere by locking in a higher price for the gas you produce–making money when your competitors aren’t. Drillers and others who buy and sell gas use hedging as a way to guard against price swings. It’s a “risk management” function in a company. Unfortunately most of the hedges previously arranged more than a year ago are now expiring. And nobody but nobody is willing to strike a contract right now for $3 or $4/Mcf gas a year or more down the road. No one believes the price will recover that much. Which means many drillers (in our neck of the woods) are entering 2016 without their production being hedged–a very scary proposition…
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Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Economic Impact | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County

Susquehanna County Residents Love Burning Locally Produced Gas
December 9, 2015December 9, 2015

Susquehanna County, PA, which sits just across the border from where MDN is written in Broome County, NY, is one of the miracles in the Marcellus Shale. Cabot Oil & Gas, among a few other drillers, have extensive operations in Susquehanna County. In fact, all of Cabot’s PA wells are located in that one county, and Cabot produces (at last check) over 1.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas PER DAY. It’s an amazing story. One of the ironies has always been that rural counties like Susquehanna that produce natural gas often aren’t able to use the gas they produce due to lack of pipeline infrastructure. The entire county has 43,000 residents (11,700 families). The largest “city” in Susquehanna County is the county seat of Montrose, population 1,600 (750 households). It’s just not all that economical to run natural gas pipelines to homes around the county–even though residents live atop an embarrassing riches of natural gas. One company, Leatherstocking Natural Gas, changed all that in late 2013 when they started to run pipelines to residences and businesses around Montrose. How has it turned out? The people who are hooked up and burning Marcellus gas locally produced have high praise…
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Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies

Marcellus Driller Cabot Oil & Gas Gets 2 New Board Members
December 3, 2015December 3, 2015

Cabot Oil & Gas, one of the largest and one of the most important Marcellus drillers, has just added two more people to their Board of Directors. One of the two is Dorothy Ables, Chief Administrative Officer of midstream (pipeline) giant Spectra Energy. Cabot’s CEO Dan Dinges calls Dorothy a midstream expert that will help guide them as midstream becomes critical moving forward. The second new member is Robert Boswell, Chairman and CEO of Laramie Energy II, a privately held oil and gas exploration and production company headquartered in Denver. Boswell has started–and successfully sold–several previous drilling companies before starting Laramie Energy II, focused on the Piceance Basin in Colorado, in 2007. Boswell is there to replace board member Robert Keiser who is retiring from the board next year. Here’s the announcement…
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Antero Resources | Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Eclipse Resources | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Noble Energy | Research | Rice Energy

DUC DUC Goose! The Growing Backlog of Uncompleted Shale Wells
December 1, 2015December 1, 2015

Ever hear of a DUC? No, we didn’t forget the “K” on the end of DUC. It stands for Drilled but UnCompleted (DUC) wells. Completing a well means taking the final step of fracking the well and hooking it up to production. Lately there’s been a lot of talk about DUCs–a large inventory of wells drilled (holes in the ground) not yet completed. Completing a well takes a lot of sand, water and money. There’s little incentive to complete wells when commodity prices for oil and gas are so low. In some cases drillers will drill the borehole and not complete a well as a way of holding their acreage before a lease expires. In other cases, they’d love to finish the job–but the price they will get is too darned low, so they put completion on hold. Sometimes a driller has contracted for a rig and crew to operate it–instead of canceling and owing that money anyway, they go ahead and drill. How many DUCs are there in general, and in the Marcellus/Utica specifically? The honest answer is, no one knows for sure. But smart analysts can make some pretty good guesses, based on company reports and their own industry knowledge. Below we bring you the latest we can find on DUCs–specifically how many DUCs there are in the Marcellus/Utica…
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American Energy Partners | Antero Resources | Ascent Resources | Chesapeake Energy | Chevron | Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | EQT Corp | Range Resources Corp | Rice Energy | Seneca Resources | Southwestern Energy

Top 10 Marcellus/Utica Drillers by Number of Permits May-Aug 2015
November 18, 2015November 18, 2015

MDN recently published Volume 2 of our 2015 Marcellus and Utica Shale Databook–a research book that chronicles who’s drilling and where in the Marcellus/Utica region. We thought it would be interesting to bring you some of the results from this latest volume. Below is a list of the top 10 Marcellus/Utica drillers based on the number of permits they were issued from May through August 2015. The numbers of permits shown are for discrete, individual wells. Each well drilled typically involves multiple permits–one to begin drilling, another to frack, etc. We toss out all of the multiples and show the numbers for discrete, individual wells. The top driller ranked by number of permits received may just surprise you–it did us. In addition to the list, we’ve included stock charts for each company to show you just how badly the industry has been hit over the past year. Stock prices for most of the top 10 have plunged…
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Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Susquehanna County | UGI Energy Services | Wyoming County (PA)

UGI Completes Auburn Loop Pipeline in NEPA, Benefits Cabot O&G
October 29, 2015October 29, 2015

