Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Mon, Feb 27, 2017
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: Don’t let utility reforms hurt OH energy boom; will CONSOL sink or swim; PA budget hearing exposes severance tax game; Dakota Access Pipeline operating “within weeks”; pipeline protesters leave dogs and puppies behind to die; four things driving 2017’s o&g recovery; natgas outlook for 2017; tell the truth about fracking; and more!
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Chesapeake Energy, the second largest gas driller in the U.S. behind ExxonMobil, turned in its full year 2016 and fourth quarter 2016 update yesterday. On the accompanying quarterly earnings call, Chesapeake CEO Doug “the ax” Lawler took a bow for turning around a company that just a year ago seemed bound for bankruptcy court. Make no mistake–the company still has a long way to go. But they came a long way in 2016 and you have to give credit where credit is due. Let’s start with the top line numbers: In 2016 Chesapeake lost $4.9 billion, which seems like a lot. But compare that to 2015 when Chessy lost $14.9 billion and you can see the great strides that were made last year. In 4Q16 Chesapeake lost $741 million, down from losing $2.2 billion in 4Q15. One of the millstone’s hanging around the neck of the company was corporate raider Carl Ichan. He dumped most of his Chesapeake stock in 2016, at a considerable loss (see 
Range Resources released its 2016 update on Wednesday and held an earnings call yesterday to discuss it. In what should be a big red warning flag for Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, Range CEO Jeff Ventura said, “2016 was a significant year for Range, as we completed the acquisition of Memorial Resource Development in September, providing Range operational and geographic diversity with wells that rival our prolific Marcellus wells.” The Memorial purchase provides Range with 220,000 acres on which to drill–in Louisiana (see 
Rice Energy turned in it’s 2016 update this week, along with a look at what’s coming in 2017. As for top line financial numbers, Rice lost about the same in 2016 as they did in 2015: A loss off $298 million in 2016 vs. a loss of $291 million in 2015. Although Rice owns and drills on a small acreage position in the Texas Barnett Shale, the vast majority of their focus continues to be in the Marcellus/Utica. The company plans to spend $1.5 billion in 2017, broken out as follows: $1.035 billion for drilling and completion activity in the Marcellus/Utica shale plays; $225 million for land purchases; and $315 million spent by Rice Midstream ($255 million for gas gathering and compression and $60 million on water services). With that money, Rice expects to drill 75 new wells and complete another 55 wells in the Marcellus in 2017. In the Utica, Rice plans to drill 20 new wells and complete 20 wells in 2017. Land acquisition will happen in three counties: Greene and Washington Counties (in PA), and Belmont County (in OH). How much will they pay, on average, to lease new acreage? We have an answer for that…
Energy Transfer Equity (ETE) & Energy Transfer Partners (ETP)–essentially the same company in two different pieces, owned by Texas billionaire Kelcy Warren–turned in their 2016 updates this week. ETE and ETP had a wild ride in 2016, with lots of drama over attempting to buy–and then wiggle out of the deal to buy–Williams (see 
Carrizo Oil & Gas, a Houston-based driller, actively drills in the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas, the Delaware Basin in West Texas, the Niobrara Formation in Colorado, and until mid-year in 2015, they did have an active drilling program in the Ohio Utica and Pennsylvania Marcellus. No more. They haven’t drilled in Appalachia since 3Q15. According to Carrizo’s latest quarterly update for 4Q16 (and full year 2016), the situation continues. However, there is new news: On an earnings call yesterday, Andy Agosto, vice president of business development for Carrizo, fielded a question about the company’s Marcellus/Utica acreage. He said they get offers to sell their acreage “all the time” and in fact have had discussions with their bankers about the value of their Appalachian assets and about whether or not they should sell. It sounds to us, from the exchange, like Carrizo is actively considering a sale of their Marcellus/Utica acreage–some of it, if not all of it…
As we reported earlier this week, Sunoco Logistics Partners has begun active construction activities related to building the twin Mariner East 2 pipelines (see 
Each year Engineering News-Record (ENR) magazine publishes a list of its Top 25 construction projects that began to be built during the previous 12 months. ENR has just released the list for new starts in 2016, and as we looked over the list, we couldn’t help but notice that of the top 25–each project of which had to be worth at least $140 million to get on the list–many of the projects are related to Marcellus/Utica Shale and would not exist without abundant, cheap shale gas. Here is the list of the Top 25 projects begun last year in the states of Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia…
