Energy Companies

Energy Companies | Noble Energy

Noble Energy 2012 Wrap-Up: Marcellus Production, Profits Go Up
February 8, 2013February 8, 2013

Houston-based Noble Energy, one of the big drillers in the Marcellus Shale, turned a tidy profit of $1 billion in 2012 according to their year-end financial report issued yesterday. That’s double what they earned in 2011 ($453 million). They also report Marcellus Shale production was up 19% in the 4Q12 from 3Q12—to a new high of 121 million cubic feet per day (MMcfe/d). Noble has a joint venture with CONSOL Energy in the Marcellus and the JV produced 280 MMcfe/d in 2012 (see Who’s a Member of the Marcellus “1 Bcf/d” Club?).

Noble operated three drilling rigs in the Marcellus during 2012. Here’s the year-in-review update issued yesterday:

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Beck Energy | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Ohio | Regulation | Summit County

OH Appeals Court Strikes Down Home Rule for Drilling
February 7, 2013February 7, 2013

In 2012, Beck Energy Corp. got a permit from the OH Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) to drill on property located in the City of Munroe Falls (Summit County), OH. Beck started drilling and the city slapped a Stop Work Order on them and took them to court, saying Beck was not in compliance with a number of local ordinances and necessary permits. The local trial court supported Munroe Falls’ position and ruled in their favor.

Beck appealed the trial court decision to the Ohio Court of Appeals (Ninth District) and in a decision handed down yesterday, the appellate court sided with Beck and against so-called “home rule” when it comes to oil and gas drilling. The Ninth District instructed the lower court to reverse its opinion. This decision (full copy embedded below) has major consequences for both Utica Shale drillers and municipalities throughout the state…

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Antero Resources | Belmont County | Energy Companies | Lease & Royalty Payments | Ohio

Antero Offers Barnesville, OH Residents $5,700/Acre 20% Royalties
February 7, 2013February 7, 2013

Normally drillers eschew drilling under cities or villages as a practical matter. Where do you put a drilling rig? What about traffic clogging up local streets? What if you can’t get everyone (or almost everyone) to sign? And why work to sign several hundred leases for a one square mile drilling unit with all of the deed research, negotiations, etc. that come with it, when you can sign leases with three or four people (farmers with lots of acreage) in a single unit?

The prospect of dealing with hundreds of landowners is not stopping Antero Resources (see Antero Resources Goes “All In” on Marcellus/Utica) from offering the residents of Barnesville (Belmont County), OH the same deal they struck last year to lease village-owned land: $5,700 per acre as a signing bonus, and 20% royalties on production.

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Energy Companies | Ohio | PDC Energy | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

PDC Energy Dumps Piceance to Concentrate on Ohio Utica
February 7, 2013February 7, 2013

PDC Energy, formerly known as Petroleum Development Corp., announced Tuesday they are selling off “non-core” assets in the Piceance Basin (northwestern Colorado) and assets they own in northeastern Colorado for $200 million so they can invest the money in wet gas drilling in the Ohio Utica and Niobrara Shale plays.

PDC’s announcement from Tuesday:

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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

NY Comptroller Bullies Cabot O&G over Frack Fluid Disclosure
February 6, 2013February 6, 2013

Being the sole person in charge of a pot of investments worth $150 billion is an awesome responsibility—and invests that person with an enormous amount of power. Power which can (and is) abused. New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli is the sole person in charge of the New York State Common Retirement Fund and he regularly throws his weight around with the companies the fund invests in to strong-arm them into doing things they typically don’t want to do. Call it bullying (because that’s what it is).

The latest example: DiNapoli, himself an anti-driller, is crowing that he forced Cabot Oil & Gas, one of the companies the Fund invests in ($35.8 million), to “publicly disclose its policy and procedures for eliminating or minimizing the use of toxic substances in its hydraulic fracturing fluids.” Never mind that Cabot already lists the components of its fracking fluids in the FracFocus.org Chemical Disclosure Registry. Let’s not let facts get in the way of a good PR campaign.

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Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies

Chesapeake Pays $15.4M to Prevent Exodus of Top Talent
February 5, 2013February 5, 2013

Last week MDN told you the news that Chesapeake Energy founder and CEO Aubrey McClendon was given the pink slip by the Chesapeake board of directors (see Breaking: Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey McClendon Gets Pink Slip). At the time we theorized that Chesapeake may rue the day they let him go—we fully expect to see McClendon turn up again, running a new company to compete with Chesapeake. He’s young (53 years old), he’s charismatic, and he’s full of energy and determination.

Although it was pure speculation at the time, perhaps we weren’t so far off the mark. Chesapeake has awarded big (big) stock option “retention” bonuses worth $15.4 million to three members of McClendon’s leadership team to keep them right where they are—at Chesapeake:

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Antero Resources | Energy Companies

Antero Resources Goes “All In” on Marcellus/Utica
February 4, 2013February 7, 2013

Last week MDN told you we noticed references that Denver-based Antero Resources’ plans for the Marcellus Shale in 2013 would be “aggressive” (see Antero Says 2013 Plans for WV Drilling are “Aggressive”). We now know just how aggressive.

Antero’s capital budget for 2013 is $1.65 billion. They plan to spend all of it drilling in the Marcellus and Utica Shale. We’d call that “all in” on the Marcellus/Utica…

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Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Range Resources Corp | Regulation | Washington County

Robinson Twp, PA Drags Feet on Approving New Permits to Drill
February 4, 2013February 4, 2013

Why are drilling permits from Range Resources not being approved in Robinson Township (Washington County), PA? You may recall that Robinson is one of seven towns in PA that sued the State of Pennsylvania over Act 13, a new shale drilling law passed in February 2012. Robinson and the other towns object to a provision in Act 13 that replaces the right of local towns to enact zoning restrictions on oil and gas drilling and instead replace local rules with a uniform set of zoning rules from the state (see Lawsuit Filed: PA Towns Sue State over Marcellus Act 13 Law).

