Range Resources Corp

Energy Companies | Range Resources Corp

Range Resources’ PR Chief Matt Pitzarella Jumps Ship to Law Firm
March 30, 2017March 30, 2017

Matt Pitzarella

Here’s a bit of personnel news that caught us by surprise. Back in January Matt Pitzarella, director of corporate communications and public affairs for Range Resources, announced he was leaving Range. Matt has been a fixture in the Marcellus universe since we started writing the MDN website in 2009. Range, as you may or may not know, was the first driller to sink a Marcellus horizontal/fracked well–back in 2004. The company remains one of the largest and most active drillers in the PA Marcellus. Over the years Matt, working from the company’s Southpointe office, has been the face of the company. MDN editor Jim Willis bumped into Matt a few times over the years at various industry conferences–although Jim doubts Matt remembers. Still, it’s kind of sad to lose one of the most visible faces of the industry. So what’s next for Matt? That’s the new news. Matt has just been hired by Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC, Pittsburgh’s third largest law firm, to be the firm’s director of the Energy, Environment and Natural Resources Section. No, Matt is not a lawyer. This is new territory for both Matt and Buchanan…
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Energy Companies | Range Resources Corp

Range Resources – Lost $521M in 2016; 1/3 of 2017 Budget for LA
February 24, 2017February 24, 2017

Range Resources released its 2016 update on Wednesday and held an earnings call yesterday to discuss it. In what should be a big red warning flag for Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, Range CEO Jeff Ventura said, “2016 was a significant year for Range, as we completed the acquisition of Memorial Resource Development in September, providing Range operational and geographic diversity with wells that rival our prolific Marcellus wells.” The Memorial purchase provides Range with 220,000 acres on which to drill–in Louisiana (see Range Resources Buys Louisiana Driller in Deal Worth $4.4B). No, Range isn’t leaving the Marcellus–yet. But if Wolf persists with an idiotic plan to enact the highest severance tax in the country, Range now has options–and they won’t hesitate to use those options. In 2016, Range reported natural gas production of 375.81 billion cubic feet (Bcf), which works out to 1.03 Bcf/d. That’s up 3.6% versus 362.69 Bcf, or 994 MMcf/d, in 2015. For 2017, Range will split its drilling budget. The company is spending $1.15 billion on drilling this year: two-thirds will be spent in the Marcellus and one-third (disappointingly) will be spent in Louisiana. Pay attention Gov. Wolf–already we’re seeing a shift! As for top line numbers, Range lost $521 million in 2016, vs. losing $714 million in 2015. Losses in 4Q16 were down a lot from the previous year: Range lost $161 million in 4Q16 vs. losing $322 million in 4Q15. Below is the Range update, along with a portion of the earnings call (interesting comments by Range’s COO Ray Walker), the latest PowerPoint slide deck and Range’s SEC 10-K report…
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Top 20 Marcellus Drillers in Southwest Pennsylvania
February 16, 2017February 16, 2017

The sharp folks over at the Pittsburgh Business Times have been looking through data from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and have compiled a list of 20 drillers who have at least a dozen shale wells in the southwest PA region. And they ranked them from lowest to highest. We’ve grabbed the list below. The interesting thing for MDN is that there is one name in the list not familiar to us, and we’ve been watching this space since 2009. Always fun to learn something new. Here’s the list of southwest PA’s “Top 20” Marcellus drillers…
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Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Lease & Royalty Payments | Litigation | Lycoming County | Pennsylvania | Range Resources Corp | Statewide PA

PA Case Highlights Risk in Using Non-Lawyer to Negotiate Lease
February 10, 2017February 10, 2017

In August 2013 an extensive investigative article about a then-director for the Pennsylvania Game Commission, William A. Capouillez, appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer (see PA Director of Game Commission Double-Dipping with Gas Leases?). The article spotlighted a potential conflict of interest between Capouillez’s day job and his moonlighting side job as an agent for property owners who lease their land for oil and gas development. The issue? He was signing private deals with the same companies that often work with his state agency. The State Ethics Commission did a lengthy investigation and three years later, the Commission levied a $75,000 fine, which Capouillez agreed to pay (see Former PA Game Commissioner Fined $75K for Lease Moonlighting). Although he paid the fine, Capouillez remained defiant and said the fine is a tiny fraction of the original fine sought–an indication of his vindication. There is new litigation involving Capouillez. One of the leases he negotiated was on behalf of the Laurel Hill Game and Forestry Club with Range Resources. The way Capouillez constructed his leases was that he would get a cut, a percentage, of any lease signing bonus and ongoing royalty payments, in return for the leases he brokered. Range never drilled on Laurel Hill’s property, but they did start to push dirt around a few hours before the lease expired as a way of holding the acreage (some would call their action a less-than-honorable practice). Laurel Hill sued Range and the lawsuit was later settled by drafting up a new lease with new terms. The new lease/terms were not brokered by Capouillez and he was cut out of the deal–so Capouillez sued both Laurel Hill and Range. The moral of the story, according to lawyers writing about the case, is to never use non-lawyers to represent you in lease negotiations…
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Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Range Resources Corp | Reserves (Proved and Unproved)

Range Resources Proved Reserves Up 22% to 12.1 Tcfe, Dev Costs Down
January 30, 2017January 30, 2017

Range Resources released details on their proved reserves last Friday. The company reports proved reserves are 12.1 trillion cubic feet equivalent (Tcfe), a 22% jump from 9.9 Tcfe at the end of 2015. Excluding acquisitions and divestitures, Range’s proved reserves were actually up 11%. Range CEO Jeff Ventura said the company replaced 292% of production from its drilling activities in 2016. They have driven down development costs to 34 cents per thousand cubic feet. If it costs an average of 87 cents to gather and get the gas to market (PA IFO estimate), that means it costs Range $1.21 to find, extract and get the gas to market. Range’s announcement was pretty amped-up on their newest purchase of acreage in Louisiana. However, in 2016, almost all of the added proved reserves came in the Marcellus–1,315 out of 1,394 billion cubic feet (or 94%)…
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Antero Resources | Energy Companies | EQT Corp | Industrywide Issues | M&A | Range Resources Corp

More Background on Investors Encouraging EQT to Sell Itself
January 9, 2017January 9, 2017

W Barnes Hauptfuhrer

Last week MDN told you about a kerfuffle that erupted yesterday when Chapter IV Investors, a Charlotte, NC-based investment firm with investments in EQT, Range Resources and Antero Resources, announced it had sent a letter to EQT urging the company to consider merging with either Range Resources or Antero Resources (see EQT Urged by Major Investor to Merge with Either Range or Antero). As we told you, Chapter IV is essentially two investors, W. Barnes Hauptfuhrer, Managing Partner and Portfolio Manager, and Ryan J. Jack, Partner. We said at the time, “we don’t detect any kind of bullying on the part of Chapter IV, like that of a raider Carl Icahn (successful takeover of Chesapeake Energy & Cheniere Energy) or Keith “Mini-Me” Meister (unsuccessful attempt to takeover Williams). Rather, it appears to be a couple of investors who believe there is an honest and good case for a combination of EQT with another company.” We now have more evidence that our gut instinct was right–from an article Bloomberg published…
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Antero Resources | Energy Companies | EQT Corp | Industrywide Issues | M&A | Range Resources Corp

EQT Urged by Major Investor to Merge with Either Range or Antero
January 4, 2017January 4, 2017

A kerfuffle erupted yesterday when Chapter IV Investors, a Charlotte, NC-based investment firm with investments in EQT, Range Resources and Antero Resources, announced it had sent a letter to EQT urging the company to consider merging with either Range Resources or Antero Resources. Chapter IV, which is essentially two big-money investors (W. Barnes Hauptfuhrer, Managing Partner and Portfolio Manager, and Ryan J. Jack, Partner), does not own enough stock in any of the companies (less than 1% in each) to throw its weight around like a corporate raider. Rather, it appears to be two investors attempting to grab the attention of these companies and their shareholders by issuing a press release (full copy below) with a plan they say would create a new Marcellus/Utica driller worth more than $25 billion. Obviously the value of investments for Chapter IV would go up under such a scenario–so there is self-interest at work here. However, we don’t detect any kind of bullying on the part of Chapter IV, like that of a raider Carl Icahn (successful takeover of Chesapeake Energy & Cheniere Energy) or Keith “Mini-Me” Meister (unsuccessful attempt to takeover Williams). Rather, it appears to be a couple of investors who believe there is an honest and good case for a combination of EQT with another company, and were willing to spend $500 on a press release to make their case. Are they right?…
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Marcellus Biggest Drillers Lock in 2017 Gas Prices at $3+ per Mcf
January 3, 2017January 5, 2017

In September, MDN brought you research on 10 of the largest Marcellus/Utica drillers that have “hedged” their 2017 production (see Hedging Gas Prices in Marcellus/Utica – Who Hedges & How Much?). Hedging is a concept of pre-selling the gas you produce at a price you agree to now, in advance. Although that may sound risky, it’s actually an exercise in risk avoidance. It’s less risky to lock in favorable prices now rather than wait and potentially get far less. How do drillers know what the price of gas will be six months or a year from now? They don’t know, for sure, but there is something called the forward market, that predicts what prices will be at future dates. In fact, traders create contracts now based on prices in the future, and those contracts are reported by various news and data services, like NGI’s Forward Look publication. The company that provided the research back in September, S&P, is back with an update. The latest research shows that all of the top 10 drillers have hedged at least some of their production–and some of them have hedged most or even all of their production. What prices have each of these 10 drillers locked in and for how much production?…
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Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Range Resources Corp | Washington County | Wastewater

Landowner Appeals Range Well Contamination Case to PA Supreme Crt
December 2, 2016December 2, 2016

For some time we’ve followed the story of Range Resources and their (former) wastewater impoundments in Washington County, PA. The PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) fined Range a whopping $4.15 million for violations in September 2014 (see PA DEP Fines Range Resources $4.15M for Wastewater Impoundments). Some of the nearby neighbors claimed that Range’s leaky impoundments (a quarter of a mile away) contaminated their water wells. One of those landowners was Loren Kiskadden, who sued Range in civil court. The problem is, the DEP determined that the nearby Yeager impoundment had not contaminated Kiskadden’s well, which led to allegations that the DEP had bungled the investigation (see Did DEP Mishandle Range Wastewater Impoundment Investigation?). Kiskadden had to press on, because if the DEP doesn’t reverse its finding, he has no civil case against Range. Press on he did (see Hearing on Range Yeager Impoundment/Water Contamination Continues). The matter was heard by the DEP’s Environmental Hearing Board (EHB). The EHB found that Kiskadden didn’t have a case–his well was not contaminated by Range’s impoundment. So Kiskadden and his lawyers asked for a re-hearing. The result of that re-hearing came in December 2015 and we thought it finally closed the door, once and for all, on the case (see DEP Final Determination: Range Didn’t Pollute Kiskadden Water Well). But no, that was not the end. Kiskadden appealed again, and in October 2016 a Commonwealth Court appeals panel affirmed the EHB’s 2015 dismissal of Kiskadden’s appeal of the DEP 2011 ruling that Range’s Yeager site operations did not contaminate Kiskadden’s well water. Case closed, right? Nope. Kiskadden has one card left to play, and he’s done it. Kiskadden’s attorneys have appealed the case to the PA Supreme Court…
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Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Range Resources Corp | Washington County | Wastewater

PA Court Says Range Impoundment Did NOT Contaminate Water Well
October 31, 2016December 2, 2016

You may recall that for some time we’ve been following the back and forth between Range Resources and their (former) wastewater impoundments in Washington County, PA. The PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) fined Range a whopping $4.15 million for violations in September 2014 (see PA DEP Fines Range Resources $4.15M for Wastewater Impoundments). Some of the nearby neighbors claimed that Range’s leaky impoundments (a quarter of a mile away) contaminated their water wells. One of those landowners was Loren Kiskadden, who is suing Range in civil court. The problem is, the DEP found that the nearby Yeager impoundment had not contaminated Kiskadden’s well, which led to allegations that the DEP had bungled the investigation (see Did DEP Mishandle Range Wastewater Impoundment Investigation?). Kiskadden had to press on, because if the DEP doesn’t reverse its finding, he has no civil case against Range. Press on he did (see Hearing on Range Yeager Impoundment/Water Contamination Continues). The matter was heard by the DEP’s Environmental Hearing Board (EHB). The EHB found that Kiskadden didn’t have a case–his well was not contaminated by Range’s impoundment. So Kiskadden and his lawyers asked for a re-hearing. The result of that re-hearing came back in December and (we thought) closed the door, once and for all, on the case (see DEP Final Determination: Range Didn’t Pollute Kiskadden Water Well). But no, that was not the end. Kiskadden appealed again. Last week a Commonwealth Court appeals panel affirmed the EHB’s 2015 dismissal of Kiskadden’s appeal of the DEP 2011 ruling that Range’s Yeager site operations did not contaminate Kiskadden’s well water. Have we finally reached the end of this drawn-out saga?…
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Energy Companies | Range Resources Corp

Range Resources 3Q16: Smaller Loss of $42M, Marc Production Up 9%
October 26, 2016October 26, 2016

