In hundreds of cases across the U.S., drillers have agreed to cash settlements with people who say fracking ruined their water, according to a Bloomberg analysis of legal and regulatory filings. The strategy keeps data from regulators, policymakers, the media and health researchers, and makes it difficult to challenge the industry’s claim that fracking has never tainted anyone’s water. [View news story]
"The strategy keeps data from regulators, policymakers, the media and health researchers, and makes it difficult to challenge the industry’s claim that fracking has never tainted anyone’s water."
What a crock !
It used to be that reporters used facts to write a story. Then came fabrications based on a few facts out of context. Now some journalists can't even tell intelligent lies.
No doubt the tainted water went away right after the settlements; otherwise the Bloombergs of the world could compile their own private map of tainted water wells. Then they could use public records to locate fraced wells on their tainted wells map and see if they have something to talk about. But that would be too much work and, worse, it might not support the news they want to write.
Exxon Mobil CEO: We're Going In, Can't Pull Up, Brace For Impact [View article]
Wow ! The good I see in all of this discussion is that a lot of people are giving the subject serious consideration (albeit most with a built in bias, which is okay for healthy debate) in a search for the best answer. I don't have a handle on it, but rather than "cap and trade" wouldn't a policy of "plant and trade" make more sense. Does reforestation make a dent, or is it another 1% solution ?
The Short-Term Noise In Linn Energy May Be A Buying Opportunity [View article]
"In addition, Mr. Schuringa mentioned that it was easy for him to project Linn Energy's future DCF as its production is 10% hedged for four to six years out."
Very easy if you know with certainty what that production will be. Reservoir engineering isn't like counting widgets in a warehouse and selling a fixed number every year. It is somewhat analogous to storing your wheat crop, programming your business plan based on selling 10% every year, only to find out in year seven that the mice have eaten 30% out of the bottom layers that you couldn't see.
The Short-Term Noise In Linn Energy May Be A Buying Opportunity [View article]
Every once in a while somebody reminds us that oil and gas reserves are wasting assets. Royalty trusts start with a specific set of reserves, and when they have been depleted, units in the trust are worth zero. A significant difference between RTs and MLPs is the fact that the latter can reinvent itself by acquiring additional reserves (e.g: Linn's acquisition of Berry). If the cash flow from an acquisition exceeds debt service and the excess goes to distributions, everybody is happy. If cash flow from an acquisition doesn't cover debt service and it becomes necessary to divert a portion of cash flow that was previously distributed to make up the difference, everybody is unhappy (except the folks who sold the properties to the MLP). Simple to explain; impossible to predict.
Bakken Update: The Top Eagle Ford Wells Of All Time Are Moving To The Bakken [View article]
Not my quote ChuckXX. I don't have the slightest doubt that the Chinese can do anything they set their minds to. The real race with China will be determined by which of the governments of China and the United States create the most obstructions to free enterprise. Right now it looks like the U.S. is in the lead, and will likely remain there given the twin departments of obstruction, the DOE and the EPA.
As for intellectual theft, that will end soon, as our engineering graduates continue to be replaced by those with advanced degrees in flower arranging, bee keeping and the like.
My Chinese contact in Hong Kong humbly suggests that China is 30 years behind the U.S. in oilfield technology. Strikes me that someone that thinks they have a lot of catching up to do with someone who thinks they are still way ahead of the pack will catch up a lot faster that anybody thinks.
Incidentally, I wonder where we might be had we not stolen the invention of gunpowder from the Chinese, a few rocket scientists from Germany, etc.
Bakken Update: The Top Eagle Ford Wells Of All Time Are Moving To The Bakken [View article]
Michael:
If I ran an investment bank of any stripe, or any other institution that labored under the pretense that it housed an oil and gas analyst, I would camp on your doorstep and raise my offer until you came to work for me. You just continue to outdo yourself with your outstanding analyses.
A Chinese acquaitnce of mine in Hong Kong sent me a CNN piece that aired there a couple of weeks ago. Apparently, nobody in mainstream journalism reads anything published by folks knowledgeable about the oil and gas business, as evidenced by the following excerpt from the Hong Kong clip.
"As it turns out, we're not the only ones sitting on top of a shale gold mine: China actually has shale gas reserves that are nearly 50 percent larger than ours.
Beijing is going to try and mine these reserves in every way it can. But many experts worry that China lacks the experience and technology to frack effectively. As important, it really has no understanding of how to frack safely. Here in the United States, we have environmentalists and a free press to push authorities to regulate and monitor this very new industry. China, on the other hand, may not have the same checks and balances.
This is why the United States needs to share its expertise, not keep it secret."
Such absurdities make me want to run my head through the wall. If the Chinese don't know about this "very new industry" your articles alone would educate them. How is it that supposedly educated people, trained to ferret out facts (as is supposed of journalists) keep missing the fact that the shale revolution is the result of the relatively new technology of horizontal drilling, not fracing which was patented in 1947 and has been used in an estimated 2.5 million wells throughout the world since then ?