It’s always breathtaking, and disturbing, when a small group of individuals decide to take away the Constitutional property rights of their fellow citizens. We always wonder, is this how it started in 1920s Germany? The Augusta County (VA) Board of Supervisors voted 6 to 1 Wednesday night to illegally take away the property rights of every citizen in the county by enacting a total ban on fracking in the county. Is there any shale in the county to frack? No idea, but we doubt it. To be fair, the first county in Virginia to become lawless in this regard was King George County, last summer (see 
A group of radical, waaaaaaay left Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives sent a letter to President Trump on Wednesday requesting that Trump appoint new members of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission post haste. Get ‘er done–now. The ring leader of the House Dems sending the letter is Massachusetts Congressman Joe Kennedy III. Wait a minute. Democrats hate FERC because FERC is “nothing more than a tool of big oil and gas” and a “rubber stamp” approving pipeline projects. Why would Kennedy and his merry band of Lib Dems want Trump to appoint three new Republican members of the Commission? When you figure out the answer to that one, please share it with us–because this makes zero sense to us…
You may recall that TransCanada, one of Canada’s leading midstream/pipeline companies, cooked up a deal last year to pipe natural gas from Canada’s West Coast to the East Coast in order to fend off cheap supplies of Marcellus/Utica gas that will flow into Canada when/if the NEXUS and Rover pipelines get built (see 
There’s always a few holdouts, no matter how hard you try to be reasonable. We’re talking about landowners who refuse to negotiate in good faith with pipeline companies. Earlier this month amidst a flurry of activity, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) handed Williams a final final final approval for its Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline project–a $3 billion, 198-mile pipeline running through 10 Pennsylvania counties to connect Marcellus Shale natural gas from PA with the Williams’ Transco pipeline in southern Lancaster County (see 
BREAKING NEWS, BREAKING NEWS: Anadarko well pad site leaks wastewater and kills 165 salamanders. Funeral services are being arranged. This would almost be funny, if it wasn’t real. No, not funeral services for salamanders (although it’s not beyond believable in this day and age). In 2014 Anadarko drilled a shale well in Lycoming County, PA. In February 2015, a storage tank at the well pad–used to temporarily store produced water coming from the well (wastewater storage happens at ALL shale well sites)–either experienced a leaky valve, or was overfilled, depending on whom you ask. About 1,000 gallons of produced water leaked out of the tank and subsequently out of containment and into a drainage ditch (i.e. “unnamed tributary”) and found its way into a local creek, killing 165 (or 169, depending on the source) salamanders. And now (no lie), the Environmental Crimes Unit of the PA Attorney General’s office is hauling Anadarko and their contractor into court, charging them with environmental crimes. A PA Fish and Boat Commission biologist estimates the dead salamanders were worth $6,156–or ~$37 each. Careful where you step! If you step on a salamander in PA and accidentally kill it, the state will charge you $37 and somebody from the AG’s office will pay you a visit. It can get expensive walking along a creek in PA….
Earlier this week Superior Energy, a Houston, TX-based oilfield services company specializing in completions and fracking with operations in the Pennsylvania Marcellus, issued its 2016 update. In addition, yesterday Superior’s muckety-mucks hopped on a conference call with analysts to discuss 2016 (and fourth quarter) results. Of particular note and interest to MDN is that Superior said in the later half of 2016 they transitioned away from fracking wells in Pennsylvania, moving the equipment and expanding their fracking operations in the Permian Shale instead. It’s possible Superior still has, and will continue to maintain, some operations in the Marcellus (although they shut down a facility in PA). But the new operating strategy for Superior is, judging by both the update and the conference call, quite clear: the Marcellus is out and the Permian is in…
We’ve known for the past couple of years that Sunoco Logistics Partners, owner and builder of the Mariner pipeline projects, wanted to build not one, but two Mariner East 2 pipelines–ME2 and ME2X. We wrote about their hope to build two pipelines back in June 2015 (see 
In addition to the great news that Sunoco Logistics Partners is building not one but two pipelines as part of the Mariner East 2 project (see today’s companion story, Sunoco LP Building 2 Pipelines for Mariner East 2 Project), we don’t want to overlook the other good work being done by Sunoco. The big news about two ME2 pipelines came as part of a Sunoco LP’s fourth quarter and full year 2016 update. The company reports making a $705 million profit in 2016, nearly doubling from the $393 million they made in 2015. Life is good in the midstream. They also report establishing a $1 billion line of credit in December, to help with cash flow during this year’s construction of ME2 and other projects. Below is the 4Q16 & full year 2016 update, along with the latest PowerPoint slide deck…