Two Houston-based companies, Halliburton Energy Services and Coterra Energy, said this week they launched autonomous hydraulic fracturing technology with the Octiv Auto Frac service, part of the Zeus platform.  “This technology automates stage delivery execution with the push of a button,” Halliburton said.  “Coterra is the first operator to fully automate and control their hydraulic […]

Houston-based Phillips 66 said this week it agreed to purchase EPIC Y-Grade GP and EPIC Y-Grade LP, which own subsidiaries and long-haul natural gas liquids pipelines, fractionation facilities and distribution systems, for $2.2 billion.  EPIC NGL consists of two fractionators (170 million b/d) near Corpus Christi, about 350 miles of distribution pipelines, and NGL trunkline […]

Texas added a drilling rig to start the new year while rig counts for Permian Basin, New Mexico and U.S. remain unchanged last week.  In Baker Hughes’ weekly report of Jan. 3, Texas added 1 rig last week to reach 285 (down 23 or 7 percent from 308 a year ago).  Also, there were 304 […]

Employment in the upstream oil and gas industry in Texas showed a decline in November following five consecutive months of growth, according to data from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.  Austin-based Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association said direct upstream employment in Texas for November totaled 194,400.  That’s a decrease of 1,500 jobs from […]

Spring, Texas-based ExxonMobil said recently it drilled and completed its 1,000th horizontal well in the New Mexico portion of the Delaware Basin since 2017.  Its recent acquisition of Pioneer Natural Resources more than doubled the company’s Permian footprint and created what Exxon called “an industry-leading U.S. unconventional portfolio.” Scott Buechler, production manager for Exxon’s Delaware […]

Houston-based Coterra Energy said last week it is acquiring an additional 1,650 net royalty acres in Permian Basin from Sandia Minerals.  Purchase price is $43 million to the Denver-based company.  Coterra’s newest purchase complements its earlier $3.95 billion deal with Franklin Mountain Energy and Avant Natural Resources. Investing.com said Dec. 28, “The agreement underscores Coterra’s […]

Dennis Johnson of Midland’s Summit Petroleum will receive the 2024 Top Hand Award from Permian Basin Petroleum Association at a dinner Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025, at Petroleum Club of Midland.  Johnson is chairman and CEO of Summit, which he co-founded in 2007.  A graduate of Texas A&M, he previously was president, COO and partner in […]

Baker Hughes reported in its final weekly report of 2024 there were 304 active drilling rigs in Permian Basin for the fourth straight week.  As of Dec. 27, there were 284 rigs in Texas (down 1 in past week, down 25 in past year), 103 in New Mexico (unchanged in past week, up 6 in […]