Southwestern Energy

One of the largest drillers in the Marcellus/Utica, Southwestern Energy, announced yesterday they’re borrowing $750 million in a three-year term loan–to pay off borrowed money. Yes, we know, it’s the American Way to borrow money to pay off other debts. Dave Ramsey wouldn’t be impressed–and neither are we. But that’s the way the game is played…
Read More “Southwestern Energy Borrows $750M to Pay Off Other Borrowed Money”

From time to time MDN notices and highlights “short selling” stories. What’s short selling? In essence, it’s when traders borrow and sell a stock so they can turn around and buy it back at a lower price, returning it to the party they “borrowed” it from, making a tidy profit. It is a trader betting that a stock’s price will go down and not up (see our explanation here: “Short Selling” – An Important Signal for Marcellus-Related Companies). On average, short selling of stocks for all companies in all industries is typically 5-6% of trading volume. Recently, oil and gas stocks, as an industry, have seen an average of 12% short selling of their stocks. When a company’s stock sees a spike in short selling, it’s a signal that “the market” believes that stock price is heading lower, which can mean trouble for the company. Southwestern Energy is the latest Marcellus/Utica driller to see a spike up in short selling of its stock. How much?…
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Yesterday Southwestern Energy Company, one of the the major players in the Marcellus Shale, posted its third quarter 2015 earnings and operational update. In many ways Southwestern is one of the most exciting companies drilling in the northeast. A year ago Southwestern purchased 413,000 acres and 435 operating and non-operating wells from Chesapeake Energy in the southwestern portion of the Marcellus for $5.4 billion (see Chesapeake Sells Close to 25% of Marcellus/Utica Operation). Early this year they picked up 46,700 acres and 63 operational wells from WPX Energy in the northeastern part of the play for $300 million (see WPX Finalizes Sale of NEPA Marcellus Leases/Wells to Southwestern). Then the company did something virtually no other company has done in 2015–they INCREASED their drilling program in the Marcellus (see Southwestern’s Contrarian Plan: Double Down on Drilling in the Marcellus). Has it paid off? Time will tell. We can tell you that the company is producing more natural gas than ever–130 billion cubic feet equivalent per day in the Marcellus/Utica. Put another way, that’s 1.4 Bcf/d, each and every day. We have plenty of details on their drilling program below. However, on the financial side, whereas the company made $211 million in net income in 3Q14, they lost $1.766 billion in 3Q15. That kind of bleeding will have to stop…
Read More “Southwestern Energy 3Q15: Production Up 27%, Net Loss of $1.8B”

Southwestern Energy, one of the largest natural gas producers in the Marcellus Shale and the fourth largest natural gas producer in the Lower 48 States, issued their second quarter 2015 update yesterday. There is a lot to digest in this massive update. Southwestern, you may recall, added to their already-considerable northeastern Pennsylvania Marcellus holdings by purchasing WPX’s NEPA leases, wells and operations in a $300 million that closed in February of this year (see WPX Finalizes Sale of NEPA Marcellus Leases/Wells to Southwestern). So this 2Q15 update will be the first full quarter to include numbers from the WPX purchase. Late last year Southwestern picked up a massive amount of new acreage and already-drilled wells in the southwestern portion of the Marcellus–most of it in West Virginia–in a $5.375 billion deal with Chesapeake Energy (see Chesapeake Sells Close to 25% of Marcellus/Utica Operation). Yes, Southwestern is serious about the Marcellus! What do the 2Q15 numbers for Southwestern show?…
Read More “Southwestern Energy 2Q15: Production Up 30%, Net Inc. Down 481%”

Southwestern Energy Company turned in their latest quarterly update yesterday (see our companion story today). Perhaps the biggest eye-opener for us is learning that Southwestern is now the fourth largest natural gas producer in the United States (lower 48 states). In addition to yesterday’s quarterly update, Southwestern released their latest PowerPoint presentation for analysts a couple of weeks ago. We have a copy of that presentation below along with our list of favorite slides. Lots of charts and graphs and yes, even useful information for landowners, investors, supply chain companies and competitors…
Read More “Southwestern Energy Slide Deck w/MDN’s Favorites Identified”

Southwestern Energy, one of the largest Marcellus Shale drillers, released their first quarter update last Thursday. Among the highlights: Record production for the company, including 113 billion cubic feet equivalent (Bcfe) in the Marcellus (83 Bcf in the northeast and 30 Bcf in the southwest). Similar to Cabot and other operators, Southwestern had record revenues in 1Q15–but income (profit) was way down due to low gas prices. Southwestern’s operating income for 1Q15 was $78 million, compared with $352 million in 1Q14–a 78% drop year over year. Southwestern placed 22 new wells online in production in the Marcellus during 1Q15. Below is the full update…
Read More “Southwestern Energy 1Q15: Record Production, but Profit Dives 78%”

Southwestern Energy held an analyst call last week to discuss their latest update for first quarter 2015. As with the Cabot transcript which we highlighted today, the Southwestern transcript is just jam-packed with details that will be of keen interest for investors, landowners–really anyone with an interest in Marcellus drilling in PA and WV and drilling done by Southwestern. We can’t bring you the whole transcript–so what we’ve done is highlight something that caught our interest: How Southwestern is driving down costs in their water operations, including an interesting twist on gathering lines…
Read More “Southwestern Energy’s Plan to Save $1M Per Well on Water Costs”

Southwestern Energy released their full year 2014, fourth quarter 2014 and preview of 2015 big kahuna update last Thursday. There is a LOT in there. With the purchase of 413,000 Marcellus/Utica Shale acres from Chesapeake along with a boatload of operating and partially-drilled wells, Southwestern is now one of the top 3 or 4 drillers in the Marcellus region (see Chesapeake Sells Close to 25% of Marcellus/Utica Operation). Even before adding the new acreage, Southwestern was going great guns last year. In 2014, Southwestern invested $695 million in Northeast Appalachia, which included $571 million to spud 99 operated wells. Southwestern’s net gas production from Northeast Appalachia was 254 Bcf in 2014, up 69% from 151 Bcf in 2013. Gross operated production in Northeast Appalachia was over 1.0 Bcf per day at the end of 2014 compared to approximately 700 MMcf per day at the end of 2013. They didn’t do much in Southwest Appalachia, as they call it (which means SW PA, WV & eastern OH). That will change this year–dramatically. Spending last year for the NE Marcellus was $695 million. This year it will be $700 million. Spending last year in the SW Marcellus was $4 million. This year? They’re going to spend big money on their newly acquired acreage from Chesapeake: $520 million. Southwestern is whacking their spending in other shale plays like the Fayettville–cutting it in half–so they can invest in the Marcellus…
Read More “Southwestern Energy: Great 2014, Even Better 2015 On the Way”