Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jack Young on September 17, 2015 at 6:48am

Typically an assignment to a subsidiary is done for internal control or tax reasons - I wouldn't expect this to mean much in this case since PGE is the operator for all these leases/wells anyway and Exxon is essentially just an investor. PGE isn't currently very active in these counties, so Exxon doesn't need to worry about funding new investments. The impression I've gotten from folks at PGE is that this assignment is pretty much a non-event.

Permalink Reply by Tim on September 21, 2015 at 3:41am

Where as we do not know if any immediate impact to the McKean and Potter holdings, it does appear that Exxon could be cleaning up their books, and positions for a larger corporate event.

There has recently been a few analysts on Wall St. discussing this, with one analyst very loudly beating the M&A drum, mentioning 'Not if, but when........' Exxon will announce a large buyout of a competitor.  The note also highlights the longer period of time that commodity prices stay low, the more large transactions make sense, and the winners will be the largest entities, as they have the ability to buy for the long term and hold until commodity prices move higher.

This analyst is based on more macro events in the Energy sector, and has zero discussion about specific positions of these large energy names.  So again, its not directly in reference to North Central PA.