Robert McNally New EQT CEO; Thomas Karam New EQT Midstream CEO
EQT finally has a new CEO. And we’re here to pat ourselves on the back as the first media outlet to name him–two weeks ago! MDN previously noted that for both EQT’s annual meeting in June, and then again for EQT’s quarterly update with analysts, “acting” CEO David Porges wasn’t anywhere to be found (see Strange: EQT Interim CEO Porges Skips Quarterly Conference Call). Here were our exact words, two weeks ago today: “Porges also skipped yesterday’s quarterly analyst phone call to update big investors on the company’s performance (equally unheard of). Once again the heavy lifting fell to Robert McNally, EQT CFO, to be “the guy” sent out front and center to talk about the company….EQT is currently conducting a search to find a new CEO. In the meantime, board chairman and former CEO David Porges stepped back into the role of CEO. But judging from his absence at critical events where the CEO always shows up, it’s pretty obvious he isn’t actually running the company. Looks to us like McNally is the guy running the company.” MDN was the *only* media outlet to say what nobody else would say–that McNally is the guy running the show. And my oh my, how right we were! Yesterday EQT issued a statement to say that McNally has been named as the permanent/new CEO. In addition, the company named Thomas Karam to head up (become CEO of) the midstream division that’s about to be spun off into its own standalone company. Karam replaces Jeremiah Ashcroft who was “relieved of all duties with EQT and its subsidiaries, effective August 8, 2018” (i.e. fired)…
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The mayor of Bloomingdale, OH, in Jefferson County, wants Ascent Resources to “come to the table for more fair arrangements on leases, road use agreements and fixing already-damaged roads.” The mayor and the village council are threatening to sue Ascent if they don’t “come to the table.” In other words, pay up or else. What has Ascent done to anger the mayor and village? Primarily the issue involves RUMAs–road use maintenance agreements. Some roads the village says Ascent uses have been damaged and the village wants them fixed. They also want a new agreement in place to pay for more fixes in the future. The mayor also says Ascent is using pressure tactics in leasing land from village residents. Some one-third of the village is now leased. These problems have been going on for about a year now, and the situation seems to be coming to a head…
Eclipse Resources, a Marcellus/Utica pure play driller headquartered in State College, PA, is one of the smaller but (in our opinion) more important drillers in our region. Eclipse has drilled the reigning record-holders for longest on-shore lateral wells drilled…in the world (almost 20,000 feet long!). Last week Eclipse issued their second quarter update. Among the items discussed: The company lost $19 million vs. making $11.5 million in 2Q17. They produced an average of 305.5 million cubic feet equivalent per day (MMcfe/d), up a tad from 2Q17’s 287.8 MMcfe/d. Production was 72% natural gas and 28% liquids. They drilled 6 wells with an average lateral length of approximately 15,900 feet. So far the company has drilled 17 “super lateral” wells with an average lateral length of over 18,300 feet–which is why they are an important driller. The company, as we previously reported, is going through a “strategic review process” in which they are looking to combine with, or sell out to, another company (see 
Last week Southwestern Energy, one of the biggest drillers in the Marcellus (4th largest natgas producer in the country), issued its second quarter 2018 update. Southwestern drills in two plays: The Marcellus (i.e. Appalachia), and the Fayetteville (in Arkansas). Production in the Marcellus/Utica was 1.8 billion cubic feet equivalent per day (Bcfe/d) of natural gas in 2Q18, up from 1.4 Bcfe/d in 2Q17. Largely because of the increase in production in the Marcellus region, Southwestern is raising its full-year production “guidance” (best guess) to 955-970 Bcfe, up from the previous range of 930-965 Bcfe. During 2Q Southwestern drilled 37 new wells, completed 55 wells, and brought 43 wells online–all in the Marcellus region. No mention was made of the Briggs “rule of capture” lawsuit Southwestern appealed to the PA Supreme Court in July. Here’s the full 2Q18 update…
The Martians and their allies have attacked once again. Run for the hills! This is a long-running story that’s just taken another (unfortunate) twist. A handful of anti-drilling parents from the Mars School District (“Martians”) in Butler County, PA, backed by money and legal help from Philadelphia Big Green groups THE Delaware Riverkeeper and the Clean Air Council, have filed frivolous lawsuit after frivolous lawsuit (see 
Antero Resources released its second quarter 2018 update yesterday. Antero is one of the largest drillers in the Marcellus/Utica with massive amounts of acreage in West Virginia (and elsewhere). Revenue was up in 2Q18 to $989 million, compared to $790 million in 2Q17. However, profits were down. In 2Q17 Antero lost $5.1 million, while in 2Q18 they lost $136 million. Antero produced a record 2.52 billion cubic feet equivalent per day (Bcfe/d) of natural gas–27% of that was liquids, including oil. In 2Q the company drilled 22 new Marcellus wells and brought 25 Marcellus wells online. They drilled 6 Utica wells and brought 5 Utica wells online. The company is pausing any new OH Utica drilling for the rest of this year in order to concentrate on the liquids-rich Marcellus region. Antero would have drilled and produced more except there is a trucking shortage in WV. Antero uses trucks to get its crude to market, and lack of trucks meant 100,000 barrels of crude are stored and can’t be moved, and that means the company has curtailed production in a number of WV wells. Antero expects the situation to improve by September. During 2Q Antero drilled what is (so far) the longest lateral for a WV shale well–15,100 feet!…
