Below are upcoming events for the next three months (90 days). To see the full list of future events, visit this page: //marcellusdrilling.com/calendar/.
NOTE: To have an item included, please email it to: calendar@marcellusdrilling.com.
Read More “Calendar of Events for Jan 19 – Apr 18 (90 Days)”
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: What shale slowdown, Marcellus/Utica production strong; Cuomo bans fracking, then floats climate plan powered by natgas; NED natgas to feed massive new electric plant; mythical climate change influences shareholders; Sunoco transferring jobs from Philly to Dallas; new safety legislation “possible” for WV drillers; NH AG wants say on NED pipeline; oil goes below $30; Carl Ichan’s investments don’t pan out; O&G’s “shuffling toward death”; how shale has made us safer; $15 oil in Canada – right now; and more!
Read More “Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Tue, Jan 19, 2016”
Marcellus Drilling News will take a brief break today in observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and return tomorrow, Tuesday, Jan. 18.
Take the 17 minutes to watch Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Truly inspiring.
(Search for it on Youtube.com — we won’t display it here because the King estate maintains the copyright for the speech).
Dominion Resources, a midstream (pipeline) company and energy producer with major operations in the Appalachian region is warning investors about a parasitic play for their stocks from a company called TRC Capital Corporation. TRC is floating what’s called a “mini-tender” in which they attempt to buy up to 5% of a company’s stock. Why only up to 5%? Because over 5% and certain Securities and Exchange Commission rules kick in to protect/alert investors. Under that limit and there’s far more wiggle room. What does TRC plan to do with the Dominion stock they buy? Their modus operandi is to purchase stock for a price below market value now, or what they think will be the market value in the near future. They lock it up, wait until the price rises, and then sell it at the higher price. They prey on people’s fears that stock prices will eminently crash, profiting from those fears, or they leverage investor ignorance. Sleazy? You bet. Illegal? Unfortunately, no. That’s why Dominion is warning shareholders to “just say no” to TRC’s below-market offer…
Read More “Dominion Warns Investors to Reject “Mini-Tender” by TRC Capital”
There’s been some progress on the now nearly 10-year delay in drilling in the Wayne National Forest (WNF) in Ohio. WNF is the only national forest in Ohio and portions of it are found in Athens, Gallia, Hocking, Jackson, Monroe, Morgan, Noble, Lawrence, Perry, Scioto, Vinton, and Washington counties. WNF is a “patchwork” of public land scattered among private land. Some 60% of the mineral rights below WNF are privately owned. Those mineral rights owners have been denied the use of their property rights going on a decade. It’s a travesty. The federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) controls drilling on federally-protected lands like WNF. Last November the BLM held a series of hearings about finally beginning to drill in WNF. The hearing held in Marietta (Washington County) was civil and orderly, with landowners respectfully asking questions and getting answers (see Overwhelming Support for Wayne Natl Forest Drilling @ BLM Mtg). The hearing held in Athens, OH, a hotbed of lefty lunatics, got out of control when they didn’t have a microphone to throw up on (see Anti-Frackers Out of Control at Athens Mtg on Wayne Natl Forest). Athens antis can breathe easy. The BLM has decided to wait on pursuing drilling in the “Athens Unit” until 2017. However, the BLM is taking the next step in the “Marietta Unit” now…
Read More “Small Progress with Drilling in Ohio’s Wayne National Forest”
One has to marvel at how Aubrey McClendon has done, and keeps doing it. The “it” being raising money for drilling holes in the ground. McClendon, as we and others have chronicled over the past several years, was unceremoniously dumped as CEO of the company he co-founded, Chesapeake Energy, by corporate raiders Carl Ichan and Mason Hawkins. Chesapeake is still in the crapper, financially, so we see how that’s turned out. McClendon went on to found American Energy Parnters (AEP), raising billions of dollars of investments for various drilling programs, notably in the Utica Shale. McClendon is about to pull another $500 million rabbit out of his hat. McClendon has just inked a deal with Argentina’s YPF SA to drill 20 wells in Argentina’s Vaca Muerta (translated “dead cow”) shale formation, located in the Patagonian Province of Neuquén. Argentina is the biggest shale gas producer outside of the U.S. In order to seal the deal, McClendon has to raise $500M in the next three months. If anyone can do it, Aubrey can!…
Read More “McClendon Signs Deal with Argentina to Drill in “Dead Cow” Shale”
The average price for gasoline in the United States is now $1.99 per gallon. That’s the lowest price it’s been since 2009, the year Barack Hussein Obama was coronated as our dictator-in-chief. After Obama took office the price of gasoline steadily went up, until 2012. Since that time (Obama’s second term) the price of gas has remained steady and, recently, has dropped. Why? The miracle of fracking and horizontal drilling. Because of a new abundance of crude oil being produced in the United State, which caused Saudi Arabia to pump oil like there’s no tomorrow to defend their own market share, the world is now awash in oil, driving the price down. Gasoline is refined from crude oil, so eventually the price of gasoline followed the price of oil down. And it’s all because of fracking and the private sector–nothing to do with the government policies or Our Dear Leader…
Read More “US Gasoline Prices Lowest Since 2009 – Thx to Fracking”
We suspect that Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf may suffer from OCD–obsessive compulsive disorder. What else could explain the fact that even though PA doesn’t have a completed 2015 budget, he’s about to introduce a 2016 budget that once again calls for a severance tax on oil and gas–when the industry in his state has gone nearly dormant because of low prices? Shale drillers are struggling to stay solvent and to keep drilling at least a few new wells. And Wolf is, once again, insisting on a severance tax, that will essentially stop all drilling. Perhaps a better word for it is pathological…
Read More “PA Gov Wolf’s Pathological Need for a Severance Tax”
We spotted a mention of “the four largest U.S. independent gas producers” (meaning natural gas producers) in an article about the challenges drillers are facing in cutting their spending while getting less money for the gas they produce. The article is a somber look at just how hard it is to not spend more than you make, if you’re a gas driller. Oh, and those four largest gas producers in the U.S.? Yep, everyone of them is a major player in the Marcellus/Utica…
Read More “4 Biggest Marcellus Gas Drillers Cutting Budgets 53% This Year”
Global research firm Wood Mackenzie has just released an update to their July analysis on the continuing impact of low oil and gas prices on upstream (drilling) projects. The new analysis finds that in the last six months of 2015 an additional 22 major projects and seven billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe) of commercial reserves have been put on hold, on top of the 46 developments and 20 billion boe of reserves identified previously. The “good news,” if you can call it that, is that deepwater projects have been hit the hardest, more so than shale projects. One Wood analyst calls the impact of lower oil prices “brutal” for new projects. He says, “What began in late-2014 as a haircut to discretionary spend on exploration and pre-development projects has become a full surgical operation to cut out all non-essential operational and capital expenditure”…
Read More “Wood Mackenzie Says Cuts in Drilling Projects “Brutal””
The price of natural gas is somewhat tied to the price of oil. They don’t track exactly together, but we think it’s a fair statement to say as goes the price of oil so goes natgas. One of the pioneers of drilling for oil and gas in shale deposits is Harold Hamm, CEO of Continental Resources. What Hamm thinks and says about the price of oil is of keen interest to everyone. He is, perhaps, the closest thing to an oracle our industry has. Hamm was interviewed on Wednesday and asked where he thinks the price of oil is headed in 2016. This is what he said…
Read More “Will Oil Hit $60 by Year’s End? Shale Giant Harold Hamm Says Yes”
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: Energy slump bleeds into housing marketing in PA; should wastewater be used for crop irrigation?; Tom Steyer won’t answer funding questions; the year ahead for LNG; climage exaggeration; drillers facing $102B in cash shortage this year; and more!
Read More “Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Fri, Jan 15, 2016”
As we reported in December, two left-wing Democrats in Fayette County, WV voted, in a first reading of a new ordinance, to ban all injection wells in the county (see 2 Democrat Commissioners Ban Injection Wells in Fayette County, WV). The full commission (three members instead of two) took a final vote Tuesday night and passed the measure, making it “the law” in Fayette County (until it’s found illegal by a court). The interesting part in reading about this turn of events is how some of the left loony toons parents have brainwashed their own children into becoming socialist/communists. One little girl gave “an impassioned plea” to encourage passing the ordinance, and then ignorantly accused people from the oil and gas industry of causing the death of “our grandparents, family and friends for you to have private jets.” Talk about colossal stupidity on parade. We call it brainwashing…
Read More “WV County Officially Bans Injection Wells; Children Brainwashed”
Yesterday Antero Resources, one of the biggest drillers in the Marcellus/Utica, filed their fourth quarter 2015 operational update. As in the past they did not disclose their financials–they wait a few more weeks to disclose those numbers. However, as in the past, the operational update is full of great information. Of chief importance (for us) is how much they sell their natural gas for. Because they have such a great hedging program–locking in future sales at a given price–Antero sold their gas for an average of $4.40 per thousand cubic feet (Mcf) during 4Q15–which is an average of $2.13 MORE than gas sold for at the benchmark Henry Hub! Astonishing. Companies can make money selling gas at those prices. Antero reports that although 4Q15 production volumes were 18% higher than 4Q14, the volume was down 1% from the previous quarter, 3Q15. Why? Antero is selectively shutting in production at some locations so they don’t have to sell it at depressed prices at the Dominion South and TETCO M2 trading points. Smart. During 4Q15 Antero drilled and brought online 14 Marcellus wells and 16 Utica wells. Below is the full update they released yesterday, along with a copy of their latest PowerPoint presentation…
Read More “Antero Resources 4Q15 Update: NatGas Sales Averaged $4.40/Mcf”
As we pointed out last week in a post, Atlas Energy (based in Pittsburgh) used to be a major player in the Marcellus but sold off huge holdings in the Marcellus in two different tranches–in a $4.3 billion deal with Chevron in 2011 and in a $7.7 billion deal with Targa Resources in 2014. Atlas still has some holdings in the northeast, but as we previously pointed out, the company with a golden touch seems to have lost that touch. In December the New York Stock Exchange sent Atlas Energy (stock ticker ATLS) a notice that the stock price had fallen so far they are in danger of having it de-listed (see Atlas Energy Luck Run Out? NYSE Threatens Company with De-Listing). We noticed two more stories from yesterday. One story is about a second notice from the NYSE telling Atlas that their subsidiary company Atlas Resource Partners (ticker symbol ARP) is now also in danger of being de-listed. The other story is about yet another Atlas subsidiary company–Atlas Growth Partners–filing a plan with the Securities and Exchange Commission to float an initial public offering (IPO) of 100 million shares of stock, hoping to raise $1 billion! Stock for two parts of the company is threatened with becoming penny stock, and yet they’re offering new stock in essentially the same company hoping to raise another bil. Go figure…
Read More “Atlas Energy Subsidiary Threatened with NYSE De-Listing, IPO?!”
This is so unusual, it’s big news. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), an organization known for its thuggish behavior, finally got something right. It was just yesterday we were commenting on the need for Williams to begin clearing trees for the Constitution Pipeline in New York State because the Northern long-eared bat, a “threatened” species, roosts in trees in upstate NY between April and October and tree cleaning needs to be done in the months of November to March (see Williams Plans to Start Clearing Trees for Constitution Next Week). Yesterday the USFWS issued their long-awaited “final conservation rule” for the Northern long-eared bat. Environmental radicals were hoping the USFWS would bump the bat from the lower “threatened” designation to the higher “endangered” designation. That didn’t happen. Not only did they not upgrade the designation, the USFWS also loosened the rules so that the oil and gas industry (and others) clearing trees for drill pads and pipelines can legally kill a bat or two as they do so. No longer if you find a single bat does it put that area off-limits. The USFWS recognizes, officially, that the biggest threat to the bat is a spreading fungal disease, and that killing a single bat here or there is not going to affect the population of this species…
Read More “USFWS Finally Gets Something Right, Relaxes Northern Bat Rule”