Ascent Resources Actively Considering IPO or Sale
Ascent Resources, founded as American Energy Partners by gas legend Aubrey McClendon, is a privately held company focusing 100% on the Ohio Utica Shale. Ascent, headquartered in Oklahoma City, OK, is Ohio’s largest natural gas producer and the 8th largest natural gas producer in the U.S. The company issued its fourth quarter and full-year 2024 update last week. The big news came from comments during a conference call with analysts. CFO Brooks Shughart said company management and the board are internally discussing and monitoring the markets with an eye on a potential IPO (initial public offering), or possibly the M&A markets for a potential sale. Read More “Ascent Resources Actively Considering IPO or Sale”
Here’s an explosive allegation. EQT Corporation and its pipeline subsidiary EQM Gathering are suing Union Township (located in Washington County, PA). Also named in the lawsuit are the town’s five supervisors. EQT’s allegation is that the town (and its supervisors) are attempting to extort big money from EQT to allow the company to connect gathering pipelines to several of its recently-drilled shale wells. Among the claims, the town wants $50,000 to issue a permit for ANY gathering pipeline that connects to a well. The town also (says EQT in the lawsuit) tried to extort $750,000 to repair a road slip caused by another company. Oh! And Union wants a $50,000 monthly “fee” from EQT to continue operating in the township. 
This morning, Diversified Energy, FuelCell Energy, and TESIAC announced a strategic partnership “intended to address the urgent energy needs of data centers” by supplying as much as 360 megawatts (MW) of electricity to three distinct locations in Virginia, West Virginia, and Kentucky. The partnership has agreed to create an Acquisition and Development Company (ADC), essentially a joint venture, focused on delivering reliable, cost-efficient, so-called net-zero power from natural gas and captured coal mine methane (CMM) to meet the soaring demand of data centers for reliable power. The way they will provide the power is quite interesting. 
For the week of Feb 24 – Mar 2, the number of permits issued in the Marcellus/Utica to drill new shale wells increased by a couple. Four weeks ago, 24 new permits were issued. Three weeks ago, the number increased to 36 new permits. Two weeks ago, the number deflated, going down to 14. Last week, we added two permits for a total of 16 new permits issued. The Keystone State (PA) issued just one new permit, which went to Snyder Brothers for a well in Armstrong County. 
One year ago in March 2024, MDN told you about a new strategy by Chesapeake Energy (now Expand Energy) to drill new shale gas wells but leave them offline (see 
Last week we told you that it is the end of an era with the retirement of Dan Dinges from the Coterra Board of Directors (see 
Gulfport Energy, the third-largest driller in the Ohio Utica Shale (by the number of wells drilled), reported its fourth quarter and full-year 2024 numbers last week. The company drills Utica and Marcellus wells in Ohio. It also has an active drilling program in the Oklahoma SCOOP shale play. Gulfport’s net daily production in 4Q24 averaged 1,055.5 MMcfe/d (1.06 Bcfe/d), down slightly from 4Q23’s average of 1,063.3 MMcfe/d. Gulfport’s net daily production for the full year of 2024 averaged 1.05 Bcfe/d, consisting of 841.7 MMcfe/d in the Utica and Marcellus and 212.4 MMcfe/d in the SCOOP. Put another way, the M-U produced 80% of the company’s production. For the full year of 2024, Gulfport’s net daily production mix comprised approximately 92% natural gas, 6% NGLs, and 2% oil and condensate. According to the 4Q update, Gulfport plans to boost liquids production by 30% in 2025. 
According to the Wall Street Journal, Shell is “exploring a potential sale of its chemicals assets in Europe and the U.S.,” according to “people familiar with the matter.” The review and potential sale are part of a continuing drive to refocus the company’s business on its most profitable operations. One of the petchem assets that may be on the auction block is the recently completed Monaca (Beaver County, PA) ethane cracker complex. Our heads are officially exploding. 
EOG Resources, one of the largest oil and gas drillers in the U.S. (with international operations in Trinidad and China), owns nearly a half million acres of leases in the Ohio Utica (~460,000 acres). EOG calls its position the “Ohio Utica combo play” and now considers it one of the company’s “premium plays.” EOG concentrates on oil drilling in the Utica. During the company’s fourth quarter and full-year update, we learned that EOG has fully committed to operating two rigs and one frac crew in the Ohio Utica in 2025. Looking back at 2024, the company drilled and completed 25 Utica wells. Looking forward to 2025, the plan is to drill and complete another 30 new Utica wells. 
Expand Energy, formed by the merger of Chesapeake Energy and Southwestern Energy, is the largest natural gas producer in the U.S. with approximately 1.9 million leased net acres. Expand drills and operates in three distinct regions: Northeast Appalachia (Pennsylvania), Southwest Appalachia (mostly West Virginia, but also Pennsylvania and Ohio), and the Haynesville (Louisiana). The company issued its fourth quarter and full-year update yesterday. In 4Q24, Expand operated an average of twelve rigs to drill 44 wells and turned 41 wells in line, resulting in net production of approximately 6.41 Bcfe per day (91% natural gas). 
Two weeks ago, MDN brought you the exciting news that President Trump pledged to get the long-dead Pennsylvania Marcellus to New York State Constitution Pipeline built (see 
Range Resources Corporation, the very first company to drill a shale well targeting the Marcellus Shale layer in Pennsylvania (in 2004), issued its fourth quarter and full-year 2024 update yesterday. Range produced 2.20 Bcfe/d in Q4. For all of 2024, the company averaged 2.18 Bcfe/d, approximately 68% natural gas. The company reported completing (bringing online to sales) 44 shale wells in all of 2024. While Range did not specify how many wells it drilled during 4Q24, using data from the 3Q24 update when it had completed 30 wells at that point, Range brought an additional 14 new wells online during 4Q.