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Toby Rice Gives Tour of PA “Monster Well Pad” to Intl Customers
EQT CEO Toby Rice is and has been on a mission–to spread the gospel of LNG (see EQT CEO Toby Rice Unveils Nationwide Plan to “Unleash” U.S. LNG). Rice continued his LNG mission this week when he wined and dined and gave tours to officials from the countries of Slovakia, Slovenia, The Netherlands, Sri Lanka, Portugal, Latvia, and Thailand. One of the tour stops was a site in Greene County, showing off a well pad with 15 Marcellus wells that produce a cumulative 200 MMcf/d! It’s truly a monster well pad.
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We spotted a story on The Motley Fool investor’s website yesterday noting that several Marcellus/Utica publicly-traded drillers saw “double-digit” increases in their share price just yesterday, for a single day. The article highlights both Range Resources and Southwestern Energy. We started nosing around to see how the stock price for all of the big publicly-traded M-U drillers has performed this year, from the beginning of the year. It was an eye-opener. ALL of them are up from the beginning of the year. Most are up at least 75% in value since Jan. 1. A few have doubled in value, now up more than 100% since Jan. 1. We have the list below for how each one performed. Welcome to the bull market in oil and gas!
Last week Pennsylvania issued 11 new shale well permits, down from 16 the week before. For the second week in a row, EQT led the way, issuing five permits. Ohio got skunked–issuing no new permits for Utica drilling. West Virginia issued just one new permit–to Antero Resources. Overall a pretty paltry showing for new permits in the M-U.
An article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette highlights and focuses on the financial performance for four of the Marcellus/Utica’s largest publicly-traded companies, including EQT Corp., Antero Resources, Range Resources, and CNX Resources, during first quarter 2022. Even though the price natural gas is fetching is higher than it’s been in 14 years, M-U drillers are losing money. Why? Hedges and derivatives–bad bets on where the price of gas would go and locking in prices much lower than what the market currently supports.
Yesterday EQT Corporation released its first quarter 2022 update and held a conference call with analysts. The big news came from CEO Toby Rice, who said in his opening remarks, “We are currently in discussions with LNG end-users across various geographies and are contemplating equity investment opportunities in LNG export facilities.” Later in the call, in response to a question, Rice added, “Our ultimate prize that we’re looking for here at EQT is to get exposure to international markets…One of the ways that we get more flexibility towards accessing those contracts is to take an investment in the LNG facility itself.”
Bloom Energy, a provider of fuel cells that convert natural gas (or biogas, or hydrogen) into electricity without combustion, meaning no carbon dioxide emissions, has signed a two-year deal to buy all of its natural gas to power fuel cells at some 700 locations from EQT. But it’s not just any natural gas Bloom is buying–it’s EQT’s certified responsible natural gas. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
One of the hottest of the hot sectors in which to invest (right now) is shale energy. That’s according to multiple sources, including a veteran finance writer, investor, engineer, and researcher. In an article appearing on the OilPrice.com website, Alex Kimani talks up mid-cap energy stocks as outperforming the supermajors. Among two of Kimani’s top three picks are two Marcellus/Utica drillers, who are having a stellar year in stock performance. We went looking for the stock performance of other M-U drillers too. We have a list to share showing just how much each driller’s share price has increased this year.
Ace reporter Paul Gough at the Pittsburgh Business Times has scored another exclusive. At least we can’t find any other mentions online about this latest, very big news. EQT Corporation has signed a memorandum of understanding to partner with ElementUS Rare Earths & Minerals, a Louisiana company, to potentially build a plant somewhere in the Marcellus/Utica region to process rare earth minerals that are “used in industry for everything from fuel cells to batteries, magnets for electric vehicles and insulator coatings.” The project is called ASCEND. Why is EQT interested in rare earths?
According to RBN Energy, 2021 was the most profitable year in at least the last two decades for oil and gas producers (i.e. drillers). Oil and gas producers reported income two-thirds higher than the previous peak in 2014, when commodity prices were significantly higher. There’s every indication that 2022 will be even better for the bottom line of O&G companies. What about Marcellus/Utica drillers? Yep, they’re on the list of phenomenal results too.
According to Reuters, at least a dozen U.S. shale gas executives met yesterday in Houston, TX, with European energy officials to discuss expanding U.S. fuel supplies to Europe. Among those in the meeting were “top executives” from Chesapeake Energy, Coterra Energy (formerly Cabot Oil & Gas), and EQT Corp., the largest natural gas producer in the U.S. Individual meetings are planned between the execs and representatives from Latvia, Estonia, and Slovakia. It seems that Europe has finally opened its eyes (and its mind) to the benefits of American natural gas.