Epsilon Energy 2Q: $1.3M in Free Cash Flow, Revenue Down a Tad
Epsilon Energy concentrates most of its effort on the Marcellus in Susquehanna County, PA. Epsilon doesn’t actually do any of its own drilling. The company partners with (gives money to) other companies, like Chesapeake Energy, and the other company does the actual drilling. Epsilon, according to its website, owns ~4,000 net acres in the PA Marcellus. They also own assets in Oklahoma’s Anadarko Basin. Last week the company issued its second-quarter 2020 update.
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In June MDN told you that a New York City law firm was “investigating” Cabot Oil & Gas with an eye to filing a class action lawsuit, on behalf of investors, over false allegations made by the Pennsylvania Attorney General who had filed felony charges against Cabot regarding a long-closed regulatory issue in Dimock, PA (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 second-quarter 2020 update yesterday. The company added another 25 wells to production in 2Q and produced 2.1 billion cubic feet equivalent per day (Bcfe/d), a new company high. Unfortunately, the financial picture was not as rosy…
Holy smokes! We didn’t see this one coming. Just yesterday MDN brought you the second-quarter update from Montage Resources (see 
In June, Antero Resources, one of the biggest (and best) Marcellus/Utica pure play drillers concentrating most of their drilling in West Virginia, sold an overriding royalty interest (ORRI) in all of their wells for $402 million (see 
Montage Resources, the new name for the merger of Eclipse Resources with Blue Ridge Mountain Resources which happened more than a year ago, issued its second-quarter 2020 update last week. Production for Montage in the Marcellus/Utica was up slightly (3%), to 551.7 MMcfe/d in 2Q. Profits, on the other hand, were way down. The company lost $68.9 million in 2Q20 versus making a $27.5 million profit in 2Q19. Low prices for natgas explain why.
Even though the price of natural gas selling at regional trading points like Dominion South has gone up, don’t expect more production in the Marcellus/Utica. Diversified Gas & Oil (DGO) CEO Rusty Hutson, in an interview with S&P Global Platts, said most of the larger drillers in the M-U will not increase production even with higher prices. The ones who will drill more are smaller companies leveraged to the hilt–they have to drill to keep the cash flow coming in.
Gulfport Energy, the third-largest (by number wells drilled) producer in the Ohio Utica Shale, issued its 2Q20 update yesterday. Back in June, the company said it would shut-in some of its production, delaying production until later this year (see 
Most of the layoffs during this particularly brutal (and historic) downturn in the oil and gas market have taken place in oilfield services companies like Halliburton, Baker Hughes and Sclumberger. But exploration & production companies are not immune. Chevron is laying off workers in their Marcellus/Utica operation because the company is selling all of its Appalachian assets and leaving the region (see 
Two big pieces of news coming from yesterday’s Range Resources 2Q update: (1) The company is not yet done with asset sales, including active discussions on selling its northeastern Pennsylvania leases/wells in Lycoming County; and (2) drilling costs averaged less than $600 per lateral foot last quarter–the lowest average in the Marcellus/Utica region.
Range Resources has cut a deal to sell its Haynesville Shale assets (220,000 acres plus the wells they’ve drilled since buying those assets) to Castleton Resources, a privately owned company majority-owned by Tokyo Gas, for $245 million (plus an extra $90 million, maybe, contingent on the price of gas). Range bought those assets in 2016 for $4.4 billion (see 
Cabot Oil & Gas issued its 2Q20 update on Friday. CEO Dan Dinges said natural gas prices hit a historic low in 2Q (lowest since 1995), but he thinks the price will improve “this winter.” Although the price Cabot got for its gas last quarter ($1.52/Mcf) was 33% lower than a year ago, the company still made a profit. Cabot netted $30 million in 2Q, vs. netting $181 million a year ago. The company drilled 14 new shale wells, completed/fracked 31 wells, and placed 25 new wells online last quarter. They produced an average of 2.2 Bcf/d of natural gas.
Southwestern Energy released its 2Q20 update on Friday. The company, with nearly a half-million acres under lease, drills solely in the Marcellus/Utica in two distinct regions: northeastern Pennsylvania and West Virginia. The NEPA operation targets dry gas. WV targets wet gas/NGLs. During 2Q, Southwestern drilled 80% of its new wells in the NEPA dry gas area. Southwestern drilled 30 new wells, completed/fracked 31 wells, and placed 31 wells online to sales last quarter. One of the eye-popping bits of news from the company update is that for one particular well they hit a super-low $505/lateral foot cost to drill the well–the lowest drilling cost we’ve seen by any M-U driller anywhere!
Antero Resources issued its 2Q20 update yesterday. Even though the company averaged a sales price of $2.81/Mcf (thousand cubic feet) for natural gas it sold last quarter by using hedging (at a time when the price has been bumping around $1.70/Mcf), low gas prices clobbered the company. Antero saw a net loss of $463 million for the quarter. However, the company did set a new onshore drilling record for the longest well drilled in a 24-hour period–11,253 lateral feet drilled in 24 hours.
CNX Resources issued its 2Q20 update yesterday. The company reports a $146 million net loss. Production in 2Q20 was 114.5 Bcfe (billion cubic feet equivalent), down from 134.5 Bcfe in 2Q19 due to curtailments. Average daily production in 2Q was 1.26 Bcf/d (billion cubic feet per day), down from 1.35 Bcf/d a year earlier. The company shut-in some of its production due to COVID and low prices. They will restore all shut-in production by November.