41 Marcellus Operators Miss Production Reporting Deadline - Is your company on the list? See attached

Hmmm...I wonder what this means for royalty payouts?

 

More than half of the companies drilling into the Marcellus Shale failed to meet the Aug. 15 deadline to report their gas production.

 

Under Act 15 of 2010, Marcellus operators were required to report their well production totals from July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2010 by Aug. 15. Only 33 of the 74 companies drilling into the Marcellus met the deadline. The other 55 percent failed to do so. To date, another nine companies have completed the report following the Aug. 15 deadline.

 

DEP Secretary John Hanger said of the violations, “The fact that so many companies failed to meet the deadline for providing this information is troubling. We plan to follow-up with each non-compliant firm and pursue whatever enforcement action is necessary to get them to abide by the law.”

The public can track a Marcellus operator’s reports on DEP's website, as well as a list of those Marcellus_Report_Submissions_8-26-10(1).xls operators that have not submitted their production reports totals.

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Permalink Reply by Keith Mauck (Site Publisher) on August 31, 2010 at 10:30am
Yeah, it seemed a bit suspicious. So maybe the new question should be, what does this mean for the PA DEP's ability to equitably enforce regulations for both sides? The companies and the landowners.
Permalink Reply by Keith Mauck (Site Publisher) on August 31, 2010 at 1:18pm
I think you misread my response, what was suspicious was the sheer volume of companies in violation of the reporting deadline. I think it was disgenuine for the PA DEP to report this as if they had no role in the confusion. You're probably right, this has nothing to do with royalties, many companies will drag their feet on paying out royalties regardless. To my knowledge their isn't a nice tidy state law enforcing royalty payouts?
Permalink Reply by Keith Mauck (Site Publisher) on August 31, 2010 at 2:47pm
Well, your initial post shed some light on the reasoning as to why so many were late reporting...
Permalink Reply by PA roughneck on August 31, 2010 at 8:44pm
After taking a look at the noncomplying operators, I wonder if it isn't more a case of these being companies with either a) recorded leases, b) issued drilling permits.
I know of one operator on this list (ENCANA), who last I heard was still drilling their first wells. None completed, none into production. Maybe this is a case of operators not reporting what they didn't have.
Having worked for Encana in CO, I can't imagine they are thumbing their nose at the DEP. Does anyone know how broadly the new regs may have been written and the possibilities for a few different interpretations?
On the list of those reporting, one finds all the majors in this play. Leading me to believe it's a case of 'no production-no reporting'.
Permalink Reply by PA roughneck on August 31, 2010 at 10:05pm
Sounds like another case of bureaucracy in-action.
Permalink Reply by Ann Ticopa on August 31, 2010 at 10:27pm
East Resouces (now Shell) is a major that didn't report. I find very unlikely they didn't know about Act 15 (SB 297 - Yaw), signed by the governor 3/22/10. It began it's legislative journey in early 2009.
http://tinyurl.com/28nuql8
Permalink Reply by Matt Henderson on September 1, 2010 at 10:59am
While the information will come out as to the 41 who "missed" the deadline, it will not circulate nearly as much as the articles about them missing it.

Some quick facts - with more of the information to come once DEP sends it. First, the deadline was a Sunday. Companies who reported Monday were listed as "late". Many parent corporations submitted on behalf of all their subsidiaries - marked late or not reported. Also, many had no production and it was not clear from DEP if they needed to submit. All marked late or not reported.

I think all companies were aware of the reporting, but it was not clear from the government (surprise!) of reporting requirements. Anytime a new report is due to any state or federal agency there are some kinks that need to be worked out. Instead of DEP saying they will look into it, Hanger is quick to jump all over the industry. I am not sure if anyone else has noticed, but his tone seems to have changed in the past month or so from more neutral to at times pro-industry and more recently his roots from Penn Future seem to be showing more. Maybe since his run is almost over with a new govenor on the horizon he wants to go out with a bang.

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