CNX Resources released their second quarter update yesterday. On the financial front the company made $61 million in profit during 2Q18, down from making $170 million in 2Q17. Hey, at least they’re in the black! During Q2 CNX produced and sold 1.3 billion cubic feet equivalent per day (Bcfe/d) of gas, which is up 33% over the same quarter last year. Nice! Much of the increase was due to a huge 277% jump in Utica Shale gas volumes. CNX ran three drilling rigs for most of 2Q, bringing on a fourth rig in late June. The rigs drilled 16 wells in 2Q, including three dry Utica Shale wells in Monroe County, OH; four Marcellus Shale wells in Greene County, PA; six Marcellus Shale wells in Washington County, PA; and three Marcellus Shale wells in Tyler County, WV. However, CNX only brought online three wells during 2Q. Here’s the details…
Gulfport Energy, an independent oil and gas driller with significant acreage positions in the Utica Shale of eastern Ohio and the SCOOP Woodford and SCOOP Springer plays in Oklahoma, issued its second quarter update yesterday. The company made $111 million in profit (net income) in 2Q18, vs. making $106 million in 2Q17. They produced an average of 1.33 billion cubic feet equivalent per day (Bcfe/d) across all of the plays where they are active. Of that, the vast majority of production (73%) came from the Ohio Utica Shale, which was 970 million cubic feet equivalent per day (MMcfe/d). During Q2, Gulfport drilled nine Utica wells, giving it a total of 21 Utica wells drilled so far this year (out of 35 planned for 2018). They operate two rigs in the OH Utica currently. Here’s the complete update from Gulfport…
Trucks do a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to the shale energy business. Water trucks and trucks hauling other materials and equipment make, we’re guessing, hundreds of thousands of trips per year throughout the Marcellus/Utica region. EQT is the largest natural gas producer in the country, following its purchase of Rice Energy last year. Trucks are a big part of what EQT does. This year alone EQT trucks will drive over 24 million miles! Safety on the roads is a “top priority” for EQT. How to accomplish better safety? Upgrades of equipment are one way EQT is tackling the safety issue. But there’s another intriguing way EQT is getting better at safety–with Big Data. EQT is using researchers from Carnegie Mellon University to gather and analyze a mountain of data from its truck operations, to figure out how to improve safety and save money. It’s working. Speeding, hard braking and other safety violations have fallen 44% since 2017…
Range Resources, the very first company to sink a Marcellus well back in 2004, held their second quarter 2018 update conference call with analysts yesterday, after publishing the official 2Q18 update on Monday. On the conference call, Range’s senior VP of operations Dennis Degner admitted that two different pipeline outages in 2Q18 hurt. The Leach XPress was shut down from June 7 to July 15 following an explosion. That resulted in Range having to find “in-basin” markets for 300 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) of natural gas. They did it, but it means they didn’t get as much money for the gas as they would have. The second outage was the Mariner East 1 pipeline, which flows 40,000 barrels per day of Range’s NGLs (ethane and propane) to Philadelphia for export. ME1 was down for nearly two months in 2Q18 when a portion of the pipeline was exposed from a sinkhole developing due to nearby Mariner East 2 drilling activity. Again, they found other markets at a lower cost. Also interesting were comments by Range CEO Jeff Ventura who said the company is looking to sell some of its Marcellus assets in northeast and southwest PA this year. Ventura said later this year/early next year they will make a decision about possibly selling their Louisiana assets, which have been underperforming. It was only two years ago that Range paid $4.4 billion for those assets (see 
We spotted an article covering a “rally” of maybe 20 people (judging by the pictures) who gathered on the bank of the Clear Fork of the Mohican River in Ashland County, OH this past Sunday. The group was there to protest Cabot Oil & Gas drilling a few test wells in the area to see if there’s anything in the region worth drilling for. Out of state radicals calling themselves “pipeline fighters” who had engaged in illegal activities against the Dakota Access Pipeline where there to whip up the locals–maybe convince them to do something illegal too. That’s how this kind of insanity spreads–by human contact. Anywho, the most interesting part of the article for us was not about the machinations of antis and their big boasts of how they’ll stop fracking. Instead, the most interesting part was an explanation of how Cabot came by the acreage they’ve leased in central Ohio, and how much money Cabot is offering landowners to amend existing lease agreements…
A group of 116 EQT production employees who live and work in Kentucky have voted to form a union to protect their jobs and benefits. It is unusual–frankly unheard of–for unions to make inroads with an exploration and production company (E&P) like EQT. Why this group and why now? The fire was lit when EQT announced it is selling its Huron Shale assets to Diversified Gas & Oil (see 
MDN told you in June that Canada’s Quebec Province announced it will commit fracking suicide by implementing a permanent frack ban (see 
On June 19 MDN exclusively brought you the news that Diversified Gas & Oil had purchased EQT’s Huron Shale assets in Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia for $575 million (see