Energy Companies

Energy Companies | Hess | Ohio | Statewide OH

Hess Buys NatGas Contracts Division of Delta Energy
September 18, 2012September 18, 2012

Energy giant Hess Corp. announced yesterday it is buying the natural gas marketing division of Delta Energy. Delta is based in Dublin, Ohio. What Hess is buying are energy contracts—the right to sell natural gas to a certain list of commercial and industrial customers. Hess is a huge company with operations that span upstream (drilling new wells) to midstream (pipelines, processing and terminals) to downstream (selling oil and gas to end user customers). Hess owns leases for 185,000 Utica Shale acres in Ohio and seems to be making moves to increase its presence in the state for all of its operations.

More on the Hess purchase from Delta:

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Energy Companies | EnerVest | Ohio | Statewide OH

EnerVest Puts 539,000 Utica Shale Acres on Auction Block
September 17, 2012September 17, 2012

EnerVest has put leases for 539,000 Utica Shale acres in Ohio on the auction block and hopes to get more than $6 billion dollars for it. That would be something north of $11,000 per acre. Pretty optimistic, but hey, you never know!

Apparently EnerVest is the accidental energy company who just happened to amass a 3/4 of a million acres of leases some time ago and now wants to take advantage by selling some of it. From the Wall Street Journal:

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Columbia Pipeline Group | Columbiana County | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Hilcorp Energy | Industrywide Issues | Lease & Royalty Payments | Litigation | Ohio

Columbia Gas & Hilcorp Meet with Landowners in Brinker Field
September 17, 2012September 17, 2012

More than 50 years ago, landowners in a 35,000 acre area of Columbiana County, Ohio signed a lease with Columbia Gas that allows Columbia to store natural gas supplies in the Berea Sandstone formation. Known as the Brinker property back then, today it’s referred to as the Brinker Storage Field. The lease that was signed, and passed on to new landowners purchasing “Brinker” property, means landowners won’t see a penny from drilling that’s about to begin on their property by Hilcorp Energy (see this MDN story for more background). Columbia Gas will keep all of the signing bonus and royalty money for itself. Unless…

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CNX Resources | CONSOL Energy | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Mahoning County | Ohio

CNX Gas Starts Utica Well in Meander Reservoir Watershed
September 14, 2012September 14, 2012

The third Utica Shale well to be drilled in Mahoning County, Ohio is set to begin any day now. The well is being drilled by CNX Gas (subsidiary of CONSOL Energy). While the fact that a new well is being drilled may not seem like news (it’s the third well to be drilled in Mahoning County), where it’s being drilled in the county is big news: in the watershed of the Meander Reservoir, which provides drinking water to 300,000 people in the Mahoning Valley.

When completed, this will be a great example of the fact that drilling and fracking is safe—even in watershed areas (pay attention New York):

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Energy Companies | EOG Resources | Noble Energy | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Talisman Energy

Drillers Talk about Marcellus Advantage over Other Shales
September 14, 2012September 14, 2012

Interfax Energy’s Natural Gas Daily ran a highly interesting and useful article on the advantages of the Marcellus Shale, why it’s attracting capital investments, along with who is ramping up and who is scaling back drilling in the Marcellus.

Among the points made in the article:

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Chesapeake Energy | Chevron | Energy Companies | Energy Services | EnerVest | Global Infrastructure Partners | Shell | SWEPI

Chesapeake Sells Permian Basin, Midstream Assets for $6.9B
September 12, 2012September 12, 2012

Although we’ve known for a while that the embattled Chesapeake Energy has been shopping some of it’s shale basin and other assets in order to pay down debt, they’ve made a huge announcement today. Chesapeake has sold most of its Permian Basin acreage along with “substantially all of its midstream” assets for $6.9 billion. The buyers for the Permian were Shell, Chevron and EnerVest. Most of Chesapeake’s remaining midstream assets were sold to Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP).

Chesapeake previously announced they would sell off assets in areas where they were not number one or two in an attempt to repay loans and concentrate their drilling in core areas. Two of the core areas where Chesapeake is sticking around are the Marcellus and Utica Shale.

From the Chesapeake Energy press release:

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

Barnesville, OH Signs Lease with Antero, Receives $6M
September 12, 2012September 12, 2012

The Village of Barnesville, OH (Belmont County) just signed a lease with Antero Resources to allow shale drilling on 1,047 village-owned acres. The village now has an additional $6 million in revenue because of it.

Here’s the details about the deal, including the per-acre price and royalty percentage (some of the highest we’ve seen):

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Energy Companies | Gale Force Petroleum | Marshall County | West Virginia | Wetzel County

Gale Force Petroleum Marcellus Update for 2 WV Counties
September 12, 2012September 12, 2012

Gale Force Petroleum issued an operations update today about their Marcellus drilling activities in Wetzel and Marshall counties in West Virginia. Gale Force says the wells they’ve drilled, in wet gas areas, are producing in excess of 60 barrels of oil equivalent per day (BOEPD) of natural gas liquids in the Marcellus. They expect that number to grow.

