Energy Companies

Carrizo Oil & Gas | Energy Companies | Guernsey County | Ohio | Utica Shale

Carrizo 1Q15: Drilled 2 Test Wells in OH Utica, Good Results
May 6, 2015May 6, 2015

A bit of a surprise for MDN with the release of Carrizo Oil & Gas’s first quarter 2015 update today. In January Carrizo said they would not be drilling any new wells in the Utica/Marcellus in 2015 (see Carrizo Cuts Budget 35%, No Drilling Planned in Utica/Marcellus in 2015). While the company held true to its word on the Marcellus and did not drill any new wells, they did drill two new Utica wells in 1Q15. The two wells were drilled in northeast Guernsey County, OH and are being used as tests to determine the production capability in that area. Early results, according to Carrizo, are quite good (an average 200 barrels per day of oil/condensate). They do say, however, that because of low prices, they have no plans to drill any more Utica wells for the balance of this year beyond these two test wells in Guernsey…
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CNG/LNG | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Rex Energy

Rex Energy 1Q15: Production Up 61%, Revenue Down 33%, Gulf Coast Deal
May 6, 2015May 6, 2015

Rex Energy, focused on both the Marcellus/Utica and Illinois basins, released their first quarter 2015 update yesterday. Among the positive highlights: Rex’s first quarter production in 2015 grew 61% over the first quarter of 2014; the company is on track to grow production 25% in full year 2015 vs full year 2014; they recently signed two agreements to ship a total of 130 million cubic feet of gas to the Gulf Coast for the Freeport LNG plant; and they’ve increased production by using a lot more sand. On the negative side, revenue was down 33% (due to the lower price of natural gas), and after expenses the company lost $17.8 million for the quarter, vs 2014 when they gained $8.8 million. Here’s the details from Rex…
Read More “Rex Energy 1Q15: Production Up 61%, Revenue Down 33%, Gulf Coast Deal”
Energy Companies | Gulfport Energy | Utica Shale

Gulfport Energy 1Q15: Production Up 161%, Net Income Down 69%
May 6, 2015May 6, 2015

Gulfport Energy reported their first quarter 2015 results yesterday. Net production for Gulfport averaged 424.4 million cubic feet equivalent per day in 1Q15, which is a huge 161% increase from 1Q14. The company remains active in the Utica Shale, spudding (beginning to drill) 16 wells in 1Q15 and bringing online 8 wells. As MDN told you a few weeks ago, Gulfport has picked up another 24,000 acres in Belmont and Jefferson counties (OH) from Paloma Partners (see Gulfport Energy Pays $12,500 per Acre for 24K OH Utica Acres). With that new acreage, Gulfport reports they now own 212,000 acres in the Utica. On the financial side, revenue was up a big 49%, but net income (after expenses) was down 69% in 1Q15 vs 1Q14. The details…
Read More “Gulfport Energy 1Q15: Production Up 161%, Net Income Down 69%”
Air Quality | Beaver County | Energy Companies | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | Shell

Progress: DEP & Shell Hold Info Session on PA Cracker Plant
May 6, 2015May 6, 2015

Another positive sign that Shell continues to be very serious about building a multi-billion dollar ethane cracker plant in Monaca (Beaver County), PA. Yesterday representatives from Shell and the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection held a two-hour meeting (with Q&A) to discuss the air quality permit required to build the plant. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports the crowd in attendance was almost all in favor of the project. Air wasn’t the only issue discussed–some had questions about potential noise from the plant. The session began with Q&A and ended with two dozen or so speakers who had signed up to give official, on the record comments about the plant…
Read More “Progress: DEP & Shell Hold Info Session on PA Cracker Plant”
Energy Companies | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County | WPX Energy

Mystery Buyer to Pay WPX Energy $200M for NE Marcellus Assets
May 5, 2015May 5, 2015

