TransCanada to Refile FTC Merger Notification in Columbia Deal
In March MDN reported that Canadian midstream giant TransCanada wants a bigger piece of the Marcellus/Utica midstream (i.e. pipeline) pie and has decided to buy Columbia Pipeline Group for $10 billion (see TransCanada Makes Play to Buy Columbia Pipeline for $10B). Columbia Pipeline shareholders are due to vote on the deal in June (see Columbia Pipeline Shareholders to Vote on TransCanada Deal June 22). But what’s this? Apparently there’s been a small bump on the road to a happy union. TransCanada announced yesterday they have withdraw their pre-merger notification with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and will refile the notification again on May 6 (tomorrow). Why? To restart the clock for FTC regulators who are reviewing the deal. Apparently there is a 30-day period at the end of which the FTC must render an opinion. Sometimes big, complex deals like this one take longer than 30 days, so a common practice is to pull the notification and re-file to buy the FTC more time…
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Rice Energy, one of the newest and brightest drillers in the Marcellus/Utica, released their first quarter 2016 update yesterday. The company reports production averaged 675 million cubic feet equivalent per day (Mmcfe/d) during 1Q16, a 53% increase over 1Q15 (and up 8% from 4Q15). On the financial side the company lost $21 million during 1Q16, versus making $152,000 in 1Q15. Pretty mild compared to most. During 1Q16 Rice drilled 11 new Marcellus wells and 8 new Utica wells. Good to see someone is still drilling! Here’s the update, along with a great PowerPoint slide deck…
Eclipse Resources released their first quarter 2016 update yesterday. Although Eclipse, a Marcellus/Utica pure play driller headquartered in State College, PA (but drilling mostly in Ohio), has curtailed or shut-in some of it’s production given low prices for gas, they still posted an impressive 26% increase in production in 1Q16 over 1Q15. While we’ve heard of Prince and his “Purple Rain,” we hadn’t heard of Eclipse’s “Purple Hayes”–which is a Utica well with an underground lateral reaching out 18,500 feet–3.5 miles! During 1Q16 Eclipse drilled their Purple Hayes well in under 18 days. Amazing! Even more amazing–the well was completed with 124 frac stages. It is believed to be the longest onshore later well ever drilled. Kudos to Eclipse! On the downside, the company lost $41 million in 1Q16…
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: The well runs dry for the little guy; BLM finds “no significant impact” in WNF from o&g leasing; Vallourec posts big loss; Hilcorp pad still shut down for earthquake investigation; Baker Hughes evolving; future of U.S. shale is…Mexico?; how is natgas stored?; Trump to keynote Bakken event; and more!
Something noteworthy has happened in western Pennsylvania and (so far) local media has chosen not to cover it. So MDN is happy to break the following story about South Fayette Township in Allegheny County (near Pittsburgh). South Fayette is one of seven PA towns that sued the state after the Act 13 law was enacted in 2012 (see 
Yesterday MDN brought you the news that EQT has cut a deal to buy all of Norwegian Statoil’s operated Marcellus assets in West Virginia for $407 million (see 
EXCO Resources, once a sizable player in the Marcellus–with 145,000 net acres in the Marcellus and having drilled and operating 124 horizontal Marcellus wells–has pretty much abandoned the Marcellus at this point (see 
In March MDN brought you the news that Primus Green Energy, a gas-to-liquids (GTL) technology company announced they would build a 160 metric tons per day (MT/day) methanol plant using the company’s proprietary technology at “a manufacturing site in the Marcellus shale region” in 2017 (see 
Everybody knows, anecdotally, that the shale revolution has been great for U.S. manufacturers. Empty plants have roared back to life and new plants have been built, bringing back millions of jobs, due to the huge quantities of natural gas being extracted from shale in the U.S. Now we have a research study to prove what we already knew anecdotally. Yesterday the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) released a new research report from IHS titled “Energizing Manufacturing: Natural Gas and Economic Growth” (full copy below). The research finds that shale gas has put an extra $1,337 back in the pockets of the average hard-working American family. Wow! Shale gas has also contributed to the creation of 1.9 million jobs throughout the economy. Double wow! Just building natural gas transmission lines has meant more than 347,000 jobs with 60,000 of those jobs in manufacturing. Here’s the best part: All of it is without a government program or taxpayer expense. Read on for more good news about how the shale revolution and the miracle of fracking has benefited every single American…
It seems that anarchy is all the rage these days. In vogue. Popular. At least among the non-thinking radical left. Witness Crazy Bernie Sanders and his mind-numbed robot followers. Also witness the radical environmental movement, which whips up emotions among the enviro faithful like a Pentecostal preacher from the back hills. Many of these environmental Nazis are young and haven’t grown a brain yet. But there’s a fair number who are old hippies, burned out from drug use in the 60s and 70s. A group of these dangerous fanatics have begun what they call 12 days of “breaking free” from fossil fuels–a campaign to force law-abiding companies to abandon certain pipeline and drilling projects. The radicals are calling it “peaceful” and “civil disobedience.” However, going by previous such protests, we expect there will be violence associated with this movement–far from the peaceful veneer they hope to project. A number of the most radical, law-breaking groups are behind the effort: 350.org, Greenpeace, Climate Action Network and others. Here’s some of the lawbreaking they have planned for 12 days beginning yesterday…