Range Says Forget Utica, Our Focus “Totally on the Marcellus”
Yesterday we brought you Range Resources’ third quarter update (see Range Resources 3Q15: Marcellus Prod Up 27%, but $301M Net Loss) and Range’s newly revised PowerPoint slide deck (see Range Resources Oct 2015 Investor Slide Presentation, Our Favs). As is typical, the top brass from the company, including CEO Jeff Ventura, held a quarterly analyst/investor phone call to go along with the release of the quarterly update. These phone calls are often treasure troves of additional information–and yesterday’s call was one of the richest troves we’ve seen in a while. What we learned from that call is this: Although early Utica Shale results in southwestern PA have turned the head for some companies, like EQT, who is refocusing on the Utica for 2016 (see EQT Dumps Marcellus Drilling, Concentrates on the Utica in 2016), it’s just the opposite for Range. Jeff Ventura said yesterday that while his company is interested and still testing their first three Utica wells, Range will focus exclusively on the Marcellus in 2016 as being the best/most productive option for them. We find it fascinating when two heavy weights like EQT and Range come to opposite conclusions…
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In March 2014 MDN alerted you to a pitch being made by Gateway Royalty to purchase royalty rights from landowners in eastern Ohio (see 
In a big metaphorical slap across the face, the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection’s Oil and Gas Technical Advisory Board (TAB) has voted to not endorse re-worked drilling regulations proposed by the PennFuture Sec. of the DEP, John Quigley. We told you two days ago the DEP was meeting with TAB to get the group’s rubber stamp of approval (see 
Wow. We didn’t think it possible. The PennFuture Secretary of the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), John Quigley himself, is sticking up for the honor and reputation of his agency. Last week the Democrat-run Harrisburg Patriot-News ran an attack series against shale energy. We told you about it by reprinting Tom Shepstone’s excellent critique (see 
About 20 hippie retreads showed up in Harrisburg, PA on Wednesday to protest outside of the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) regional office in Harrisburg to protest the fourth meeting of Gov. Tom Wolf’s Pipeline Infrastructure Taskforce. In May Gov. Wolf announced he was forming a taskforce to study and make recommendations on how the state can better work with (i.e. control) where local gathering pipelines are installed (see 
Earlier this week MDN brought you EXCO Resources’ third quarter update, with the news that they have a “strategic plan” to turn things around at the troubled company (see 
Another piece of the puzzle slides into place with respect to the $5.7 billion ethane cracker project in Belmont County, OH planned by Thailand-based PTT Chemical and financial partner Marubeni Corp. from Japan (see 
Hoping to get one more squeeze and a few more drops of juice out of news that’s now years old, the odious Earthworks and equally odious Food & Water Watch organized a protest rally in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday and trotted out the same old tired, lying anti-drillers from Dimock, PA, Pavillion, WY and Parker County, TX to “demand” that the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) simply dump the findings of their four-year study that concluded fracking doesn’t pollute water supplies (see 
Below is the third quarter 2015 update from Marathon Petroleum Corporation (MPC). Headquartered in Findlay, OH, MPC is the nation’s fourth-largest refiner, with a crude oil refining capacity of approximately 1.7 million barrels per calendar day in its seven-refinery system. Increasingly the oil that MPC refines comes from the Marcellus/Utica. You may recall that MPC is in the process of buying MarkWest Energy for $20 billion, arguably *the* premier midstream company operating in the Marcellus/Utica region (see 
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: Magnum Hunter’s outlook dimming with low gas price; EQT’s stock drop; 50 cranes arriving to build Cove Point LNG terminal; PA DEP feels pinch from lack of budget; surplus gas equals low prices this winter; Halcon keeps $850M line of credit; companies trading big offshore projects for smaller onshore shale projects; Shell scaling back in North America; fracking causes firewood prices to spike is ‘nonsense’; and more!
Doug “the ax” Lawler, CEO of Chesapeake Energy, was the keynote speaker on Tuesday at the Louisiana Gulf Coast Oil Exposition (LAGCOE). Lawler became CEO after corporate raiders Mason Hawkins and Carl Icahn, the two biggest investors in Chesapeake, forced Aubrey McClendon out–out of the company he co-founded. That’s what happens when you take other people’s money. You lose control. Lawler embarked on massive layoffs and selling everything but the kitchen sink. How’s it worked out? Lawler claims the company now has $1.5 billion in cash, giving them some breathing room. Lawler had some very interesting comments at LAGCOE on the price of natural gas–where he sees it going over the next five years, and at what price his company (and other companies) can’t make money. Lawler also talked about the price of oil, oil production and Saudi Arabia’s rather bizarre behavior with respect to oil production…
Way back in May 2014 MDN told you that UGI Energy Services, a subsidiary of UGI (a utility company in northeast PA) would build two new pipelines in northeast PA for $80 million that will allow them to transport cheap, abundant, locally extracted natural gas from Cabot Oil & Gas in Susquehanna County to residents in the greater Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area (see 
Range Resources, the driller that started it all in the Marcellus when they drilled the very first Marcellus Shale well in 2004, released their third quarter 2015 update yesterday. There is a LOT in this very readable and informative update. For example: Marcellus production volumes averaged 1.3 billion cubic feet equivalent per day (Bcfe/d) in 3Q15, an increase of 27% over 3Q14. During the quarter Range brought online their second Utica well drilled in Washington County, PA–the Claysville Sportsman’s Unit 9H. By all accounts Range expects it will be even more productive than the first Utica well they drilled (also in Washington County). A third Utica well is being drilled now and will be completed in early 2016. Range drilled a total of 25 wells in 3Q15, and brought 31 wells online. They are on target to spend $870 million on drilling in 2015–most of it in the Marcellus/Utica. Range reports the Mariner East 1 pipeline will be, according to Sunoco Logistics, fully operational by the end of the year–with ethane beginning to flow “within the next month.” Costs are down and Range gets more than many others for the gas and NGLs they sell. But amidst all of the good news, you can’t miss the fact that they lost $301 million in 3Q15…
Along with releasing their third quarter update yesterday, Range Resources also released an updated investor PowerPoint presentation. There’s a lot of interesting slides in the deck, and we didn’t want it to get lost with the other Range news in their update, so we’re bringing you this second, separate post. Below we have the presentation embedded, along with a listing of our favorite slides and brief description of what they show/why the slides are notable…