WPX Energy announced yesterday that they’ve sold more of (the rest of?) their northeast Marcellus Shale assets. This time it’s not leases and wells, but instead “various long-term natural gas purchase and sales agreements, along with 135 million Btu per day of firm transportation capacity on Transco’s Northeast Supply Link project.” That is, WPX was on the hook to either buy or sell natural gas along pipelines at certain locations in the northeast region, and those deals to buy and sell gas were sold, along with WPX’s contract to flow up to 135 million Btus (which equates to just 135 thousand cubic feet, or 135 Mcf) of natural gas on Transco’s Northeast Supply Link pipeline system. The combined sale was to an unnamed buyer for approximately $200 million. MDN has a guess about who the mystery buyer is…
Read More “Mystery Buyer to Pay WPX Energy $200M for NE Marcellus Assets”
Cambria County | Chevron | Clearfield County | Energy Companies | Pennsylvania

Chevron Shops Another 11,700 Marcellus Acres in Central PA
May 5, 2015May 5, 2015

Chevron continues to pare back on its Marcellus Shale acreage. With nearly 700,000 Marcellus Shale acres under lease, what’s a few thousand acres here and there? The Pittsburgh Business Times noticed that Chevron has posted 11,700 acres in central PA up for sale. You may recall Chevron previously shopped 17,000 acres in the same region in February (see Chevron Selling 17K Marcellus Shale Acres, More Sales Coming). At that time the company said more sales would be coming, and well, here we are! We might chalk it up to Chevron simply actively managing their portfolio and tweaking the locations where they intend to drill. Except. Except they’re also cutting way back on personnel too (see Chevron Laying Off 23% of their Marcellus Workforce in Pittsburgh). So this may be just tweaking the portfolio, or it may be a trickle in what will become a steady stream of divestiture. We just don’t know at this point. Here’s the details as we know them about the current 11,700 acres up for sale…
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Energy Companies | Energy Services | EQT Corp | Equitrans/EQT Midstream

EQT Floats IPO to Sell Off Some Ownership of Midstream Division
May 5, 2015May 5, 2015

Looks like the mad dash to raise cash has not yet ended. Major Marcellus driller and midstream company EQT announced yesterday they are, using a subsidiary company (EQT GP Holdings) floating an initial public offering of 20 million units (roughly equivalent to shares of stock). The new company, EQT GP, is a holding company that will invest the money it raises into EQT’s midstream operations. On paper EQT’s midstream operations are run by a different entity with the stock ticker symbol of EQM (EQT Midstream). It’s all under one roof, but split on paper for tax and high finance purposes. If you net it all out, it appears to us (warning: we are neophytes with this high finance stuff) that EQT is selling off some of the ownership of EQT Midstream without exactly saying so. How much does EQT hope to raise? They don’t say in the announcement (below). But EQM’s current stock price is running at $86.45 per share as of close of business yesterday. Let’s say EQT gets, oh, $70 per unit for this new IPO. That would be a huge $1.4 billion. What if they get just $50 per unit? That would be an even $1 billion. However you slice it, EQT is looking to raise some major cash by selling off ownership of EQM…
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Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies

Chesapeake Energy Appoints New VP Exploration, Prev Guy “Retires”
May 5, 2015May 5, 2015

Chesapeake Energy’s CEO Doug Lawler, the man who loves to swing the ax to make his corporate raider boss Carl Ichan more money (see The Great Chesapeake Massacre: Lawler Fires 800 People in One Day), continues to raid his old company, Anadarko, for new (i.e. loyal) lieutenants. Doug’s latest hire is for the very important position of Executive Vice President – Exploration, Land and Subsurface Technology. The guy who previously held that position, John Kapchinske, doesn’t get much of a mention in the announcement. The press release says Kapchinske “recently retired from the company” and that’s all it says. We find it interesting because Kapchinske was just promoted to that position in January 2015! And four months later he retires? Perhaps he’s “retiring” because he served under Aubrey McClendon and Doug is still swinging the ax and purging the company…
Read More “Chesapeake Energy Appoints New VP Exploration, Prev Guy “Retires””
Energy Companies | Stone Energy

Stone Energy 1Q15: No New Marcellus Drilling, But More Production
May 5, 2015May 5, 2015

