Out Fox The $treet

More questions swirl about the ETE and Williams deal. A termination fee paid to Williams would quickly shore up dividend coverage and funding requirements of the next year or more. Based on the news, Williams is a stock to avoid unless more details emerge suggesting a termination fee is actually forthcoming that would provide an opportunity for the company. Despite a market rally on Thursday,  Williams Cos. (NYSE: WMB )  traded down over 3% on a couple of headlines that reinforce the risk surrounding the stock. My  previous questions regarding the risk in the stock are only magnified now. Read the full article on Seeking Alpha.  Disclosure: No postions mentioned. Please read the disclaimer page for more details.

In the middle of another strong earnings report highlighted by explosive Marcellus growth, Southwestern Energy ( NYSE: SWN     ) detailed a troubling problem for the company and the industry as a whole. The company is a leading driller for natural gas in both the Fayetteville Shale in Arkansas and the prolific Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania. Read the full article here . Disclosure: No positions mentioned. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

With natural gas inventories close to decade lows, investors would probably prefer an exploration and production firm with limited hedges to participate in the potential price appreciation of the commodity. It is a double-edged sword to risk production and long-term capital investments without knowing the future price, but in the current market it's undoubtedly disappointing to invest in a firm with extensive hedges at lower prices. Range Resources Corp ( NYSE: RRC     ) is one of the largest and fastest-growing producers in the Marcellus Shale. The company has some of the most prolific wells helping it produce growth in excess of 20%. Unfortunately, the company is heavily hedged and not fully participating in the suddenly higher natural gas prices. It also will not benefit in a meaningful way in future price spikes over the next couple of years. Read the full article here . Disclosure: No positions mentioned. Please review the disclaimer page for more d...

The past couple of years there has been focus on increasing natural gas supplies, but most ignore surging demand that isn't being met with higher drilling. With natural gas inventories plunging to 11-year lows last week, the market needs to start including the demand side in the equation. One of the best examples of the increase in demand is the recent facility built by Nucor  ( NYSE: NUE     ) in La. The biggest mistake most make is assuming that abundant supplies in the ground will turn into production by E&P companies. The ironic part of the equation is that producers have left natural gas areas of the Haynesville Shale, (and other surrounding plays), while industrial and chemical plants are moving into the Gulf Coast. Read the full article  here . Disclosure: No positions mentioned. Please read disclaimer page for more details.

Anytime a legendary investor pounds the table that a stock is worth double its price, investors ought to take the time to review the prospects. In this case, Lee Cooperman of Omega Advisors continues to be bullish on the reorganization progress at SandRidge Energy  ( NYSE: SD     ) . With the stock trading in the $6 range, Cooperman recently repeated claims that his analysis values the company at over $10. SandRidge Energy is an oil and natural gas exploration and production company focused on the Mississippian formation in Oklahoma along with Gulf of Mexico and West Texas assets. The stock has long struggled due to Wall Street's lack of understanding of the deal made by the previous CEO Tom Ward. Read the full article here . Disclosure: No position mentioned. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

WPX Energy ( NYSE: WPX     ) continues to build the foundation for growth, yet the improvements aren't showing up in recent results. Like any oil and gas exploration and production company trying to turn around operations, any gains in the short term can quickly be offset by declining production from old wells. Until the company can drill enough new wells, the positive results can be hidden, as is the case with WPX Energy. The first quarter sequential gain in natural gas production is a signal that WPX has finally turned the corner. Combined with a substantial increase in oil production, the company is set to benefit from the suddenly surging natural gas prices and stubbornly high oil prices. Read the full article here . Disclosure: No positions mentioned. Please read the disclaimer page for more details. 

