Gulfport Drops Lawsuit Against Barnesville, OH Over Water Sale
In 2012, Barnesville (Belmont County), OH signed a contract with Gulfport Energy to sell Gulfport water from the Slope Creek Reservoir for 1 penny per gallon. Earlier this year Gulfport wanted to begin drilling in the area, following a joint venture agreement with Antero Resources. But Barnesville said the water level in the reservoir is too low and wouldn’t sell any to Gulfport, so Gulfport sued and in March the whole matter ended up in federal court (see Gulfport Energy Sues Barnesville, OH for Access to Water in Reservoir). In May Barnesville hired high-priced lawyers from Columbus to help them defend themselves–lawyers they hired using money from selling water to another driller (see Barnesville, OH Hires Costly Columbus Lawyers in Gulfport Lawsuit). We hadn’t heard anything further since that time–the wheels of justice turn very slooooowly. Gulfport still hasn’t given up on wanting to buy the water, but on Saturday they did drop the lawsuit under an agreement with Barnesville (and Antero) to sit down and work out their differences, outside of a courtroom…
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Yesterday Rice Energy announced that the company’s subsidiary, Rice Midstream, has signed a joint venture agreement with competitor Gulfport Energy to develop a pipeline gathering and water delivery system for Gulfport’s Utica Shale drilling program in Ohio’s eastern Belmont County and Monroe County. Rice will be 75% owner and in charge of the jv. Rice and Gulfport plan to invest a combined $640 million into the jv over the next six years. Construction begins immediately and the first gas (and water) will begin to flow through the new system by middle of next year. Here’s the details…
One of the arguments sometimes trotted out by anti-drillers is that heavy trucks lumbering up and down rural roads will destroy them. And indeed, sometimes it does–when the road is old or not constructed to handle heavy truck traffic. Typically drillers will repair the roads to better-than-new condition–we’ve seen it in some PA counties. But here’s something you don’t often hear: Gulfport Energy is about to spend $8 million on road repairs to roads BEFORE they use them, not after. The repairs will be done over the next six weeks in Belmont County, OH, and it delights Belmont County Commission members. Somebody else footing the bill for rebuilt roads will put a smile on any county commissioner’s face…
Gulfport Energy recently announced they have awarded $35,000 in grants for 10 projects in four Ohio counties, including projects benefiting local citizens in Guernsey and Belmont counties (Utica Shale country). The grants in varying amounts were given to schools, labor unions and colleges–for educational programs. One of the grants, for $5,000, will be used to purchase Google Chromebooks for 150 middle school students. Google’s Chrome OS is the official operating system for MDN (we LOVE it). Nice to see Gulfport blessing local schools and organizations in the regions where they operate…
A couple of bits of news from Gulfport Energy, a driller focused primarily on the Utica Shale in eastern Ohio. In April, MDN reported that Gulfport had inked a deal with Paloma Partners III, a small energy & exploration company headquartered in Houston, to purchase 24,000 acres in Belmont and Jefferson counties (Ohio) for $12,500 per acre (see 
A slide we spotted in a Gastar presentation got us to thinking: What are the top 10 Utica Shale wells? Who drilled them? And how much was their initial production (IP) rates? So we went searching and came up with the handy list below. This list is current as of August 2015. A few caveats: First, some of the wells in the list produced not only methane (“dry gas”) but also oil, condensate and natural gas liquids–i.e. other hydrocarbons. However, the numbers in the list below are for the methane/dry gas only portion of what the well flowed during an initial period of time (typically the first 24 hours). So keep that in mind. These are not necessary dry gas only wells, but the numbers are for the dry gas portion coming from the well. Second, we scoured the MDN archives and other sources to compile the list. If you believe we’ve overlooked a well–let us know! We would be happy to correct the list. As it is, we believe it to be accurate. It tells a pretty incredible story. Below the Top 10 list is another list–of MDN stories covering the details for the wells in the Top 10 list…
We have major news coming from Aubrey McClendon’s American Energy Partners (AEP). A lot of news. So buckle in. First we’ll tell you the news, then we’ll give you our take on that news–what it means. In brief, the news coming from AEP HQ in Oklahoma City is this: (1) AEP’s Marcellus/Utica AEP subsidiary, American Energy Appalachia Holdings, has been spun out into a 100% standalone company and has changed its name to Ascent Resources; (2) the CEO of Ascent is the same guy who was the CEO of American Energy Appalachia Holdings–trusted McClendon lieutenant Jeffrey A. Fisher; (3) Ascent has cut a deal with Gulfport Energy to sell 35,000 prime Utica Shale acres for $407 million; and (4) Ascent has just sold shares in the company and taken out new loans for $977 million, giving them $700 million in cash after they pay off certain other loans. Whew! Here’s the details, along with a little news of our own about AEP…