The Daily Digger

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From a press release: While drilling of new gas wells in the Marcellus and Utica Shale plays has fallen recently, industry experts expect renewed activity over many years once prices rebound. To help drilling communities and the states of Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia get the response to drilling right in the future, the Multi-State Shale Research Collaborative (MSSRC) today released two documents: Lessons from the Gas Patch: A Local Government Guide for Dealing with Drilling; and A Report Card on Shale Gas Policies in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, which grades three states on nine fiscal, social and economic policies related to fracking.  The MSSRC is a project of the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center, the West Virginia Center for Budget and Policy, and Policy Matters Ohio.  “A lull in the intensity of drilling provides an opportunity for local and state government to digest what has been learned from the 2007-12 drilling boom that caught most peopl...

From an Eclipse Resources press release: Eclipse Resources Corporation (NYSE: ECR) (the “Company” or “Eclipse Resources”) today is pleased to provide the following operational update, revised capital expenditure plan for 2016 and amended guidance.   During the second quarter, the Company recommenced its operated drilling program and is currently drilling its second well in the program in the dry gas area of Monroe County, Ohio. Additionally, the Company commenced completion operations on its drilled but uncompleted wells and has completed two wells in the ongoing program to date The Company intends to spud a total of 10 to 12 net wells for the full year 2016 The Company intends to complete a total of 21 to 24 net wells for the full year 2016, which includes 16 to 19 net wells of drilled but uncompleted wells that are currently held in inventory Given current forward commodity prices, the Company expects to cease its voluntary production curtailment program at the end ...

From an Energy Transfer Equity press release: Energy Transfer Equity, L.P. (NYSE:ETE) (“ETE” or the “Partnership”) today announced that it has terminated its merger agreement with The Williams Companies, Inc.(“Williams”) effective June 29, 2016.  As previously announced, on Friday, June 24, 2016, the Delaware Court of Chancery issued an opinion finding that ETE is contractually entitled to terminate the merger agreement with Williams in the event ETE’s counselLatham & Watkins LLP (“Latham”) were unable to deliver a required tax opinion prior to the June 28, 2016, outside date in the merger agreement. Latham advised ETE that it was unable to deliver the opinion as of the outside date. Consistent with its rights and obligations under the merger agreement, ETE subsequently provided written notice terminating the merger agreement due to failure of conditions under the merger agreement, including Latham’s inability to deliver the required tax opinion, as well as the other bases ...

From Seeking Alpha: It was a wild week in markets. In the lead up to the Brexit vote, market action signaled confidence that the United Kingdom would remain within the European Union, but the results of the referendum on Thursday night shocked markets causing wild volatility to reverberate across all asset classes. Commodity markets were no exception as the dollar rallied and oil, agricultural products, and industrial metals and minerals moved sharply lower. The uncertainty caused by the European shocker propelled gold, silver, and platinum prices higher. All the while, natural gas had a very quiet week, and its response to Brexit was a nonevent. Last Friday, while all hell was breaking loose in other markets, daily volume in natural gas was the lowest it had been in a very long time as traders, speculators and investors had more important things to do than pay attention to the natural gas market.  Since making lows of $1.6110 on the active month NYMEX natural gas futures marke...

From The Daily Caller: The company behind the Keystone XL pipeline filed a $15 billion lawsuit Friday against the Obama administration under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).  TransCanada claimed that Obama spent seven years using “arbitrary and contrived” analyses and justifications to delay the pipeline for political reasons. TransCanada’s suit also says that the company had reason to believe that the pipeline would be approved before it was rejected by the Obama administration in November .  “None of that technical analysis or legal wrangling was material to the administration’s final decision,” TransCanada said in its lawsuit . “Instead, the rejection was symbolic and based merely on the desire to make the U.S. appear strong on climate change, even though the State Department had itself concluded that denial would have no significant impact on the environment.” President Barack Obama rejected the pipeline due to the perception among environmentalists ...

From a press release: The Community Bill of Rights Committee has once again exercised its democratic right to petition local government and put a charter amendment on the November 2016 ballot. The voters have again indicated via their petition signatures that they want to vote in November 2016, on whether or not to ban shale gas development (fracking, injection wells and other shale gas infrastructure) within Youngstown city limits and uphold their unalienable right to local control to protect their public health, safety, well-being and the democratic process.  “We have received an overwhelmingly positive response from the community this year, and we thank them. We only lost by 2.49% in the November 2015 election,” said Lynn Anderson, a Community Bill of Rights Committee member. “We believe that voters are increasingly voting YES with us, in part, because they are seeing the truth and scientific facts about fracking and related processes. They understand that the risks are too ...

