Energy Companies

Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Total

France Considers Lifting its Ban on Fracking
July 24, 2012July 23, 2012

Don’t look now, but one of the shining examples of an entire country that banned fracking—France—a country exalted by anti-drillers as a shining example for America to emulate, is considering…lifting the ban! That’s right, the new French government, which is Socialist to the point of being Communist, sees all of the jobs being created by shale drilling in the U.S.—and they’re lusting for it.

Faced with keeping the ban to placate the greens, or lift the ban and embrace safe drilling and reap thousands of new jobs, the new Socialist French government is leaning toward the later. C’est la vie.

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Energy Companies | Reliance Industries

India’s RIL: Shale Gas a Major Contributor to Revenue by 2015
July 24, 2012July 23, 2012

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), India’s largest private company of any kind and an energy giant, made three investments two years ago in U.S. shale plays via joint ventures—two of them in the Marcellus and one in the Eagle Ford. The company said in a recent analyst presentation those investments are starting to pay off and they expect their shale gas volumes to grow at an annual rate of 50% by 2015. If it does, it will contribute 8-10% of RIL’s earnings. That’s a pretty big deal—from nothing to contributing 8-10% inside of five years for the largest company in India.

An update on RIL’s three U.S. shale joint ventures:

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Energy Companies | Norse Energy

Norse Stock Options for Key People: Something in the Wind?
July 23, 2012July 23, 2012

Norse Energy, a driller who has gambled on New York State allowing hydraulic fracturing (and has so far lost that gamble), just awarded stock options to a few key employees, including the CEO, CFO, Chief Legal Officer (CLO), and several vice presidents. Typically an organization floats stock options to key people in order to keep them from jumping ship before the company either hits it big or sells out to another company.

Is Norse considering a sale of the entire company? MDN doesn’t have a clue. If they are, it likely would not happen for at least a year or two—long enough for the New York moratorium on fracking to be lifted and for drilling to begin. Once that happens, Norse believes they will be in the pole position—perhaps even first in line—to receive permits to drill in the Marcellus and Utica Shale. And what better time to sell than that?! When the moratorium is lifted, if Norse receives many or even most of the permits to drill, their stock will soar.

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Accidents | Chevron | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Marshall County | Ohio County | West Virginia

Chevron Restarts Production for Some WV Wells after Accident
July 23, 2012July 23, 2012

Chevron previously purchased a number of leases and drilling operations in Marshall and Ohio counties in West Virginia. But they halted production for their WV operations earlier this year after a well exploded near Moundsville to conduct a top to bottom safety review and ensure the newly acquired operations met Chevron’s high safety standards.

Although the review is ongoing, it’s been completed in some areas and wells in Marshall County are now starting to come back online.

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Crawford County | Energy Companies | Pennsylvania | Range Resources Corp

Crawford County, PA First Shale Well Drilled in Utica
July 20, 2012July 20, 2012

Range Resources has begun drilling a Utica Shale well in Crawford County, PA (northwest corner of the state), which is the very first shale well—Utica or Marcellus—to be drilled in Crawford County. But it’s not the only well they plan to drill.

An update on what’s known about Range’s plans for Crawford:

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Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Ohio | Stark County

How Many Chesapeake Employees will Stay in Canton, OH?
July 19, 2012July 19, 2012

Earlier this week, MDN highlighted the announcement that Chesapeake Energy has chosen Louisville, Ohio to build a new field office (think regional headquarters) on a 291-acre site in the Beck Industrial Commerce Center (see this MDN story).

Chesapeake currently has employees working out of several offices in the City of Canton (which is about 7 miles from Louisville). They also have employees in other offices in the surrounding region—approximately 400 workers total. About half of them (~200) work in offices in Canton. Canton city officials worked hard to get Chesapeake to build their regional HQ there, but in the end, Canton didn’t have a spot large enough for the consolidated operation.

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Energy Companies | Hess | Jefferson County (OH) | Ohio | Utica Shale

Hess’ Utica Plans: Operate 3 Rigs, Complete 10 Wells in 2012
July 19, 2012July 19, 2012

Hess will open its Steubenville, Ohio field office next week, a million dollar investment. The grand opening will be a low-key affair with a few area politicians and invited guests. Hess likes to avoid publicity.

Hess Operations Manager Joaquin Martinez, speaking at Tuesday’s Partners in Progress meeting in Steubenville about the grand opening, said that Hess has already spent $1.2 billion on the Utica Shale—$770 million to acquire Marquette Exploration, and $500 million on a joint venture with Consol Energy. He also had this to say about their short-term Utica Shale drilling plans:

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Anadarko | Energy Companies | EnerVest | Guernsey County | Hess | Muskingum County | Noble County | Ohio | Utica Shale

Utica Shale Permits/Drilling Expand in Eastern Ohio
July 18, 2012July 18, 2012

The latest stats for Utica Shale drilling in the three-county region of Muskingum, Guernsey and Noble in Ohio: Guernsey County now has 12 permits, 2 of which are already producing natural gas. Muskingum County has 3 permits. And Noble County has 12 permits, 7 of which are currently being drilled.

