Range 1Q20: Drills Its Longest Shale Well Ever; Low-Cost Leader
Range Resources issued its first-quarter 2020 financial and operational update late last week. The company reported net income significantly increased to $145 million in 1Q20, up a staggering 10,117% from $1.4 million in 1Q19. Production averaged 2.3 billion cubic feet equivalent (Bcfe) per day, approximately 70% natural gas (the rest NGLs). Range says production in 2020 will stay about the same as 2019, yet they will only operate one drilling rig and one fracking crew in 2020 to maintain that level of production.
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Cabot Oil & Gas, which is one of, perhaps the best-run shale drillers in the Marcellus/Utica, issued its first-quarter 2020 update on Friday. Cabot generated $53.9 million in net income in 1Q20 and $49.8 million in free cash flow (down from $308.4 million in free cash flow from 1Q19). Cabot is one of (the only?) natural gas drillers with five consecutive years of generating free cash flow. What’s ahead for Cabot in 2020 and beyond?
Southwestern Energy issued its first-quarter 2020 update on Friday. The company reported total production of 201 billion cubic feet equivalent (Bcfe) in 1Q20, which includes 1.7 Bcf/d of gas and 83,000 barrels per day of liquids. That’s up more than 10% from 1Q19’s 182 Bcfe, but down slightly from 4Q19’s 208 Bcfe. Southwestern reported a net loss of $1.5 billion, almost all of which was due to an impairment charge of $1.48 billion (in other words, it was a paper loss). The company made $594 million in profit in 1Q19.
Late last week National Fuel Gas Company (NFG), the parent company of Marcellus/Utica driller Seneca Resources, issued its second-quarter (everyone else’s first quarter) financial and operational update. The company’s natural gas production increased 10.7 billion cubic feet (Bcf), up 24%, due primarily to production from new Marcellus and Utica wells completed and connected to sales. The production increase is all the more impressive because Seneca curtailed (shut-in) 2.7 Bcf of natural gas production during the quarter due to lower spot prices at sales points in Pennsylvania.
Last year at this time the EQT’s then-management team was locked in a heated battle with the Rice boys–Toby and Derek Rice–who wanted to boot the existing management team and run the company themselves. EQT’s management at the time delayed the annual meeting until July (see 
Last week MDN told you that the second phase of Sabal Trail, a $3.2 billion, 515-mile interstate natural gas pipeline in Florida, Georgia, and Alabama to deliver (in part) Marcellus gas to the southeast was approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and is coming online now (see 
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, called Bear Head, would be built in Nova Scotia, Canada and (potentially) export Marcellus/Utica molecules. The other, Magnolia LNG, would be located in Louisiana and yes, potentially export M-U molecules as well. LNGL was in the process of selling itself and its LNG projects to Singapore investor LNG9 PTE for $75 million when LNG9 pulled out of the deal (see 
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Exxon, Chevron slam brakes on shale as oil demand tumbles; Transitioning to natural gas powered (and quiet!) trucks; NATIONAL: Solar, wind energy struggle as coronavirus takes toll; Trump signs order to protect the U.S. electricity system; The Great Shale Shut-in has begun, making good on Trump’s pledge; Justifications, complications and ramifications of crude well shut-ins.
Antero Resources issued its first-quarter 2020 update yesterday, delivering outstanding earnings guidance that “completely caught Wall Street and the bears off guard.” Management cut 2020 capex by $250 million, to $750 million (41% lower than 2019) while maintaining current production. Antero said it will hit $175 million free cash flow *this year* by spending less and producing the same.
Like Chesapeake Energy last week and Williams in late March, the Gulfport Energy board has decided to swallow a poison pill. Some companies call poison pills a “stockholder rights agreement” or a “shareholder rights plan.” In Gulfport’s case, they call it a “tax benefits preservation plan.” It doesn’t matter what you call it, it’s all the same thing. It’s a provision that defends the company against a takeover.
Last July MDN broke the news that LOLA Energy had filed a lawsuit in Greene County, PA against EQT for allegedly drilling shale wells under property EQT formerly leased, but property for which the leases had lapsed and were subsequently scooped up by LOLA Energy II (see 
Not unsurprisingly, the U.S. rig count (for both oil and gas, although mainly oil) continues to plummet week after week. The latest numbers show rigs taken out of active duty (laid down) decreased another 59 over the past week. That’s better than the 76 laid down the week before (see 
Everyone is still trying to get their heads around what has and is happening to the economies and energy markets around the world, suffering huge blows from being shut down due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. Everyone has their own models and predictions. The latest is the International Energy Agency which has just published its World Energy Review–an analysis of how the virus pandemic is likely to affect world energy markets based on what has happened over the past 100 days.
Each year the folks at Petrochemical Update (now owned by Reuters Events) hosts two concurrent events in Houston, Texas: