Marcellus Drilling News

Energy Companies | Noble Energy

Noble Energy Loses $2.4B in 2015; Marcellus Scale-Back in 2016
February 18, 2016February 18, 2016

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 January the company was cutting its stock dividend and 2016 capital budget (see Noble Energy Cuts Stock Dividend 44%, Lowers 2016 Capex 50%). Yesterday Noble released its fourth quarter and full year 2015 update, along with details about their plans for 2016. What do we learn? Noble lost $2.4 billion in 2015, with $2 billion of the loss coming in 4Q15. Ouch. Of the four shale plays they operate in onshore in the U.S.–the DJ Basin, Eagle Ford, Delaware and Marcellus–in 2016 Noble plans to focus on the first three and scale back in the Marcellus, limiting their Marcellus activity to completing previously drilled wells (they have 85 DUCs–drilled but uncompleted wells). Here’s an update on Noble’s performance last year, and plans for this year…
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Energy Services | Williams

Williams 2015: $1.6B Loss in 4Q15, $1.4B Loss Full Year 2015
February 18, 2016February 18, 2016

Drillers (the “upstream”) are not the only companies being negatively affected by the crash in oil and gas prices and the resulting slowdown in drilling. Midstream companies (pipelines and processing plants) are also affected. If drillers drill less and shut-in wells, that means less gas flowing through pipelines. Although certain minimums are charged, contracts with pipeline companies are complex and involve many factors, among them the price received for the gas flowing through them. Williams, which is in the process of being sold to/merged with Energy Transfer Equity (see Williams Board “Unanimously” Committed to Selling to ETE), rivals MarkWest Energy (which was sold to Marathon Petroleum) as the biggest midstream company in the Marcellus/Utica. Williams released their fourth quarter and full year 2015 financial update yesterday. The company lost $1.6 billion in 4Q15 alone, but because they made money in other quarters, Williams “only” lost $1.4 billion for the entire year in 2015. Here’s yesterday’s 2015 financial update…
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CONE Midstream | Energy Services

CONE Midstream 2015: Operates in the Black, No Losses
February 18, 2016February 18, 2016

Perhaps the smaller the better when it comes to midstream companies. Today we shared with you the news that Williams, perhaps the largest midstream company operating in the Marcellus/Utica, lost $1.6 billion in fourth quarter 2015 and lost $1.4 billion for full year 2015 (see our companion story). However, for one of the smallest midstream companies operating in our neck of the woods, CONE Midstream, the opposite was true. Yesterday CONE, a joint venture between CONSOL Energy and Noble Energy, released their financials for fourth quarter and full year 2015. Not a loss in sight on their income statement. Granted, compared to Williams, CONE is tiny, but hey, maybe the mighty Williams can learn a thing or two about operating in the black from CONE. Here’s the CONE update issued yesterday…
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Energy Services | Seventy Seven Energy

Seventy Seven Energy 2015: Revenue Down 45%, $221M Loss
February 18, 2016February 18, 2016

Last week MDN told you that Seventy Seven Energy, the old Chesapeake Energy Oilfield Operating unit that was spun into its own company a few years ago, had released some selected 2015 financial numbers with no context (see Seventy Seven Energy Releases Cherry-Picked Numbers). Which led us to speculate, “It must be worse at oilfield services company Seventy Seven Energy (SSE) than we thought.” SSE released their fourth quarter and full year 2015 financials yesterday, and our speculation was spot on. SSE lost $221 million in 2015 (with $61 million of that loss coming in 4Q15). In 2014 SSE had $2 billion in revenue. In 2015, they had $1.1 billion in revenue–nearly cut in half. Which we suppose should not come as a surprise, that a company which supplies the rigs and people to drill and frack has seen business disappear since energy companies pulled way back in 2015. Still, you have to wonder how long they can hold on with losses like this. SSE has a large operation in the Marcellus/Utica, which is why we track them. Below is SSE’s 4Q15 and full year 2015 update…
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Industrywide Issues | Research

Lower 48 NatGas Production Rose 0.5 Bcf/d in January
February 18, 2016February 18, 2016

Bentek Energy, the energy analytics arm of Platts, released their prediction for total natural gas production in the lower 48 states yesterday. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) won’t release their final numbers until the end of February. What did Bentek find? Natural gas production went UP in January, over December, by about one-half a billion cubic feet per day (0.5 Bcf/d). The leading reason was an increase in output from the Utica/Marcellus region, but other regions increased slightly too. Here’s the low down on how/why natgas production rose last month…
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Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Thu, Feb 18, 2016
February 18, 2016February 18, 2016

