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Weekly Shale Drilling Permits for PA, OH, WV: Aug 23-29
Last week both Pennsylvania and West Virginia issued permits to drill new shale wells. Ohio remained skunked for a sixth week in a row. What’s going on in Ohio? Or rather, what isn’t going on there? PA issued 15 new shale permits. Not to be outdone, WV also issued 15 new shale permits.
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During the second quarter (May through June), ten of the largest oil and gas producers covered by S&P Global Market Intelligence saw their NGL (natural gas liquids) revenues grow substantially from the same period a year ago. Those ten companies, half of them drillers in the Marcellus/Utica region, saw NGL prices increase from 104% to as high as 261%. The extra money from NGLs made what turned out to be a down quarter financial-wise (because of bad bets on hedges) better than it would have otherwise been.
Yesterday EQT, the largest natural gas producer in the U.S., issued its second quarter 2021 update. There’s a lot to unpack. While the company produced 4.7 Bcfe/d of natural gas and liquids in 2Q and $155 million in free cash flow, the company lost $936 million during 2Q21 versus losing just $263 million in 2Q20. The loss came from a bet on derivatives gone bad that cost the company $1.3 billion. Oops. There was plenty of talk about “sustainable shale” and ESG efforts. CEO Toby Rice touted the recent successful acquisition of Alta Resources, which closed on July 21.
Expectations coming from Wall Street are that pure-play drillers, like many in the Marcellus/Utica, will show a turnaround in their financials for the second quarter of 2021. According to S&P, investors took drillers at their word last year that they won’t “drill baby drill” the way they have in years gone by. The stock prices of nearly all major M-U drillers have soared over the past 12 months as a result. The biggest turnaround has been Antero Resources. Its stock price is up nearly 400% over the past 12 months! Range Resources’ stock price is up 140%.
For all the chatter about ESG and environmental yada yada, at the end of the day every Marcellus and Utica driller drills for and extracts hydrocarbons. Fossil fuels. As the de facto leader of all natural gas drillers, it’s important and instructive to watch what EQT and its young CEO, Toby Rice, actually do AND say. EQT and Rice are leading the charge to defend our industry against the crazies who want to end the use of all fossil fuels. In a recent column appearing in a West Virginia newspaper, Rice makes the case that natural gas is good for the economy and good for the environment.
A relatively short jury trial last week in a Belmont County, OH court resulted in a quick, three-and-a-half-hour decision in favor of a landowner against Rice Drilling (now EQT) and Gulfport Energy in a trespass case. The jury awarded the landowner, Tera LLC (owned by Thomas Shaw), a $40 million judgment. It’s believed to be the single largest jury award in Belmont County history.
According to an analysis done by S&P Global Market Intelligence, the five largest drillers in the Pennsylvania Marcellus Shale resumed their drilling in June in a big way. S&P’s analysis shows those five drillers were responsible for 51% of the new drilling permits issued last month, up from 28% of new permits issued in May. Perhaps we know why. The price of natgas at regional hubs in PA rocketed over the past month. At the Leidy Hub in the northeast’s dry gas window (centered on Susquehanna County, PA), cash prices went from a low of 93.7 cents/MMBtu on May 3 to $3.07/MMBtu at the end of June.
Last week MDN told you that EQT Corporation, the largest natural gas driller in the U.S., had released its 2020 ESG report and announced the company would be “net carbon zero” by 2025 or sooner (see 
Yesterday EQT, the largest natural gas producer in the U.S., released its annual Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Report, outlining the company’s 2020 operational data and initiatives aimed at improving the way EQT produces “environmentally responsible,” reliable, and low-cost energy. Additionally, EQT announced targets to achieve net zero Scope 1 and 2 so-called greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in its production operations by or before 2025–less than four years away.