As many E&Ps spent 2016 basin-hopping to the Midland and Delaware, Newton’s third law of motion seemed to obliquely apply to oil and gas A&D activity.
The opposite, if not equal, reaction hit the Gulf of Mexico, California and Oklahoma. But it was particularly evident in the Marcellus—where tens of thousands of net acres were suddenly deemed noncore and put up for sale.
The Marcellus saw the highest deal values since 2010, when the shale experienced its first A&D boom, according to Evaluate Energy. And companies continue to find their way into the Appalachian Basin, a region they see as undervalued because of pipeline constraints.
As 2017 gets rolling, a crop of smaller E&Ps have joined in, including S.T.L. Resources LLC and Kalnin Ventures LLC.
On Feb. 1, S.T.L. Resources said it purchased 8,000 net acres in the core fairway of the Marcellus in North Central Pennsylvania.
Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. William Dressel, founder and managing partner of S.T.L., told Hart Energy that details are being kept under wraps as the company continues to hunt for acreage.
Dressel said the company plans to drill up to 25 wells on the contiguous acreage using new completion techniques and longer laterals to improve productivity.
The deal was an off-market transaction in which the seller was looking for development capital, he said.
“We made it the right kind of transaction for them to just step away and allow us to develop the project,” he added.
The capital provider that originated the project put about $50 million into the project. It was an investment made at the “wrong time and the game of musical chairs kind of caught up,” Dressel said.
The Appalachian Basin was not S.T.L.’s first choice. Dressel said the company specifically looked at several different basins before heading to the region, where the team already has significant experience.
In the end, market conditions dictated which basins “were going to be winners and losers.”
“You can’t buy into the Bakken and you can’t drill there unless you’re realizing a $60 oil price,” he said. “There are groups out there that have millions of acres that are just sitting there.”
In 2016, the Marcellus saw $7.25 billion in deals, including 13 transactions of more than $100 million.
“The main result of 2016’s reshuffling in the U.S. shale sector, away from the Permian Basin, was a resurgence in deals in the Marcellus Shale,” Evaluate Energy said. “The play has a core group of significant players, some of whom were eager in 2016 to take advantage of other companies deciding that their respective Marcellus positions were, in fact, noncore assets.”
In the search for the right rock, the Anadarko Basin clearly had the potential, Dressel said.
“When you see a basin that sees a 35% decrease in rigs with 13% increase in production, that’s telling you that the basin is becoming more efficient,” he said.
Companies flocking to the Permian also don’t have to contend with ground that can be finicky and where drilling is driven more by seismic mapping.
“The Permian is a different beast,” he said. In the Appalachian, a lack of experience means a “very large learning curve.”
Similarly, Kalnin Ventures—which S.T.L. explored joining in a deal with—closed on its second acquisition of a nonoperating portfolio in the northeast Marcellus in mid-January.
Kalnin purchased interests in more than 170 wells from Chief Exploration and Development LLC for $63 million. The wells are operated by seven Marcellus companies.
The company purchased the interests for investor Banpu Pcl, a Thailand-based coal mining and power-generation company.
From a practical point of view, Dressel said the Marcellus can’t help but succeed once infrastructure entanglements are unwound. Within 200 miles of the play are five of the largest U.S. cities.
“The main issue this basin is dealing with is differentials,” he said. “In my eyes, there’s a lot of undervalued properties in the area, specifically because of that.”
In the meantime, S.T.L. Resources will continue to make a run at acquisitions.
“If this is the only announcement we make this year, we’re not doing as we wanted,” he said. “We want to get in there and get our hands on as many properties as we can.”
Darren Barbee can be reached at dbarbee@hartenergy.com.
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