The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: FirstEnergy goes after the shale industry with electric lines; why Utica natgas production rose 54% in January; PA coal town excited to get natgas; the social impacts of frac sand mining – new study; Cheniere on the cusp of exporting first LNG shipment; Anadarko’s “brand ambassadors”; Sierra Club sues again; which pipelines at most risk of Chesapeake bankruptcy?; taxpayer program funds anti-pipeline activists; Iran won’t play along with OPEC/Russia production freeze; and more!
Read More “Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Thu, Feb 18, 2016”
Anadarko | Carrizo Oil & Gas | Chesapeake Energy | Chevron | Citrus | CNX Resources | CONSOL Energy | Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Energy Corporation of America | EOG Resources | EQT Corp | EXCO Resources | Exxon Mobil | Pennsylvania General Energy | Range Resources Corp | Rice Energy | Seneca Resources | Shell | Southwestern Energy | Talisman Energy | WPX Energy

Top 20 Marcellus Drillers – Ranked by Environmental Impact
February 17, 2016February 17, 2016

Last Friday MDN brought you the news about a professor who devised a clever formula for evaluating the overall environmental impact of 20 Marcellus drillers (see Mirror Mirror on the Wall, Who’s the Best Driller of Them All?). At the time we only knew who the top and bottom companies are in the list. CONSOL Energy took top honors, while ExxonMobil was last or “least” environmentally friendly as compared with the others. We now have the entire list (below). Where does your favorite driller fall in the list?…
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Beaver County | Energy Companies | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | Shell

Shell Leases 76,000 Sq Ft Office Space Near Cracker Plant Site
February 17, 2016February 17, 2016

We believe there’s little doubt remaining that Shell will commit to building a $3 billion ethane cracker plant in Monaca (Beaver County), PA. The evidence continues to mount. Shell is spending big bucks on a variety of activities related the project, as we’ve previously indicated (see Shell Begins Hiring for Monaca, PA Ethane Cracker Plant). The latest evidence comes from the Pittsburgh Business Times who has an inside source telling them that Shell has cut a deal with Michael Baker International to lease a 76,000-square-foot building with a 400-car parking lot sitting on 100 acres near the proposed cracker site in Beaver County…
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Allegheny County | Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Education | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania

Pitt Brats “Demand” Endowment Divest from < 1% Fossil Investments
February 17, 2016February 17, 2016

This is how retarded (yes, we’re using the “r” word) students are at the University of Pittsburgh. We use the “r” word because something has retarded or stunted their intellectual growth. They are substandard–stupid–dumb. How else can you explain why spoiled rotten brats attending Pitt are “demanding” that the university divest their endowment from fossil fuels? The Pitt endowment is $3.6 BILLION. How much of that is invested in dirty, filthy, evil fossil fuel companies? $26 million. That’s 0.007 of the fund (seven tenths of one percent) invested in fossil fuels. It’s a rounding error. Fossil fuel insanity is rampant on the campus of Pitt. Stay away or you may catch it too!…
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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Taxation

PA Newspaper Claims 25 House Repubicans Want Severance Tax
February 17, 2016February 17, 2016

The unofficial campaign staffer for PA Gov. Tom Wolf working at the Democrat-controlled Harrisburg Patriot-News is Candy Woodall. She calls herself a reporter but in reality she’s a propagandist. Woodall loves to bash the Marcellus industry. Her latest creative writing efforts (otherwise called “reporting”) is to say, essentially, “PA elected Republicans want a severance tax after all–they really wanted it last year, but they voted it down because they didn’t want higher income taxes. They really want to pass a tax on the Marcellus industry this year.” This is pure fiction/fantasy. Woodall claims there are 25 elected Republicans in the PA House who are ready to sign on to a severance tax proposal–yet she doesn’t list their names. Her main source appears to be Wolf’s policy secretary, John Hanger, who ran for governor on a platform of legalizing marijuana. In her latest fiction, Woodall and Hanger savage a truly great Pennsylvanian, House Speaker Mike Turzai, because of Turzai’s steadfast opposition to a tax that would assassinate the Marcellus industry. Woodall implies Turzai is in the pocket of the industry. Hey Candy–did you investigate whether pot growers donated money to Hanger’s campaign the way you “investigated” Marcellus drillers donating money to Turzai’s campaign? No, we didn’t think so…
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Industrywide Issues | Research

Deloitte: 35% of Pure Play Drillers Will Go Bankrupt in 2016
February 17, 2016February 17, 2016

A new study just released by powerhouse consulting firm Deloitte delivers some profoundly bad news. The study is titled “The Crude Downturn for E&Ps: One Situation, Diverse Responses” (full copy below) and it reveals that 35% of “pure play” drillers (those who invest and concentrate all of their efforts in a single shale play) are at “high-risk of slipping into bankruptcy in 2016.” That’s a total of some 175 companies worldwide. There are a number of pure play drillers in the Marcellus/Utica. We sincerely hope Deloitte is wrong, but what if they’re not…
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Boardwalk Pipeline Partners | Energy Services | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | NGLs | Pipelines | Williams

