Consol

Consol Energy Inc. and Noble Energy Inc. plan to form a master limited partnership (MLP) with midstream gathering assets that serve growing production from the companies’ 50/50 joint venture in the Marcellus Shale, they said Thursday.

Consol Energy Inc. has cleared its last major hurdle for plans to drill up to 45 Marcellus Shale wells on six pads in a first-of-its-kind project in Pennsylvania at the Pittsburgh International Airport.

The Marcellus Shale once again drove natural gas production higher at Consol Energy Inc. last quarter, when companywide production increased by 23% from the year-ago period to reach 48.4 Bcfe and nearly matched a quarterly record the company set in the final three months of 2013.

Consol Energy Inc. said Thursday it has struck a deal to send ethane produced in the Marcellus Shale of western Pennsylvania on Sunoco Logistics Partners LP’s Mariner East pipeline for export to European cracker complexes.

Consol Energy Inc. added 1.63 Tcfe to its proved reserves through extensions and discoveries in 2013, which the company said on Thursday marks the fifth consecutive year that drillbit finding and development costs were less than 50 cents per Mcfe.

Consol Energy Inc. said Friday that its natural gas production increased by 10% last year when compared to 2012, coming in at the low-end of its guidance. The company said its Marcellus Shale segment is expected to account for roughly half of forecasted production in 2014, or 87% more than last year.

Consol Energy Inc. said Tuesday that its 2014 capital budget would remain flat compared to last year, announcing plans to once again invest $1.3-1.5 billion on its operations.

Consol Energy Inc. announced Tuesday that 11 wells the company has drilled targeting the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania — with shorter stage lengths, reduced cluster spacing and other modifications — have collectively achieved an average initial production rate of 10.7 MMcfe/d. A similar well in neighboring West Virginia was also placed into production.

Consol Energy Inc. is searching for a new operating chief of the natural gas division after 34-year veteran and COORandy Albert announced his retirement. Albert played a key role in developing Consol’s gas business, overseeing a production increase from 7 MMcf/d in 2006 to 285 MMcf/d today, and helping the operator become one of the largest and most active explorers in the Appalachian Basin, said CEO J. Brett Harvey. Albert went to work for Consol as a mining engineer trainee in 1979 and took over the coalbed methane business in Southern Appalachian in 1985 and later the northern part of the basin. He became COO in 2010.