Energy Companies

New Driller Tiburon Plans to Start Drilling Utica in 2Q25

Last fall, MDN told you about a newly formed drilling company that aims to target the Ohio Utica Shale, a company called Tiburon Oil & Gas Partners, LLC (see Former Carrizo O&G Team Forms New Company to Drill in Ohio Utica). The company was founded by four former executives from Carrizo Oil & Gas, Inc….

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2 of Top 5 Upstream M&A Deals in 4Q Were in the Marcellus/Utica

Enverus Intelligence Research (EIR), a subsidiary of Enverus, issued a summary of the fourth quarter and full-year 2024 upstream M&A (mergers and acquisitions) activity yesterday. Two of the top five M&A deals include deals in the Marcellus/Utica. Coming in at #3 on the list was EQT’s sale of non-operated assets to Equinor for $1.25 billion…

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Range & MarkWest File Legal Challenges to Cecil 2,500-Foot Setback

Last November, three of five supervisors in Cecil Township (Washington County), PA, voted to ban all new fracking via a new setback (distance from well to nearest structure) requirement of 2,500 feet (see Cecil Twp Supervisors Pull the Trigger on Frack Ban Via Setbacks). We said at the time, “Let the lawsuits begin.” Once again,…

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CNX Closes Deal to Buy Apex Energy for $505M, Adds SWPA Assets

In December, CNX Resources announced it had struck a deal to buy the assets of Apex Energy II, LLC, a portfolio company of funds managed by Carnelian Energy Capital Management, for $505 million (see CNX Resources Buys Apex Energy for $505M, Adds Pa. M-U Assets). Apex owns wells, acreage, and pipelines in Westmoreland County, PA….

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Coterra Energy Closes Deal to Buy Permian Assets for $3.9 Billion

Last November, Coterra Energy announced it would buy “certain assets of Franklin Mountain Energy and Avant Natural Resources” located in the Permian (see Siren Song: Coterra Energy Buys Permian Assets for $4 Billion). The purchase (two deals) gives Coterra another 49,000 acres in Lea County, New Mexico, with 400-550 net Permian oil-drilling locations. The deal…

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A Look at Ohio’s Utica Condensate/Light Crude Drillers, Part 2

Condensate production (super-light crude oil) in the Utica Shale’s volatile oil window in eastern Ohio has more than doubled over the past three years. The small number of drillers that focus on drilling for condensate in Ohio (about half a dozen) are due to increase their output of condensate in 2025 and 2026. Who are…

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China’s AI Announcement Tanks U.S. Stocks, Including M-U Drillers

Did you happen to catch the news lighting up all the cable news stations yesterday about Chinese startup DeepSeek? The company launched a free AI assistant that it claims uses less data at a fraction of the cost of other AI models. By Monday, the DeepSeek assistant had overtaken U.S. rival ChatGPT in downloads from…

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HG Energy Well Fire Near Jane Lew, WV Quickly Extinguished

A fire was reported at a natural gas well near Jane Lew (Harrison County), WV, on Saturday at around 2:15 pm. Multiple fire departments responded. One media report says the well location is listed as the Stickel Pad belonging to driller HG Energy. There were no injuries, according to 911 officials. The fire was extinguished…

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Diversified Energy to Buy/Merge with Maverick Natural Res. for $1.3B

Diversified Energy, with major assets in the Marcellus/Utica region (assets in other regions, too), owns approximately 8 million acres of leases with 67,000 (mostly) conventional oil and gas wells. The company’s business model is to buy lower-producing wells on the cheap and find ways to make them more productive. The company made a major announcement…

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SRBC Approves 18 New & Renewed Water Use Permits for M-U Pads

The highly functional and responsible Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC), unlike its completely dysfunctional and irresponsible cousin, the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), continues to support the shale energy industry by approving water withdrawals and consumptive use for responsible and safe shale drilling. The SRBC published a notice in the January 25 Pennsylvania Bulletin that…

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41 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Jan 13 – 19

Wow! Is this the Trump effect? For the week of Jan 13 – 19, permits issued in the Marcellus/Utica to drill new shale wells achieved levels we haven’t seen in, oh, about four years. There were 41 new permits issued last week, up significantly from 27 issued the week before and 30 issued two weeks…

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Expand Energy has “Long Pedigree” and “Deep Technical Bench”

On Oct. 1, 2024, Chesapeake Energy announced its buyout of and merger with Southwestern Energy in a $7.4 billion deal was completed (see Chesapeake & Southwestern Complete Merger; Now #1 U.S. Gas Driller). The newly merged company was renamed Expand Energy Corporation and began trading on the NASDAQ stock market under the “EXE” ticker symbol….

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Infinity Natural Resources Launches IPO, Hopes to Raise ~$250M

MDN reported in October that Marcellus/Utica driller Infinity Natural Resources (INR) intended to file an initial public offering (IPO) with the Securities and Exchange Commission hoping to raise $100 million (see M-U Driller Infinity Natural Resources Files for $100 Million IPO). We further reported in December that INR added seven Big Banks to the existing…

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Gas Drillers Had Best Shareholder Returns in 2024; Investor Love

The experts at RBN Energy recently analyzed the Q3 2024 financial results for the gas-focused producers the company tracks (mainly Marcellus/Utica producers). The gas-weighted E&Ps RBN follows had the best total shareholder return performance of the three peer groups they tracked through the first nine months of 2024, with a median gain of 14%. On…

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27 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Jan 6 – 12

For the week of Jan 6 – 12, permits issued in the Marcellus/Utica to drill new shale wells remained healthy. There were 27 new permits issued last week, down three from 30 issued the week before. The Keystone State (PA) issued 13 new permits, with four going to Snyder Brothers in Armstrong County, four going…

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