Way back in May 2014 MDN told you that UGI Energy Services, a subsidiary of UGI (a utility company in northeast PA) would build two new pipelines in northeast PA for $80 million that will allow them to transport cheap, abundant, locally extracted natural gas from Cabot Oil & Gas in Susquehanna County to residents in the greater Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area (see UGI Energy Building 2 New Pipelines in NEPA for Cabot O&G). One of those two projects was completed last November (see UGI Turns on New Pipeline for Cabot in NEPA). Earlier this week UGI completed the second project, called the Auburn Loop–9 miles of new pipeline that parallels existing pipeline and, along with compressor upgrades, allows UGI to pump an additional 270 million cubic feet per day (Mmcf/d) of Marcellus Shale gas from Susquehanna County, PA to the Scranton area…
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Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies

Cabot O&G 3Q15: Production Up a Little, Profits Down a Little
October 23, 2015October 23, 2015

Cabot Oil & Gas, one of the best-performing Marcellus Shale drillers in the entire play, issued their third quarter 2015 update today. They did pretty well all things considered. The company reports a slight increase in production of 7% year over year. However, the even the mighty Cabot can’t overcome wicked low prices for natural gas in northeastern Pennsylvania–the lowest in the country. Cabot made just over $100 million in profit in 3Q14. This year? They lost $15 million–which ain’t all that shabby compared to just about every other driller in the northeast. By comparison Southwestern, with more acreage and a larger drilling program, lost $1.8 billion in 3Q15. Yikes! Here’s the update issued today by Cabot…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County

Cabot O&G Gives a Tour to Big Green Group – Trout Unlimited
October 5, 2015October 5, 2015

Sometimes you have to reach out to the other side (i.e. the unreasonable enemy of fossil fuels) to try and convince them that the oil and gas industry is not Satanic. We don’t bother with trying to convince them (lost cause in our opinion), but kudos to those who have the patience to try it. Case in point: Cabot Oil & Gas recently hosted a delegation from the Big Green/radical group Trout Unlimited (TU). TU, you may recall, is the sad story of a once great group co-opted into being a radical green group (see Trout Unlimited, Other Groups Outted as Radical Green Groups). That is, at least some of the leaders of TU are in the pocket of Big Green. Perhaps it’s different with some in the rank and file. TU held its 2015 annual meeting in Scranton, PA this year, so Cabot invited delegate from across the country who were attending to tour some of Cabot’s operations in nearby Susquehanna County, PA. MDN friend Bill desRosiers from Cabot files the following report…
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Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies

Cabot’s Top Lawyer Sells Some of His Company Stock for $81K
October 2, 2015October 2, 2015

From time to time we bring you news of top management at drillers (upstream) or pipeline companies (midstream) who either buy or sell large blocks of their own company’s stock. It’s always hard to divine what someone’s motivation is when buying or selling. We typically take it to be a good sign when top management or board members buy stock–it shows they believe in the company they run, enough to put their own money on the line. We have another case–this time a company’s top lawyer selling stock in one of the top drillers in the Marcellus. Cabot Oil & Gas’ General Counsel, George Kevin Cunningham, sold 3,623 shares of Cabot stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 29th. He got $81,046.51. But lest you view the transaction negatively, consider this: Cunningham still owns 42,210 shares worth nearly a million bucks. Looks to us like maybe he’s sending a kid off to college or remodeling the house with this sale…
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Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies

Cabot Hosts Sporting Clays Tourney, Raises $110K for Local College
October 2, 2015October 2, 2015

Once again the great people at Cabot Oil & Gas have done it again. Back in 2012 the company helped raise $4.4 million for a local hospital in Susquehanna County, PA, with half of the money contributed by Cabot (see Cabot Effort Raises $4.4 Million for PA Physicians Clinic). Last year Cabot donated a $2.5 million gift to northeast PA’s Lackawanna College (see Cabot Oil & Gas Does it Again – $2.5 Million Gift to Lackawanna College). Cabot remains very active in the NEPA community as a vital, contributing member of the community. Last week Cabot hosted their 2015 Fall Classic Sporting Clay Tourney and raised ANOTHER $110,000 for the Lackawanna College School of Petroleum & Natural Gas. Kind of obliterates the antis lies about evil Big Oil & Gas companies arriving to rape and pillage Mother Earth and damage the communities where they operate…
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Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Putnam County | Rogersville Shale | West Virginia

How Deep Did Cabot O&G Drill Their Rogersville Test Well in WV?
September 30, 2015September 30, 2015

The Rogersville Shale once again popped up on the radar. Yesterday at the West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association (WVONGA) Conference in Wheeling, WV, a research geologist with the Kentucky Geological Survey talked about the Rogersville Shale, outlining its geography in both WV and KY. Corky Demarco, executive director of WVONGA chimed in with a reminder that Cabot Oil & Gas has drilled a test well in the WV Rogersville in Putnam County (see Cabot Drills Test Well in WV Rogersville Shale, More on the Way?). The new news coming from Demarco’s comments yesterday is how deep Cabot’s test well was drilled…
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