Noble Energy Exits Marc/Utica, Sale to HG Energy Closes for $1.1B
In May, Noble Energy dropped a bombshell that it is selling its 100% interest in 385,000 Marcellus/Utica acres and wells producing 415 million cubic feet equivalent of natural gas in West Virginia and Pennsylvania for $1.225 billion to “an undisclosed buyer” (see Noble Energy Sells Remaining M-U Assets for $1.2B – Who Bought?). Noble will use the money from the sale to pay down essentially all of the debt the company incurred from its recent $2.7 billion purchase of Clayton Williams Energy–a deal that expanded Noble’s “core Delaware Basin position” (i.e. the Permian Shale in Texas, an oil play). At the time of the announcement, MDN was the only news source that correctly identified the “undisclosed buyer”–which is HG Energy (headquartered in Parkersburg, WV), backed with money from investment firm Quantum Energy Partners. Noble didn’t identify the buyer until earlier this week, when they issued another announcement that the deal is now done. In this latest announcement, Noble did identify HG Energy as the buyer. An interesting aside: The original announcement pegged the deal at $1.225 billion. In the end, it turned out to be $1.125 billion–$100 million less than the original asking price…
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In January, MDN reported on a well pad fire at Rice Energy’s Papa Bear well pad in Somerset Township (Washington County), PA (see 
Atlas Energy, a once-major driller in the Marcellus Shale, sold much of their Marcellus operations to Chevron in 2011 (see 
In early June, MDN brought you the news that officials with Ascent Resources (formerly American Energy Partners) and Chesapeake Energy said their respective companies are putting a renewed focus on Jefferson County, OH in the coming months (see 
One of the first steps before a company decides to drill for shale gas (or oil), is to conduct a seismic survey–bouncing sound waves through the rock layers a mile or more down–to “see” what the geology looks like. It helps drillers target locations with the best possibility of success, which is a good thing for everyone (no unnecessary “misses” when drilling a well). One of objectives of the original Act 13 law passed in PA in 2012 was to provide uniform zoning ordinances for the oil and gas industry, so drillers don’t have to work with a crazy quilt patchwork of zoning requirements in every new town in which they drill. That failed when seven selfish towns filed a lawsuit that ultimately went to the PA Supreme Court, where the towns won the right to pass their own zoning regulations for oil and gas drilling (see 
It was more than six months in the making, but finally the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection has granted Shell a permit that allows the facility to discharge wastewater and storm water into the Ohio River. Which may sound like Shell just got a permit to pollute the Ohio River–but that’s not what is happening. Shell is building their mighty $6 billion ethane cracker on a site formerly used as a zinc smelter. The old Horsehead Corp. plant held a permit that allowed the plant to discharge wastewater with some total dissolved solids (TDS) into the Ohio. When Shell bought the site, they also inherited the Horsehead permit for wastewater discharge. Shell filed a plan back in December with the PA DEP to modify that permit for the forthcoming cracker plant (see 
A week ago yesterday, EQT and Rice Energy announced some of the biggest news we’ve every reported: EQT is buying out and merging in Rice Energy, to create the largest natural gas producing company in the United States (see 
Green and Washington counties, south of Pittsburgh (Allegheny County), have long been considered the “core” of Marcellus Shale play in southwestern PA. The wells there get GREAT results–a mix of dry and wet gas (wet gas being natural gas liquids, like ethane, propane and butane). But one company, PennEnergy Resources, says the data shows that the same great Marcellus deposits are located underneath the great City of Pittsburgh itself, and in the towns north of the city (Allegheny County). And PennEnergy can prove it, with their own well results. Does that mean Pittsburgh itself may one day get drilled under?! Don’t hold your breath on drilling under Pittsburgh any time soon. However, according to Greg Muse, chief operating officer for PennEnergy, there’s plenty of gas to be drilled just north of the city–and the deposits are just as good as those south of the city. Muse also said PennEnergy is looking to either take the company public, merge with another company, or sell…
The Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) is a $3.5 billion, 303-mile pipeline that will run from Wetzel County, WV to the Transco Pipeline in Pittsylvania County, VA. The project, which filed an official application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in October 2015, is being built by EQT, NextEra Energy and several other partners. The project has faced stiff opposition from landowners in both West Virginia and Virginia. Although the project is not yet fully approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the project did get a favorable Draft Environmental Impact Statement from FERC last September (see 
EXCO Resources was once a sizable player in the Marcellus. They still have 145,000 net acres in the Marcellus, with 124 horizontal Marcellus wells drilled and in production. However, EXCO, as we pointed out a year ago, has abandoned the Marcellus at this point (see 
A group of creaking, tottering old RINO (Republican in Name Only) dinosaurs (i.e. RINOsaurs) left the golf course long enough to lobby President Trump on the insane idea of a so-called “carbon tax” back in February (see 
A week ago a sharp MDN reader (landowner) in West Virginia emailed us to ask about news of a sale by CNX Gas (i.e. CONSOL Energy) of their leases and wells in Doddridge County to Antero Resources. We were stumped. We’ve neither heard nor read anything about it. We searched. And searched. And searched. Nothing. She wrote again a few days later–had we heard anything? Nope. Then we got a second email from another MDN reader asking about the same thing. Our second questioner is in the oil and gas industry. When we questioned him, he gave us a few more clues: It may not only be in Doddridge, but also Tyler County too. There’s something happening in both areas. So we put our feelers out to a number of industry contacts and heard back from one of them–a highly placed source–who confirmed our tipsters. So we now have three people confirming. We know something has been sold and deeds are getting transferred from CNX to Antero in at least one county. Our best guess is that a sale is happening not just in Doddridge, but also in Ritchie, Tyler and Pleasants counties too. We have not (yet) been able to confirm this with Antero, but we feel we have enough to share with you, our valued readers. Here’s what we know, the evidence we have, and a map of the acreage we believe has been/is getting transferred from CNX to Antero…
On Monday EQT announced what is some of the biggest news MDN has covered in the past few years: EQT is buying Rice Energy (see 
Move over Exxon Mobil and Chesapeake Energy. There’s now (or soon will be, when the transaction is complete) a new #1 natural gas producer in the United States: EQT. In a deal you’ve no doubt heard about from multiple sources by now (because the news broke yesterday, just after MDN published for the day), EQT and Rice Energy announced that EQT will purchase Rice Energy, lock, stock and barrel, for $6.7 billion in cash and stock, and assume $1.5 billion in debt, for a total deal price of $8.2 billion. Along with 187,000 net acres in the PA Marcellus, and 65,000 net acres in the OH Utica Shale, EQT will get 1.3 billion cubic feet per day of Rice Energy natural gas production. When added to its own prodigious production (EQT was already one of the biggest and brightest shale companies), the combined output for the newly merged company will eclipse #2 Exxon and #3 Chesapeake Energy’s output to become the largest natural gas producing company in the country. Wow! Rice’s midstream (i.e. pipeline) assets are part of the deal. If you peg the midstream part of the deal at $1.8 billion, which some analysts say is the right number, and then calculate the per acre price of the deal, it works out to be around $9,900 per acre. Below we have the EQT/Rice announcement, the PowerPoint slide deck they used for a conference call held yesterday, and plenty of analysis about the deal–why it happened, and why now…
As we were reading about yesterday’s big news of EQT buying Rice Energy, we came across a couple of lists (same list, different sources) listing the top 10 natural gas-producing companies in the United States. The list was reworked to show that the combination of EQT and Rice will create the #1 largest natural gas-producing company in the country. An astonishing feat. But what caught our eye in looking over the “top 10” list was just how many of the companies in that list have operations in the Marcellus/Utica. At one time or another, all 10 of the top 10 owned leases and/or drilled in the Marcellus/Utica. By our count, 8 of the top 10 still do. You already know that EQT/Rice will become the #1 producer. But who is #2, and #3? And what about the rest of the list? We have it for you below…