Chesapeake Suspends Dividend Payments; Stock Still Falling
On Friday Chesapeake Energy announced it has suspended payment of dividends on each series of its outstanding convertible preferred stock effective immediately. The company also made the point that suspending this type of dividend does not constitute a default (failure to pay) under any of the company’s debt instruments. The suspension comes just a few days after the company completed a reverse stock split, combining 200 shares of old stock into 1 share of new stock (see Chesapeake Energy Reverse Stock Split 1-for-200). Following the stock split, the adjusted share price for the new stock continued to decline (see Chesapeake’s Reverse Stock Split Bombs, Company “On Life Support”). The downward trend continued on Friday with Chessy’s stock price sliding another 7%.
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A federal court in Pennsylvania has just verbally slapped down THE Delaware Riverkeeper–both the umbrella Riverkeeper organization and (by name) the person who claims to be THE riverkeeper of the Delaware, Maya van Rossum, for a transparent and pathetic attempt at blocking the Mariner East 2 pipeline project with yet another frivolous lawsuit. In the decision, the judge says the litigation tactics of the Riverkeeper organization “do nothing to protect the environment.” The judge also said to impose liability against ME2 in this case “would offend basic principles of fairness and effect an absurd result” and “violate due process.” Ouch.
Last December MDN told you that investment firm Blackstone Infrastructure Partners, a major investor in pipeline company Tallgrass Energy, pursued and caught the company, tentatively convincing Tallgrass to sell its public shares of stock to Blackstone, which will take the company “private” –meaning no publicly traded shares of stock (see 
MDN is updating our 
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: House Republicans want PA DEP to reasonably pause adopting new regs; DEP invites comments on proposed Water Quality Certification for NFG pipeline project; Upside in a down market: Northeast gas dynamics to advantage regional midstream companies; NATIONAL: Trump administration working to ease drilling industry cash crunch; Do U.S. shale drillers deserve to exist in free markets?; Half of announced North American oil cuts come from just three companies; Lower 48 oil, gas permitting expected to ‘collapse in April’ amid pandemic; Oil, natural gas and NGLs in post-COVID, 2021-25 markets; Oil and gas shut-ins risk royalty litigation; New FERC commissioner hints at market action, announces staff; INTERNATIONAL: Global LNG production shut-ins seen imminent as prices continue falling; USMCA solidifies the best oil and natural gas alliance ever; Fall of natural gas prices speeds energy shift in East Asia; Oil and gas giant Shell targets ‘net zero’ emissions by 2050.
Yesterday we told you that Chesapeake Energy’s reverse stock split (effective on Wednesday) of combining 200 shares into a single new share didn’t work out so well initially (see 
In late March we told you about the biggest one-week drop in U.S. rig counts in the past four years when the rig count dropped by 47 in a single week (see 
For years we’ve had a Canadian LNG export project on our radar, bringing you news about the project, hoping that prodigious amounts of Marcellus/Utica gas would be used at the plant. The project is called the Goldboro LNG project, planned by Pieridae Energy for the coast of Nova Scotia. In July 2018 we told you Pieridae was getting close to a final investment decision (FID) to build the $10 billion project (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. LNG9 has just canceled the deal, leaving the future both the Bear Head and Magnolia projects in question.
While shale oil producers are suffering mightily during the current oil price crash, brought on by both the COVID-19 coronavirus travel restrictions and the Saudi price war, the oilfield services (OFS) companies that do all of the drilling and fracking for the oil producers are suffering even more. Companies like Schlumberger, Halliburton and Baker Hughes (among many others) are laying off employees and writing down billions of dollars worth of assets. On Monday Baker Hughes said it will write down $15 billion in value. While this carnage is not affecting the Marcellus/Utica per se, all of the aforementioned companies taking it on the chin in other plays also drill here in the M-U.
Chesapeake Energy pulled the trigger on a reverse stock split after the close of trading on Tuesday, combining 200 shares into one single new share (see 
As cases of COVID-19 coronavirus began to climb in relatively rural Beaver County, PA, local politicians pressured Shell to stop work on the mighty ethane cracker plant facility they are building in Monaca. Shell quickly complied, sending nearly 8,000 workers home in mid-March for what was thought to be “a few days to a few weeks” (see 
Officials from both Delaware County and Chester County (suburbs of Philadelphia) sent a letter to state officials earlier this week asking the state to once again shut down critical work being done on the Mariner East 2 pipeline project. The county officials, at the prompting (control?) of the uber-leftist and radical Clean Air Council, are using the COVID-19 crisis as their excuse to try and shut down work on the project. In their letter, county officials cite unnamed and anecdotal “sources” who claim (lie?) that workers on the pipeline are violating social-distancing rules–at work and off. Ninny nannies tattling. Do you think workers would jeopardize their own health and the health of their families? No, we don’t think so either.