A similar breakeven was mentioned by one of the houses following QEC recently.

Pretty sure neither have them really know what their talking about.

Currently there is no actual "breakeven" in the Utica-shale.

There is no production-wells, only expensive singleleg test-wells.

The actual break-even might prove to be slightly higher then the $3.50 QEC has estimated earlier, but I highly doubt there has been a more then 50% increase in the break-even estimate since then.

Well, there obvioulsy have been such an increase in someones estimate, but saying Marcellus has a lower breakeven goes against what actual experts on shalegas-plays in the US and Canada have said earlier, where the Canadian plays has been singled out as having the potentially best break-even compared to fields like Marcellus, Haynesville, Barnett and so on (http://watch.bnn.ca/clip298708#clip298708).

Basing breakeven estimates on pilot-well expenses makes no sense. Neither does it make sense to base it on singleleg wells drilled with 6 month+ spacing. Neither of those scenarios would be remotely close to a commercial project.

But yeah, you might be right about such statements affecting the SP.