Energy Companies

American Energy Partners | Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies

McClendon Accuses Chesapeake of Holding LA Minerals “Hostage”
March 5, 2014March 5, 2014

This is interesting, although it doesn’t have a direct bearing on the Marcellus or Utica. It does, however, involve one of our favorite Utica Shale characters–Aubrey McClendon. Aubrey was tossed out of Chesapeake Energy, the company he founded, last year by corporate raider Carl Icahn (see McClendon Exits Chesapeake, Well-Bonused “Friends” Replace Him). Since the divorce, all has been pretty quiet on the home front between McClendon and his former company. However, McClendon and Chessy have now had their first public fight since his exit.

Aubrey wants Chessy to drill more wells in the Haynesville Shale, because he personally gets a share of the proceeds. Chessy is squeezing their drilling budget so hard they’re making the proverbial buffalo nickel poop. They don’t want to drill another dozen wells in the Haynesville. So Aubrey has gone to the regulators at Louisiana’s Office of Conservation, asking them to force Chessy to follow his drilling plan instead of their own, accusing Chessy of holding Louisiana’s minerals “hostage.” Who doesn’t love a good hostage story?…
Read More “McClendon Accuses Chesapeake of Holding LA Minerals “Hostage””
Energy Companies | Halcon Resources | Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Halcon Resources Stops Drilling, Gives Up on the Utica Shale
March 4, 2014March 4, 2014

Just last November in response to a question from an analyst about Halcon Resources’ plans for the Utica, CEO Floyd Wilson said, “Well, we won’t drill any more wells near the shitty ones we drilled already. That’s one major initiative.” (See Halcon CEO Says No More S***** Wells in Northern OH Utica.)

Not only will Halcon not drill any s***ty wells in the Utica, they’re not going to drill any more Utica wells–at least in 2014…
Read More “Halcon Resources Stops Drilling, Gives Up on the Utica Shale”
Energy Companies | Enerplus | EV Energy Partners | Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

EVEP 2014 – Still Shifting from E&P to Midstream in the Utica
March 4, 2014March 4, 2014

Quick: Which company holds the most combined Utica Shale acreage in OH & PA? Is it Chesapeake? Range? Chevron? Nope. It may surprise you that the #1 acreage holder, according to NGI’s Shale Play Factbook, is EV Energy Partners (EVEP). They own outright, or as part of joint ventures, interest in 903,000 Utica Shale acres (747,000 in OH and 156,000 in PA). MDN has long chronicled how this “accidental” Utica kingpin has been trying to unload their Utica acreage, first in big deals, later in smaller deals (see our EVEP category of stories here).

EVEP is certainly not leaving the Utica. They just want to unload the E&P part of their operation (drilling) and instead concentrate on the midstream (pipelines & processing plants). Yesterday the company issued their fourth quarter and full year 2013 update and management conducted the ubiquitous analyst phone call to explain where the company has been in 2013 and where they are heading in 2014. We have both the update and a portion of the phone call transcript below. Bottom line: More emphasis on midstream in 2014, continued Utica drilling (via jv partners like Chesapeake and EQT), and more sales of Utica acreage when/if buyers come along…
Read More “EVEP 2014 – Still Shifting from E&P to Midstream in the Utica”
Antero Resources | Energy Companies | Gulfport Energy | Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Antero Resources & Gulfport Energy’s Utica Shale High Notes
March 4, 2014March 4, 2014

In recent weeks as part of a flurry of year end and fourth quarter financial and operational reports, MDN brought you the latest news from Marcellus and Utica Shale powerhouse driller Antero Resources (see Antero Resources Keeps up the Pace in the Marcellus/Utica). We also told you the latest from Gulfport Energy, including our “takeaways” (see Gulfport Production & Profits Jump in 2013 Thanks to Utica Shale).

The Intelligencer/Wheeling News-Register reporter Casey Junkins has done a great job of summarizing the highlights from both companies–hitting the “high notes” as it were, particularly with respect to the Utica Shale–in the following update:
Read More “Antero Resources & Gulfport Energy’s Utica Shale High Notes”
Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | New York | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Public Opinion | Regulation | Statewide NY | Statewide PA | Williams

Constitution Pipeline Payments to Groups – Donations or Payola?
March 3, 2014March 3, 2014

What do you call it when a company pays money to local organizations and agencies before the project has been fully approved by federal, state and local agencies? These payments, mind you, are not fees for permits or licenses, but voluntary chunks of money offered to groups that may be affected by the project if it’s built–in this case a pipeline. Is it called, Good corporate citizenship? Being a responsible member of the local community? Or perhaps, payola?

Regardless of what you call it, the Constitution Pipeline, a desperately needed natural gas pipeline that will run from the gas fields of Susquehanna County, PA to central New York where it will connect to two major interstate pipelines, has now paid out more than $1 million in “community grants” to help build support for the pipeline. Is that a good thing, or bad? We think it’s time to have that discussion…
Read More “Constitution Pipeline Payments to Groups – Donations or Payola?”
Energy Companies | Southwestern Energy

Southwestern Energy – Full Speed Ahead in Marcellus for 2014
March 3, 2014March 3, 2014

Southwestern Energy is a large Marcellus Shale driller. According to NGI’s Shale Play Factbook, Southwestern leases 337,300 acres in the Marcellus. In 2013 Southwestern invested $872 million into their Marcellus drilling operations, drilling 108 wells. Their proved reserves in the Marcellus grew by 141% in 2013 to 1.9 trillion cubic feet. More interesting facts from Southwestern: their average completed Marcellus well cost was $7.0 million per well; the average horizontal lateral length was 4,982 feet and they used an average of 18 fracture stimulation stages per well in 2013.

Below is Southwestern’s fourth quarter and full year 2013 financial and operational update. Below the update is a portion of a recent analyst call with Southwestern’s top management. The call transcript, unsurprisingly, mentions the Marcellus Shale–a lot…
Read More “Southwestern Energy – Full Speed Ahead in Marcellus for 2014”
Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Guest Post

Guest Viewpoint – Solar Guy Knocks Chesapeake Energy
March 3, 2014March 3, 2014

Last week MDN was contacted by Robert Magyar, Managing Director at Navitus Strategies, to offer a guest viewpoint to run on MDN. We occasionally post guest articles and agreed to post Bob’s article (below). His article takes a look at Chesapeake Energy and offers the view that although Chesapeake has laid off more than a thousand people and sold off (and continues to sell off) key assets, the company is still financially unhealthy. Bob offers his reasons why (mostly from hedging agreements). He also highlights the recent and ongoing problems Chessy has with royalty payments in Pennsylvania.

In our email correspondence Bob says, “we need natural gas” and that he is not anti-drilling by any stretch. However, we would note for the record that his company, Navitus, works on alternative energy projects–primarily solar–and so it seems in his own best interests to knock the shale industry (and one of it’s most prominent players) around just a bit. With that as a preface, here is Bob’s article on Chessy “continuing to grind down,” which first appeared on the freelance article website Examiner.com:
Read More “Guest Viewpoint – Solar Guy Knocks Chesapeake Energy”
Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Range Resources Corp | Regulation | Washington County

Mt Pleasant Twp Shenanigans re Range Request for Water Ponds
February 28, 2014February 28, 2014

This is what happens when local townships create their own oil and gas zoning laws: chaos and confusion. Like that in Mt. Pleasant (Washington County), PA over water impoundments (ponds) that Range Resources wants to use for drilling in nearby townships. Mt. Pleasant was one of seven infamous anti-drilling townships that sued the state (and eventually won) to overturn the Act 13 law, a law that provided for expert, even-handed and uniform zoning practices throughout the state with regard to oil and gas drilling (see Happy Story Ends Badly Because of 7 PA Towns). What’s left in the wake of overturning Act 13 is petty squabbling by town boards ill-equipped to handle complex oil and gas oversight–i.e., Mt. Pleasant.

We’ve chronicled the long history of Range’s ongoing disagreement with Mt. Pleasant over water impoundments (see previous MDN stories on Range & Mt. Pleasant). The latest Mt. Pleasant town board shenanigan is to impose yet another delay:
Read More “Mt Pleasant Twp Shenanigans re Range Request for Water Ponds”
Antero Resources | Energy Companies

Antero Resources Keeps up the Pace in the Marcellus/Utica
February 28, 2014February 28, 2014

Antero Resources, a very big driller in both the Marcellus and Utica Shale, and owner of the (so far) best initial performing well in the Utica (see Antero Resources Utica Well Produces Stratospheric 38.9 Mmcf/d), released their fourth quarter and full year 2013 financial and operational update yesterday. It’s long, and full of information. Below is the operations portion of the update. Antero is operating 15 drilling rigs in the Marcellus and 5 rigs in the Utica. They currently have 85 wells either being drilled, or waiting to be completed. They are a seriously big Marcellus/Utica driller that should be on your radar if you have an interest in northeastern shale drilling.

