Thai Company Banpu Invests in Another 34 Marcellus Wells in NEPA
One year ago, Banpu Pcl, Thailand’s largest coal producer, invested $112 million to purchase Range Resources’ Marcellus non-operated JV operations in Bradford County, PA (see Thai Company Buys Out Range Resources’ JV in NEPA for $112M). The “Chaffee Corners Joint Exploration Agreement” gave Banpu an ownership share in 62 producing wells and another 14 wells waiting on completion, and a share in 170+ more drilling locations. Talisman is the operator of the wells and the company that does the drilling (Banpu is just an investor). Banpu liked it so much, they did it again in January of this year (see Thai Company Banpu Makes 2nd Investment in Northeast Marcellus). The January deal gave Banpu a 10.24% stake in 10,000 acres of Marcellus leases, once again in northeastern PA, for $63 million. Chief Oil & Gas is the driller on the acreage in the second deal. Then in March, Banpu signed an agreement to invest $16 million into a venture with Tug Hill Marcellus (see Thai Company Banpu Invests Another $16M in PA Marcellus Wells). It seems that Banpu can’t get enough of the Marcellus in northeastern PA. The company just announced a fourth deal to invest in more NEPA acreage and wells. How many wells? What county is the new deal located in? And which driller is the operator of that acreage? We give you the details you won’t find elsewhere…
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MDN first told you about IMG Midstream in August 2014 (see
As sometimes happens, Williams has had to file 27 eminent domain lawsuits against landowners in northeastern and central Pennsylvania–landowners who have refused to negotiate with the company to allow the now FERC-approved Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline to cross their property. We understand the reluctance of some landowners who would rather not have the pipeline cross their property. But we also understand the necessity of the project–and the need to be reasonable. Some landowners are not reasonable. And so eminent domain is a rare, option-of-last-resort necessity in those cases. But don’t shed too many tears for landowners now being sued. One PA landowner in Luzerne County (Wilkes-Barre area) was originally offered $260,000 for an easement on 7.6 acres of land ($34,211/acre!). He refused. The price has now dropped to $225,000. Guess he should have signed before eminent domain was on the table…
One of the issues that isn’t going away is the demand by landowners in some Pennsylvania counties, like Bradford, for lawmakers in the state to pass a bill that guarantees them what they believe they are already guaranteed–a 12.5% minimum royalty, based on a 1979 law that states they should get such a royalty. We’ve extensively covered what we call a civil war between two parties who are otherwise friendly toward each other–landowners and shale drillers. Last year the issue came to a head with House Bill (HB) 1391 (
Way back in May 2014 MDN told you that UGI Energy Services, a subsidiary of UGI (a utility company in northeast PA) would build two new pipelines in northeast PA for $80 million that will allow them to transport cheap, abundant, locally extracted natural gas from Cabot Oil & Gas in Susquehanna County to residents in the greater Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area (see
Not much to report on this, thankfully. MDN has told you in the past one of the most under-appreciated stories we know of is that the only Proctor & Gamble manufacturing plant out of their 150 plants worldwide that is 100% energy self-sufficient is a plant in Wyoming County, PA–near Wilkes-Barre in northeast Pennsylvania (see