The Daily Digger

From the Ashland Source: Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation is proceeding with exploratory drilling plans to create wells for fracking in Ashland County. "We are moving forward with our first well in Ohio," John Smelko, manager of environmental and regulatory compliance for Cabot's North Region told Ashland County Commissioners Thursday. Smelko said the first well will be in Green Township, located about .8 miles from Ohio 511 on Township Road 2375. The company has already obtained permits from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to construct a pad and a well in that location. "Our goal is to begin construction of the pad on Tuesday," Smelko said. "We expect to take somewhere around three weeks or so to build that pad, and then we intend to start with the drilling portion of the project." Smelko said the Texas-based oil and gas company will begin by drilling a vertical well to the depth of about 5,400 feet. From that vertical well, the company plan...

From a Gulfport Energy press release: Gulfport Energy Corporation (NASDAQ:GPOR) (“Gulfport” or the “Company”) today provided an update for the quarter ended March 31, 2018. Key information for the first quarter of 2018 includes the following: Net production averaged 1,288.6 MMcfe per day, a 2% increase over the fourth quarter of 2017 and 52% increase versus the first quarter of 2017. Realized natural gas price, before the impact of derivatives and including transportation costs, averaged $2.44 per Mcf, a $0.54 per Mcf differential to the average trade month NYMEX settled price. Realized oil price, before the impact of derivatives and including transportation costs, averaged $60.36 per barrel, a $2.54 per barrel differential to the average WTI oil price. Realized natural gas liquids price, before the impact of derivatives and including transportation costs, averaged $0.71 per gallon, equivalent to $29.92 per barrel, or approximately 48% of the average WTI oil price. Gulfp...

From Business Journal Daily: Testimony concluded late Tuesday in a case that may determine whether a second $900 million electrical generation plant is built in Lordstown.  Trumbull County Common Pleas Judge Peter Kontos said he would rule on the matter in about a week after attorneys for Clean Energy Future LLC and Clean Energy Future Lordstown submit their final briefs before the court. He instructed attorneys to file their final arguments by May 4.  However, he urged both parties to find some middle ground and work toward a possible solution before he issues a ruling. That appears unlikely at this time, noted Bill Siderewicz, president of Clean Energy Future , who indicated the legal sparring is far from over even after this part of the case is finished.  Although the first three words of the company names are the same, they are different entities — one with their name ending in Lordstown, the other with the designation LLC.  Clean Energy Future Lordstow...

From Forbes: In late 2016 OPEC engineered significant oil production cuts in order to address an oversupplied oil market. Global crude oil inventories had reached record highs, and the price of oil had crashed following a disastrous decision by the cartel in 2014 to defend market share.   In contrast to the 2014 decision, this time OPEC’s strategy is having the desired effect. Over the past year, despite strong U.S. shale production growth, global inventories have steadily declined. According to the latest  Oil Market Report  from the International Energy Agency, supply is expected to lag demand for the rest of 2018, further depleting inventories:   International Energy Agency Demand/Supply balance through 2018.   In response to declining inventories, global oil prices have steadily increased, breaking through three-year highs last week and again this week. West Texas Intermediate closed last week above $67/bbl, while Brent closed above $7...

by Jack Anderson, Energy in Depth The United States will experience tremendous growth in job opportunities and economic productivity through 2050 thanks to the rise in natural gas exports, according to a new  study  commissioned by an energy industry trade group. As natural gas production in the United States  keeps rising , there are more and more efforts underway to export the additional gas overseas as liquefied natural gas, or LNG, which will spur sustainable growth in the energy sector and related industries. This new study,  Calculating the Economic Benefits of U.S. LNG Exports , quantifies how these developments will play out in the economy. The report, prepared for  LNG Allies  by strategy consulting firm  ICF , is the latest assessment to  conclude  that the shale boom is  powering   economic   growth   across the United States  and throughout  several  economic sectors. Using baseline productio...

From Bloomberg: The U.S. wants to fund research targeting better cybersecurity for the nation’s power grid and the oil and natural gas industry, less than a month after web attacks hobbled electronic communications for several pipeline operators. The agency is making $25 million in grants available for projects that pursue new approaches to making the energy sector more resilient to cyberattacks. The deadline for applications is June 18, according to a statement Monday. Earlier this month, at least seven U.S. pipeline companies said their electronic communications systems were shut down, with five confirming the disruptions were caused by a web attack. The threat followed a U.S. government warning in March that Russian hackers are conducting an assault on the electric grid and other targets. Read more by clicking here. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog

From Kallanish Energy: Blue Racer Midstream is not often in the news.   Its website features dusty old news releases that are several years old – with nothing since.   Miles and miles of pipelines   The privately held company quietly goes about its business in the Appalachian Basin. The company operates the largest network of gathering pipelines in the Utica Shale with more than 700 miles of pipelines, its so-called “super system,” said spokesman Cory Gerken, at a recent Utica Midstream conference in North Canton, Ohio.   That includes 531 miles of rich gas lines, 39 miles of lean gas lines, 101 miles of liquids and 50 miles of condensate lines, he said.   Serving Utica and Marcellus   Its processing has grown from about 200 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) in March 2014, to 400 MMcf/d in March 2015, to 700 MMcf/d today, according to a  Kallanish Energy  review of company data. Click here to go to continue the article....

