Energy Companies

Energy Companies | WPX Energy

WPX Energy Cuts Back Marcellus Rigs, Focused on Oil & NGLs
February 7, 2012February 7, 2012

Early this year, Williams officially spun off it’s exploration and production operation into a new company called WPX Energy (see this MDN story). The new company inherited one of the top 10 drilling operations in the Marcellus and Utica Shales.

Yesterday, WPX announced their capital spending plans for 2012 and it’s no surprise, given similar announcements from other major drillers, that WPX is scaling back drilling in the Marcellus from seven rigs to three due to the low commodity price for natural gas. WPX is shifting capital resources to the Bakken Shale where they are drilling for oil and to those geographies rich with natural gas liquids (NGLs).

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Carrizo Oil & Gas | Energy Companies | Rockingham County | Virginia

Virginia Community Tells Carrizo to Go Drill Somewhere Else
February 6, 2012February 6, 2012

Unfortunately, it looks like Virginia is joining Maryland in hanging out the “do not drill here” sign for Marcellus Shale gas drillers.

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Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | Shell | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Waiting Game: Cracker Plants Talk to Property Owners
February 3, 2012February 3, 2012

West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio are all in the hunt to land an ethane cracker plant in their respective states (see the long list of MDN stories on a potential cracker plant in the Marcellus/Utica Shale region). According to WV Commerce Secretary Keith Burdette, Shell and another unnamed company are now in talks with private property owners. That is, the deals are now being negotiated, and it’s a waiting game to see the outcome.

All three states have offered huge tax incentives to land the plant. Shell originally set January for an announcement, but changed it a few weeks ago to be February.

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Energy Companies | Seneca Resources

Seneca Resources Marcellus Well Output up 91.5% in Q1 2012
February 3, 2012February 3, 2012

Seneca Resources, the exploration and production division of National Fuel Gas Company, just reported their first quarter earnings for 2012. As part of the report, we get the following operational update which shows a 91.5 percent increase in production in Seneca’s Marcellus Shale wells.

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

Flaring of Gas Wells – Still Used, But Not as Much Anymore
February 2, 2012February 2, 2012

In areas where there is active drilling, like northeast and southwest Pennsylvania, near the end of completing a gas well is a process called flaring—when some of the gas and other impurities are burned off. Sometimes flaring a well, which results in a large flame coming out of the well, can be seen up to 10 miles away, which catches neighbors by surprise. Tony Gaudlip from Range Resources explains the flaring process, and why it’s not used as much as it once was.

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

Washington County Commissioners to Vote on Modifying Gas Lease
February 2, 2012February 2, 2012

Commissioners for Washington County, PA will vote today on modifying an agreement they have with Range Resources to allow drilling for gas at a county-owned park. The revisions will limit how much time Range has to complete drilling and extracting natural gas, and it also ups the royalty percentage.

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

Cabot Accuses EPA of Cherry Picking Old Water Test Data
February 1, 2012February 1, 2012

Cabot Oil & Gas has accused the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of “cherry picking” old water test data to justify its intrusion into Dimock, PA. For a quick backgrounder on the situation in Dimock and why Cabot is being blamed by some for pollution of a handful of local water wells in the area, see this MDN story.

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

Dimock Residents Petition EPA to Stop Their Investigation
February 1, 2012February 1, 2012

A group of residents from the Dimock, Pennsylvania area have formed a group called “Enough is Enough” to combat the negative image being painted of their quaint, rural town in the Endless Mountains region of northeast PA. A steady drumbeat of negative press over the past three years, instigated by anti-drilling organizations, has created an image of Dimock as a chemical wasteland a la “Love Canal” (the Niagara Falls neighborhood that became famous in the 1970s because of widespread underground chemical contamination) in the minds of those who have never visited the area.

Dimock residents want to dispel that image.

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CONSOL Energy | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Harrison County | Industrywide Issues | MarkWest Energy | Marshall County | Monroe County | Noble Energy | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | Range Resources Corp | Utica Shale | Washington County | West Virginia

MarkWest to Expand/Build NGL Plants on New Agreements
February 1, 2012February 1, 2012

MarkWest Energy Partners, a major midstream player in the Marcellus and Utica Shales, just announced major expansion plans that will add an additional 600 million cubic feet per day (mmcf/d) of natural gas processing capacity which includes natural gas liquids (NGLs). Most of the new capacity will come from expansion of its Majorsville, WV plant. The expansion is made possible by new long-term agreements MarkWest signed with CONSOL Energy, Noble Energy and Range Resources to process NGLs.