Here’s a small part of the Antero update for 2013:
Read More “Antero Resources Keeps up the Pace in the Marcellus/Utica”
Crosstex Energy | Devon Energy | Energy Companies | Energy Services | EnLink Midstream | Industrywide Issues | M&A

Crosstex, Devon Name Names of Board & Leaders for New EnLink
February 28, 2014February 28, 2014

MDN has chronicled the marriage of Crosstex Energy (a midstream company) and Devon Energy’s midstream division (see Crosstex Energy Gets a Name Change, Merger with Devon Proceeds). The new entity will take on the name EnLink Midstream and will continue to have major operations in the Marcellus/Utica region. Not every t has been crossed and i dotted, yet. The two are close to tying the knot–the shareholders of both companies need to approve the deal. But it’s a foregone conclusion that the deal is happening and will happen very soon.

It comes as no surprise that the two companies have today announced who will be on the board of directors for the new EnLink operation, and who will lead it as executive management. Here is the announcement that names names for the coming EnLink when the merger is finalized:
Read More “Crosstex, Devon Name Names of Board & Leaders for New EnLink”
Energy Companies | Gulfport Energy | Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Gulfport Production & Profits Jump in 2013 Thanks to Utica Shale
February 27, 2014February 27, 2014

Gulfport Energy is one of the leading drillers in the Utica Shale, so when they issue press releases and updates, as they did yesterday, it’s news for MDN. Gulfport issued their fourth quarter and full year 2013 financial and operational update yesterday. We’re including the full thing below, which contains a fair bit of mind-numbing financial numbers (meaningful to investors and traders, not so much for the rest of us). However, sometimes you spot a few gems in all those numbers and in the narrative that accompanies them. We believe we have in this most recent update…
Read More “Gulfport Production & Profits Jump in 2013 Thanks to Utica Shale”
Energy Companies | Gulfport Energy | Ohio | Rhino Resource Partners | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Rhino Dumps the Rest of its Utica Assets in Deal with Gulfport
February 27, 2014February 27, 2014

Oil and gas deals are sometimes complicated–more complicated than we can get our brains around. That’s our disclaimer for this bit of news. In 2012 Rhino Resource Partners, a coal company, decided to get in on some of the shale action in the Utica by investing in a joint venture with Gulfport Energy and Wexford Capital (see Rhino Resource Ups Investment in Utica Shale JV). Rhino doesn’t do any of the exploration, drilling or production. It’s just a partnership granting them a piece of the revenue action in return for investing in the operation. Somewhere along the way Rhino either got cold feet, or (more likely) the company hit a rough patch and needed money, because they sold 20% of their royalty interests in the jv (see Rhino Flips 20% of Utica Investment to Undisclosed 3rd Party). Further supporting our theory the company is cash-strapped, in September last year the company tried to sell 1.1 million of “common units” (equivalent of stock) to generate money to pay back loans (see Rhino Resources Issues 1.1M Common Units to Repay Debt).

Yesterday, as part of Gulfport’s update and also in a separate announcement from Rhino, comes word that Rhino has cut a deal with Gulfport to dump the rest of its interest in the Utica jv to Gulfport for $185 million, raising what appears to be much-needed cash for Rhino. Here’s the twin announcements:
Read More “Rhino Dumps the Rest of its Utica Assets in Deal with Gulfport”
Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | Utica Shale | West Virginia

Chesapeake 2013 & Beyond: Lack of Pipelines Still a Big Problem
February 27, 2014February 27, 2014

Yesterday Chesapeake Energy issued their fourth quarter and full year 2013 operational and financial results. Chessy’s CEO, Doug “the ax” Lawler is all proud of himself for having fired over 1,200 employees, saving the company all that money (money that goes into Carl Icahn’s bank account). Whatever. For all of our disgust with what Chesapeake has become because of Icahn and his corporate raiding practices, it’s still a very important driller in the Marcellus and Utica (as well as other plays), and will continue to be so. When they issue an update, we need to pay attention, because as Chessy goes, so goes the Marcellus and Utica, in some senses.

What does yesterday’s update show? Chessy has drilled a lot of wells in the Utica–425 so far, more than half of the 747 Utica wells drilled to date in Ohio. Of those 425, 230 are online and producing, but a huge 195 wells are still waiting to be hooked up to pipelines. Lack of infrastructure is still a big issue in the Utica and in the Marcellus. In the northern Marcellus area (northeast PA) Chesapeake has 112 wells waiting to be connected to pipelines. They’ve scaled back their drilling in NEPA somewhat over the past year. In the southern Marcellus (SWPA and WV) Chesapeake has 47 wells waiting to be connected to pipelines or otherwise completed. Here’s the operations update for both the Utica and Marcellus from Chessy’s announcement yesterday:
Read More “Chesapeake 2013 & Beyond: Lack of Pipelines Still a Big Problem”
American Energy Partners | Energy Companies | Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Aubrey McClendon’s Wandering Eye: Now Loves a Second Shale Play
February 26, 2014February 26, 2014

Does Aubrey McClendon have a wandering eye? Is he a shale play philanderer? It seems to us that since Aubrey was shown to the door of his own company (Chesapeake Energy) last year by corporate raider Carl Ichan, the only word to come out of Aubrey’s mouth has been “Utica.” It’s been Utica this and Utica that. He’s now raised more than $2.9 billion (!) for Utica Shale land acquisition and drilling (see McClendon Hauls in Another $1.2B, Utica Shopping Spree Continues).

But what’s this? Another shale play–closer to home (in Oklahoma)–seems to have caught Aubrey’s fancy and he’s now engaging in a dalliance back home. He’s already raised a cool $680 million for his new shale mistress…
Read More “Aubrey McClendon’s Wandering Eye: Now Loves a Second Shale Play”
Accidents | Chevron | Energy Companies | Greene County (PA) | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania

Chevron Well Fire Update: 2nd Well Capped, Work on 7 Wells Stopped
February 26, 2014February 26, 2014

We’ve been monitoring the tragic well fire in Greene County, PA that claimed the life of one contract worker. On Sunday afternoon Chevron reports the original well to explode and catch fire, the Lanco 7H, was capped (see Greene County Chevron Well Fire: 7H Well Capped, 6H in Few Days). Chevron now reports the second well to catch fire from the first, the Lanco 6H, is also capped as of yesterday afternoon (see the announcement below). What we somehow missed in the coverage was the fallout from the fire. Last week the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection asked Chevron to suspend drilling operations at other wells in the area pending a review. Chevron responded they had already stopped drilling operations at 7 nearby wells.

Here’s the latest official announcement from Chevron (that does not mention shutting down operations on other wells), along with a story from last week about the DEP’s tete-a-tete with Chevron:
Read More “Chevron Well Fire Update: 2nd Well Capped, Work on 7 Wells Stopped”
Energy Companies | Range Resources Corp

Range Resources’ Laser Focus on the Marcellus Continues into 2014
February 26, 2014February 26, 2014

Range Resources, the first and one of the largest drillers in the Marcellus Shale, issued their fourth quarter 2013 and full year 2013 financial and operational update yesterday. Range has a lot of good news to report. They averaged 940 million cubic feet equivalent of natural gas production per day during the year, but as MDN noted in December last year, they have now exceeded 1 billion cubic feet per day average (see Range Resources Inducted into the Marcellus “1 Bcf/d Club”). Proved reserves were up for Range by 26%, to 8.2 trillion cubic feet. Cash flow was up 25%, to $943 million. Perhaps the only “bad news” was that profits in the fourth quarter were down by 47%, to $28.2 million, mainly because of the low commodity price of natural gas. Everything else appears to going quite well for this Marcellus powerhouse.

In 2014 Range plans to spend $1.52 billion on capital expenditures (drilling and associated costs). The vast majority of that–87%–will be spent in the Marcellus. They expect to boost production another 20-25% in 2014. The company is on a tear! Below are details of how many wells Range drilled in the Marcellus in 2013, and how many they plan to drill in 2014, along with loads of other details about their drilling operations…
Read More “Range Resources’ Laser Focus on the Marcellus Continues into 2014”