Marcellus Shale

EQT Corp Acquires Marcellus Shale Leasehold

EQT Corp (EQT) said that it is purchasing 58,000 net acres of leasehold in the Marcellus Shale. The acreage is located in Pennsylvania in Cameron, Clearfield, Elk and Jefferson counties. EQT Corp is paying $280 million, with $128 million in cash and the balance in stock. The company now has 500,000 acres under lease in the Marcellus Shale.

Pennsylvania Leases Marcellus Shale Tracts

The Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources announced the results of a Marcellus Shale lease sale of six tracts on 31,947 acres of forestland in north central Pennsylvania. The leases are located in the counties of Tioga, Potter, Cameron, Clearfield and Clinton.

Tract 001 – 7,441 acres - Seneca Resources - $23.2 million - $3,125 per acre.

Tract 007 – 10,493 acres - Seneca Resources - $48.5 million - $4,625 per acre.

Tract 323 – 4,639 acres - EXCO Resources (XCO) - $24.3 million - $5,250 per acre.

Tract 416 – 3,698 acres - Penn Virginia (PVA) - $13.8 million - $3,750 per acre.

Tract 419 – 2,952 acres - Chesapeake Energy (CHK) - $7.2 million - $2,437 per acre.

Tract 737 - 2,724 acres - Anadarko Petroleum (APC) - $11.2 million – $4,111 per acre.

(National Fuel Gas (NFG) owns Seneca Resources)

There were some interesting items in the lease bidding. The major integrated oil companies were noticeably absent from the bidding. Exxon Mobil (XOM) submitted bids for Tract 1 and 416, but lost both. Conoco Phillips (COP) made no bids and Chevron (CVX) didn’t even bother to get qualified for the lease sale.

Another interesting fact was that much of the land leased was previously held by other energy companies, but those leases all expired for various reasons. Tract 1 was originally leased to Chevron, but the leases were surrendered in 1987.

Cabot Oil and Gas originally held the lease to most of Tract 7 but these leases were also surrendered in the late 1980’s.