Company

Swiss giant Vitol Inc. is launching an energy trading venture with ENH, the national oil company (NOC) of Mozambique, where a plethora of natural gas reserves has opened the region to mega export projects.

Dallas-based Switchback Energy Acquisition Corp., a blank check company organized by veteran energy executives and private equity giant NGP Natural Resources XII LP, is laying plans to create a Lower 48 oil and gas operator.

Blue Ridge Mountain Resources Inc. stockholders have approved the company’s merger with Eclipse Resources Corp., clearing one of the last hurdles for the combination. The deal has already been approved by boths boards and Eclipse’s stockholders. Once the transaction is completed, which is expected in the last week of February, the new company is to be renamed Montage Resources Corp. and trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “MR.” The new company would have a 227,000 net acre position in Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, and produce about 560 MMcfe/d.

More than half of National Fuel Gas Co.’s (NFG) fiscal year (FY) 2019 capital expenditures are to be spent on its upstream business in Appalachia, as plans call for subsidiary Seneca Resources Corp. to continue running three rigs with year/year production forecast to increase by 24%.

Denver-based Jagged Peak Energy Inc., whose expertise is centered in the Permian Basin, said well delays cut into fourth quarter production results, which should be rectified this year. However, the unexpected decision by CEO Joseph N. Jaggers to step aside in March overshadowed preliminary results.

Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. is forecasting a slight decline in sequential production during the third quarter and weaker realized prices, but management still expects growth as the company exits the year and heads into 2018, when more takeaway capacity could help to double its Marcellus Shale production.

Sunoco Pipeline LP has again elected to stop horizontal directional drilling (HDD) for its Mariner East (ME) 2 natural gas liquids pipeline at a site in southeast Pennsylvania to deal with the water well problems the operations have caused for nearby landowners.

Abraxas Petroleum Corp. said it expects production to increase dramatically later this year once six wells are completed in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, the company is in negotiations for bolt-on acquisitions in the plays were it is active — the Delaware sub-basin, Williston Basin and the Eagle Ford Shale.

Gulfport Energy Corp. recently completed and turned to sales its first Woodford Shale wells in the South Central Oklahoma Oil Province (SCOOP), with plans to test two other horizons in the play this summer.