Tight

Weak commodity prices and tight credit markets, in part, have prompted Chesapeake Energy Corp. to pull employees from its Charleston, WV, eastern division regional headquarters for release or relocation to corporate headquarters in Oklahoma City. The move will consolidate talent as Chesapeake pursues development of the Marcellus Shale, the company said Thursday.

Some of the biggest natural gas producers in North America are doing what needs to be done to cope with low commodity prices and tight credit markets. Anadarko Petroleum Corp. has dropped around 30% of its U.S. onshore rigs since the end of 2008, the company said last week. And XTO Energy Inc. is slicing $1 billion from its capital expenditures (capex) for 2009.

Tight credit markets and economy-driven demand destruction have forced U.S. exploration and production (E&P) companies to lay down natural gas rigs at a faster clip than in previous down cycles, and the gas rig count may drop 65% from last year, energy analysts said Monday. Even cutting rigs by more than half, however, may not be enough to balance the oversupplied gas market by the end of the year.

Tight credit markets and uncertain forecasts for 2009 led more oil and natural gas producers last week to announce drastic reductions in their 2009 capital expenditure (capex) plans. That is, except for a notable exception: Southwestern Energy Co.

Southwestern Energy Co. isn’t going to let something like tight capital markets keep it down in 2009. Unlike a growing number of its peers, the Houston-based natural gas producer stepped up its planned capital expenditures (capex) in 2009 by half a billion dollars, with most of the money directed toward the Fayetteville Shale in Arkansas. The producer also expects to drill 10 more wells than it had scheduled for 2008.

A jump in oil and natural gas drilling, which required more rigs, which in turn created a tight supply market, has caused upstream costs to more than double in the past eight years, according to a report by IHS and Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA). In just the last six months, upstream costs rose 5%, but as the financial crisis bears down on business, prices have begun to moderate.

The natural gas industry has faced tight credit markets before and lived with low prices, but never so forcefully at the same time. As a result, the outlook for drilling in the coming year is dicey at best, and the pullback in rigs will accelerate through 2009, Barclays Capital analysts noted in a report.

The natural gas industry has faced tight credit markets before and lived with low prices, but never so forcefully at the same time. As a result, the outlook for drilling in the coming year is dicey at best, and the pullback in rigs will accelerate through 2009, Barclays Capital analysts noted in a report.

The tight credit environment could prove to be bigger concern for natural gas drilling in 2009 than the sharp fall-off of gas prices over the past few months, Barclays Capital energy analysts said last week.