WV Forced Pooling Lite Not Dead Yet – EQT Wants Special Session
In early April MDN reported that West Virginia’s effort to pass a law dealing with co-tenancy and joint development–what we called forced pooling lite–had gone up in pot smoke (see WV Force Pooling Lite Goes Down in Flames – Lawmakers Blame Pot). Legislators in the House go bogged down debating pot smoking and didn’t have enough time to finish debate and vote on Senate Bill (SB) 576 (for background on what the bill would do, see Analysis of New WV Bill SB 576 re Co-Tenancy & Joint Development). The West Virginia Oil & Natural Gas Association (WVONGA) pulled out all the stops to support the legislation. They organized a bus-in rally at the Capital where nearly 1,000 people showed up to support the legislation (see WVONGA Delivers ~1,000 at Rally to Support Co-Tenancy, Joint Dev.). We thought for sure it was a fait accompli, because WV’s new Governor, Jim Justice, threw his support behind the bill. But at the last minute, the bill failed–as forced pooling bills have failed five times before. However, we did say this back in early April: “So is it curtains for the sixth time on forced pooling? We’re not ready yet to declare it dead during this legislative tenure. The governor in West Virginia has the power to convene a special session. We saw it happen when Earl Ray Tomblin was governor.” It seems our words were prophetic. EQT, one of the biggest drillers in the state, is pushing hard for Gov. Justice to convene a special session and to pass SB 576. EQT is providing some not-so-subtle pressure by indicating they may reallocate some of their drilling budget elsewhere if WV doesn’t pass the law…
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EQT, one of the biggest drillers in the Marcellus/Utica, had quite a ride in 2016. A good ride! In the last 10 months EQT has added 220,000 acres to its Marcellus/Utica portfolio–by buying large tracts from other companies. One of the deals included buying the other company (Trans Energy) lock, stock and barrel (see 
More twists and turns to report with respect to an issue we previously reported with the potential to impact every mineral rights owner and driller in West Virginia. In December MDN reported on the huge West Virginia Supreme Court decision against driller EQT that disallows EQT from deducting post-production expenses from royalty checks, even with signed contracts in place (see 
Last October EQT announced a deal to buy Trans Energy, Inc., a public pure-play driller in the Marcellus in West Virginia, which will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of EQT (see 
The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) announced yesterday that it would require water quality certifications under Section 401 of the federal Clean Water Act for each segment of both the Atlantic Coast Pipeline project (Dominion) and the Mountain Valley Pipeline project (EQT & NextEra Energy). Apparently the DEQ considered using the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Nationwide Permit 12 process–a less rigorous review (saves about half a forest of trees in paper). But in the end, the DEQ said they were caving to political pressure from anti groups (our words), and instead put Atlantic Coast and Mountain Valley on notice to get ready for a detailed exam. It will be painful. However, it’s not anything either company isn’t already used to/hasn’t done before. We wouldn’t say “it’s no big deal,” but neither is this a show stopper. The more relevant question: Is the DEQ ready to review the blizzard of paperwork that will come at them, IN A TIMELY MANNER? The real question is whether or not the DEQ is equipped to conduct the extensive review they’ve now demanded, and what happens if they can’t?…
The Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) is a $3.5 billion, 301-mile pipeline that will run from Wetzel County, WV to the Transco Pipeline in Pittsylvania County, VA. The project, which filed an official application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in October 2015, is being built by EQT, NextEra Energy and several other partners. The project has faced stiff opposition from landowners in both West Virginia and Virginia. Although the project is not yet fully approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the project did get a favorable Draft Environmental Impact Statement from FERC last September (see 
This is a story we have not previously covered on MDN. It goes back to 2010 and involves two of the biggest Marcellus/Utica drillers–although in this case the issue is not related to the Marcellus/Utica. Landowners in southwestern Virginia previously sued both EQT and CONSOL Energy’s CNX subsidiary over charges that EQT and CNX shorted landowners out of royalties owed to them, claiming post-production expenses, deductions for severance taxes, etc. that should not have been taken. The wells drilled were conventional wells–some 3,347 EQT wells and 4,261 CNX wells. The vertical wells targeted methane extraction from coal seams–not horizontal wells through shale, which is far more common today. Some lawsuits were green lighted as class action cases in 2013, with a potential for “thousands of landowners” to participate in sharing $30 million in payouts. Last week a federal judge certified three of the five class action lawsuits, allowing them to move forward…
The Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) is a $3.5 billion, 301-mile pipeline that will run from Wetzel County, WV to the Transco Pipeline in Pittsylvania County, VA. The project, which filed an official application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in October 2015, is being built by EQT, NextEra Energy and several other partners. The project has faced stiff opposition from landowners in both West Virginia and Virginia. Although the project is not yet fully approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the project did get a favorable Draft Environmental Impact Statement from FERC last September (see 
In December 2016 EQT, one of the largest Marcellus/Utica drillers with its headquarters in the Pittsburgh area, released a forecast for 2017 (see 
Stone Energy is an independent oil and natural gas exploration and production company (E&P) headquartered in Lafayette, Louisiana, drilling mainly in the Gulf of Mexico but also has (or rather had) a presence in the Marcellus/Utica Shale with 86,000 acres of leases. Stone quit actively drilling in the Marcellus in 2015, and filed for bankruptcy last October. As part of the bankruptcy filing, Stone signed a deal with Tug Hill to sell those 86,000 acres to Tug Hill for $350 million (see 
The sharp folks over at the Pittsburgh Business Times have been looking through data from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and have compiled a list of 20 drillers who have at least a dozen shale wells in the southwest PA region. And they ranked them from lowest to highest. We’ve grabbed the list below. The interesting thing for MDN is that there is one name in the list not familiar to us, and we’ve been watching this space since 2009. Always fun to learn something new. Here’s the list of southwest PA’s “Top 20” Marcellus drillers…
EQT, one of the biggest and best drillers in the Marcellus/Utica, issued their fourth quarter and full year 2016 update yesterday. As is typical when issuing the updates, EQT’s top brass held a conference call with analysts to discuss results and take questions. In reading through a transcript of the call, one of the most interesting passages (for us) was in the prepared comments by incoming EQT CEO (currently president) Steve Schlotterbeck. In a brief passage excerpted below, Steve provides a quick update on several items: the Mountain Valley Pipeline project, EQT’s Utica drilling program, and the fact that “this week” EQT has purchased an additional 14,000 “core” West Virginia acres in Marion and Monongalia counties for $130 million, which works out to be $9,286 per acre…