Energy Companies

Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies

Chesapeake Caves to Pressure, Will Replace Half its Board
June 5, 2012June 5, 2012

Chesapeake Energy, in a bid to keep the company from being sold, has caved to demands from its two largest shareholders to replace half of its board of directors. Investment firm Southeastern Asset Management, which holds 13.6% of Chesapeake stock, and corporate raider Carl Ichan, who didn’t own any Chesapeake stock a month ago but now owns 7.6%, have been very vocally challenging the company and calling for changes at the board level. Raider Carl will be one of those new board members—either him or someone he designates. The other three new board members will be appointed by Southeastern.

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Energy Companies | Gulfport Energy | Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Gulfport Energy Gets Active in Ohio’s Utica Shale
June 5, 2012June 5, 2012

Gulfport Energy Corporation is an Oklahoma City-based independent oil and natural gas exploration and production company. Most of Gulfport’s oil and natural gas drilling operations are located along the Louisiana Gulf Coast and in the Permian Basin in West Texas. However, Gulfport has acquired acreage and is starting to make moves the Utica Shale of eastern Ohio. They are currently in the process of drilling and completing their first five Utica Shale wells.

Yesterday Gulfport provided an operational update. Here are the relevant sections with respect to their Utica Shale operations:

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Antero Resources | Energy Companies

Antero Sells Assets in Arkoma Basin, Expands Utica/Marcellus
June 4, 2012June 4, 2012

Antero Resources is selling off natural assets in both the Woodford Shale and Fayetteville Shale to Vanguard Natural Resources for $445 million in cash. Antero plans to use the money to grow it’s operations in the Marcellus and Utica Shale region.

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Belmont County | EMG | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Guernsey County | Gulfport Energy | Harrison County | Industrywide Issues | MarkWest Energy | Ohio | Pipelines | Processing Plants | Utica Shale

MarkWest/EMG Finalize Deal with Gulfport Energy in OH Utica
June 4, 2012June 4, 2012

MarkWest’s joint venture with EMG, called MarkWest Utica, has finalized their deal with Gulfport Energy to provide midstream infrastructure services (pipelines and gas processing) in Harrison, Guernsey and Belmont counties in Ohio. The deal was initially announced in early March (see this MDN story). No word on the price tag for the deal.

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Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Ohio | Stark County | Statewide OH

Chesapeake’s Ohio Utica Drilling Program: Full Speed Ahead
June 1, 2012June 1, 2012

An update on Chesapeake Energy’s Ohio drilling program: They just received approval for two more Utica Shale horizontal wells at sites in eastern Stark County, brining their total to 10 permits for Stark.

Chesapeake has drilled four of the 10 permitted wells in Stark, although none are yet in production.

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BP | Energy Companies | Lease & Royalty Payments | Ohio | Statewide OH | Trumbull County

BP’s Big Plans for Ohio Utica Shale
June 1, 2012June 1, 2012

BP, which signed a leases with some 2,000 landowners representing 85,000 acres in Trumbull County (worth $331 million) just a few months ago, will start drilling early in 2013. But in the meantime, they want to sign up even more acreage in Ohio:

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Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies

Moody’s Warns Chesapeake Must Sell $7B in Assets This Year
June 1, 2012June 1, 2012

The venerable U.S. credit rating service Moody’s Investor Service said yesterday that Chesapeake will need to sell a minimum of $7 billion in assets this year in order to avoid a credit rating downgrade by their service—and even $7 billion may not be enough.

Moody’s current credit rating for Chesapeake is Ba2, which is considered “speculative grade” (not investment grade) and “judged to have speculative elements and a significant credit risk.” The lower a company’s credit rating goes, the harder (and more expensive) it is to borrow money.

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Energy Companies | New York | Norse Energy | Statewide NY

Norse Energy Shutting Down NY Office, Moving to Houston
May 31, 2012May 31, 2012

For more than year, MDN has periodically reported on Norse Energy as they have struggled to hold on, waiting for New York State to finally start issuing horizontal hydraulic fracturing drilling permits (see MDN’s coverage here). Norse’s strategy has been to roll the dice that New York will allow shale gas drilling. Drilling is always risky, but betting the company on New York politicians is truly a Las Vegas kind of gamble.

In order to keep going, Norse has sold off various assets over the past year. According to their first quarter 2012 update (see below), they at least have enough money in the bank to keep their U.S. operations going through the third quarter of this year. And they still have a controlling interest in 135,000 acres in New York, much of it in the Marcellus and Utica Shale play areas, should New York finally get off the dime. But in a sign that they may be giving up on the Empire State, Norse is shutting down it’s New York office and heading back to Houston.