Robinson and the other towns went to court over the provision and won their case in the lower courts. The decision was appealed by the state all the way to the PA Supreme Court where a everyone eagerly awaits a decision (see PA Supreme Court Hears Testimony on Act 13 Zoning).

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Energy Companies | Range Resources Corp

Range Revises Unproved Resource Potential Up
February 4, 2013February 4, 2013

Range Resources has revised its unproved resource potential—how much recoverable gas they believe they have in the ground for their leased acreage—by a little bit. At the end of 2011, Range estimated their reserves at 47-66 trillion cubic feet. At the end of 2012, they’ve revised it up to 48-68 Tcf. Not a huge jump, but hey, 1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas will heat 1 million homes for 15 years, just to give you some perspective.

Here’s the announcement from Range:

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Devon Energy | Energy Companies | Utica Shale

Devon Energy Puts 240K Acres of Utica Shale Leases Up for Sale
February 1, 2013February 1, 2013

On Wednesday Devon Energy Corp. confirmed it’s selling off all of its holdings in both the Ohio Utica and Louisiana Tuscaloosa Marine Shale. Between the two shale plays, the company is hoping to raise about $3 billion. Devon’s Utica Shale holdings include 244,000 gross acres (195,000 net) in eastern Ohio in the liquids-rich portion of the play. Devon has hired Scotiabank’s Scotia Waterous (USA) Inc. M&A division to handle the sale. A map of Devon’s eastern Ohio Utica property is embedded below.

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Energy Companies | Hess

Corporate Raider Paul Singer Tries to Force Hess Out of Shale
February 1, 2013February 1, 2013

Corporate raider Paul Singer is pushing Hess Corp. to get out of shale drilling. Singer’s company, Elliott Management Corp., is one of Hess’ largest investors owning 4% of company stock. On Jan. 25, Elliott Management gave notice it’s buying another $800 million of company stock and would make a play to replace some board members in order shake up management at the company.

Hess announced earlier this week it’s selling off it’s last refinery and getting out of the refining business and will become an exploration and production company. As for selling off their operations in the Utica, Bakken or Eagle Ford Shale plays and getting out of shale? Hess CEO John Hess tells Singer, no thanks buddy…

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Atlas Energy | Chevron | CONSOL Energy | Energy Companies | EQT Corp | Pennsylvania | Range Resources Corp | Statewide PA

Top 5 Drillers in SW Pennsylvania by Number of Wells Drilled
February 1, 2013February 1, 2013

Each year the Pittsburgh Business Times ranks the “top 25” drillers in southwestern PA according to the total number of wells they’ve drilled to date in the Marcellus Shale. The 2013 list was published today.

Here’s the top five from that list—with driller name and the number of wells drilled:

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Beaver County | Economic Impact | Energy Companies | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | Shell | Statewide PA

Gov Tom Corbett: Shell Cracker Plant in PA Not “Off the Rails”
February 1, 2013February 1, 2013

Shell was supposed to purchase land in Monaca (Beaver County), PA to build a new $2 billion ethane cracker plant (a multi-year project) by Dec. 31, 2012, but instead Shell and the owner of the site signed a six-month extension to (according to a Shell spokesperson) give Shell more time to assess the site’s suitability and time to crunch the numbers to provide Shell “confirmation that the project is economically robust and competitive” (see Shell Ethane Cracker in PA Still Not a Done Deal).

The six-month delay has led to rumors that the deal for Monaca may be in doubt. Wednesday after a speech at the Marcellus Midstream Conference in Pittsburgh, PA Gov. Tom Corbett said contrary to those pesky rumors, Shell is not checking out other states to build the ethane cracker plant and that the delay in purchasing the land is due to lawyers “dotting I’s and crossing T’s.” Here’s how it played out:

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Antero Resources | Energy Companies | Harrison County | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Antero Says 2013 Plans for WV Drilling are “Aggressive”
February 1, 2013February 1, 2013

Drilling company Antero Resources continues to grow its presence and commitment to the state of West Virginia. Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin issued is 2013 annual doing business in WV report (called the West Virginia Edge Business Report) yesterday. In the report we found this interesting brief statement about Antero building a new office complex in Bridgeport:

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Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Ohio | Statewide OH

Chesapeake Wins Permit Case Before OH Supreme Court
February 1, 2013February 1, 2013

Chesapeake Energy has won an important appeal before the Ohio Supreme Court that ruled the Ohio Oil and Gas Commission did not have jurisdiction to hear an appeals case from a landowner over a permit issued to Chesapeake from the OH Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management to drill on the property. It was a case of the wrong agency sitting in judgment—the wrong “referee” if you will:

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Cambria County | Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Greene County (PA) | Hilcorp Energy | Lawrence County | Lease & Royalty Payments | Lycoming County | Pennsylvania | Pennsylvania General Energy | Washington County

PA Game Commission Gets Big Royalties on New State Land Leases
February 1, 2013February 1, 2013

The Pennsylvania Game Commission voted on Wednesday to approve oil and gas drilling agreements on state land in five PA counties—some of the deals are new and some are extensions/renewals of existing deals. That’s newsworthy in and of itself (and sure to drive anti-drillers bonkers).

The news for landowners in this story, however, is the royalty percentages for the new land deals. Some impressive numbers:

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