Gulfport Production Up 255%, Spending 96% of $ on Utica in 2015
Gulfport Energy CEO Michael Moore said 2014 was “a transformation year” for the company. Indeed it was. Yesterday Gulfport issued their 2014 year in review and predictions for 2015. Gulfport drills in the Utica and in other shale plays. Combined production for the company in 2014 zoomed up 255% over 2013–most of it from the Utica. Gulfport drilled 85 Utica Shale wells in 2014, and they hooked up/put into production 63 Utica wells in 2014. In 2015 the company plans to spend between $545-$595 million on drilling–96% of that will be spent in the Utica Shale. Below is yesterday’s 2014/2015 update…
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Two weeks ago the hapless newly elected governor of Pennsylvania, Tom Wolf, introduced a new 7.5% severance tax plan to soak the Marcellus Shale industry in his state (see 
David Fessler is energy and infrastructure strategist (i.e. stock analyst/researcher) with The Oxford Club–a publisher based in Baltimore, Maryland that publishes the Oxford Resource Explorer, among other financial publications. Fessler spends his days immersed in the energy industry and in the stocks of companies in that industry. Fessler and The Oxford Club have produced a special report called “The Oil Company Death List” which is a list of 19 publicly-traded oil and gas companies that, according to a formula worked out by Fessler, will “die soon.” That is, they’ll go bankrupt if they don’t sell themselves or otherwise sell off major assets. Why? They’re “swimming in debt” and way over leveraged with “ugly balance sheets.” Fessler’s simple formula is all about a company’s debt ratio. When a company’s debts reach 4 times or higher its earnings (EBITDA), that’s a huge red flag. Below we have the list of 19 on the “death list” along with a copy of Fessler’s full report (describing his methodology). The interesting/troubling aspect is that 8 of the 19 are Marcellus/Utica operators–one of which is #1 for highest debt-to-earnings ratios. Some companies in the list surprised us–others did not. Is your favorite Marcellus/Utica driller in the list?…