EnerVest Utica Shops 340K Acres of ORRI in Ohio Utica Shale
EV Royalty Partners, an affiliate of EnerVest Ltd., has retained Oil & Gas Asset Clearinghouse for the sale of a Utica Shale overriding royalty interest (ORRI) package across multiple counties in Ohio. The package on offer includes portions of ORRI in some 340,894 acres. The acreage is actively leased and developed by Encino Energy, Ascent Resources, and Southwestern Energy. Bids are due by Dec. 2nd.
Read More “EnerVest Utica Shops 340K Acres of ORRI in Ohio Utica Shale”
Although this story technically is not about the Marcellus/Utica, it is about the parent company of the Shell ethane cracker in Beaver County, PA, and it is instructive for politicians everywhere that increasingly love to bash fossil fuel companies. Royal Dutch Shell Plc was founded in and has been headquartered in The Netherlands for the past 100+ years. The Netherlands is attacking the company via the courts and with threats of insane taxes. So Shell is doing the unthinkable: Reorganizing and dropping “Royal Dutch” from the name and relocating its headquarters from the Netherlands to London.
Epsilon Energy concentrates most of its effort on the Marcellus in Susquehanna County, PA. Epsilon doesn’t typically do its own drilling. The company joint venture partners with (gives money to) other companies, like Chesapeake Energy, and the other company typically does the drilling. Epsilon issued its third quarter update on Wednesday. The company’s Marcellus net gas production was 2.6 Bcf (billion cubic feet) in total for 3Q21, compared to 3.0 Bcf of net gas production in 3Q20 (a 13% decrease). However, revenues were $13.1 million in 3Q21, compared to $5.8 million in 3Q20 (more than doubled). In addition to the 3Q numbers, we have an update on Epsilon’s lawsuit against its partner Chesapeake Energy.
For years Canadian company Questerre Energy patiently waited to begin drilling on their extensive Utica Shale acreage in the St. Lawrence Lowlands of Quebec, Canada. Quebec has been like New York–completely closed to the oil and gas industry, particularly shale and fracking (see 
Ascent Resources, originally founded as American Energy Partners by gas legend Aubrey McClendon, is a privately-held company that focuses 100% on the Ohio Utica Shale. Ascent is Ohio’s largest natural gas producer and the 8th largest natural gas producer in the U.S. The company issued its third quarter 2021 update yesterday. The company produced 1.98 billion cubic feet equivalent per day (Bcfe/d) during 3Q–nearly all of it, 1.83 MMcf/d–was natural gas, the rest was oil and NGLs. Ascent generated $28 million of free cash flow, but like other M-U drillers, hedging bets on derivatives resulted in a huge loss of $1.3 billion for the quarter.
In April of this year, Northeast Natural Energy (NNE), a West Virginia driller, announced it had enrolled itself in both the Equitable Origin and MiQ certification programs to prove the natural gas it produces is “responsibly sourced gas” (see 
In August 2020 when Range Resources, the very first company to sink a Marcellus well back in 2004, issued its annual Corporate Sustainability Report (CSR), the company laid out a goal of achieving so-called net-zero carbon emissions by 2025 (see 
Three weeks ago the total number of permits issued in the Marcellus/Utica was 22. Two weeks ago it fell to 9. Last week the numbers picked up somewhat, with 16 new permits issued, breaking down as: 12 permits issued in Pennsylvania, 2 permits issued in Ohio, and 2 permits issued in West Virginia.
This morning Diversified Energy announced it is expanding methane emissions detection at the company’s operations in the Appalachian Basin by deploying an extra 500 handheld detection devices (in addition to 100 already in use) at its work sites. Diversified owns close to 8 million acres of leases with some 67,000 (mostly) conventional oil and gas wells (with over 400 Marcellus/Utica shale wells). Diversified’s strategy is to seek wells in “the long tail.” That is, wells already drilled with production far along the decline curve. Most of the wells in their inventory are older conventional wells. However, as shale wells begin to age and produce less, Diversified is also buying into the shale market.
ECA Marcellus Trust I, traded over-the-counter on the pink sheets, canceled distributions (dividends) to investors for the first three quarters of 2020 due to the pandemic and the crash in oil and gas prices. The company restarted paying dividends in 4Q20–a grand total of 9/10ths of one penny per unit (see 
Nearly two weeks ago MDN brought you the news that Southwestern Energy was in talks to buy a second (for them) Haynesville driller, GeoSouthern, for $1.7 billion (see 
While yesterday’s news that Southwestern Energy has brokered a deal to purchase a second Haynesville driller (see today’s lead story), Southwestern also issued its third quarter update yesterday. Let’s not overlook that important news! While Southwestern’s natural gas production continues to increase due to acquisitions, the big news (for us) is the drubbing the company took on hedges/derivatives. Southwestern lost $2 BILLION on bad hedges, leading to a quarterly net loss for shareholders of $1.86 billion. The company reported total production of 310 Bcfe (billion cubic feet), averaging 3.4 Bcfe per day.
Chesapeake Energy released its third quarter update yesterday. The company has newfound energy (pun intended) since emerging from bankruptcy earlier this year and ejecting most (but not all) of its top management along with an entire refresh of the board. The company reports a net loss of $345 million during 3Q21, which is better than the $745 million net loss in 3Q20. There’s no one big reason for the loss. Revenues were down a bit ($890 million in 3Q21 vs. $960 million the year before), marketing costs were up a bit ($625 million vs. $450 million), etc. The financial loss didn’t phase investors as the stock price popped up by 3.3% from the day before.
Coterra Energy, the new name for the two merged companies that were Cabot Oil & Gas and Cimarex Energy (a Permian driller), issued its third quarter update yesterday. Cabot has been and remains one of our favorite Marcellus/Utica drillers. According to Tom Jorden, CEO of Cimarex and now CEO of the combined company, the integration of the two companies is “well underway” and has been “a full court press” since May. In the aggregate, Coterra brought 61 wells online during 3Q and plans to operate seven rigs and four completion crews during 4Q. Five of the rigs are in the Delaware Basin (in the Texas Permian), and two of the rigs are in Susquehanna County in northeast Pennsylvania. What about details for Marcellus operations during 3Q?