Chesapeake Energy 3Q16: Revenue & Production Down, Lost $1.2B
Chesapeake Energy released it’s third quarter 2016 update yesterday. Revenues were down 33% year over year. Production for all forms of hydrocarbons the company extracts–oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids, expressed as million barrels of oil equivalent or MMboe–was down 2 MMboe (around 3%). The company lost $1.2 billion in 3Q16–a marked improvement over losing $4.6 billion in 3Q15. Most of the loss was a paper loss (write-downs for impairments) and not out-of-pocket money. Chesapeake remains one of the largest producers in the Marcellus/Utica region, with a combined production in the two plays of 261 thousand barrels of oil equivalent (~1.5 million cubic feet per day of natural gas). One thing stands out in the 3Q16 update: Chesapeake’s renewed/big push in the Haynesville. The company operated an average of 11 rigs in 3Q16 (down from 18 in 3Q15), drilling 63 wells (down from 81 in 3Q15) and completing 80 wells (down from 84 in 3Q15). They connected 105 wells to pipelines for production in 3Q16 (down from 112 in 3Q15). All of those numbers are cumulative across all shale plays. Unfortunately Chesapeake doesn’t break out any of their numbers by individual shale play. They remain the biggest driller in the Ohio Utica. Here’s the update…
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Eclipse Resources, a Marcellus/Utica pure play driller headquartered in State College, PA that drills mostly in Ohio, released their third quarter 2016 update yesterday. In 2Q16 Eclipse resumed drilling with one rig, allocated a drilling budget of $196 million, and began completing previously drilled but uncompleted (DUC) wells in their portfolio (see 
In mid-October Gulfport Energy was one of the first out of the gate with information on the third quarter (see 
Carrizo Oil & Gas, a Houston-based driller, actively drills in the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas, the Delaware Basin in West Texas, the Niobrara Formation in Colorado, and until mid-year in 2015, they did have an active drilling program in the Ohio Utica and Pennsylvania Marcellus. No more. They haven’t drilled in Appalachia since 3Q15. According to Carrizo’s latest quarterly update for 3Q16, that (sad) state of affairs continues…
Magnum Hunter Resources Corporation (MHR), a driller 100% focused on the Marcellus/Utica emerged from bankruptcy in May, less than five months after filing (see 
This is an important story for both drillers and rig workers, potentially answering the question of who can and can’t be sued if something goes wrong when drilling a well. In 2006 Atlas Resources leased land in Greene County, PA to drill shale wells. In 2007 Atlas hired Gene D. Yost & Son, Inc. to drill wells for Atlas, including on the land leased in Greene County. Yost was the subcontractor, employing people to do the work using Yost’s equipment. As workers were removing drill pipe, preparing to shut in the well, there was an accident which appears to be operator error. One man, Rock A. Doman, was killed. The Doman family later filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Atlas Energy for negligence. After years of litigation and court findings, an appeals court ruled last week that Atlas is, in fact, a “statutory employer” under PA law, meaning they are immune from such lawsuits. That is, because Atlas hired another company for that company’s services, they (Atlas) cannot be held responsible for what the company they hired theoretically did or did not do. In this case, Yost’s “negligence” (if indeed there was any negligence) is not transferable to Atlas…
Yesterday one of our favorite drillers in both the Utica and Marcellus, Rice Energy, released their third quarter 2016 update. It can be summarized in one, short phrase: “Everything that should be up is up.” Production is up for the quarter–by a big 23%. Net income is up, by 40%. The company’s line of credit is up to $1 billion (was $875 million). In addition, during 3Q16 Rice floated new stock to help them buy Vantage Energy, for a whopping $2.7 billion. Also during 3Q16 Rice drilled and completed 10 new Marcellus wells, along with drilling and completing 2 Utica wells. In addition they brought another 11 Utica wells online. There’s lots happening at Rice Energy. Here’s the update…
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 in March, has pretty much abandoned the Marcellus at this point (see 
Coming on the big news yesterday that CONSOL Energy is calling it splitsville with Noble Energy on their 2/3 of a million acres joint venture in the Marcellus (see 
As we pointed out yesterday in our story about CONSOL Energy and Noble Energy deciding to end their Marcellus joint venture (see 
On Monday, October 24, 2016, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals (in Western Pennsylvania) ruled that Marcellus driller ECA (Energy Corporation of America) did not prove a need for a new trial in the case it previously lost. Pennsylvania landowners sued ECA in federal court beginning in 2010, saying their royalty checks were shorted because ECA was improperly deducting post-production costs. Sound familiar? In February 2013 a federal judge upheld a split decision that said most of what ECA was deducting was OK, but the one thing they can’t deduct from royalty checks are charges for interstate pipeline transmission (for the full story, read our post 
One MDN’s favorite Marcellus drillers, Cabot Oil & Gas, released their third quarter 2016 update on Friday. Production once again set a new record with Cabot producing 144.4 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of natural gas in 3Q16 (up from 133 in 3Q15). The number of wells drilled decreased from 27 new wells drilled in 3Q15 to 11 new wells drilled in 3Q16. However, Cabot has/had plenty of drilled but uncompleted wells (DUCs). In 3Q15 Cabot completed 21 wells and in 3Q16 they completed 23 wells. Once again the company treaded water financial, losing $10 million in 3Q16 (down from losing $15.5M in 3Q15). Frankly, $10M is chump change in the o&g business. The biggest news (for us) in the Cabot update from Friday is their strategy announcement. It can be summed up in one slide from their analyst presentation (see it below) which is titled: INFRASTRUCTURE UPDATE: 2018 IS AN INFLECTION YEAR FOR CABOT. On that slide is a list of six infrastructure projects that are critical to the future of Cabot–all of them expected to go online in 2018. Yes, the Constitution Pipeline is one of the six. Can you guess the others?…