From The Intelligencer: Yale University researchers plan to take air and water samples from 100 Belmont County homes to determine how Marcellus and Utica shale fracking impacts the environment. Considering the many active drilling operations, pipelines and compressor stations one can find in Belmont County, the researchers may find plentiful data in the field.  Nicole Deziel, an assistant professor in the Yale Department of Environmental Health Sciences, will serve as the study’s lead investigator. Deziel said she and three other Yale researchers will base their operations in the science lab at the Olney Friends School in Barnesville until they leave in August.  “We are very interested in whether this expansion in natural gas extraction could contribute to the contamination of water and air supplies,” Deziel said. “Ohio is understudied. Most of the studies are from Pennsylvania or Texas.  “We hope our results will advance understanding of the potential for exposur...

From Seeking Alpha : For investors in Williams Companies (NYSE: WMB ), Friday was a bad day for a reason other than Brexit. A Delaware court ruled that Energy Transfer Equity (NYSE: ETE ) will be able to get out of its deal to acquire Williams, due to concerns about how the deal will be taxed. This should substantially affect Williams shareholders as the deal was made when energy prices were much higher, and Williams wanted to force the deal in order to help maximize shareholder value. Without the deal, however, Williams will still be fine and has a few paths forward.  Court Ruling  It is not a secret that Energy Transfer wanted out of the deal. When they made the merger agreement with Williams, energy prices were high and there was the projection for large synergies between both companies. Now with the substantial drop in prices, Energy is facing a cash crunch caused partially by the cash portion of the deal. Energy has offered previously to renegotiate the deal with W...

From the Washington Times  last week: In the latest rebuke of the Obama administration ’s expansive view of executive power, a federal judge has struck down the Interior Department’s effort to regulate fracking for oil and natural gas.  Judge Scott Skavdahl of the District Court of Wyoming already had put a hold on the regulations last year, and in a decision released late Tuesday, he ruled that Congress did not give Interior the power to regulate hydraulic fracturing, indeed it had expressly withheld that power with some narrow exceptions.  “ Congress has not delegated to the Department of Interior the authority to regulate hydraulic fracturing,” Judge Skavdahl wrote in deciding a lawsuit brought by industry groups and a number of Western states. The “effort to do so through the Fracking Rule is in excess of its statutory authority and contrary to law.”  The judge dismissed particularly the claim by the Interior Department and its Bureau of Land Management...

The latest weekly permitting report from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources once again reflects the continued slowdown in activity.  Only two new permits were issued, and the rig count fell back to 10.  There are now 2185 permits issued for horizontal drilling in Ohio's Utica shale, along with 1751 wells drilled and 1328 producing. View the weekly report below or by clicking here . Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog

From NGI: Raymond James & Associates has increased its 2017/2018 West Texas Intermediate oil price forecast by $5.00/bbl, but cautioned that given the U.S. unconventional industry's ability to post efficiency gains, the bias over time is for prices to move lower.  Specifically, the 2017 and 2018 forecasts for WTI have been raised to $80/bbl from $75. Brent prices for 2017 are expected to average $83/bbl versus an earlier forecast of $79, while in 2018, prices should average $80/bbl from $75. In 2019 and beyond, the forecast is for $70 WTI and $75 Brent.  "Given the U.S. shale industry's ability to post steady cost efficiency gains, our bias would be that, over time, oil prices move lower, or the futures curve becomes backwardated starting in mid-2017," said analysts J. Marshall Adkins and Pavel Molchanov. "This $70 price deck should support sufficient long-term U.S. oil supply growth to offset slowly rising global oil demand and falling non-U.S. oil sup...

From Reuters: Having turned round its North American shale business, Royal Dutch Shell ( RDSa.L ) is putting so-called unconventional energy at the heart of its growth plans, and believes lessons from the revamp can be applied across the company.  Greg Guidry, head of the Anglo-Dutch group's unconventionals business, told Reuters a drive to slash costs and streamline decision-making had put his division largely on a par with leading rivals in terms of productivity and efficiency.  And now the rest of Shell could reap the benefits too.  "The executive committee charged us to be a catalyst for change within the broader Shell," Guidry said in an interview. The rest of the article can be viewed by clicking here. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog

From a Wood Mackenzie press release: Global upstream development spend from 2015 to 2020 has been cut by 22% or US $740 billion since the oil price started to drop two years ago, according Wood Mackenzie's research. When we include cuts to conventional exploration investment, the figure increases to just over US $1 trillion.  Malcolm Dickson, Principal Analyst at Wood Mackenzie says: "The impact of falling oil prices on global upstream development spend has been enormous. Companies have responded to the fall by deferring or cancelling projects and costs have also fallen. Our 2015-2020 forecast for capital investment has been reduced by 22% or US$740 billion since Q4 2014. In the nearer term the impact is even more severe: compared to pre-oil price fall expectations, capex will be down by around US$370 billion or 30% in 2016 and 2017."  Wood Mackenzie expects to see further cuts throughout the year and investment levels continue to shrink as more projects are dropped...

