Energy Companies

eCORP International | Energy Companies | Lease & Royalty Payments | New York | Tioga County (NY)

Tioga County, NY Lease Deal with eCORP Falls Apart
May 2, 2012May 2, 2012

It looks like it’s time to put away the champagne bottle and glasses that New Yorkers had brought out to toast a deal in Tioga County, NY that would use LPG (waterless) fracking and perhaps herald an early end to more than four years of a horizontal drilling moratorium.

In March, MDN reported on a deal announced between eCORP International and the Tioga County (NY) Landowners Group, also known as Southern Tier Energy Partners (STEP), to lease 135,000 acres in Tioga County with an eye to using LPG waterless fracking (see this MDN story). After the initial announcement, eCORP released another press statement outlining the deal that both sides had supposedly worked out, a somewhat complicated arrangement in which the approximately 2,000 landowners would be split into 13 independent operating companies and would become part-owners in those companies (see this MDN story).

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Chesapeake Energy | Commodity Price | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues

Chesapeake’s NatGas Production Cuts Never Materialized
May 2, 2012May 2, 2012

In January 2012, Chesapeake Energy announced they would curtail (reduce) their natural gas production by 1/2 billion cubic feet (bcf) per day. In February, they announced they would double it to 1 bcf per day (see this MDN story). Other energy companies also announced they would cut production, all in an attempt to reduce supply and boost the price of natural gas. But commodities traders were wary of those announcements, saying in essence, “We’ve heard this before,” and that real cuts in production were never forthcoming (see this MDN story). Looks like the wary traders were right.

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Brooke County | Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Lease & Royalty Payments | West Virginia

Brooke County School District Signs Lease with Chesapeake
May 2, 2012May 2, 2012

The Brooke County, WV Board of Education on Monday approved a lease deal with Chesapeake Energy that will allow natural gas drilling beneath school-owned property. The deal allows Chesapeake to drill under any of the school’s collective 189 acres, which is scattered throughout the county at different locations. The signing bonus is $3,500 per acre for each acre drilled, plus 18 percent royalties.

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Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies

Breaking: Chesapeake to End FWPP Early, Searches for New Chairman
May 1, 2012May 1, 2012

Still reeling from a press pounding, the Chesapeake Energy board of directors today announced that they and CEO Aubrey McClendon will end the Founders Well Participation Program (FWPP) early—on June 30, 2014 (18 months before it was due to end). The program grants McClendon the right to up to 2.5 percent ownership in each well drilled by the company, but also requires him to kick in his portion of the drilling costs. McClendon was using loans or mortgages to come up with his portion of the cash needed to drill—loans which now total nearly $1.4 billion. So stung by the revelation of just how much McClendon has borrowed, the board and McClendon will end the program.

But also part of today’s announcement is that the board of directors is looking for a non-executive chairperson. Currently, McClendon is the chairman of the board in addition to his role as CEO. When a new non-executive chairperson is found, McClendon will relinquish his role as chairman but stay at the helm as CEO. This is, no doubt, an effort to show the company is being more rigorous and impartial when it comes to the decisions by the board. That is, they want to reassure stockholders that everything is fine in the company, and that no financial funny business is going on behind the scenes.

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Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Range Resources Corp | Regulation

EPA Administrator Al Armendariz Resigns over Crucify Comment
May 1, 2012May 1, 2012

Al Amrendariz, EPA Region 6 administrator (Texas and surrounding states) has been hoist by his own petard. Yesterday he resigned—in disgrace. It seems nearly everyone (but anti-drillers) were calling for his resignation after a video of Armendariz came to light where he outlined his philosophy of enforcement against energy company “violators” to that of the Romans who used to enter a village, find the first five men, and crucify them—which had the effect of, shall we say, making everyone else behave themselves (see MDN’s previous story on Armendariz to watch the infamous video).

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Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies

Chesapeake’s Stock Moves Higher on Analyst Comment
May 1, 2012May 1, 2012

A little good news for Chesapeake Energy. Chesapeake’s stock opened at $18.05 yesterday, and closed at $18.44, a 2.2 percent boost. The price remains significantly down from the over $35 per share price it had been trading it within the past year, but still, a movement up is a good thing.

If you’ve been reading MDN for any length of time, you know about the current public relations firestorm Chesapeake finds itself in over it’s Founders Well Participation Program (FWPP), a program in which CEO Aubrey McClendon gets up to a 2.5 percent ownership interest in each well drilled by the company. The controversy surrounds how he finances his portion of the drilling cost. He’s taken out loans (in essence mortgages) against his 2.5 percent interest—to the tune of $1.4 billion. That “revelation” caused the Chesapeake stock price to take a tumble (see below).

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Carrizo Oil & Gas | Columbia County | Encana Energy | EXCO Resources | Lackawanna County | Luzerne County | Pennsylvania | WPX Energy

The Marcellus “Line of Death” in NE PA
April 30, 2012April 30, 2012

Terry Engelder, Penn State geosciences professor and “father of the Marcellus Shale” once coined the term “line of death” for the point where shale stops being productive. He was specifically talking about the coal region in Pennsylvania where once-upon-many-millennia-ago high temperatures that hardened the anthracite coal also “cooked out” methane natural gas from the shale. Geologists and gas companies know the area around the Lackawanna Syncline—a banana-shaped formation that runs through Luzerne and Lackawanna counties—is likely to be devoid of methane, but what they don’t how is how far from the Syncline the line of death will be found.

