Gulfport Energy

According to an article appearing on Forbes, “The sell-off of oil and gas exploration and production stocks has been brutal. Exchange-traded funds that specialize in the sector have fallen around 10% to 20% this year, versus an 8% uptick in the market overall.” Why? Low oil prices. Several analysts are quoted as saying the market is “ripe” for some companies to sell themselves. In a companion story today, we covered one such rumor–that Penn Virginia Energy is shopping itself. An analyst with Williams Capital Group has offered up a list of five such companies he believes may be next. Note we said “may.” There’s lots of hedging in this prediction. This is one analyst, albeit an experience analyst, spitballing about what “may” happen. The final entry in his list of five companies that “may” get sold this year is none other than Gulfport Energy, an Oklahoma City-based independent oil and natural gas exploration and production company that is a “top 5” driller in the Ohio Utica Shale. One alternative to selling itself, according to the analyst, is that Gulfport could sell it’s 24% interest in oilfield services company Mammoth Energy Services…
Read More “Analyst Says Gulfport Energy ‘Ripe’ for Merger/Sale”

Gulfport Energy turned in their first quarter 2017 update earlier this week–a very impressive report. Gulfport reports producing an average 849.6 million cubic feet equivalent (MMcfe) per day in 1Q17–8% higher than 4Q16 and 23% higher than 1Q16. They scored an average price of $2.68 per thousand cubic feet (Mcf) for the gas they sold. Perhaps most impressively, the company went from losing $242 million in 1Q16 to making a profit of $154 million in 1Q17–a swing of $396 million. Gulfport is a big Utica Shale driller. During 1Q17, the company spud (began to drill) 26 new Utica wells. The average length of each well was 8,145 feet. They hooked up 5 Utica wells to pipelines. On an earnings call, Gulfport CEO Michael Moore said 38% of their Utica well completions during 1Q17 included fracture treatment designs of “greater than 2,500 pounds [of sand] per foot.” That’s a lot of sand! Marcellus and Utica drillers typically find more sand = better production–and that’s what Gulfport is finding. Gulfport works with Mammoth Energy and Evolution Well Services–which operates rigs run by natural gas instead of diesel fuel. Below is the full 1Q17 update, along with comments from Moore delivered during the quarterly earnings call… Read More “Gulfport Energy 1Q17 – Spud 26, Completed 5 Utica Wells”

Sheesh, it seems like we just got done yesterday with reporting quarterly earnings/operations updates. And here we are again. Like the old Dunkin Donuts commercial where the guy who makes the donuts runs into himself coming and going making the donuts. First out of the gate in the Marcellus/Utica is Gulfport Energy, reporting their first quarter 2017 numbers. And the numbers for Gulfport look pretty darned good–at least operationally. Gulfport didn’t report their financials yesterday. On the operations front, production zoomed up 23% to 849.6 million cubic feet equivalent (MMcfe) per day in 1Q17 vs 1Q16–the vast majority of which came from the Utica Shale. The other interesting news is that Gulfport realized an average sale price of $3.98 per thousand cubic feet (Mcf) for the gas they sold. Below is the update along with a recent PowerPoint slide deck with some great slides…
Read More “Gulfport Energy 1Q17 – Production Up 23%, Gas Sold Avg $3.98/Mcf”

Gulfport Energy, an Oklahoma City-based independent oil and natural gas exploration and production company (“driller”) that is a “top 5” driller in the Ohio Utica Shale, released their fourth quarter 2016 and full year 2016 operational update in mid-January (see Gulfport Energy 2016 Operational Update – Production Up 31%). Gulfport is part of the growing trend to drop one shoe first, then the other. The first shoe is almost always production and operational information (the good news). That doesn’t mean that the financial information is bad news–but sometimes that’s the case. Gulfport dropped the second shoe yesterday, issuing a full report for fourth quarter and full year 2016–operational and financial. On the financial front, Gulfport lost $980 million in 2016, versus losing $1.2 billion in 2015. So the loss was less, but not by much. In addition to looking back, Gulfport issued some forecasts for 2017, including a drilling budget of $1-$1.1 billion…
Read More “Gulfport Energy’s 2016 Financial Update – Lost Nearly $1B”