From the Times Reporter: A new building for North Township is just the latest contribution that a company operating the massive Harrison Hub natural-gas processing plant has made to this Harrison County community.  The township building, located at 38170 Crimm Road, was dedicated last week at a ceremony attended by about 75 people, including local and state dignitaries and officials from M3 Midstream, which operates the Scio plant along with Williams Partners, a pipeline company.  The structure is 56 feet by 80 feet, has five bays for equipment, a meeting room, bathroom, utility room and office for employees, said Dan Henry, chairman of the North Township trustees. Scio is located in North Township.  "We can't thank them enough," Henry said. "We're a small township in a small community. We would never be able to afford this. If we tried this, it would create such a tax burden. You just can't do things like that in this small community." Click he...

From NGI: North America's oil and gas industry is "coming off the bottom," but the recovery is unlikely to be a straight line, Halliburton Co.'s financial chief said Tuesday.  CFO Mark McCollum spoke Tuesday at the Wells Fargo West Coast Energy Brokers Conference, where he discussed the failed merger bid for Baker Hughes Inc. and the Houston company's strategy moving forward.  "We think at this point in time in the cycle in the market...we're coming off of the bottom...at least in North America and [we're] approaching a bottom internationally," he told the audience. "But the "recovery itself is going to be a lower slope recovery than maybe some others have been. And in that regard, it's probably not to going to be a straight line for the fact that this was a supply-based downturn and...relatively low demand growth overall..." Click here to read more. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog ...

From The Intelligencer: Belmont County farmers Lova Ebbert and Larry Cain work their fields daily, just as they did before receiving significant checks for Marcellus and Utica shale drilling on their property a few years ago. These farmers continue growing a variety of crops south of Bethesda, including corn, hay and tomatoes.  Ebbert also raises beef cattle, while Cain raises dairy cows.  “Farming is our livelihood. It’s what we do,” said Ebbert, who serves as co-operator of Ebbert Farm Market in St. Clairsville. “We certainly have not changed our day-to-day lives much.”  Betsy Anderson, organization director for the Ohio Farm Bureau, acknowledged some farmers made adjustments upon receiving significant checks for their oil and natural gas deals. Read the whole article by clicking here. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog

From the Energy Information Administration's latest Drilling Productivity Report: Up until now the Utica shale had been the one play that wasn't following the decline trend.  But for the first time, the EIA says June will see the natural gas production from the Utica decline from the previous month. View the full report below: U.S. EIA's Drilling Productivity Report - June 2016 from Marcellus Drilling News Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog

The latest weekly report from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources shows another slow week in Utica shale permitting.  Just two new permits are listed, both for Chesapeake Exploration in Jefferson County.  The Utica rig count is 11. View the report below or by clicking here . Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources has now released the production data from the Utica shale for the first quarter of 2016. As always, we are going to give you a look at how the numbers compare to past quarters, past years, and how they break down among the various drillers who are active in Ohio and the counties where they are drilling. We also have the top 10 oil and gas wells detailed below. The latest production figures give the clearest view yet of how the downturn in oil and natural gas prices has affected production, with oil production declining from the previous quarter for the first time since the Utica shale boom began. First up, let's take a look at how the quarterly data compares from the 1st quarter of 2014 through the first quarter of 2016.  As a reminder, all oil figures are 42-gallon barrels, and all gas production is measured in MCF: QUARTER # OF WELLS/# WITH DATA OIL GAS DAYS OIL/DAY OIL/WELL GAS/DAY GAS/WELL 2014-1 476/418 1,950,979 67,333,945 28,...

From the Ohio Department of Natural Resources: "During the first quarter of 2016, Ohio’s horizontal shale wells produced 5,485,854 barrels of oil and 329,537,838 Mcf (329 billion cubic feet) of natural gas, according to figures released today by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR). Quarterly production from the first quarter of 2016 shows a significant increase from quarterly production from the first quarter of 2015. 2015 QUARTER 1 (SHALE) 2016 QUARTER 1 (SHALE) INCREASE Barrels of oil: 4,432,188 5,485,854 24% Mcf of gas: 183,585,251 329,537,838 80% The ODNR quarterly report lists 1,351 horizontal shale wells, 1,302 of which reported oil and gas production during the quarter. Of the 1,302 reporting oil and gas production results: The average amount of oil produced was 4,213 bbls. The average amount of gas produced was 253,101 Mcf. The average number of first quarter days in production was 85. All horizontal production reports can be accessed at  oi...

Gas & Oil:   Utica Shale Academy Has Second Graduation   -    "The number of graduates is growing at the Utica Shale Academy. Members of the Utica Shale Academy Board of Directors was to confer degrees to 18 seniors during commencement on May 26, preceded by a dinner for the graduates and their families. Keynote speaker will be Rhonda Reda, executive director of the Oil and Gas Energy Education Program and Ohio Oil and..." Alice-Echo News Journal:   Oil and Gas Recovery in the Horizon   -    "Expect a rise in the oil and gas industry by the end of this year is what experts from Invesco shared during the Fifth Annual Eagle Ford Consortium in San Antonio. Darrin Turner, Managing Directors with Invesco who performs quantitative and fundamental research on real asset securities addressed the consortium about the future of the..." Press release:   Antero Resources to Acquire 55,000 Net Acres in the Core of the Marcellus Shale   - ...