Rice Energy

Carrizo Oil & Gas | Energy Companies | Rice Energy

The Mad Dash to Raise Cash Continues: Carrizo & Rice Energy
March 24, 2015March 24, 2015

The “get cash through the door” game continues for both drillers (E&P) and midstream companies. We have two more drillers looking to get cash through the door in two different ways. Last week, Carizzo Oil & Gas, an independent oil and gas company with drilling operations in several shale plays including the Marcellus and Utica, floated a plan to use equity financing (selling more of the company via shares of stock) to raise $205 million by floating 4.5 million shares of stock for $45.50 per share. Carrizo, which has no plans to drill new wells in the northeast in 2015 (see Carrizo Cuts Budget 35%, No Drilling Planned in Utica/Marcellus in 2015), will use the money to pay down debt. Meanwhile, Rice Energy, which is a “pure play” energy company targeting the Marcellus/Utica, announced yesterday they’re going the IOU route–issuing new notes, or promises to repay loans (incurring more debt), hoping to raise $400 million to be used for “for general corporate purposes, including capital expenditures”…
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Belmont County | Energy Companies | Lease & Royalty Payments | Ohio | Rice Energy | Utica Shale

Rice Energy Pays St Clairsville, OH $8,700/Acre Signing Bonus
March 16, 2015March 16, 2015

In March 2014, St. Clairsville (Belmont County), OH put out a request for bids on 195 acres of city-owned land. The request for proposal (RFP) came and went with no bids (see St Clairsville RFP to Lease 195 Utica Acres Comes & Goes, No Bids). But don’t let that fool you. Drillers were keenly interested in leasing the property. The initial RFP served a legal purpose. After the period for bids closed, the real negotiations began. St. Clairsville was looking for $7,300 per acre signing bonus and 20% royalties. They got an even better deal. In January, Rice Energy handed St. Clairsville with a check for $1,479,251.84 to lease 170 out of the 195 acres–or $8,700 per acre as a signing bonus…
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Belmont County | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Greene County (PA) | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Rice Energy | Rice Midstream | Washington County

Rice Energy Turns Profitable in 2014; Strong 2015 in View
March 13, 2015March 13, 2015

Rice Energy, a “pure play” energy company focused on drilling in the Utica and Marcellus, issued their full year and fourth quarter 2014 update yesterday. Wow, what an update! Rice had a big year in 2014. The parent company, focused on drilling, went public. They also launched an IPO for their midstream (pipelines) subsidiary. Compared to 2013 which saw a loss on the books, 2014 reversed it. In 2014, Rice’s profit was $218.5 million (out of $390.9 million). That’s an increase over a 2013 loss of $35.8 million (out of $88.7 million in revenue). In 2014, Rice produced 97.7 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of natural gas, up from 23 Bcf in 2013. Aside from the company growing and hitting its stride, what was different about 2014? Last year Rice concentrated on the Utica Shale…
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Belmont County | Energy Companies | Greene County (PA) | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Rice Energy | Washington County

Rice Energy CEO Dan Rice Says 5 Utica Wells Producing 80Mmcf/Day
March 13, 2015March 13, 2015

CORRECTION: In the original version of this story MDN incorrectly stated Rice’s 5 Utica wells were producing $80 million per day instead of 80 million cubic feet of natural gas. A dumb mistake. We relied on an inaccurate transcription of what was said (see it below). The transcription lists the quantities as dollars–the person transcribing got it wrong. We should have known! Our apologies. The 5 wells are still awesome in producing 80 Mmcf/d–but not as awesome as $80 million per day! 🙂

In addition to releasing their fourth quarter and full year 2014 update yesterday, Rice Energy also held an analyst phone call to share the results. Rice’s top management was on the call and shared some fascinating insights. Among them: In 2014 and early 2015 Rice brought five Utica Shale wells online–Bigfoot 9H, Blue Thunder 10H and 12H, and Gold Digger 1H and 3H. (Just an aside, we love how Rice names their wells. Their newest well pad just completed in Belmont County, OH is the “Son-Uva-Digger” pad. Love it!) Anywho, the five Utica wells completed in 2014 and early 2015 collectively are producing, according to CEO Dan Rice, 80 million cubic feet of gas PER DAY. Truly astonishing. In addition to the Utica in Belmont County, Rice is eyeing the Utica underneath their Marcellus assets in southwestern PA–in Washington and Greene counties. This company is smart and focused and one to keep an eye on. Below is a transcript of the comments from yesterday’s analyst call. We’ve added our yellow highlighter to point out some items that caught our attention…
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Energy Companies | Rice Energy