Stone Energy, one of the smaller drillers in the Marcellus/Utica region, released their first quarter 2015 update yesterday. Previously Stone announced they would hit the pause button on any new Marcellus drilling after 1Q15 (see Stone Energy Will Suspend Marcellus/Utica Drilling after 1Q15). Even though Stone is not drilling any new wells, they did begin bringing 8 Marcellus wells online that were previously drilled, which led to a slight bump up in Marcellus production to an average of 130 million cubic feet per day during 1Q15. Below are select portions of yesterday’s update that touch on the northeast…
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Energy Companies | Forest County | Lease & Royalty Payments | Pennsylvania | SWEPI | Tioga County (PA)

PA DCNR Publishes Lease Agreements for Deals Under Rivers/Creeks
May 4, 2015April 30, 2018

In February 2015, MDN did a deep dive into the issue of Pennsylvania leasing underneath rivers and streams to allow Marcellus/Utica Shale drilling (see PA DCNR Program Leases Under Rivers/Creeks for Marcellus Drilling). PA maintains the state owns the land underneath any river or creek that is “navigable” and therefore has the right to lease it for drilling, denying the landowners who own the land along the banks of that stream signing bonuses and royalties. It is a thorny issue. Does the state actually “own” the land under rivers and creeks? It’s an issue that (seems to us) should be litigated and decided. In that story in February MDN brought you a list of river and creek deals signed, as of early January, with an indication of who signed and how much the signing bonus was for. At the bottom of that list (we’ve included the list below for your convenience) are six deals with Shell’s SWEPI–five of the deals for tracks of river/creeks in Tioga County, PA, and one in Forest County, PA. Interestingly, the Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR), the state agency doing the leasing on behalf of the state, has just published notification for those six SWEPI deals in the May 2 Pennsylvania Bulletin which include the full details for each deal…
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Energy Companies | EXCO Resources

EXCO Looks to “Restructure” (Sell?) 150K Marcellus Acres
May 1, 2015May 1, 2015

Just yesterday we brought you the news that (no surprise) EXCO Resources has suspended any more drilling in their 150,000 acres of Marcellus acreage (see EXCO Resources Continues Marcellus Drilling Moratorium in 1Q15). EXCO’s newly appointed executive chairman, who also happens to be Bluescape’s executive chairman (along with other EXCO top management), held an analyst call to discuss first quarter results and the call was peppered with references to “restructuring.” We count at least 15 “restructuring” references in the call transcript. Among the things that will potentially get “restructured” is EXCO’s Marcellus joint venture with BG Group. BG is being bought out by Shell (see LNG Love Story: Shell Makes Play to Buy BG in $69.7B Megamerger). In light of that buyout, EXCO is looking to “restructure” their deal–by which we take to mean they’re shopping their Marcellus acreage. The term “Appalachia” came up a few times on Wednesday’s analyst phone call…
Read More “EXCO Looks to “Restructure” (Sell?) 150K Marcellus Acres”
Energy Companies | Pennsylvania | Range Resources Corp | Washington County

Range Resources Drills #1 Producing Marcellus Shale Well in 1Q15
April 30, 2015April 30, 2015

Range Resources released their first quarter 2015 results on Tuesday. We’ve spotted a several news outlets trumpeting the “news” in the release that Range has drilled the highest-ever initial producing Utica Shale well at 59 million cubic feet per day (Mmcf/d)–the Claysville Sportsman’s Club No. 1 well in Washington County, PA. Thing is, we reported that news back in December (see Range Resources Drills Highest-Ever Initial Producing Utica Well). The Claysville Utica well is not new news. However, Range did report some new news on Tuesday: Range has drilled what they claim is the highest ever initially-producing Marcellus Shale well. This Marcellus monster well is a wet gas well that produced an initial rate of 43.4 million cubic feet equivalent per day (Mmcfe/d). Range does not identify the well by name but says it, like their monster Utica well, is located in Washington County, PA. Range reports production in 1Q15 hit a record high of 1,328 Mmcfe per day–26% higher than 1Q14. On the financial side, revenues for Range were up 1% in 1Q15 vs 1Q14, but net income was down 15%…
Read More “Range Resources Drills #1 Producing Marcellus Shale Well in 1Q15”
Allegheny County | CONSOL Energy | Energy Companies | Greene County (PA) | Marshall County | Monroe County | Noble County | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Utica Shale | Washington County | West Virginia | Westmoreland County