New permits issued last week:   6   (Previous week:  6 )  +-0 Total horizontal permits issued:  2810   (Previous week:  2804 )  +6 Total horizontal wells drilled:  2321  (Previous week:  2319 )  +2 Total horizontal wells producing:  1888  (Previous week:  1883 )  +5 Utica rig count:  22  (Previous week:  23 )   -1 Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog

From NGI: Rex Energy Corp. plans to cut its capital expenditures significantly this year as it continues to explore options for repairing its balance sheet.  In an annual report filed late last week with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said it has budgeted $78-83 million for its Appalachian operations this year, compared with $132.8 million in 2017. The company has sold various assets in recent years and today operates in Carroll County, OH, and Butler County, PA. “In the event our cash flows are materially less than anticipated and/or other sources of capital we historically have utilized are not available on acceptable terms, we may curtail our capital spending,” management said in the filing.  The company continues to face financial headwinds. It recently defaulted on a semi-annual interest payment on its senior notes and its stock was delisted from the Nasdaq last week. It’s also had trouble meeting its financial reporting deadlines, subm...

New permits issued last week:   6   (Previous week:  1 )  +5 Total horizontal permits issued:  2804   (Previous week:  2800 )  +4 Total horizontal wells drilled:  2319   (Previous week:  2315 )  +4 Total horizontal wells producing:  1883  (Previous week:  1882 )  +1 Utica rig count:  23  (Previous week:  24 )   -1 Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog

From Kallanish Energy: Rover Pipeline is seeking federal approval to begin service on additional segments of the $4.2 billion natural gas pipeline across northern Ohio,  Kallanish Energy  reports.   The request was filed Friday with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.   Energy Transfer Partners is seeking approval to begin service on its 100-mile Market segment in northwest Ohio and Michigan, plus a major segment of Mainline B between Crawford and Wayne counties in northcentral Ohio.   The Market segment is a 42-inch pipeline from Defiance County, Ohio, to Livingston County, Michigan, where it connects to the Vector Pipeline.   The company also wants to begin service from two compressor stations in Crawford and Defiance counties in Ohio and one meter station in Michigan. Read more by clicking here.  Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog

From Forbes: The good news is that the oil and gas industry will set a new record for natural gas production in 2018.   The bad news is that the oil and gas industry will set a new record for natural gas production in 2018.   Wait, what?  Yes, really.   First, the good news: The fact that domestic natural gas supplies remain abundant and cheap is terrific news for consumers  , since it is the main fuel used for home heating across the country, and also provides a very large and growing share of electric power generation. When natural gas is abundant and cheap, utility bills are lower in most areas, with the notable exception right now of the New England area, where politically-motivated pipeline constraints have led the absurd outcome of residents of the states north of New York paying much higher prices than the rest of the country, and having to actually  import LNG from Russia  in order to meet the region's natural gas demand. The EIA...

From Bloomberg Quint: A cyberattack that U.S. natural gas pipeline owners weren’t required to report has lawmakers taking a closer look at how the industry is handling such threats, raising the prospect of tighter regulation. In website notices to customers this week, at least seven pipeline operators from Energy Transfer Partners LP to TransCanada Corp. said their third-party electronic communications systems were shut down, with five confirming the service disruptions were caused by hacking . But the companies didn’t have to alert the U.S. Transportation Security Administration, the agency that oversees the nation’s more than 2.6 million miles of oil and gas conduits in addition to providing security at airports. Though the cyberattack didn’t disrupt the supply of gas to U.S. homes and businesses, it underscores that energy companies from power providers to pipeline operators and oil drillers are increasingly vulnerable to electronic sabotage. It also showed how even a minor attack...

