With Gas Prices Going Nowhere, Chevron Selling Appalachian Utica Shale Operations
California-based energy company Chevron Corp. is putting its Appalachian oil and gas business up for sale, the company reported this week. It has about 400 employees in the unit and a regional office in Coraopolis. Chevron controls about 890,000 acres in the Marcellus and Utica shales across Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio.
The Appalachian shale operations contributed to more than half of a massive impairment charge that the company revealed for the fourth quarter. That charge, which writes down the value of assets on Chevron’s books, will be between $10 billion and $11 billion, the company disclosed Tuesday.
Chevron burst onto the scene in Appalachia in 2011 with a $4.3 billion acquisition of shale gas firm Atlas Energy Inc. Two years later, it paid $17 million for a stretch of land in Moon Township where the company planned to build a new regional headquarters.
In 2014, those plans were put on indefinite hold and never materialized. The following year, the energy giant cut more than 150 positions from its Appalachian division as natural gas prices slumped.
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https://www.post-gazette.com/business/powersource/2019/12/11/Chevron-to-leave-Appalachia-marcellus-shale-oil-and-gas-fracking/stories/201912110131
