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Exhibit 99.1

NEWS RELEASE

Trans Energy, Inc.

210 Second Street

PO Box 393

St. Marys, WV 26170

 

LOGO

Company contact:

John G. Corp

304-684-7053

www.transenergyinc.com

TRANS ENERGY, INC. PROVIDES OPERATIONS UPDATE

1st Quarter 2013 Marcellus Production Up 78.7%

Natural Gas Hedges In Place

ST. MARYS, WEST VIRGINIA, May 30, 2013 — Trans Energy, Inc. (OTCQB: TENG), a pure play Marcellus Shale exploration and production company, today provided an operations update on the company’s activities.

Summary Highlights

 

   

Generated a 79% increase in first quarter production to 850,938 Mcfe compared to the year ago quarter

 

   

Two rigs currently drilling company wells in Marion and Marshall Counties

 

   

Horizontal Marcellus production back online — Williams has now resolved issues that led to the shut in of some wells beginning in March of 2013

 

   

Hedged 85% of existing PDP volumes (on an MMBtu basis) from its expected natural gas sales from June 2013 through April 2015, using costless collars with floors of $4.00 / MMBtu and ceilings of $4.28 / MMBtu

First Quarter Production Volumes

Trans Energy posted a substantial increase in net production volumes from its Marcellus wells for the first quarter of 2013, compared to the comparable period a year earlier. The production volumes shown below exclude results from the company’s shallow wells, which were sold in a transaction that closed on January 24, 2013, as was previously announced.


 

     Three Months Ended March 31,      Increase /
(Decrease)
    Percent
Change
 
     2013      2012       

Natural Gas (Mcf)

     699,816         391,938         307,878        78.6

Oil Sales (Bbls)

     543         674         (131     (19.5 %) 

NGL (Gallons)

     1,035,062         561,572         473,490        84.3

Mcfe

     850,938         476,207         374,732        78.7

Natural Gas $/Mcf

   $ 3.97       $ 3.44       $ 0.53        15.4

Oil Sales $/Bbl

   $ 83.22       $ 88.47       ($ 5.25     (5.9 %) 

NGL $/Gallon

   $ 0.67       $ 1.84       ($ 1.17     (63.6 %) 

$/Mcfe

   $ 4.14       $ 5.13       ($ 0.98     (19.2 %) 

Natural Gas Sales

   $ 2,780,215       $ 1,350,032       $ 1,430,183        105.9

Oil Sales

     45,170         59,634       ($ 14,464     (24.3 %) 

NGL Sales

     698,488         1,031,360       ($ 332,872     (32.3 %) 
  

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

   

 

 

 

Total Product Sales

   $ 3,523,873       $ 2,441,027       $ 1,082,846        44.4

The main factor that drove increased net production volumes during the first quarter of 2013 is the fact that Trans Energy grew the number of net horizontal Marcellus wells to 6.2 wells in the quarter from 3.6 net horizontal Marcellus wells in the year ago period. Trans Energy’s Dewhurst 110H and 111H wells and Anderson 5H and 7H wells were brought online in September 2012, and the two Doman wells were brought online in January 2013. Enhanced completion techniques further drove production volumes, as these new wells posted 30 day initial production rates that averaged 7,449 Mcfe/d, representing an increase of more than 70% compared to the 30-day IP rates of the company’s previous nine horizontal Marcellus wells. After adjusting for the increase in average lateral length of the wells in the 2012 drilling program, the 30-day IP rates of these six wells represent an increase of 57% compared to the adjusted 30-day IP rates of the previous nine horizontal Marcellus wells. The initial EURs per 1,000 feet of lateral that have been assigned by the company’s independent engineers average more than 2.2 Bcfe on these last six wells, compared to approximately 1.9 Bcfe on wells that were drilled previously.

John Corp, President of Trans Energy, commented, “We stepped up our capital spending program during 2012, and the results for this quarter show that we were effective at putting the previous round of financing to work. We’ve continued to enhance our drilling techniques, and we are already getting better production and reserves as a result. The highly successful wells from our 2012 program enabled us to increase production by more than 75% on an Mcfe basis, even with some wells being shut in during the quarter due to issues on the Williams pipeline. With those issues now resolved, and an additional $25 million from our lender to finance our share of the 2013 program, we are putting that money in the ground as quickly as we can, so as to position ourselves to report strong production growth once again as the next crop of wells comes online later this year and into early 2014.”


Wells Status Update

Trans Energy currently has two rigs running. The first rig spud the Freeland 1H in early March and upon completion of that well it will move over to the Freeland 2H, which is located on the same pad in Marion County. The second rig spud the Goshorn 3H in early April and will move over to the Goshorn 4H in Marshall County, once complete. At that point, the rig is expected to move to the Graff pad in Tyler County to complete two wells there. The company expects to stimulate the two wells on each of the Freeland, Goshorn and Graff pads simultaneously. These wells are also being drilled on 500 foot spacing, whereas all of the company’s previous wells have been drilled on spacing of 750 feet or greater.