CONSOL Energy Narrows Future Marcellus/Utica Dev to 5 Counties
April 30, 2015April 30, 2015

CONSOL Energy released its first quarter 2015 update on Tuesday. Like virtually every other Marcellus/Utica driller, CONSOL’s 1Q15 profits dropped quite a bit–in this case 32%. But there was plenty of good news in Tuesday’s update. CONSOL reports Marcellus Shale production was up an impressive 75% year over year for the first quarter. They cut their costs in the Marcellus–from $3.18 per Mcfe in 1Q14 to $2.62 per Mcfe in 1Q15–$0.56 per Mcfe improvement (18%). The company achieved all-in cash costs of only $1.67 per Mcfe in the Marcellus Shale, which “continues to be the growth engine of the company.” Meanwhile, CONSOL continues to ramp up their Utica program. The company is currently drilling Utica wells in four counties: Greene and Westmoreland counties in PA; Monroe County, OH; and Marshall County, WV. CONSOL says the Utica wells they are currently drilling will come online in the second half of this year. However, given the current low price climate and cutbacks, CONSOL streamlined both its Marcellus and Utica operations in 1Q15. They’ve narrowed future Marcellus development to primarily Greene, Washington and Allegheny counties in PA; wet Utica development to Noble County, OH; and dry Utica development to Monroe County, OH…
Read More “CONSOL Energy Narrows Future Marcellus/Utica Dev to 5 Counties”
Antero Resources | Energy Companies

Antero’s Daily Natgas Production Surpasses Range in 1Q15
April 30, 2015April 30, 2015

Antero Resources, one of the largest Marcellus/Utica drillers, issued their first quarter 2015 update yesterday. They report an incredible 89% increase in average daily production for 1Q15 over 1Q14. Antero’s average daily production for 1Q15 was 1,485 Mmcfe/d (million cubic feet equivalent per day). Compare that to Range Resources, that had 1,328 Mmcfe/d. Antero’s daily output was 12% higher! The impression one always gets is that Range is the big boy in the Marcellus. While true, it’s interesting that Antero has now eclipsed Range in daily production. Something worth noting. It’s not all good news for Antero, however. Like other drillers, net income for Antero went down 20% year over year for the first quarter. Here’s the Antero update…
Read More “Antero’s Daily Natgas Production Surpasses Range in 1Q15”
Energy Companies | EXCO Resources

EXCO Resources Continues Marcellus Drilling Moratorium in 1Q15
April 30, 2015April 30, 2015

EXCO Resources, a sizable independent driller with operations in a number of locations, has (for the time being) suspended drilling in the Marcellus Shale. EXCO has been a company in trouble. We reported earlier this month a major shakeup at the company (see Bluescape Pulls Strings Installs New CEO, COO at EXCO Resources). At the end of 2014, EXCO suspended dividend payments for shareholders (see EXCO Resources Suspends Dividend Payments to Shareholders). Also in December, the company appeared on Debtwire’s “Distressed Watchlist” (see 4 Marcellus Companies Debut on Debtwire’s Distressed Watchlist). In February, EXCO was listed on “The Oil Company Death List” (see 19 Oil/Gas Companies on “Death List” – 8 are in Marcellus/Utica). So it’s not all that surprising that EXCO did no new drilling, and only completed one outstanding well already drilled, in the Marcellus during the first three months of 2015. Here’s what EXCO said about Appalachia in their quarterly update from earlier this week…
Read More “EXCO Resources Continues Marcellus Drilling Moratorium in 1Q15”
Energy Companies | Pennsylvania | Rice Energy | Washington County

Rice Energy Signs Lease for New 150K Sq Ft HQ in Canonsburg
April 30, 2015April 30, 2015

Rice Energy is expanding their office and staff–big time. According to the Pittsburgh Business Times, Rice Energy has just signed a lease agreement to take 150,000 square feet of new office space at the Southpointe II complex in Canonsburg (Washington County), PA. The new digs mean Rice can put all of their office people together, under one roof. Right now the Rice work force numbers around 335. By the time they are done expanding, they hope to employ around 700. Get those resumes ready!…
Read More “Rice Energy Signs Lease for New 150K Sq Ft HQ in Canonsburg”