Tug Hill Ramps Up Low-Cost Utica Drilling in WV Panhandle
The last time MDN reported on Tug Hill Operating was more than two years ago, a story about Tug Hill’s XcL Midstream subsidiary working to build a new gathering pipeline system in West Virginia to flow gas that would come from Tug Hill’s THQ Appalachia drilling subsidiary (see XcL Midstream Building New Dry & Wet Gas Gathering Pipes in WV). Both the midstream and drilling subsidiaries have been busy over the past two years. In fact, Tug Hill’s THQ subsidiary says it has unlocked the secret to drilling cheap Utica wells in the Mountain State.
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Cabot Oil & Gas is the only Marcellus/Utica driller that is profitable quarter after quarter and year after year. So the market pays attention to what Cabot does, because they’ve figured out how to make money in a low commodity price environment. Last Friday Cabot released second quarter numbers. CEO Dan Dinges talked about the balance of 2019 and even a bit about what to expect in 2020.
Production for Range Resources was up a healthy 10% year over year in second quarter 2019, according to Range’s 2Q19 update issued late last week. Range produced 2.3 billion cubic feet equivalent per day (Bcfe/d) in 2Q. For the first half of the year Range brought online 39 Marcellus/Utica wells and plans to bring online another 49 wells in the second half of 2019. The company is on track to spend roughly $750 million on drilling in 2019.
In March we told you about National Fuel Gas Company’s (NFG) FM100 Project in northwestern Pennsylvania that will beef up and extend an existing pipeline network to flow an extra 330 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) of Marcellus gas to Williams’ mighty Transco Pipeline (see 
Yesterday the new EQT management team, in particular CEO Toby Rice, held a conference call with stock analysts to discuss the company’s second quarter financial and operational update. We learned a number of things from the call and materials published by EQT: A number of new faces have appeared in senior management; the company remains committed to sister company Equitrans and its Mountain Valley Pipeline project; and EQT’s second-quarter net income jumped more than 700% from a year ago–something previous CEO Rob McNally can take credit for.
On Monday MDN brought you the news that Range Resources has sold a 2% overriding royalty interest on 350,000 acres “in southwest Appalachia” for $600 million (see 
In February MDN brought you the news that EQT had settled a class action lawsuit in West Virginia with landowners and rights owners ending EQT’s practice of post-production deductions from royalty checks (see 
JKLM Energy, a Pennsylvania gas drilling company founded by Buffalo Bills owner Terry Pegula, is “temporarily halting” operation of its single drilling rig (in Potter County) due to the low price of natural gas.
In February, EQT filed lawsuits in both Pennsylvania and federal courts against two former employees it had fired, claiming the employees, before they were fired, had systematically copied confidential information from company computers and took it with them when they left (see 
CNX Resources Corporation, formerly CONSOL Energy, released its “Corporate Responsibility Report” on Friday. CNX is headquartered in Pittsburgh and focuses totally on the Appalachian region. Corporate responsibility, sometimes called “Corporate social responsibility” (CSR), is an effort by a company to be socially accountable…to itself, its stakeholders, and the public. Companies like CNX aim to be conscious of the impacts they have on all aspects of society–including economic, social, and environmental. CNX (and others) want to leave the world a better place. How did CNX do in 2018?
This is a momentous occasion, nearly 13 years in the making. The Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) issued permits on June 28 to drill two Utica Shale wells in Monroe County. Both wells begin on privately owned land, but then travel under sections of Wayne National Forest (WNF). As near as we can tell, these are the first two such wells to pass under WNF land. Below we tell you exactly where they’re located, and which company received the permits to drill them.
As of today Toby Rice has been on the job as EQT’s CEO for one week. According to an interview he granted the Pittsburgh Business Times, so far there have been “no major surprises.” Rice has begun meeting with all 800 EQT employees–some in groups via electronic town hall, others individually face-to-face. It appears his main focus has been to form and add people to an “Evolution Committee”–charged with executing Rice’s previously laid out 100-day plan. Toby also wants to EQT to be a “fun place to work.” He says right now, it’s not.