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13 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Aug 1-7
The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) reporting website finally fixed whatever problem was plaguing it (this time), so we now have the permit report from August 1-7. Pennsylvania only issued seven new permits during that time, with three going to Range Resources in Washington County and three going to Southwestern Energy in Susquehanna County. Ohio issued a single new permit to Southwestern in Monroe County. And West Virginia issued five new permits, with four of the five going to EQT in Wetzel County.
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Oil and gas companies have fallen into line over the past few years, bowing to pressure to play the silly games the left sets up, including generating reports on how much greenhouse gases (GHG) a company produces. The federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), an extremely arrogant organization, declares itself to be the arbiter of what is and is not acceptable for carbon dioxide and methane emissions. When oil and gas companies begin to play the game a little too well (winning the game), the left gets torqued off and attacks. Attack of the Big Green clones. Here’s an example from the Marcellus/Utica, involving Range Resources, of how Big Green attacks when companies begin to win the game…
Once upon a time, there was a “we’re all in this together” spirit with respect to cleaning up the environment and protecting Mom Earth. But then something happened, and common sense and civility went right out the door. The left elevated the climate to become its new religion and now brooks no dissent from its extreme positions. If you do not agree with the left, if you want to debate and call attention to and poke holes in arguments they make about the climate, you are labeled an apostate, a climate heretic, and banished (or worse). You likely don’t know about efforts by oil and gas companies, particularly in the Marcellus/Utica, to clean up the environment and make planet earth a better place to live. You don’t know about those efforts because the left silences Big Media and won’t allow it to report “the rest of the story,” as Paul Harvey used to say.
Range Resources, the very first company to sink a Marcellus Shale well back in 2004, issued its annual 2021-2022 Corporate Sustainability Report yesterday. “Sustainability” is Range’s terminology for ESG, or environmental, social, and governance. A couple of notable observations in this latest report: (1) Range has doubled its methane monitoring inspection system using LDAR from four times a year to eight times a year; and (2) Range has the lowest methane intensity, or percentage of methane emissions, in the entire Appalachian basin–according to a third party evaluator.
Range Resources delivered its second quarter 2022 update yesterday. The company made an amazing $453 million in profit during 2Q. On a conference call with analysts, CEO Jeff Ventura wasted no time in delivering a shot across the bow of the Bidenistas, saying, “Energy policy will need to be rooted in market realities. If infrastructure projects, namely pipelines and LNG terminals are not prioritized and given a reasonable regulatory review, then I believe it’s simply impossible to meet the growing global demand for reliable, safe and affordable fuels.” Ba-boom! On the wonkish side, Range’s top driller, Dennis Degner, discussed the company’s strategy of drilling new wells on existing pads. Sometimes Range returns to the same pad three times. A three-peat!
Wow! What a difference two years can make. At the dawn of the pandemic, the share price for publicly traded oil and gas stocks (in particular Marcellus/Utica drillers) was in the basement. With the pandemic now in the rearview mirror (we hope), and demand increasing for both oil and natural gas, the price of oil and gas has skyrocketed, and along with it, O&G companies are raking in the cash. How are M-U drillers using their newfound piles of cash to compensate investors?
Not all that long ago Cabot Oil & Gas (now Coterra Energy), Southwestern Energy, BKV Corporation, and Diversified Energy were all pure play drillers focused just on the Marcellus and/or Utica Shales. Today all of them own assets in other basins in addition to the M-U. However, the very first company to sink a Marcellus well (back in 2004), Range Resources, has gone the other way. Range used to own assets outside of the M-U but has, for over two years, been a pure play driller laser-focused on only the M-U. According to CEO Jeff Ventura, Range plans to keep it that way–laser-focused focused on the M-U.
We spotted a story on The Motley Fool investor’s website yesterday noting that several Marcellus/Utica publicly-traded drillers saw “double-digit” increases in their share price just yesterday, for a single day. The article highlights both Range Resources and Southwestern Energy. We started nosing around to see how the stock price for all of the big publicly-traded M-U drillers has performed this year, from the beginning of the year. It was an eye-opener. ALL of them are up from the beginning of the year. Most are up at least 75% in value since Jan. 1. A few have doubled in value, now up more than 100% since Jan. 1. We have the list below for how each one performed. Welcome to the bull market in oil and gas!
An article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette highlights and focuses on the financial performance for four of the Marcellus/Utica’s largest publicly-traded companies, including EQT Corp., Antero Resources, Range Resources, and CNX Resources, during first quarter 2022. Even though the price natural gas is fetching is higher than it’s been in 14 years, M-U drillers are losing money. Why? Hedges and derivatives–bad bets on where the price of gas would go and locking in prices much lower than what the market currently supports.
Nicor Gas, a local distribution company (LDC), otherwise known as a natural gas utility company, is headquartered in Naperville, Illinois–a suburb of Chicago. Nicor Gas is the largest natural gas distribution company in Illinois, serving more than two million customers in a service territory that encompasses most of the northern third of Illinois, excluding the city of Chicago. Two days ago Nicor announced it had signed a deal with ENGIE Energy Marketing NA to buy “responsibly sourced” natural gas for its customers.
One of the hottest of the hot sectors in which to invest (right now) is shale energy. That’s according to multiple sources, including a veteran finance writer, investor, engineer, and researcher. In an article appearing on the OilPrice.com website, Alex Kimani talks up mid-cap energy stocks as outperforming the supermajors. Among two of Kimani’s top three picks are two Marcellus/Utica drillers, who are having a stellar year in stock performance. We went looking for the stock performance of other M-U drillers too. We have a list to share showing just how much each driller’s share price has increased this year.