The Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) is doing a happy dance that they’ve shaken down XTO Energy $425,000 to settle a violation by XTO for drilling a shale well in Belmont County a year ago that exploded and caught fire.
Read More “ODNR Shakes Down XTO Energy $425K for First Responders”
Last August Eclipse Resources announced it had sold itself to Blue Ridge Mountain Resources, the renamed remnant of Magnum Hunter Resources (see Eclipse Resources Merging with Former Magnum Hunter). Although Eclipse shareholders have approved the deal, not until today was there official approval by the shareholders of Blue Ridge Mountain Resources.
Read More “Blue Ridge Mountain Resources Shareholders Approve Eclipse Merger”
EQT CEO Rob McNally and board chairman Jim Rohr are in a pitched battle to maintain their control of the company. They dismiss a plan by Toby and Derek Rice to enhance EQT’s production at a lower cost as something that worked for small potatoes Rice Energy, but couldn’t work for a big, important company like EQT. The Rice boys shoot back that EQT is bloated and lumbering and needs a good house-cleaning. So what is the essence of the Rice plan to get EQT back on track? What’s the Rice boys’ secret sauce?
Read More “Rice Boys Secret Sauce for Reviving EQT: Digital & Data”
Three families who live near a former drill site and frack wastewater impoundment at the Yeager Marcellus Shale site in Washington County, PA sued Range Resources in May 2012 claiming the air they breathe and the water they drink had been contaminated by Range’s operations at the site (see EPA Investigating Range Drill Site in Western PA). The case was eventually settled and sealed in September 2018.
Read More “Antis Try to Pick Open Old Scab of Settled (and Sealed) Range Case”
Let the fight begin. Yesterday the Rice brothers, Toby and Derek, held a conference call with EQT investors to lay out their detailed proposal for how EQT should be run. The Rice plan includes giving the boot to current EQT CEO Rob McNally and much of top management, and installing Toby as CEO, bringing along 15 Rice alumni to kick-start EQT’s “moribund performance” (our interpretation of what Toby said).
Read More “Proxy War: Rice Brothers Say Top EQT Mgmt, Board Must Go”
Landowners in Ohio who didn’t like being force pooled with their neighbors have, since 2015, tried to get the courts to declare that forced pooling is illegal. They’ve struck out in every court where they’ve tried that argument, including (now) the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
Read More “6th Circuit Court Upholds Ohio’s Forced Pooling Law”
Southwestern Energy released its 2019 predictions (guidance) yesterday. In line with other 2019 guidance numbers issued from other Marcellus/Utica drillers, Southwestern says they will spend less money and drill fewer new wells.
Read More “Southwestern 2019: Spend $70M Less, Produce 83 Bcfe More”
The parent holding company for Marcellus driller Arsenal Resources, Arsenal Energy Holdings LLC, is applying for what has to be the fastest “prepackaged bankruptcy” we’ve ever heard of. Yesterday (Feb. 4) the company filed, claiming nearly all of its outstanding “stakeholders” are on board with the plan–and they aim to exit bankruptcy on Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14.
Read More “Arsenal Resources Files for Speedy Chapter 11 Bankruptcy”
CNX was fracking their Shaw 1G Utica well in Washington Township on Saturday, Jan. 26, when they detected “a strong drop in pressure” and stopped fracking (see CNX Hits Major Problem Fracking Utica Well Near SWPA Reservoir). Turns out the well was “communicating” (i.e. losing gas to) several nearby conventional wells.
Read More “CNX Rogue Utica Well in SWPA Affects 9 Vertical Wells, Maybe More”
A startling revelation came from yesterday’s court hearing in the tiny village of Montrose, PA. Some of the landowners from Dimock, PA who have traveled around the country claiming their water had been contaminated by Cabot Oil & Gas (remember the fraud “documentary” called Gasland?) were actually paid up to $5,000 *per month* by green groups to spread their lies.
Read More “Dimock, PA Landowners Paid $5K/Mo by Green Groups to Bash Cabot”
When people communicate, that’s a good thing. When a shale well “communicates” with nearby conventional wells, that’s a bad thing. And that’s what happened with a CNX Resources Utica well being fracked in Westmoreland County last week.
Read More “CNX Hits Major Problem Fracking Utica Well Near SWPA Reservoir”
Last week National Fuel Gas Company (NFG), headquartered in Western New York State (operates drilling subsidiary Seneca Resources and pipeline subsidiary Empire Pipeline), issued its first quarter 2019–everyone else’s fourth quarter 2018–update. Via Seneca Resources, NFG drills wells in northcentral and northwestern PA. Via Empire Pipeline, they build and maintain hundreds of miles of pipelines.
Read More “NFG Qtly Update: PA Production Up 28%, 7 New Utica Wells Online”
The Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry (PA Chamber) recently filed a brief in Commonwealth Court opposing THE Delaware Riverkeeper in a case that still has us angry and baffled. The case brought by Riverkeeper is clear across the state, hundreds of miles from the Delaware River Basin where Riverkeeper supposedly operates, and attempts to force a local municipality to adopt zoning ordinances it doesn’t want to adopt. And it involves Martians.
Read More “PA Chamber Files Brief in Martian School Court Case”
In November the Pennsylvania Supreme Court agreed to hear a case, Briggs v. Southwestern Energy, that is hands-down the most important court case to ever happen regarding the Marcellus Shale in PA. And no, we’re not exaggerating. A blizzard of briefs by Southwestern and those supporting Southwestern were filed earlier this week.
Read More ““Rule of Capture” Briefs Filed w/PA Supreme Court in Briggs Case”
The Utica Shale is beginning to get noticed in southwestern Pennsylvania. The rise of the Utica can be traced back to a single well drilled by CNX Resources in 2015.
Read More “The Rise of the Utica…in Southwest Pennsylvania!”
Yesterday CNX Resources, a Marcellus/Utica driller headquartered in Pittsburgh and concentrating on southwest PA, issued its fourth quarter and full year 2018 update, along with looking-ahead guidance for 2019. Like other M-U drillers we’ve recently chronicled, CNX is scaling back its budget for 2019–by 5-10%. But even spending less, the company says it will produce about 5% more gas in 2019.
Read More “CNX Resources: Scaling Back in 2019, Still Loves the Utica”