Dela. Court Approves Magnum Hunter Bankruptcy Restructuring Plan
The long, slow process of “reorganizing” and emerging from bankruptcy just sped up for Magnum Hunter Resources (MHR). The Marcellus/Utica driller filed for bankruptcy protection in December (see Sad Day: Magnum Hunter Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy). Two weeks later the Delaware court, where MHR filed, approved MHR’s initial plan (see Court Approves Magnum Hunter’s “First Day” Bankruptcy Motions). Now, four months later, that same court has given its full approval for the restructuring plan. What is the plan? Essentially MHR will convert outstanding debt held by lenders in a series of “notes” or what we call IOUs, into ownership equity. Noteholders will not be reimbursed the money they invested–instead they will be given shares of stock that they can later cash in to recoup their investments. What about existing common stockholders? MHR doesn’t say, but going by our story yesterday about Seventy Seven Energy’s plans to do the same thing, the value of common stockholders’ shares become essentially worthless (see Seventy Seven Energy Filing for Bankruptcy, Converting Debt into Stock). Here’s the MHR announcement about the court approving their plan…
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Two shale industry members of last year’s ill-fated Pennsylvania Pipeline Task Force have pulled the curtain back to reveal what went on behind the scenes. The sausage-making. And it’s not pretty. Two important facts emerge for their disclosures: (1) most of the members of the task force didn’t (and still don’t) know their heads from their rear-ends when it comes to how the natural gas industry actually works, and (2) nothing useful will come from the 658-page report and its 184 recommendations. We previously predicted that outcome when we said, “Silly libs–they never learn. This initiative was never about actually getting anything done. It was always about the optics–to show that radical leftist Tom Wolf (and his lackey John Quigley) actually care about the hoi polloi” (see 
The proposed takeover/merger of Williams by Energy Transfer Equity (ETE) is better than a daytime soap opera. It was a long courting period before ETE finally cajoled, harangued, and eventually forced the board of Williams to agree to a merger/takeover. ETE’s billionaire CEO Kelsy Warren revealed he had been propositioning Williams for over six months–offering Williams $64 per share to buy the company, totaling $48 billion (see 
Yesterday Kinder Morgan provided a first quarter 2016 and rest-of-2016 update. It contained this earth-shattering news: “We reduced our growth capital backlog from $18.2 billion at the end of the fourth quarter 2015 to $14.1 billion at the end of the first quarter 2016. The reduction in our backlog was driven primarily by the removal of the Northeast Energy Direct (NED) Market project due to insufficient contractual commitments from customers in the New England market, and the removal of the Palmetto Pipeline project following unfavorable action by the Georgia legislature regarding eminent domain authority and permitting for petroleum pipelines.” See our lead story today about Kinder’s decision to mothball the NED project. As part of the update, Kinder brings us up to speed on the pipeline (and other infrastructure) projects currently being built, including several in the northeast U.S. that will impact takeaway capacity for Marcellus and Utica Shale gas…
The Obama administration is trying to kill the oil and gas industry. Whether it’s intentional or not (we think it is), recently proposed new regulations from the lawless Environmental Protection Agency are bad news. Particularly the EPA’s quest to force drillers to capture every last molecule of methane so it doesn’t escape (see 
In March MDN told you that Canadian midstream giant TransCanada is making a play to buy American Columbia Pipeline Group for $10 billion/C$13 billion (see 
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: Antero Midstream one of the best; PA oil drillers challenge new regs; watch the fireworks at today’s PA meeting to approve (or not) new regs; WV Senators support energy bill; Cheniere ships LNG to Europe; and more!
“We’ll take one prepackaged bankruptcy to go.” That was the upshot of an announcement yesterday from oilfield services company Seventy Seven Energy (SSE)–the old Chesapeake Oilfield Operating unit that was spun into its own company a few years ago. In February MDN reported that for 2015 SSE revenue was down 45% and the company lost $221 million (see 
There’s no way to sugarcoat the fact that Stone Energy–an independent oil and natural gas exploration and production company (E&P) headquartered in Lafayette, Louisiana that drills mainly in the Gulf of Mexico but also has a presence in the Marcellus/Utica Shale with 75,000 acres of leases–is inching toward a bankruptcy filing. That’s our take anyway. Last week Stone issued an update for 1Q16 in which they disclose their line of credit with the banks has been reduced from $500 million to $300 million (see 
As MDN pointed out earlier this month, 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 
Is this the smoking gun that proves collusion and corruption between Democrat New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and radical Big Green groups? In March, AG Schneiderman and a handful of other Democrat Attorneys General, along with climate huckster Al Gore, gathered in New York City to discuss a coordinated legal attack against oil and gas companies (see 
Big Green groups, including the nutty Sierra Club, the left-leaning Chesapeake Climate Action Network and the odious Earthjustice continue to pump money and lawyers and time into an effort to stop progress on Dominion’s construction of an LNG (liquefied natural gas) export facility in Cove Point, Maryland. As of March the Cove Point project was already a quarter done (see 
A recent meeting organized by the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA), called a Congressional Call-Up, was truly eye opening. People attending the meeting were briefed on key federal issues impacting the oil and natural gas industry. Here’s the startling news: There are currently 44 separate actions by various executive branch (Obama) agencies targeting the o&g industry–meant to cripple it. It is breathtaking in scope. Those doing the briefing called it a “well-planned attack on virtually every aspect of oil and natural gas planning, production and use.” Depressingly, no one in Congress or the media seems to even notice–or if they do, they don’t care…