Energy Companies 411 - Marcellus Drilling News

ExxonMobil CEO Delivers Major Speech on U.S. Energy

June 28, 2012June 28, 2012

In a speech delivered at the Council on Foreign Relations on Wednesday, ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson said fears about climate change, drilling and even energy dependence on other countries are all overblown. He said he believes burning fossil fuels does lead to global warming, but it’s no big deal and certainly not an impending cataclysm. He also said the press and environmentalists are manufacturing fear about fracking and fossil fuels.

Perhaps the most controversial thing he said is that the general public is “illiterate” when it comes to science and math.

Energy Companies | Energy Services | EQT Corp | Equitrans/EQT Midstream

EQT Midstream IPO Rakes in the Cash

June 27, 2012June 27, 2012

EQT Corp, one of the larger drillers in the Marcellus and Utica Shale, has spun off its midstream (pipeline and processing plant) operations into its own company. Shares of the new EQT Midstream started selling yesterday in an initial public offering (IPO), and today those shares will start to be publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange (ticker symbol EQM).

What does it mean? It means EQT’s midstream activities will have a nice new pot of cash to expand with—somewhere around $260 million (put another way—over a quarter of a billion dollars). EQT’s drilling activities will now be serviced by a bigger, more robust midstream operation to get their gas to market.

From the EQT press release:

Chesapeake Energy | Encana Energy | Energy Companies

Did Reuters Break the Law with Latest Chesapeake Story?

June 26, 2012June 26, 2012

Another week, another “cut” at Chesapeake Energy and its flamboyant CEO Aubrey McClendon. Death by a thousand cuts will work, as long as in the end it’s death, right? And that’s exactly what the mainstream media is clamoring for.

A new hit piece by Reuters attempts to smear McClendon and in the process snags Canadian company Encana. The article, published yesterday, tries to portray McClendon and the president of Encana USA, Jeff Wojahn, as colluding to divvy up Michigan state oil and gas leases auctioned in 2010. It was an attempt to suppress prices and control the outcome of the auction, according to Reuters, and if that indeed happened, it would be a violation of federal and state laws.

PA DEP Investigates Methane Migration from Shell Drilling

June 26, 2012June 26, 2012

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is investigating a possible case of methane migration due to drilling by Shell in Union Township, Tioga County (PA). A drinking water well in the area was reported to be bubbling with methane.

Chesapeake Pays 3 PA Families $1.6M for Methane Contamination

June 25, 2012June 25, 2012

Chesapeake Energy settled a case with several landowners in the small community of Wyalusing (Bradford County), PA who say their well water was contaminated by Chesapeake’s nearby drilling activity. Three families will receive $1.6 million from Chesapeake which includes buying out their homes so they can move. Some 30 other area families are in various stages of litigation with Chesapeake over the same issue.

For MDN, the fascinating aspect of this story is how the news has been covered by mainstream media. First, the news itself, then “the real news”:

Anadarko | Coshocton County | Energy Companies | Ohio

Anadarko Set to Drill in Coshocton County, OH

June 25, 2012June 25, 2012

It looks like Anadarko is getting ready to drill in the Utica Shale in Coshocton County, Ohio. New blue signs on rural roads have begun to spring up warning Anadarko truckers to not go beyond certain points (to limit road damage). When queried about the signs, Anadarko’s public affairs rep said:

Energy Companies | Energy Services | GreenHunter Resources | Stone Energy

Who is GreenHunter Water’s New Mystery Marcellus Customer?

June 25, 2012June 25, 2012

GreenHunter Water has picked up a new drilling company for their water management services (see the full press release below). The new customer is an independent driller somewhere in the Marcellus Shale play that owns leases on approximately 90,000 acres in Pennsylvania and West Virginia and is looking to expand. Thing is, GreenHunter won’t (or can’t) disclose the identity of this new mystery customer they’ve just signed on. But MDN thinks it can! There’s one independent driller who claims to have 90,000 acres of leases in PA/WV and is looking to expand, and that company is…

Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies

Chesapeake Energy’s Board Changes, Archie Dunham New Chairman

June 22, 2012June 22, 2012

You certainly can’t miss the news in the mainstream media that Chesapeake Energy has appointed five new board members and has “stripped” CEO Aubrey McClendon of his chairmanship (“stripped” even though weeks ago McClendon announced he would voluntarily step down from the role of chairman when a new chairman was found, such are the vagaries of headline writers).

