Energy Companies

Carrizo Oil & Gas | Energy Companies

Carrizo 3Q12: Record Revenue, Slight Loss, 1 Marcellus Rig
November 7, 2012November 7, 2012

Carrizo Oil & Gas released their third quarter financial and operational update yesterday. The company, with drilling operations in the Marcellus and other shale plays, reported record revenue of $96.2 million in 3Q12 with a net loss of just under $1 million. The update says Carrizo plans to continue operating one drilling rig in the Marcellus, in northeastern PA, during the fourth quarter. They also say the Eagle Ford Shale is their primary focus for new investment.

Carrizo recently brought online 10 new wells in the Marcellus in Wyoming County, PA. The 10 wells are producing a collective 50 million cubic feet of natural gas per day on average. Highlights from the Carrizo 3Q12 update:

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Energy Companies | Statewide WV | Stone Energy | West Virginia

Stone Energy 3Q12: Income Down, Revenue Up, Marcellus Expands
November 7, 2012November 7, 2012

Stone Energy reported third quarter results yesterday. The company’s 3Q12 net income was down about half of what it was in 3Q11 (to $23.7 million), but overall revenue was higher—$226.7 million in 3Q12 vs. $209.3 million for 3Q11. The company reports drilling a total of 59 horizontal wells in the Marcellus Shale so far, 17 of them this year (in West Virginia). Of the 59 wells, 35 of them are currently producing.

Highlights from the Stone 3Q12 report:

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Energy Companies | Gulfport Energy | Harrison County | Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Gulfport Energy 3Q12: Profits Up, Drilled 5 New Utica Wells
November 7, 2012November 7, 2012

Gulfport Energy Corporation, a company that has two of the highest producing natural gas wells in the Ohio Utica Shale, released their third quarter financial and operational update yesterday. Counter to most other large drillers, Gulfport showed a slight profit in 3Q12—of $0.5 million—on $60.5 million in revenue. If not for some income tax expenses their net income for 3Q12 would have been $16 million.

In the 3Q12 update we get production details for a sixth horizontal well drilled by Gulfport in the Utica—the BK Stephens 1-16H well (in Harrison County, OH), which is producing an initial 1,224 barrels of condensate per day, 6.9 million cubic feet of natural gas per day, and 759 barrels of natural gas liquids per day.

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Energy Companies | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County | WPX Energy

WPX 3Q12: $64M Net Loss, But Production in Marcellus up 333%
November 6, 2012November 6, 2012

WPX Energy, a company formed in January 2011 by Williams (created by spinning off the Williams exploration and production division) released their third quarter financial and operational update last week. The report losing $64 million in 3Q12. Most of WPX’s operations and focus has been in plays other than the Marcellus, including a big focus on the Bakken Shale, where they drill for oil, and the Piceance Basin in northwestern Colorado where they drill for wet natural gas.

In comparison, the Marcellus (where they drill for dry natural gas) is much smaller. However, the Marcellus was the only natural gas play in which WPX has production where the numbers went up in 3Q12. Production in the Piceance, Powder River Basin and San Juan Basin all went down between 7% and 16%. The Marcellus? Up an astonishing 333% from 3Q11 (although the overall numbers are still pretty small, see below). WPX reports they have drilled and completed 28 wells in the Marcellus so far in 2012—all of them in Susquehanna County, PA. They have two rigs operating in the Marcellus.

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Antero Resources | Energy Companies

Antero Resources Sells Piceance Assets, Now Focused on NE
November 5, 2012November 5, 2012

Antero Resources announced today they are selling off 61,000 acres of leases and 30 miles of pipeline, along with other assets, in the Piceance Basin (pronounced “pee awns”, located in northwestern Colorado) for $325 million in cash to an unnamed private company.

The fact Antero is selling assets elsewhere would not normally be news for MDN—except this time. Why? The reason they’re selling it is to invest the money in more drilling in the Marcellus and Utica Shale. With the sale of the Piceance, and earlier this year the sale of their Arkoma Basin assets, Antero is now totally focused on the Appalachian (Marcellus/Utica) basin.

