Quicksilver's Shale-Well Data Was Subpoenaed By SEC

Quicksilver Resources Inc. (KWK) has received a subpoena from the Securities and Exchange Commission seeking documents pertaining to shale-well production, the producer of oil and natural gas said Tuesday in a securities filing.

Quicksilver is the second U.S. producer to disclose such a subpoena after Exco Resources Inc. (XCO) said last week that the SEC has asked it for similar documents.

The SEC regulates how companies report their oil and gas inventories, or reserves.

In recent years, U.S. independent producers have unleashed vast stores of oil and natural gas from deeply buried rock formations, including shale. Such rocks have long been known to contain oil and gas, but it wasn't until the last decade that producers figured out how to economically tap those reserves using a combination of horizontal drilling and a rock-cracking process called hydraulic fracturing.

Though the natural gas that has flowed from shale wells has pushed U.S. production to price-depressing highs, some have raised doubts about the long-term potential of those wells. A recent New York Times article questioned whether some producers were overestimating how much gas their shale wells will yield.

"The SEC has informed us that their investigation arises out of recent press reports questioning the projected decline curves and economics of shale-gas wells," Quicksilver said in a quarterly securities filing. "We understand from the SEC that a number of other shale-gas producers received similar subpoenas."

While Exco said it was asked for documents dating back to the start of 2008, Quicksilver didn't specify a date range for the data requested by the SEC. A Quicksilver spokesman declined to comment beyond saying that the Fort Worth, Texas company would comply with the SEC's request.

Several top U.S. natural-gas producers contacted by Dow Jones Newswires on Friday--including Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM), the country's largest gas producer, and Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (APC)--said that they hadn't received any subpoenas. Others--including Chesapeake Energy Corp. (CHK), the second largest U.S. producer--declined to comment, citing company policy not to comment on communications with regulators.

Analysts with Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co., an energy-focused investment bank in Houston, told clients Tuesday not to single out Exco and Quicksilver because many producers filed the quarterly reports in which such disclosures are made prior to the SEC sending out the subpoenas.

Quicksilver shares recently traded 0.6% higher at $9.15 after falling more than 26% Monday on mixed second-quarter earnings and a broad decline in stocks.

-By Ryan Dezember, Dow Jones Newswires; 713-547-9208; ryan.dezember@dowjones.com

--Isabel Ordonez contributed to this article.

Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM)
Historical Stock Chart
From Mar 2024 to Apr 2024