Rice Energy Trims 2015 Budget 19%, Production Soars 61% in 4Q14
February 18, 2015February 18, 2015

Yesterday Rice Energy, a small but rapidly growing driller in the Marcellus and Utica Shale, issued a recap of 2014 along with “guidance” (or projections) for what they plan to do in 2015. The disappointing but understandable news is that Rice plans to spend less money drilling in 2015 than they did in 2014–$890 million for 2015 compared with $1.1 billion in 2014–a 19% reduction. That’s not nearly as deep a cut as many Marcellus/Utica drillers. For 2015, Rice plans to drill 61 new wells using that $890 million, and bring 36 new wells online. Production for Rice soared in 4Q14–up 61% from the previous quarter! Below are a pair of announcements from yesterday with loads of details…
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Belmont County | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Monroe County | Ohio | Pipelines | Rice Energy | Rice Midstream

Rice Midstream Building New “Zeus” Pipeline in Belmont/Monroe OH
February 10, 2015February 10, 2015

MDN picked up on a bit of news we had not previously heard about. Rice Midstream, the newly formed subsidiary of Rice Energy launched in December (see Rice Midstream IPO Falls Short of Goal by Approx. $134M), is busy at work. They are building eight miles of 30-inch pipeline through portions of Belmont and Monroe counties (in Ohio) as part of their “Zeus” project. This is the first time we’d heard of Zeus (the pipeline). The project will last four months and employ 350 temporary union workers–welders and construction workers…
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Energy Companies | Rice Energy

Latest Rice Energy Investor Presentation Reveals New Info
January 26, 2015January 26, 2015

Last week Rice Energy posted a new PowerPoint investor presentation on their website. We like to share these concise “get to the point” presentations with the MDN audience because they’re full of maps and information that landowners, energy companies and supply chain companies find useful. This latest from Rice is no exception. Early on we learn a neat fact (slide #3): Rice Energy hit Marcellus Shale production levels of 200, 300, 400 and 500 million cubic feet per day with fewer wells than any other operator in the Marcellus. Cool. Here’s what else we notice in the latest Rice presentation…
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Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Rice Energy

Rice Midstream IPO Falls Short of Goal by Approx. $134M
December 24, 2014December 24, 2014

Earlier in December Rice Energy, a Marcellus and Utica Shale exploration and production company, launched an Initial Public Offering (IPO) for their midstream division–spinning it off into it’s own company (see Rice Energy Launches Midstream IPO – MDN Nails the Price). Rice had hoped to get between $19 and $21 per share. The IPO is now done and dusted–and Rice only got $16.50 per share. So instead of the hoped for $546-$604 million in new cash (call it $575 million), they got $441.6 million. Still very respectable, but certainly short of the mark…
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Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Processing Plants | Rice Energy

Rice Energy Launches Midstream IPO – MDN Nails the Price
December 9, 2014December 9, 2014

A month ago MDN told you that Rice Energy would spin out a midstream (pipelines & processing plants) subsidiary (see Rice Energy Readies Midstream Subsidiary IPO – How Much?). At the time, we didn’t have a clue as to how much the company would want to raise, but based on a formula we devised (pretty simple, using the same ratio of Antero’s E&P IPO vs their midstream IPO) we came up with the number of $588.5 million for the Rice Midstream IPO. We said at the time we would be back to let you know how close we came with our “back of the envelope” prediction. Looks like it was pretty darned close. Like, scary close…
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Belmont County | Energy Companies | Ohio | Rice Energy | Utica Shale

Single Rice OH Utica Well Produces 2 Bcf in 5 Months!
November 18, 2014November 18, 2014

What adjectives and superlatives can you use to describe a single shale well that produces 2 billion cubic feet of natural gas in five months? That’s how much has been produced by Rice Energy’s Bigfoot 9H well in Belmont County, OH. If you figure Rice is getting an average $4 per thousand cubic feet for the gas, that means the gas sold from that well over the past five months has grossed the company something like $8 million. If the landowners get a 20% royalty from the well, that’s a $1.6 million check. “Darn impressive” is perhaps the understatement of the year…
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Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Rice Energy | Trucking | Washington County

Marcellus Industry Lends a Hand with Nabbing Trucking Violations
November 17, 2014November 17, 2014