New Chesapeake Energy (CHK) CEO Doug Lawler will make more than $22M in 2013 - a cash salary of $1.25M plus a signing bonus, stock awards and other perks - according to an SEC filing. Predecessor Aubrey McClendon's 2012 compensation package totaled $16.9M, with a $975K cash salary. [View news story]
The most productive actions I ever took in an oil company I founded was to (1) fire my "executive search firm" CFO and replace him with a CPA who had been with me ten years before I succumbed to conventional wisdom and went outside the company for an executive, and (2) terminate five department managers and promote their assistants to their positions without giving them an immediate raise. In the following six months, we solved all of the problems we had struggled with for the preceding two years at considerably less cost.
Following conventional wisdom will always generate the most cheers, but it seldom solves the problems. It is perfectly asinine to pretend that there was no one in the CHK fold who could assume the mantle of CEO. I am sure there are just as many good managers working for CHK as there were in the old Standard Oil Trust. When that was broken up into 35 companies and 35 of John D's managers were turned loose in the industry, Rockfeller's fortune skyrocketed. Every young turk at CHK that is worth his salt has been insulted if not demoralized.
Why Chesapeake's New CEO Makes It A Better Long [View article]
" Their (engineers) outlook in general, because of the training they undergo, make them difficult to accept certain things at face value. That's a generality most people don't know, but it's a known fact in the sales field."
Translation: Unlike a lot of would be investors, engineers don't accept everything that comes out of a salesman's mouth (even if he is the CEO) without a modicum of supporting facts.
Chesapeake Without McClendon: Leaving Money On The Table In Asset Sales [View article]
The three things most needed now at Chesapeake are "Cost Control, Cost Control, and Cost Control." GHK's philosophy of paying whatever price was necessary to obtain a significant position in each new shale play will probably be recorded by history as brilliant (supported as it was by cheap and readily available debt and an unprecedented run in high oil and gas prices.) Unfortunately, this philosophy bleeds over into a cavalier attitude toward operational cost control, from the salary of a newly hired receptionist to the largess of the CEO and everything in between. Truly brilliant CEO's recognize (or guess right) about when to move from acquisition to exploitation.
BNY Mellon (BK) is appealing last week's ruling allowing Chesapeake Energy (CHK) to proceed with redeeming $1.3B in bonds six years early and save CHK ~$100M in interest payments through lower rates. In court hearings before the trial, neither party could explain to the judge how an appeal might work, since the early redemption has already been put in motion and is scheduled to be executed today. [View news story]
"...on any loan agreement you can pay it back early." Really ? What if the contract says otherwise ? I guess if a country doesn't pay attention to its contract with its citizens (The Constitution), perhaps we shouldn't be surprised if the language of contracts is ignored in the private sector.
Top shareholder Southeastern Asset Management wields its influence at Chesapeake (CHK), placing Thomas Ryan, CEO of Service Corp. International (SCI), on the energy company's board. Director Louis Simpson is resigning after serving since 2011. Ryan will stand for election at the June 14 board meeting. [View news story]
Might want to put the drilling company on the block also.
Top shareholder Southeastern Asset Management wields its influence at Chesapeake (CHK), placing Thomas Ryan, CEO of Service Corp. International (SCI), on the energy company's board. Director Louis Simpson is resigning after serving since 2011. Ryan will stand for election at the June 14 board meeting. [View news story]
North America's leading provider of deathcare products and services. How appropriate.
Why is it so difficult for financial types to understand that oil and gas exploration and production isn't like any other business and requires management that has had first hand experience with as many of the nitty gritty details as possible. When the U. S. government started the Department of Energy, the bureaucrats wanted people who had never been involved with oil and gas so they would be objective, and look what happened.
In hundreds of cases across the U.S., drillers have agreed to cash settlements with people who say fracking ruined their water, according to a Bloomberg analysis of legal and regulatory filings. The strategy keeps data from regulators, policymakers, the media and health researchers, and makes it difficult to challenge the industry’s claim that fracking has never tainted anyone’s water. [View news story]
What a crock !
It used to be that reporters used facts to write a story. Then came fabrications based on a few facts out of context. Now some journalists can't even tell intelligent lies.
No doubt the tainted water went away right after the settlements; otherwise the Bloombergs of the world could compile their own private map of tainted water wells. Then they could use public records to locate fraced wells on their tainted wells map and see if they have something to talk about. But that would be too much work and, worse, it might not support the news they want to write.
Exxon Mobil CEO: We're Going In, Can't Pull Up, Brace For Impact [View article]
The Short-Term Noise In Linn Energy May Be A Buying Opportunity [View article]
"In addition, Mr. Schuringa mentioned that it was easy for him to project Linn Energy's future DCF as its production is 10% hedged for four to six years out."
Very easy if you know with certainty what that production will be. Reservoir engineering isn't like counting widgets in a warehouse and selling a fixed number every year. It is somewhat analogous to storing your wheat crop, programming your business plan based on selling 10% every year, only to find out in year seven that the mice have eaten 30% out of the bottom layers that you couldn't see.