MarkWest also announced they will build two new processing plants in Ohio’s Utica Shale—in Harrison and Monroe counties.

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Commodity Price | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Range Resources Corp | Washington County

Range’s Wet Gas Drilling Location & Dry Gas Drilling Timeline
January 31, 2012January 31, 2012

The talk coming from the largest drillers in the Marcellus Shale is that they will scale back drilling activities in the dry (methane only) portions of the Marcellus Shale play and instead focus on the wet (liquids-rich) portion.

Ever wonder where, exactly, the liquids-rich area can be found? We now know where it is for Range Resources, one of the largest drillers in Pennsylvania. We also have an estimate of how long drilling in the dry gas portion of the Marcellus may be pushed back for Range due to low prices for natural gas.

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Blue Ridge Mtn Res/Magnum Hunter | Energy Companies | Tyler County | West Virginia

Magnum Hunter Completes Four Marcellus Wells in WV Q411
January 31, 2012January 31, 2012

Magnum Hunter, a Houston, TX-based independent exploration and production company, issued an operational update for Q4 2011 yesterday. Following is the section reporting on their drilling operations in the Appalachian/Marcellus region:

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Dominion Exploration | Energy Companies | Exporting | Industrywide Issues

Dominion Expects to Receive Shale Gas Export Permit in 2012
January 30, 2012January 30, 2012

Last September, Dominion Resources filed an application with the Department of Energy (DOE) to begin exporting liquefied natural gas from its Cove Point terminal in Maryland—up to 1 billion cubic feet of gas per day (see this MDN story). Dominion Resources CEO Thomas Farrell said last Friday he believes the permit will be issued later this year.

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

Cabot Letter to EPA: You Need to Rethink Dimock Decision
January 27, 2012January 27, 2012

Cabot Oil & Gas President & CEO Dan Dinges sent a letter yesterday to federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson about the EPA’s sudden change of plans concerning the situation in Dimock, PA (the full letter is embedded below). The upshot of the letter? You need to rethink your recent decision to interfere in Dimock.

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Energy Companies | EQT Corp

EQT Production Up 44% in 2011, Suspends Huron Shale Drilling
January 27, 2012January 27, 2012

Pittsburgh-based EQT Corp. released 2011 results yesterday. Because of the prolific gas volumes in the Marcellus Shale, EQT reports production for natural gas was up an astonishing 44 percent over 2010. Some 42 percent of EQT’s production is from the Marcellus, which was up 18.9 percent last year.

EQT reports drilling 222 gross wells in 2011, 105 of them in the Marcellus Shale and 115 in the Huron Shale. The Huron is located mostly in western West Virginia, with very small slices in Ohio, Kentucky and Virginia. Because of slumping prices for natural gas, EQT has announced they are suspending drilling in the Huron and instead will concentrate on the liquids-rich portion of the Marcellus.

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CONSOL Energy | Energy Companies

CONSOL Will Spend $130M Less on Marcellus Drilling in 2012
January 27, 2012January 27, 2012

CONSOL Energy, the coal and natural gas giant with drilling operations in the Marcellus and Utica Shales, released it’s fourth quarter results along with a year-in-review yesterday. Even though the price of natural gas steadily declined during 2011, CONSOL was able to pay off all of its short term debt and ended the year with a cash balance of $376 million. CONSOL spent $1.4 billion on capital projects in 2011 and paid out dividends to shareholders totaling $96 million. The company has increased its regular quarterly dividend by 25 percent. The annual dividend is now $0.50 per share.

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Accidents | Atlas Energy | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Westmoreland County

PA DEP Sides with Homeowner Against Atlas in Well Water Issue
January 26, 2012January 26, 2012

In 2008, a homeowner located near gas wells drilled in Westmoreland County, PA by Atlas Energy says his well water turned muddy immediately after drilling was done. At the time, Atlas told him to stop drinking the water and supplied him with a water buffalo, making fresh water deliveries ever since. That is, until two weeks ago when Atlas says that after re-testing the water is now safe to drink, so they ended the water deliveries. The homeowner disagrees and the PA Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is siding with the homeowner in this case.

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