Marcellus Drilling News

Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pipelines | Regulation

Southern NJ NatGas Pipeline Approved by State BPU
January 29, 2016January 29, 2016

In January 2014 MDN brought you the very sad news that through bullying and intimidation, radical environmentalists from the New Jersey Sierra Club and the League of [Liberal Democrat] Women Voters had pressured the New Jersey Pinelands Commission into rejecting a plan for a 22-mile natural gas pipeline that would power an electric generating plant–replacing coal that powers the plant now–and also bring natural gas to residential homes in beautiful Cape May County, NJ (see Sierra Club, LWV Chooses Coal over NatGas in South Jersey). These so-called environmentalists would rather have the residents of South Jersey breath dirty air rather than clean air that comes from natural gas powering a local electric plant. We’re happy to report that a different pipeline, a $130 million, 30-mile natural gas pipeline just north of where the rejected pipeline would have run, has been approved by the NJ Board of Public Utilities (BPU). It is a major defeat of the Sierra Clubbers and their ilk. So of course, the Clubbers are suing…
Read More “Southern NJ NatGas Pipeline Approved by State BPU”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Beaver County | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania

Beaver, PA Anti-Frackers Want County to Ban Marcellus Drilling
January 29, 2016January 29, 2016

Last night a couple of anti-fossil fuel residents in Beaver County, PA addressed the new Beaver County Commissioners board at their first meeting of 2016. Both are from the Beaver County Marcellus Shale Awareness Committee, a group formed in 2010 to oppose Marcellus Shale drilling in the county. The two want the commissioners to ban fracking in the county. One of the two, with a receding hairline, gray hair and a ponytail (a sure sign he was once a 60s hippie), calls himself a Reverend and claims a bunch of liberal churches–even the pope!–are against fracking. The Rev doesn’t care much for Shell’s plan to build an ethane cracker in the county either. His alternative? Stick a bunch of solar panels on that site. Yes, we literally fell out of our chair laughing…
Read More “Beaver, PA Anti-Frackers Want County to Ban Marcellus Drilling”
Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

MSC’s Dave Spigelmyer Says Rough Few Years Ahead for Marcellus
January 29, 2016January 29, 2016

David Spigelmyer, who once headed up Chesapeake Energy’s efforts in the Marcellus Shale region, is and has been head of the Marcellus Shale Coalition for the past couple of years. Great guy. Smart guy. Dave published an op-ed in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette in today’s issue. It’s titled, “Shale hits a rough patch: But natural gas remains a boon to Pennsylvania.” The sobering news, according to Dave, is that the price northeast drillers (drillers everywhere) are getting for their gas will remain low in 2016 and 2017 “and perhaps longer.” Businesses are “in survival mode” and and the slowdown in drilling is being felt by “tens of thousands of men and women” who work for this marvelous industry. The statistics, according to Dave, are “numbing.” Sobering words. But we have to face the reality and not look away and pretend otherwise. But, according to Dave, there is hope and we will get through it. Here’s a portion of his no-rose-colored-glasses op-ed…
Read More “MSC’s Dave Spigelmyer Says Rough Few Years Ahead for Marcellus”
Energy Companies | Halcon Resources

Halcon Resources Suspends Dividend Payments for Preferred Stock
January 29, 2016January 29, 2016

Halcon Resources is a driller that “guessed wrong” by leasing 140,000 Utica Shale acres in the northern part of the play and currently doesn’t drill in any of that acreage. Halcon is one of the one of eight Marcellus/Utica companies on David Fessler’s “Oil Company Death List” (see 19 Oil/Gas Companies on “Death List” – 8 are in Marcellus/Utica). In November 2013 Halcon’s colorful CEO, Floyd Wilson, said he wouldn’t drill any more, ahem, crappy wells in the Utica (see Halcon CEO Says No More S***** Wells in Northern OH Utica). On an analyst call in early 2015 Wilson quipped “What’s the Utica?” in response to a question from an analyst (see Halcon CEO Floyd Wilson: “What’s the Utica?”). In August 2015 the New York Stock Exchange sent a letter threatening to de-list the stock (see Halcon Resources Put on Notice by NYSE; Refi Debt at Higher Rate). A company must maintain at least a $1/share price in order to continue trading on the NYSE. Yesterday Halcon’s common stock traded at 43.3 cents/share. Oops. So it will be no surprise that Halcon, like several other northeast drillers, has decided to suspend paying dividends on their preferred stock…
Read More “Halcon Resources Suspends Dividend Payments for Preferred Stock”
Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Corbett Official Destroys Hanger’s Claims of Low Marcellus Jobs
January 29, 2016January 29, 2016

Earlier this week MDN brought you the reckless and baseless allegations by John Hanger that former PA Gov. Tom Corbett had “cooked the books” when it came to how many jobs the Marcellus industry has created (see John Hanger Says Gov. Corbett “Cooked the Books” re Marcellus Jobs). Perhaps it’s totally unrelated, but we’d like to point out that Hanger, when he ran for governor in the primary, campaigned on a platform of legalizing marijuana in the Keystone State (see Pass One Last Joint for John Hanger). Anywho… Dennis Roddy used to work for Corbett as a speech writer. Roddy knows the jobs issue very well and was personally involved with the Corbett administration’s efforts to accurately account for the economic benefits the Marcellus industry was (and is) creating in the state. Roddy recently published a rebuttal to Hanger that completely destroys Hanger’s claims of inflated jobs figures…
Read More “Corbett Official Destroys Hanger’s Claims of Low Marcellus Jobs”
Energy Companies | EQT Corp

Kudos: EQT Foundation Hands Out $5.5 Million in 2015
January 29, 2016January 29, 2016

EQT, like many other Marcellus drillers, runs a foundation that hands out large sums of money to worthy non-profit organizations. Yesterday EQT announced that their EQT Foundation handed out a total of $5.5 million in 2015. Below is a list of organizations that received EQT donations during the second half of 2015…
Read More “Kudos: EQT Foundation Hands Out $5.5 Million in 2015”
Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Fri, Jan 29, 2016
January 29, 2016January 29, 2016

The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: Andrew Cuomo, NY’s gutless governor; PA royalties from state forests down 52%; big public meeting re gas-fired power plant in SWPA; Florida LNG export plant on the way?; can America’s shale success be replicated in other countries?; saving the MLP sector; Russia cozying up with OPEC; Iran’s plans to export natgas to Europe; and more!
Read More “Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Fri, Jan 29, 2016”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Crestwood Midstream | Crime | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | New York | NGLs | Schuyler County

Criminals Arrested Blocking Crestwood Seneca Lake Facility
January 28, 2016January 28, 2016

We Are Seneca Lake criminals being carted off in a paddy wagon

When someone organizes and repeatedly shuts down a legal, functioning business with so-called “civil disobedience,” it’s not civil and it’s not an act of disobedience–it’s a crime. If you show up with a bunch of nutters to block the entrance to a facility once and the cameras are there to record it–you’ve made your point. Anti fossil-fuel radicals opposed to creating an underground propane storage facility in a depleted salt mine along the shore of Seneca Lake (in upstate New York) have recently stepped up their so-called civil disobedience at the facility–staging weekly blockades at the site three weeks in a row. One of those instances was on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, when Sandra Steingraber, so-called scholar in residence at Ithaca College (where she’s paid to agitate and never teaches a class) invoked the name of Dr. King attempting to tie the great civil rights struggle with anti-fossil fuel nuttery. It’s offensive. Below is a rundown, with the names of the latest criminals who have colluded to try and shut down a legal business, Crestwood Midstream, from operating the facility they own at Seneca Lake…
Read More “Criminals Arrested Blocking Crestwood Seneca Lake Facility”
Commodity Price | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Research

EIA: New Pipelines Continue to Boost Marcellus/Utica Gas Prices
January 28, 2016January 28, 2016

It’s a pretty simple case of cause and effect, and economics 101. If you build more natural gas pipelines from the northeast to other regions, drillers can sell their gas to new markets. New demand = higher prices. And that’s just what’s happening in the Marcellus/Utica. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) pointed out in a recent Natural Gas Weekly Update that prices being paid in the Marcellus/Utica have gone UP because of new pipelines (see New Pipelines in the Marcellus Dramatically Improved Prices in 2H15). The great researchers at EIA have now expanded on that theme and have posted a new article on their Today in Energy which expands on that theme…
Read More “EIA: New Pipelines Continue to Boost Marcellus/Utica Gas Prices”
Allegheny County | Electrical Generation | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania

Invenergy Eyes SWPA for Second Marcellus-Powered Electric Plant
January 28, 2016January 28, 2016

Invenergy is in the process of building a $500 million Marcellus gas-fired electric plant in Jessup (Lackawanna County), PA–near Scranton, PA in the northeastern part of the state (see PA DEP Approves Jessup, PA Marcellus Gas Electric Plant). When built, and every indication is that it will get built this year, the Jessup plant will be the largest gas-fired plant in the state, generating 1,480 megawatts of electricity by using clean-burning Marcellus Shale gas. Invenergy now has their eye on building another Marcellus-powered electric plant. This time it’s much smaller (just 550 megawatts) and it’s located in southwestern PA–in the Pittsburgh area…
Read More “Invenergy Eyes SWPA for Second Marcellus-Powered Electric Plant”
Maryland | Statewide MD

Captain Mercaptan Superhero is Back in Baltimore!
January 28, 2016January 28, 2016

Captain Mercaptain! (Pugh, what’s that smell?)

Captain Mercaptan is back! You may recall last fall MDN had a good time poking fun at Baltimore Gas & Electric (BGE) and Marvel for creating a superhero, called Captain Mercaptan, based on one of the worst odors known to mankind (see Captain Mercaptan to the Rescue! Super Hero Named After Foul Odor). Mercaptan is the chemical added to natural gas that gives it that distinctive rotten eggs smell. It’s added as a safety precaution–so your nose can tell you if there’s a natural gas leak. Who knows how many lives that smelly chemical has saved over the years? The PR folks at BGE decided to create a superhero based on the odor as a way to educate kids about the potential dangers of natural gas if they should smell it. Last week BGE announced the kickoff of the 2016 “Adventures of Captain Mercaptan, BGE Natural Gas Safety Hero Challenge.” Don your capes kiddies! Oh, and bring along a gas mask. That Captain Mercaptan dude smells!…
Read More “Captain Mercaptan Superhero is Back in Baltimore!”
Antero Resources | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Reserves (Proved and Unproved)

Antero’s Proved Resources Up 4% to 13.2 Tcfe, 3P Hits 37.1 Tcfe
January 28, 2016January 28, 2016

Antero Resources, with 569,000 under lease, is one of the biggest leaseholders and one of biggest drillers in the Marcellus/Utica. Every year, in order to comply with Securities and Exchange Commission rules, companies like Antero revisit and revise what they call “proved reserves.” That is, how much gas (and NGLs and oil) do they have in the ground? There’s different types of reserves, with proved having the highest confidence. There’s also the “3P” reserve number: proved, probable and possible. 3P has a lower standard to qualify. The news from Antero is that as of Dec. 31, 2015, the company has 13.2 trillion cubic feet equivalent (Tcfe) of natural gas sitting under their leased acreage. That’s a 4% increase over year-end 2014. Antero’s 3P reserves totaled 37.1 Tcfe at the end of 2015…
Read More “Antero’s Proved Resources Up 4% to 13.2 Tcfe, 3P Hits 37.1 Tcfe”
Energy Companies | Noble Energy

Noble Energy Cuts Stock Dividend 44%, Lowers 2016 Capex 50%
January 28, 2016February 18, 2016

In an announcement made on Tuesday, Noble Energy, a driller with a significant presence in the Marcellus/Utica, said the company is reducing dividend payments for its commons stock–lowering the payment by 44% to 10 cents per share. MDN recently told you that both Rex Energy and Chesapeake Energy had suspended dividend payments on preferred stock, not common stock (see Rex Energy Suspends Preferred Stock Dividends to Conserve Cash, and Chesapeake Energy Suspends Preferred Stock Dividends, Saves $170M). Noble’s move is a bit different–lowering (not eliminating) dividends on common stock. All of these companies are engaging in strategies to hold on to some of the money in the organization so they can keep the lights on and keep drilling. But it’s a Catch-22. Investors are owners of the company, and they like to get paid. Receiving dividends is an important part of why they invested in the first place. But if the company keeps paying, it risks going out of business and then their shares of stock are worthless. No good choices. Noble also announced on Tuesday they are budgeting to spend $1.5 billion in 2016, which is down 50% from 2015…
Read More “Noble Energy Cuts Stock Dividend 44%, Lowers 2016 Capex 50%”
Energy Services | Energy Transfer Partners

Energy Transfer Lowers 2016 Capital Budget by $750M
January 28, 2016January 28, 2016

Energy Transfer Partners (ETP), a huge midstream company in the process of buying out Williams, another huge midstream company, announced yesterday they are scaling back capital spending in 2016. Last November ETP forecast they would spend on the order of $4.95 billion in 2016. That number is now $4.2 billion after ETP identified $750 million in further cuts it will make to the budget…
Read More “Energy Transfer Lowers 2016 Capital Budget by $750M”
Electrical Generation | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines

ISO New England: We Need More NatGas, Pipelines for Electric Grid
January 28, 2016January 28, 2016

ISO New England, the independent, not-for-profit corporation responsible for keeping electricity flowing across the six New England states, held a conference call/webinar on Tuesday. On the call, Gordon van Welie, president and CEO of ISO New England delivered a “state of the grid” address. On the call van Welie revealed that 49% of all electricity produced in New England now comes from natural gas-fired power plants–a number that will only go higher as nuclear and coal facilities are shuttered. According to van Welie, more gas-fired plants are needed, and pipelines like Kinder Morgan’s Northeast Energy Direct (NED) and Spectra Energy’s Access Northeast are needed to get cheap Marcellus gas to the region. Natural gas and electric generation are truly joined at the hip. The relationship is between natgas and electricity is tight and getting tighter as electric generation becomes a key market for drillers…
Read More “ISO New England: We Need More NatGas, Pipelines for Electric Grid”
CNG/LNG | Exporting | Industrywide Issues

Cheniere’s Sabine Pass LNG Export Plant Delayed
January 28, 2016January 28, 2016

Corporate raider Carl Ichan isn’t have a good week. His tinkering at Chesapeake Energy hasn’t turned out so well. The company’s stock is hitting new lows. Yesterday Chesapeake’s stock closed at $3.27 per share, down from the mid-$20s just a year ago. Ichan, you may recall, fired Chespeake’s co-founder, Aubrey McClendon–so he has no one to blame but himself. Icahn recently did the same thing at Cheniere Energy–a company building an LNG export facility in Louisiana. Ichan fired Cheniere CEO Charif Souki in December (see Evil Corporate Raider Carl Icahn Claims Another CEO Scalp). Since then, things have gone downhill at Cheniere. The first shipment of LNG from the facility was supposed to happen this month, January 2016. The latest statement from Cheniere says it will be more like late February or even March before the first LNG shipment sets sail. Completing expanded capacity (extra “trains”) at the Louisiana facility is also behind schedule…
Read More “Cheniere’s Sabine Pass LNG Export Plant Delayed”