Initial well log results on the Freeland wells suggest that the Marcellus formation is thicker in this area than in the company’s leasehold in Wetzel or Marshall Counties. The Goshorn 3H and 4H represent the third and fourth wells to be drilled on the Goshorn pad, but will be the first to be fractured simultaneously. As detailed in the following table, the company has plans to complete and bring into sales eight wells during this calendar year:

 

Name

   Spud Date    Completion Date    1st Sales Date

Martinez 1H

   June 2012    April 2013    July 2013

Freeland 1H

   March 2013    June 2013    October 2013

Freeland 2H

   May 2013    June 2013    October 2013

Goshorn 3H

   April 2013    July 2013    November 2013

Goshorn 4H

   May 2013    July 2013    November 2013

Graff 1H

   June 2013    August 2013    December 2013

Graff 2H

   July 2013    August 2013    December 2013

Beatty 1H

   June 2013    August 2013    November 2013
Note: All dates shown above that occur after the date of this press release are estimates based on information currently available; Actual dates for the events shown above may differ from those currently estimated.

As mentioned above, several of the company’s wells experienced periods when they were shut in during the quarter due to operational issues with the Williams pipeline in Marshall and Wetzel Counties. Heavier than anticipated liquid volumes on the pipeline prompted Williams to require the company to curtail production from its Wetzel County wells beginning in March of 2013. Additionally, beginning in late March, 2013, Williams forced the company to shut in production from its Wetzel wells completely due to a pipeline rupture in Marshall County. This rupture also forced the shut in of several other company wells in Marshall County. As of May 27th, these issues have been resolved and the company has been allowed to bring all of its wells back online.

Drillable Inventory

Corp continued, “Our focused drilling program has demonstrated strong results across our acreage position in Marshall and Wetzel counties, and we plan to continue that success later this year in Marion and Tyler counties. However, as many of you know, West Virginia is a state that does not have “forced pooling.” Therefore, we view our drillable inventory different than other oil and natural gas companies.”


“We first map the wellbores that can be drilled across our company’s leasehold. We then choose to report our inventory of wells only when we believe that we hold title to 100% of the acreage that would be required to apply for the permit to drill the well. We further take into account the topography as well as any issues related to coal mines when we map the actual locations for proposed wells.”

“The net result is that when we talk about drillable locations at Trans Energy, we are talking about wells that are one hundred percent ready to drill with the issuance of a required permit. Based on 750 foot spacing, we have 188 drillable locations. When you downspace to 500 foot spacing that number increases to 285 ready to drill locations. Our inventory of “potential” wellbores – a term used more often by others in the industry – would be significantly higher at both 750 foot and 500 foot spacing.”

“Below is a list that incorporates the title and topography issues mentioned above. The list also incorporates only those wells that have lateral lengths over 3,000 feet, with a minimum of two such wells for each pad site.”

 

     Drillable, Pending Application for and Receipt of  Permits  
     750 Foot Spacing      500 Foot Spacing  
     Wells      Lateral Ft.      Wells      Lateral Ft.  

Marion

     19         98,531         28         129,590   

Marshall

     48         206,378         71         298,371   

Tyler

     36         166,168         58         256,820   

Wetzel

     85         473,605         128         656,617   
  

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

 

Total

     188         944,682         285         1,341,398   


Hedging Update

On May 9th, the company’s subsidiary, American Shale Development, entered into costless collars covering approximately 85% of its expected natural gas production from wells that were considered PDP as of that date. Neither oil nor natural gas liquids have been hedged, but the BTU associated with the company’s ethane production was essentially hedged, since it is sold as part of the natural gas stream. The costless collars consist of long put options with a strike price of $4.00 per MMBtu and offsetting short calls with a strike price of $4.28 per MMBtu. The aforementioned volumes are hedged beginning with the June 2013 contract and ending with the April 2015 contract, as shown in the table below:

 

Month

   Volume (MMBtu)  

June 2013

     207,060   

July 2013

     196,915   

August 2013

     188,204   

September 2013

     180,595   

October 2013

     173,857   

November 2013

     167,825   

December 2013

     162,379   

January 2014

     157,421   

February 2014

     152,881   

March 2014

     148,699   

April 2014

     144,827   

May 2014

     141,230   

June 2014

     137,873   

July 2014

     134,730   

August 2014

     131,779   

September 2014

     129,000   

October 2014

     126,376   

November 2014

     123,893   

December 2014

     121,539   

January 2015

     119,302   

February 2015

     117,173   

March 2015

     115,144   

April 2015

     113,206   

Additional information regarding Trans Energy, including maps, investor presentations, news releases and videos can be found at the Company’s website www.transenergy.com. Trans Energy will regularly update information on the website to provide investors with the most up to date information on the Company and its operations.

About Trans Energy, Inc.

Trans Energy, Inc. (OTCQB: TENG) is a pure play Marcellus Shale oil and gas exploration and development company, headquartered in the Appalachian Basin. Further information can be found on the Company’s website at www.transenergyinc.com.

Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995—Forward-looking statements in this release do not constitute guarantees of future performance. Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. Forward-looking statements in this document include statements regarding the Company’s exploration, drilling and development plans, the Company’s expectations regarding the timing and success of such programs. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, fluctuations in the prices of oil and gas, uncertainties inherent in estimating quantities of oil and gas reserves and projecting future rates of production and timing of development activities, competition, operating risks, acquisition risks, liquidity and capital requirements, the effects of governmental regulation, adverse changes in the market for the Company’s oil and gas production, dependence upon third-party vendors, and other risks detailed in the Company’s periodic report filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. For a more detailed discussion of the risks and uncertainties of our business, please refer to our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2011 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We assume no obligation to update any forward-looking information contained in this press release or with respect to the announcements described herein.