Range Resources 3Q17: $112M Profit, Production Hits 1.99 Bcf/d
Range Resources released its third quarter financial and operational update earlier this week. Range is one of the premier drillers in the Marcellus (and Utica) shale region. In fact, Range drilled the very first Marcellus well back in 2004. The Range update is full of interesting details. First and foremost, the company turned a profit of $112 million in 3Q17, contrasted to losing $361 million in the same period last year. That’s nearly half a billion dollar swing in one year. Impressive. Also impressive is that Range’s total production came a whisker away from 2 billion cubic feet equivalent per day–which is up 32% over the same period last year. During 3Q17 two Marcellus “super-rich” pads were brought on line. The wells on those pads had an average per well 24-hour initial production (IP) rate of 41.3 million cubic feet equivalent (Mmcfe) per day. Impressive. As part of the update, Range held a call with financial analysts to discuss company performance. As these types of calls usually do, this one had a Q&A at the end. One analyst asked if Range would be willing to sell some of it’s non-core assets in southwest PA. Range CEO Jeff Ventura said yes, the company would consider such a move, under the right kind of terms. Here’s the full update from Range…
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Platts held their Appalachian Oil and Gas Conference in Pittsburgh earlier this week. One of the more interesting comments at the event came from Alan Farquharson, senior vice president of Range Resources. Farquharson gave an interview to a Platts reporter and said natural gas production in the Marcellus/Utica can’t continue its rapid increase indefinitely. Farquharson said drillers are going to hit “sweet spot exhaustion,” by which he means they will soon run out of Tier 1 locations to drill, requiring they branch into Tier 2 and Tier 3. As they drill in those other locations, well production will decrease, and along with it regional output will decrease. Range was the very first driller to sink a Marcellus well, back in 2004, so they know a thing or two about the play. When Range talks, everyone listens. Here’s more of Farquharson’s provocative comments from earlier this week…
Monroeville, PA (Allegheny County, suburb of Pittsburgh) is hostile toward the shale industry. In September, Monroeville Council voted to enact a super-restrictive seismic testing ordinance (see 
As we have said for years, ever since the Pennsylvania legislature modernized and updated drilling regulations to account for shale drilling in 2012, known as Act 13, anti-fossil fuel nutters have attempted first to destroy Act 13, and later subvert it. Act 13 originally provided for uniform zoning across the state with respect to siting wells. But seven selfish townships sued and eventually won (at the PA Supreme Court) the right to retain their own zoning regulations with respect to oil and gas wells (see 
Cunningham Energy is a small oil driller based in West Virginia. In 2015, Cunningham struck oil in the Big Injun sandstone formation in Clay County, WV (see 
EQT’s Equitrans (pipeline) Expansion Project is on track to begin construction by the end of this year–likely sometime in November. We first covered this project in 2015 (see 
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court said last week it will accept a case about strippers–stripper wells, that is. In brief, in 2012 Pennsylvania passed the Act 13 drilling law that includes a fee on wells targeting shale layers, including the Marcellus. Snyder Brothers, headquartered in Kittanning, PA, drills mostly conventional (vertical only) wells in southwestern PA. In 2011-2012 they drilled 45 vertical-only wells, but targeting the Marcellus, all of the wells fracked. Initially those wells produced more than 90 Mcf/day, but by December of the year they were drilled, they produced less than 90 Mcf/day. The way the 2012 Act 13 law is written, if a well produces less than 90 Mcf/day during “any” month it is considered a stripper well and exempt from paying the impact fee. The state’s Public Utility Commission (PUC) assessed the fee anyway because for 11 months the wells produced more than 90 Mcf/day. Snyder Bros. sued and after an appeal of the case, Snyder Bros. won their case in March, exempting those wells from paying impact fees (see 
In June MDN brought you the news that Eclipse Resources had drilled yet another world record-breaking shale well in the Ohio Utica (see 
The Wall Street Journal is reporting rumors that the privately-held Ascent Resources, which targets the Utica Shale in Ohio, is shopping for bankers to help it with an initial public offering (IPO). Ascent reportedly is aiming for a stock market valuation of $3.5 billion. Ascent was formerly known as American Energy Partners (AEP), founded by Aubrey McClendon after he was unceremoniously dumped as CEO of Chesapeake Energy–the company he co-founded. AEP set up a number of subsidiary companies to target different shale plays. One of the largest was aimed squarely at the Ohio Utica (American Energy Partners–Utica LLC). That company later left the AEP fold, under pressure from investors, and became an independent company, renaming itself as Ascent Resources. Ascent, just like founder Aubrey, went on a money-raising binge after departing the AEP fold. In March 2016 Ascent floated 2.2 billion common units (think shares of stock) to raise $500 million (see 
Last week MDN brought you news about a relatively new company called American Energy Partners, Inc., based in Allentown, PA, and their subsidiary company Gilbert Oil & Gas (see 
Huntley & Huntley has plans to drill shale wells in Upper Burrell Township (Westmoreland County), PA. As MDN reported in June, a landowner in Upper Burrell filed an appeal against Upper Burrell’s zoning ordinance that allows drilling in rural, agricultural districts (see 
Greg Guidry is the executive vice president of Shell’s unconventionals business. That is, he’s in charge of shale drilling for the company. Talking to a reporter at the Energy Dialogues LLC’s North American Gas Forum earlier this month, Guidry said shale is “a future growth opportunity because of its long-term growth potential.” Guidry is interested in promoting shale as “a lower-carbon energy source.” He believes the way to properly promote shale gas is by partnerships between the oil and gas industry and non-governmental organizations (NGO). Guidry then used the Center for Responsible Shale Development (CRSD), a group headquartered in Pittsburgh, as the model for how such a partnership can and should be done. In March 2013, the Center for Sustainable Shale Development (CSSD) burst onto the scene. It had been a closely guarded secret, the creation of a few hand-picked people from both industry and the environmental movement working together to see if there is any common ground on which both sides can agree that shale development would be safe, sustainable AND affordable. They worked hard for over a year and finally hammered out a set of 15 standards that if a driller (or midstream company or contractor) would meet, it would get a stamp of approval from both the industry and environmental groups as being a good goobie–a safe driller. In January of this year the CSSD changed its name to CRSD–the Center for Responsible Shale Development (see 
In 2014, Chevron launched the Appalachia Partnership Initiative (API) with $20 million to fund education (for students) and training (for workers) in STEM–Science, Technology, Engineering and Math across 27 counties in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio (see 
The disgusting corporate raiders at Jana Partners are fighting to the bitter end in their attempt to stop the merger/takeover of Rice Energy by EQT. In June EQT and Rice Energy announced that EQT will buy out and merge in Rice Energy, to create (in EQT) the largest natural gas-producing company in the United States (see