EQT Call: Fracking 1st Utica Well in June; Changing Proppant
Last week MDN brought you EQT’s report on their first quarter earnings and performance (see EQT 1Q15: Production Volume Up 37%, but Price Received Down 33%). As is often the case with publicly traded companies, EQT’s top management hopped on an analyst phone call to discuss the results. And as sometimes happens, extra details came out on the call. During last Friday’s call, EQT management revealed in prepared comments and in a series of questions and answers that: (1) the company will begin fracking its first Utica well (in Greene County, PA) in early June; (2) the second Utica well EQT plans to drill will be in Wetzel County, WV; and (3) the company is considering a change to ceramic proppant instead of using sand–a move that will cost them an average of $2.5 million more per well than what they pay now using sand…
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Ever hear of a special-purpose acquisition company, or SPAC? How about a “blank check company”? No, neither had we. The man who once described himself as the biggest fracker in the world, Aubrey McClendon, filed paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on April 7 to float an initial public offering (or IPO) for a company called Avondale Acquisition Corp., which describes itself in the filing as a “newly organized blank check company” that will “focus on potential mergers or other deals with existing businesses in the onshore U.S. oil and gas sector.” It is, in a sense, just a different pocket being sewn onto Aubrey’s trousers from which he can dip his hand in and pull out money placed there by other people–to buy more leases and operations in places like the Utica and Marcellus. How much money does Aubrey hope to find in that pocket? About $200 million…
The shakedown is complete. In June 2012 Reuters tried to stir up trouble against Chesapeake Energy by broadcasting “leaked” (Watergate anyone?) emails that somehow magically appeared on the Reuters doorstep that supposedly show Chesapeake trying to collude with Encana Energy to keep the price of Michigan state land oil and gas leases artificially low (see 
Where’s HG Wells when you need him? We’ve had another Martian sighting! At yesterday’s PA Dept. of Environmental Protection Oil & Gas Technical Advisory Board (TAB) meeting, Amy Nassif, representing some of the parents from the Mars School district in Butler County, PA, addressed TAB members imploring them to “keep oil and gas well pads away from schools.” Aaah, Ms. Nassif–what about well pads that already exist ON SCHOOL PROPERTY? Like the well pad at the Elk Lake School in Susquehanna County (see 
Aubrey McClendon, former CEO of Chesapeake Energy, current CEO of American Energy Partners and the media’s favorite bad boy of fracking–knows a thing or two about developing a deep bench. In addition to Aubrey’s focus on natural gas drilling, he’s one of the co-owners of the Oklahoma City Thunder NBA basketball team. So Aubrey knows it’s good to have a lot of talent on the bench and in the game. In that spirit, Aubrey has just made three more hires to, as he says, “broaden and deepen” his management team. Yesterday American Energy Partners announced that it has hired Scott D. Sachs as Senior Geoscience Executive Advisor, James C. Johnson as Senior Marketing and Midstream Executive and Traci D. Cook as Chief Accounting Officer…
When MDN editor Jim Willis attends industry conferences, more often than not there is at least one, sometimes more than one, session on CSR, or Corporate Social Responsibility. CSR means oil and gas companies ensure they are in compliance not only with the letter, but the spirit of the laws and regulations under which they operate. It also means going beyond the minimum and being good neighbors and participating in the communities in which they operate. Our industry takes the CSR role seriously. So when we noticed that Hess was named the No. 1 oil and gas company on Corporate Responsibility magazine’s prestigious list of 100 Best Corporate Citizens for 2015, we thought it worth mentioning and giving them a shout-out for a job well done…