Appalachia

Prospects for a wide variety of chemical manufacturing in the Appalachian Basin are robust as low-cost methane, propane and butane supplies are expected to continue increasing in the coming years, according to a study released last week by IHS Markit.

Prospects for a wide variety of chemical manufacturing in the Appalachian Basin are robust as methane, propane and butane production is expected to continue increasing in the Marcellus and Utica shales in the coming years, according to a study released last week by IHS Markit.

Appalachian pure-play Montage Resources Corp. plans to spend its first year focused on cutting costs, generating free cash flow (FCF) and modestly growing production, management said recently during its first earnings call since Eclipse Resources acquired Blue Ridge Mountain Resources to form the new company.

A binding open season was launched Friday by Williams to gauge interest in Regional Energy Access, an incremental expansion of the Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Co., aka Transco, interstate system to move more natural gas from Appalachia to the Northeast as soon as November 2022.

Southwestern Energy Co. increased year/year production by 5% to 946 Bcfe in 2018, even after divesting its Fayetteville Shale assets and becoming a pure-player focused on the Appalachian Basin, where it continues to extend laterals in a big way and see success in different intervals such as the Upper Devonian Shale.

Range Resources Corp. is continuing to take hits from its acquisition more than two years ago of Memorial Resource Development Corp. (MRD) and the underperforming assets in North Louisiana that were part of the deal, which accounted for the bulk of a nearly $2 billion loss in 2018.

Southwestern Energy Co. said it would spend less this year compared to last, while lower well costs and longer laterals are expected to help drive a healthy gain in production as it embarks on its first full year as an Appalachian pure-play operator.

TransCanada Corp. reported that shippers have cut long-term firm bookings for eastbound deliveries on its Mainline from Alberta and British Columbia to about 1 Bcf/d from 5 Bcf/d as competition from Appalachian natural gas has squeezed the system’s transportation contracts.

As Arctic cold settled in Wednesday across a wide swath of the country, from the Midwest to the Northeast, producers and midstream companies in the Appalachian and Williston basins were busy trying to fight the effects of record-setting temperatures on their operations and crews.