Energy Companies

BP | Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Lease & Royalty Payments | Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

An Update on Ohio’s Utica Shale – Facts & Figures
September 5, 2012September 5, 2012

An article in Crain’s Cleveland Business yesterday takes a look at the pattern of investment in the Utica Shale play in Ohio. According to the article, the Utica follows the same model found in other areas of the world: First smaller independent oil and gas companies invest doing the “retail” work of going house to house to get leases signed. They may even drill a few wells. But soon after, larger o&g companies, the “majors” descend and buy up many of those investments.

The article shares some interesting facts and figures about the current status of investment and development of the Utica in Ohio, among them:

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Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Economic Impact | Energy Companies | Health Impacts | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County

Cabot Effort Raises $4.4 Million for PA Physicians Clinic [Free]
September 5, 2012September 5, 2012

Earlier this year, Cabot Oil & Gas committed to donate up to $2 million to help fund building a new physicians clinic and hospital for the Montrose, PA area (see this MDN story).

This is “the rest of the story” as Paul Harvey used to say. Cabot indeed contributed an initial $1 million and then worked hard to encourage others to give. Local businesses and organizations like the VFW stepped up with big contributions and gave $1.2 million on top of Cabot’s initial $1 million. Cabot then went above and beyond, matching their donations with another $1.2 million! In addition, the Weinberg Foundation wrote a check for $1 million too. Total raised? $4.4 million. (Be sure to watch the video below.)

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Energy Companies | Stone Energy

Stone Energy CEO Gives Marcellus Update at Barclays Event
September 5, 2012September 5, 2012

Dave Welch, Chairman, President and CEO of Stone Energy presented at the Barclays Capital CEO Energy-Power Conference yesterday. In his prepared remarks, Mr. Welch had a fair bit to say about Stone’s drilling activities and future plans for the Marcellus and Utica Shale (variously called Appalachia and the Devonian shale below).

Among his remarks: Stone has drilled 55 Marcellus Shale wells to date, 25 of which are currently online and producing about 56 million cubic feet of natural gas per day. They have another 200 drilling locations in Marcellus/Utica wet gas areas. For now, they’re going to stick with one drilling rig in the Marcellus region because it’s “gotten so efficient.”

Here’s a transcript (courtesy of Seeking Alpha) of Mr. Welch’s comments relevant to the Marcellus and Utica region:

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Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

New Production Milestone Achieved by Cabot Oil & Gas
September 5, 2012September 5, 2012

Cabot Oil & Gas CEO Dan Dinges released a statement yesterday highlighting a new milestone just achieved by the driller: Natural gas production for Cabot averaged over 700 million cubic feet per day (Mmcf) for the last two weeks, reaching as high as 752 Mmcf during one 24-hour period. Cabot is one of the largest producers in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale.

From the press release:

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Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Lease & Royalty Payments | Marshall County | Ohio County | West Virginia

Royalty Checks Coming for Landowners in WV Panhandle
August 31, 2012August 31, 2012

Landowners who leased with Chesapeake Energy and who live in Ohio and Marshall counties in West Virginia’s northern panhandle may soon have big smiles on their faces. Chesapeake is turning on the gas to pipelines in those locations, and once the gas starts flowing, so too will royalty checks.

How soon should landowners expect their first checks?

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Devon Energy | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Roads | Wayne County (OH)

Devon Signs Road Repair Agreement with Wayne County, OH
August 31, 2012August 31, 2012

Devon Energy has signed an iron-clad agreement with Wayne County, Ohio to repair any damage caused by heavy trucks to roadways and bridges in the county from their drilling activities. A meeting on Tuesday night in Fredericksburg, OH was standing-room only as officials and local residents assembled to hear about the agreement.

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Bradford County | Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Pennsylvania

Chesapeake Updates Towanda, PA Landowners on Future Plans
August 30, 2012August 30, 2012

Chesapeake Energy Landowner Relations Manager Andy Travis held a meeting for landowners in the Towanda, PA (Bradford County) area Tuesday night to update them on Chesapeake’s future drilling plans for the Towanda area. Among his comments:

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Energy Companies | Equinor/Statoil

Norway’s Statoil Shopping for More Shale Acreage in U.S.
August 30, 2012August 30, 2012

Reuters is reporting that Norwegian energy giant Statoil is on the hunt for more shale acreage in the U.S. Does that mean Statoil is looking to pick up more acreage in the Marcellus or Utica Shale area?

“Way back” in 2008, Statoil purchased a 32.5% interest in Chesapeake Energy’s Marcellus Shale acreage, buying them 600,000 net acres at the time (according to the MDN’s Marcellus and Utica Shale Databook, Vol. 1). But just a few months ago, MDN reported that Statoil was moving away from “dry gas” areas and to “wet gas” and “oily” areas, like the North Dakota’s Bakken Shale (see this MDN story).

