Chesapeake Refocuses on NatGas, Offers $1B in Post-Bankruptcy IOUs
Chesapeake Energy will emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy next week having dumped $7 billion of old debt (out of $8.9 billion) and taking on $2.5 billion in new debt financing (see Court Approves Chesapeake Bankruptcy Plan to Dump $7B of Debt). Yesterday the company issued an announcement to say it is raising $1 billion of new debt by floating two new rounds of notes (which we call IOUs). The company will also refocus away from oil drilling and back on its original mission of natural gas drilling.
Read More “Chesapeake Refocuses on NatGas, Offers $1B in Post-Bankruptcy IOUs”
Zenith Energy, based in Houston, TX and Metuchen, NJ, announced yesterday it has purchased the bulk terminal storage operations of Guttman Energy in three locations: Aurora, Ohio, Belle Vernon, Pennsylvania, and Star City, West Virginia. Zenith says the reason for buying the terminals is to support customers in the Marcellus/Utica. What, exactly, is Zenith selling to M-U customers?
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Epsilon Energy Ltd. announces changes to the board of directors; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: TVA proposes to build new gas plants at shuttered coal sites; NATIONAL: ExxonMobil caps year from hell with $22 billion loss, as activists demand big change; Biden’s Keystone XL order hurts America’s ability to do the big things; Global energy & infrastructure leader K.W. Miller slams Biden agenda to destroy U.S. energy and industrial output.
Virtual pipeline company Xpress Natural Gas (XNG), which operates a major compression station/trucking facility not far from MDN headquarters, has agreed to sell itself to Basalt Infrastructure Partners, an investment firm located in London and New York City. The sale price was not disclosed.
Vermont Gas is probably sorry it ever decided to build a tiny 41-mile pipeline between Chittenden and Addison counties to deliver clean-burning natural gas to Vermonters. Not only was the project hounded by anti-fossil fuel nutjobs, since going online in 2017 the project has been hounded by the State of Vermont itself! After a multi-year investigation, the state is accusing the project of multiple violations during construction and about to levy a hefty fine.
After Joe Biden signed an Executive Order in his first few days on the job killing the Keystone XL pipeline project (instantly throwing 11,000 union members of out high-paying jobs), anti-fossil fuel nuts have been salivating (drooling, actually) in anticipation of what else old dementia Joe will do next to kill off other pipeline projects, including Equitrans’ Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). One of Big Green’s trusty mouthpieces at the AP has penned a wishlist for which projects may get the ax next, and how it will happen.
The City of Monroe, North Carolina is a shining example of what other cities should do. The city recently launched a new LNG facility online (took three years to build). The city buys natural gas on the open market when the price is low, liquefies and stores it, and then regasifies it for use later–saving residents money. Smart folks running Monroe.
All three M-U states received permits to drill new shale wells last week. Pennsylvania received 22 new permits. Ohio received 2 new permits. And West Virginia received 8 new permits.
On Friday the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) granted its approval to Williams to begin construction on the Leidy South Project in central Pennsylvania. The purpose of the Leidy South Project, which is part of the mighty Transco pipeline, is to connect robust supplies of natural gas in the Marcellus and Utica producing regions in Pennsylvania with markets along the Atlantic Seaboard by the 2021-2022 winter heating season.
Who are the top shale drillers in Pennsylvania, as ranked by the number of shale gas wells drilled in total, to date, from the beginning of the shale play when Range Resources drilled the very first Marcellus well in 2004? It won’t surprise you to learn that Range itself is in the top 5. It’s also no surprise that EQT is at the very top of the list, given it is the #1 natural gas producing company in the U.S. We have full details on the top 5 Marcellus/Utica drillers in PA, along with a list of the other 37 PA shale drillers (42 drillers in all).
In 2016 a group of business and government leaders from Ohio and West Virginia in the Mid-Ohio Valley banded together to form an economic development group called Shale Crescent USA, or SCUSA (see 
Last week MDN brought you Part 1 of a series on the coming crisis in lack of pipeline capacity serving the Marcellus/Utica region (see