Magnum Hunter Rebuilds Executive Team, Gets New CFO
Magnum Hunter Resources Corporation (MHR), a driller 100% focused on the Marcellus/Utica emerged from bankruptcy in May, less than five months after filing (see Magnum Hunter Emerges from Bankruptcy with CEO Gary Evans Gone). As we observed at the time, we were surprised to read that MHR’s flamboyant CEO, Gary Evans, was gone from the company. In his place MHR named two of Evans’ lieutenants to serve as co-CEOs while the new board of directors looked for a permanent replacement for Evans. The search ended with the hiring of John K. Reinhart in September (see Magnum Hunter Finds New CEO to Replace Forced-Out Gary Evans). Reinhart and the board have continued to rebuild the company. Their latest addition will come next Monday when Michael R. Koy will join the company as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Koy was most recently CEO of Denali Energy…
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As we near the end of this year, analysts and consultants inevitably turn their attention to next year, 2017. Will oil and gas drillers spend more money next year on their drilling programs? The consensus appears to be a resounding “Yes!” The question is, how much more? Anyone’s guess. But analysts like to guess. One those analyst firms is Evercore ISI, an investment banking advisory firm founded in 1995. Evercore’s smarties are predicting drillers will spend 25% more next year than they did this year on drilling–with a total collective spend across the industry of ~$110 billion. Here’s their thinking…
The bullies at the rogue, out-of-control federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are leaning hard on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) over FERC’s approval for two Marcellus/Utica projects–Leach Xpress and Rayne Xpress Expansion projects. The EPA thinks FERC should consider man-made global warming flummery as part of their evaluation process. FERC is resisting. So the EPA bullies are demanding a meeting, to help FERC get it’s head straight (see 
Yesterday EQT announced a pair of deals that will net the company another 60,000 Marcellus/Utica acres including 44 Marcellus wells producing a collective 44 million cubic feet equivalent per day (MMcfe/d) of natural gas. Most of the acreage (42,600) is in three West Virginia counties, with another 17,000 acres in three Pennsylvania counties. EQT is paying a total of $683 million for the two deals. In the first deal, EQT is buying Trans Energy, Inc., which will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of EQT. EQT is also buying Trans Energy joint venture partner Republic Energy’s share in their Marcellus jv. The land is located in Marion, Wetzel and Marshall counties (WV). In the second deal, EQT is buying 17,000 acres from an unidentified third party in southwestern PA, in Washington, Westmoreland and Greene counties. EQT describes the purchases as adding acreage to their “core development area.” You may recall that EQT closed a deal in July, just three months ago, to purchase 62,500 acres from Statoil in WV for $407 million (see 
A landowner in northeastern Pennsylvania signed a lease with Southwestern Energy, leasing her property for shale gas drilling. Southwestern eventually showed up and drilled a well on her property. But the landowner then said the drilling was too loud, and lights at night too bright, and it disturbed her “peace of mind”–so she sued Southwestern for eight weeks of “peace of mind” disruption and a prescription for Xanax. Fantastically, a judge is letting the lawsuit proceed. Earth to landowners: When drillers show up, it’s an INDUSTRIAL activity. It’s loud. There’s lots of trucks. There’s lights at night. And in a month or two, it all goes away. And when the royalty checks arrive in the mail, you’ll forget all about the inconveniences. So what’s really going on in this case?…
In September 2015 MDN brought you the news that two joint venture partners, MPLX (Marathon Petroleum) and Enterprise Products Partners, were actively evaluating a plan to reverse the flow of the 795-mile Centennial Pipeline to send natural gas liquids (NGLs) from the Utica/Marcellus to the Gulf Coast (see 
The world’s largest oilfield services company (OFS), Schlumberger, turned a profit in 3Q16 (see 
Range Resources, the very first company to sink a Marcellus well, issued their third quarter update yesterday. Among the highlights: Range lost $42 million for the quarter, which is a vast improvement over 3Q15 when the company lost $301 million. So things are getting better, financially. Marcellus production was 1,396 million cubic feet equivalent (Mmcfe) per day, a 9% increase over 3Q15. Range’s “Southern” division, in SWPA, saw a 23% increase in production, but because Range sold some assets in Bradford County, their “Northern” division saw a 39% decrease (year over year) in production. Range continues to focus its efforts in the southwest PA area, saying the company “continues to drill and complete outstanding wells, with peer-leading EURs, while continuing to drive costs lower.” Here is yesterday’s 3Q16 update from Range…
Last week MDN reported that electric company FirstEnergy has begun construction of a new electric substation in Washington County, PA to provide electricity to “support two natural gas processing facilities being developed in the area” (see 
We’re always delighted when we spot a story or reference about a new company operating in the Marcellus/Utica that had heretofore escaped our finely-turned radar. Here’s one of those stories. In 2014, five people with experience in the oil and gas industry came together to form Evolution Energy Services. Based in Cadiz, OH, the company provides a range of services and products for the o&g industry–everything from porta potties to fracking chemicals to rig workers. We’ll call them an oilfield services company (OFS). We hadn’t heard of this upstart company until we spotted a brief reference that Evolution has just secured a $2 million load that will allow them to expand…
“What is all the fuss over Pennsylvania’s Chapter 78a drilling rules going into effect anyway? We mean, come on, those rules were hashed out over the past five years! Can’t the drilling industry just bend over and take it like a man? It can’t be all that bad, can it?” With pleasure, we bring you a response to that line of thinking–a line of thinking YOU may have thought! The writer, Colin McNickle, is a former editorial page chief for the superb Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. McNickle tackles Chapter 78a head-on in this excellent rebuttal. It is nothing short of a declared war on shale gas and oil…
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: Marcellus/Utica production may not reach 40 Bcf after all; economics will force pipeline issue; OH rig count drops to 16; Braskem looks to expand Philly refinery; climate radicals exposed in Wikileaks email, plans to shame Rupert Murdoch; natgas price may have found its ceiling; Europeans dependent on Russia natgas, would like not to be; and more!
MDN editor Jim Willis recently had the pleasure of addressing the Petroleum Club at the University of Pittsburgh’s Bradford, PA campus. Not in person, but via Skype video. When Jim asked the group, most of them in their second year of a two-year petroleum technology program about future job prospects, he got the impression they are concerned. The Marcellus industry has not been immune to layoffs. Graduating with a degree in an industry that’s seen 300,000+ layoffs over the past two years might make some question the wisdom of entering the program in the first place. Jim’s message to these eager young people bursting with potential? Don’t give up–and be encouraged. At the recent Shale Insight event and Benposium East event (both held in September), Jim had a number of conversations with those who either work in or invest in the o&g industry. His conclusion after speaking with industry insiders? Things are beginning to turn around. In fact, we can’t count the number of stories that talk about the coming shortage of good workers in the o&g industry. Today we spotted a press release from Energent Group promoting new research and wanted to highlight some of the information in that release–information that may be helpful to our new young friends at Pitt-Bradford, and for others in the industry looking for work. The research highlights the fact there are many drilled but uncompleted wells (DUCs), in all shale plays–but particularly in the oily Permian and Eagle Ford shale plays. According to the Energent research, workers probably stand the best chance of getting a job with a frac crew–because companies will first work on completing the already-drilled wells by fracking them. Makes sense to us!…
One company that has been really smart and savvy when it comes to hedging is Antero Resources. Earlier this year when the average price of natural gas was selling for under $3 per thousand cubic feet (Mcf) on the benchmark Henry Hub, Antero averaged a sale price of $4.54/Mcf–in the Marcellus/Utica! Where prices are always BELOW the Henry Hub (see