Energy Companies

Energy Companies | PDC Energy | Utica Shale

PDC Energy Turns a Profit in 1Q15, Utica Production Up
May 8, 2015May 8, 2015

In 2014 PDC Energy sold off its 141,000 of Marcellus Shale leases to Mountaineer Keystone for $500 million (see Major New Player in the Marcellus Emerges: Mountaineer Keystone). However, PDC kept its Utica Shale acreage, although they aren’t drilling any new wells in the Utica for the time being (see PDC Energy Pushes Pause Button on OH Utica Drilling for 2015). PDC continues, for now, to focus on the Wattenberg field in northern Colorado. They must be doing something right because the company seems to be one of the few shale drillers to turn a profit in 1Q15…
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Energy Companies | Range Resources Corp

Range Resources Floats Another $750M in IOUs to Pay Down Old Debt
May 8, 2015May 8, 2015

Marcellus powerhouse driller Range Resources first announced yesterday that they are floating $500 million of new IOUs (called senior notes), then a short time later changed it and say no, they’re now offering $750 million of new IOUs instead. Cash from the senior note offering will go to pay off older IOUs and debts. The new round of IOUs will come due in 2025. Here’s the Range two-step from yesterday…
Read More “Range Resources Floats Another $750M in IOUs to Pay Down Old Debt”
Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies

Chesapeake’s Rorschach 1Q15 Update – Seeing What You Want
May 7, 2015May 8, 2015

Chesapeake Energy is the second largest natural gas producer in the United States and the largest producer in both the Marcellus and Utica Shale. Yesterday the company released their first quarter 2015 results and held an earnings call with analysts to discuss how things are going for the company. Depending on which media account you read today, you’ll find that Chesapeake is scaling back operations in the Utica Shale while at the same time looking to lease more land in the Utica; their rig count has been decimated and yet production rose 14% year over year; and one source says the company posted a big loss and is burning cash like crazy while another says it isn’t really losing money, costs are dropping and the outlook is improving. Yes, it runs the gamut. Apparently anyone can find about anything to love or hate about Chessy’s latest update. Kind of a like a rorschach test…
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Eclipse Resources | Energy Companies | Ohio | Statewide OH

Eclipse Resources 1Q15: Impressive Bump Up in Production & Revenue
May 7, 2015May 7, 2015

Eclipse Resources, a relatively new driller formed by a group of former Rex Energy people, is headquartered in State College, PA but does most of its drilling in the Ohio Utica. Just a few weeks ago Eclipse announced they are cutting their 2015 drilling budget by 57% (see Eclipse Resources Nixes Joint Venture Idea, Cuts Capex 57% in 2015). Even with the cuts, Eclipse had by anyone’s measure, an impressive first quarter in 2015. Yesterday Eclipse issued their 1Q15 update showing net production is up 316% from 1Q14. During the first quarter they brought 20 new wells online and began drilling 10 more. Revenue was up a huge 77% in 1Q15, but because of interest payments, taxes and other expenses, the company, overall, experienced a loss of $34.1 million during 1Q15. Here’s the update…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County

PA Fracktivist Permanently Banned from Cabot Property
May 7, 2015May 7, 2015

A little-known (outside of northeast Pennsylvania) anti-driller, Vera Scroggins, has been permanently banned from trespassing on Cabot Oil & Gas well sites according to a recent court order. Vera had previously agreed to the restrictions that don’t allow her to get near Cabot’s many sites in Susquehanna County, PA. Then she got the trespassing itch again and re-offended, according to court records, in January 2015 (see PA Anti-Driller Fined $1K for Trespassing on Cabot O&G Site, Jail?). Until now it had been a temporary injunction. Now it’s a permanent injunction, something Vera says she’s going to continue fighting…
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Energy Companies | Noble Energy

Noble Energy: Lots of Marcellus Drilling in 1Q15, Scaling Back 2H15
May 6, 2015May 6, 2015

Noble Energy is a big company with drilling both onshore and offshore. One of their focus areas is the Marcellus Shale where they are spending $900 million on drilling this year (see Noble Energy 2014 in Review, Spending $900M on Marcellus in 2015). Noble released their first quarter 2015 results yesterday. Although the company experienced a $22 million net loss financially, other signs were positive, including their activity in the Marcellus. Noble drilled 15 new wells and brought 3 wells online in 1Q15 in the Marcellus. Noble is also in a joint venture with CONSOL Energy. The JV drilled 25 new wells and brought online 29 wells in the Marcellus in 1Q15. However, Noble warns they are reducing their rig count and scaling back in the Marcellus for the second half of this year…
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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…
Read More “Carrizo 1Q15: Drilled 2 Test Wells in OH Utica, Good Results”
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…
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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…
Read More “PA DCNR Publishes Lease Agreements for Deals Under Rivers/Creeks”