From Bloomberg: Bottlenecks on the U.S. natural gas super highway are starting to stack up, raising concerns about whether infrastructure can be built fast enough to meet surging supplies. Gas output will expand by 24 billion cubic feet, or 32 percent, through 2025 from last year, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates. To support that growth, the country’s gas industry needs to spend $170 billion over the next seven years on pipelines, compressor stations, export terminals and other related infrastructure, said Meg Gentle, chief executive officer of gas exporter Tellurian Inc . “One threat to the U.S. being able to export LNG and expand its export capability is the overall commitment to invest in infrastructure to move natural gas,” Gentle said in an interview at the Bloomberg New Energy Finance Future of Energy Summit in New York Tuesday. It’s a warning that for parts of the country the pipeline woes aren’t over yet. Appalachian producers have been grappling ...

by Jackie Stewart, Energy in Depth Just one week after a Sierra Club event in West Virginia attracted meager attendance despite the host group offering to  pay people to attend ,  just eight people showed up  to an April 12 Appalachian Ohio Sierra Club event dubbed “Pipeline Pillage: The Appalachian Petrochemical Hub.” The event’s dismal attendance cannot be blamed on a lack of publicity, as the event was featured in the  newspaper  and across the group’s  social media platforms .  However, these efforts were so ineffective that the Sierra Club has since yanked the event off its  webpage , likely hoping nobody would notice that no one showed up! Newsflash, Sierra Club: Considering your event’s attendance, it’s clear no one even noticed when the event was on the webpage. Taken together, these two events further highlight the fact that the Sierra Club has no traction in the Appalachian Basin — particularly in Ohio and West Virginia. The...

From The Sharon Herald: Walking in her backyard, Gloria Douglas points to a mound of earth 100 yards away.  That mound is the location for an injection well, to be drilled by Highland Field Services, for the storage of waste from the extraction of shale gas through the process of hydraulic fracturing. “See how close it is,’’ Douglas said.  Douglas, 74, is among a group of Brookfield residents trying to halt the drilling of injection wells in the township. Highland Field Services has gotten approval from Ohio Division of Natural Resources to drill two wells on 75 acres in the township. However, no drilling has been done so far.  The property is next to Wyngate Manor, a manufactured home park with more than 200 residences, including Douglas.  When crews started clearing land last year, Douglas said she knew something was up. “It didn’t take us long to figure out what was going on,’’ she said. Click here to continue reading. Connect with us on Facebook and ...

From NGI: Two Democratic lawmakers from Northeast Ohio have introduced a bill that would see the communities they represent and others where injection wells are located receive more of the fees collected to dispose of oil and gas waste.  State Reps. Glenn Holmes and Mike O’Brien, both of Trumbull County, introduced House Bill (HB) 578 last week. Under the proposal, 37.5% of the out-of-district injection well fees collected by the state would be redirected to the municipalities and townships where the wells are located. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) regulates underground injection wells and collects all fees from the state’s operators.  Under current law, ODNR receives 5 cents/barrel for waste that’s been produced and injected inside a regulatory district. When the injected waste is produced outside of a regulatory district, but disposed inside it, ODNR collects 20 cents/barrel.  “All we are asking for is that ODNR and the injection well industry ...

From the Fremont News Messenger: The NEXUS pipeline should become operational later this year, as the company completes work on an approximately 255-mile project that carries fracked natural gas through several counties in Ohio and Michigan.  Adam Parker, a spokesman for NEXUS Gas Transmission, said the pipeline's status in Sandusky County generally involves land preparations at this time.  He said that after more than three years of public and regulatory review, NEXUS has obtained all necessary authorizations and permits to begin construction and reached mutual agreements on easement with all affected landowners in Sandusky County.  The pipeline has sparked opposition from hundreds of landowners along the route, including Kathy Schoen, a member of the No NEXUS Pipeline in Michigan & Ohio Facebook group.  But Schoen, whose centennial family-owned 46-acre farm is in the pipeline's path, acknowledged Thursday that the pipeline appears to be a done deal. ...

From MDN: The fifth auction by the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) of federally-owned acreage in Wayne National Forest (WNF) to allow shale drilling was, in a word, a bust. The first four auctions offered up a total of 2,396 acres in total, and sold for over $8 million (average of $3,354 signing bonus per acre). The fifth auction of two smaller parcels–39.6 acres in Monroe County, and 305.8 acres in Noble County–sold for a piddly $2 and $3 signing bonuses per acre, respectively. What in the world happened? Click here to read more. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog

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New permits issued last week:   1   (Previous week:  6 )  -5 Total horizontal permits issued:  2800   (Previous week:  2799 )  +1 Total horizontal wells drilled:  2315   (Previous week:  2314 )  +1 Total horizontal wells producing:  1882  (Previous week:  1871 )  +11 Utica rig count:  24  (Previous week:  23 )   +1 Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog

From an EV Energy Partners press release: On March 14, 2018, EV Energy Partners, L.P. (NASDAQ: EVEP ) and its subsidiaries (collectively, “EVEP” or the “Company”) announced that the Company entered into a restructuring support agreement (“RSA”) with certain holders of approximately 70 percent of its 8.0% senior notes due 2019 (the “Senior Notes”) and lenders holding approximately 94 percent of the principal amount outstanding under the Company’s reserve-based lending facility on March 13, 2018. The RSA was also signed by EnerVest, Ltd. (“EnerVest”) and EnerVest Operating, L.L.C. (“EnerVest Operating”) as they will continue to provide services to the Company. In addition, the Company filed its Form 10-K for 2017 with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The RSA contemplates a comprehensive restructuring of the Company’s capital structure, to be implemented through a proposed pre-packaged plan of reorganization (the “Plan”) that will significantly deleverage the Company’s balance sh...

