Big News: OH Utica Driller Gulfport Energy Looking to Sell Itself
Gulfport Energy, the third-largest driller in the Ohio Utica Shale (by the number of wells drilled), emerged from bankruptcy in May with a new board and new top management (see Gulfport Energy Emerges from Bankruptcy w/New Board, CEO/CFO Gone). According to Reuters, Gulfport is shopping itself, looking for a buyer. We’ve never known Reuters to be wrong about these kinds of insider scoops.
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Sometimes it seems like a full-time job running around and setting the record straight, correcting the outright lies and half-truths spun by the wacko environmental left. For example, shoveling up the messes made by the Ohio River Valley Institute (ORVI), a far-left, hyper-partisan, nonprofit organization. Last month ORVI peddled falsehoods at a hearing convened by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management which is conducting a study on the prospects for a petrochemical industry in the Marcellus/Utica (see 
We suppose we should have known. In querying the same Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) database we’ve been querying for years (maintained by ODNR), beginning about two months ago we noticed no new permits had been issued for new Utica Shale wells in the state. A week or two here and there is not all that unusual given the downward trend in drilling new wells. But the trend went on for two months. We were suspicious. A couple of sharp MDN readers emailed to say that ODNR is producing regular reports of new Utica well permits at a different location. Doh! We wish the ODNR had posted some sort of notice about the change in not continuing to update their other database. At any rate, we’ve gone back to early July to harvest and present all of the missing Ohio new weekly permit reports below…
Looking for a great job? Looking to work hard, but make excellent money for your hard work? If you live in Ohio, the answer to your job search lies in the oil and gas industry. The Ohio Oil and Gas Energy Education Program (OOGEEP) says there are more than 75 types of jobs in the Ohio oil and gas sector, with many jobs in welding, truck driving, and engineering. As of Aug. 19, there are 1,140 jobs available. And get this: Careers in oil and gas pay on average $30,000 more than other fields and average roughly $81,000 a year!
Once again the issue of whether or not to use conventional (not shale) wastewater and its byproducts is in the news. The issue has long been debated in Pennsylvania. Earlier this week we brought you news from a recent study that finds more studies should be done on the issue of using brine wastewater to treat dusty roads in PA (see 
An extensive story running in the Youngstown Business Journal tackles the thorny issue of violated expectations for Ohio landowners who thought they would get rich from Utica Shale wells on their land but didn’t. The article contains some good information and is a cautionary story for landowners. However, we’re concerned the story doesn’t present the full picture–that some landowners DO get significant revenue from royalties and signing bonuses.
It may be depressing to see just how radicalized our children have become with the climate lies they are fed day in and day out by the media and their teachers (see today’s companion post, Our Kids Have Been Radicalized with Climate Lies). However, there is something that can be done. Children are influenced by their teachers. And good teachers, when they have objective, compelling evidence presented to them, will in turn present that evidence to their students. Groups like Ohio Oil and Gas Energy Education Program (OOGEEP) are helping to turn the tide by training teachers about the oil and gas industry.
Ohio mineral rights owner Gateway Royalty researched unitization (aka force pooling) in the state and discovered a disturbing change introduced in existing unitization beginning three years ago. Since February 13, 2018, a “market enhancement” clause has been included in Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources’ (ODNR) forced pooling unitization orders, which allows the unit operator to deduct post-production costs from the royalties owed to mineral owners. These post-production costs are sometimes as much as 95% of the gross sale price. Gateway called attention to the practice and ODNR has since backed down and no longer includes the market enhancement clause in new unitization orders.
Ascent Resources, originally founded as American Energy Partners by gas legend Aubrey McClendon, is a privately-held company that focuses 100% on the Ohio Utica Shale. Ascent is Ohio’s largest natural gas producer and the 8th largest natural gas producer in the U.S. The company issued its second quarter 2021 update earlier this week. The company produced 1.95 billion cubic feet equivalent per day (Bcfe/d) during 2Q (91% natural gas). Ascent generated $38 million of free cash flow, but like other M-U drillers, hedging bets on derivatives resulted in a big loss of $617 million for the quarter.
Each quarter the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) issues an update on Utica (and Marcellus) oil and natural gas production. ODNR no longer issues a summary press release as they once did, which means we don’t automatically notice when quarterly updates appear on their website. ODNR publishes a detailed spreadsheet of all active wells showing oil and gas production by well. We make a copy of that spreadsheet, enhance it to make it more usable, and link to it. We also do our own sorting to show you the top 25 shale gas wells and top 25 shale oil wells. An astute MDN reader inquired about the report for 1Q21, which is now available. We’ve created our own version of their report and have some exciting news to share about 1Q21 results. Oil is back, in a big way, in the northern Utica!
In May MDN brought you the news that Ohio mineral rights owner Gateway Royalty was sounding the alarm over a new bill quickly advancing in the Ohio legislature. House Bill (HB) 152 would use forced pooling if 65% of a proposed unit’s landowners are leased (too low a bar) and also would force the landowner to accept a 12.5% royalty and force them to accept post-production deductions with royalties in some cases potentially going down to nothing (see 
In June the Ohio Oil & Gas Association (OOGA) held its 74th Annual Winter Meeting in Columbus. Yeah, you read that right. The Winter Meeting was moved to June this year due to COVID. As with previous annual OOGA meetings, one of the speakers was Martin Shumway, technical director at Locus Bio-Energy Solutions. Shumway shared details from the latest DeBrosse Memorial Report (full copy below). What does the report show for 2020? Ohio oil and natural gas production both experienced steep declines last year. Oil production was down 16% from 2019, and natural gas production was down 10% from 2019. Even though the production news for 2020 is negative, this report is jam-packed with terrific, very useful information about Ohio’s shale industry.
Ohio’s House Bill (HB) 6 law granted billions (plural) of dollars to FirstEnergy in an attempt to prop up the company’s economically failing nuclear power plants. FirstEnergy bribed state legislators to pass, and keep passed, HB 6 by paying out $61 million to a small group of insiders, including the now-former Speaker of the House (see 
There is no denying that permits issued to drill new wells in all of the Marcellus/Utica, including Ohio, have gone down over the past couple of years. Price is the main reason–the low price of natgas, that is. Even with all of the lower drilling budgets, less drilling, and (yes) layoffs, we spotted a statistic about Ohio that gives us encouragement. According to JobsOhio, the state’s economic development agency, “about 200,000 Ohioans are employed by the oil and gas industry.” That’s great news!
The states that produce Marcellus and Utica Shale are ensuring no rogue local municipalities will get it into their heads to ban the use of natural gas like some municipalities in left-leaning states including California and New York. Both Pennsylvania and Ohio have bills that would “ban bans” of natural gas (see 
In May MDN brought you the news that landowner Gateway Royalty was sounding the alarm over a new bill quickly advancing in the Ohio legislature. House Bill (HB) 152 would use forced pooling if 65% of a proposed unit’s landowners are leased (too low a bar) and also would force the landowner to accept a 12.5% royalty and force them to accept post-production deductions with royalties in some cases potentially going down to nothing (see