Rolling in Free Cash Flow, Range Resources Triples Share Buybacks
Range Resources issued its third quarter financial update yesterday and is holding a conference call today to discuss 3Q results. We will cover Range’s full quarterly update tomorrow (so we can grab excerpts from the conference call). In the meantime, the initial big news coming from Range is that the company is tripling its share buyback program to $1.5 billion using free cash flow. What is a share buyback?
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Banpu is Thailand’s largest coal mining company. But Banpu is far more than just a coal company. It has multiple subsidiaries in various energy industries scattered around the globe. For example, here in the U.S., Banpu partners with Kalnin Ventures and operates BKV Corporation (
Expectations play a big role in investing. The financial markets do a lot of anticipating and forecasting and guessing about where a company or entire sector is heading. Such is the game being played right now with expectations for Marcellus/Utica shale gas companies and their forthcoming third quarter financial updates. Given the high price of natural gas during 3Q22, analysts expect shale gas companies to be swimming in free cash flow. The natural follow-on question is, what will they do with all of that extra cash?
According to law firm Houston Harbaugh, P.C., deducting fuel costs from landowner royalties continues to be an ongoing and widespread practice. Some leases allow the use of a portion of the raw gas recovered at a well to “fuel” well-pad operations (processing of the gas). Not only are landowners denied a royalty on the fuel gas volume, they also have that same “cost” deducted from their production royalty! According to Houston Harbaugh, this practice of deducting fuel costs must be closely monitored by all landowners.
Permits issued for new shale wells last week got a bit better from their pathetically low numbers. From Oct. 10-16 there were eight new permits issued in Pennsylvania, and four each issued in Ohio and West Virginia. All of the PA permits were issued in northeastern PA, with four going to BKV Operating (i.e. Banpu) in Wyoming County, two to Chesapeake in Bradford County, and two to Beech Resources in Lycoming County. Encino Energy scored all four permits for Ohio, all of them in Harrison County. In WV, Tug Hill (soon to be EQT) received three permits, and Southwestern Energy received one permit, all four in Marshall County.
Yesterday the Pennsylvania Independent Oil & Gas Association (PIOGA) held its annual Marcellus to Market conference at Hollywood Casino at The Meadows in Washington, PA. The event explored efforts to promote manufacturing in Pennsylvania, natural gas as a transportation fuel, the future of the long-rumored Appalachian Storage Hub, and the latest regarding pipelines and other means of delivering natural gas to market. A key focus for the event and topic for a panel discussion in the morning was workforce recruiting, development, and retention. MDN friend Charlie Schliebs, Chairman of the Energy Innovation Center Institute and Managing Director of Stone Pier Capital Advisors, moderated this lively panel.
The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution says: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” New Jersey is attempting to abridge the freedom of speech for Exxon Mobil, Shell Oil, Chevron, BP, ConocoPhillips, and the American Petroleum Institute (API). NJ has sued those entities claiming they knew that the products they manufacture and promote (oil and gas) have caused global warming and that these entities have lied, and continue to lie, about knowing. NJ wants to muzzle the right of the API and Exxon, et al., to freely defend themselves and stick up for fossil energy, claiming to do so endangers the public and harms the residents of NJ. It’s the most outlandish thing you’ve ever heard.
In December 2020, Dan Rice IV, former CEO of Rice Energy and a member of the EQT board of directors, launched a “blank check” acquisition firm, called Rice Acquisition Corp., to invest in various energy ventures. Dan found his something-to-invest-in just a few months later in the form of acquiring and merging together Archaea Energy and Aria Energy into a single company focused on providing renewable natural gas (RNG) and “green” hydrogen (see 
The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) has assessed a $670,000 fine plus extra “cost recovery” charges of nearly $30,000 against the Shell Pipeline Company for work done between 2019 and 2021 on Shell’s Falcon ethane pipeline project. The DEP says that a series of inspections showed “failure to comply” with this paperwork requirement and that paperwork requirement. There were a few instances of erosion into “waters of the commonwealth.” But in the end, the DEP acknowledges, “no visual aquatic impacts were observed.” No muddy water. No dead fishies. No dead salamanders. No dead nothing. In other words, the DEP fined Shell for nothing–no lasting impacts on the environment from the work done to construct the Falcon pipeline.
Two days ago, MDN told you that the Apostle of LNG, Toby Rice (CEO of EQT), had convinced his buddies at Williams and TC Energy (two pipeline companies) to join him in his latest effort to push for more U.S. LNG exports (see 
EQT Corporation filed a Form 8-K on Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission to let regulators (and investors) know that the company has lost money on derivatives. EQT told regulators that (on paper), the company lost $1.627 billion on derivatives during the third quarter of 2022, and has lost a total of $5.55 billion in total for the first nine months (quarters 1-3) of this year. But does that mean EQT has actually paid that much money out of pocket?
EQT CEO Toby Rice has been and is on a mission to spread the gospel of LNG (see 
We’ve heard of vegetable gardens. We’ve heard of flower gardens. We’ve heard of rose gardens. Remember the Lynn Anderson song, “I beg your pardon, I never promised you a rose garden”? We’ve also heard of rock gardens, raised gardens, herb gardens, and indoor gardens. One garden we hadn’t heard about until today is a “rain garden.” Ever heard that term? Rice Energy (now part of EQT Corporation) is paying a big fine, $147,250, for work done at a well site in Greene County, PA, in 2019 that allowed erosion and soil to contaminate not one but three rain gardens. I beg your pardon!