Canada’s Indian Resource Council Supports Quebec Utica Drilling
This is getting interesting. Last week MDN told you that Canadian driller Questerre Energy has found a way to fight back against Quebec, Canada’s insane, irrational plan to outlaw all oil and gas drilling–including drilling in the province’s Utica Shale layer–by forming an alliance with a local Indian tribe to drill on Indian land (see Questerre Finds Way to Circumvent Quebec’s Utica Drilling Ban). Less than a week later, the Indian Resource Council of Canada (IRC), an organization representing more than 130 First Nations (Indian tribes) across the country that produce energy or have direct interests in the energy industry, has joined the fight in support of Questerre. It has set up a battle between Quebec and the country’s First Nations.
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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 
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 
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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