The Short-Term Noise In Linn Energy May Be A Buying Opportunity [View article]
Bakken Update: The Top Eagle Ford Wells Of All Time Are Moving To The Bakken [View article]
Not my quote ChuckXX. I don't have the slightest doubt that the Chinese can do anything they set their minds to. The real race with China will be determined by which of the governments of China and the United States create the most obstructions to free enterprise. Right now it looks like the U.S. is in the lead, and will likely remain there given the twin departments of obstruction, the DOE and the EPA.
As for intellectual theft, that will end soon, as our engineering graduates continue to be replaced by those with advanced degrees in flower arranging, bee keeping and the like.
My Chinese contact in Hong Kong humbly suggests that China is 30 years behind the U.S. in oilfield technology. Strikes me that someone that thinks they have a lot of catching up to do with someone who thinks they are still way ahead of the pack will catch up a lot faster that anybody thinks.
Incidentally, I wonder where we might be had we not stolen the invention of gunpowder from the Chinese, a few rocket scientists from Germany, etc.
Bakken Update: The Top Eagle Ford Wells Of All Time Are Moving To The Bakken [View article]
If I ran an investment bank of any stripe, or any other institution that labored under the pretense that it housed an oil and gas analyst, I would camp on your doorstep and raise my offer until you came to work for me. You just continue to outdo yourself with your outstanding analyses.
A Chinese acquaitnce of mine in Hong Kong sent me a CNN piece that aired there a couple of weeks ago. Apparently, nobody in mainstream journalism reads anything published by folks knowledgeable about the oil and gas business, as evidenced by the following excerpt from the Hong Kong clip.
"As it turns out, we're not the only ones sitting on top of a shale gold mine: China actually has shale gas reserves that are nearly 50 percent larger than ours.
Beijing is going to try and mine these reserves in every way it can. But many experts worry that China lacks the experience and technology to frack effectively. As important, it really has no understanding of how to frack safely. Here in the United States, we have environmentalists and a free press to push authorities to regulate and monitor this very new industry. China, on the other hand, may not have the same checks and balances.
This is why the United States needs to share its expertise, not keep it secret."
Such absurdities make me want to run my head through the wall. If the Chinese don't know about this "very new industry" your articles alone would educate them. How is it that supposedly educated people, trained to ferret out facts (as is supposed of journalists) keep missing the fact that the shale revolution is the result of the relatively new technology of horizontal drilling, not fracing which was patented in 1947 and has been used in an estimated 2.5 million wells throughout the world since then ?
New Chesapeake Energy (CHK) CEO Doug Lawler will make more than $22M in 2013 - a cash salary of $1.25M plus a signing bonus, stock awards and other perks - according to an SEC filing. Predecessor Aubrey McClendon's 2012 compensation package totaled $16.9M, with a $975K cash salary. [View news story]
Following conventional wisdom will always generate the most cheers, but it seldom solves the problems. It is perfectly asinine to pretend that there was no one in the CHK fold who could assume the mantle of CEO. I am sure there are just as many good managers working for CHK as there were in the old Standard Oil Trust. When that was broken up into 35 companies and 35 of John D's managers were turned loose in the industry, Rockfeller's fortune skyrocketed. Every young turk at CHK that is worth his salt has been insulted if not demoralized.
Why Chesapeake's New CEO Makes It A Better Long [View article]
Translation: Unlike a lot of would be investors, engineers don't accept everything that comes out of a salesman's mouth (even if he is the CEO) without a modicum of supporting facts.
Chesapeake Granite Wash Trust - The Good, Bad, And Ugly News In Q1 Results [View article]
Chesapeake Granite Wash Trust - The Good, Bad, And Ugly News In Q1 Results [View article]
Chesapeake Without McClendon: Leaving Money On The Table In Asset Sales [View article]
BNY Mellon (BK) is appealing last week's ruling allowing Chesapeake Energy (CHK) to proceed with redeeming $1.3B in bonds six years early and save CHK ~$100M in interest payments through lower rates. In court hearings before the trial, neither party could explain to the judge how an appeal might work, since the early redemption has already been put in motion and is scheduled to be executed today. [View news story]
Chesapeake Energy: Ironing Out The Wrinkles Could Bring A Bright Future [View article]
And never the twain shall meet as long as ex-Goldman types dominate Treasury, CFTC, etc., etc., and Congress is dominated by morons.
Top shareholder Southeastern Asset Management wields its influence at Chesapeake (CHK), placing Thomas Ryan, CEO of Service Corp. International (SCI), on the energy company's board. Director Louis Simpson is resigning after serving since 2011. Ryan will stand for election at the June 14 board meeting. [View news story]
Top shareholder Southeastern Asset Management wields its influence at Chesapeake (CHK), placing Thomas Ryan, CEO of Service Corp. International (SCI), on the energy company's board. Director Louis Simpson is resigning after serving since 2011. Ryan will stand for election at the June 14 board meeting. [View news story]
How appropriate.
Why is it so difficult for financial types to understand that oil and gas exploration and production isn't like any other business and requires management that has had first hand experience with as many of the nitty gritty details as possible. When the U. S. government started the Department of Energy, the bureaucrats wanted people who had never been involved with oil and gas so they would be objective, and look what happened.