Shakeup: Gulfport CEO Michael Moore Fired, Interim CEO Appointed
Last week Gulfport Energy, an independent oil and gas driller with significant acreage positions in the Utica Shale of eastern Ohio and the SCOOP Woodford and SCOOP Springer plays in Oklahoma, issued its full third quarter 2018 update. Gulfport previously issued an operational update several weeks ago (see Gulfport 3Q18 Operations Update: 11 New Utica Wells). Gulfport didn’t issue the full update, with financials, until last week. Perhaps we now know why: the company canned their CEO, Michael G. Moore, following allegations that he used a company credit card, and the company chartered jet, for personal uses. Gulfport appointed COO Donnie Moore (no relation to Michael) to be interim CEO while they figure out next steps.
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Flashback: In May of this year, Energy Transfer CEO Thomas Long said Rover Pipeline would be fully online by June 1st (see 
MPLX, i.e. MarkWest Energy, has been slapped pretty hard by the federal Environmental Protection Agency, Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection, and several other state environmental agencies. Last Thursday the federal EPA serving as lead agency, announced a settlement with MPLX (and its various subsidiaries) to pay nearly $7 million in fines and corrective actions to cut down on air emissions at 21 of its plants in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, Texas and Oklahoma. Of that total, $925,000 is a fine or “penalty” for violating clean air laws at the plants. The rest of the money will be spent on corrective actions to fix things and cut down on air emissions.
The left-most contingent in the Pennsylvania Democrat Party wants to ban all fracking in the state. It’s fringe, but all such oddball movements start out as fringe. Of particular note in this election season is that a group of these ban-fracking nutters have gotten themselves on the ballot in 15 PA House and Senate races around the state. As you might expect, most of the ban-frackers are running in counties in the Philadelphia orbit (Delaware, Chester, Montgomery, Philly itself). There are some from outside (but still close to) Philly, in Northampton and Carbon counties. There are a few in Allegheny County (Pittsburgh area). There’s even one running in Centre County. We have the full list of 15 people that our friends in PA should be sure to NOT vote for in tomorrow’s very important election.
The U.S. Supreme Court is a Supreme Disappointment. Lawyers representing (we’d call it mentally abusing and using) a group of 21 children filed a lawsuit in 2015 that aims to force the end of using all fossil fuels in the United States, to address so called man-made global warming. That case survived numerous challenges and was set to go to trial Oct. 29 in U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon. The Trump Dept. of Justice petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the case from advancing to trial (see 
Events related (or of interest) to the Marcellus and Utica Shale, primarily pro-drilling events. To have your event included (or if you are aware of a worthy event you believe should be on this page), please send the details and/or a link to have it included to the calendar@marcellusdrilling.com email address.
The “best of the rest”–stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading: PA DEP accepting applications for 2019 Environmental Education Grants; PA DEP accepting applications for Alternative Fuels Corridor Infrastructure Grants; Dec. 4 hearings on Adelphia natural gas pipeline compressor stations near Phila.; Natural gas to cost less in W.Va., Ky.; Did Tom Steyer instigate the DRBC fracking ban?; Virginia oil, gas awards presented to 15 on Oct. 23; Permian natural gas: more production, infrastructure and demand; Trump administration blinks on Iranian oil sanctions; Iran LNG on hold under US sanctions impact; Mexico to ramp up LNG imports from the U.S.; Why are Middle Eastern LNG imports soaring?; Britain’s Cuadrilla extracts first shale gas at English fracking site.
On Wednesday a man in Clarksville (Green County), PA turned on his gas stove and it exploded, catching fire to and leveling the entire house. The man, his girlfriend and young child were helicoptered to a hospital burn unit. The working theory/assumptions are (a) the man didn’t smell mercaptan, therefore the source of the gas that exploded was not from the stove or line into the house itself, and (b) because there is an EQT shale well “across the street” and a gathering pipeline that runs “next to the house,” methane “may have” migrated from the shale well to the home, or methane leaked from the gathering line into the home.
In September, MDN told you that Dominion Energy had sold two “merchant” (non-regulated) natural gas-fired electric generating plants for $1.23 billion to Starwood Energy. And at the same time, Dominion announced it was shopping its 50% ownership stake in Blue Racer Midstream (see 
Dominion Energy shared two bits of big news yesterday during their third quarter 2018 update. The first is that they’ve agreed to sell their 50% stake in Blue Racer Midstream (see Dominion Sells Its 50% Share in Blue Racer Midstream for $1.5B). The second bit of news, big news (for us), is that Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) is now officially delayed–from late 2019 to “mid-2020” for a full startup. The price tag for ACP is going up too: $7 billion (up from $6.5 billion). But it’s not all bad news for ACP. Some pieces of the project will still go online in 2019, just not all of it. Dominion is taking a “phased in-service approach” to bringing the project online. The delays are due to the “FERC stop work order and delays obtaining permits necessary for construction.” We put it this way: The delays due to a myriad of frivolous lawsuits from Big Green groups means everyone will now pay more. Thanks Big Green.
Antero Resources, one of the biggest drillers in the Marcellus/Utica, passed an important milestone last month: Producing more than 3 billion cubic feet equivalent per day (Bcfe/d) in natural gas (and related hydrocarbons). All of that production is in the Marcellus/Utica. Looking strictly at the third quarter–July through September–Antero’s production averaged 2.7 Bcfe/d (29% of it liquids), which is a 17% increase over 3Q17 and an 8% increase over 2Q18. We’re pretty sure we are on solid ground in saying the only company that produces more is EQT, with an average of 4.1 Bcfe/d in 3Q18. Watch out EQT, Antero is catching up!
Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Co. (Transco) is the crown jewel of Williams. Transco is a 10,200-mile pipeline system with 53 compressor stations extending from South Texas to New York City. The recent Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline project in northeast PA that went online Oct. 6 is part of Transco, feeding more Marcellus gas into the Transco system to flow that gas south. During yesterday’s Williams third quarter update, CEO Alan Armstrong hinted that yet another new Transco project, “Project #1,” is in the works and will be announced during 4Q18. Project #1 will expand Transco’s capacity in Zones 3-6, allowing more Marcellus/Utica gas to flow south–perhaps all the way to the Gulf Coast.
Huntley & Huntley, with some 100,000 acres leased in southwestern Pennsylvania, has kicked its shale drilling program into high gear this year. Yesterday we told you that a former Range Resources veteran in charge of Range’s Marcellus drilling program has joined up with H&H (see