Range Resources, the very first company to sink a Marcellus well, issued their third quarter update yesterday. Among the highlights: Range lost $42 million for the quarter, which is a vast improvement over 3Q15 when the company lost $301 million. So things are getting better, financially. Marcellus production was 1,396 million cubic feet equivalent (Mmcfe) per day, a 9% increase over 3Q15. Range’s “Southern” division, in SWPA, saw a 23% increase in production, but because Range sold some assets in Bradford County, their “Northern” division saw a 39% decrease (year over year) in production. Range continues to focus its efforts in the southwest PA area, saying the company “continues to drill and complete outstanding wells, with peer-leading EURs, while continuing to drive costs lower.” Here is yesterday’s 3Q16 update from Range…
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4 Marcellus Drillers Ramp Up Production in 2016
October 19, 2016October 19, 2016

We can’t say enough good things about Rusty Braziel and RBN Energy. Rusty was the co-founder of Bentek Energy, sold a few years ago to Platts. Rusty is the consummate industry professional who has forgotten more about the oil and gas industry than most of us will ever know. He recently wrote and published The Domino Effect: How the Shale Revolution is Transforming Energy Markets, Industries and Economies (buy it on Amazon). Rusty has collected a group of very smart industry analysts who write about the oil and gas industry. One of those analysts is Nick Cacchione, who wrote a post on the RBN Energy website yesterday about the top 10 gas-focused drillers in the country. It’s no coincidence that all of them have operations in the Marcellus/Utica, and most of them are totally focused on the northeast. We found it to be an enlightening and helpful article. One of the main points is how four of the top 10, while reducing their spending, have significantly increased their production numbers for 2016. Here’s a deep dive into the top 10 according to RBN, featuring the four who are “stepping on the gas”…
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Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Range Resources Corp | Washington County

Judge Drops Testing Lab from Ongoing Range Res. Lawsuit in W PA
October 18, 2016October 18, 2016

In June MDN brought you a report about a family (John and Ashley Voyle) living near a former Range Resources wastewater impoundment in Washington County, PA who had sued not only Range, but a water testing company (TestAmerica Laboratories) in a lawsuit alleging their water well had been contaminated by Range’s impoundment. The water testing company was made part of the lawsuit because, said the Voyles, the company allowed their test results to be doctored by Range before the results were reported to the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection. That aspect of this long, drawn-out lawsuit has been decided. The judge in the case said TestAmerica is not at fault and has been removed from the lawsuit…
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Energy Companies | Pennsylvania | Range Resources Corp | Statewide PA

Range’s Dennis Degner Named VP of Southern Marcellus Shale
October 10, 2016October 10, 2016

Dennis Degner – Range Resources

Range Resources has a new vice president for their Southern Marcellus Shale Division. His name is Dennis Degner. Range ran an interesting article on Dennis in the Washington Observer-Reporter–a profile of how he got into the oil and gas business. It’s an interesting look at a key player in the Marcellus. Dennis grew up on a farm in Texas. Learn how he got from chemical engineering in Texas to gas development in Pennsylvania…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Range Resources Corp | Regulation | Westmoreland County

Mt Pleasant Twp Approves Range Well Near School
September 29, 2016September 29, 2016

Something noteworthy is happening in southwest Pennsylvania. Landowners and pro-gas supporters are turning out at local hearings to support more drilling. Case in point: Range Resources had applied for a permit to build a drill pad near a local elementary school in Mt. Pleasant (Westmoreland County), PA. Moms Clean Air Force and other anti-drillers turned out to oppose the plan. A local town board meeting was packed to capacity. However, a majority of those packing the meeting were pro-gas and wore t-shirts with “Land Owners United” printed on them. Cool! About time our side began to turn up for these meetings to support the industry…
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Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | M&A | Range Resources Corp

Range Resources Completes Buyout/Merger with Memorial Resource
September 20, 2016September 19, 2016

As MDN previously reported, Range Resources, the very first driller in the Marcellus Shale (in 2004) and one of the largest Marcellus drillers, has decided to take advantage of the down market and branch out into another shale play (see Range Resources Buys Louisiana Driller in Deal Worth $4.4B). In May Range announced a deal to buy Memorial Resource Development Corp. (MRD) in a stock swap/debt assumption deal worth $4.4 billion. MRD holds 220,000 acres of leases and drills in the Terryville Field in northern Louisiana. Essentially Range has purchased themselves a Gulf Coast operation which sets them up nicely to export natural gas to Mexico. That’s at least part of the attraction. Perhaps another part of the attraction is that gas from Terryville Field, part of the Cotton Valley Tight Gas formation, is cheaper to drill and in many cases just as productive as shale wells in the Marcellus. Last Thursday Range reported receiving final stockholder approval for the merger/buyout, and last Friday Range reported that the deal is now done…
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