From NGI: Rex Energy Corp. said in a regulatory filing this week it failed to make a semi-annual interest payment that was due on Monday (April 2) for its senior notes, necessitating a forbearance agreement with lenders to prevent the acceleration of other debt obligations.  The company entered the forbearance agreement through April 16 with a lending group led by Angelo, Gordon & Co. It prevents the lenders from taking any enforcement actions, such as accelerating obligations under Rex’s $300 million credit agreement, which was violated by the interest payment default.  Rex said it entered the forbearance to allow more time for talks with its lenders about financial alternatives that could strengthen its balance sheet, including the possibility of filing for bankruptcy to restructure.  “There can be no assurance that the company will reach any agreement with any stakeholders on a financial restructuring of the company by the end of the forbearance period, if ...

From The Canton Repository: Ohio has produced more natural gas than it uses since early 2015. Driven by prolific Utica Shale wells, the state produced a record 1.7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas last year.  Much of the regional economic development around that production has been in the form of pipelines and processing facilities.  Two interstate natural gas pipelines — Energy Transfer’s Rover project and the NEXUS Gas Transmission pipeline — cross Stark and neighboring counties.  Marathon Petroleum also has built or acquired assets in the region to supply its Canton refinery with liquids from Utica Shale wells  Ohio’s industry boosters want to turn the state’s natural gas reserves into even more economic development, but are facing headwinds from Wall Street and Washington, D.C.  Attendees of the fifth annual Utica Midstream conference on Wednesday heard updates on natural gas production, local pipeline projects and efforts to sell the Ohio Rive...

From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: A system that digitally processes customer transactions for a major pipeline network in the U.S. was shut down Monday after a cyber attack.  The electronic data interchange provided by third-party Energy Services Group LLC for Energy Transfer Partners’s natural gas pipeline system was attacked Monday and will be hobbled until “further notice,” Energy Transfer said in a notice to shippers.  The shutdown could affect a network of major pipelines owned by subsidiaries, including Panhandle Eastern Pipe Line Company, which owns lines from Michigan to Texas, Transwestern Pipeline Company and Rover Pipeline. The EDI system, designed to cut costs and boost speed, is used to conduct business through a computer-to-computer exchange of documents.  Though it’s not clear who was responsible for the attack, it comes after U.S. officials warned in March that Russian hackers are conducting a broad assault on the nation’s electric grid and other t...

Blue Ridge Mountain Resources press release: Blue Ridge Mountain Resources, Inc. (“BRMR” or the “Company”) announced positive well results from newly completed Utica wells in Ohio.    In December 2017, BRMR successfully completed two delineation wells in the Utica Retrograde window, located in Washington County, Ohio.  The Farley 1304 and 1306 wells were drilled in 2014 to average lateral lengths of 5,600 ft and completed in December 2017 utilizing the latest generation stimulation designs.  First sales from the wells commenced in late January, and, through controlled flowback, the wells have achieved a combined average production of 11 MMcf/d of gas, 660 bbl/d of condensate, and 760 bbl/d of NGLs assuming 35% ethane recovery at an average flowing tubing pressure of 3,500 psi.  The condensate yield of 60 bbl/MMcf is higher than the expected yield of 20 bbl/MMcf based on well results to the south.    Based upon these initial well results, BRMR has...

From the Ashland Times-Gazette: Cabot Oil & Gas is getting ready to drill test wells in Ashland and surrounding counties in north-central Ohio. “We’ve got a really neat group of geologists who think they see something in Ohio,” said George Stark, a Cabot spokesman based in Pittsburgh. “They see something, and we want to go touch it.” Cabot is looking for natural gas and oil a hundred miles northwest of the Utica Shale play’s core in eastern Ohio. The Houston-based company has filed paperwork with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources for two well pads in Ashland County, and plans to drill up to five test wells in an area that includes parts of Richland, Knox, Wayne and Holmes counties. “You don’t want one test to be the smile face or the frown face,” Stark said. “You need more data.” Read more by clicking here. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog

New permits issued last week:   6   (Previous week:  14 )  -8 Total horizontal permits issued:  2799   (Previous week:  2797 )  +2 Total horizontal wells drilled:  2314   (Previous week:  2307 )  +7 Total horizontal wells producing:  1871  (Previous week:  1870 )  +1 Utica rig count:  23  (Previous week:  20 )   +3 Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog