PA DEP Issues Notice of Violation to JKLM Energy for Spilled Soap
On Monday MDN told you about an accident in Sweden Township (Potter County), PA where JKLM Energy released soap into a water aquifer while trying to fish out a broken drill bit from a Utica Shale bore hole (see JKLM Energy Accident Contaminates 5 PA Water Wells with Soap). The soap migrated into five nearby water wells. JKLM promised to provide daily updates on the situation and their progress with correcting the soap leak, and they’ve kept their word. Our previous post brought you all of the updates through Sept. 27. This post brings you the updates from Sept. 28 through yesterday, Oct. 1. We also have more news about the accident: the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection has issued a notice of violation because of the accident. No word yet on how much money spilling 55 gallons of soap into a water aquifer is going to cost JKLM, but you can be sure it won’t be cheap. Here’s the latest on the accident…
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From time to time we bring you news of top management at drillers (upstream) or pipeline companies (midstream) who either buy or sell large blocks of their own company’s stock. It’s always hard to divine what someone’s motivation is when buying or selling. We typically take it to be a good sign when top management or board members buy stock–it shows they believe in the company they run, enough to put their own money on the line. We have another case–this time a company’s top lawyer selling stock in one of the top drillers in the Marcellus. Cabot Oil & Gas’ General Counsel, George Kevin Cunningham, sold 3,623 shares of Cabot stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 29th. He got $81,046.51. But lest you view the transaction negatively, consider this: Cunningham still owns 42,210 shares worth nearly a million bucks. Looks to us like maybe he’s sending a kid off to college or remodeling the house with this sale…
Once again the great people at Cabot Oil & Gas have done it again. Back in 2012 the company helped raise $4.4 million for a local hospital in Susquehanna County, PA, with half of the money contributed by Cabot (see 
Warren Resources, a small, independent exploration and production company has been headquartered in New York City–until now. Warren has ongoing drilling programs in California, Wyoming, and in the Pennsylvania Marcellus Shale. Warren’s Marcellus program is very small–they previously announced they would drill and complete two Marcellus wells in 2015. In July the company began a search for a new CEO, a process that continues (see 
Just when you thought it was safe, Chesapeake Energy CEO Doug “the ax” Lawler has done it again. Two years ago Lawler swung the ax and fired 800 employees in a single day (see 
The Rogersville Shale once again popped up on the radar. Yesterday at the West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association (WVONGA) Conference in Wheeling, WV, a research geologist with the Kentucky Geological Survey talked about the Rogersville Shale, outlining its geography in both WV and KY. Corky Demarco, executive director of WVONGA chimed in with a reminder that Cabot Oil & Gas has drilled a test well in the WV Rogersville in Putnam County (see 
Looking like he’d had his morning Ensure drink, Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush had plenty of energy as he talked about energy policy in a speech he delivered yesterday at the headquarters of Rice Energy in Washington County, PA. As predicted, Bush said things the oil and gas industry can stand up and cheer for: lift the ban on exporting crude oil, make it easier to export natural gas, and repeal some of the onerous regulations now on the books. He would also roll back Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan regulations that target coal (and natural gas) with a regulatory death sentence. Below is how it was reported, followed by Bush’s policy paper on how he would handle energy policy if he were to get out of single digits in the polls and get the nomination (something not very likely)…
Investment research service Morningstar is out with their latest “Quarter-End Insights” on energy. The highly regarded service says (a) the price of crude oil won’t rebound anytime soon, and their long-term price projection is for oil to be priced around $64/barrel here in the U.S., (b) even though natural gas production is slowing in the U.S., there’s plenty more ready to go online and therefore prices will remain low for a while–they project a “midcycle” price for natural gas of $4/Mcf; and (c) one of their top three picks for stocks in the energy space is Marcellus driller Cabot Oil & Gas…
Our intrepid tipster is back with another juicy rumor about Chief Oil & Gas. You may recall that MDN broke the story Chief is closing its main Appalachian office near Pittsburgh, a tip later confirmed by Chief (see 
The Washington County (PA) Firemen’s Association recently opened a new $500,000 gas well training center at the fire academy located at 895 Western Ave in Houston, PA. The project, which took more than a year to plan and complete, was completely funded by some of the biggest and best drillers in the Marcellus/Utica, including Range Resources, Rice Energy, CONSOL Energy, EQT, American Well Service and others. It will be used to train first responders not only in Washington County, but also from other parts of Pennsylvania along with West Virginia and Ohio. According to Pennsylvania Fire Commissioner Tim Solobay, “There’s nothing like it outside of Texas”…
An update on a royalty lawsuit we first reported in July. Two Butler County, PA landowners with a combined 245.7 acres of land leased to (and drilled by) XTO Energy have sued XTO claiming the company is breaking the lease agreement by paying royalties below 1/8 of what XTO receives in revenue for the gas (see 
There is a direct connection between lack of pipeline takeaway capacity and drillers’ willingness to either drill more–or even continue producing–gas in the Marcellus/Utica. Although we’re pretty sure this has happened with other drillers, this is the first overt announcement we’ve seen (and hope it’s not a trend) that a sizable driller in the northeast is simply shutting in (stopping) production for a major portion of their operations. Stone Energy, an independent oil and natural gas exploration and production company headquartered in Lafayette, Louisiana and with a large regional office in Morgantown, WV, has just announced they are shutting in production for their Mary Field in West Virginia. Stone drills in two geographies: the Marcellus/Utica, and the Gulf of Mexico. The GOM appears to be their primary focus at the moment. Stone’s announcement, which to us is a pretty big deal, means they will simply stop producing 100-110 million cubic feet equivalent per day (MMcfe/d) of natural gas in the western Wetzel County, WV area…
MDN recently received a tip from a reader who said that WPX Energy, which has been exiting the Marcellus for more than year, is plugging and abandoning its wells in Cook Township (Westmoreland County), PA. We asked WPX about it and got the scoop about what’s happening with WPX in southwestern and central PA…