We now have another plugged well that helps indicate where shale is unproductive—this one in Sugarloaf Township in neighboring Columbia County:

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

PA DEP Continues Investigating 2 Water Wells Near Dimock
April 30, 2012April 30, 2012

Old news being reported as new news: The PA Department of Environmental Protection continues its investigation into a possible case of methane migration in two water wells just outside of Dimock Township. The investigation started in 2010 and is not part of the ongoing Dimock situation. The “new news” part of the story is that Cabot Oil & Gas added more cement in the casing of a nearby Greenwood 1 well (in March).

DEP officials are now monitoring to see if the additional cemented casing cuts down on methane in the two water wells. If it does, it will be obvious that Cabot’s Greenwood 1 well is the cause. If it does not reduce methane in the water wells, back to the drawing board and the investigation continues.

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Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | New York | Statewide NY

NYS Comptroller Threatens Chesapeake Energy
April 30, 2012April 30, 2012

New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, who is anti-drilling, “scolded” Chesapeake last week (according to the headlines) over the program that allows CEO Aubrey McClendon to participate in every well drilled by the company, with up to 2.5 percent ownership in each well. Although DiNapoli released a press statement to his favored mainstream media (MSM) buddies, he has yet to publicly release the statement “scolding” Chesapeake.

Here’s what we have from MSM accounts:

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Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies

Chesapeake Energy Ends Special Deal for CEO Aubrey McClendon
April 27, 2012April 27, 2012

Chesapeake Energy announced yesterday that the program they’ve had in place with CEO Aubrey McClendon that grants him 2.5 percent ownership and participation in every well drilled by the company (called the Founder Well Participation Program) will end in 2015 at the latest, and possibly sooner. The company also seemed to backpedal a bit from an earlier statement that the board was “fully aware” of McClendon’s private financing deals, deals that he used to cover his 2.5 percent portion of drilling expenses.

From the Chesapeake press release:

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Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Range Resources Corp | Regulation

EPA Region 6 Administrator: Crucify Energy Companies
April 26, 2012April 26, 2012

Lest you think MDN is a bit off the reservation when it comes to criticisms of the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), you might want to read about EPA Region 6 administrator Al Armendariz in an expose by Forbes magazine. Region 6 oversees Texas and surrounding states. Armendariz, a former professor at Southern Methodist University and appointed by President Obama in November 2009 to be Region 6 administrator, is caught on tape talking about his philosophy of “enforcement” and how to target oil and gas companies. He compares his approach to enforcement to how the Romans used to enter a village, find the first five men they could find and crucify them on the spot so the other villagers would be compliant. (See the embedded video below.)

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Energy Companies | Range Resources Corp

Range Resources Slide Deck: Complete with Cool Maps
April 26, 2012April 26, 2012

As part of Range Resource’s first quarter financial and operational update they released a PowerPoint presentation. With a theme of “inflection point,” Range lays out the case for why they believe double-digit growth is ahead for the company in the coming years. As MDN reviewed the slide deck, we found a number of slides we think you might like to view, so we’ve embedded the slide deck below and call your attention to the following slides:

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Energy Companies | Range Resources Corp

Range Resources Reports 1Q12 Results
April 26, 2012April 26, 2012

Range Resources released their first quarter results yesterday. As is usually the case, the press release they issued (below, in its entirety) is dense with facts and figures and financial terms. Who wants to read all of it?! (That’s why you read MDN!) Yet there is important information contained in it. MDN will “bottom line” it first, and then we’ll highlight those sections which would be of most interest to landowners—people who either have signed with Range and want to know what they’re up to, or those who have not yet signed and want to know if Range is the kind of company they should sign with.

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CNX Resources | Energy Companies | Ohio | Trumbull County | Utica Shale

Trumbull County, OH to Get First Utica Shale Well in June
April 25, 2012April 25, 2012

Utica Shale drilling is coming in June to Trumbull County, Ohio. CNX Gas, a wholly-owned subsidiary of CONSOL Energy, just received a permit to drill its first well in the county.

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Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies

Bumpy Road Continues for Chesapeake Energy
April 24, 2012April 24, 2012

An update of the ongoing story about Chesapeake Energy and the disclosure that CEO Aubrey McClendon’s has borrowed over $1 billion to help cover drilling costs. Chesapeake’s stock has taken a hit, down 25 percent this month, heading for what may be its worst monthly performance since the global financial crisis in 2008 when the company’s stock ultimately slide 38 percent in a single month.

Energy analysts are at best nervous about the current situation:

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CONSOL Energy | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Shale Drilling Plays Key Role in Presidential Campaign
April 24, 2012April 24, 2012

Thus far MDN has refrained from commenting on the presidential campaign. It will be no surprise to MDN readers that we think Obama has an abysmal record on energy, particularly when it comes to shale gas drilling. It seems the Romney campaign shares that view. The Obama administration’s energy record is a recurring theme of Mitt Romney on the campaign trail, as it was yesterday when he was in Pennsylvania at Consol Energy:

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