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Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies

Cabot Oil & Gas Snags Top Talent for External Affairs Dept
May 31, 2012May 31, 2012

Bill desRosiers has been a good friend and supporter of MDN for more than a year now, and MDN editor Jim Willis has had the pleasure of working with Bill during his tenure with the great people at Energy in Depth – Northeast Marcellus Initiative.

Bill has now changed chairs and he’s working for an equally great group of people at Cabot Oil & Gas as their external affairs coordinator. Cabot is lucky to snag him.

We wish Bill every success in his new position. You can read about what Bill is up to here: Meet the Cabot Crew: Bill desRosiers.
Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

EPA Study: Marcellus Fracking Does NOT Impact Drinking Water
May 30, 2012May 30, 2012

This is big news folks. You may recall that the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is conducting a multi-year study of hydraulic fracturing in a transparent attempt to seize control of oil and gas drilling in the U.S.—grabbing that control away from the individual states who are empowered under the U.S. Constitution to regulate drilling in their own states. As part of the EPA study, they are analyzing water samples in locations where there has been a lot of shale gas fracking (see this MDN story for a copy of the EPA’s study plan).

Chesapeake Energy participated shoulder to shoulder with the EPA by taking water samples at the same time and from the same locations in Bradford County, PA. They then had those water samples analyzed by accredited laboratories, and the results analyzed by an independent specialist. Here’s what they found…

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Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | New York | Statewide NY

NYS Comptroller DiNapoli Letter: Chesapeake Needs New Board
May 30, 2012May 30, 2012

Anti-drilling New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli is once again going after Chesapeake Energy. Like many Democrats, he’s not one to waste a good crisis. You may recall that DiNapoli previously scolded Chesapeake over its Founders Well Participation Program (FWPP) that allowed CEO Aubrey McClendon, the guy who founded the company, to participate in each well drilled, with up to 2.5 percent ownership (see this MDN story).

Now that the board has rescinded the FWPP program after next year, DiNapoli needs something else to target, so he’s lobbying to have a new board of directors installed and sent an open letter to shareholders calling for just that (see the letter embedded below).

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Carroll County | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Lawrence County | MarkWest Energy | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Rex Energy | Utica Shale

Rex Energy Drills First Utica Well, Sells Keystone Midstream
May 30, 2012May 30, 2012

Rex Energy announced yesterday that it has closed on a previously announced deal to sell its subsidiary Keystone Midstream to MarkWest Energy for $512 million (see this MDN story for the original announcement). Rex also announced that their Bluestone cryogenic processing plant, part of the sale, has just gone online and will begin selling gas by June 1st.

But perhaps the biggest news yesterday from Rex, at least for landowners, is that Rex has completed drilling its first Ohio Utica well, in Carroll County. Fracking of the well begins in June, and Rex is now moving the rig back to PA where they will drill their second Utica well—in Lawrence County.

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Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies

Corporate Raider Carl Icahn Sets His Sights on Chesapeake
May 29, 2012May 29, 2012

Late last Friday, corporate raider Carl Icahn filed what’s known as a 13D with the Securities and Exchange Commission to disclose he has taken a rather large stake in Chesapeake Energy. Friday morning MDN posted a story outlining who owns how much of Chesapeake’s stock (at least for outside shareholders)—see this MDN story. At the time it was rumored that Icahn’s stake was around 4 percent.

We now know his stake is much higher than that.

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

Brooke County WV Schools Get $661K in Lease Payments
May 29, 2012May 29, 2012

Brooke County Schools in West Virginia are eager to have Chesapeake Energy drill under school-owned property. But Ohio County Schools, also in WV, don’t want Chesapeake drilling near their schools. What’s the difference? One is getting a boatload of money in lease (and eventually royalty) payments. The other isn’t.

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Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies

Rumor Mill: Who Owns How Much of Chesapeake’s Stock?
May 25, 2012May 25, 2012

The rumor mill continues to churn with regard to Carl Icahn’s investment in Chesapeake Energy. The latest rumor, being circulated by the venerable Bloomberg News, says that Icahn has taken a 4 percent stake in the company. Is that good? Is it bad? Meaningful or not? Let’s give you the “news” (or rather rumor) first, and then some perspective…

First the news:

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Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies

Chesapeake Puts 1/2 Million Leased Acres Up for Sale
May 25, 2012May 25, 2012

Chesapeake Energy has put a lot of its western U.S. acreage up for sale—some 500,000 acres in Wyoming and Colorado—in a bid to raise $9-$10 billion in cash to cover funding shortfalls and repay loans.

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