Rockdale Marcellus Looks to Liquidate Remaining Assets Under Ch. 11
Last September MDN broke the news that Rockdale Marcellus had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania (see NEPA Driller Rockdale Marcellus Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy). In January we told you that Repsol had won an auction to buy the assets for $220 million in cash, plus the assumption of $2 million in debt owed to trade creditors (see Sale of Rockdale PA Assets to Repsol Closes – $220M Cash, $2M Debt). After the sale to Repsol and payments to key creditors, there’s still a small pot of cash ($21 million) leftover. Rockdale has a plan to distribute it to some of the remaining creditors.
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Last August, PTT Global Chemical finally came clean and admitted there will be no final investment decision (FID) to build a $10 billion ethane cracker plant project in Belmont County, OH, until they secure a partner to help finance the project (see 
Using investment capital from Preferred Capital Securities, WhiteHawk Energy is buying mineral and royalty rights in southwestern Pennsylvania, primarily in Washington and Green counties, for $52.5 million. The assets include production and cash flow from over 950 horizontal Marcellus Shale wells. The wells are operated by EQT, CNX Resources, and Range Resources.
Two Pennsylvania Senators, Gene Yaw (Lycoming County) and John Yudichak (Luzerne County) have sent a letter to the state’s Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) asking the IFO to audit the modeling done by the inept Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) with respect to the price of credits being sold under the RGGI carbon tax scheme. PA Gov. Wolf intends to force the state, against the will of the people (i.e. the legislature that represents the people) to join RGGI, which slaps in insanely high carbon tax on all coal- and Marcellus gas-fired power plants. Yaw and Yudichak believe the DEP fudged the numbers with their original estimates of how much so-called RGGI credits cost. The senators want a neutral, independent third party to analyze the analysis done by the DEP.
Two years ago Yale University sold off its $80 million equity stake in Marcellus/Utica fracker Antero Resources. You know, Antero is an evil fossil fuel company and the woke children attending Yale demanded divestment. But a funny thing happened on the way to the forum… according to Yale University’s latest 13F form filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, as of Dec. 31, 2021, the University owns $41 million of Antero Resources stock once again!
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Proposed rules would allow for Delaware River water to be exported for fracking; NATIONAL: Cut off Putin’s power by cutting off Russian gas; Unseen costs of the energy transition: minerals, metals, and construction materials; Biden’s war on affordable energy; America shouldn’t be held hostage to Russian natural gas; Biden resists calls to back expanded oil and gas production to counter Russia; INTERNATIONAL: Shell ditching Russian business; Germany to break free from Russian gas with two LNG terminals.
Southwestern Energy, which has become a natural gas-producing behemoth second only to EQT Corporation, issued its fourth quarter and full-year 2021 update on Friday. The company also issued projections for 2022. Southwestern produced 4.27 Bcfe/d (billion cubic feet equivalent per day) of natural gas and equivalents in 4Q21 across both plays where it operates–the Marcellus/Utica in the northeast and the Haynesville in the Gulf Coast region. Of that 4.27 Bcfe/d, some 3.14 Bcfe/d (74%) came from the M-U.
The West Virginia State Legislature passed House Bill (HB) 2581 on the last day of the annual WV legislative session in April 2021. HB 2581 required the State Tax Commissioner to develop a revised methodology to value oil and natural gas properties for the purposes of assessing property taxes. The State Tax Department submitted an emergency rule last summer that was, quite frankly, a mess. The rule created a complex system that is currently mired in controversy with both drillers and landowners confused about how much of a tax bill they will owe this year. Last week the WV House of Delegates worked on and pushed along a compromise bill to try and fix the mess created last year (see 
In May 2017, Murrysville Township (Westmoreland County) struck a zoning compromise with local drillers on the distance of setbacks (see 
In late October Nacero announced a $6 billion gas-to-liquids (GTL) refinery, to be built on the site of a former coal mine in Newport Township and Nanticoke in Luzerne County, PA (see 
Gene Barr, president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry, unloaded on Joe Biden and his inept energy policies in a recent op-ed in which Barr says it’s time for U.S. energy policy to stop empowering Russia. In addition to more oil drilling and oil pipelines, Barr advocates for more natural gas drilling and more natural gas pipelines here in the Marcellus/Utica. Do you want to help Europe? Stop blocking American oil and gas, President Biden!