Last September Stone Energy shut-in their Mary field here in West Virginia, citing low gas prices.  Today we hear that Stone has cut a deal to begin flowing gas to Williams pipelines from the Mary field.

This is an indication of two things: prices have risen far enough that production in the Marcellus region in profitable, and at least one company thinks that gas prices are going to remain high for a while.

Production was never completely shut-in in the Mary filed.  They’re producing about 45MMcfe per day right now.  Production is expected to increase to somewhere over 60 MMcfe per day in July and to over 100 MMcfe per day in August, so more than double in the next 60 days.

Some of our clients are going to be very happy about this news.  Better royalty checks!  Look for them in a mailbox near you.