Shale ///
While oil majors and publicly-traded counterparts are mostly sticking to the mantra of drilling discipline, private operators’ ambitious growth plans present the OPEC cartel with a wild card as prices rebound and it attempts to boost its own oil production.
Occidental has long held more pipe space than it needs from the Permian, in the hope that its shale business would eventually grow big enough to make use of it. But last year’s oil-price crash, and, more recently, the winter freeze in Texas, caused the company to cut investment and production in an effort to prioritize near-term cash flow for debt reduction.
“I’m still a strong believer that demand is going to come back strong, both on airlines and also driving around the world once we get herd immunity,” Pioneer Natural Resources CEO Scott Sheffield said on a conference call Feb. 24.
Deb Haaland’s assurances during her nomination hearing appeared to provide little comfort to Senate Republicans, who argued that the Democratic lawmaker’s criticism of fracing, support for pipeline protesters and endorsement of the Green New Deal make her unfit for a job that includes overseeing energy development on federal land.
Gardner Denver High Pressure Solutions announced the new GD 2500Q Heavy Duty Frame quintuplex pump, designed to extend pump service life through an optimized power end frame design.
Proponents of expanded renewable forms of energy (and opponents of fossil fuel energy, including petroleum) have taken this catastrophe as an opportunity to demonize natural gas, suggesting that falling natural gas supplies were the primary source of the loss of power supply.
The Senate ultimately is still expected to confirm Haaland, but the slim control Democrats have means Haaland needs every vote she can get. Joe Manchin, the West Virginia Democrat who is chairman of the committee considering her nomination, threw into doubt the fate of another Biden nominee last week.
YPF is aiming for capital expenditures this year of $2.7 billion, as it tries to halt four years of production declines. After the coronavirus pandemic decimated revenue and the debt swap yielded limited results, getting there will require increasing fuel prices, cutting drilling costs, selling local debt, and maybe divesting assets.
Calgary-based Crescent Point, an oil driller with a focus on Saskatchewan, will acquire Shell’s Kaybob Duvernay assets for $550 million in cash and 50 million Crescent Point common shares.
In the past, the weather-related oil disruption would largely have been a U.S. issue. Now it’s unmistakably global. Crude markets in Europe are rallying as traders replace lost U.S. exports. OPEC and its allies must decide how much longer they keep millions of barrels of their supply off the market.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott told a media briefing on Feb. 17 that he was banning gas from leaving the state through Feb. 21 to ensure in-state power generators had ample supplies. Abbott said he was forced to act as millions of Texans remain without power for a third day amid frigid temperatures, with no clear timeline for restoring service.
The biggest provider of oil and gas rigs to the U.S. shale patch is pushing a new pricing model as speedier drilling cuts into contractors’ revenue.
U.S. oil production has plunged by more than 2 million barrels a day as the coldest weather in 30 years brings havoc to key producing states that rarely have to deal with frigid Arctic blasts.
The Arctic blast gripping the central U.S. may threaten crude exports from one of the world’s top producers, amid rapidly-normalizing global stockpiles that point to the success OPEC has had in draining a surplus left in the wake of the pandemic.
American refiners are processing the most crude since the economy ground to a halt in March in anticipation of a vaccine-driven boost in gasoline demand this summer. The uptick means that the refiners are competing for domestic barrels that for months were sent to more robust markets in Asia.
Chesapeake Energy, the once-iconic energy explorer that helped ignite the American shale-gas boom, is emerging from bankruptcy protection a shadow of its former self. And in a way, that’s just fine with its boss.
Texas’s energy regulator is taking an uncharacteristically critical approach toward burning off excess natural gas, a sign that growing pressure from environmentalists and investors to curb the controversial practice is paying off.
Equinor has agreed to divest its interests in the Bakken field in the US states of North Dakota and Montana to Grayson Mill Energy, backed by EnCap Investments, for a total consideration of around USD $900 million.
Supply from new oil wells will exceed declining flows from wells already in service, raising overall crude production from the second half of this year, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its Short-Term Energy Outlook.
Companies including Exxon Mobil, Diamondback Energy and Marathon Oil have posted double-digit gains this year as a rebound in oil prices and the prospect of an economic recovery have outweighed risks to the industry from the Biden administration.