Former Magnum Hunter Sells Remaining Stake in Eureka Midstream
We love to connect the dots and reveal information (news) that others miss. Sometimes we get it wrong–but more often we get it right. Here’s another connect-the-dots story. Yesterday we brought you the news that a huge South Korean conglomerate, SK Group, had purchased itself a $100 million slice of ownership in Marcellus/Utica midstream company Eureka Midstream (see South Korean SK Group Buys a Piece of Eureka Midstream for $100M). Eureka Midstream was once a subsidiary of Magnum Hunter Resources. Magnum Hunter spun Eureka out into a standalone company prior to Magnum Hunter going through bankruptcy. Not long after Magnum Hunter exited bankruptcy, they changed their name to Blue Ridge Mountain Resources (see Magnum Hunter Changes Its Name, Leaves the Bankrupt Past Behind). The newly named company still owned a slice of Eureka, but Eureka was/is its own company, not controlled by Blue Ridge Mountain Resources. How big a slice does Blue Ridge own? We don’t know, but we’re guessing around $100 million worth, because yesterday Blue Ridge Mountain Resources coincidentally issued a press release to say it had sold the remaining shares of stock it owned in Eureka to “an undisclosed buyer.” Well isn’t that interesting. The day before SK Group bought a large slice of Eureka–for $100 million. Want to bet the “undisclosed buyer” is SK Group?…
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Shale Insight 2017 is now in the books. Another year, another great show. MDN editor Jim Willis is back in the office, chained to his computer. Next week Jim will share notes he took at the conference. For now, below are highlights from other news source from Day Two of the event. Unfortunately Jim had to leave before the closing keynote, given by former Trump White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer. But others were there to hear what Spicer had to say. Day Two began with a focus on the Shell ethane cracker. Members of the Shell team were on hand to describe how this critical project affects the region, and where it fits in the Marcellus/Utica landscape. One of the Shell team members said the skyline at the Beaver County site will change dramatically over the next 12 months as the buildings housing the various components are built. It was a fascinating talk with lots of information. Below is a roundup from Day Two…
One of the big announcements coming from Shale Insight 2017 on the first day was the release of a new study tag-team researched by Chevron Appalachia and People’s Natural Gas. As People’s CEO Morgan O’Brien explained it–everyone assumes “someone else” has a master plan, a statewide strategy for how to develop this phenomenal resource. But when you look around you come to the realization that no one has such a plan. So Chevron Appalachia CEO Stacey Olson approached People’s CEO O’Brien and asked for help to research and author a study that would provide such a plan–a plan to unlock what they believe is a $60 BILLION opportunity for Pennsylvania that will create 100,000 new jobs statewide. The result is a study called “Forge the Future: Pennsylvania’s Path To An Advanced, Energy-Enabled Economy” (full copy below), released yesterday. We now have, according to Chevron’s Olson and People’s O’Brien, the road map. What we need is for people in the industry to step up and seize the day and take action to create that amazing future…
Some big news that both Cabot Oil & Gas and the two families suing them seem to want to keep quiet: they’ve settled out of court. Brief background for those new to MDN and to the “Dimock” story: There were 14 families along the Carter Road area of Dimock Township, PA (Susquehanna County) that reportedly experienced turbidity in their water from methane migrating, supposedly from Cabot’s drilling operations nearby. The state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) investigated in 2010 and declared Cabot guilty and imposed stiff fines and requirements, including a requirement to install permanent water treatment systems at each home and even an offer to each of the families to pay twice what their property was worth at the time (see 
Reuters ran a story yesterday quoting an analyst with Tudor Pickering who says he thinks Chesapeake Energy is actively considering a sale of some (most? all?) of its Marcellus and Utica Shale assets, as a way of helping raise $2-$3 billion which the company previously said it would raise from asset sales this year and next. Idle speculation? Perhaps. There’s no doubt Chesapeake has a real jewel in its Utica and Marcellus acreage–built by Aubrey McClendon back in the day. Would Chessy really consider selling it? The Tudor analyst says yes, because these days the company is concentrating on oil drilling and production more than gas. But is that really true?…
Yesterday we brought you the “Top 10” drillers in southwestern Pennsylvania, as ranked by the number of permits issued (see 
Last week MDN told you that Community College of Beaver County (CCBC) is operating a program in process technology that leads to an associate’s degree as preparation for a job at Shell’s $6 billion ethane cracker plant, being built now in Beaver County (see 