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

Chesapeake Energy Still in Love with Utica Shale
November 5, 2012November 6, 2012

Even though Chesapeake Energy posted a $2.1 billion loss for the third quarter, in an analyst call on Friday, Chesapeake CEO Aubrey McClendon (“bad boy” poster child for anti-drillers) said he’s thrilled with the results the company is getting from the Utica Shale.

Here’s a recap of what McClendon and other top Chesapeake executives’ said on Friday about the Utica:

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Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies

Chesapeake 3Q12: $2.1B Net Loss, NGL/Oil Production Way Up
November 2, 2012November 2, 2012

The U.S.’ second largest natural gas producer and most active driller, Chesapeake Energy, released their third quarter earnings and operations report yesterday. The update contains both good and bad. The media will no doubt focus on the bad: Chesapeake posted a $2.1 billion net loss for the quarter mostly due to lower natural gas prices and the need to write down certain assets. But there are signs the company is turning around both financially and operationally.

For some time Chesapeake has focused their activity on liquids-rich plays, and the latest 3-month period reflects it. Chesapeake’s average daily natural gas liquids (NGL) production in 3Q12 was 143,000 barrels/day, an increase of 51% from the same period last year, up 10% from the previous quarter. (Chesapeake’s NGL production represents 21% of their overall production.) Average daily oil production in 3Q12 increased a whopping 96% from the same period last year—up 21% from the previous quarter—to 97,800 barrels/day. And natural gas production in 3Q12 increased 24% from the same period last year—up 9% from the previous quarter—to 4.142 billion cubic feet per day.

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Energy Companies | Southwestern Energy

Southwestern 3Q12: $145M Net Loss, Production is Up
November 2, 2012November 2, 2012

Southwestern Energy reported its third quarter financials and operations update yesterday. As with many other shale drillers, Southwestern posted a net loss for the quarter. Southwestern’s loss for 3Q12 was $144.8 million. Why? They blame low natural gas prices. Southwestern CEO Steve Mueller says the “main drivers” for the business are moving in the right direction—and that includes a “rapid ascent in activity and production” in the Marcellus Shale. Southwestern currently has 50 producing Marcellus wells, an additional 44 wells waiting for completion or to be hooked to a pipeline, and another 34 currently being drilled. They use four drilling rigs in the Marcellus.

Below are relevant sections of Southwestern’s lengthy 3Q12 update, including the operations update for the Marcellus:

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Anadarko | Commodity Price | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues

Anadarko: Gas Must be $4 Mcf Before More Marcellus Drilling
November 1, 2012November 1, 2012

An interesting comment yesterday from Anadarko Petroleum’s CEO about where price levels for natural gas have to be before he’s willing to commit more money for dry gas drilling. The magic number for Anadarko is $5 per thousand cubic feet (Mcf). Equally interesting was a comment by the VP of E&P that for the Marcellus Shale, the magic number is $4 per Mcf—because drilling in the Marcellus costs less than other plays. The current price of natural gas on the Nymex is currently $3.70 (as of this morning).

Until prices improve, Anadarko will stick to drilling in wet gas areas and not invest in Marcellus drilling. Here’s what Anadarko’s executives said yesterday on an earnings call:

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Energy Companies | Guernsey County | Gulfport Energy | Harrison County | Ohio

Gulfport Energy Releases New Production Numbers for OH Wells
November 1, 2012November 1, 2012

Gulfport Energy is one of the few Marcellus and Utica Shale drillers who regularly reports on production results for its new wells (something we appreciate!). MDN told previously told you about Gulfport’s “King” of Utica wells, the Shugert 1-1H in Belmont County, Ohio, which produced 20 million cubic feet of natural per day, 144 barrels of condensate per day, and 2,002 barrels of natural gas liquids per day (see this MDN story).

Yesterday Gulfport released numbers for more new wells in Harrison and Guernsey counties in Ohio. Although the methane output of the wells is not spectacular, the condensate and natural gas liquids output is noteworthy. Here’s the latest report from Gulfport:

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Atlas Energy | Energy Companies

Atlas 3Q12: $10.1M Loss, Connected More PA Marcellus Wells
November 1, 2012November 1, 2012

Atlas Resource Partners, with some drilling operations in the Marcellus, reported the company lost $10.1 million for third quarter 2012. As part of their update Atlas reports making moves into other shale plays, picking up acreage in the Mississippi Lime play (in northwest Oklahoma). Atlas picked up acreage in the Barnett Shale in April of this year.