The new incoming board members include…

Gulfport Drills Longest Horizontal Utica Wells to Date

June 22, 2012June 22, 2012

Gulfport Energy reports it has just completed drilling the two longest horizontal Utica Shale wells—ever. The horizontal portion for one of the wells, located in Harrison County, Ohio, went over 1.5 miles.

Here’s the particulars:

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

Columbiana County Lease with Chesapeake, Highest Bonus Ever

June 21, 2012June 21, 2012

broken the record Columbiana County, OH has just signed a deal with DPS Penn (an agent for Chesapeake Energy) to lease 548 acres for Utica Shale drilling. And they astutely doubled their money from the original offer from DPS a year ago. The new terms of the deal, just signed, are for $5,850 per acre and a 20 percent royalty. Columbiana also negotiated the lease term down to three years. A typical lease is five years.

The deal makes Columbiana breaks the record as the highest signing bonus granted to any government body for a Utica (or Marcellus) Shale lease deal.

PA Gov. Corbett Press Conference on Shell Cracker Plant

June 21, 2012June 21, 2012

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett continues to push hard to get his package of tax incentives for a Shell ethane cracker plant passed before the state legislature goes on summer break at the end of June. Looks like it’s paid off. Word has come out the legislature will pass his proposed package.

Energy Companies | Inflection Energy

Bregal Invests Undisclosed Amount in Inflection Energy

June 21, 2012June 21, 2012

Bregal Energy announced yesterday they have increased their investment in Inflection Energy. Inflection was founded in 2008 as a drilling company focused on the Marcellus Shale. They hold leases in both Pennsylvania and New York. Bregal is an investment company focused on the energy industry. The amount of the new investment and the terms of the deal were not disclosed in the press announcement.

Energy Companies | Equinor/Statoil

Statoil Shifts it Focus from Marcellus to Bakken

June 21, 2012June 21, 2012

Norwegian company Statoil continues to change its focus away from the Marcellus Shale region and instead concentrate on “oily” shale areas of the country, like the Bakken Shale in North Dakota. Why? Natural gas prices continue to bump around at historically low prices, making it a challenge to be profitable.

Statoil has cut the number of drilling rigs in the Marcellus nearly in half from one year ago and the wells they’re drilling now are simply to hold acreage. That is, they drill on acreage for which leases are about to expire to hold that acreage.

According to Bill Maloney, president of Statoil North America:

Energy Companies | Rice Energy

BlackRock’s Screw-up with Dan Rice & Rice Energy

June 20, 2012June 20, 2012

Time for a brief distraction from the troubles Chesapeake has had of late—so let’s focus on a new “problem.” That would be the public relations kerfuffle Rice Energy and its founder Dan Rice are facing in the press.

Dan has been the single most successful mutual fund manager in the United States over the past 10 years. He is co-manager of five energy-related funds for BlackRock. But not any more.

Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Ohio | Statewide OH

OH AG Mike DeWine Targets Chesapeake for Fraud

June 20, 2012June 20, 2012

Ohio’s attorney general, Mike DeWine, has Chesapeake Energy in his crosshairs. He’s investigating them for “fraud” because their stock price went down. Good luck with that.

Here’s what the Columbus Dispatch is reporting:

Air Quality | Devon Energy | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

EPA Air Pollution Rules Targeted at Senate Hearing Today

June 19, 2012June 18, 2012

Today, Devon Energy Corp.’s environmental manager Darren Smith will testify before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee in Washington, D.C. about the Environmental Protection Agency’s badly overestimated data on the amount of so-called fugitive emissions that escape from a natural gas well when it’s drilled (a copy of his full testimony is embedded below).