PDC Energy’s Head Turned by Another Pretty Shale Play
PDC Energy, a driller in the Wattenberg Field in Colorado and the Utica in Ohio, paused their Utica drilling program in 2015 (see PDC Energy Pushes Pause Button on OH Utica Drilling for 2015). In December the company announced they would restart Utica drilling in 2016 with plans to drill five wells (see PDC Energy to Restart OH Drilling in 2016, Drilling 5 Utica Wells). Earlier this month, PDC released their second quarter 2016 update. There are a few mentions of the Utica in the update. It appears the Utica program is once again up and running. In fact, one of the Utica wells they’ve drilled, the PDC “Neff” well, has come online earlier than expected and began producing in 2Q16 (see PDC Energy 2Q16: Utica Program Active Again, Neff Well Online). However, another shale play has turned the head of PDC–the Delaware Basin in Texas. Last week PDC announced it has purchased two drillers in the Delaware for $1.5 billion. Does that mean PDC will give up on the Utica?…
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Duke University, as MDN has chronicled, has a long history of pumping out faux research that bashes fracking and fossil fuels, “research” that’s bought-and-paid-for by the Park Foundation, one of Duke’s major contributors (see 
Last week MDN told you that ratings agency Fitch Ratings had issued a “Loans of Concern” report, which is a report on loans the agency believes companies will soon default on. One of the names in the list stood out to MDN: American Energy-Marcellus (see 
We believe this bit of news is exclusive to MDN–we’ve not seen it anywhere else, yet. In early August MDN reported that the novel legal argument offered by the radical leftist PA-based group Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) in Grant Township (Indiana County), PA claiming to represent a local ecosystem had failed (see 
A banker, a real estate developer and a natural gas drilling company rep walk into a bar… No wait! This isn’t a joke! A banker, a real estate developer and a natgas drilling rep were panelists at seminar held yesterday, organized by the Pittsburgh Business Times. Even though there has been a major slowdown in Marcellus/Utica drilling, all three panelists were upbeat and optimistic–in no small part because of the coming Shell ethane cracker in nearby Beaver County. One comment made about the Shell cracker: “We’re not just building a facility; we’re building an industry.” That’s just how major the Shell project will be in the greater Pittsburgh area. Another comment: “The Marcellus Shale is not in the tank…It has slowed down, which is typical of industries that are sensitive to price cycles, [but] it’s consistent, affordable and is stable.” More interesting tidbits from the PBT soiree…
Stone Energy, an independent oil and natural gas exploration and production company (E&P) headquartered in Lafayette, Louisiana drills mainly in the Gulf of Mexico but also has a presence in the Marcellus/Utica Shale with 90,000 acres of leases. Last year Stone quit drilling in the northeast and actually shut-in part of their production due to low prices (see 
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has fined two CONSOL Energy subsidiaries, CNX Gas (the drilling division) and CONE Midstream (co-owned by CONSOL and Noble Energy) for coloring outside the lines when they built some gathering pipelines in four western Pennsylvania counties. CNX was fined $139,000 and CONE was fined $45,000 for veering off the path officially filed with the DEP. According to DEP spokesman John Poister, the numskulls didn’t pay attention and were sloppy (our words, his sentiment). Here’s the official announcement from the DEP, along with comments from Poister…
We suppose we should have known, but we didn’t. We didn’t know that Pennsylvania has a Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED). In fact, the DCED has its own cabinet-level Secretary–Dennis Davin–appointed by Democrat Gov. Tom Wolf in January 2015 when Wolf assumed office. Davin has stayed largely under the radar–until now. Wolf has sent Davin out on a road show to promote the forthcoming Shell ethane cracker plant. Davin is conducting roundtable discussions in various communities around PA to generate ideas on how local businesses can benefit from the cracker. So far he’s visited Beaver County (where the cracker will be built), Lawrence County and Washington County. The DCED is flooding the airways with press releases about Davin’s cracker road show…
In June MDN reported the news that Rex Energy had cut a deal to sell its Illinois Basin acreage for $40 million to Campbell Development Group (see 
Ratings agency giant Fitch Ratings maintains and periodically issues a “Loans of Concern” list. It is a list of companies Fitch considers to have “material, near-term default risks.” That is, the companies will likely default on repaying loans, which may lead to nastier things, like a bankruptcy. As of last week when Fitch issued the list, there were 53 companies on it. Of those 53 companies, some 49% of them (26 in all) are energy companies. You must be a Fitch subscriber in order to see the full report/list of companies. Alas, we are not. However, Argus got a look and lists a few of the names in the list. One of those names stood out for us: American Energy-Marcellus, which is one of the American Energy subsidiary companies founded by former Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey McClendon. American Energy’s Marcellus/Utica division later changed its name to Ascent Resources in June 2015 (see 
In August 2015, MDN told you that one of the biggest drillers in the Marcellus/Utica, Antero Resources, floated the idea of building a $275 million state-of-the-art frack wastewater treatment plant in Doddridge County, WV (see 
This one has us scratching our heads. Landowners Damon and Kendra Baker, in Tioga County, PA, signed a lease with Shell’s SWEPI in 2006. We’re guessing the signing bonus was peanuts because at that time the Marcellus was still in its infancy in PA. SWEPI constructed a well pad on their property in 2010 but had drilled no wells by the time the lease expired in 2011. The Bakers wanted a healthy re-signing bonus to allow SWEPI to lease their land again. SWEPI’s final offer was $150,000 (not sure for how many acres). The Baker’s, according to SWEPI, wanted half a million dollars. SWEPI said “no thanks” and therefore, according to state Dept. of Environmental Protection standards, needs to restore the property to its original state and be done with it. But the Bakers won’t let them re-enter the property. So SWEPI is suing and the clock is ticking–they only have until December to put it back to original condition or the company will be fined $500/day until it’s done…
In January, three liberal Democrat county commissioners from Fayette County, WV, with the backing and help of the radical WV Mountain Party, voted to ban injection wells in the county (see 
Everyone loves a Top 5 or Top 10, including MDN. Who are the Top 5 drillers in the Utica Shale? It depends, of course, on your criteria for selecting such a list. One of MDN’s favorite writers on The Motley Fool website, Matt DiLallo, has just published what he calls “The 5 Companies Dominating the Utica Shale Play.” In other words, the Top 5 Utica drillers. Matt points out that in the span of five short years the Utica has become the nation’s second largest shale gas play, behind only the Marcellus. Matt uses a combination of acres-under-lease and number-of-wells-drilled to come up with his list of five drillers who are leading the charge in the Utica. It won’t surprise you to learn that Chesapeake Energy, which was the first company to drill in the Utica under then-CEO Aubrey McClendon, is head-and-shoulders above the rest as the #1 Dominator in the Utica. Some of the others in the Top 5 list may, however, surprise you. Here’s Matt’s excellent roundup of the Utica…
There’s certainly more than one way to make money on fracking in the Marcellus/Utica. Billionaire hedge fund manager David Tepper (Appaloosa Management) has found such a way. Tepper knows a good company, or four, when he sees them. In the fourth quarter of 2015, when Marcellus/Utica company stocks were at one of their lowest points, Tepper loaded up, buying stock in four leading northeast drillers. Half a year later he turned around and sold that stock, for a 100%+ return on his investment. He doubled his money. Smart man. Which drillers’ stocks did Tepper buy and then sell?…
In May MDN told you that the Penn Township (in Westmoreland County, PA) zoning board voted to refuse to grant a permit to Apex Energy to build a DEP-permitted well pad in the town (see