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Earthquakes | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Questerre Energy | Utica Shale

Canadian Questerre Energy Says Fracking Causes Tiny Earthquakes
August 30, 2012August 30, 2012

It seems that every month or two someone resurrects a very dead issue: fracking causes earthquakes. MDN has covered the issue extensively over time (just do a quick MDN search on the word earthquake). In a nutshell, the only known instance when the process of fracking a shale gas well has caused an earthquake detectable on the surface was in England, and it was a unique situation where the drilling was shallow and near a geologic fault (see this MDN story).

Canadian energy company Questerre Energy Corporation is working to develop Utica Shale acreage in the St. Lawrence Lowlands area of Quebec province. Must be they’re getting push-back from environmentalists and investors because they’ve just issued what they call a “fact sheet” on the topic of fracking and earthquakes. According to Questerre, fracking does cause earthquakes—but they’re teeny tiny and not detectable on the surface.

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Chesapeake Energy | Chevron | Energy Companies | Hess

Is Chevron Interested in Buying Chesapeake Energy?
August 28, 2012August 29, 2012

It’s idle speculation, but hey, we all love to idly speculate, right? An article in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal speculates that Chevron, with a heaping mound of cash—$21 mind-blowing billion to be exact, is in the hunt to buy a smaller company, or two.

Among the names speculated about is none other than Chesapeake Energy. Another is Hess.

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Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Gulfport Energy | Harrison County | Ohio

Gulfport’s “Alpha Dog” Utica Shale Well Upstages Chesapeake Well
August 27, 2012September 5, 2012

There’s a new “alpha dog” of Utica Shale wells in Ohio that’s upstaging Chesapeake Energy’s Buell well. The Gulfport Energy Wagner 1-28H well in Harrison County is producing an enormous amount of natural gas—record-breaking in fact.

Gulfport reports the Wagner well is “by far the strongest well” ever produced by Gulfport.

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Energy Companies | Lease & Royalty Payments | Pennsylvania | Range Resources Corp | Washington County

Some Landowners Find Waiting Too Long to Lease Doesn’t Pay
August 27, 2012August 27, 2012

Hopewell Township in Washington County, Pennsylvania is the state’s single most densely drilled township. Leases in Hopewell go back to the 2005, the dawn of the modern shale gas drilling age in PA, and the driller who holds almost all of the leases in Hopewell is Range Resources, the company that sank the very first Marcellus Shale well which happened to be in Mt. Pleasant Township, which borders Hopewell (drilled in 2004).

Most of the residents of Hopewell have a tie to the shale drilling industry—either as landowners with leases or with jobs working directly or indirectly with the drilling industry. But that doesn’t mean landowners in Hopewell are getting top dollar for leasing their property. Quite the contrary. This is a cautionary tale about waiting too long to lease in hopes of getting a better price…

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Energy Companies | Energy Services | Hilcorp Energy | Industrywide Issues | Mahoning County | NiSource | Ohio | Pipelines

Hilcorp & NiSource Approach OH Landowners About Pipeline
August 27, 2012

In July, Hilcorp Energy and NiSource announced a joint venture to combine their Utica shale acreage with Hilcorp doing the drilling. The jv also will build wet gas gathering pipelines in Ohio and Pennsylvania (see this MDN story). It looks like the pipeline part has begun. A Youngstown television station reported over the weekend that reps from Hilcorp and NiSource were going door to door in parts of Mahoning County asking landowners to sign waivers to allow the pipeline.

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Energy Companies | Rex Energy

Rex Energy Begins 2nd Utica Well, Keeps Testing in OH & PA
August 27, 2012August 27, 2012

Rex Energy continues to test the Utica and Marcellus Shale. A quick update on their progress:

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Energy Companies | Exxon Mobil | XTO

Will Exxon’s Lack of Marcellus Drilling Lead to Expired Leases?
August 24, 2012August 24, 2012

An energy industry consultant and investment analyst writes an interesting article on Seeking Alpha about Exxon Mobil’s commitment to dry shale shale (“methane only”). Richard Zeits characterizes Exxon’s shift away from dry to wet gas (oil and natural gas liquids) as “radical,” citing Exxon’s onshore rig count decline from 71 to 50 rigs (a 30% drop) since the beginning of this year as evidence of the change. He estimates they use less than 10 of the remaining 50 rigs for drilling in dry gas areas.

Zeits says that Exxon may not be able to hold a sizable amount of leased acreage they hold in dry gas areas of the Marcellus and Fayetteville Shale basins because of the reduced rig count. That is, they won’t be able to drill on the leased acreage by the time the leases expire—especially in the Marcellus where they’re only operating four rigs on 660,000 acres of holdings.

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Columbiana County | Energy Companies | Hilcorp Energy | Ohio

Hilcorp’s First Utica Permit for Columbiana County, OH
August 23, 2012August 23, 2012

Hilcorp Energy has just received its first permit to drill a Utica Shale well in Columbiana County, Ohio. Although this is Hilcorp’s first permit, it is the 49th permit for Columbiana County.

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