There’s no getting around the fact that when drilling comes to an area, so too does a LOT of truck traffic. Anyone who lives in an area with active drilling can attest to the headaches of following a water truck up a hill going half the speed limit. Because the industry is high profile, those who operate truck fleets (and the energy companies who hire them) typically enforce strict rules for drivers. They also maintain their fleets in tip-top shape to ensure there are no safety violations. Case in point: Washington County, PA…
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Energy Companies | Rice Energy

Rice Energy 3Q14: Production Up 93%, 2 Board Members Resign
November 13, 2014November 13, 2014

Rice Energy, focused solely on the Marcellus and Utica region, released their third quarter report yesterday and reports adding another 10,000 acres to their Marcellus/Utica portfolio–now with 136,422 acres under lease in the northeast. The company keeps drilling at a rapid clip, operating two rigs in the northeast. Because of previously drilled wells, production is up 93% from last year at this time–to 247 million cubic feet per day (Mmcf/d) on average during 3Q14. On the P&L side, Rice narrowed its loss during 3Q14 to $6.9 million, or 5 cents per share, down from $33.7 million, or 38 cents per share in 3Q13. Below is the update for Rice’s Marcellus and Utica drilling program, including midstream operations. At the very bottom of the update are details about the resignation of two board members…
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Energy Companies | Rice Energy

Rice Energy Readies Midstream Subsidiary IPO – How Much?
November 13, 2014November 13, 2014

Following in Antero’s footsteps, Rice Energy announced last week that they will launch an initial public offering (IPO) for stock in a new spun-off midstream subsidiary–Rice Midstream. You may recall Antero Resources, a company that concentrates on the Marcellus/Utica region, launched an IPO for their company a year ago that hauled in $1.57 billion (see Antero’s IPO Fetches $1.57B, Company Valued at $11B!). The much smaller Rice followed with their own IPO which did better than hoped, bringing in a cool $924 million (see Rice Energy IPO Soars, Brings in $84M More Than Expected). Antero very recently floated an IPO for a midstream subsidiary and hauled in another $1B (see Antero Midstream IPO Hauls in $1B, Stock Trading High). Now Rice is floating an IPO for a midstream subsidiary. No, not to keep up with the Jones (we don’t think, anyway). But because it makes sense. How much is Rice looking to make?…
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Energy Companies | Rice Energy

Rice Energy 2Q14: Marcellus Prod Up 84%, Utica Bigfoot Blockbuster
August 12, 2014August 12, 2014

Rice Energy, a small but rapidly growing and important driller in the Utica and Marcellus, issued their second quarter financial and operational update yesterday. Rice reports gas production for 2Q14 averaged 241 million cubic feet per day (virtually all of it from their Marcellus wells)–up 84% from the same period last year. Rice has drilled perhaps the most productive well in the Utica Shale–the Bigfoot 9H, a 6,950 foot lateral with 40 frac stages located in Belmont County, OH. Rice says the Bigfoot well has so far produced a total of 676 million cubic feet of natgas and continues to flow at a restricted rate of 14 MMcf/d. Truly impressive numbers. Here’s more impressive numbers from Rice…
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Belmont County | Energy Companies | Gulfport Energy | Industrywide Issues | Monroe County | Ohio | Pipelines | Rice Energy | Utica Shale

Gulfport Cuts Deal with Competitor Rice Energy to Build Pipeline
August 1, 2014August 1, 2014

An interesting announcement from Gulfport Energy earlier this week. The company issued a “midstream update” and a production numbers for 2Q14 going back one year. What’s interesting is that Gulfport has cut midstream (i.e. pipeline) deals to get its production out of the Utica Shale basin in eastern Ohio. One deal is with Rice Energy, a competitor who also drills in the Utica. Rice will construct and operate gathering pipelines for Gulfport in several townships in Belmont County, OH. (Interesting that Rice is becoming a midstream company as well as a driller.) The second deal is with midstreamer MarkWest Energy to construct pipelines to Gulfport wells in other parts of Belmont County, and in parts of Monroe County, OH…
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Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Greene County (PA) | Pennsylvania | Rice Energy

Chesapeake Sells 22K Acres in Greene County, PA to Rice Energy
July 8, 2014July 8, 2014

Chesapeake Energy continues to sell off assets in an attempt to boost its stock price and make corporate raider Carl Icahn even richer. The latest fire sale: Rice Energy announced yesterday they’ve picked up 22,000 acres and 12 Marcellus Shale wells from Chessy located in Greene County, PA for $336 million. According to Rice’s President & COO Toby Rice, the acreage is a “high quality” shale asset located in an area they’ve been developing since 2009…
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