Nearly two years after being spun off from Williams Companies ( NYSE: WMB     ) , WPX Energy ( NYSE: WPX     ) is finally seeing decent stock gains. The large natural gas producer has been pushing toward drilling for oil, but ironically a massive natural gas find places this stock on a path to huge reserve growth. Compared to other natural gas producers such as Range Resources ( NYSE: RRC     ) and Southwestern Energy ( NYSE: SWN     ) , the stock trades at sub-par multiples. Due to the massive well in the Niobrara shale called the 'beast,' it could finally be back on a growth trajectory. Read the full article here . Disclosure: No positions mentioned. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

On first thought, the announcement of the resignation of the CEO at SandRidge Energy (NYSE: SD ) appears nothing to get excited about. Even if the market can blame Tom Ward for the stock weakness over the last few years, losing the founder of the company can’t be a good thing. The interesting part of this news is that the market has another prime example to follow. Not only did more » Disclosure: No positions mentioned. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

As natural gas prices soar this year, Chesapeake Energy ( CHK ) is likely the biggest beneficiary. The heavily indebted, asset rich firm will make out like a bandit if natural gas prices triple as Jeremy Grantham suggested earlier this month. As Chesapeake was its own worst enemy with an aggressive land acquisition and drilling plan over the last decade, the company might become its own best friend with a scaled back capital spending plan. After a decade of rapid growth, Chesapeake turned into the largest independent producer of natural gas and a leading landholder in the vast majority of the important shale areas. The company has a leasehold on 15M net acres and has a reserve base of nearly 20 Tcfe. Read the full article at Seeking Alpha. Disclosure: No positions mentioned. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

With the surprise retiring of Chesapeake ( CHK ) CEO Aubrey McClendon a few weeks back, will investors benefit from the company shifting towards a more disciplined strategy? Or will the company remain on the same collision course with debtors? The company is the second-largest producer of natural gas, a top 15 producer of oil and natural gas liquids, and the most active driller of new wells in the United States. The company's operations are focused on discovering and developing unconventional natural gas and oil fields onshore with leading positions in the Eagle Ford, Utica, Granite Wash, and Mississippi Lime unconventional liquids plays and in the Marcellus, Haynesville, and Barnett unconventional natural gas shale plays. While most investors don't doubt that Chesapeake owns the largest domestic oil and natural gas resource base, the question exists as to whether shareholders will reap the value of those resources due to a huge debt load. Read the full...

On first thought, the announcement by TPG-Axon that SandRidge Energy (SD) should fire the CEO that founded the company and brought it to this position seemed ridiculous. After more research, the investor might just have a point. The activist investor submitted a letter last Thursday arguing that the Board of Directors should be realigned and the CEO should resign. SandRidge is an oil and natural gas exploration and production company that primarily focuses on the Mid-Continent, Permian Basin, and Gulf of Mexico. CEO Tom Ward has become a prominent leader in the oil exploration field making it further unlikely that he will be ousted. He was an original founder of Chesapeake Energy (CHK) that left to start SandRidge. The combined experience suggests that he has the knowledge to make this company successful. Read the full article at Seeking Alpha. Disclosure: No positions mentioned: Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

Part I of this series focused on the continual reduction of rigs exploring for natural gas in the domestic U.S. lower 48. All the while, commodity prices continue to surge upward with futures prices even higher. This second part will focus on the natural gas producers that will benefit from the surging prices and the potential that a great majority of the rigs needed to increase production are tied up with oil drilling. As mentioned in Part I, the Baker Hughes (BHI) rig report on Friday showed an interesting divergence with the commodity markets. While natural gas has jumped some 60% in the past few months, the amount of rigs drilling for natural gas has plunged to lows not seen since 1999. In the last week, the natural gas rig count dropped another 15 to only 422. Last year, the count was 936. Recently Forbes released an article describing the depletion curve in the Eagle Ford as higher than expected. Not only does this change the investment thesis on some of the shale plays, but it ...

Not that the expectations are for natural gas prices to remain this low until 2015, but this is when the real possibility of the US exporting natural gas begins. Until then the possibility remains that the new shale production techniques will keep production ahead of domestic demand and prices low. Without a serious energy policy to utilize this increased resource, it is very probable that this country will begin exporting our cheap energy supplies to Europe and Asia while still importing expensive oil and gasoline. That is assuming the big producers of natural gas remain in business in a subdued pricing environment. The main catalyst for the focus on surviving until 2015 was the huge announcement yesterday that Blackstone would invest $2B in Cheniere Energy Partners (CQP) to provide the equity financing needed for the construction of export facilities at the Sabane Pass liquefaction project in Lousiana. This will be the first natural gas liquefaction export facility in the continental...