Rex Energy 4Q & 2016 Update – Production Slips from 2015
Rex Energy, a driller focused mainly on the Marcellus/Utica (headquartered in State College, PA), released their fourth quarter and full year 2016 operational update yesterday. As seems to be the trend with many drillers, Rex has released the “good news” about how they produced, etc. ahead of releasing their financial statements (which have tended to be the bad news). What do we find in the Rex update? Production of all hydrocarbons was up 12% when comparing 4Q16 with 4Q15, and up 6% when comparing all of 2016 with all of 2015. However, when you dig a little bit, you discover that Rex’s methane (dry gas) production was down slightly when comparing 2016 with 2015, which we attribute to lack of drilling new wells. Here’s the update…
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Last week Schlumberger, the world’s largest oilfield services (OFS) company, reported their numbers for fourth quarter and full year 2016. As we highlighted, the company experienced a net loss last year (see 
In March 2013, the Center for Sustainable Shale Development (CSSD) burst onto the scene. It had been a closely guarded secret, the creation of a few hand-picked people from both industry and the environmental movement working together to see if there is any common ground on which both sides can agree that shale development would be safe, sustainable AND affordable. They worked hard for over a year and finally hammered out a set of 15 standards that if a driller (or midstream company or contractor) would meet, it would get a stamp of approval from both the industry and environmental groups as being a good goobie–a safe driller. In Sept. 2014 the CSSD announced they have certified their very first driller–one of their founding members–Chevron (see 
Good news for natural gas drillers in general, and Marcellus/Utica drillers in particular: Our favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) predicts the average price for natural gas in the U.S. will rise in both 2017 and 2018. EIA expects the Henry Hub natural gas spot price to average $3.55 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) in 2017 and $3.73/MMBtu in 2018, both higher than the 2016 average of $2.51/MMBtu. Higher prices in 2017 and 2018 reflect natural gas consumption and exports exceeding supply and imports, leading to lower average inventory levels…
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: The future of northeast gas markets; drilling increases in PA, OH & WV; fringe OH fractivists chase more taxpayer money to fund sham studies; Standing Rock Indians want the paid protesters gone asap; Trump tells EPA to freeze all grants & contracts; weekly rig count sees biggest increase in 4 years; the days of cheap natgas are over, so says peak gas theorist; polar votex returning; OPEC vs shale; and more!
Well that didn’t take long. Immediately, as soon as Donald J. Trump was sworn into office on Friday at noon, key changes were made to the official White House website. Among them: the page touting man-made global warming nonsense (i.e. “climate change”) came down, and up went Trump’s “America First Energy Plan” instead. Trump’s plan? Support shale, dump Obama’s so-called climate plan, and refocus the EPA. Slap me! Am I dreaming? Will I wake up and find Lord Obama is still in charge? Or worse yet, that Hillary is President? No! Trump won, and the best possible outcome is now happening for American energy (including shale energy) and the American people. A true “all of the above” strategy from Team Trump. Below is a copy of Trump’s energy plan and some of the hysterical reaction by radical environmentalists…
A former U.S. Steel pipe manufacturing plant near Pittsburgh (in McKeesport) has been leased to Dura-Bond Industries and will re-open in the next 6-9 months, according to the president of Dura-Bond. The plant will hire around 100 people (fantastic news for Pittsburgh). According to the Pittsburgh Business Times, Dominion’s $5 billion, 594-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline–a natural gas pipeline that will stretch from West Virginia through Virginia and into North Carolina–will use Dura-Bond pipe. Our conclusion: One of the reasons (perhaps THE reason) for the McKeesport facility re-opening is to produce Atlantic Coast Pipeline pipes…
MDN has previously reported on a $900 million natural gas-fired electric generating plant coming to Orange County, NY (see 
In January 2014, MDN brought you the story that due to incessant nagging from the NJ Sierra Club and the NJ League of [Liberal Democrat] Women Voters the Pinelands Commission, which oversees a stand of scrub pines in South Jersey, nixed a plan for a new natural gas pipeline to bring cheap, clean, abundant Marcellus Shale natural gas to South Jersey for use by residents and to feed an electric plant a local utility wants to convert from burning coal to natgas (see 
Two weeks ago MDN told you about an effort in Virginia to ensure new changes in Virginia’s environmental regulations that require “mandatory disclosure of fracking chemicals, baseline water testing and monitoring, and spill prevention and response planning” would still protect trade secrets–the exact combinations of chemicals used by drillers when fracking (see 
The largest oilfield services (OFS) company in the world, Schlumberger, issued their fourth quarter and full year 2016 report on Friday. Schlumberger has major operations in the Marcellus/Utica. They drill and frack for many companies in our neck of the woods. (Other large OFS companies active in the M/U include Halliburton and Baker Hughes.) Schlumberger CEO Paal Kibsgaard said since the price of oil and gas is moving higher, his company will also increase the prices they charge E&Ps (exploration and production companies) in 2017. OFS companies have been hammered over the past couple of years to lower their prices. Such “price concessions” are now coming to an end. We can understand why. Revenue for Schlumberger in 2016 fell by 22% over 2015, and the company swung from making $2 billion in profit in 2015 to losing $1.7 billion in 2016. Ouch. Here’s the update…
Below is an article not directly mentioning or tied to the Marcellus/Utica, but we can’t help but wonder if there are not applications for our region. The article focuses on the marketing and “packaging” of LNG (liquefied natural gas) as the new and “hottest” thing to hit the power generation world. If an electric power generating plant (that uses natgas) doesn’t sit along the route of a natgas pipeline, it needs to get that natgas via other means. Many countries around the world–not just the U.S.–are making a change from burning coal to burning natural gas. So getting the gas to the plant is an issue. There is a long chain of vendors between where gas is produced and where it gets used at a powergen plant. The gas is extracted and then hits a pipeline. That pipeline must, at some point, flow to an LNG liquefaction plant that cools and condenses the gas. The LNG is then loaded on a ship (typically) and sailed to another country. At the other country the LNG is offloaded, delivered to the end user, and before it gets used, it must go through a regasification process. There’s a lot of moving parts and logistics involved in moving LNG from point A to point B. So what if a company, or coalition of companies, were to form an alliance and market a ‘one stop shopping’ solution for power plants and the governments in other countries that want to use LNG? That’s the premise, and that’s the promise of what is beginning to be offered. No new technology–just a new way to market it. Which has applications for our own region…
Yesterday the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) voted to approve and issue a certificate to Columbia Pipeine’s Leach XPress and Rayne XPress pipeline projects. This is fantastic news for the Marcellus/Utica region. MDN has covered these projects from their beginning. In August 2014 Columbia, then a subsidiary of Nisource, committed to building the two projects that will flow Marcellus/Utica gas to the Gulf Coast (see 
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 (