Spectra Energy Expects to Pay ~$100M for Ruptured PA Pipeline
MDN felt that the big news today was word from Spectra Energy that their Access Northeast pipeline project is making excellent progress (see Spectra Energy 2Q16 – Access Northeast “Advancing Toward Execution”). However, a bit of news coming from Spectra disclosed on yesterday’s earnings call comes in at a close second. You may recall there was an explosion and fire in Spectra Energy’s Texas Eastern Transmission’s “Delmont Line 27” pipeline in May (see Texas Eastern Pipeline Explodes near Pittsburgh, Antis Celebrate). The explosion occurred in Salem Township (Westmoreland County), PA, about 30 miles east of Pittsburgh and knocked out four pipelines running through the same area. One man was seriously burned when his house caught on fire and was destroyed. Since that time we’ve tracked the story with a series of updates (see them here). One of the four lines affected was restored to service shortly after the blast. Our most recent update pegs a return to service for the other three pipelines sometime in November (see Ruptured TETCO Pipeline in PA Offline Until November). Until now, we didn’t have any numbers to talk about with respect to how much it’s costing Spectra to locate and fix the problem. Yesterday Spectra’s Chief Financial Officer, John Patrick Reddy, pegged the cost for investors, saying it could go as high as $100 million…
Read More “Spectra Energy Expects to Pay ~$100M for Ruptured PA Pipeline”
Score an important victory against the forces of darkness. The radical leftist PA-based group Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) does its best to trick townships into passing illegal bans on fracking and injection wells. In 2013 the CELDF fooled Highland Township in Elk County, PA into passing a ban on wastewater injection wells. They also tricked Grant Township in Indiana County, PA to do the same thing. Both towns are in court defending their illegal actions. One of the idiotic legal tactics used by the CELDF in both cases is to claim that an ecosystem is a “person” under the law–a person who can file to join the town’s lawsuit in an effort to protect itself (see 
In May the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) once again far overstepped its charter by seizing power that doesn’t belong to it. They issued new methane rules in a back-door way to try and regulate the oil and gas industry (see 
On Tuesday MDN brought you what we thought was the very first Annual Oil and Gas Annual Report from the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (see 
MDN spotted what we thought was an interesting article on the Seeking Alpha investors website about the existing pipeline bottleneck in Northeastern PA and what can be done about getting all of that gas to market. Pipeline delays out of NEPA, including the delayed Constitution Pipeline and projects currently underway but taking a long time, like the Atlantic Sunrise, are forcing producers like Cabot Oil & Gas, Southwestern Energy and Chesapeake Energy to look for other ways to move their abundant supplies of natgas out of the region. Eastbound routes out of NEPA are full, but westbound routes *may* be a possible solution–at least in the short-to-medium term. National Fuel Gas’s pipeline system has expanded recently to allow more gas to flow west. NFG has additional projects in the coming years to build on that capacity. Is it time to Go West, Young Molecule?…
Rice Energy, a young company headed by relatively young leaders (the Rice boys), continues to impress with their latest quarterly update, for 2Q16. Net production for Rice hit a record 758 million cubic feet equivalent per day (MMcfe/d), which is a 43% increase over 2Q15 and a 12% increase over 1Q16. As CEO Dan Rice said, “We had a remarkable quarter, marked by several notable achievements, including record-low development costs and lease operating expenses, record-high production and midstream throughput volumes, and we turned to sales a company-record 18 operated wells in April.” Rice continues to focus completely on the Marcellus and Utica region, a “pure play” company. Because they’ve lowered costs, Rice is adding another $65 million to their Utica drilling budget in 2016. Cool. About the only bad news from yesterday’s quarterly update is that the company lost $138.7 million in 2Q16, versus losing $63.5 million in 2Q15. But keep an eye out. The Rice boys are bound to turn the financials around. Here’s the update, with details on what Rice accomplished in both the Marcellus and Utica in 2Q16…
Noble Energy, a driller with a significant presence in the Marcellus but with a bigger presence in other shale plays, (and operations in other countries and offshore), announced in February that of the four shale plays they operate in onshore in the U.S.–the DJ Basin, Eagle Ford, Delaware and Marcellus–in 2016 they plan to focus on the first three and scale back in the Marcellus, limiting their Marcellus activity to completing previously drilled wells (see 
We found this story amusing. A group of 40 anti-fossil fuel nutters met at the Towamensing Township fire hall Tuesday night to “hone their arguments and strategies on how to derail or at least delay construction” of the $1.2 billion PennEast Pipeline. Why is that amusing? Because if the media is reporting there were 40 there, that means there were really 20-25. And when you read the story, you get the distinct impression that a very small group of hardened anti-fossil fuelers move these meetings around–it’s the same small group–and that their movement to stop PennEast is dying. Rapidly. Here’s the latest evidence…
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: TransCanada chooses growth over fiscal discipline; Kennametal cutting 1K jobs due to drilling slowdown; crude-by-rail volumes dropping; Magellan merging with Tellurian; AEP industrial sales own on restrained shale development; and more!
The answer to the question posed in the headline of this article, asking where drillers are starting to drill again now that they are starting to drill again, is–it depends on the driller. There is no particular geography in the Marcellus/Utica, nor is there a preference for a given layer (Marcellus or Utica) across the major players. Each of them is following their own strategy. Here’s a rundown for several major players and their strategies…
We will confess it up front: We voted for Donald Trump in the primary. We think he stands the best chance of defeating Hillary Clinton. Clinton would, in our opinion, be very bad for the oil and gas industry (as well as bad for the country in general). To each his own, right? We will not extensively cover the election–that’s already being done everywhere else. Most everyone has a strong opinion one way or the other. Trump has given some bang-up speeches supporting the fossil fuel industry (see 
Antero Resources, one of the biggest drillers in the Marcellus, released their second quarter 2016 update yesterday. Antero has one of, if not THE best, hedging programs in the entire Marcellus/Utica region. Hedging means they get a higher price for selling their gas than just about anyone else through prearranged financial/trading contracts. But Antero’s famed hedging program wasn’t enough to keep the company from losing $596 million in 2Q16. By comparison, Antero lost $145 million in 2Q15. However, it wasn’t all doom and gloom. Antero’s production was up a healthy 19% in 2Q16–to an average 1.762 billion cubic feet per day (or 1,762 MMcf/d, a new record for the company). If you mix in oil, natural gas liquids and hedging, Antero got $3.95 per thousand cubic feet (Mcf) for their hydrocarbons, while the actual spot sale price averaged $1.93/Mcf–which shows just how savvy Antero’s hedging program is. Lately the company has been snapping up more Marcellus acreage, mostly in WV (see 
Rex Energy released their second quarter 2016 update yesterday. While production was up a small 2% over the same period last year, both operating revenue and profits were down. Operating revenue in 2Q15 was $35.8 million, revenue in 2Q16 was $31.2 million. The good news is that the bleeding is slowing. In 2Q15 Rex lost $153 million, while in 2Q16 Rex lost $55 million. At least it’s heading in the right direction. In Rex’s Moraine East Area (Butler County, PA) Rex drilled 5 gross (1.8 net) wells in 2Q16. Due to a delay in a gathering line, Rex did not (as previously expected) put the 4-well Fleeger II well pad online last quarter. In Rex’s Warrior North Area (Carroll County, OH), Rex placed the 3-well Goebeler pad and the 2-well Perry pad online. Below is the full update…
Stone Energy, an independent oil and natural gas exploration and production company (E&P) headquartered in Lafayette, Louisiana drills mainly in the Gulf of Mexico but also has a presence in the Marcellus/Utica Shale with