Rice Energy’s Purchase of Vantage a Way to Quickly “Scale Up”
More analysis continues to roll in on Rice Energy’s plan to buy Vantage Energy for $2.7 billion (see Rice Energy Buys Vantage Energy for $2.7B, 85K Marcellus Acres). We ran a post following the initial announcement pointing out there is one main reason why Rice is buying Vantage: 85,000 Marcellus Shale acres in Greene County, PA (see Why Did Rice Energy Pay $2.7B for Vantage Energy? It’s Simple…). We have part of another article tackling the buyout–this time from top energy analyst and Seeking Alpha writer Richard Zeits. He points out a few interesting facts, like the fact that if you do the math, Rice is essentially paying Vantage $20,000 per acre! But Zeits you have to put the price in context: Rice is using a stock swap as their currency for purchasing the acreage. In other words, this is a clever way for Rice to “scale up” quickly without breaking the bank…
Read More “Rice Energy’s Purchase of Vantage a Way to Quickly “Scale Up””
In June Dominion began building Virginia’s largest natural gas-fired electric plant in Greensville County (see 
Warren Resources, a small driller that drilled and brought online their first two Marcellus Shale wells last year, is based in Houston and operates in California, Colorado, Wyoming and Pennsylvania. In February MDN told you that Warren missed an important $7.5 million payment, the first ominous signal of what was to come (see 
Last winter was pretty unusual by everyone’s standards. It was much warmer and less snowy than normal in the northeast, and natural gas production/levels remained high over the course of the winter. It meant that the price of natural gas stayed in the basement during the time of year when it normally at least makes it to the first floor. What about this year? MDN recently reported that it’s going to be colder and snowier than average in the northeast this year (see 
Speakers at this weeks Energy Dialogues LLC’s North American Gas Forum in Washington, DC were up on their high horses lecturing the natural gas industry that if we only can get our heads out of our backsides and clamp down on fugitive methane emissions we might actually get to stay around a few more decades, providing fuel to power the world. That’s the gist of the comments we read by so-called environmental “leaders” who spoke at the event. (Arrogant snobs, if you ask us.) But the one thing that really caught our attention was the statement that it may be possible to capture and control carbon from burning natgas to the point that it becomes a “zero-emitter.” Bet you never thought you would see “natural gas” and “zero carbon emissions” in the same sentence, eh?…
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: Monroe County, OH leads drilling permits in Sept; Utica rig count hits 22; WV tax collections still down from weak oil/gas price; Federal Reserve forcing investment banks out of the energy business; how long before ‘second wave’ of LNG export projects hits; what natgas prices are telling us; GE gets in the o&g drone business; and more!
Canadian energy company Enerplus Corp owns some 47,000 acres of Marcellus Shale leases in northeastern Pennsylvania representing 841 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of reserves. Most of that acreage, according to the company’s website, is currently “non-operated.” Enerplus does actively drill in the North Dakota Bakken Shale play. Enerplus has a problem: the company is about $530 million in the hole (in debt). The way out of that hole? Sell off their non-operated Marcellus acreage for ~$500 million (works out to be $10,638/acre). Reuters is reporting that three sources have confirmed Enerplus has put their Marcellus acreage up for sale–and the the “for sale” sign has caught the interest from investment firms here at home, and in Asia…
In October of last year, MDN shared the news that Duke Energy, the largest electric power holding company in the United States and a utility with 7.3 million customers in the southeast and Midwest, announced they are buying Piedmont Natural Gas (see 
The Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC), charged with protecting and managing the water resources in the Susquehanna River Basin, continues to perform its duty with distinction–unlike the completely dysfunctional Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC). A fair share of Marcellus drilling happens within the SRBC’s jurisdiction in Pennsylvania. The SRBC has worked with the Marcellus industry, instead of against it (as the DRBC has done), to ensure drilling does not harm the Susquehanna River Basin water supply–a supply that eventually empties into the Chesapeake Bay. We credit the SRBC’s excellent performance to leadership (see 
Each year MDN partners with the Oil & Gas Awards to promote their Northeast Awards–a way for companies in the industry that operate with distinction to get recognized by their peers. In March 2017 the Northeast Oil & Gas Awards will celebrate their 5th year. Over the past five years there have been thousands of entries and hundreds of finalists and winners. While the O&G Awards boys keep their ears to the ground to discover stellar performers, they want to know who YOU think are the best companies in the region. Therefore, they have put together a very brief survey (takes less than two minutes). This is your chance to bring a worthy company to the attention of the O&G Awards–perhaps even your own company!
Duke University, as MDN has chronicled, has a long history of pumping out faux research that bashes fracking and fossil fuels, “research” that’s bought-and-paid-for by the Park Foundation, one of Duke’s major contributors (see 
Stephen Heins, an energy and regulatory consultant for a Wall Street firm, and former vice president of communication for Orion Energy Systems, is an occasional guest blogger here on MDN. Steve calls himself a “luke warmer” when it comes to the fairy tale that mankind is causing Mom Earth to toast. That is, he’s not convinced that man-kind is causing a catastrophic warming up, but he’s also not ruling it out. That’s OK, we forgive him. A lot of intelligent people believe in such things. At least he’s a skeptic! Steve recently penned an article that finds “several flaws” with President Obama’s so-called Clean Power Plan (which has been challenged in court by 29 states). The CPP outright kills coal, and it mortally wounds natural gas, as we’ve previously written (see 
As a general rule and principle, local control over decisions that affect an entire community is a good thing. Our great country as founded gives precedence to individual freedom. However, what do you do when two neighbors disagree on an important, community-changing issue? Our founding fathers wrestled with this concept and crafted an ingenious solution. If everyone in a community voted on every issue, the founding fathers recognized such a system descends into mob rule. However, in order to preserve democracy and cherished individual freedom, people should have the right to vote. Instead of voting on every issue, the founders created a system where citizens vote for small groups of representatives who act as a buffer between the “mob” and common sense/fairness for everyone–people who dedicate their time to understanding issues, how their constituents feel about those issues, and then voting in accordance with their own conscience and findings. Such a representative democracy is called a republic, which is the political system we have in the United States (NOT a straight up democracy). Even among the layers of elected representatives (local, state, federal) there is a pecking order. The founders recognized there are certain rights and issues best decided and enforced on either the federal or state level, rather than the local level. Each local community (lets call it a township) does NOT have the right to craft its own constitution and confer rights on individuals, corporations, eco-systems or any other entity. Conferring of such rights is the purview of either the federal or state government–NOT a local government. For example, in every state in the union oil and gas development is regulated by the state–not by local entities. In some states, Pennsylvania among them, zoning can affect and influence oil and gas development–where it happens, when it happens–but not control how it happens. So what if a community decides to ban oil and gas development (or pipelines, or injection wells)–in other words, “whether” such an activity happens? Such a ban is illegal. Introducing zoning regulations that result in a de facto ban is also illegal–but it’s happening in pockets across the Keystone State. Perhaps it’s time to criminally charge local representatives who pass these illegal laws (laws that trample individual property rights guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution) under a PA law called “official oppression.” That’s what the Pennsylvania Independent Oil & Gas Association (PIOGA) is considering right now…