The only reference to the Marcellus in the update was that Atlas brought online some “additional legacy Marcellus Shale wells connected in southwestern Pennsylvania” during 3Q12. Here’s the full 3Q12 update:

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Blue Ridge Mtn Res/Magnum Hunter | Energy Companies | Triad Hunter

Triad Hunter Success: From 750 to 15,000 BOE/D in 2 Years
November 1, 2012November 1, 2012

Two years after Magnum Hunter bought out Triad Energy Resources, Triad is flourishing in the Marcellus and Utica Shale of Ohio and West Virginia. The company has gone from producing 750 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) to more than 15,000 boe/d. Triad just bought out another company (Viking International Resources, see this MDN story) and has added an additional 51,500 acres in WV and OH to their drilling portfolio.

Here’s the lowdown on the incredible success story of the company now called Triad Hunter:

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Endeavour International | Energy Companies | SM Energy

Endeavour 3Q12: Income Way Up, Land Swap for Marcellus Acres
November 1, 2012November 1, 2012

A relatively young independent oil and gas company (started in 2004), Endeavour International, continues its rapid growth as reported in their third quarter financial and operational update. Endeavour has a large oil drilling operation in the North Sea. They also have a natural gas drilling presence in the Pennsylvania Marcellus Shale.

According to the 3Q12 update, Endeavour now owns about 31,000 acres in the Marcellus Shale leases (see the release below). However, last year Endeavour had a deal with SM Energy to purchase SM’s Marcellus acreage, which would have added 50,000 additional acres to their Marcellus portfolio (see this MDN story). For no publicly stated reason, Endeavour bailed out of the deal and SM threatened to sue last December (see this MDN story).

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1st NRG | Energy Companies | Utica Shale

1st NRG Corp Gets $7M Loan to Begin Drilling in Utica, Other Plays
November 1, 2012November 1, 2012

The Ohio Utica Shale’s newest entrant, 1st NRG Corporation, previously announced they would drill on 7,150 acres of the Utica Shale in eastern Ohio (see this MDN story). Yesterday they announced they have secured a $7 million loan which will help finance the drilling.

1st NRG’s announcement is, frankly, a lot of fluff aimed at reassuring investors. It’s big on broad descriptions of the shale plays where they plan to drill, but absent details about how and when that drilling will take place. Here’s the 1st NRG announcement:

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Anadarko | Energy Companies

Anadarko 3Q12 Update: Lowered Marcellus Well Cost by $1.5M
October 31, 2012October 31, 2012

Anadarko Petroleum reported third quarter results on Monday. Anadarko is an independent exploration and production (E&P) company—a very large one—with a good deal of drilling in the Marcellus Shale. Third quarter revenues were $3.33 billion for the company, up 4.2% on the year.

In their operations update (MDN has extracted the Marcellus/Utica Shale portion below), Anadarko reports they’ve lowered drilling costs by $1.5 million per well since 2011. It now costs them an average $2.3 million to drill a Marcellus Shale well. They also report encouraging results in targeting the shallower Geneseo Shale with plans for drilling the Geneseo in 2013.

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Antero Resources | Doddridge County | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | MarkWest Energy | Pipelines | Processing Plants | Statewide WV | West Virginia

MarkWest Opens Sherwood I Wet Gas Processing Facility in WV
October 31, 2012October 31, 2012

MarkWest, a huge midstream (pipeline & processing facilities) company and Antero Resources, a Marcellus Shale driller, inked a deal in May 2012 for MarkWest to gather and process Antero’s wet gas, or natural gas liquids in West Virginia (see this MDN story).

MarkWest announced today the first phase of that deal is now online with the commencement of operations at the Sherwood I facility in Doddridge County, WV. The Sherwood I facility has the capacity to process 200 million cubic feet per day of wet gas. MarkWest is building Sherwood II now, which would add an additional 200 Mmcf/d of capacity. Eventually a third Sherwood facility may be built for a total capacity of 600 Mmcf/d.

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