The Daily Digger

EQT headquarters in Pittsburgh From Reuters: EQT Corp’s board of directors will ask to meet Toby and Derek Rice for talks, people familiar with the matter said on Sunday, after the two brothers threatened the largest producer of natural gas in the United States with a board challenge.  The Rice family sold its company Rice Energy Inc to EQT for $6.7 billion in cash and stock last year. It now owns about 2.75 percent of EQT, and Toby and Derek Rice wrote a letter last week to EQT’s board asking for a “course correction”.  The brothers have also warned EQT that they will nominate their own directors to its board at its next annual shareholder meeting in 2019 if a “mutually agreeable outcome” is not reached.  EQT Chairman Jim Rohr and Chief Executive Rob McNally plan to write to the Rice brothers to ask them to discuss their plans for the company in more detail with the board, the sources said, asking not to be identified because the matter is confidential. Clic...

Wayne National Forest From NGI: Nearly half of the roughly 2,456 acres in Ohio, Michigan and Mississippi auctioned for oil and gas development last week by the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) Eastern States Office received no bids.  Instead, about 1,313 acres in all three states were leased by Texas-based R & R Royalty Ltd. The rest of the acreage in Muskegon County, MI, and George County, MS, attracted no bids. The sale generated only about $ 22,636, but the bulk of those profits came from just 75 acres in Ohio's Wayne National Forest (WNF).  The parcels, in the Utica Shale hotspot of Monroe County, earned about $ 200 / acre and took in nearly $ 16,000, including bonus payments and other fees.  BLM said in 2015 it was considering leasing land in the WNF's Marietta Unit, which spans 40,000 acres in Ohio's Monroe, Washington and Noble counties, which were nominated by the industry for unconventional development. The Eastern States Office began auctioni...

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources has now released the production data from the Utica shale for the third quarter of 2018. 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'll look at where the production numbers would end up for 2018 if they continue at the same pace as they have had through the first three quarters. We also have the top 10 oil and gas wells detailed below. PRODUCTION RATE COMPARISONS First up, let's take a look at how the quarterly data compares from the first quarter of 2014 (which is when the ODNR began reporting quarterly data rather than one yearly report) through the third quarter of 2018. As a reminder, all oil figures are 42-gallon barrels, and all gas production is measured in MCF: Oil production continues its rebound in the third quarter.  The total output is the mo...

From the Ohio Department of Natural Resources: During the third quarter of 2018, Ohio’s horizontal shale wells produced 5,545,536 barrels of oil and 605,716,125 Mcf (605 billion cubic feet) of natural gas, according to figures released today by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR).   Natural gas production from the third quarter of 2018 showed a 31.44% increase over the third quarter of 2017, while oil production increased 31.79% for the same period.                                   2017 Quarter 3 (Shale) 2018 Quarter 3 (Shale)     % Change Barrels of Oil                  4,207,674 bbl                  5,545,536 bbl                       31.79% Mcf of Natural Gas 460,844,826 Mcf      ...

New permits issued last week:   9  (Previous week:  13 )   -4 Total horizontal permits issued:  2953  (Previous week:  2948 )   +5 Total horizontal wells drilled:  2469  (Previous week:  2467 )   +2 Total horizontal wells producing:  2092  (Previous week:  2088 )   +4 Utica rig count:  19  (Previous week:  17 )   +2

From Farm and Dairy: As landowners in the Ashland-Holmes-Wayne County area await official production results from exploratory wells drilled by Cabot Oil and Gas, attorneys for the landowners say it also makes sense to wait before signing any new lease agreements.  A group of approximately 50 area farmers and landowners, many whom are part of the Mohican Basin Landowners Association, met in the basement of a church Dec. 13 for an update on drilling and leasing activity.  Houston-based Cabot Oil and Gas has drilled two test wells in the area, with plans for several more, through a sublease agreement with TransCanada, the company that owns many of the old Columbia Gas leases in the area.  Seeking signatures  Over the past couple years, Cabot has had representatives in the area, seeking signatures from landowners that would amend and ratify existing leases, allowing Cabot to perform horizontal fracturing of wells that go beneath the Utica Shale formation. Read...

From Vorys: On December 13, 2018, the Supreme Court of Ohio clarified the preservation of interests under the Ohio Marketable Title Act (OMTA). See Blackstone v. Moore, Slip Opinion No. 2018-Ohio-4959. In its decision, the Court held that under the OMTA, a deed reference to a previously reserved royalty interest is sufficiently-specific to preserve that royalty interest where the reference identifies the type of interest created and the person to whom the interest was granted.  You can read the decision here .  BACKGROUND   The Kuhns conveyed real property to the Browns in 1915, reserving a one-half interest in oil and gas royalties. In 1969, the Browns’ successor-in-interest conveyed the same property to David Blackstone by a deed that referenced the Kuhns’ royalty interest as follows:  Excepting the one-half interest in oil and gas royalty previously excepted by Nick Kuhn, their [sic] heirs and assigns in the above described sixty acres. Click here to ...