New Fortress 1Q: No COVID Money, Raises for Frontline Workers
New Fortress Energy, which focuses on producing, exporting, transporting, and importing (in other countries) LNG marches to the beat of a different drummer. The company recently issued its first-quarter 2020 update. On a conference call with analysts, New Fortress founder and CEO (and billionaire) Wed Edens said his company hasn’t applied for nor accepted any government money re the COVID-19 pandemic. They also haven’t laid anyone off. In fact, New Fortress boosted the salaries of frontline fuel workers by 50% for the months of April and May in recognition of the jobs they are doing and the risks they face during the pandemic.
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LNG Limited (LNGL), based in Australia, has been working on a couple of North American LNG export projects over the past half-decade or more. One of them, Magnolia LNG, is located in Louisiana will potentially export M-U molecules. Magnolia has all of its permits and is ready to build–if someone has the money to build it. It won’t be LNGL. The company recently imploded and ended up in the hands of a bankruptcy administrator who is now selling off the assets.
The Trump Administration recently fixed a problem with the recently enacted CARES Act (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act) that will close an oversight preventing some oil and gas companies from using the program. Anti-fossil fuel haters who want to punish oil and gas companies are now hopping mad that Trump “bailed out” oil and gas companies.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: The energy below: Fulbright scholar focuses on Utica Shale at Binghamton University; National Grid settles on two proposals to address looming NY gas shortage; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Goodrich CEO strikes upbeat tone on natural gas price outlook; Manmade methane could replace natural gas, backers say; NATIONAL: What will follow the biggest us rig count collapse in history; Natural gas equities are just getting started; FERC expects minimal impact to operations after four workers test positive; Are we on the verge of a propane supply shortfall?; America’s oil and gas jobs could soon come roaring back.
Chesapeake Energy’s executives, including CEO Doug Lawler, have arguably made some bad decisions about the company–for years. The executives decided to convert Chessy from a gas-focused driller to an oil-focused driller, selling off its prized Utica Shale assets in Ohio to do so in 2018 (see 
Last Friday Gulfport Energy, the third-largest (by number wells drilled) producer in the Ohio Utica Shale (210,000 acres) which concentrates its drilling in the Ohio Utica and the Oklahoma SCOOP plays, issued its first-quarter 2020 update. On paper, the company lost $517 million due to a one-time impairment charge (writing down of asset value) of $553 million. The company said on Friday it would “shut in a minimal amount production” over the next few months given the virus pandemic.
Harvest Oil & Gas completed a reverse stock split on Friday combining 10 shares of stock for one new share. Harvest’s drilling and assets are focused in Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, where they own/operate 9,787 conventional wells. The company cut a deal in March to sell off all of its Michigan assets. Who is Harvest?
One week ago the Texas Eastern Pipeline Company (TETCO) pipeline running through Kentucky exploded for the second time in a year (see 
Montage Resources, the new name for the merger of Eclipse Resources with Blue Ridge Mountain Resources a year ago, issued its first-quarter 2020 update on Friday. Montage drills exclusively in the Marcellus/Utica region. The company continues to trim its 2020 drilling budget, now down another 10% from just several weeks ago, to $130-$150 million.
Here’s an interesting aspect of the natural gas business you may not have heard about before (we hadn’t). As you may know, not all gas produced gets used immediately. Some gas gets stored, typically in underground caverns, and later extracted for use when needed. Buyers (like utility companies) contract with storage fields to park the gas they’ve purchased until they need it. What you may not know is that not 100% of the molecules that go in come back out again.
During yesterday’s quarterly update and conference call with analysts, EQT CEO Toby Rice took the time to outline his company’s efforts to keep field workers safe during the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. Not unsurprisingly, the “young Turks” who now run the company are using technology to help protect employees and contractors. EQT is ahead of the curve (way ahead of the state Dept. of Environmental Protection) in its contact tracing system to protect workers.
This is getting ridiculous. Does anyone really believe that a single pipeline project already built and now getting a redo could possibly have racked up 680 “violations” during construction work over the past five months? We certainly don’t believe it. Yet that’s what the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) alleges. Energy Transfer (ET), the builder and fixer of Revolution, has their own allegation: The DEP itself is “not in compliance with its own guidelines.” Who inspects the inspectors for compliance?
In March Williams, the midstream giant with major operations in the Marcellus/Utica, swallowed a poison pill (see 
The crash in the drilling rig count continued last week, although the decline slowed for a second week in a row. U.S. oil and gas rigs for land-based operations fell another 34 last week, to a total of 398 active rigs. The Permian continued to lead rig count declines. All major shale oil plays have now seen at least a 50% drop in rigs over the same period last year. It’s been a breathtaking fall.