Equinor Wins Refund of Gas Severance Tax Paid in WV for Two Years
Yesterday, the Intermediate Court of Appeals for West Virginia issued an opinion in a case that had (until now) escaped our radar. Equinor, Norway’s state-owned oil and gas company (previously known as Statoil), said it had overpaid its severance tax bill in West Virginia for the years 2014 and 2016. Equinor said WV miscalculated the value of propane, butane, ethane, and methane produced by the company. A WV judge agreed, also granting Equinor a further 15% safe harbor deduction for transportation and transmission costs.
Read More “Equinor Wins Refund of Gas Severance Tax Paid in WV for Two Years”
New shale permits issued for Nov 6 – 12 in the Marcellus/Utica slipped but still turned in a respectable number. There were 22 new permits issued last week, versus 37 issued the week before. Last week’s permit tally included 6 new permits in Pennsylvania, 16 new permits in Ohio, and no new permits in West Virginia. Hilcorp Energy was the winner of most permits issued, with 12 new permits issued for a single well pad in Columbiana County, OH.
Epsilon Energy, a relatively small company, used to concentrate most of its effort on developing Marcellus Shale wells. However, over the past year or so, the company has expanded into other plays and now owns assets in the Anadarko (Oklahoma and Texas) and the Permian (Texas and New Mexico). Epsilon typically does not do its own drilling. The company joint venture partners with (gives money to) other companies, like Chesapeake Energy (in the Marcellus), and the other company typically does the drilling. The company’s net gas production during 3Q23 was 2.0 Bcfe (billion cubic feet equivalent) in total, NOT per day. That amounts to an average of 21.5 MMcfe/d (million cubic feet per day), down 14% compared to 2Q23 due to seven PA wells being offline for workover operations. Epsilon generated revenues of $6.3 million for 3Q23, down 3% from 2Q23.
ECA Marcellus Trust I, the royalty interest holder in some of the wells drilled and maintained by Greylock Energy in Greene County, PA, announced it would issue six-tenths of a penny ($0.006) dividend to unitholders for 3Q23. The company paid out 4.3 cents per unit in 1Q23 and nothing in 2Q23 (see 
Looking for a great job in the oil and gas industry? From apprentices and graduate opportunities to highly skilled professionals in IT and technology, sales and marketing, finance, upstream, and trading, bioenergy, EV charging, hydrogen… even so-called renewables and power — six oil and gas supermajors are hiring. They include BP, Shell, TotalEnergies, Chevron, ExxonMobil, and (yes, even our enemy) Saudi Aramco. They all want new employees. Find out more below.
In 2020, EOG Resources, one of the largest oil and gas drillers in the U.S. (with international operations in Trinidad and China), sold all of its Marcellus assets, which were located in Bradford County, PA, to Tilden Resources for $130 million (see 
Ascent Resources, founded as American Energy Partners by gas legend Aubrey McClendon, is a privately held company focusing 100% on the Ohio Utica Shale. Ascent, headquartered in Oklahoma City, OK, is Ohio’s largest natural gas producer and the 8th largest natural gas producer in the U.S. The company issued its third quarter 2023 update yesterday. Ascent’s net production averaged 2.165 Bcfe/d (billion cubic feet equivalent per day) during 3Q23, down 7% from 3Q22 (2.339 Bcf/d). The company made $16.7 million in profit during 3Q23, down from $46.5 million in 3Q22.
Last Friday, MDN brought you the news that CNX Resources CEO Nick DeIuliis had signed a voluntary deal with Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro to expand drilling setbacks and several other regulatory steps not mandated for shale drillers under PA law (see 
Coterra Energy, formed in 2021 by the merger of Permian oil driller Cimarex Energy and Marcellus gas driller Cabot Oil & Gas, issued its third quarter 2023 update yesterday. The company made far less profit in 3Q23 than it did one year ago, in line with most other big Marcellus/Utica drillers. Coterra made $323 million in profit for 3Q23, versus $1.2 billion in 3Q22. Why the drop in profit? The crashing price of natural gas over the past year. Coterra received an average of $6.20/Mcf (before hedges) for its Marcellus gas in 3Q22, and $1.20/Mcf in 3Q23, a drop of 80%. Ouch. During a conference call with analysts, company CEO Tom Jorden firmed up and recommitted to a plan to free up around $200 million from Marcellus operations in 2024 and reallocate it to other plays (the Permian or the Anadarko) by continuing to run just two rigs and one frac crew in the Marcellus.
In a court case that stretches back to 2019, Antero Resources, the biggest driller in West Virginia, challenged how its wells had been valued for tax purposes in Doddridge and Richie counties for 2016 and 2017. Antero said the combined value of its wells for those years should have been $1.488 billion. The state tax commissioner reckoned the value to be $1.513 billion. The controversy over well valuations, not only for Antero but other drillers, led to a reworking of how the state law values shale wells (see 
Southwestern Energy, with major assets in the Marcellus/Utica and Louisiana Haynesville, issued its third quarter 2023 update last week. The company generated $45 million in net income for the quarter versus profiting $450 million in 3Q22. Southwestern reported total net production of 425 Bcfe (billion cubic feet equivalent), or 4.6 Bcfe per day, including 4.0 Bcf per day of gas (86% natgas, 12% NGLs, 2% oil). Southwestern invested $454 million of capital, using it to drill 24 wells, complete 25 wells, and place 23 wells online to sales, including 15 in the Marcellus/Utica and 8 in the Haynesville. New drilling fell (by our back-of-the-envelope estimate) about one-third from 2Q23.
National Fuel Gas Company (NFG), headquartered in Buffalo, NY, is the parent company for Marcellus/Utica driller Seneca Resources and the parent of midstream company National Fuel Midstream (formerly Empire Pipeline). Last week, NFG issued its latest quarterly update. NFG operates on a weird fiscal year system. This latest update is for the company’s fourth quarter (and full year), which would be everybody else’s third quarter update. During the company’s fourth quarter, Seneca produced 93.8 Bcfe, an increase of 5.9 Bcfe, or 7%, from the prior year, despite the impact of approximately 2 Bcfe of price-related curtailments due to low in-basin pricing. The big news (for us) coming from the update was the announcement of a new pipeline project to flow more Seneca production to more markets, a project called the Tioga Pathway Project.
On Friday, MDN brought you the news that CNX Resources CEO Nick DeIuliis had signed a voluntary deal with Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro to expand drilling setbacks and several other regulatory steps not mandated for shale drillers under PA law (see 
We have to confess this news came suddenly out of left field. And we’re still struggling with what to make of it. Yesterday, CNX Resources CEO Nick DeIuliis, author of