Gale Force also says they’ve drilled 15 wells to date and have plans to drill another 50-100 wells on the 10,000 acres they’ve leased over the next three years. From the Gale Force press release:

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Carrizo Oil & Gas | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Taxation

Carizzo’s Missing Impact Fee Payment – Scofflaw?
September 11, 2012September 11, 2012

Yesterday the Pennsylvania State Public Utility Commission (PUC), the agency in charge of assessing and collecting the new Marcellus Shale Impact Fee, released the figures showing which drillers were assessed the fee, the number of both vertical and horizontal wells they drilled, and most importantly, how much they were assessed and how much they’ve paid (see this MDN story).

One particular company stands out among the list: Carizzo Oil & Gas. They stand out because the PUC says they’ve paid exactly $0 of the $3,060,000 they owe in impact fees. The The Harrisburg Patriot-News calls them a scofflaw and chronicles the back and forth they’ve had with both Carrizo and the PUC over the missing payment:

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Energy Companies | Southwestern Energy

Southwestern Selects the Marcellus to Fuel Future Growth
September 11, 2012September 11, 2012

More great analysis from Richard Zeits. Writing on the Seeking Alpha website, Zeits looks in-depth at Southwestern Energy and their plans for the Marcellus Shale. Southwestern’s CEO, Steven Mueller, spoke at length at an industry conference last week about his company’s plans for the rest of this year and next. Zeits took great notes and he re-creates much of that presentation.

Southwestern has a huge position in the Fayetteville Shale basin, so it may surprise some that the Marcellus, where Southwestern had zero production just a year and a half ago, is the horse they’ve selected to ride for future growth. Zeits’ analysis of Mueller’s presentation starts this way:

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Accidents | Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County

Fracking Opponents Craig & Julie Sautner Sell, Leave Dimock
September 10, 2012September 28, 2012

Dimock Proud, a group of homeowners in and around Dimock, PA who have banded together to defend their town’s reputation against mainstream media news attacks painting the area as a contaminated wasteland, report that two residents who have been among the most vocal critics against drilling and against Cabot Oil & Gas, Craig and Julie Sautner, have settled their lawsuit with Cabot and have left town.

This is an email MDN received from Dimock Proud on Saturday:

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CNX Resources | CONSOL Energy | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pipelines | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

CONSOL Exec Says Utica Pipelines are Critical Need
September 10, 2012September 10, 2012

Harry Schurr, general manager of Utica operations for CONSOL Energy’s CNX Gas, puts pipelines at the top of his wish list for what he needs in the Utica Shale. Schurr made the following comments a day after the NEXUS Gas Transmission was announced last week:

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CNX Resources | CONSOL Energy | Energy Companies | Mahoning County | Ohio

CNX/CONSOL to Drill Second Well in Mahoning County, OH
September 10, 2012September 10, 2012

CNX Gas, the wholly-owned subsidiary of CONSOL Energy, was just granted a second permit to drill a horizontal well in Mahoning County, Ohio:

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Chesapeake Energy | Encana Energy | Energy Companies

Encana Says Investigation Shows No Collusion with Chesapeake
September 6, 2012September 6, 2012

Back in June, Reuters somehow, magically, got ahold of private personal property (emails) from Chesapeake Energy and Encana Corp. Encana is Canada’s largest natural gas company. Reuters attempted to put the two companies on trial in the court of public opinion for “colluding” to keep prices down on leases in Michigan (see this MDN story). MDN still wonders, did Reuters break the law or aid and abet laws being broken in getting those emails?

But no attention is being paid to the mighty Reuters. No, the intended affect was accomplished: a plethora of investigations by various organizations began, not least of which is an ongoing investigation by the Obama Justice Department (see this MDN story). Encana did their own internal investigation by brining in outside help and the results are in from that investigation: Encana says they’re not guilty of colluding with Chesapeake.

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BP | Columbiana County | Energy Companies | Lease & Royalty Payments | Ohio

BP Landmen Very Active in Columbiana County, OH
September 5, 2012September 5, 2012

More evidence of BP expanding their lease purchases in Ohio: Gunter Land Services, a landman agent for BP, has set up offices in Lisbon, Canton and Poland, OH. BP has also set up offices in Warren, OH. The landmen are actively canvassing landowners in the area in hopes of stringing together a new large block of acreage that BP can begin drilling “sometime next year.”

From the Youngstown Business Journal:

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

Another Gulfport Utica Well in Harrison County Coming Online
September 5, 2012September 5, 2012

Gulfport yesterday reported initial peak results for its Utica Shale well called Boy Scout 1-33H, located in Deersville (Harrison County, OH). Although the flow rates are not as great as Gulport’s recently reported “alpha dog” well, the Wagner 1-H, also in Harrison County (see this MDN story), the new Boy Scout 1-33H is turning in respectable numbers:

Read More “Another Gulfport Utica Well in Harrison County Coming Online”