Statewide, the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) has issued 285 horizontal Utica Shale drilling permits, with 92 wells drilled, 14 of those wells now producing.

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Crawford County | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Range Resources Corp | Utica Shale

Crawford County, PA First Utica Shale Well Fracked
July 18, 2012July 18, 2012

Crawford County, PA, a county in the northwest corner of the state bordering Ohio, is about to have its first Utica Shale well (in fact, its first shale well of any kind) fracked by the driller who started the shale revolution in the Marcellus: Range Resources.

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Energy Companies | Hilcorp Energy | Lease & Royalty Payments | Mahoning County | Ohio

Campbell, OH Leases Town Land for $5K/20% to Hilcorp
July 17, 2012July 17, 2012

The Campbell, Ohio council voted Monday to lease 167 owned by the town to Hilcorp Energy for $5,000 per acre and 20% royalties on any gas produced.

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Energy Companies | Penn Virginia Corporation | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Penn Virginia Sells Appalachian Drilling, Closes Office
July 17, 2012July 17, 2012

Penn Virginia announced today it’s selling off all of its Appalachian drilling operations—except for its Marcellus Shale drilling operations—for $100 million. They are also closing their Canonsburg, PA regional office. Why the sale? They want to get out of debt and plow the proceeds into drilling in the Marcellus and in the oily parts of the Eagle Ford Shale play.

Reading between the lines it sounds like a move away from dry gas and toward wet gas areas.

Read More “Penn Virginia Sells Appalachian Drilling, Closes Office”
Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Lease & Royalty Payments | Ohio | Statewide OH

Chesapeake Seeks to Change Terms of OH Leases Already Signed
July 16, 2012July 16, 2012

According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, Chesapeake Energy is attempting to change the terms of leases with Ohio landowners—after the leases were signed. One of the issues faced by Chesapeake is that they have signed, or purchased, a lot of leases in Ohio’s Utica Shale (and other shale plays for that matter). In Ohio, it amounts to leases for about 5% of Ohio’s total land area.

In order to fulfill their end of the bargain, Chesapeake must drill wells on all that land within a certain period of time—usually within five years. At least one well must be drilled on a “unit,” usually defined as 640 acres of land, or one square mile. Multiple landowner properties are usually part of a single unit.

But Chesapeake has a problem: cash. They don’t have enough of it right now to drill all of those units to “hold” them. So they’re redefining the unit—they now want a unit to be two square miles in stead of one square mile.

Read More “Chesapeake Seeks to Change Terms of OH Leases Already Signed”
Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Ohio | Stark County | Utica Shale

Chesapeake to Build Utica Shale Field Office Near Canton, OH
July 16, 2012July 16, 2012

Chesapeake Energy will build a new Utica Shale “field office” on a 291-acre site in Louisville, OH—in Stark County, just east of Canton, OH.

Read More “Chesapeake to Build Utica Shale Field Office Near Canton, OH”
BP | Economic Impact | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Ohio | Statewide OH

BP CEO Visits Ohio to Talk About Shale Drilling
July 16, 2012July 16, 2012

The CEO of BP, Bob Dudley, visited Cleveland last Friday to talk about BP’s massive investment in Ohio’s Utica Shale—and what that investment will mean in the way of jobs for Ohio. He also had an eye-opening statement about just how much energy is currently being produced from shale plays in the U.S.

Read More “BP CEO Visits Ohio to Talk About Shale Drilling”
Bucks County | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Turm Oil

SE PA’s First Shale Gas Well Stopped by New Moratorium
July 16, 2012July 16, 2012

The new moratorium on shale gas drilling in southeastern Pennsylvania, instituted as a last-minute political ploy by none other than Republicans in the latest state budget (see this MDN story), has claimed its first victim. An exploratory gas well in the South Newark Basin (Bucks County) due to be drilled by Turm Oil has been denied a permit by the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection.

Read More “SE PA’s First Shale Gas Well Stopped by New Moratorium”
CONSOL Energy | Energy Companies | Pennsylvania | Westmoreland County

CONSOL Operations Update: Westmoreland, PA Well Hits 17.9 Mmcfd
July 13, 2012July 13, 2012

CONSOL Energy, a large coal and natural gas company heavily invested in the Marcellus and Utica Shale region, released an operational update today. The big news is that one of the Marcellus Shale wells CONSOL has just completed in Westmoreland County, PA—the Gaut 4A well—produced an astonishing peak rate of 17.9 million cubic feet of natural gas in a single 24-hour period. The highest ever for a CONSOL gas well.

The operational update below outlines CONSOL’s activities in the second quarter of this year for the Marcellus and Utica Shale, and provides forecasts for what they plan in the third quarter, including details of their joint ventures with Noble and Hess.

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