Gulfport Energy, an Oklahoma City-based independent oil and natural gas exploration and production company (“driller”) that is a “top 5” driller in the Ohio Utica Shale, released their fourth quarter 2016 and full year 2016 operational (not financial) update yesterday. Gulfport is part of the growing trend to drop one shoe first, then the other. The first shoe is almost always production and operational information (the good news). That doesn’t mean that the financial information is bad news–but sometimes that’s the case. For now, let’s revel in the good news! Gulfport’s net production during 4Q16 averaged 787 million cubic feet equivalent per day (MMcfe/d), a 7% increase over 3Q16 and a 22% increase versus 4Q15. Net production for full-year 2016 averaged 719.8 MMcfe per day, a whopping 31% increase over full-year of 2015. Below is the update, along with the newest investor PowerPoint presentation with lots of useful details…
Read More “Gulfport Energy 2016 Operational Update – Production Up 31%”

In the closing days of 2016, Gulfport Energy, an Oklahoma City-based independent oil and natural gas exploration and production company (“driller”) that is a “top 5” driller in the Ohio Utica Shale, announced that its chief financial officer (CFO) has up and left. Just like that. Aaron Gaydosik, Gulfport CFO, is leaving “to pursue an external opportunity.” While defections in the top ranks of big drillers like Gulfport are not unheard of, they do give investors the jitters. And it makes one wonder what’s going on at the company, given that Gaydosik had only been in that job for the past 2.5 years. Was he pushed out? Did he find a better gig? Inquiring minds want to know…
Read More “Gulfport CFO Leaves Suddenly to “Pursue an External Opportunity””

Gulfport Energy is an Oklahoma City-based independent oil and natural gas exploration and production company (“driller”) with its main operations in the Utica Shale of eastern Ohio and along the Louisiana Gulf Coast. Gulfport is considered one of the Top 5 Utica drillers (see Which 5 Drillers Dominate in the Utica Shale?). Just a week ago the company purchased another 12,600 acres in the Ohio Utica (see Gulfport Picks Up 12,600 Utica Acres in Monroe County, OH for $87M). The deal making is far from over for Gulfport. A major announcement yesterday from the company: They are entering a third play, the SCOOP (in Oklahoma) by purchasing 85,000 acres of leases with 48 horizontal wells producing 183 million cubic feet equivalent per day of natural gas. In order to help pay for it, Gulfport also announced new stock and new debt offerings of senior notes (IOUs), hoping to raise the $1.85 billion they’re paying for the SCOOP assets. No, this post has nothing directly to do with the Marcellus/Utica–except (a) we jealously wish they were investing that money here and not there, and (b) it’s yet another sign that we’ve turned the corner and drilling everywhere is once again beginning to pick up…
Read More “Gulfport Energy Expands into SCOOP, New Stock & IOUs to Pay $1.85B”

In mid-October Gulfport Energy was one of the first out of the gate with information on the third quarter (see Gulfport 3Q16 Operations Update: Production Up 13%, Prices Up Too). However, that was only an operational report, and not the fuller, financial report. On Wednesday Gulfport delivered the full package/update. As we previously noted, natural gas production was up nicely. But a fuller reading of the numbers in this report shows that, like other Utica/Marcellus producers, both oil and natural gas liquids (NGL) production was down year over year for Gulfport. This confirms media reports we’ve noticed over the past few months (see Shift in Utica Drilling – from Wet Gas to Dry Gas and Why Utica Drillers are Moving from Wet Gas to Dry Gas). One reason to separate operational from financial updates is because the news in the financial update is typically not so good, while operational news typically is good. Once again we see that pattern. Gulfport lost $157 million in 3Q16–but that’s a big improvement from the $388 million loss in 3Q15. Here’s the fuller, financial update from Gulfport, including the news that the company plans to begin 2017 by running six rigs in the dry gas Utica…
Read More “Gulfport 3Q16 Fin. Update: $157M Loss, 6 Utica Rigs Coming in 2017”