We came across an interesting press release from a law firm that won an extraordinary settlement for its client against Talisman Energy–a $100 million award. What’s interesting is that the plaintiff that sued Talisman is one of Talisman’s joint venture partners–not landowners. Matrix Petroleum invested in a deal with Talisman as a “non-operating” partner. That is, Matrix put up money, but Talisman did all the drilling and selling of the oil and gas they extracted. Matrix says over a period of five years that Talisman intentionally cooked the books–failing to accurately report how much oil was produced, thereby shorting Matrix on their share of the profits. The jury agreed and awarded Matrix the money they should have gotten if Talisman had not cooked the books. Ouch. All of this happened in Texas–the drilling and the trial. So what does it have to do with the Marcellus/Utica? Perhaps nothing. But we do recall reporting that last year Talisman took on a non-operating joint venture partner in the Marcellus from Thailand–Banpu (see 
Terry Pegula is an interesting guy. He’s a billionaire who owns both the Buffalo Sabres (NHL hockey team) and the Buffalo Bills (NFL football team). Pegula is the owner of East Resources, once a big driller (and holder of acreage) in the Marcellus Shale. Pegula sold off East’s Marcellus assets and used the money, in part, to buy the Buffalo Bills in 2014, which gave rise to MDN calling the team “the Marcellus Bills”–since it was Marcellus money that kept the team in Buffalo, instead of moving to another market (see 
Ever hear the word “delevering” used in a sentence? How about this: “Antero Resources announces completion of $1 billion delevering program.” Yeah, financial mumbo jumbo. What the heck is delevering? We’re not quite sure. But we can interpret Antero Resources’ announcement yesterday for you, which included the aforementioned sentence. Here’s the translation: Antero has raised $1 billion by selling new units (think shares of stock) in its pipeline subsidiary ($311 million raised), and by monetizing its natural gas hedge portfolio ($750 million raised). Yes, back into the financial lingo weeds to figure out what is meant by “monetizing” the company’s “hedge portfolio.” We’ll take a stab at explaining it, below. Bottom line up here at the top: Antero figured out how to raise another $1 billion, used to pay off money Antero had borrowed under its massive $4 billion line of credit. Antero is one of the biggest (and best) drillers in the Marcellus/Utica, which is why we care about where and how they raise money…
Looking to land a job at Shell’s $6 billion ethane cracker plant when it’s up and running in a few years? A new program set up by Shell with the Community College of Beaver County (CCBC) may give you a leg up. CCBC offers a program in process technology that leads to an associate’s degree. As of this spring, 45 people were enrolled. CCBC expects 70 people to enroll this fall. CCBC’s process technology degree is just one part of their effort to train people for advanced manufacturing careers with Shell and other petrochemical companies. CCBC is partnering with businesses, nonprofits, other colleges to form the Tri-State Advanced Manufacturing Consortium which will help prepare students and retrain workers to meet the needs of energy and manufacturing companies throughout the region. More deets on getting trained for a future cracker job…
Rex Energy, a driller focused mainly on the Marcellus/Utica (headquartered in State College, PA), is a plucky company. Although it has faced its share of financial challenges, it continues to drill in the Marcellus/Utica–bringing new wells online. Rex released an announcement yesterday to tout two new wells pads with a cumulative 10 new wells between them that the company has now brought online into production. Rex always refers to their drilling program in three areas: “Bulter Legacy” and “Moraine East” are drilled on Rex’s leases in Butler County, PA; “Warrior North” refers to Rex’s drilling program on land in Carroll County, OH. The latest two pads were both drilled in Rex’s Moraine East area of Butler County. One of the pads, the “Shields” pad with six wells, produced an initial cumulative rate of 9.2 million cubic feet equivalent per day (MMcfe/d), dropping to 7.9 MMcfe/d after 30 days. The “Mackrell” pad with four wells produced an initial cumulative rate of 8.4 MMcfe/d. No 30-day rate (yet) for the Mackrell pad. Here’s the particulars of our “little driller that could”…
Ultra Petroleum, based in Houston, TX, is an independent exploration and production (E&P) company mainly focused on drilling in the Green River Basin of Wyoming. Ultra also drills for oil in the Uinta Basin/Three Rivers area in Utah. In addition, Ultra maintains a “non-operated” (someone else does the drilling) position in the Pennsylvania Marcellus shale with leases on 72,000 net acres–no small amount. One year ago, in April 2016, Ultra filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy (see 
Last week MDN told you that New York’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, had just ruled that the New York State Attorney General, Eric Schneiderman, has the right to demand documents in a court case that accuses Exxon of hiding internal research that shows burning oil and gas leads to catastrophic, man-made global warming (see 
A second corporate raider is now making trouble for EQT and its planned purchase of/merger with with Rice Energy. 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