CNX Adds New Board Member, 2 New Executive Mgmt Team Members
At last check (in third quarter 2021) CNX Resources was producing 1.7 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of natural gas in the Marcellus/Utica, and on track to generate $500 million in free cash flow for the year (see CNX Loses $1.5B on Hedges – CFO Unapologetic for Strategy). The company has a stellar team. CNX has just added a new member to the board of directors and has promoted (from within) two employees to the executive team.
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As predicted last week by Reuters, Chesapeake Energy announced yesterday it is buying Marcellus driller Chief Oil & Gas plus associated non-operated assets from Tug Hill Operating for $2 billion in cash and approximately 9.44 million common shares. The total purchase price (given the current CHK stock price of $67/share) is roughly $2.6 billion. The combination makes Chesapeake a powerhouse driller in the northeast Pennsylvania Marcellus with 653,000 acres of leases.
Holy smokes! What just happened? For months (and months and months) the cumulative number of weekly permits issued to drill new shale wells in the Marcellus/Utica has fluctuated from the low teens to perhaps 30 total on the upper end. Last week, from Jan. 17-23, an amazing 61 permits were issued to drill new shale wells. Double the usual. Wow! Pennsylvania issued 24 new permits, Ohio issued 9, and blow-the-doors-off-we’ve-never-seen-so-many-permits-issued-in-one-week for West Virginia, the Mountain State issued 28 new shale permits.
Just a few weeks ago we told you a Shell rep said the mighty ethane cracker is 80% complete and the company is now searching for permanent employees to fill some 600 positions (see 
Houston-based Schlumberger (pronounced Shlum-Bur-Zhay) is the world’s largest oilfield services company. They’re the company a majority of exploration and production companies (drillers) call when they want a new well drilled. The #2 company on speed dial for drilling new wells is Halliburton, and they’re not even close in size to #1 Schlumberger. On Friday Schlumberger issued its fourth quarter and full-year 2021 earnings report, holding a conference call to discuss results. Of particular interest to us was information detailing Schlumberger’s work for M-U driller CNX Resources.
In May 2021 S&P Global Market Intelligence ran an article on which Marcellus/Utica drillers are likely targets to be acquired, and which drillers are doing the targeting (see 
This is quite clever. Last October the province of Quebec, Canada announced it will expropriate all of the rights for all oil and gas companies in the province to drill and extract oil and natural gas (see 
According to super-secret sources talking to Reuters, Chesapeake Energy is in advanced talks to purchase Chief Oil & Gas for $2.4 billion. MDN brought you the news last October that Chief, a private company owned by Texas wildcatter Trevor Rees-Jones, was shopping itself for $3 billion (see 
In September MDN broke the news that Rockdale Marcellus had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania (see 
Olympus Energy (formerly Huntley & Huntley) drills in the Greater Pittsburgh region, in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties. The company plans to drill a series of new wells (and well pad) in Washington Township in Westmoreland County. However, there’s a snag. Residents along a proposed road accessing the site don’t want the truck traffic on their narrow (18-foot-wide) road. Olympus doesn’t want to use an alternate route due to a sharp turn. Someone else proposed building a new access road, but it would cross a tributary that flows into the Beaver Run Reservoir (lots of red tape). The town is planning a couple of workshop meetings to figure out a solution.
EQT Corporation, the largest natural gas producer in the United States, announced last Friday that all of its natural gas produced in Washington and Greene counties in Pennsylvania (the majority of its production, some 4 Bcf/d) is now officially certified as “responsibly produced” gas by two different certification organizations: Equitable Origin and MiQ. That 4 Bcf/d of certified gas represents 4.5% of all natural gas produced in the U.S.
Back in December, MDN editor Jim Willis had the delight and pleasure of attending an open house at the new location of the 
Everyone loves a “top x” list, right? We sure do. Hart Energy, publisher of must-have industry magazines including E&P (Exploration & Production), and Oil and Gas Investor, recently published a special publication called 
A Shell spokesman last week said that the mighty ethane cracker plant the company is building in Monaca (Beaver County), PA is now 80% complete and projected to be operational “sometime this year,” although a more specific date can’t be nailed down. Currently, there are some 8,000 workers who report to the construction site each day. Simply astounding! When the plant is done and operational, it will employ about 600 permanent on-site workers. Shell is now in recruiting mode to find those 600 permanent workers.