Bluegrass Pipeline Aborted Before It was Born – RIP
February 17, 2016February 17, 2016

Is it time to declare the Bluegrass Pipeline dead? It certainly appears that way. The Bluegrass, you may recall, was a $1.5 billion joint venture between Williams and Boardwalk Pipeline Partners project that would have piped natural gas liquids (NGLs, mostly ethane) from the Utica/Marcellus all the way to Gulf Coast for processing and sale. Some 200 miles of the pipeline was due to be built through Kentucky–the Bluegrass State. But the wacky libs of Kentucky pushed back, suing Bluegrass over its plan to use eminent domain. In March 2014, Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd ruled Bluegrass could not use eminent domain (see Judge Rules Bluegrass Pipeline Cannot Use Eminent Domain in KY). At that point Williams and Boardwalk squabbled over the future of the project (see Williams Stops Work on Bluegrass Pipeline, Boardwalk Says “It’s Not Dead”). The case moved on to the Court of Appeals. In May 2015, a three-judge panel agreed with Franklin Circuit Judge Shepherd that only pipeline companies that are or will be regulated by the state’s Public Service Commission can use eminent domain (see Appeals Court blocks Bluegrass Pipeline eminent domain). The case went all the way to the Kentucky Supreme Court where, last week, the high court ruled the lower court rulings will stand. Case closed…
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CNG/LNG | Dominion Energy | Energy Services | Exporting | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Maryland | Statewide MD

Radical Enviro Groups Continue Lawsuit Against Cove Point LNG
February 17, 2016February 17, 2016

Big Green groups, including the nutty Sierra Club and 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. Last June Earthjustice and its co-conspirators filed a lawsuit against the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission claiming that FERC was wrong to issue a permit for the facility (see Earthjustice Asks Court to Stop Construction at Cove Point LNG). The lawsuit has progressed to the point that oral arguments will be made on April 19 before the Court of Appeals. An update on the shenanigans from fossil fuel haters ahead of this important court date…
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Air Quality | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

EPA Targets Fracking Again, This Time via Air Quality Study
February 17, 2016February 17, 2016

Here we go again. The federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) couldn’t, after four years of research, find any evidence that fracking negatively impacts groundwater supplies (see EPA Draft Report Says Fracking Doesn’t Pollute Groundwater Supplies). So this out-of-control agency, filled with radicals, has decided to go fishing once again–this time using air quality. The EPA has requested $1.5 million in next year’s budget to begin a years-long study of fracking’s potential impact on air quality. Since the EPA considers the stuff you breathe out with every breath–carbon dioxide (CO2)–to be a “greenhouse gas” (hilarious if it weren’t so tragic), you can bet they’ll find, oh no!…the stuff drillers extract from the ground is methane!!!! And methane is even MORE potent than CO2 as a greenhouse gas, and oh no!, we’ve got to stop this right now…
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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA Senate Democrat Candidates Want to Ban ALL Fracking
February 17, 2016February 17, 2016

Pay attention Pennsylvania voters. You didn’t listen to MDN the last time and elected the disastrous Tom Wolf as your governor–a decision you no doubt kick yourselves for each day. Yes, we told you so. Now listen up–you are facing a U.S. Senate race this November. Sitting Senator Pat Toomey (Republican) is in a tough race to retain his seat. There are (so far) three Democrats running in a primary to oppose Toomey. Two of the three candidates support an immediate ban on fracking–across the state. Everywhere. Both public AND private land (your land!). You CANNOT afford to elect Democrats who want to deny you your Constitutional property rights! PLEASE do not vote for these two extremists who want to ban fracking…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Michigan | Regulation | Statewide MI

Democrats in Michigan Introduce Bill to Ban ALL Fracking
February 17, 2016February 17, 2016

What is it with Democrats? Are they congenitally anti-drilling? Last week Michigan Democrats introduced a bill that would ban all hydraulic fracturing in the state. But just in case fracking still happens, the bill empowers local municipalities regulate it, and the bill requires wells to be at least a mile away from “sensitive locations” like schools, hospitals, homes and public parks. That is, don’t bother drilling anywhere. Michigan Dems may want to visit Pennsylvania where there are schools with their own gas wells sitting right outside of classroom windows, and hospitals that allow drilling on their property. There have been no ill health effects, and those organizations have reaped millions of dollars in revenue. It seems Dems only want money to slide through their fingers first (the way they derive and hold on to power). Tell your local Michigan House member to vote no on this idiotic bill…
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