Gulfport Energy 2016 Operational Update – Production Up 31%
Gulfport Energy, an Oklahoma City-based independent oil and natural gas exploration and production company (“driller”) that is a “top 5” driller in the Ohio Utica Shale, released their fourth quarter 2016 and full year 2016 operational (not financial) update yesterday. Gulfport is part of the growing trend to drop one shoe first, then the other. The first shoe is almost always production and operational information (the good news). That doesn’t mean that the financial information is bad news–but sometimes that’s the case. For now, let’s revel in the good news! Gulfport’s net production during 4Q16 averaged 787 million cubic feet equivalent per day (MMcfe/d), a 7% increase over 3Q16 and a 22% increase versus 4Q15. Net production for full-year 2016 averaged 719.8 MMcfe per day, a whopping 31% increase over full-year of 2015. Below is the update, along with the newest investor PowerPoint presentation with lots of useful details…
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The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: Michigan backs DTE electric contract with NEXUS, doesn’t back cost recovery; EPA & FERC at odds over Leach XPress pipe; Ohio’s Chart buys Hetsco; Range Resources donates $50K to hospital ER; big deals go down in Permian for Exxon and Noble; natgas production goes up in Oklahoma plays; reworking Obama’s dreadful environmental rules; Linde Engineering gets a new CEO; 2017 natgas outlook; corporate raiders take aim at NRG Energy; and more!
We have sad news to report. A young man, just 19 years old, was killed when he was “struck by a truck, then pinned between the truck and a stationary object” at an Antero Resources well pad site in Tyler County, WV last Thursday. Hunter Osborn, of Lewis County, WV, worked for U.S. Well Services, the fracking company hired by Antero. The well pad is called the Hartley East Pad in Middlebourne. Mr. Osborn was pinned between a tractor trailer backing up to unload sand and a sand silo. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of this young man. Below are the details we could find about the accident…
Cabot Oil & Gas has a major presence in Susquehanna County, PA, not far from where MDN is written (just across the border). In fact, Susquehanna County, located in the northeastern tip of PA, is the only county in PA where Cabot drills. It is a “dry gas” zone–and extremely productive. By our reckoning, Cabot alone produces something like 3% of the entire natural gas supply for the entire country. One driller, in one county. It is an astonishing feat! Susquehanna County is rural. The entire county has 43,000 residents (11,700 families). The largest “city” in Susquehanna County is the county seat of Montrose, population 1,600 (750 households). Until now, there has been drilling all around the edges of Montrose, but no drilling directly under the city. That may soon change. Cabot has made an offer on 10.76 acres of land located within city limits. Cabot is offering a lowball $1,000 per acre as a signing bonus, plus 15% royalties. Not long ago Cabot cut deals for $3,500 per acre and 18.75% royalties. It appears this is just an opening negotiating tactic…
The anti-fossil fuel nutters in New York have finally lost a major battle they’ve waged against the shale industry for the past 5+ years. In June 2014, MDN told you about the Dominion New Market Project–a project that will build two new compressor plants and upgrade one other compressor station in upstate New York–to help flow more abundant, cheap and clean-burning Marcellus Shale gas from Pennsylvania (and beyond) into the northeast (see 
In December the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) proceeded with an online auction for BLM-controlled land in Ohio’s Wayne National Forest (see 
Tired of having their application to expand a pipeline compressor station blocked, Rice Energy has sued West Pike Run Township in Washington County, PA. In the lawsuit, Rice says that the town had 90 days (under law) to render a decision on the request and did not do so. Eventually the town told Rice “no” to expanding an existing compressor station. The lawsuit asks the court to force the town to approve the application forthwith…
This news is a bit dated, from last December, but important nonetheless. Under threat of a $300 million lawsuit, Penn Township (Westmoreland County, PA) voted to allow Apex Energy to build two Marcellus well pads, and arranged for more hearings on four more well pads. In April 2016 Penn Township blocked permits for Apex well pads (see 
One of the antis’ favorite tactics in opposing the Mariner East 2 pipeline is to claim it’s unsafe. It’s a bomb waiting to go off. Mariner East 2, as a reminder, is a $2.5 billion, 350-mile natural gas liquids (NGL) pipeline that will run from eastern Ohio through the state of Pennsylvania to the Marcus Hook refinery near Philadelphia. It will flow mostly ethane, but also propane and butane. One town near Philadelphia where the pipeline is slated to run is West Goshen Township (Chester County). The leaders of the town wanted an honest, independent assessment of the pipeline and its potential danger to residents–so they hired the independent consulting firm Accufacts to study the safety of the project. The report is in (full copy below) and shows not only does Mariner East 2 meet, but in fact exceeds federal minimum safety requirements. There goes another anti argument, disappearing into the atmosphere like burned carbon dioxide…
How low can you go? Natural gas spot prices in 2016 averaged $2.49 per thousand cubic feet (Mcf), or more commonly per million British thermal units (MMBtu) at the national benchmark Henry Hub. That is the lowest annual average price for natgas since 1999. The monthly average price fell below $2.00/Mcf from February through May, but later increased, ending the year at an average of $3.58/Mcf in December. Marcellus/Utica drillers would LOVE to see prices like $2.49 or $3.58. Prices in the northeast, because of lack of takeaway pipelines, sometimes sank below $1/Mcf at certain trading points…
Dear MDN Reader:
Events related to drilling in the Marcellus and Utica Shale, primarily pro-drilling.
We have some progress and movement to report about PTT Global’s proposed $6 billion ethane cracker project coming to Belmont County, OH. The rumor is that PTT will announce a final investment decision (FID) in March–just two short months away. We wait with eager anticipation! However, in the meantime, the project appears to be proceeding full speed ahead. The latest evidence of that comes from a recent permit issued for the project by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The permit allows the cracker plant to discharge wastewater (which is far different from drilling wastewater) into the Ohio River. The EPA notes, in granting the permit, that although the discharge may “result in changes from current water quality conditions” the discharge “cannot violate Ohio’s water quality standards that protect human health and the environment.” Next up is an air permit from the Ohio EPA, which the agency is currently working on. Here’s the deets on the wastewater permit just issued…